Khusrau Parviz

Khusrau (Kisrā) Abrawīz, whose title survives in South Asian usage as "Parvez", was the Sassanid Emperor of Persia, reigning 590–628 CE and the last of the great Sassanid kings before the empire's collapse. In his own lifetime his armies conquered much of the Roman Levant, including Damascus and Jerusalem, and pushed into Egypt, bringing Rome to the brink of ruin, the very defeat the Qur'an addresses in Sūrat al-Rūm, foretelling Rome's eventual recovery. Historians describe him as cruel and given to sensual excess, keeping a harem said to number some three thousand. When the Prophet ﷺ sent him a letter through the ruler of Bahrain calling him to Islam, he tore it up in contempt, provoking the Prophet's ﷺ reply that as he had torn the letter, Allah would tear his kingdom apart. Within months his own son Yazdgerd seized power in a coup and starved him to death in a dungeon over five days; the Sassanid Empire itself imploded within a decade, conquered entirely by the Muslims.