This book explores the urban institution of ʿayyars, an enduring presence in medieval cities across the lands of the former Sasanian Empire (224-651). Challenging earlier portrayals of ʿayyars as a military order of chivalrous warriors, this study contends that the institution was composed of ordinary men and women, and facilitated their active participation in the political life of their cities. While the study draws on a spectrum of Arabic and Persian literary and historical genres, the new interpretation of ʿayyars is indebted to its innovative use of Persian popular literature. By juxtaposing various voices on this enduring institution, it presents a dynamic portrait of an urban sphere, where inhabitants, rather than being passive consumers of legitimizing discourses, actively reinterpreted them to justify their political participation, often through subversive action.