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Foundation of the empire
Rise of Ardashir I
It was against Artabanus V that a
challenger arose in Persis. Ardashir I, son of Papak and a descendant
of Sasan, was the ruler of one of the several small states into which
Persia had gradually been divided.
His father had taken possession
of the city and district of Istakhr (Estakhr), which had replaced the old
residence city of Persepolis, a mass of ruins after its destruction by
Alexander the Great in 330 BC. Papak was succeeded by his eldest son, who
was soon killed in an accident, and in AD 208 Ardashir replaced his brother.
He first built for himself a stronghold
at Gur, called after its founder Ardashir-Khwarrah (Ardashir's Glory),
now Firuzabad, southeast of Shiraz in Fars.
He subdued the neighbouring rulers
and disposed, in the process, of his own remaining brothers.
His seizure of such areas as Kerman,
Esfahan, Elymais, and Characene (Mesene), to the east, north, and west
of Fars, respectively, led to war with Artabanus, his suzerain. The conflict
between the two rivals lasted several years, during which time the Parthian
forces were defeated in three battles. In the last of these, the battle
in the plain of Hormizdagan (AD 224), Artabanus was killed.
There is evidence to support the
assumption that Ardashir's rise to power suffered several setbacks. Thus,
Vologases V struck coins at Seleucia on the Tigris as late as AD 228/229
(the Seleucid year 539). Another Parthian prince, Artavasdes, a son of
Artabanus V, known from coins on which he is portrayed with the distinguishing
feature of a forked beard, seems to have exercised practical independence
even after AD 228. Numismatic evidence further reflects the stages of Ardashir's
struggle for undisputed leadership.
He appears on his coins with four
different types of crown: as king of Fars, as claimant to the throne before
the battle at Hormizdagan, and as emperor with two distinctly different
crowns. It has been suggested that this evidence points to two separate
coronation ceremonies of Ardashir as sovereign ruler, the second, perhaps,
indicating that he may have lost the throne temporarily.
According to at-Tabari, the Arabic
historian (9th-10th centuries), Ardashir, after having secured his position
as a ruler in western Iran, embarked on an extensive military campaign
in the east (AD 227) and conquered Seistan (Sakastan), Gorgan (Hyrcania),
Merv (Margiana), Balkh (Bactria), and Khwarezm (Chorasmia).
The inference that this campaign
resulted in the defeat of the powerful Kushan Empire is supported by the
further statement of at-Tabari that the king of the Kushans was among the
eastern sovereigns, such as the rulers of Turan (Quzdar, south of modern
Quetta) and of Mokran (Makran), whose surrender was received by Ardashir.
These military and political successes were further extended by Ardashir by his taking possession of the palace at Ctesiphon, by his assuming the title "king of kings of the Iranians," and by his refounding and rebuilding of the city of Seleucia, located on the Tigris River, under the new name of Weh-Ardashir, the Good Deed of Ardashir.
The chronology of events in the early
Sasanian period was calculated by the German orientalist T. Nöldeke
in 1879, and his system of dating is still generally accepted. The discovery
of fresh evidence in manuscript materials dealing with the life of Mani,
a religious leader whose activities fall in the early Sasanian period,
led to a reassessment of Nöldeke's calculations by W.B. Henning, by
which the principal events are dated about two years earlier.
Another alternative was proposed
by S.H. Taqizadeh, who preferred a sequence by which the same events are
placed about six months later than the dates established by Nöldeke.
Since the dating systems employed by the Sasanians themselves were based
on the regnal years of the individual kings, whose exact coronation dates
are often subject to dispute, several details remain uncertain, and their
definite solution has not been possible.
A firmer basis of calculation is
obtained when the ancient sources quote dates in terms of the Seleucid
era, either according to the computation that prevailed in Babylonia, which
started from 311 BC, or after the Syrian reckoning, beginning in 312 BC.
Tables 2 and 3 give the dates of events of the early Sasanian period as
they can be established on direct numismatic or literary evidence in the
differing chronological systems of Nöldeke, Henning, and Taqizadeh.
Shortly before his death, probably
because of failing health, Ardashir abdicated the throne in favour of his
chosen heir, his son Shapur I.
The latter assumed the responsibilities
of government but delayed his coronation until after his father's death.
Coins thus exist showing Ardashir together with his son as heir apparent
and Shapur alone wearing the eagle cap, indicating the exercise of royal
rule before his coronation--besides the normal series of Shapur crowned
as king.
Shortly after his accession, Shapur
was faced with an invasion of Persia by the emperor Gordian III (238-244):
"The emperor Gordian levied in all
of the Roman empire anarmy of Goths and Germans and marched against Asuristan[Iraq],
the empire of Iran and us. On the border of Asuristan,at Massice [Misikhe
on the Euphrates], a great battle tookplace. The emperor Gordian was killed
and we destroyed theRoman army. The Romans proclaimed Philip [the Arab;244-249]
emperor. The emperor Philip came to terms, and asransom for their lives
he gave us 500,000 dinars and becameour tributary. For that reason, we
renamed MassiceFiruz-Shapur ["victorious (is) Shapur"].
Several years later, in AD 256 (or AD 252), another confrontation between the Persians and Romans occurred:
We attacked the Roman empire and
we destroyed an army of 60,000 men at Barbalissus [in
Syria]. Syria and its surrounding areas we burned, devastated and plundered.
In this one campaign we captured of the Roman empire 37 cities, including
Antioch, the capital of Syria, itself. A third encounter took place when
the emperor Valerian (253-260) came to the rescue of the city of Edessa,
in Syria, which was besieged by the Persian army:
"He (Valerian) had with him (troops
from) Germania, Rhaetia . . . [follow thenames of some 29 Roman provinces],
a force of 70,000 men. Beyond Carrhaeand Edessa there was a great battle
between the emperor Valerian and us. Wemade the emperor Valerian prisoner
with our own hands; and the commanders ofthat army, the praefectus praetorii,
senators and officers, we made them allprisoner, and we transported them
to Persia. We burned, devastated andplundered Cilicia and Cappadocia .
. . [follow the names of 36 cities]."
The source for these quotations
is Shapur's own account of the events. It was unknown until 1938, when
expeditions of the Oriental Institute in Chicago discovered a long inscription
on the walls of an Achaemenid building known as the Ka'be-ye Zardusht (Ka'ba
of Zarathushtra).
The text is in three languages,
Sasanian Pahlavi (Middle Persian), Parthian, and Greek. Besides the narrative
of the military operations, the inscription provides a description of the
Persian Empire of the time and an inventory of Zoroastrian religious foundations
established by Shapur I to commemorate his victorious wars.
These foundations were fire temples dedicated to the "soul" (memory) of the founder himself, of members of the royal family, and of prominent officials who had served under Shapur and his predecessor. The list of the officials who are specified by the positions they held throw light on the administrative organization of the empire.
Organization of the empire
In contrast to his father,
who claimed to be "king of kings of Iran" (shahanshah eran), Shapur I assumed
the title "king of kings of Iran and non-Iran" (shahanshah eran ud aneran).
This formula was retained by his
successors as the regular designation of the Sasanian emperors.
The hereditary local dynasties,
which under the Arsacids had ruled many of the most important provinces,
were to a large extent abolished. Instead, such areas as Maishan (Mesene),
in western Iran, and Sakastan (Sistan), in eastern Iran, were now ruled
by members of the Sasanian family, who were appointed by the sovereign
with the title of shah (king).
Among such provincial governors,
precedence was often given to the heir to the throne, who was placed in
control of large territories, such as the former Kushan Empire (Kushanshahr)
and Armenia, with the title "great king" (wuzurg shah).
This arrangement lasted until the
early 4th century AD, and such emperors as Shaur I and Hormizd II are known
to have first held the title kushanshahas governors of the areas of Bactria,
Sogdiana, and Gandhara. Next in the hierarchy came a few remaining hereditary
vassals, such as the kings of Iberia (now Georgia) in the Caucasus, and
the chief nobles of the empire, among whom the Waraz, Suren, and Karen
families retained their prominent position from Parthian times.
Next in line were the satraps, whose importance had diminished and who were no more than the administrators of larger cities or court officials.
The list of provinces given in the
inscription of Ka'be-yi Zardusht defines the extent of the empire under
Shapur I, in clockwise geographic enumeration: (1) Persis (Fars), (2) Parthia,
(3) Susiana (Khuzestan), (4) Maishan (Mesene), (5) Asuristan (Iraq), (6)
Adiabene, (7) Arabistan (northern Mesopotamia), (8) Atropatene (Azarbaijan),
(9) Armenia, (10) Iberia (Georgia), (11) Machelonia, (12) Albania (eastern
Caucasus), (13) Balasagan up to the Caucasus Mountains and the Gate of
Albania (also known as Gate of the Alans, now the Darreh Ahu Pass in the
central Caucasus), (14) Patishkhwagar (all of the Elburz Mountains), (15)
Media, (16) Hyrcania (Gorgan), (17) Margiana (Merv), (18) Aria, (19) Abarshahr,
(20) Carmania (Kerman), (21) Sakastan (Sistan), (22) Turan, (23)
Mokran (Makran), (24) Paratan (Paradene), (25) India (probably restricted
to the Indus Delta area), (26) Kushanshahr, until as far as Peshawar and
until Kashgar and (borders of) Sogdiana and Tashkent, and (27), on the
further side of the sea, Mazun (Oman).
This empire, considerably more extensive
than that controlled by the Arsacid dynasty, was governed by members of
the royal family and by appointed officials directly responsible to the
throne.
The greater degree of centralization
thus attained by the Sasanian government partly explains its increased
military effectiveness in comparison with the Arsacid administration. Tight
organization of the numerous central and provincial officials, whose ranks
in the bureaucratic structure on different levels were strictly defined,
also contributed toward general administrative efficiency.
Another trend that developed in the Sasanian period, although it had already made itself felt under the Arsacids, was a strict principle of dynastic legitimacy. For a usurper not of the royal blood to come to the throne was an extremely rare occurrence, though it was in fact accomplished by Bahram VI Chubin. Loyalty was given, however, to the whole royal house, rather as it was in the later Ottoman Empire. The person of the individual ruler was a matter of comparatively lesser importance, and one member of the dynasty could readily be removed and replaced by another. In accordance with this principle of legitimacy, Persian tradition carried the Sasanian line back to the Achaemenids and, ultimately, to the kings of thelegendary period.
Religious developments
Zoroastrianism
The ancestors of Ardashir had played
a leading role in the rites of the fire temple at Istakhr, known
as Adur-Anahid, the Anahid Fire.
With the new dynasty having
these priestly antecedents, it seems only natural that there would have
been important developments in the Zoroastrian religion during the Sasanian
period.
In fact, the evolution of Zoroastrianism
as an organized religion into something resembling its modern form can
be regarded as having begun in this period.
Under the Parthians, local Magi had no doubt continued to perform the traditional ceremonies associated with the old Iranian deities, the fire cult, the creed preached by Zoroaster, with its emphasis on the worship of Ahura Mazda, and even the cults of cosmopolitan deities that were introduced in the Hellenistic period and later.
Under the Sasanians, stress came
to be placed on the fire cult and the worship of Ahura Mazda.
Strong mutual relationships, furthermore,
were developed between religion and the state, and an ecclesiastical organization
was set up in which every local district of any importance had its own
mobed ("priest"; originally magupat, "chief priest"). At their head stood
the mobedan mobed ("priest of priests"), who, in addition to his purely
religious jurisdiction, appears, especially in later times, to have had
a more or less decisive voice in the choice of a successor to the throne
and in other matters of state.
There is also some evidence that
the mobeds, by virtue of their proficiency in reading and writing in general
and in the interpretation of the sacred scriptures in particular, performed
the offices of registrars and scribes in semireligious or nonreligious
matters, after the fashion of the Christian clergy in medieval Europe.
This situation in turn makes it
likely that the priestly library buildings not only contained the sacred
texts, charters, and other church records but also served as repositories
of local archives, title deeds, and other documents of a legal nature.
The building known as Ka'be-ye Zardusht and referred to as a bun-khanag ("foundation house") may well have served this very purpose.
In the matter of religious practice, the theology of the Sasanians appears to have developed from that previously current in their home province of Persis. There, extraneous religious influences were limited.
The opposition between the good spirit of light and the demons--between Ormizd (Ahura Mazda) and Ahriman (Angra Mainyu)--remained the essential dogma.
All the other gods and angels were
restricted to the role of subordinate servants of Ormizd, whose highest
manifestation on earth was not so much the sun or the sun god Mihr (Mithra)
but rather the holy fire guarded and attended by his priests. At the same
time the names of such deities as Wahram (Verethraghna), Mihr, and Anahid
(Anahita) were still associated with the names of fire temples or classes
of fires. Divine names were also used to designate the 30 days of each
month and of the 12 30-day months of the year, plus five epact days called
gahanig, to align the lunar with the solar year.
All the prescriptions of purity were scrupulously observed. The elaborate ritual still maintained in modern times by the Parsi for the purification and custody of the sacred fire was no doubt observed under the Sasanians.
The officiating priest was girt with
a sword and carried in his hand the barsman (barsom), or bundle of sacred
grass.
His mouth was covered to prevent
the sacred fire from being polluted by his breath. The practice of animal
sacrifice, abhorred by the modern followers of Zoroaster, is attested for
the Sasanian period at least as late as the reign of Yazdegerd I (399-420).
On the days of the important festivals, such as Nogruz (Nowruz), the first
day of the vernal equinox, and on the day of Mihragan (the 16th day of
the seventh month), the sacred fire was displayed to the faithful (wehden)
at nightfall from some vantage point.
Under the Sasanians, the injunction not to pollute the earth by contact with corpses but to expose the dead on mountain tops to vultures and dogs was strictly observed. Ahura Mazda preserved his character as a national god, who bestowed victory and world dominion on his worshippers. In rock-relief sculptures he appears on horseback as a god of war.
Theology was further developed, and
an attempt was made to modify the old dualistic concept by considering
both Ormizd and Ahriman as emanations of an original principle of infinite
time (Zurvan).
This doctrine enjoyed a certain degree
of official recognition in early Sasanian times.
In the reign of Khosrow I
(531-579), however, the "sect of the Zurvanites" was declared to be heretical.
The chief trend of Sasanian religion,
apart from the process of institutionalization, was toward the elaboration
of ritual and of the doctrine of purity. A complete and detailed system
of casuistry was developed, which dealt with all things allowed and forbidden
and with the forms of pollution and the expiation of each.
One of the consequences of this
development was the increasing emphasis placed on orthodoxy and rigorous
obedience to priestly injunctions.
Nonorthodox and heretical cults
and forbidden manners and customs came to be regarded as a pollution of
the land and a serious offense to the true God. It was the duty of the
believer to combat and destroy the unbelievers and the heretics. In short,
the tolerance of the Achaemenids and the indifference of the Arsacids were
gradually replaced by religious intolerance and persecution.
Despite his priestly family origin, Ardashir himself seems not to have been the person responsible for initiating these new directions in religious affairs. It was once believed that the institutionalization of the Zoroastrian church and the codification of its scriptures and beliefs was the work of a high priest named Tansar, a contemporary of Ardashir I, of whose activities an account is preserved in the Letter of Tansar, contained in the history of Tabaristan by the Persian writer Ibn Isfandiyar (12th-13th centuries). New inscriptional evidence, however, rather suggests that, if Tansar was, in fact, a historical personage, his role in religious matters was overshadowed by Karter (Karder). The latter, a herbed ("teacher priest") and mobed ("priest") already prominent under Shapur I, appears during the reigns of Bahram I (273-276) and Bahram II (276-293) as the dominant figure in the Zoroastrian church.
As stated in the Ka'be-ye Zardusht inscription of Karter, he claims credit for the suppression of non-Zoroastrian religious communities in Iran
"and Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins, 'Nazoreans,' Christians . . . were struck upon"), for the imposition of orthodoxy and discipline on the priesthood ("the heretics [ahlomog] . . . who in the Magus estate did not attend to the Mazdean religion and the services to the gods with discrimination, I struck them with punishment and I castigated them"), and for the establishment of royal foundations for the maintenance of priests and of sacred fires."
Christianity
The reference in the Karter inscription
to two sects of Christians continues the indications from Syriac sources
that Christianity had by this time, the second half of the 3rd century,
gained a firm footing in the lands of the Tigris and the Euphrates, where
it was strongest among the Aramaic-speaking communities.
Ultimately, Christian missionary
effort came to expand over the whole of Iran and even beyond. As long as
the Roman Empire remained pagan, the Christian communities of Iran lived
undisturbed by persecution, while the Christians themselves showed outspoken
hostility toward such heterodox sects as the Manichaeans and the Gnostic
followers of Marcion and Bardesanes, who existed side by side with them.
Once the emperor Constantine the Great (306-337) made Christianity the official religion of the Roman world, on the one hand, the Iranian Christians were drawn to feel a certain sympathy for their foreign coreligionists, while, on the other, political significance came to be attached by the Sasanian rulers to these religious connections with an often hostile foreign power. After 339 the Christians of Iran were subjected to severe persecutions at the hands of Shapur II and his successors. Substantial Christian communities survived, nonetheless, in parts of Iran long after the end of the Sasanian dynasty.
During the reign of Shapur I a new
religious leader and movement made their appearance. Mani (between 216?
and 274?) was the offspring of a Parthian family resident in Babylonia
("a thankful disciple I am, risen from Babel's land") but himself a speaker
of Aramaic.
In the early 20th century, knowledge
of his teachings was greatly increased by the discovery of many fragments
of Manichaean literature in eastern Turkistan.
Subsequently, a large part of the Kephalaia, a collection of the religious injunctions of Mani, was recovered in a Coptic version, found in Egypt.
These texts can now be collated with
the versions of Manichaean doctrines as reported by the Church Fathers,
including St. Augustine.
From this cumulative documentation,
to which other sources can be added, it appears, among other things, that
Mani's teachings were formulated under the strong influence of Gnostic
ideas and philosophy.
Mani proclaimed himself to be the last and greatest Apostle of Jesus as well as the paraclete announced in the Gospel of St. John. With the Gnostic interpretation of the Gospel, Mani tried to combine the doctrines of Zoroaster and Jesus in order to create a new religion of a universal character.
There is a tradition that he made
his first appearance as a teacher on the coronation day of Shapur I (April
12, 240, or April 9, 243), but other evidence suggests that Mani was not
necessarily in Iran at the time and may have been on a sea journey to India
when he started preaching. He later returned and found many followers,
among whom were Firuz (Peroz) and Mihrshah, governor of Maishan (Mesene),
both brothers of Shapur I.
Even the King himself is said to
have been impressed and to have granted the prophet several personal interviews.
On the last such occasion, Mani presented the King with his first book, the Shapuragan (Shabuhragan), a summary of his teachings ("dedicated to Shapur") written in the Middle Persian language, further evidence of a degree of royal favour. During Shapur's reign the religion of Mani was thus propagated in and beyond Iran. The heir to the throne, Hormizd I, was also favourably disposed toward him. Shapur's younger son, Bahram I, however, yielded to pressure from the priestly establishment, and Mani was executed.
After that, Manichaeism was persecuted and destroyed in Iran. Yet it maintained itself not only in the West, penetrating far into the Roman Empire, but also in the East, in Khorasan and beyond the boundaries of the Sasanian Empire. There the seat of its pontiff was at Samarkand, whence it penetrated into Central Asia.
Art and literature
Perhaps the most characteristic and
certainly among the most impressive relics of Sasanian art are the great
rock sculptures carved on the limestone cliffs that are found in many parts
of the country.
The best known groups are at Naqsh-e
Rostam and Naqsh-e Rajab, both near Persepolis, and at Bishapur, an ancient
city a few miles north of Kazerun in Fars. At Firuzabad, the ancient Gur,
also in Fars, are two reliefs of Ardashir I, one depicting the overthrow
of Artabanus V, the other an investiture scene.
Not far away, in the valley at Sar
Mashhad, a representation of Bahram II shows that king in the process of
slaying two lions. At Darabgerd, about 180 miles southwest of Shiraz, Shapur
I is shown triumphing over three Roman emperors, Gordian III, Philip the
Arabian, and Valerian. At Naqsh-e Bahram, north of Kazerun, Bahram III
is depicted enthroned.
The same ruler appears at Qasr-e Abu Nasr, near Shiraz, and at Guyom, not far from there. Sasanian sculptured reliefs are less numerous outside Fars, but a Sasanian equestrian that once existed at Rayy (ancient Rhagae), southeast of Tehran, was replaced in the 19th century by a representation of Fath 'Ali Shah, a member of the then-ruling Qajar dynasty. At Salmas, near Lake Urmia, Ardashir I is shown on horseback while receiving the surrender of a Parthian personage.
There are also later Sasanian sculptures at Taq-e Bostan, near Kermanshah, showing Ardashir II, Shapur III, and Khosrow II. In many of these representations the Sasanian kings can often be identified by their individual crowns.
The most ambitious and celebrated architectural achievement of the dynasty is the vast palace at Ctesiphon, built by Khosrow II (590; 591-628), of which a part is still standing. It is known as the Taq Kisra and is notable for its great barrel vault in baked brick, a typically Sasanian architectonic device.
Many Sasanian buildings can also be seen in Fars, where the characteristic construction is of limestone blocks embedded in strong mortar. The most important of these are the palace of Ardashir I at Firuzabad, south of Shiraz, and a small, well-preserved palace at Sarvestan, southeast of Shiraz, in which the rooms are roofed with domes and squinches, features often found in Sasanian architecture. Excavations at Bishapur, or Shahpur, near Kazerun, have revealed some mosaic floors and other features of this important Sasanian town.
Numerous fire temples of the period survive, especially in Fars; these are square buildings roofed by a dome over four arches.
Sasanian remains of considerable extent also exist at Qasr-e Shirin, on the road from Baghdad to Tehran, and at Gondeshapur, modern Shahabad, south of Dezful.
Generally speaking, the Sasanian era was one of a renascence in Iranian art, which, if not quite on the same level as the Achaemenid achievement, was of no small importance. Metalwork reached a high level of artistry and craftsmanship; its most characteristic decorative themes are hunting scenes portraying the Sasanian kings in action.
A gold and enamel drinking vessel (now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris) from the time of Khosrow I (531-579)--known as the "Cup of Solomon" and, according to one tradition, a gift of the caliph Harun ar-Rashid to Charlemagne--is perhaps the most sumptuous specimen of Sasanian metalworking.
The art of gem engraving produced
many fine intaglio stamp seals and cameos. The coins invariably bear a
Pahlavi (Middle Persian) inscription; on the obverse is the head
of the king, wearing his characteristic crown, accompanied by his name
and title, on the reverse the fire altar with its guardians and the legend
"Fire of Ardashir, Shapur, etc." or, in the later period, an abbreviated
mint name and the regnal date.
The acquaintance with Greek language and literature maintained by the Arsacid court had begun to decline during the last century of that dynasty. Greek versions nonetheless accompany the Parthian and Middle Persian texts of the inscriptions of Ardashir I and Shapur I, as in the case of the Ka'be-yi Zardusht inscription. Later inscriptions, however, are only in Parthian and Middle Persian, as in the case of the inscription of Narses at Paikuli.
Most of the comparatively few remains of literature in (Book) Pahlavi--a form of Middle Persian somewhat different from that used in the Sasanian inscriptions--is of late or post-Sasanian date in its actual form, if not in content.
This is partly due to the fact that the transition from an oral to a written literary tradition took place in the later part of the Sasanian era. This is true of both religious and secular compositions. A passage in a religious text states that "it is proper to consider the living spoken word more weighty than the written." It should be added that most Sasanian literary remains are primarily of religious and historical rather than of literary interest.
Just as foreign learning appears in religious works, likewise foreign prose works of entertainment came to Persia, where they were translated; among them, in the time of Khosrow I, were Hellenistic romance literature and Indian books of tales, such as Kalilag and Dimnag, based on the Indian Pañca-tantra or the legends of Barlaam and Josaphat (Balauhar and Budasaf).
Foreign policy
In foreign policy the problems under the Sasanian kings remained, as of old, the defense and, when possible, the expansion of the eastern and western frontiers. The successful military campaigns in the eastern areas by Ardashir I and Shapur I, which resulted in the annexation of the western part of the Kushan Empire, have already been mentioned.
In the west the old contest for northern
Mesopotamia with the fortified cities of Carrhae, Nisibis, and Edessa continued.
The Sasanians were all the more
eager to regain and retain control of Armenia because there the Arsacid
dynasty still survived and turned for protection to Rome, with which, in
consequence, new wars continually broke out.
In the reign of Bahram II (276-293), the emperor Carus (282-283) invaded Mesopotamia without meeting opposition and reached Ctesiphon.
His sudden death, however, caused
the Roman army to withdraw. Bahram II had been prevented from meeting the
Roman challenge by the rebellion of his brother, the kushanshah Hormizd,
who tried to establish an independent eastern empire.
This attempt ended in failure, however,
and Bahram II appointed his younger son, the future Bahram III, as viceroy
of Sakastan (Sistan).
After Bahram II had died (293),
Narses, the youngest son of Shapur II, contested the succession of Bahram
III and won the crown. In memory of his victory, Narses erected a tower
at Paikuli, in the mountains west of the upper Diyala River, which was
discovered in 1843 by the English Orientalist Sir Henry Rawlinson.
Decorated with busts of Narses, the monument has a long inscription in Parthian and Middle Persian that tells the story of the events.
In 296, Narses was forced to conclude a peace treaty with the Romans by which Armenia remained under Roman suzerainty and certain areas in northern Mesopotamia were ceded to Rome.
By this treaty, which lasted for 40 years, the Sasanians withdrew completely from the disputed districts.
The Roman Empire had meanwhile become Christian, and the Syro-Christian populations of Mesopotamia and Babylonia began to feel sympathy with Roman policies for religious reasons.
Christianity also became predominant
in Armenia after King Tiridates adopted the Christian faith in 294. The
Sasanian emperors consequently felt the need to consolidate their Zoroastrianism,
and efforts were made to perfect and enforce state orthodoxy.
All heresy was proscribed by the state, defection from the official faith was made a capital crime, and persecution of the heterodox, the Christians in particular, began. Competition between Iran and Rome-Byzantium thus took on a religious dimension.
A new war was inevitable. It was begun by Shapur II in 337, the year of the death of Constantine the Great. Shapur besieged the fortress city of Nisibis three times without success.
The emperor Constantius (337-361) conducted the war weakly, but Shapur was distracted by the appearance of a new enemy, the nomadic Chionites (Huns), on his eastern frontier.
After a long campaign against them (353-358), he returned to Mesopotamia and, with the help of Chionite auxiliaries, captured the city of Amida (modern Diyarbakir) on the upper Tigris, an episode vividly narrated by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330-400).
The emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363) reopened hostilities after the death of Constantius (361) but died after having reached the vicinity of Ctesiphon. His successor, Jovian (363-364), was forced to give up the Roman possessions on the Tigris, including Nisibis, and to abandon Armenia and his Arsacid protégé, Arsaces III, to the Persians. The greater part of Armenia then became a Persian province.
Intermittent conflicts from Yazdegerd I to Khosrow I
After about two decades of disturbed
reigns (Ardashir II, Shapur III, Bahram IV), Yazdegerd I came to the throne.
His reign is viewed differently by Christian and Zoroastrian sources.
The former praise his clemency;
the latter refer to him as "Yazdegerd the Sinful." His initial inclination
toward tolerance of the Christian and Jewish religions was met by resistance
on the part of the nobility.
Because of their attitude and because of the growing fanaticism of the Christians, Yazdegerd was forced to turn to repression.
After his death (420), the nobles refused to admit any of Yazdegerd's sons to the throne. But one of them, Bahram V, had the support of al-Mundhir, Arab prince of al-Hirah (east of the lower Euphrates) and a Sasanian vassal, and also, apparently, of Mihr-Narseh, chief minister of Yazdegerd's last years, who was retained in office, and Bahram eventually won the throne. As King Bahram V, surnamed Gur (Wild Ass), he became the favourite of Persian popular tradition, which exuberantly celebrates his prowess in hunting and in love.
Unsuccessful in war with Byzantium (421-422), Bahram V made a 100-year peace and granted freedom of worship to the Christians. In the east he did succeed in repelling an invasion by a new wave of Hephthalites. In the following decades, however (second half of the 5th century), Hephthalite attacks continued to harass and weaken the Sasanians.
Firuz (457-484) fell in battle against them; his treasures and family were captured, and the country was devastated. His brother Balash (484-488), unable to cope with continuing incursions, was deposed and blinded.
The crown fell to Kavadh (Qobad) I, son of Firuz. While the empire continued to suffer distress, he was dethroned and imprisoned (496), but he escaped to the Hephthalites and was restored (499) with their assistance.
The Nestorian doctrine (claiming that divine and human persons remained separate in the incarnate Christ) had by then become dominant among the Christians in Iran and was definitely established as the accepted form of Christianity in the Sasanian Empire.
Kavadh I proved himself a vigorous ruler. He restored peace and order in the land. A campaign against the Romans (502) resulted in the destruction of Amida, but another inroad by the Hephthalites in the east compelled him to ratify a peace treaty with the Byzantines.
Toward the close of his reign, in 527, he resumed the war and defeated the Byzantine general Belisarius at Callinicum (531) with the support of al-Mundhir II of al-Hirah. Earlier in his reign he had moved away from the Zoroastrian church and favoured Mazdak, the founder of a new socio-religious movement that had found support among the people. The crown prince, Khosrow, however, was an orthodox Zoroastrian; toward the end of his father's reign, in collaboration with the chief mobed, he contrived the condemnation of the Mazdakites, who were destroyed in a great massacre (528).
On his father's death, after acceding as Khosrow I (531-579), he concluded peace with the Byzantine emperor Justinian (532). He reestablished Zoroastrian orthodoxy, and, although some persecution of Christian communities occurred during periods of tension with Byzantium, the restoration of peace brought about a considerable amount of religious tolerance.
Khosrow I was one of the most illustrious Sasanian monarchs. From his time dates a new and more equitable adjustment of the imperial tax system. The levying of land revenue in kind was replaced by a fixed assessment in cash, and these assessments continued in force later under the Arab administration.
His reputation as an enlightened and just ruler was high during his lifetime and later became legendary. When Justinian, in 529, closed the philosophy school in Athens, the last Neoplatonists turned to Khosrow in hopes of finding in him the true philosopher-king.
Though they were disillusioned by conditions at his court, their gratitude was great when Khosrow obtained for them the right to return. From 540 onward Khosrow had been conducting a long war against Justinian, which, although interrupted by several armistices, lasted until the 50 years' peace of 561. Khosrow also extended his power to the Black Sea and inflicted heavy defeats on the Hephthalites. These military successes were in part the result of several reorganizations of the armed forces and the chain of command that were achieved during Khosrow's long reign.
Conflicts with the Turks and Byzantium
About 560 a new nation, that of the
Turks, had emerged in the east.
By concluding an alliance with a
Turkish leader called Sinjibu (Silzibul), Khosrow was able to inflict a
decisive defeat on the Hephthalites, after which event a common frontier
between the Turkish and Sasanian empires was established.
Inevitably, this alliance became a source of possible friction, and the Turks sometimes acted as an ally of Byzantium against Iran in a second war (572-579).
Khosrow bequeathed this war to his son Hormizd IV (579-590), who in spite of repeated negotiations failed to reestablish peace between Byzantium and Iran.
Hormizd was unable to display the same authority as his father, and he antagonized the Zoroastrian clergy by failing to take action against the Christians.
He finally fell victim to a conspiracy headed by the general Bahram Chubin. Hormizd's son, Khosrow II, was set up against his father and forced to acquiesce in Hormizd's execution. New unrest broke out, in which Bahram Chubin--though not of royal lineage--attempted to secure the throne.
Simultaneously another pretender, Prince Bestam, decided to try his luck. Khosrow fled to Byzantium, and the emperor Maurice (582-602) undertook his restoration by military force. Bahram Chubin was routed (591) and fled to and was killed by the Turks, and Khosrow again ascended the throne in Ctesiphon. Bestam held out in Media until 596.
Khosrow II (590; 591-628), surnamed
Parviz (the Victorious), achieved unprecedented splendour and material
wealth.
The assassination of Maurice (602)
impelled him to a war against Byzantium, in the course of which his armies
penetrated as far as Chalcedon (opposite Constantinople), ravaged Syria,
and captured Antioch (611), Damascus (613), and Jerusalem (614); in 619
Egypt was occupied. The Byzantine Empire was, indeed, at its lowest ebb.
It took the great emperor Heraclius, who was crowned in 610, many years to rebuild the nucleus of a new army. This done, however, he set out in 622 and retaliated vigorously against the Persians.
Their armies were defeated everywhere. In 624 Heraclius invaded Atropatene (Azerbaijan) and destroyed the great Zoroastrian fire temple; in 627 he entered the Tigris provinces. Khosrow II attempted no resistance; a revolution followed in which he was defeated and slain by his son Kavadh (Qobad) II (628). When Kavadh died a few months later, anarchy resulted. After a succession of short-time rulers, Yazdegerd III, grandson of Khosrow II, came to the throne in 633.
Triumph of the Arabs
All of these prolonged and exhausting
hostilities had drastically reduced the powers of both Byzantium and Iran.
The door was open to a newly emerging
force that challenged both states and religions--the Arabs. After several
encounters, the fate of the Sasanian Empire was decided in the battle of
al-Qadisiyya (636/637), on one of the Euphrates canals, not far from al-Hirah,
during which the Sasanian commander in chief, Rustam, was killed. Ctesiphon
with its treasures was at the mercy of the victors. Yazdegerd fled to Media,
where his generals tried to organize new resistance.
The battle fought at Nehavand (642), south of Hamadan, put an end to their hopes. Yazdegerd sought refuge in one province after another, until at last, in 651, he was assassinated near Merv.
With the fall of the empire, the fate of its religion was also sealed. The Muslims officially tolerated the Zoroastrian faith, though persecutions were not unknown. Little by little it vanished from Iran, except for a few surviving adherents who remain to the present day in Yazd and a few other places. Other Zoroastrians emigrated to western India, where they are now chiefly concentrated in Bombay.
These Parsis (Persians) have preserved only a relatively small portion of their sacred writings. They still number their years by the era of Yazdegerd III, the last king of their faith and the last Sasanian sovereign of Iran.
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