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The Persian Empire

Page 75

by Kia, Mehrdad;


  When first setting out, travelers followed a route well known even today. They left Susa and traveled first to Babylon, in present-day southern Iraq south of the city of Baghdad, and from Babylon to Nineveh, the former capital of the Assyrian Empire in present-day northern Iraq. Although there is general agreement among historians and archaeologists regarding the course of the road from Susa to Nineveh, no consensus exists regarding its course once it reached Asia Minor. Some scholars maintain that the road moved north to Melitene (modern-day Malatya) in southeastern Turkey and then ran to Caesarea Mazaca (present-day Kayseri) in Asia Minor and from there to Pteria in Cappadocia. It crossed the Halys River (Kizilirmak or Red River) in eastern Turkey and ran westward to Ancyra (modern-day Ankara) and Gordium in Phrygia in west-central Asia Minor, eventually reaching Sardis and the Aegean coast. Other writers propose a slightly different route that ran from Melitene to Sebasteia (modern-day Sivas in central Turkey) and then moved west, crossing the Halys River and Cappadocia to Phrygia and running from there to Sardis. A third group argues that leaving northern Iraq, the road moved directly west to Tarsus (present-day Adana-Mersin) in southern Asia Minor and from there ran north through the Cilician Gates (Gülek Pass) in the Taurus mountain range of southern Turkey to Caesarea Mazaca (present-day Kayseri). This southern route probably crossed the Euphrates near Zeugma in close proximity to the present-day city of Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey.

  Herodotus’s remarks regarding the Royal Road create the false impression that there was only one major road or highway in the entire territory of the Persian Empire. In reality, the four corners of the vast Achaemenid state were linked through a whole network of roads connecting the imperial capital of Susa, which served as the hub of the system, to Egypt in the west, India to the east, and Central Asia to the northeast. For example, a secondary route branched off from the Royal Road near Babylon and turned northeast to the Persian summer capital of Hagmatana or Ecbatana (modern-day Hamedan) in western Iran. From there it ran along the southern slopes of the Alborz mountain range of northern Iran to Parthia in northeastern Iran and then on to Aria (present-day northwestern Afghanistan), finally moving south toward Drangiana and Arachosia (present-day Qandahar in southern Afghanistan) to India. Another route branching off in Aria moved east to Bactria in northern Afghanistan and after crossing the Oxus River entered Sogdiana, the territory corresponding with present-day Tajikistan and eastern Uzbekistan. A southeastern route linked Susa to another seat of Persian power, namely Persepolis in the southern province of Parsa/Fars (Persis), and continued from there through southeastern Iran to India.

  The Royal Road facilitated administrative integration and long-distance trade and commerce as well as the rapid movement of Persian armies and officials throughout the empire. The road served the strategic objective of Darius I, which was to create a more unified and interconnected empire based on an efficient communication system. The “influence of the Royal Road in widening the horizons of the provinces through which it ran must have been considerable, and its importance in the eyes of the Greeks is shown by the prominence given to it in the earliest maps of the Ionian geographers” (Sykes: 164–165). The Royal Road was augmented by major sea routes, which Darius discovered and established during his rule. As Herodotus stated, “the greater part of Asia was discovered by Darius,” who “wanted to find out where the Indus joins the sea,” and “for this purpose [he] sent off on an expedition down the river a number of men whose word he could trust” (Herodotus: 4.44). The expedition sponsored by the Persian king sailed down the Indus “until they reached the sea; then, turning westward, the ships followed the coast, and after a voyage of some thirty months reached the place from which the king of Egypt had sent out the Phoenicians, whom I have already mentioned, to circumnavigate Libya” (Herodotus: 4.44). As with the roads, the sea routes served two separate but interconnected objectives. First, they served a military purpose. For example, the expedition to India allowed Darius to conduct reconnaissance as the Persian army prepared itself for an invasion of the Indus Valley. Herodotus wrote that once the voyage to India was completed, “Darius subdued the Indians and made regular use of the southern ocean” (Herodotus: 4.44). Second, the new sea routes also facilitated trade between various provinces of the empire, allowing goods to move rapidly from one region to the other.

  See also: K&Q, Achaemenid: Darius I; Primary Documents: Document 12

  Further Reading

  Ghirshman, R. Iran from the Earliest Times to the Islamic Conquest. New York: Penguin, 1978.

  Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. London: Penguin, 2003.

  Sykes, Percy. A History of Persia, Vol. 1. London: Macmillan, 1951.

  Sasanian Empire

  The Sasanian dynasty (r. 224–651 CE) was founded by Ardashir, the governor of Istakhr, a district in the province of Fars in southern Iran. Ardashir, who was a vassal of the Arsacid dynasty, rose against the ruling Arsacid king Artabanus IV and killed him on the battlefield. The death of Artabanus IV signaled the end of the Arsacid dynasty. After overthrowing the Parthian state, Ardashir imposed his authority over the countries and provinces ruled by the Arsacids. In 225 CE he forced the Kushans, who ruled modern-day Pakistan, Afghanistan, and vast regions in southern Central Asia, into submission. Ardashir then marched against Roman-held Mesopotamia, attacking Nisibis in present-day southeastern Turkey on the Syrian border. Ardashir’s son, Shapur I, fought with three Roman emperors: Gordian III, Philip the Arab, and Valerian. These campaigns culminated in the capture of the Roman emperor Valerian by the Persians in 260 CE. Thus, the early Sasanian rulers laid the foundation for a powerful empire, which at its zenith ruled a vast territory extending from Central Asia to Syria.

  Ardashir I abolished the decentralized structure he had inherited from the Arsacids and, in distinct contrast, established an absolutist monarchy and a highly centralized political and administrative structure. Additionally, Ardashir and his successors introduced Zoroastrianism as the state religion. Local kings who refused to obey the authority of the Sasanian king of kings were replaced by the members of the Sasanian royal family, usually the sons of the ruling monarch. This does not mean, however, that the Sasanians destroyed the powerful landowning families, such as the Suren and the Karen, which constituted the backbone of the Parthian state. These families, which were closely allied with the Arsacid ruling family, retained their vast landholdings and the special privileges they had enjoyed during the Parthian period. Indeed, in the second half of the fifth century CE as the Sasanian state declined, the landed nobility resurfaced, and the very families who had played an important role during the Arsacid era began to play a central role in the political life of the Sasanian Empire.

  Though Zoroastrian, the first three Sasanian monarchs—Ardashir I, Shapur I, and Hormozd I—seem to have tolerated non-Zoroastrian religious ideas and movements, as evidenced by their willingness to allow the Iranian prophet Mani to preach freely in their domain. Starting with the reign of Bahram I, however, this tolerant attitude changed, and a stricter religious ideology was imposed. As a consequence, during the reign of Bahram I (r. 273–276 CE), Mani was imprisoned, and his followers were persecuted and forced either to flee or go underground. The Sasanian state established Zoroastrianism as its state religion, and the power of the Zoroastrian priesthood significantly increased. Thus, the Zoroastrian chief priest was granted the right to place the imperial crown on the head of the Sasanian monarch at coronation.

  Although the Roman Empire remained the principal adversary of the Sasanian state, starting in the fifth century CE a new threat emerged from Central Asia. The nomadic Kidarites and Hephthalites invaded the eastern provinces of the Sasanian state and forced the Sasanian monarchs Bahram V (r. 421–439 CE), Yazdegerd II (r. 439–457 CE), and Peroz I (r. 459–484 CE) to spend much of their reigns on countering the Hephthalite threat. In 484, the Hephthalites defeated and killed the Sasanian monarch Peroz on the battlefield. The victory over the Sasanian
army and the death of the Persian king allowed the Hephthalites to invade eastern Iran, forcing the Sasanians to sue for peace and pay an annual tribute. The humiliating defeats at the hands of the Hephthalites undermined the power and legitimacy of the Sasanian state. The Sasanian monarch Kavad I saw the need for social and economic reforms, including curtailing the power of the empire’s ruling classes, namely the Persian nobility and the Zoroastrian priesthood. Not surprisingly, Kavad was attracted to the teachings of Mazdak, a member of the Zoroastrian religious hierarchy who preached against the greed, arrogance, and unchecked power of the empire’s ruling classes. According to Mazdak, the source of evil and suffering in the world was the human fixation with satisfying self-centered desires without any regard for the hardships and needs of fellow human beings. To liberate the human soul from the forces of evil and to create a just and a peaceful society free of competition and violence, human beings had to abandon greed and selfishness and share the existing resources of their society.

  Mazdak’s ideas and Kavad’s support for them posed a direct threat to the established privileges of the ruling classes, particularly the Persian nobility and the Zoroastrian religious hierarchy. This formidable coalition was sufficiently powerful to depose Kavad I in 496 and force him to seek refuge with the Hephthalites, among whom he had lived as a hostage after his father’s defeat. In 499, Kavad managed to convince the Hephthalites to assist him with raising an army and regaining his throne. The deposed king marched against his opponents and defeated them. Kavad ascended the Sasanian throne for a second time, but he realized that his authority would not be fully secure unless he appeased the anti-Mazdak nobility and priests. The ruling dynasty was itself divided from within among the pro-Mazdak and anti-Mazdak factions. Among the contenders to the throne, Mazdak and his followers favored the older son of Kavad, Kavus, who sympathized with the ideas and objectives of their movement. The younger son, Khosrow, a fervent opponent of Mazdak, was the preferred candidate of the anti-Mazdak nobility and the Zoroastrian priesthood. After the death of Kavad, Khosrow seized the throne and suppressed the Mazdakite movement by executing Mazdak and many of his followers.

  During the reign of Khosrow I Anushiravan (r. 531–579 CE), the Sasanian state introduced a series of important reforms, which aimed at curtailing the power of the Persian nobility and the Zoroastrian religious establishment and increasing the power of the central government by expanding the size of the Sasanian central government and strengthening the position of the Sasanian king of kings vis-à-vis the provincial power centers. The first and perhaps most important of these reforms was restructuring the archaic tax system of the empire. In the traditional system, taxes were levied on the yield of land. Therefore, from year to year the amount of the tax varied. Khosrow abolished the system based on yearly variation and replaced it with a fixed sum. The Sasanian king also reorganized the administrative structure of his empire. He established a governmental system based on a council of ministers, or divan, headed by a prime minister. Khosrow also reduced the power of the great feudal families who enjoyed enormous influence in the royal court. This did not mean, however, that he attacked the privileges of the dominant economic classes by destroying the prevailing class structure. In fact, Khosrow defended the traditional division of the Iranian society into priests, warriors, government officials, and the members of the fourth estate, which included peasant farmers, artisans, and merchants (Nameh-ye Tansar: 57). Another important institution reorganized by Khosrow was the Sasanian army. To centralize the decision-making process under his direct control, the post of the supreme commander in chief (erān espahbad/espahbed or arteshtārān sālār) was abolished and replaced by four commanders, or spahbads, responsible for the security of the eastern, western, northern, and southern regions of the empire (Tabari: 2.646). Each commander reported directly to the Sasanian king. He also appointed margraves or commanders of the frontiers (marzbāns), who also received their orders directly from the Sasanian monarch.

  During the reign of Khosrow’s grandson, Khosrow II Parvez, the Sasanian Empire reached its greatest extent. In 603, the Persian armies attacked Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. The Sasanian forces quickly marched to upper Mesopotamia and laid siege to the well-fortified Roman fortress of Dara, which was captured in 604. Another Sasanian army attacked Roman forces in Armenia. In 607 the Iranian armies struck again, this time seizing Theodosiopolis in northern Syria in 608 and the important city of Edessa in present-day southern Turkey in 609. In 611, Khosrow II captured Caesarea in the central Anatolian region of Cappadocia. In the same year, the new Byzantine emperor, Heraclius (r. 610–641 CE), sent a delegation to the Sasanian court, but Khosrow refused to recognize Heraclius as the legitimate ruler and ordered the execution of his ambassadors. Meanwhile, the Persians continued their military advance westward. They seized Antioch once again and shortly thereafter reached the Mediterranean coast in 612. A year later in 613, Persian forces defeated a Roman army led by Heraclius and occupied Syria and Palestine, including the holy city of Jerusalem. There they seized the True Cross of Christian tradition and transported it back to the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon in 614. To the north, the Persian armies moved from Cappadocia and quickly reached the Asian shores of the Bosporus in 614. The capital of the East Roman Empire was now within their sight. Since the time of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, no Iranian ruler had extended the borders of his empire so far. At this point, a second Byzantine embassy arrived in the Persian court and pleaded for peace. Emperor Heraclius likewise arrived in the Persian camp with a plea for negotiations. Khosrow, however, rejected a peace settlement.

  Remains of the façade and open audience hall of the Sasanian royal palace at Ctesiphon, known as the Arch of Khosrow, in present-day southern Iraq. Ctesiphon served as the capital of the Arsacid/Parthian and Sasanian empires until the Arab invasion of Iran in the seventh century. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

  The Persian armies went back on the offensive in Asia Minor in 617. A year later in 618, Khosrow deployed his forces in Palestine with the goal of attacking Egypt. His invasion of Egypt succeeded, and the port city of Alexandria was seized in 619. Within a year, the Persian conquest of Egypt had been completed. The fall of Egypt allowed Khosrow to concentrate his main forces in Asia Minor and attack the heartland of the Byzantine state and eventually its capital. When the Persian forces attacked Asia Minor in 622, they advanced rapidly. By 623 they had reached Ancyra (modern-day Ankara), while the Persian naval forces seized the island of Rhodes and several other islands in the eastern Aegean Sea. At this historic juncture, Emperor Heraclius organized a counterattack and surprised the Persians with a swift and determined march against eastern Asia Minor and western Iran. As Khosrow’s army disintegrated and the Persian king fled, Heraclius entered Azerbaijan and reached the important Zoroastrian temple at Shiz, which housed the sacred fire of Adur Gushnasp (Azar Goshnasp), and destroyed it. Though defeated, the Persian commanders fought back and forced Heraclius and his army to evacuate Azerbaijan. Under relentless attack from Persian forces, Heraclius retreated to eastern Asia Minor. Determined to drive the Roman forces out of eastern Asia Minor, the Persian forces, under the command of the Persian general Shahrbaraz, attacked the Byzantine forces in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria, forcing them to retreat. Shahrbaraz then continued with his westward march, targeting the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, which he reached in the summer of 626.

  The battles fought in the summer of 626 would prove devastating for the Sasanians and seal the fate of Khosrow and his armies. As the Persian armies suffered significant losses, an army of Turks allied with the Byzantine emperor invaded, devastating urban and rural communities in the Caucasus and Azerbaijan. Although the Sasanian forces already suffered significant losses in 626, the year 627 proved to be even more disastrous. A massive Turkish invasion from the north devastated the Caucasus region. The strategic town of Darband and the town of Partaw, the capital of Albania (Iranian Arran), were overrun. A Roman army also pushed south tow
ard Azerbaijan and northern Iraq, where in the Battle of Nineveh it defeated the Sasanian forces, which had been sent to block Heraclius’s advance against the Persian capital of Ctesiphon in southern Iraq.

  Twenty-four years of incessant warfare had exhausted the Sasanian state. Outraged by Khosrow’s setbacks, obstinacy, and intransigence, a group of army officers joined by sons of several prominent families organized a plot to overthrow the king and replace him with his son, Kavad Shiruya (Shiroy). On the evening of February 23, 628, the plotters staged their coup. Shiruya was released from detention, and a herald proclaimed him the king of kings. The gates of the jails were also opened, and all prisoners, including Roman prisoners, were allowed to escape. Khosrow fled the palace but was later captured. Two days later, his son Shiruya ascended the throne as Kavad II. The new monarch, who had initially promised to restore peace and reverse the harsh policies of his father, initiated a bloodbath by killing all his brothers. He then ordered the execution of his father. The Sasanian Empire would never recover from this mad rampage. Shiruya died a few months after he had seized the throne. The Persian state began to disintegrate after Shiruya’s death.

  As army commanders, courtiers, and powerful members of the Persian nobility battled among themselves and eliminated one another, Sasanian territory was invaded on all sides by powerful neighbors. The eastern borders of the empire were breached by the Turks, while the Khazars invaded its northern provinces by using the Caucasus region to raid Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Asia Minor. In the end, however, it was a powerful force bursting out of the Arabian Peninsula that brought about the collapse of the Sasanian state. The Sasanian Empire came to an end when Arab Muslims defeated the Persian armies at Qadisiyyah in 636 CE and again at Nahavand in western Iran in 642 CE. The last Sasanian king, Yazdegerd III, was killed in 651 CE near Marv in Central Asia.

 

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