Sasanian Inscriptions

Abstract
This article examines the longstanding rivalry of Rome and Parthia, which began as an unintended consequence of Crassus’ decisive defeat at Carrhae in 53 BCE. It synthesizes the accounts and opinions of numerous Graeco-Roman writers from the Augustan Age to late antiquity in order to help illustrate the new and interconnected post-Carrhae world and its legacy. The rivalry of the Romans and Parthians became a primary focus of their foreign policies and drastically expanded their perceptions of the world in which they interacted. Even after the fall of the Parthians to the rebellious Sassanid Persians in the 220s CE, the Romans continued to find their three-century-long rivalry with the Parthians of interest and relevant to the changing world of late antiquity.

The shahs of the early Sasanian dynasty faced the challenge of establishing their legitimacy as the rulers of an imperial polity after rising to power through military insurrection. The early shahs of the dynasty sought to locate themselves within the religious, mythic, and historical context to link themselves to the glorious rulers and dynasties of Iranian myth and history, while simultaneously espousing Mazdean virtue.
Through the concepts of Ērānšahr and Farr, the notion of the territorial unity of the Mazda-worshiping peoples prescribed in the Avesta and the divinely-bestowed glory of rulers, respectively, the motivations that underlaid Sasanian statecraft during the first four generations of the dynasty are contextualized.
The idea of Ērānšahr as a sacrosanct territorial delimitation of the homelands of the Mazdean peoples was first employed to validate and legitimize the rebellion of the Sasanians against the Parthian Aškānīān dynasty. After the civil war that established Ardašīr I as šāhanšāh, the defense of Ērānšahr as both a tangible expanse of territory and
a religious concept was used to justify punitive and retaliatory military action in the west against the Roman Empire, as well as to acquire the Central Asian holdings of the Kushan Empire. The claim to the sole possession of Farr was similarly employed to justify first rebellion, and then conflicts with the Kushan Empire, whose own rulers claimed Farr from Mazdean divinities.
Establishing the religious, mythic, and historical contexts to which the early Sasanian dynasts were subject illuminates the motivations for imperial policy and allows the scrutiny of those policies and actions to transcend the biases inherent in non-Iranian sources for the period. Furthermore, privileging autochthonous sculptural, epigraphic, and numismatic productions produces an innovative analysis of early Sasanian statecraft cognizant of, and rooted within, Iranian cultural paradigms.

This chapter reviews the religious and mythical allusions embodied in the royal titulature of the Arsacids and Sasanians. The evolution of Sasanian royal ideology and its relationship to that of Rome are surveyed. The influence of Iranian mytho-epic traditions on Sasanian political ideology is discussed against the backdrop of Iran’s military history. The historicity of the Mazdakite revolution and late Sasanian Iran’s confrontation with Byzantium is assessed.

Along the history of Sassanid’s Empire many landmarks marked its turns. But the most important internal issues the kings Shapur I and Khosrau II had to go through were the political, military, social and administrative reforms that they had to imposse to ensure the empire and their power.

Private inscriptions are an important part of corpus of Sassanid inscriptions that lasted until the first centuries AH. An important part of these inscriptions are the funerary inscriptions that contain important information about the burial ceremony in the late Sassanid and early Islamic era in Iran. The majority of these inscriptions have been found in Fars, then in Yasuj, Xian China (China) and Istanbul. Some of these inscriptions are dated and have a definite temporal assignment. One of these important inscriptions is the Eqlid inscriptions, dating to the late Sassanid period, and contains important information about two important titles and burial diversity in the late Sassanian era. This inscription is the last dated inscription before the fall of the Sasanian dynasty: the day Xwar (11th) and Māh (12th) of the month Ābān of the year 6 of Yazdgerd III (February 638 AD).

Iran is the birthplace of some of the most ancient
civilizations with rich history and precious heritage.
Without doubt, the most celebrated and valuable
element of Iranian heritage, among other ancient
artefacts ornamenting the prestigious museums and
intuitions worldwide, are the tablets and inscriptions
discovered in Iran plateau. The unique significance of
these inscriptions comes from their primary propose
to outlast their creators and deliver a message to
future generations; just like Herodotus, the father of
history, who intended to be the witness of a piece of
history for the posterity.

The present book seeks to study the principles of legitimacy in the relationship between Sasanian rulers and their subordinates and through this approach tries to achieve a novel periodization of the history of this dynasty. Sasanian, who became rulers of Iran in the third century AD, encountered a legitimacy crisis from the beginning and sought to stabilize their legitimacy in the opinion of their subordinates. This book attempts to answer the following questions based on the historical analysis of material sources and historical texts: What is the principles of the legitimacy of the Sasanian state among its clients, and what is the relation between the changes in the principles of legitimacy with the periodization of Sasanian history? The author's claim is that, at the beginning of their power, the Sasanian shāhānshāhs  tried to legitimize their rule by continuing former ruling traditions and emphasizing on Divine Kingship. When political, social, economic and religious changes caused a transformation in the intellectual texture of Iranian society, Sasanian court needed to make fundamental changes in the principles of legitimacy based on Divine Kingship and turned to the legitimation based on Sacred Kingship. This change was in line with the ancient near east political tradition. However, it brought about fundamental changes in the cosmology of Iranian society, and also had lasting effects on the policy making method in centuries after Sasanian era. Understanding the principles of the legitimacy of the Sasanian state during different periods will help provide a new periodization of the history of this ancient Iranian dynasty. In this periodization, the Sasanian history is divided into two periods of Divine and Sacred Kingship. These two periods are separated from each other by a Historical Caesura to the recognition of the Zoroastrian religion and its conversion into a state religion. Contrary to previous classifications, this periodization does not focus solely on political developments; it considers a set of internal and external factors related to the structural changes that have been introduced as factors in changing the principles of the legitimacy of the Sasanian state.

Tras la caída del Imperio parto a manos de Ardešīr, el nacimiento de la nueva Persia sasánida llevo aparejada la aparición de un nuevo poder en Oriente Próximo que sustentaría su cohesión y expansión en la fuerza militar. A lo largo de su historia los sasánidas no solo tuvieron que hacer frente a numerosos problemas internos, sino que debieron desarrollar su estrategia militar, heredera de la tradición parta, para poder enfrentarse con garantías a poderosos enemigos como el Imperio romano-bizantino, los hunos, los heftalitas o los turcos goks. Finalmente, un imperio desgastado por los constantes enfrentamientos no podría resistir al empuje de los árabes musulmanes tras cuatro siglos de historia.

A lo largo de su historia, el ejército sasánida se convirtió por derecho propio en una de las fuerzas bélicas más importantes de su época y que logró enfrentarse de igual a igual con la todopoderosa máquina bélica que suponía el ejército romano-bizantino, obteniendo numerosas e importantes victorias. Su grandeza radica no sólo en haber sabido mantener y fomentar los aspectos clave del tradicional ejército parto, sino el haber imprimido su propia seña de identidad en él para convertirlo en una garantía tanto del mantenimiento como de la expansión del imperio. La caballería catafractaria se convirtió así en legendaria por su efectividad o maniobrabilidad, pero no era el único elemento importante del ejército sasánida pues éste también incluía expertos arqueros cuyas nubes de flechas provocaban estragos en los ejércitos enemigos. Si a ello sumamos la habilidad táctica de los soberanos sasánidas y la estrategia defensiva que emplearon mediante fortalezas y murallas, destinadas a proteger el imperio, veremos que tanto la fama como el miedo que inspiraba la maquinaria bélica sasánida estaban justificados.