Sassanides

The Sassanides reigned on the Iran of 224 until the Moslem invasion of the Arab in 651. This period constitutes a golden age for the Iran as well on the artistic level as political and religious.

Sources

The period of the sassanides present of the difficulties of studies in particular related to the lack of sources. There exist several types of sources used by the historians:
  • the official sources (rupestral inscriptions for the beginning of the period, seals and bubbles for the end, Numismatic)
  • secondary sources (Armenian historians, syriaque literature, texts in late Pehlevi, literature arabo-Persian post-Sassanide)
  • archaeological sources (sites rich, but little explored and little published nowadays)

Chronology

One divides into general the period sassanide into three:
  • 3rd and 4th centuries, which correspond to the constitution of the empire, the development of agriculture and town planning
  • 5th and the beginning of 6th centuries, where one notices a certain decline and difficulties vis-a-vis Hephtalides
  • 6th and 7th period which begins with the reign from Khosrow I Anushirvan and which is marked by a revival of the growth then a rapid final decline.

IIIe - IVe centuries

Sassan, the founder of the dynasty sassanide, more or less legendary, was priest of the temple of Anahita to Istakhr and proclaimed descendant of Darius III, the last Persian sovereign Achéménides beaten by Alexandre Large the. However, it is into 224, with the victory of its successor, Ardashir, over the last Parthian king Artaban IV, which begins really the period sassanide. Having quickly conquered the Parthian territory, Ardashir is made crown into 226, and dies into 241.

Nevertheless, of many problems meet on the Western borders like Eastern. In the east, the progressive expansion of the sassanides causes risings at the nomads Kouchan S, which refuse to yield their territory, and engage of many battles with Sassanides. A little later, at the end of the 4th century, in fact the Huns, Chionites then Kidarites break on Iran, and is fixed finally in Transoxiane and at the Gandhara.

But the Roman world him also is put up badly with the come to power of a dynasty which only seeks to extend, and of the ceaseless conflicts take place between these two powers. One can thus note the victory of Shapur Ier over Valérien in 260, which was followed reverse and other victories, before leading finally to a peace treaty in 384 between Théodose and Shapur III: vis-a-vis the threat of the Huns, the Romans apply a policy of allied State and decide to pay the sassanides so that those protect the the Caucasus and block the people of Central Asia.

One can also mention the many fights against the Arsacides, one of the small dynasties of the Arabic plain, which cotoie of many Bedouins.

5th and beginning of the 6th century

At the 5th century, the threats on the Eastern border, in particular on behalf of Hephtalites, are done stronger. If Vahram V Gur (421-438) manages to obtain a victory, Peroz, is made prisoner fifty years later, into 476, and during all the end of the 5th century, Sassanides remain tributary of Héphtalites. Moreover, disorders due in an economic state less flourishing than before and to a rigorous religion burst, in particular at the beginning of the 6th century, under the reign of Kavad Ist.

6th and 7th century

From the reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan (“with the immortal heart”), called Chosroès by the Greeks, of the reforms set up a new system of taxes, which was taken again later by the Arabs. The capacity from now on is entrusted to a minor nobility, rather than with great landowners. The empire extends on southernmost Arabia, allowing the control of the trade between Byzance and the Far East (India, China). The victories which put an end to the domination of Hephtalites, also involve an important expansion towards the east, until Oxus.

Khosrow I Anushirvan remained very famous in Iran: many words and many facts are allotted to him. It completes great public works, like irrigation, or foundation canals with Jund-i Shapur of a medical school founded on the Greek theories. It is also under its reign that are accommodated at the court of the philosophers and Greek scientists expatriates after the closing of the school of Athens into 529).

Under Khosrow II Parwiz (triumphing it), the territorial expansion continues, with the annexation of Syria, Egypt and Palestine. But against offensive of Héraclius leads finally to the plundering of the royal residence of Dastajird, then with the assassination of Khosrow with Ctésiphon. This reign remains associated however with one period with luxury, with the construction of the palates of Qasr-i Shirin and Dastajird, and the great taste which has course for poetry and the music.

The reign of Kavad II, marked by a peace treaty with Byzance, which induces a fold on the territory of Khosrow I, mark the end of the apogee of the sassanide, and the beginning of an anarchy which is completed only with the Arab conquest. In 637 the catch of Ctésiphon then in 642 the defeat of Nehavend mark the end of the empire. Yazdagird III flees in Merv then Balkh, and ends up being assassinated. The dynasty survived however some time, refugee at the court of China.

See also: Moslem Conquest of Persia

List sovereigns sassanides

Aspect socio-policy

The dynasty sassanide watch a great direction of the administration, international exchanges and farm (irrigation and stoppings). It is about an oral civilization, with a strong and centralized capacity and a vast communication network. The ceaseless wars which shake the empire are also a big factor to be taken into account.

Organization of the company

The company is divided into three categories, each one having at its head a chief ( salar ). One counts as follows:

  • priests,
  • the warriors
  • the farmers
The craftsmen are very of abrord inserted in the class of the farmers, before being recognized like category with whole share. This system of feudality remains rather stable in general but however requires a good balance between nobility and religion. The movement of revolt " populiste" who is born under Kavad Ier, which rebels against the religion mazdéenne and requires the setting in community of the women and the goods, shows that the rupture of this balance involves disorders. A second great movement of revolt, related to a difficult geopolitical situation, will be born also at the end of the 6th century

Organization of the royal capacity

The king is the Head of the State sassanide. Shapur Ier was the initiator of royal titulature sassanide, by naming " King of the Iranians and Non-iraniens" ( shahanshah eran ud aneran ). He exerted the principal political offices, military, legal and administrative.

The mode of succession is rather difficult to establish. It would seem that the capacity is passed through wire and the brothers, with a decisive intervention of the noble ones. Often, the king associates a successor of alive sound, and places it at the head of a great area (like the old heart of the kingdom Kouchan, or the Arménie) to learn the exercise from the policy. At all events, the throne is always occupied by a member of the line of Ardashir, with the notable exception of Vahram VI, which seems to indicate a deep attachment to the royal family sassanide.

At the beginning of the period, one notes a maintenance of the structures parthes, being based on seven Arascides big families without their leaving however too much of being able. But the majority of them ended up being removed. Local dynasties, resulting from the royal family sassanide, were installed in certain areas, like the Séistan. They were directed by characters carrying the title of " simply; roi" ( Shah ). Generally, the Empire sassanide seems more centralized than its Parthian predecessor. Only some kingdom and tribes vassal remain, as in Ibérie (current Georgia), or the territories of Suren, Karen and Varazes, former families of the Parthian nobility. The court and the high society are divided into 4 classes:

  • sovereigns in loads of a country ( shahdaran )
  • princes of royal blood but without command of province ( screw pehram )
  • large ( vuzurghan ) the
  • noble ( azadan ) the

Central administration

The king was assisted in his task by a Prime Minister, with the badly known prerogatives. Other dignitaries had an important position:

  • eran-spahbādh : the chief of the warriors, who exerts the function of military chief, and is also in charge of the management of the diplomatic businesses of the kingdom

  • eran-dibherbādh : the chief of the bureaucracy, it directs a team of secretaries, having each precise function (justice, incomes of the kingdom, the court, the stables, the treasure, the temples of fire and the pious donations)
  • vastryoshbādh : the chief of agriculture and the craft industry, charged to raise the tax

The tax was used to provide the public purses. It could be land, and did not concern whereas the peasants having a ground, his amount being defined according to the outputs obtained on this one. The other type of tax was the capitation, whose were exempted the noble ones, the priests, the soldiers and the members of the administration.

Provincial administration

As of Shapur Ier, the empire is divided into twenty-six provinces, which are sometimes vassal kingdoms, located with the periphery. The provinces were directed by a governor, the marzban . With the lower row, one found a smaller administrative division, directed by a civil servant chosen among the group of the dehqans , the small ones or average landowners.

A found inscription with Ka' Ba-ye Zartosht provides us the list of the provinces of the Empire sassanide under the reign of Shapur Ist It leaves the central provinces for then naming the peripheral provinces: Persian, Parthie, Susiane, Mésène, Asuristan (Mésopotamie), Adiabène, Arabistan (Mésopotramie of North), Atropatène (Azerbaïdjan), Arménie, Ibéria (Georgia), Machélonie, Albania (the Eastern Caucasus), Balasagan (in the Caucasus), Patishkhwagar (around the Elbourz), Médie, Hyrcanie, Margiane, Arie, Abarshahr, Carménie (Kerman), Sakastan (Séistan), Touran, Makran, Paradène, India (south of the Valley of Indus), Country Kouchan (of Peshawar until the Sogdiane) and Mazun (Oman). An ethnic distinction is always carried out between Iran and not-Iran, as reflects it the royal titulature.

The army

See also: Army sassanide

The Sassanide army, centered around heavy untities like the elephants of war and the armoured cavalry, was one of most effective end of Antiquity.

Its model, based on the noble provincial ones ( Azadan ) which finances their equipment and their drive by the incomes of stronghold entrusted by the king, influenced all the cultures having cotoyés them.

Economy

Currency

The sassanides strike a gold currency, but this one remains held for prestige. It is the money especially which constitutes the pay of the armies and the ransoms, and bronzes it which is useful in the daily cases.

Agriculture

It is the great agricultural development, in Susiane and with the Khuzestan, thanks to the irrigation, which allows the development of cities. The grounds are distributed between three great groups:
  • the kings have great fields, in particular of hunting preserves.
  • the noble ones have also many grounds, but starting from Khrosrow I, the taxes are diverted by it with the profit to be able it
  • the land small holders ( dehqans ), are kinds of “knights”. Paid by the donation of a stronghold, they draw their main resources from them.

The construction of stoppings, large channels and bridges, makes it possible to increase the cultivated field, in particular in Khuzestan, the basin of Diyala and the Fars. The cultures (Cereal S, Rice, Cane with sugar and as from the 6th century, sériculture) can thus be exported. The selection of races of Chevaux will be used later for the Arab conquérents for creation of the Arab horses known as and which astonished so much the first cross ones by their agility.

Exports

In addition to the products of agriculture, the sassanides export also manufactured goods, in particular of the silk trade. Indeed, starting from the end of the 4th century relations with China for the rough silk export are set up in particular. It is Iran sassanide which has the control of the Western part of this silk route, and thus holds the monopoly of the trade, towards Byzance and Europe in particular. Iranian settles even in China as from the 6th century, the relations developing in particular thanks to the caravans and missionaries nestoriens.

A trade takes place towards India by sea route (port of Mésène) and towards Syria (Dura Europos and Palmyre) by terrestrial way. Products of Zagros conveyed by inland waterway, for the Tiger and Khabur, an affluent of Euphrate which itself is not navigable. The sassanides use wood rafts with inflated goatskin bottles of air ( kelkehs ) as already the Assyrians did it and which will continue to be utuilized at the 19th century. These rafts can transport several tons of goods. An also flourishing trade takes place with the Central Asia.

Religion

The dynasty sassanide mark the period of glory of the Zoroastrisme, which is then high with the row of religion of State. Sassan itself, it should be pointed out, was appointed with the temple of the goddess Anāhitā in Istakhr

General principles

The religion zoroastrienne, created towards 1000 av. JC by Zoroastre is a henotheism: if it comprises a principal god, Ahura Mazda (god of the sky), it recognizes nevertheless others of them, like Anahita (warlike goddess and of fruitfulness) and Mithra (god of the sun and justice). Under Sassanides, one notes an evolution towards a dualism between a good principle ( Spenta Mainyu , compared to Ahura Mazda ) and a bad spirit ( Ahriman ), which coexist in each living being. This dualism will remain present in Shiite Islam duodécimain.

Like any religion, the Zoroastrisme, also called Mazdéisme, comprises several rites related to the principles founders:

  • the veneration of fire eternal
  • the importance of the ritual purity (not of pollution by the outside world, in particular in the contacts with the corpses, and by the interior world, as during the childbirth) This search for purity explains the importance attached to the bones, ritually pure, and the funerary habit going back to the Achéménides, which consists in letting the body be emaciated by the vultures and recovering the bones of them. Death is a subject taboo because it comprises stains irremediably, which makes it possible to include/understand the absence of steles or monuments. It is still this worship of the purity which recommends the inceste.
  • a chamanic anthropology.
  • three gold rules = fine words, the good thought, the good deed

The rites generally consist of animal sacrifices and drinkings. One notes the little of purely religious representations to which place the worship mazdéen under the sassanides gives.

Texts founders

The text founder of the mazdeism is the Avesta , mainly lost today. It is put in writing at the 5th century as soon as possible, but the first known copy goes back only to the 10th century. The Avesta contains in particular the Ghatas , of the songs composed by Zoroastre, the Yasht , of the anthems addressed to the Pantheon zoroastrien, and blackjacks nashks which contain comments on Ghatas, the ritual ones and justice. Later works in pehlevi take again the cosmogonic, mythological topics and metaphysics.

Clergy under the sassanides

The unification of the clergy under the sassanides was especially the work of the mōwdedan Kartir, whose career started under the reign of Shapur Ier and who became mōwdedan mōwbed under the reign of his successor. The clergy breaks up as follows: the priests of higher row, or mōwbed occupy each one of an ecclesiastical district and are placed under the authority of the mowbedan , a kind of pope. Large the mowbed , forms a kind of college. It is also necessary to announce the herbeds , of laic charged with teaching and the rad , of the judges placed very high, who often can worts more capacity than the mōwbed .

Application

The religion zoroastrienne remains during all the period sassanide, and even more generally, always torn between the terrestrial needs and the spiritual commands (inceste, e.g.). Very folded up on itself, rather near to the orthodoxe Judaism, the religion mazdéenne preaches often intolerant positions, which lead to persecutions (Christian, Jews, Manicheans and different theological schools). It is in constant position of weakness with respect to other religions which have written texts: thus, the Manicheism syncretistic attempt which interress Châhpûhr I {{er}} then at the 3rd century is highly and extremely repressed by its successors, continuous to survive thanks to the written setting of its principles.

Intellectual and scientific life

Civilization sassanide does not have a great inventive capacity inevitably, but it often takes again elements of other civilizations which it adapts and amalgamates in a clean culture, like the writing and the currency. The sassanides are dissociated in the realization of objects, and show a great manual skill, in particular in the currencies and the glyptique one. A particular feature is the national trilinguism: the Pehlevi (average Persan), the Greek and Parthian are three languages usually spoken by a great number of Iranians at that time. One finds in particular this feature in the rupestral inscriptions, for the majority bilingual and trilingual.

  • the academy of Djund-i Shapur , founded by Shapur Ier, is a remarkable element of the Sassanide culture. Containing a medical college in particular, the lesson is based on the Greek principles of Aristote and Gallien, brought to Iran by the means of the Christians Nestoriens. Medicine in particular develops by the means of the foreign doctors (Greek as private individuals), because of the problems of ritual stains related to the religion madéenne. Many Byzantine philosophers find also refuge in this academy after the closing of the schools of Athens (the Académie inter alia) by the Byzantine emperor, during a movement called Translatio studiorum . A close relationship exists between philosophy, medicine and astronomy, and faith and science are frays.

  • Literature

According to the Iranian tradition the first Persan poem was the work of Bahram V Gur, but remained isolated in front of the reactions from the clergy zoroastrien. Although this legend is false, since it is known that there was a tradition poetic already at Parthes and undoubtedly still front, it shows well the statute of the poetry at that time, considered as a dangerous element because untrue by the clergy. Arab sources refer to a literature in Persan means and thus attest its existence. Several works are preserved, among which have can quote:
    • the Avesta , put in writing and supplemented at this period
    • the anthems Manicheans, of which some existed already before Sassanides
    • the translations of texts étragers like the fables of Kalîla wa Dimna , come from India, or the delivers of Sindibad , translates at the late period sassanide.
    • the Khawtay namak is a national epopee, which will be used as source in Firdawsi at the 10th century for its Shah Nama

  • Music

There exists a rather great iconographic corpus showing of the musicians, and one knows by sources that the musicians enjoy a great favor, in particular under Khosrow II. The large singer, instrumentalist and type-setter Barbad are thus protected from this king. The music sassanide is a base of the Iranian traditional music. One can note there the importance given to the song, at the same time through religious anthems ( Ghatas ), still sung in India nowadays, songs exciting the size of the monarchs, the important facts of the heroes or the beauty of nature and feelings human. Some of these songs correspond to seasonal festivals. But the instrumental music holds also a paramount role. The instruments are several kinds:
  • with cords pinches, like lutes and toothings-stone
  • with struck cords, in particular the Santur
  • with wind, namely of the flutes in reed like the Ney and a kind of oboe
  • to percussions.

The music is monodic, i.e. there is only one melody, without accompaniment with the lower part. Transmitted orally, it leaves much place to the improvisation and can be played in many circumstances. There exist thus musics of cure and musics of dance, for example.

The music sassanide will be exported towards Europe and Spain. It is the starting point of the arabo-Andalusian Musique, and the instruments used currently in the classical music slowly evolved/moved starting from the Eastern models themselves very near to those of the sassanides.

  • Visual arts

detailed Article : Art sassanide

The period sassanide constitutes an apogee for the visual arts. Objects are carried out in the most various materials: glass, money, stone last like the rock crystal, fabrics… Town planning and architecture also take a considerable rise, with the créationde new forms like the chahar taq, or the use of techniques and Roman reasons.

See too

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