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VISIT…
The Age of the Parthians
This Volume is dedicated to the memory of
A. Shapur Shahbazi
(1942-2006)
The Age of the Parthians
The Idea of Iran
Volume II
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.
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Typeset by P. Fozooni
List of Figures vi
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
Bibliography 143
List of Figures
The editors would like to thank a number of people whose assistance in the
planning and production of this volume has been invaluable. In particular, Mrs.
Fatema Soudavar Farmanfarmaian, Narguess Farzad, Elizabeth Pendleton,
Elizabeth Errington and Louise Hosking. We are also grateful to Mr
Mohammad-Reza Kargar, the Director of the National Museum of Iran, Tehran,
for allowing us to use the photograph of the Shami bronze statue.
We would also like to thank Dr Parvis Fozooni for his expert handling of the
text and for typesetting and formatting the book. Without his generous support,
these volumes would not materialise.
We are grateful to Iradj Bagherzade, Alex Wright, Nicola Denny and
Elizabeth Munns for their help in producing the publication.
Finally, we are indebted to the Soudavar Memorial for their sponsorship of
the lecture series.
Map of the Parthian Empire. From J. Wiesehöfer, Ancient Persia, London, 1996: 116.
Introduction
in Iran, Achaemenid, Median, Elamite and earlier prehistoric levels attracted far
more attention than Parthian levels. Second, the fact that the Parthian period
provides historical and cultural continuity with both the pre-Hellenistic Near
East and Achaemenid art has been evaluated in a mainly negative way.
Although Keall saw the importance of a period where “Greek traditions were
being replaced by new ideas deriving from both Mesopotamia and Iran”,4
others claimed that the Parthians “as individuals …seem to have had little
cultural impact, appearing now and again in documents as governors, royal
representatives and the like, but hardly energetic patrons” and that “Parthian art
was not truly Parthian at all, even from the viewpoint of patronage”, or again
“the Parthians imposed no common language or art, and let diverse traditions
flourish…”5
It is no exaggeration to say that Parthian art is more often than not regarded
as derivative, with no original contribution of its own. It is also true to say that
the long lasting lack of scholarly interest in the Parthian period has been
exacerbated by the paucity of archaeological evidence for this period of Iranian
history. Thus we know little about the local regional arts that might have
followed an artistic style that developed under the Arsacid kings or the
patronage that they may have attracted. In this vacuum, assumptions have been
made largely based on the extent of known patronage of Greek art and
according to western ideals of artistic expression. Although there is little doubt
about the impact of Greek art on the art of the ancient Near East, particularly
among the ruling classes, it is uncertain to what degree this Hellenisation had
influenced the everyday life of the ordinary people of Iran and Mesopotamia
Neglect of the Parthian period is not confined to western scholars. In fact,
the Sasanians themselves have contributed to our distorted view of 400 years of
Parthian history and tradition. Neither the khwaday namag nor Firdowsi’s later
Shah-nama have much to say about the Parthians. Officially, only 27 distiches
are given to the petty rulers, the “Ashkanian” (Arsacids), “the shortest account
of any phase of Iranian history”.6 In fact the entire heroic part of the
Shah-nama, The Book of Kings, dates to the Parthian period. It begins with the
rule of King Manuchihr, finishes with the tragic death of Rustam and his
family, and features many heroes and noble families, who are associated with
the Parthian aristocracy.
The rich minstrel tradition of the Parthian period, through which the stories
and legends later embodied in the khwaday namag were disseminated, has also
been neglected by scholars.7 The reason for this neglect is possibly because the
legends and stories of the time were in oral transmission and so it is not easy to
source the origins of works that did not appear in written form until much later.
The Parthian gošans were highly trained musicians and poets who transmitted
traditional material as well as extemporising and composing new works.
However, it seems that most of their work was memorised and, by the time it
found its way into later literature, had been subject to an unknown number of
redactions. The epic romance, Vis u Ramin, is perhaps the best known example
of a text that has its origins in the Parthian period but which draws on ancient
INTRODUCTION 3
oral traditions for much of its imagery and storyline. This love story, which is
centred first in Media, western Iran, and then at Merv, now in Turkmenistan,
was finally put into modern Persian rhyme by Asad-Gurgani in the middle of
the eleventh century, reflecting the traditions of the Parthian period with its
feudalistic set-up.
It is hoped that the present book will draw attention to the importance of
this particular period of Iranian history which deserves as much recognition as
both the earlier Achaemenid period as well as the following Sasanian period.
The following chapters are based on a collection of six papers delivered at a
symposium held at the School of Oriental and African Studies between March
and May 2005, and generously sponsored by the Soudavar Memorial
Foundation. They can broadly be divided into two categories. Vesta Sarkhosh
Curtis, David Bivar and Josef Wiesehöfer discuss aspects of the Parthian period
drawing on new evidence gained from the fields of art and numismatics,
archaeology and historical documents. The remaining three authors, Rolf
Michael Schneider, Wang Tao and Oktor Skjærvø use their material to describe
the power of representation. Skjærvø discusses the different approaches
adopted by scholars to the dating of the Avesta and the impact these views have
had on our understanding of this religious corpus. Schneider and Wang Tao
explore the political propaganda employed by Imperial Rome and China,
respectively, towards Parthian Iran.
Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis discusses the significance of Parthian material
culture by examining Arsacid Parthian coins and the information that this
important primary source reveals about the history and iconography of the
period. The influence of Hellenistic art and culture, particularly in the early
Parthian period, cannot be denied and is exemplified by the fact that the
Parthian kings adopted the Greek language for their official inscriptions, but the
impact remained on the surface. At the same time, there is an interesting revival
of pre-Hellenistic and characteristically Iranian features in the official court art
of the Parthians, as illustrated in their coinage. From the very beginning a
similarity exists between the iconography of the Parthian silver drachms and
the satrapal coins of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Particularly interesting
is the official costume of the Parthian kings, as seen on their coins, which at the
end of the second century BCE is no longer a Greek outfit, but consists of the
v-necked jacket, which was worn with trousers. Artabanus (Ardavan) I and
Mithradates (Mirhdad) II wear as their official costume this nomadic trouser-
suit, which was associated with Iranian-speaking peoples in the pre-Hellenistic
period.
By reinstating ancient traditions, the Parthians developed a material culture
which was imitated by those in close political and geographical contact with
them. Their costume of tunics and trousers and their tri-partite hairstyle became
so popular in the ancient Near East that it was adopted outside the political
boundaries of the Parthian empire, for example at Palmyra and Roman
Dura-Europos. At Hatra in northern Mesopotamia, the Parthian eyvan was
adopted for the architecture of the sanctuary of Shamash, the sun god, and the
4 THE AGE OF THE PARTHIANS
Notes:
1. M. Rostovtzeff 1935: 157-304.
2. Herzfeld 1941: 286-287.
3. Exceptions to this rule were the expeditions to Ashur and Babylon under Walter
Andrae and Robert Koldewey at the beginning of the twentieth century.
4. Keall 1974: 124.
5. Colledge 1977: 143.
6. Shahbazi 1991: 116.
7. The exception here is Mary Boyce 1957: 10 ff.
Other documents randomly have
different content
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