The Bādūsbānids and their successors ruled between 45/665 and 1006/1597 in a cluster of forested and mountainous towns and villages in western Māzandarān and Daylamān. Bādūsbān I b. Gīl Gāvbāra, the eponymous founder of the dynasty, claimed descent on the patrilineal side of his family from Fīrūz, a "rebel" Sāsānid prince who in the early part of the sixth century ruled independently over the Caspian province of Gīlān. According to Ibn Isfandyār, a historian of the early seventh/thirteenth century, Fīrūz was widely considered the second son of