Book Review: Sasanian Iran 224-651 CE by Touraj Daryaee
Submitted by Ibn Rushd2 on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 06:27
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Mazda Publishers, 2008. ISBN: 9781568591698. ~$35.
This is a very important book. The author has written a detailed account of the Sasanian Empire from their origins until their downfall in the 7th century. There are 8 chapters, and the text itself only has 104 pages making this a very easy read. The book was originally online, but constant praise and a desire for more up-to-date info by other scholars prompted Daryaee to put it in print. The relations with Rome (usually through war) and internal affairs are covered nicely. We can now see why certain things happened by looking at them through the Persians' own eyes instead of through Greek sources alone.
To this end he has used Arabic, Greek and Latin, Armenian, Middle Persian (Pahlavi), Modern Persian, and Syriac sources from the time. He also has 20 pages of bibliography containing modern articles and books in Persian, German, French, Italian, English, and one in Chinese. There is also a small index that is not 100% comprehensive, but it works for such a small book.
The internal religious debates that plagued the priests and kings also places the growth of the East Syriac Church (aka "Nestorian") in context. Many of the kings showed sympathy and tolerance towards their Christian subjects and actively promoted them. This explains why the Syriac Church had its first council in 410 in Ctesiphon (the royal capital) instead of another place or time. Manichaeism is also discussed and one king converted to it causing great strife in the religious sphere. The priests ended up "taking care" of Mani by sending him to India. Kerdir and Tansar also sought to enforce Zoroastrianism as the only religion and persecuted Christians and Jews and Manichaens to a great extent. These two appeared early in the Empire, and none like them appeared again.
In the later part of the Empire many factions arose to vie for control. In the last 75 years of the Empire (575-650) this proved to be its ultimate downfall. With so many generals attempting to gain control (some did, but only for a short time) and kings killing their brothers so that they couldn't rule, left the army weak, small, and the political realm barren. There was one queen who ruled for 2 years, but she was the only one (except for one more who rule for only a few weeks, so she doesn't count). After her, there were at least 10 kings in the span of one year, and then Yazdegard III appeared in 632, but it was too late to repair the damage. Many generals joined the Arabs, who appear in the context of Sasanian history as client kingdoms and buffer states, making the early Arab conquests a revolt on the same level as the Persian generals. In any case, the loyal troops to the sha were too few. Daryaee has this too say about Islamic historiography:
The Islamic texts usually report the number of the Iranian soldiers to have been in the hundreds or tens of thousands and several times larger than the Arab armies. This of couse is pure fiction and it is boastful literature which aims to aggrandize Muslims achievements, which may be compared to the Greek accounts of the Greco-Persian wars. The Sasanian state would not have been able to mustere such a large force against the Muslims, since many had been killed or were not present because of the long wars with the Eastern Roman empire and the internal strife. (p. 100-101)Those who remained loyal to Sasanian goals and ideals escaped east, and set up a kingdom there which was recognized by China and appears in the texts there. This lasted until 710 when the Islamic armies went eastward, which is also when Muslim armies made their first incursions into India. A Middle Persian poem closes the book which reflects both the Persian and Zoroastrian attitudes towards the new Arabs:
What we saw at the hand of the Arabs, / with one troop (they) weakend the religion and killed the kings, / (they have killed) our king and among those Iranians, / their religion is in the manner of the demons, they eat bread like the dogs / the took sovereignty from the renowned kings, / not by skill, not by manliness, / but through mockery and scorn, / through oppressiveness, they took from the people, / women and sweet property, gardens and orchards, / they have placed poll-tax, divided it over the heads, / they have sought the cloth (and) heavy tribute, / behold how much evil that demon has cast in this world, / there is no more evil than they in the world, / ... then we will bring revenge on the Arabs, / in the manner which Rustam brought a hundred revenge of Siyawash, / we will destroy the mosques, establish fires, / we will raze idol-temples and blot them from the world, / till evil gets destroyed, the evil creatures from the world. (p. 103-104)Appearance The book has many pictures of coins, and wall sculptures, such as those at Naqsh-e Rostam. Maps are presented in every chapter, as well as a larger one at the back. A genealogical table is also presented. One thing that might put the average reader off is the lack of a transliteration table. The frequent use of X for the Kh or Ch sound (as in Christian or loch) may have the reader confused. Another quibble is the absence of "a" and "the", and "s" for plurals can become tiresome, but if you have been reading through faithfully you can easily see what the proper word is. Sources for the maps and photos would also have been beneficial since they are obviously taken from elsewhere.
Hello Faithfreedom and
Hello Faithfreedom and everybody out there,
to begin with, thank you for a good and informative site that will surely help turn the tide against Islam.
So now to Ibn Rushd´s fine article/review.
Pre-islamic Iran (and iranian history and culture in general) is certainly a most exciting topic!
May I also recommend Daryaee´s "Sasanian Persia" from I.B Tauris and Parvaneh Pourshariati´s "Decline and fall of the Sasanian empire" also from I.B Tauris.
I personally see a grand parallel between the fall and destruction of zarist Russia and Sasanian Iran even if they are far apart in time and location.
The parallel between early bolshevism and Islam is also striking.
The Sasanian empire wrecked itself during the reign of Khosrau II "Parviz" who seems to have overstreched its resources in a feebleminded attempt to permanently gain the upperhand against Eastrome.
This became a catastrophy when the byzantines, probably possesing a better equiped and far better organized army broke through the persian frontlines and defeated them in a series of devastating battles. Attacking and destroying one of the greatest firetemples in the persian empire placed in modern Azerbayjan.
These crushing defeats became the bane of the Zoroastrian empire. Its nobles soon killed Khosrau but destabilization had its way with Iran, its armies in tatters, official and public morale at a low point and several epidemics blasting through Mesopotamia (Modern Iraq).
Enter the Muslims from Arabia.
Today, thanks mainly to western political correctness, muslims are allowed to continue the foolish lie that the arabmuslims came as renewers or even bringers of civilization.This is so stupid that one has to laugh out loud or rip ones hair while screaming from deep, deep agony.There are simply no other options.
Persia had a few years earlier been on its highpoint of power, but Khosrau and his military elite had thrown that away against their opponent Heraklius, who more than one time had offered peace on favorable terms.
The muslims came from Arabia a total backwater (today as then). Islam itself bears witness to this fringe position on civilization. Its mythological-religious structure is based on especially Judaism, but also Christianity and a small mark of zoroastrianism. Muhammads trip to the heavens is a ripoff from Arda Wiraz.
The point of Muhammad and his Quran is not really spiritual in any way but only pretends to be. Its tales of the prophets (Abraham, Isa etc.) are often primitive and rather stupid all telling the reader to become a muslim or else! This degenerated form of the great nearby religions shows clearly that the arabs was not the most enlightend people on the globe at the time even judging by that times standards. This wretched and poor people came to believe in Muhammed with great fanaticism, because now the time had come for the arabs to rule the world and Allah the only lord of the universe was on their side. All morality was swept away for this new religion "sets free"! This limbo away from common morale and reason becomes the mainstreet of whatever part of the world which gets infected by islam.
(Do I need to state that Islam is UNHOLY hatefull nonsense spread by unknowing barbarians to a terrified world that has severe problems even understanding how at all it is possible to believe what the muslims believe? Yes! Again and again until there is no Islam left! )
And so the hubris of Khosrau, became nemesis with Muhammed and his believers.
Had the catastrophic war between Iran and Eastrome not happend weakening Irans hold on power, my guess is that in time, nestorian Christianity would have supplanted zoroastrianism (Which was perhaps not as unproblematic as it is often represented, although nothing ever as vicious as Islam) in Iran and probably also buddhism in Centralasia gaining massive access to India in the tenth and elleventh centuries.
Regards
Boethius
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Iranians should kick Islam
Iranians should kick Islam out, All so called contributions to science in muslim world was done by persians only. Reclaim your pre-islamic heritage and send the islam to hot sands of soudi.
Iranians who are oustide, should write more pre-islamic stories, plus the brutal way there culture was destroyed. Make documentaries, films, songs, paintings etc. Make iran islam free. Already major sunni world consider shia as heretic, so better remove islam altogether.
Instead of islamic iran and be problem to the world convert to some other religion like zorastrianism and be friend to the free world. Also lot of money is wasted in creating trouble for the world , which could help the poor in iran. Free world will be more than happy to help islam free iran against defending from Arab muslims.
Iran was the first country to
Iran was the first country to fall at the yoke of Islam and may this country be the first to liberate from Islam.
In India a song "Vande Mataram" created a magic which no other revolutionary effort could have done till then and shook the roots of the colonist British. This song is written in sanskritised bengali, India's oldest and ancient language.
Ultimately it gave a sense of pride to Indians and became the rallying point of freedom and India became free.
Similarly, sticking to the past glorious history of persia, it can attain freedom from Islam. Please pass on the articles, songs etc via email to iranians inside as many sites are filtered and they may be fed a twisted history. In china many outside pro-democratic chinese have emailed a history of communists in a "9 point commentary" pdf and many people know the propaganda of chinese communist party which is similar to mullah regime.
Pathfinder, you have good
Pathfinder, you have good fierce posts, which I much like to read, thanks! I'll be borrowing from you maybe in the future.
Boethius, although this is not a site for historians, how I enjoyed your history-lessons. You are named after the Roman statesman that was executed under Theodoric the Ostrogothic king, approx. 589-625 AD, out of the top of my head.
You must know that Khosrau was restored to his throne earlier by the East Roman emperor Maurice, who was deposed and killed by Phocas in 602. Khosrau claimed to revenge his benefactor Maurice when he attacked the East Romans. Heraclius came to power in 610, executing Phocas, he had also to contend with Avars and Slavs in alliance with the Persians. Only in 622-628 was he able to inflict a series of crushing defeats on the Persians.
You know, one Muslim here claimed that the Arabs were only defending themselves against Heraclius in about 634, with the intention of attacking the Arabs, hence the war was started by the East Romans and was only a war of defence by the Arabs! Of course we know Heraclius was utterly penniless, deeply in debt with the church, having trouble with the Monophysite majority in Egypt and Syria-Palestine, being glad East Rome had survived the Persian onslaught. But no, according to Muslim propaganda he wanted to attack, unprovoked, the Arabs!!! No mention of their own aggression in raids of course.
reading about the atrocities
reading about the atrocities committed by the wild and ignorant muslim arabs against the civilized persian civilization, my heart boiled in rage. i wish the persian can defeat them at that time and eliminate islam for good. however, history turn out to be not in my favour and the world has to put with islamic curse now. muhammad sent the threatening letter to the sovereign of persia and press for his conversion. when the latter refused, the bedouin marched against them.
this was historical witness regarding the message of islam that spread through the shadow of sword. umar the despot was responsible for this and he got his desert later.
Humanity is but one family. :)