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The Sasanian Era
This Volume is dedicated to the memory of
Edited By
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any
part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of the publisher.
Typeset by P. Fozooni
Introduction 1
Bibliography 158
List of Figures
Silver drachm of Ardashir as king of Fars, SNS I, type I/1 (mint A). British 18
Museum.
Gold dinar of Ardashir I, SNS I, type IIa/2 (mint B). British Museum. 18
Silver drachm of Ardashir I, SNS I, type IIa/3a (mint B). British Museum. 19
Billon tetradrachm of Ardashir I, SNS I, type IIe/3a (mint C). 19
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Silver drachm of Ardashir I, SNS I, type IIIa/3a (mint C). Kunsthistorisches 20
Museum, Vienna.
Silver drachm of Ardashir I, SNS I, type IIIb/3b (mint B). British Museum. 20
Gold double dinar of Ardashir I, SNS I, type IIIa / 3a (mint C). British 20
Museum.
Silver drachm of Ardashir I, SNS I, type VI/3b (mint B). Kunsthistorisches 20
Museum, Vienna.
Silver drachm of Ardashir I, SNS I, type VIII/3a (Sakastan?). 21
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Silver drachm of Shapur I, SNS I, type IIc/1b (style indéterminé). 21
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Silver drachm of Shapur I, SNS I, type Ib/1a (style A). British Museum. 22
Gold dinar of Shapur I, SNS I, type IIc / 1a (style A). Staatliche Museen zu 22
Berlin.
Billon drachm of Shapur I, SNS I, type IIc/1b (style P). Kunsthistorisches 22
Museum, Vienna.
Billon antoninianus of emperor Valerianus (253–260) from the mint of 23
Antioch. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Gold double dinar of Shapur I with the Roman emperor Philip the Arab. 23
Private Collection.
Bronze coin of the king of Marv. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. 24
Silver drachm of Ohrmazd I, SNS II, type Ib/2b. Kunsthistorisches 24
Museum, Vienna.
Silver drachm of Ohrmazd I, SNS II, type Ia/1. Bibliothèque national de 25
France.
Silver drachm of Bahram I, SNS II, type I/1a. Kunsthistorisches Museum, 25
Vienna.
Silver drachm of Bahram II, SNS II, type VI/3. Kunsthistorisches Museum, 25
Vienna.
Silver drachm of Bahram II, SNS II, type IV/1. British Museum. 26
Silver drachm of Bahram II, SNS II, type VII/5. Kunsthistorisches 26
Museum, Vienna.
Silver drachm of Bahram II from the mint of Ray, SNS II type VI/3. British 26
Museum.
Silver drachm of Narseh, SNS II, type Ia/1a. Private Collection. 27
Silver drachm of Narseh, SNS II, type Ib/4a. Private Collection. 27
Silver drachm of Narseh, SNS II, type II/5b. British Museum. 27
Silver drachm of Narseh from the mint of Sakastan, SNS II, type Ia/1d. 28
Private Collection.
Gold dinar of Ohrmazd II from the mint of Marv, SNS II, type Ia/3h. 29
British Museum.
Silver drachm of Ohrmazd II from the mint of Ray, SNS II, type Ia/2c. 29
Private Collection.
Silver drachm of Ohrmazd II, SNS type Ia/3d. Private Collection. 29
Graffiti from Persepolis. Papak (C) and his son Shapur (A, B, D, E). 33
Detail of Ardashir’s jousting relief, Firuzabad. 34
Investiture relief, Firuzabad. Ahuramazda is handing over the ring of 36
kingship to Ardashir. His page, his son Shapur and two knights are standing
behind the king.
Sketch plan of the ruined fortress of Shah Nishin, northwest of Darab. 41
View over the mountain ridges with Qaleh Dukhtar and the plain of 42
Firuzabad.
View of Qaleh Dukhtar from the west, the staircase, centre left, the palace, 43
aivan and domed throne hall (photo courtesy of G. Gerster).
View of the ruined city of Ardashir Khurreh (photo courtesy of G. Gerster). 45
Map of Firuzabad and plan of the city of Ardashir Khurreh. 46
The Minar/Tower in the centre of Ardashir Khurreh with the outlines of the 47
destroyed staircase.
Ardashir’s second palace, the “Atashkadeh”, in the plain of Firuzabad. 48
Shaded areas indicate the first floor and a niche above the double stairs in
the aivan, in which would have been the throne seat.
Drawing of scenes decorating an engaged column. Qaleh-i Yazdgird, Iran. 73
Herrmann 1977a: 70.
Reconstruction of an engaged column and stucco male head. Hajiabad, 74
Iran. Azarnoush 1994: fig. 143.
Drawing of a stucco plaque having a medium-sized male bust. Hajiabad, 74
Iran. Tracing by the author from Azarnoush 1994: pl. xi.
Drawing of a rock-carved hunting scene. Kal-i Jangal, Iran. Tracing by the 75
author from Henning 1953: pl. v.
Drawing of a low-relief hunting scene. Tangi-i Sarvak, Iran. Tracing by the 76
author from Mathiesen 1992: II, fig. 21.
Drawing of a monumental sculpture of a male head. Qaleh-i Now, Iran. 77
From Kawami 1987: figs. 31, 32.
Hunting scene on a wall in Building A. Hatra, Iraq. From Venco Ricciardi 79
1996: fig. 7.
Drawing of a mosaic pavement showing Bellerophon and Pegasus. 80
Palmyra, Syria. Tracing by the author from Gawlikowski 2005: fig. 37.
Drawing of a mosaic pavement showing a tiger hunt. Palmyra, Syria. 80
Tracing by the author from Gawlikowski 2005: fig. 38.
Rubbing from a silver plate found in the tomb of Feng Hetu. 81
Datong, Shanxi Province, China. From WenWu 1983.8.
Drawing of a tiger hunt on a silver plate. Japanese private 82
collection. From Tanabe 1998: fig. 1.
Drawing by the author of a crown detail on Fig. 11. Japanese private 82
collection.
Drawing by the author of the bud device on the reverse of Fig. 11.
Japanese private collection.
Drawing of the crowns of the Kushano-Sasanian rulers Ardashir and Peroz 83
I. From Carter 1985: 223, table 1.
Drawing of a detail on the rock relief of Hormizd II (303–309 CE). 83
Naqsh-i Rustam, Iran. From Herrmann 1977b: fig.1.
Sketch-map of north-central Afghanistan, showing places mentioned 89
in the Bactrian documents.
Scyphate gold dinar of Peroz with legend πιρωζο ϸα—υανοϸαυο 95
= pirōzo šauanošauo “Pirōz Shahan-shah”. Collection of Aman ur
Rahman, Islamabad/Dubai.
Seal with the Pahlavi legends KTK “Kadag” and ktkst’n ’wst’nd’l 97
“provincial administrator of Kadagistān” (after Gyselen 2002: 222, fig. 43).
Acknowledgements
The editors are grateful to the Trustees of the Soudavar Memorial Foundation
for sponsoring the symposia and making the publication of the proceedings
possible. In particular, we are indebted to Mrs Fatema Soudavar-Farmanfarmaian
for her help, advice and involvement in the planning of each symposium.
This double volume would not have been possible without the input and
expertise of Dr. Parvis Fozooni, who once again has formatted and typeset this
volume with his usual dedication and eye for detail. We are also grateful to
Helen Knox for copyediting the papers, and to Dr Elizabeth Pendleton for her
help.
We would like to thank Iradj Bagherzade, Alex Wright and staff at I.B.Tauris
for their help in producing the publication.
Finally, our thanks go to the authors who submitted their papers within the
given deadline, thereby making it possible to publish this series in record time.
Introduction
T his is the third volume of the Idea of Iran and deals with the Sasanian
period. The previous two volumes covered the early period – the
formation of the Achaemenid empire – and the Parthian era. The success
of the symposia, which began as a lecture series in the summer of 2004, would
not have been possible without the generous support of Mrs Fatema Soudavar
Farmanfarmaian and fellow trustees of the Soudavar Memorial Foudation.
Their enthusiasm and commitment to the projects have created such confidence
amongst supporters of Iranian studies that this programme has become a major
event in the academic calendar in London. From the beginning it has been our
aim to publish the proceedings on a regular basis; but the turnaround has
exceeded expectation thanks to the dedication of our contributors and, in
particular, Dr Parvis Fozooni.
The second volume in the series, The Age of the Parthians, covered 400
years of Iranian history ending with the collapse of the Parthian empire in 224
CE. The current volume is the proceedings of two symposia and begins with
the advent of the Sasanian dynasty and the reign of Ardashir I. This is an
extraordinarily fertile period in Iranian history for it is during the reign of the
early Sasanians kings that we see the beginnings of an Iranian state and the
formation of a centralised religion. This phenomenon is covered by contributors
from different disciplines. What we see here is a comprehensive coverage of
various aspects of kingship, religion and society through the eyes of experts in
numismatics, philology, history, art history and archaeology.
The paucity of primary sources for this period has meant that there has been
substantial scholarly debate over much of the extant material. As in previous
volumes we have attempted to challenge traditional views and present a re-
appraisal of current thinking with regard to existing evidence. Contributors to
the early Sasanian period discuss the characteristic features of the Sasanian
state during its formative years including how the centralisation of power and
religion manifested itself through coinage, art and architecture. Contributors
2 THE SASANIAN ERA
dealing with the late Sasanian period cover aspects of language, economics,
religion and military expansion as well as evidence from an archive found in
Bactria.
An important phenomenon that has largely been neglected by scholars of
pre-Islamic Iran is the transition from an oral to a written tradition during the
Sasanian period This development had far-reaching consequences for the way
in which Iranian history was transmitted, the nature and purpose of recorded
history and the ability of rulers and priests to centralise and transmit
knowledge.
Philip Kreyenbroek argues that the state propaganda of the early Sasanian
kings drew on written accounts that were based on oral traditions. He gives
examples of traditions that began in oral transmission for example the account
of Ardashir’s lineage, and compares them with later versions once they were
written down. In this way he is able to show how these stories and legends were
used to serve the purposes of Sasanian state propaganda, through the
preservation of certain histories or versions of history and the exclusion of
others: ‘propaganda, in other words, played a key role in early Sasanian state-
building, and the court was evidently capable of making the population accept
as national history a version of events that was not based on fact, but had been
drawn up for this very purpose’. Linked to this idea of ‘state-building’ was the
notion of the piety of the early Sasanian monarchs, nowhere better expressed
than in the Letter of Tansar where the high priest asserts that state and religion
are twins. The accepted view of Shapur I’s piety is questioned by Kreyenbroek
in view of this king’s welcoming attitude towards the prophet Mani. At court
he was granted extended privileges. Kreyenbroek therefore challenges
traditional views about Shapur’s religious commitment to Zoroastrianism. He
suggests and it was in fact the prelate Kirder who, over the course of an
exceptionally long career, succeeded in presenting a uniform version of
Zoroastrianism throughout the realm. This would not have been possible before
the written composition and transmission of religious texts.
The consolidation of church and state is also the subject of Michael Alram’s
contribution. He discusses the importance of the power and identity of the early
Sasanian kings as witnessed through coinage. He charts the progression of the
royal title from ‘king’ to ‘king of kings’ to ‘the divine Mazdayasnian king of
the Iranians whose seed is from the gods’. In this way the monarch creates ‘a
new identity for his dynasty as well as for the Sasanian state’. Both obverse and
reverse of these coins emphasise the importance of kingship and the divine
right of the king to rule. This is manifested variously through the religious
symbolism of kingly glory, or kwarenah and those divine beings or yazatas
associated in with the investiture of the king. The reverse of Ardashir’s coins
emphasise the link between religion and kingship with the depiction of a fire
altar placed on a royal throne. Under Shapur I, a fire altar is flanked by a figure,
a symbol that becomes the hallmark of Sasanian coins until the seventh century
CE. Alram presents a new double dinar of Shapur I which shows the triumph of
the mounted king over the captive Roman emperor Philip the Arab on the
INTRODUCTION 3
reverse. The coin inscription describes Shapur as king of kings of the Iranians
and non-Iranians which, until the discovery of this coin, was only known from
Shapur’s inscription at Ka‛ba-i Zardusht and coins of his son and successor
Ormazd I. The royal title is now fully extended and indicates the diversity of
the Sasanian realm.
State planning and monumental buildings are further testament to the
centralisation of Sasanian Iran under Ardashir I. Dietrich Huff examines the
architecture of Firuzabad/Ardashir Khurreh as an example of the power and
authority of the first Sasanian monarch. Ardashir’s meticulously detailed plan
of his new city reflects his understanding of the strategic importance of
location: “…to create a kind of miniature model realm with residents, city and
countryside, set into an order which symbolises his conception of an ideal
state”. By choosing a location surrounded by mountains, the king ensured that
Ardashir Khurreh (Gur) would be protected from attack by the heavy Parthian
cavalry. The fortress of Qaleh Dukhtar overlooking the plain provided further
protection.
Touraj Daryayee continues with an analysis of kingship in early Sasanian
Iran, as seen through monumental inscriptions and coin legends. He gives a
detailed breakdown of the composition of the royal titles both from religious as
well as political points of view. He moves away from a traditional concept of
Iranian civilisation as a “static unchanging phenomenon” and draws attention to
the various distinct traditions surrounding the notion of kingship that existed on
the Iranian plateau in the third century. These are: the Avestan tradition, the
Old Persian Achaemenid royal ideology, the Hellenistic notion of kingship
introduced by Alexander and the Seleucids, the Arsacid tradition and finally the
Persian tradition of the Sasanians from their homeland. All these traditions
were unified by the Sasanian dynasty in Persis. Daryayee looks for continuities
in the notion of kingship with reference to the imperial ideology of previous
dynasties. The image of a deified king, which was unknown in the Zoroastrian
tradition, appears both in the iconography and inscriptions on Seleucid and
Parthian coins, and was adopted by the early Sasanian rulers.
The consolidation of the Sasanian empire is also reflected in the art and
architecture of the early Sasanian period. Prudence Harper examines the
consolidation of Sasanian dynastic power through an examination of the visual
expressions of power and authority during this period. The art of the imperial
court under Ardashir and Shapur depicts large rock reliefs commemorating the
investiture and victories of the king of kings. This tradition drew on earlier
prototypes known from Achaemenid, Hellenistic and Parthian art, but
introduced a unified dynastic imagery which became a hallmark of a central
Sasanian imagery. With the expansion of the Sasanian empire “a related but
distinct imagery arose” in the borderlands. This is evidenced by Sasanian silver
plates as well as the newly discovered rock reliefs at Shamarq in northern
Afghanistan.
Nicholas Sims-Williams takes us from the heartlands of the Sasanian
empire to ancient Bactria, or modern Afghanistan. He discusses the recent
4 THE SASANIAN ERA
give us an idea of the cost of all sorts of things ranging from animals, medicine
and meat, to ritual ceremonies performed by priests.
Philip Huyse’s paper returns us to the issue of orality and literacy that Philip
Kreyenbroek discusses in the first paper of this volume. He also mentions the
lack written sources which makes the oral tradition, and the way in which it is
understood and dealt with by modern scholars, all the more significant. Huyse
draws our attention to the vocabulary linked to ‘memory’ for example the
different ways of reciting prayers, and the fact that texts were spoken and
listened to rather than read. He demonstrates, through various texts, such as the
Denkard, and passages from the Yashts and the Vendidad, that Zoroastrians
continued to maintain characteristics of the oral tradition well into the Islamic
period. He suggests that it is not until the story of Khusrau and his page that we
have clear evidence that priests were trained in the art of writing as well as the
memorisation of texts. He also outlines the debate amongst scholars regarding
the date of the introduction of the Avestan script as well as the writing down of
the Avesta.
The present volume provides a fascinating view of Sasanian Iran by ten
eminent scholars. They combine new discoveries with new interpretations of
hitherto accepted views of extant material.
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