Farrukhzad (Middle Persian: Farrūkhzādag; New Persian: فرخزاد) was an Iranian aristocrat from the House of Ispahbudhan and the founder of the Bavand dynasty, ruling from 651 to 665. Originally a powerful servant of the Sasanian king Khosrow II (r. 590–628), he, along with several other powerful aristocrats, made a conspiracy against the latter and ended his tyrannical rule. They thereafter put Khosrow's son Kavadh II (r. 628) on the throne, whose rule lasted only a few months, before he was killed by a plague, being succeeded by his son Ardashir III (r. 628–629), who after only one year was murdered by the rebellious former Sasanian army chief (spahbed) Shahrbaraz, who usurped the throne.

These events greatly weakened the Sasanian Empire, but by 632, when Khosrow's grandson Yazdegerd III (r. 632–651) ascended the throne, order was somewhat restored. However, just as peace was about to come, the Sasanian Empire was invaded by Muslim Arabs, which resulted in the death of many Sasanian veterans, including Farrukhzad's brother Rostam Farrokhzad. Farrukhzad thereafter succeeded him as the spahbed and the leader of the Pahlav (Parthian) faction, which had been formed by their father Farrukh Hormizd, who was murdered in 631.

However, Farrukhzad was unable to defeat the Arabs, and was in 643, after having seen the loss of Ctesiphon and Spahan, Farrukhzad, along with Yazdegerd III, fled^{[clarification needed]} from one place to another until in 650, when Farrukhzad mutinied against his king, who was shortly killed by one of his servants. Farrukhzad later became the ruler of Tabaristan in 651, and would rule the region until his murder in 665 by Valash, a Karenid aristocrat, who thereafter conquered his domains.

Although his real name was "Farrukhzad" (meaning "the son of Farrukh" or "born with luck and happiness"), he is also known in other sources by various other names, such as Khurrazad, Zad Farrukh, Zinabi Abu'l-Farrukhan and Bav.

Farrukhzad was the son of Farrukh Hormizd, a prominent aristocrat from the Ispahbudhan family, who served as the army chief (spahbed) of the kusts of Adurbadagan and Khorasan—he was one of the generals who led the Sasanian army during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, but in 626 along with his comrade Shahrbaraz rebelled against the Sasanian king Khosrow II (r. 590–628). Farrukhzad had one brother named Rostam Farrokhzad, who at that time resided in the Adurbadagan province.

Farrukhzad is first mentioned during the reign of Khosrow II, where he occupied high offices and according to the Iranian poet Ferdowsi was "so close to Khosrow II that none dared to approach him without his permission". In 626, Shahrbaraz and Farrukhzad's father and brother rebelled. In 627, Khosrow then sent Farrukhzad to negotiate with Shahrbaraz, who was camping near the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon. However, Farrukhzad secretly mutinied against Khosrow and joined Shahrbaraz. He then encouraged to remain undivided and not fear the fury of Khosrow. Furthermore, he also said that there were not any grandees (wuzurgan) who supported him.

Khosrow, however, began suspecting Farrukhzad of treachery but kept it to himself, because he did not want to make the situation worse than it already was. At the same time, Farrukhzad was assembling more people who opposed Khosrow in order to stage a coup d'état. In 628, Farrukhzad freed Khosrow's eldest son Sheroe from prison and along with several feudal families of the Sasanian Empire, captured Ctesiphon and imprisoned Khosrow. Sheroe was then crowned as the new king and became known by his dynastic name of "Kavadh II".

The feudal families which overthrew Khosrow included: Shahrbaraz, who represented the Mihran family; the House of Ispahbudhan represented by Farrukh Hormizd and his two sons Rostam Farrokhzad and Farrukhzad; the Armenian faction represented by Varaztirots II Bagratuni; and finally the Kanarangiyan faction represented by Kanadbak. Kavadh II thereafter ordered his vizier (wuzurg framadar) Piruz Khosrow to execute all his brothers and half-brothers, including Khosrow II's favorite son and heir Mardanshah. Three days later, Kavadh ordered Mihr Hormozd to execute his father. With the agreement of the nobles of the Sasanian Empire, Kavadh then made peace with the Byzantine emperor Heraclius. Furthermore, he also took all the properties of Farrukhzad and put him under arrest in Istakhr.