The Persian Empire

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  See also: K&Q, Sasanian: Ardashir II; Khosrow II Parvez; Shapur II; Shapur III; Religion: Mithra

  Further Reading

  Azarpay, Guitty. “Sasanian Art beyond the Persian World.” In Mesopotamia and Iran in the Parthian and Sasanian Periods, edited by John Curtis. London: British Museum Press, 2000.

  Fukai, Shinji. Taq-i-Bustan. Tokyo: Institute of Oriental Culture University of Tokyo, 1969.

  Herzfeld, Ernst E. Iran in the Ancient East. London: Oxford University Press, 1941.

  Matheson, Sylvia A. Persia: An Archeological Guide. London: Faber and Faber, 1972.

  Movassat, Johanna Domela. The Large Vault at Taq-i Bustan: A Study in Late Sasanian Royal Art. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 2005.

  Shahbazi, A. Sh. “Ardašir II.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1986, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ardasir-ii-sasanian-king-of-kings-a.

  ANCIENT PROVINCES AND GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS

  OVERVIEW ESSAY

  The entries in this chapter offer historical overviews of some of the important geographical regions and provinces contained within the borders of Greater Iran’s pre-Islamic empires. These regions and provinces are drawn from those mentioned in the Avesta, the ancient Zoroastrian holy book; those included in the inscriptions of the Persian kings of the Achaemenid and Sasanian dynasties; and others described in the writings of Greek and Roman historians and geographers. Those provinces and regions drawn from the pages of the Avesta are among the most ancient names in Iranian history. They are introduced within a collection of Avestan texts called the Vendidad (Vīdēvdāt), which has been invariably translated as “The Law against Demons,” “The Antidemonic Law,” “The Law Repudiating the Demons,” or “The Law against Evil Beings.” Most of the Vendidad focuses on the issue of pollution and provides a set of rules by which individuals can practice purification. The first section of the Vendidad, however, focuses on the creations of the great god Ahura Mazda and lists the lands he created to provide a homeland for the Iranian people in great antiquity. Among these lands were provinces such as Sogdiana, located today within the borders of the Central Asian republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; Bactria, corresponding with present-day northern Afghanistan; and Margiana, in modern-day southern Turkmenistan.

  The inscriptions of the Achaemenid and Sasanian kings as well as Middle Persian texts also contain important information about the provinces of the Achaemenid and Sasanian Empires. For example, the long royal inscription of Darius I at Bisotun, near the city of Kermanshah in western Iran, lists the 23 countries and provinces that were ruled by the Persian Achaemenid dynasty. He also informs his readers that several of these provinces had revolted against him after he had killed the usurper, Gaumata, seizing power with the support and assistance of six fellow Persian officers. Here too are names significant to the history of the ancient world, such as Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, Armenia, Media, Parthia, Sogdiana, Bactria, Arachosia, and Persia itself. Another important inscription, that of Shapur I at Naqsh-e Rostam, provides us with the geographical and political extent of the Sasanian Empire during the reign of its second monarch. Among the important texts written in Middle Persian, the language of the pre-Islamic Sasanian dynasty, is Shahrestanha-ye Eranshahr [The Provincial Capitals of Iran], which lists and describes the important cities of Greater Iran during the reign of the Sasanian dynasty (r. 224–651 CE). The book relies on a mixture of historical, religious, and legendary sources, such as traditional stories and myths from ancient Iran and various accounts from the Avesta. The date for its initial composition is unknown, but the Shahrestanha-ye Eranshahr was clearly revised several times during Sasanian times and into the Islamic era.

  Because of the paucity of Iranian primary sources, we are forced to rely heavily on the writings of Greeks and Romans who were generally hostile toward Iranians and Iranian dynasties, which for centuries successfully resisted eastward Roman expansion and on several occasions inflicted humiliating defeats on Roman armies. Among the major shortcomings of these sources is the limited knowledge of the Greek and Roman historians and geographers about the Iranian hinterland as well as the important eastern provinces of Iran, which enjoyed close political, cultural, economic, and diplomatic ties with such important centers of world civilization as Central Asia, China, and India. Despite such inadequacies, however, some of the information that these classical sources provide is invaluable to our understanding of ancient Iran.

  Abar Shahr

  The name of a province in the western part of present-day Khorasan during the Sasanian period (r. 224–651 CE). The administrative capital of Abar Shahr was Nēv Shapur (modern-day Neyshabur), a city built by Shapur I, the second monarch of the Persian Sasanian dynasty who ruled from 239/240/241/242 to 270/272 CE. Shapur I may have built the town in the first year of his reign after he pacified Chorasmia (Khwarazm) on the lower reaches of the Oxus River (Amu Darya) south of the Aral Sea and Hyrcania (modern-day Gorgan) in northern Iran on the southeastern shores of the Caspian Sea (Markwart: 52). In his inscription at Naqsh-e Rostam in the southern Iranian province of Fars, Shapur I included “Aparshahr” as one of the provinces of the Sasanian Empire (Frye: 371). Abarshahr is mentioned again in the accounts of the reigns of the two Sasanian monarchs, Kavad I and Khosrow I. When Kavad I (r. 488–496 CE and again 499–531 CE) was deposed from the throne in 496 BCE, he fled to the Hephthalites, among whom he had grown up. He intended to raise an army with the support of the Hephthalites and recapture the Persian throne. One source claims that on his journey eastward Kavad made a stop at Abarshahr, where he stayed at the house of a local member of the nobility. The nobleman had a daughter whom Kavad married. His son, Khosrow (Khosrow I Anushiravan), was born from this union between the Persian king and a young woman from Abar Shahr (Tabari: 6.641). The 14th-century geographer and historian Hamdollah Mostowfi identified Abar Shahr (i.e., Abar Shahreh or Hamshahreh) as a district located in close proximity to the Caspian Sea and the seat of power of Farhad, the son of Godarz, presumably an Arsacid monarch (Mustawfī: 91).

  Together with Marv, Herat, and Balkh, Neyshabur served as one of the most important political, administrative, and commercial centers of northeastern Iran (i.e., Khorasan) during the Sasanian period (r. 224–651 CE). Neyshabur remained an important urban center after the fall of the Sasanian Empire in 651. The city was identified as the largest city of Khorasan by the Muslim geographer Istakhri (Istakhri: 205), and it thrived during the reigns of the Iranian and Turkic dynasties, which ruled Khorasan in the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries, including the Taherids, the Samanids, the Ghaznavids, and the Saljuqs. In the 13th century, the Mongols destroyed the city and massacred its population.

  Because the Persian word abr means “cloud,” several geographers of the Islamic era assumed that abar was the same word as abr and therefore that Abarshahr meant “City of Cloud” or “Cloud City” (Gaube: Abaršahr). Western scholars generally interpreted the name to mean “Upper Country,” with abar translated as “upper” and shahr as “country” or “city.” The scholar James Markwart, however, rejected these interpretations and maintained that the name Abarshahr referred to “the country of the Aparak” (Latin: Aparni or Parni), an Iranian Scythian group from which the Arsacid dynasty (r. 247/238 BCE–224 CE) had hailed (Markwart: 52). Arsaces (Arshak), a Parni or Aparni leader of the Dahae, founded the Arsacid (Parthian) state in 238 BCE after he invaded and conquered Parthia in the present-day Khorasan region of northeastern Iran. The Greek geographer Strabo stated that Arsaces, the founder of the Arsacid dynasty, was “a Scythian” who “with some of the Däae (I mean the Aparnians, as they were called, nomads who lived along the Ochus), invaded Parthia and conquered it” (Strabo: 11.9.2–3). Modern-day Neyshabur remains a thriving urban center in the Khorasan region of Iran.

  See also: Cultures: Aparni; K&Q, Sasanian: Shapur I; Peoples: Sasanian Empire

  Further Reading

  Barthold, W. An Historical Geography of Iran. Translated by Svat Soucek. Princeton: Princeton Universit
y Press, 1984.

  Frye, Richard Nelson. The History of Ancient Iran. München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1984.

  Gaube, H. “Abaršahr.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1982, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abarsahr.

  Istakhri, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim. Masalik wa Mamalik. Edited by Iraj Afshar. Tehran: Scientific and Cultural Publications, 1990.

  Le Strange, Guy. Lands of the Eastern Caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

  Markwart, James. A Catalogue of the Provincial Capitals of Ērānshahr. Edited by G. Messina. Roma: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1931.

  Mustawfī, Hamdallah. Nuzhat al-Qulūb. Edited by G. Le Strange. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1915.

  Strabo. The Geography of Strabo. Translated by Horace Leonard Jones. London: William Heinemann, 1930.

  Tabari. Tarikh-e Tabari, Vol. 2. Translated from Arabic into Persian by Abol Qassem Payandeh. Tehran: Asatir Publications, 1984.

  Abarkavan

  During the late Sasanian period (r. 224–651 CE), Abarkavan (Abarkāvān) was the name of the present-day Iranian island of Qeshm in the Persian Gulf. The island is situated in the Straits of Hormoz in the eastern part of the Persian Gulf a few miles off the southern coast of Iran and separated from the Iranian mainland by the Strait of Khuran. The 10th-century Muslim Arab geographer Ibn Hawqal refers to the island as “Barkāvān” (Ibn Hawqal: 37). He stated that as with several other islands in the Persian Gulf, “Barkāvān” was a precinct under the jurisdiction of Ardashir Khowreh, one of the five administrative districts of the province of Fars in southern Iran during the Sasanian period (Ibn Hawqal: 37). As late as the 14th century CE, the geographer Hamdallah Mustawfi referred to the island as “Abarkāfān” (Mustawfī: 234). Mustawfi listed Abarkāfān with Bahrain and Khark as one of the Iranian islands of the Persian Gulf (Mustawfī: 234). If “Kāvān” means “of the lineage of Kaveh/Kava” in Middle Persian (Kasheff: Abarkāvān), then the island may have been named after one of the great legendary heroes of ancient Iran, Kaveh, the blacksmith who revolted against the tyrant Zahhak. Today, Abarkavan/Qeshm is Iran’s largest island.

  See also: K&Q, Sasanian: Khosrow I Anushiravan; Khosrow II Parvez; Peoples: Sasanian Empire

  Further Reading

  Anonymous. Hodud ul-Alam min al-Mashriq ila al-Maghrib [The Regions of the World from East to West]. Edited by Manoochehr Sotoodeh. Tehran: Tahuri Bookstore, 1983.

  Ibn Hawqal. Surat ul-Ard. Translated from Arabic into Persian by Dja’far She’ar. Tehran: Amir Kabir Publications, 1988.

  Kasheff, M. “Abarkāvān.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1982, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abarkavan.

  Mustawfī, Hamdallah. Nuzhat al-Qulūb. Edited by G. Le Strange. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1915.

  Adiabene

  A kingdom in northern Mesopotamia that served as a vassal state of the Parthian (Arsacid) Empire (247/238 BCE–224 CE). Though the exact boundaries of Adiabene are unknown, it is generally believed that its territory corresponded with the northwestern part of historical Assyria, in the present-day Kurdish-populated region of northern Iraq. In his Natural History, Pliny described Adiabene as “where the land of the Assyrians begins” (Pliny: 6.41). The Tigris River formed the western boundary of Adiabene, while the Zagros mountain range separated its eastern districts from Media and the rest of western Iran. The Upper or Greater Zab River formed the northern boundary, and the Lower or Lesser Zab constituted the southern border of the province. The capital of Adiabene was Arbela, where “the later Parthian monarchs were allegedly buried” (Colledge: 58). Aside from its historical significance and strategic location, the importance of Adiabene lay primarily with its location on the main trade routes, which not only connected Iran to Mesopotamia and Syria but also linked the commercial centers of the Persian Gulf and southern Mesopotamia to the urban centers of Asia Minor and beyond.

  Adiabene was originally part of the ancient Assyrian kingdom, which was destroyed by the Medes and the Babylonians in 612 BCE. After three centuries of dominating the political life of the ancient Near East, the Assyrian kingdom ceased to exist, and its territory was divided between Babylonians and the Medes. A significant part of Assyria, including the future kingdom of Adiabene, was absorbed by the emerging Median Empire. When the last Median king, Astyages, was defeated by Cyrus II, the king of Anshan, the newly emerging Persian state seized all the former provinces of the Median Empire, including the entire territory of Assyria. In his inscription at Bisotun in western Iran near the city of Kermanshah, the Persian monarch Darius I listed Athura or Assyria as one of the provinces of his empire (Kent: 117, 119). In 331 BCE, Assyria was the site of the battle in which Alexander and his Macedonian army defeated Darius III, the last Achaemenid king. This defeat signaled the end of the Achaemenid Empire. According to Pliny, the Macedonians referred to the whole of Adiabene as Mygdonia or Macedonia, “from its likeness to Mygdonia in Macedon [Macedonia]” (Pliny: 6.41). The Seleucid Empire, which was founded by Seleucus, one of Alexander’s Macedonian generals, reorganized the provinces of the Persian Achaemenid Empire into smaller entities. One of these new provinces was Adiabene.

  The Arsacids (r. 247/238 BCE–224 CE) defeated the Seleucid state and forced it out of Iran and Mesopotamia. Under their charismatic ruler Mithridates I, who ruled from 171 to 139/138 BCE, the Parthian armies captured Assyria, but they could not retain their newly conquered territory. It was not until 94 BCE, during the reign of Mithridates II (r. 124/123–88/87 BCE), that the Parthians annexed the kingdoms of Adiabene, Gordyene, and Osroene, establishing the Euphrates River as their western boundary and thus becoming the eastern neighbor of Rome.

  Despite its conquest of Mesopotamia, the Arsacid dynasty did not impose a centralized system of government over the region. Indeed, for much of its history, the Arsacid state ruled a highly decentralized empire, allowing local rulers to assume the title of king, although they were not allowed to mint their own coins. Thus, the western frontiers of the Parthian Empire remained dotted by small kingdoms such as Adiabene, which enjoyed a great deal of autonomy (Colledge: 58). The kingdom of Adiabene was ruled by kings called Izates (Ezad), while the neighboring kingdom of Osroene based in Edessa (present-day Urfa in southeastern Turkey) was ruled by a line of Nabatean kings named Abgar. Another Arab family ruled the northern Mesopotamian kingdom of Hatra. Situated as they were on the border between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Empire, these kingdoms served as buffer states and survived by vacillating between the two superpowers.

  Through the writings of Josephus and Tacitus we learn that sometime during the early first century CE, the ruler of Adiabene, Monobazus, sent his youngest son and designated successor, Izates II (Ezad), to Abennerig, king of Characene or Mesene, to protect him from his older brothers, who resented and hated their younger brother. The capital of Characene, Charax-Spasini, situated on the coast of the Persian Gulf in present-day Kuwait, was a major commercial center during the Parthian and Sasanian periods. King Abennerig welcomed the young prince from Adiabene and arranged a marriage between Izates and his daughter Samacha. During his stay in Charax-Spasini, Izates converted to Judaism through the teachings and guidance of Ananias, a Jewish merchant. At the same time that Izates converted to Judaism, it so happened that his mother, Helena, also joined the Jewish faith. The queen demonstrated her devotion to her new religion by making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 46 CE. Having witnessed the hunger and suffering of the Jewish population, the queen ordered shiploads of grain from Alexandria and figs from Cyprus to be transported to Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the aging King Monobazus, who sensed his approaching death, summoned his son, Izates, to Adiabene. Izates returned home accompanied by the merchant Ananias, who emerged as his personal adviser and confidant on religious matters.

  When King Monobazus died, the queen, Helena, convened a council of Adiabene’s governors, army commanders, and high officials and inquired whether they agreed with the decisi
on of the deceased king, Monobazus, to choose his youngest son, Izates, as the next ruler of their kingdom. The members of the council expressed their support for the selection of Izates as their next king, and they recommended that all of the new king’s brothers be slaughtered so that the transfer of power could be carried out without any disruption. The queen mother responded by recommending that the decision on the fate of the brothers of Izates be deferred until the arrival of the new king. Although the queen mother saved the princes of the royal family from execution, the grandees insisted that the brothers of the new king at least be detained and held in bonds until Izates had ascended the throne. As they awaited the arrival of the new king, the queen mother, Helena, placed the oldest son of Monobazus, also named Monobazus, on the throne to ensure a peaceful transition of power. When Izates arrived in the capital in 36 CE, his older brother, Monobazus, abdicated and allowed Izates to ascend the throne. Shortly after seizing the reins of power, the new king released his brothers from bondage and sent them as hostages to Rome and Parthia. Izates II intended to publicize his conversion to Judaism and undergo circumcision. His mother, however, opposed such actions on the grounds that any public demonstration of Jewish customs on the part of the king would alienate Izates’s subjects from their ruler. Despite her opposition, Izates went through circumcision.

  Sometime during the reign of Izates, the Arsacid king Artabanus II (r. 10/11–38 CE) arrived in Adiabene seeking refuge from his enemies, who had forced him out of power. Izates II welcomed Artabanus and received him with kindness, respect, and magnanimity. He also interceded on behalf of Artabanus and requested that the Arsacid king be restored to his throne. Izates’s intercession proved effective: the reigning Arsacid monarch wrote to Artabanus and invited him to return and regain his crown. When Artabanus returned, the reigning Arsacid king removed the crown from his own head and placed it on the brow of the former monarch. In return for his extraordinary generosity and support, Artabanus showered Izates with gifts and honors, allowing the king of Adiabene to “wear his tiara upright, and to sleep upon a golden throne[,] … privileges and marks of honor peculiar to the kings of Parthia” (Josephus: 20.3.4). Artabanus also took Nisibis in present-day southeastern Turkey from the king of Armenia and placed it under the control of Izates. When Artabanus II died, the new Parthian king Vardanes, who ruled from 38 to 45 CE, approached Izates and asked for his support in a new military expedition against the Romans. Izates rejected the idea and tried to persuade the Arsacid king to adopt a more conciliatory attitude toward such a dangerous and formidable power as Rome. Before Vardanes could embark on his campaign, however, he was overthrown and replaced by his brother Gotarzes II who ruled from 43/44 to 51 CE.