Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran (International Library of Iranian Studies)

510 Pages·2008·3.89 MB·english

by  Parvaneh Pourshariati

Decline and Fall of the Sasanian
Empire
ParvanehPourshariatiisAssistantProfessorofNearEasternLanguagesandCultures
atOhioStateUniversity.SheistheauthorofmanyscholarlyarticlesonancientIran.
‘Thisisamonumentalworkoffirst-classscholarship. Itspublicationrepresentsaland-
mark,anditimmediatelybecomesthepointofdepartureforfurtherworkonthemany
subjectsitdealswith. IcanthinkoffewotherbooksIhavereadovertheyearsthatcan
matchthiswork’sastoundingcombinationoforiginality,boldvision,clarityofpresen-
tation, meticulous examination of the sources, and practical puzzle-solving. I learned
immensely from reading it. Dr. Pourshariati’s book is in my view one of the most
important individual contributions to our understanding of the history of Iran since
Christensen’sL’IransouslesSassanides,publishedseventyyearsago. Especiallyremark-
ableisthebreadthoftheauthor’sagenda, andthewayinwhichshehasconvincingly
woventogetherdifferentstrands. Theseinclude: thepoliticalrivalryofthegreatfami-
lies,theSasanians’collapsebeforeByzantineandMuslimattacks,thereligiousdiversity
ofmedievalIran,questionsofhistoriography,thesubstanceoftheIranianpopularepic,
and the important details to be gleaned from seals and other documents. Any one of
thesewouldbe(andformanyscholarshasbeen)asubjectforfullimmersionformany
years,butPourshariatihasintegratedeachintoacomplexandmeaningfulwhole,even
asshehasmadesignalcontributionstothemoredetailedstudyofeachone.’
FredM.Donner,ProfessorofNearEasternHistory,UniversityofChicago
‘AfundamentalreappraisalofamajorissueinNearEasternhistory,andabookthatwill
bereferredtowheneverthesubjectisdiscussed,DeclineandFalloftheSasanianEmpire
isthemostimportantre-examinationoflateSasanianandearlyIslamichistorysincethe
workofChristenseninthe1940s.’
HughN.Kennedy,ProfessorofArabic,SOAS,UniversityofLondon
‘Dr. Pourshariati’s book proposes a reinterpretation of the structure of the Sasanian
EmpireandofthepowerstrugglethatfollowedtheendoftheByzantine–PersianWar
of 602–628. The author argues that throughout most of its history the Sasanian state
wasaconfederativestructure,inwhichthenorthandeast(theoldParthianterritories
ofMediaandKhurasan)werehighlyautonomousbothpoliticallyandculturally. Itwas
Khusraw II’s (590–628) disastrous effort to centralize the state that led to its collapse
and to the Arab Conquests. Dr. Pourshariati also argues for a significant redating of
criticalmomentsintheArabconquestsinIraq.Takenasawhole,DeclineandFallofthe
SasanianEmpireisoriginal,innovative,bold,andgenerallypersuasive.’
Stephen Humphreys, Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern History, University of
California,SantaBarbara
‘Bothimpressiveandintellectuallyexciting,DeclineandFalloftheSasanianEmpireisa
major,evenpathbreaking,workinthefield—afieldwhichthisbookshouldrevolution-
ize.’
StephenDale,ProfessorofHistory,OhioStateUniversity
Decline and Fall of the
Sasanian Empire
The Sasanian–Parthian Confederacy and the Arab
Conquest of Iran
Parvaneh Pourshariati
Published by I.B.Tauris&CoLtdinassociation withthe Iran HeritageFoundation
Publishedin2008byI.B.Tauris&CoLtd
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IntheUnitedStatesofAmericaandinCanadadistributedbyPalgraveMacmillan,
adivisionofStMartinsPress,175FifthAvenue,NewYork10010
Copyright©2008ParvanehPourshariati
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TherightofParvanehPourshariatitobeidentifiedastheauthorofthisworkhasbeen
assertedbytheauthorinaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentAct1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof,maynotbereproduced,storedinorintroducedintoaretrievalsystem,ortrans-
mitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise,
withoutthepriorwrittenpermissionofthepublisher.
ISBN:9781845116453
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LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:available
PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyTJInternationalLtd,Padstow,Cornwall
Fromcamera-readycopyeditedandsuppliedbytheauthor
In loving memory
of my father:
Houshang Pourshariati
(1934–2004)
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Contents
Noteontransliterationandcitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Introduction 1
Theproblem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Sourcesandmethodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1 Preliminaries 19
1.1 TheArsacids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.2 Agnaticfamilies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
I Political History 31
2 Sasanianpolityrevisited: theSasanian–Parthianconfederacy 33
2.1 Sasanians/Arsacids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.1.1 Christensen’sthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.1.2 Dynasticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.1.3 EarlySasanianperiod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.2 YazdgirdI,Bahr¯amVGu¯r,andYazdgirdII/theSu¯rens . . . . 59
2.2.1 MihrNarsehSu¯ren. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.2.2 YazdgirdI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.2.3 Bahr¯amVGu¯r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
2.2.4 YazdgirdII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
2.3 P¯ıru¯z/theMihr¯ans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
2.3.1 ¯IzadGushnaspMihr¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
2.3.2 Sh¯apu¯rMihr¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
2.4 Bil¯ashandQub¯ad/theK¯arins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
2.4.1 Bil¯ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
2.4.2 Sukhr¯aK¯arin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
2.4.3 Qub¯ad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
vii
CONTENTS
2.4.4 Sh¯apu¯rR¯az¯ıMihr¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
2.4.5 Mazdakiteuprising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
2.5 Khusrow I Nowsh¯ırv¯an / the Mihr¯ans, the Ispahbudh¯an, and
theK¯arins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
2.5.1 KhusrowI’sreforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
2.5.2 Interlude: LetterofTansar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
2.5.3 Thefourgenerals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
2.5.4 TheMihr¯ans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
2.5.5 TheIspahbudh¯an. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
2.5.6 TheK¯arins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
2.6 HormozdIV/theMihr¯ans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
2.6.1 Bahr¯am-iM¯ahA¯dhar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
2.6.2 S¯ım¯ah-iBurz¯ınK¯arin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
2.6.3 Bahr¯am-iChu¯b¯ınMihr¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
2.7 KhusrowIIParv¯ız/theIspahbudh¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
2.7.1 Vist¯ahmIspahbudh¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
2.7.2 SmbatBagratuni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
2.7.3 Thelastgreatwarofantiquity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
2.7.4 Shahrvar¯azMihr¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
2.7.5 FarrukhHormozdIspahbudh¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
2.7.6 KhusrowII’sdeposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
3 TheArabconquestofIran 161
3.1 Questionofsources: thefutu¯h. andXwad¯ay-N¯amagtraditions . 161
3.1.1 Futu¯h. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
3.1.2 RevisitingSayf’sdating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
3.2 Sh¯ıru¯yihQub¯adandArdash¯ırIII:thethreearmies . . . . . . . 173
3.2.1 Sh¯ıru¯yihQub¯ad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
3.2.2 Ardash¯ırIII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
3.2.3 Shahrvar¯az’sinsurgency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
3.3 Bu¯r¯andukhtandAzarm¯ıdukht: theP¯ars¯ıg–Pahlavrivalry . . . 183
3.3.1 TheIspahbudh¯an. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
3.3.2 Analepsis: ArabconquestofIraq . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
3.3.3 Azarm¯ıdukhtandtheP¯ars¯ıg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
3.3.4 Bu¯r¯andukhtandthePahlav . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
3.3.5 ThebattleofBridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
3.4 YazdgirdIII:ArabconquestofIran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
3.4.1 TheconquestofCtesiphon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
3.4.2 TheconquestofKhuzist¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
3.4.3 TheconquestofMedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
3.4.4 TheconquestofRayy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
3.4.5 TheconquestofGurg¯anandT.abarist¯an . . . . . . . . 253
viii
CONTENTS
3.4.6 ThemutinyofFarrukhz¯ad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
3.4.7 TheconquestofKhur¯as¯anandthemutinyoftheKan¯a-
rang¯ıy¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
3.4.8 TheconquestofAzarb¯ayj¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
3.5 Epilogue: repercussionsforearlyIslamichistory . . . . . . . . 281
4 DynasticpolitiesofT.abarist¯an 287
4.1 TheA¯l-iB¯avand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
4.1.1 Kayu¯s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
4.1.2 B¯av . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
4.2 TheK¯arinsinT.abarist¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
4.3 TheA¯l-iJ¯am¯asp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
4.3.1 J¯am¯asp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
4.3.2 P¯ıru¯z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
4.3.3 J¯ıl-iJ¯ıl¯ansh¯ah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
4.4 TheArabconquestofT.abarist¯an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
4.4.1 PeacetreatywithFarrukhz¯adandJ¯ıl-iJ¯ıl¯ansh¯ah . . . . 304
4.4.2 Farrukh¯an-iBozorgDhu’l-Man¯aqib . . . . . . . . . . 308
4.4.3 Yaz¯ıdb.Muhallab’sunsuccessfulconquestof716–718 . 310
4.5 Khursh¯ıdSh¯ah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
4.5.1 Thesp¯ahbedK¯arin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
4.5.2 Sunb¯ad’smurder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
4.5.3 Khursh¯ıd’sdeathandthefinalconquestofT.abarist¯an . 316
II Religious Currents 319
5 Sasanianreligiouslandscape 321
5.1 Post-Avestanperiod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
5.2 Orthodoxy–Heterodoxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
5.2.1 Twopillars: themonarchyandtheclergy? . . . . . . . 324
5.2.2 Kird¯ır . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
5.2.3 A¯turp¯at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
5.2.4 Zurvanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
5.2.5 Zand¯ıks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
5.2.6 CircleofJustice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
5.2.7 Mazdakiteheresy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
5.2.8 JewishandChristiancommunities . . . . . . . . . . . 347
5.3 Mihrworship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
5.3.1 Mithra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
5.3.2 MihrworshipintheAchaemenidandtheArsacidperiods358
5.3.3 TheP¯ars¯ıg–Pahlavreligiousdichotomy . . . . . . . . . 360
ix