Shāhin, son of Dulnak (Persian: دولناک) ( (died c. 626) was a senior Sassanid general (spahbod) during the reign of Khosrau II (590–628 CE). Shahin (Šāhīn, Persian for "Peregrine falcon") was a member of the Parthian House of Suren through his father and a member of the (likewise Parthian) House of Karen through his mother.

After the outbreak of the last of the Roman-Persian Wars in 603, Shahin commanded forces invading Roman territory in the Transcaucasus, winning a battle near Theodosiopolis in 607/8. Following the expulsion of Roman forces from that region, in 611 Shahin led an advance into Anatolia, capturing Caesarea, but was driven out by Roman counter-attack led by the Emperor Heraclius in the summer of 612 and forced to withdraw to Armenia. In 613 the Roman offensive pressed on into Syria, but the combined Persian armies under Shahin and Shahrbaraz crushingly defeated Heraclius near Antioch and again near the Cilician Gates. As a result, in 614 Shahin was able to campaign all the way across Anatolia to Chalcedon on the shore of the Bosphoros opposite Constantinople, and over the following years he mounted further invasions of Anatolia, causing severe and widespread devastation.

Despite overwhelming Persian successes spanning almost two decades of war, from 622 Heraclius led a fresh counter-offensive in the Transcaucasus which brought about a remarkable revival of Roman fortunes. In 625 Shahin led an army to join others commanded by Shahrbaraz and Shahraplakan and combine against Heraclius, but by the time he arrived the other two generals had already begun their attack on Heraclius and been routed. Joining the fight, Shahin's troops were likewise defeated and their baggage train was captured. He then joined forces with Shahbaraz, shadowing Heraclius through Armenia in an inconclusive campaign for the remainder of that year. In 626 Khosrau ordered an exceptional levy of troops from across his empire to revive the faltering war effort. Shahin was put in charge of these new recruits, together with a large number of veterans, and sent against Heraclius, but was heavily defeated by the emperor's brother Theodore. The dejected Shahin fell ill and died shortly afterwards. Khosrau, enraged at Shahin's failure, mistreated the general's corpse, which had been sent to him preserved in salt.

References

Theophanes, The Chronicle of Theophanes - Anni mundi 6095-6305 (A.D. 602-813), ed. Harry Turtledove (Philadelphia 1982)

Geoffrey Greatrex, Samuel N.C. Lieu, The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars, (Part II, 363-630) (London 2002)

Clive Foss, 'The Persians in Asia Minor and the End of Antiquity', English Historical Review 90 (1975), pp. 721-747

Virasp Mehta, Causes of the Downfall of the Sassanian Empire (Palo Alto 2007)