-
Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica
Europa
held in Ravenna, 6-11 October 2003
Vol. IAncient & Middle Iranian Studies
Edited by Antonio PANAINO & Andrea PIRAS
MIMESIS
MILANO 2006
SOCIETAS IRANOLOGICA EUROPAISTITUTO ITALIANO PER LAFRICA E
LORIENTE
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM UNIVERSIT DI BOLOGNA, SEDE DI RAVENNA
-
II
2006 by Universit di Bologna &
Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e lOriente
All Rights Reserved
Institute for
University of Bologna
Supported by:
Societas Iranologica Europa
Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e lOriente
Ministero dellIstruzione, dellUniversit e della Ricerca
Area della Ricerca e delle Relazioni Internazionali, Universit
di Bologna
Pro-rettore per i Poli della Romagna, Universit di Bologna
Facolt di Conservazione dei Beni Culturali, Universit di
Bologna
Dipartimento di Storie e Metodi per la Conservazione dei Beni
Culturali, Universit di Bologna
Polo Scientifico-didattico di Ravenna, Universit di Bologna
Fondazione Flaminia, Ravenna
Provincia di Ravenna
Comune di Ravenna
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ISBN 88-8483-465-2
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Table of Contents
III
Table of Contents
Antonio C.D. PANAINO & Andrea PIRAS (University of Bologna,
branch of Ravenna)Preface
........................................................................................................................
...........................VII
Antonio C.D. PANAINO (President of the Societas Iranologica
Europa, 2000-2003)Opening Speech to the Fifth Conference of Iranian
Studies
................................................................
IX
Gherardo GNOLI (President of the Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e
lOriente)Twenty Years On
................................................................................................................
................. XIII
Romano PRODI (President of the European Commission)Message to
the Organisers and Participants at the 5th European Conference of
Iranian Studies .. XV
Bahram QASSEMI (Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of
Iran)Address to the Organisers and
Participants.....................................................................................
XVII
ANCIENT IRANIAN STUDIES
Hassan AKBARI (Tehran University)Morteza HESSARI (Hamburg
University)
Die Felsgravierungen aus der iranisch-Aserbaidschan Provinz
Ardabil.............................................. 3Kersey H.
ANTIA (Chicago, Illinois)
Were the Achaemenians Zoroastrian? How do we Resolve this
Question?A Zoroastrian Viewpoint
........................................................................................................
............... 13
Gian Pietro BASELLO (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna
& LOrientale University, Naples)Old Persian in Elamite: The
Spellings of Month-names
.......................................................................
19
Franois DE BLOIS (School of Oriental and African Studies,
London)Lunisolar Calendars of Ancient Iran
............................................................................................
......... 39
Alberto CANTERA (Universitt Salamanca)Was ist av. dta- vdauua-?
.................................................................................................................
53
Serena DEMARIA (Martin-Luther-Universitt, Halle, Wittemberg)Der
koptische Kambyses Roman
...................................................................................................
......... 65
Bruno GENITO (LOrientale University, Naples)From the Scythians
to the Achaemenids: A Nomadic Alternative
...................................................... 75
Gherardo GNOLI (La Sapienza University, Rome)The Seleucid Era
and the Date of Zoroaster
.....................................................................................
.. 101
Mohammad T. IMANPOUR (Ferdowsi University of Mashhad)The
Function of Persepolis:Was Norooz celebrated at Persepolis during
the Achaemenid period? ............................................
115
Vladimir IVANOV (Moscow State University)To the Origin of
Avestan Pronunciation
.........................................................................................
.... 123
Marco LORETI (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)Some
Remarks on the Bas-reliefs dated to the Reigns of Artaxerxes II and
Artaxerxes III ............ 131
Enrico MORANO (School of Oriental and African Studies,
London)And then there were none.Agatha Christie, Peanos Axioms and
the Druj Nasus Action in the Widwdd .............................
145
Kamal Aldin NIKNAMI (University of Tehran)Mahnaz SHARIFI
(University of Tehran)
Reconstruction of the Zagros Subsistence and Living Patterns
during the Middle to UpperPalaeolithic: A
Reappraisal....................................................................................................
.............. 151
Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica
Europa , vol. I (Milano 2006)Edited by A. PANAINO & A.
PIRASISBN 88-8483-465-2
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Table of Contents
IV
Keigo NODA (Chubu University, Kasugai, Japan)Old Persian Active
and
Passive.................................................................................................
........... 159
Antonio C.D. PANAINO (University of Bologna, branch of
Ravenna)References to the Term Yat and Other Mazdean Elements in
the Syriac and Greek Martyrologiawith a Short Excursus on the
Semantic Value of the Greek Verb
....................................... 167
Chiara RIMINUCCI (Universit de Bologne, sige de Ravenne)Les
daiva dans linscription de Xerxs (XPh) : entits trangres ou
anciennes
divinitsiraniennes?....................................................................................................................
........................ 183
Rdiger SCHMITT (Laboe)Zu den altpersischen Monatsnamen und ihren
elamischen Wiedergaben .......................................
201
Martin SCHWARTZ (University of California, Berkeley)On Haoma,
and its Liturgy in the Gathas
........................................................................................
... 215
Philippe SWENNEN (Universit de Lige)Rflexions relatives ldition
du Hordad Yat de lAvesta
..............................................................
225
Xavier TREMBLAY (Tournai, Belgique)Le pseudo-gthiqueNotes de
lecture avestiques II
.................................................................................................
............. 233
Michiel DE VAAN (Leiden)The Instrumental Plural of u-stems in
Young Avestan
.....................................................................
283
Massimo VIDALE (University of Bologna, branch of
Ravenna)Technology and Decoration of Jaz I Painted Buff Ware Potsas
observed at Site M-999 (Murghab Delta, Turkmenistan)
..............................................................
293
MIDDLE IRANIAN STUDIES
Irina A. ARZHANTSEVA (Russian Academy of Science, Moscow)Olga N.
INEVATKINA (State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow)
Iranian People depicted in Afrasiab Wall Painting (7th century
AD) ................................................ 307Guitty
AZARPAY (University of California, Berkeley)
Sealed Pahlavi Manuscripts at Berkeley: Physical Characteristics
.................................................. 319Marco BAIS
(Ca Foscari University, Venice & Pontifical Oriental Institute,
Rome)
The Political Control over the Eastern Subcaucasian Coast: The
Mazkutk ................................... 323David BUYANER
(Jerusalem)
Some Etymological and Lexicological Observations on the Pahlavi
Text Styin Sh Rzg .......... 333Pierfrancesco CALLIERI (University
of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)
Water in the Art and Architecture of the
Sasanians..........................................................................
339Martha L. CARTER (American Numismatic Society)
Kanikas Bactrian Pantheon in the Rabatak Inscription: The
Numismatic Evidence .................... 351Iris COLDITZ (Institut
fr Iranistik, Berlin)
On the Zoroastrian Terminology in Manis buhragnAdditional Notes
...............................................................................................................
.................... 359
Matteo COMPARETI (Ca Foscari University, Venice)The
Representation of Foreign Merchants in the Praidhi Scenes at Bzklik
............................... 365
Salvatore COSENTINO (University of Bologna, branch of
Ravenna)Some Examples of Social Assimilation between Sasanians and
Romans (4th-6th Century AD)...... 379
Touraj DARYAEE (California State University, Fullerton)Sasanians
and their Ancestors
..................................................................................................
.......... 387
Massimiliano DAVID (Universit di Bologna, sede di Ravenna)La
fine dei mitrei ostiensiIndizi ed evidenze
.............................................................................................................
.................... 395
Abolqasem ESMAILPOUR (Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran)New
Light on an Iranian Approach to Manichaeism based on Persian
Classical Textsfrom 10th to 11th A.D.
..........................................................................................................................
... 399
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Table of Contents
V
Andrea GARIBOLDI (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)The
Role of Gold and Silver in the Sasanian
Economy.......................................................................
415
Badri GHARIB (Tehran)Present and Past Perfect Transitive in
Sogdianand its Comparative Similarities with some New Iranian
Dialects .................................................. 437
Philippe GIGNOUX (EPHE, Paris)Rika GYSELEN (C.N.R.S., Paris)
La relation des sceaux leur possesseurdaprs les documents
conomiques de la collection de Berkeley
..................................................... 445
Thamar E. GINDIN (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)How to Say No
in Early Judaeo Persian
........................................................................................
... 451
Tommaso GNOLI (Universit di Bologna, sede di Ravenna)C. Iulius
Mygdonius: un Parto a Ravenna
........................................................................................
.. 461
Seiro HARUTA (Tokai University, Hiratsuka, Japan)Elymaean and
Parthian Inscriptions from Khzestn: A
Survey......................................................
471
Bodil HJERRILD (Valby, Denmark)Succession and Kinship in the
Late Sasanian
Era..............................................................................
479
Irene HUBER (Leopold-Franzens-Universitt, Innsbruck)Udo HARTMANN
(Humboldt-Universitt, Berlin)
Denn ihrem Diktat vermochte der Knig nicht zu widersprechen
...Die Position der Frauen am Hof der Arsakiden
..................................................................................
485
Pallan ICHAPORIA (Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania, USA)The Gths in the
Pahlavi Tradition of Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Periods,
exemplifiedby Yasna 30.3 and the Pahlavi Text of the Ahunavait Gth
as given in the Dnkard Book IX .... 519
Christelle JULLIEN (C.N.R.S. Monde Iranien, Paris)Kakar la
sublime et sa singulire prminence sur le sige patriarcal de
Sleucie-Ctsiphon . 543
Florence JULLIEN (A.T.E.R. Collge de France, Paris)Un exemple de
relecture des origines dans lglise syro-orientale : Thocrite et
lvch deahrgard
.......................................................................................................................
........................ 553
Claudia LEURINI (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)A New
Manichaean Fragment Dedicated to Amm, Apostle of Mani?
.............................................. 561
Kinga MACIUSZAK (Jagiellonian University, Krakw)The Horned Goat
versus Demoniac TreeSome Remarks on Symbolic Meaning of the Pahlavi
Text Draxt srg ........................................ 567
Maria MACUCH (Institut fr Iranistik, Freie Universitt,
Berlin)The Function of Temporary Marriage in the Context of
Sasanian Family Law ............................... 585
Milena MANINI (Universit di Bologna, sede di Ravenna)Pietro
Patrizio ed il solenne cerimoniale daccoglienza riservato
allambasciatore illustre deiPersiani (De Caer. I, 89-90)
...................................................................................................
............... 599
Jafar MEHR KIAN (Iranian Cultural Heritage & Tourism
Organization)The Tisiyun Elymaean Relief of Mehrnn, Plain of Susan,
Izeh/Mlamir (Khuzestan) .................. 611
Federicomaria MUCCIOLI (Universit di Bologna)Antioco IV
salvatore dellAsia (OGIS 253) e la campagna orientale del 165-164
a.C. ................... 619
Paolo OGNIBENE (Universit di Bologna, sede di Ravenna)Alani, As
e larcontato di Azia
................................................................................................
............. 635
Laura PASQUINI (Universit di Bologna, sede di Ravenna)Influenze
dellarte sasanide nellOccidente mediterraneo: alcuni episodi
decorativi ..................... 645
Andrea PIRAS (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)The
Aramaic Heritage in one Expression of the Sasanian Inscription of
Paikuli ............................ 661
Enrico G. RAFFAELLI (Universit La Sapienza, Roma)Il testo
avestico Sh-rzag e la sua versione mediopersiana
.............................................................
669
Nikolaus SCHINDEL (Wien)The Sasanian Eastern Wars in the 5th
Century: The Numismatic Evidence
..................................... 675
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Table of Contents
VI
Dan D.Y. SHAPIRA (Open University, Raanannah & Bar-Ilan
University, Ramat-Gan, Israel)Mandaean and quasi-Mandaean
Prototypes of some Expressionsin the Greek Cologne Mani Codex:
Stray Aramaicists Notes
.............................................................
691
Nicholas SIMS-WILLIAMS (School of Oriental and African Studies,
London)Bactrian Letters from the Sasanian and Hephthalite Periods
........................................................... 701
Werner SUNDERMANN (Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin)A
Fragment of the Buddhist Kcanasra Legend in Sogdian and its
Manuscript ......................... 715
Mihaela TIMU (Centre dhistoire des religions, Universit de
Bucarest)Sur le vocabulaire du destin chez les zoroastriensAutour
du pehlevi baxt
.........................................................................................................
............... 725
Gabriella ULUHOGIAN (Universit di Bologna)Occhi armeni sulla
corte di
Persia.............................................................................................
.......... 747
Zohre ZARSHENAS (Tehran)Sogdian wtw
...........................................................................................................................
............ 757
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Sasanians and their Ancestors DARYAEE
387
Touraj DARYAEE California State University, Fullerton
Sasanians and their Ancestors
here is now a renewed interest in the perception of the
Sasanians in regard to theirancestors. E. Yarshater in his 1971
article questioned the idea that whether theSasanians ever knew of
the Achaemenids, and if they remembered anyone it was
the Parthians.1 Th. Nldeke had voiced this idea almost a century
ago, and to my knowledgethe only ancient historian of the
Mediterranean world which went along with Nldeke andagainst the
common view that the Sasanians knew the Achaemenids was Th.
Mommsen.2
Since Yarshaters article the tide began to turn and many
scholars accepted the notion thatthe Sasanians did not remember the
Achaemenids and perhaps when the Sasanians wereblessing their
ancestors, they may have been referring to the Kayanids.3 Still,
fewscholars such as J. Wiesehfer4 and G. Gnoli,5 are of the opinion
that the Sasanians via theArsacids would have been aware of the
Achaemenids.
I had also suggested that indeed the Sasanians should have known
about the Achaeme-nids, after all the Jews and Christians living in
the rnahr, and the Romans knew aboutthe Achaemenids. If this is the
case, how could we suggest Sasanian ignorance of the Achae-menids?
To my mind the matter would be that the Sasanians did not forget,
but must haveignored the Achaemenids purposefully to construct a
sacred history which connected themnot to the Achaemenids, but to
the Kayanids. This meant a construction of the past whichwas sacred
and removed from the Greco-Roman historiographical tradition.6 A
similar pat-tern may be seen with development of Christian Roman
historiography, where Christianitybecame a focal point and a
background to the history of the late Roman Empire.7 As historywas
tied to the court, the history that was propped up was the work of
state and con-structed by the court.8 No matter how literate this
Persian society became and how sophis-ticated the chancery and the
dwn became, it was the court apparatus which constructed
1 E. Yarshater, Were the Sasanian Heirs to the Achaemenids?, La
Persia nel Medioevo, (Rome, 1971),p. 519.2 Th. Nldeke, Geschichte
der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, (Leiden, 1879), p. 3;
Th.Mommsen, The Provinces of the Roman Empire, (New York, 1885 /
reprint 1996), vol. ii, p. 3.3 M. Road, Persepolitan Echoes in
Sasanian Architecture: Did the Sasanians attempt to re-create
theAchaemenid empire?, in V.S. Curtis & al. (eds.), Art and
Archaeology of Ancient Persia, New Light on theParthian and
Sasanian Empires, (London & New York, 1998), p. 6.4 J.
Wiesehfer, Iranische Ansprche an Rom auf ehemals achaimenidische
Territorien, Archo-logische Mitteilungen aus Iran 19 (1986), pp.
177-185; and also his important article Ardar, Ency-clopdia Iranica
II (1986), pp. 371-376.5 G. Gnoli, The Idea of Iran, An Essay on
its Origin, (Rome, 1989), p. 119.6 T. Daryaee, Memory and History:
The Construction of the Past in Late Antique Persia, Nme-yeIrn-e
Bstn, The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies, 1.2
(2001-2002), pp. 12-13.7 Daryaee, Memory and History, p. 10; also
see T. Daryaee, National History or Keyanid History:The Nature of
Sasanid Zoroastrian Historiography, Iranian Studies, 28/3-4 (1995),
pp. 129-141.8 O. Klma, Wie ah die persische Geschicts Schreibung in
der vorslamischen Periode aus?, ArchivOrientln, 36, (1968), pp.
213-232; also his Beitrage zur Geschichte des Mazdakismus, (Prauge,
1977),chapter 4.
T
Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica
Europa , vol. I (Milano 2006)Edited by A. PANAINO & A.
PIRASISBN 88-8483-465-2
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DARYAEE Sasanians and their Ancestors
388
history for its own end and disseminated it via the religious
apparatus. There are similarpatterns in Medieval Europe, where in
Italy and Francia, while they had become highlysophisticated
literate cultures, especially in matters of record keeping and
legal andpractical purposes, that did not effect historiography.9
This means that in Persia, no matterhow aware the Persian scribes
were of the history that presented itself to the Jews andChristians
(Bible), and the Romans (Greco-Roman Histories), the
historigraphical traditionof rn was left untouched by that
knowledge. It is possible that the hr-Tqs under thedirection of the
hrbeds would have been a useful medium in disseminating this type
ofsacred history and tradition among the Zoroastrian Persian
population.
Sh. Shahbazi on the other hand suggested that the early Sasanian
kings knew about theAchaemenids and it was only later in the fifth
century CE that a reorientation towards theKayanids took place.10
One of the problems which E. Kettenhofen has pointed out, as well
asZ. Rubin, and followed by Ph. Huyse is that the Roman sources
which suggest that theSasanians knew about the Achaemenids and
their territorial ambitions, were really propa-ganda and must be
understood in the framework of Roman imperial ideology.11
The question that, however, arises is that whether at all the
Sasanians made such state-ments in regard to their territorial
ambitions to the Romans? I am hesitant of the idea thatthe Sasanian
Persians never made any actual territorial claims to the Romans.12
After allArdaxr I as well as his son, buhr I fought the Romans and
had to make their territorialaspirations based on some tradition.
It is based on this view that I would like to discuss theissue and
try to look at the matter in another way. I would like to clarify
what it meantwhen the Sasanians made such statements that they were
bent on the conquest of the Asiaas it belonged to their ancestors,
and how the Romans mistook this to mean that theSasanians were
aspiring to Achaemenid territorial integrity. That is how else
could weunderstand the statement made about the Sasanians by
Herodian (VI.2.2) that the Persiansbelieved that the entire
mainland facing Europe contained by the Aegean Sea and thePropontis
Gulf belonged to them. Furthermore there is the statement by
Herodian(LXXX.4) which mentions that Ardaxr I believed that all
this was his rightful inheritancefrom his forefathers. We can
indeed make sense of these statements in another way, aswell as
buhrs claims (Ammianus Marcellinus XVII.5) that his forefathers
empirereached as far as the river Strymon and the boundaries of
Macedonia.
9 P.J. Geary, Phantoms of Remembrance, Memory and Oblivion at
the End of the First Millennium, PrincetonUniversity Press, (New
Jersey, 1994), p. 26.10 Sh. Shahbazi, Early Sasanians Claim to
Achaemenid Heritage, Nme-ye Irn-e Bstn, TheInternational Journal of
Ancient Iranian Studies, 1/1 (2001), p. 69. I agree to Shahbazis
assessment andhad voiced similar opinions in my review of The Art
and Archaeology of Ancient Persia: New light on theParthian and
Sasanian empires, in Iranian Studies, 33/1-2 (2000), p. 240.11 E.
Kettenhofen, Die Einforderung des Achmenidenerbes Durch Ardar: Eine
InterpretatioRomana, Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica, 15 (1984),
p. 190; and his Einige berlegungen zursasanidischen Politik
gegenber Rom in 3. Jh. N. Chr., in E. Dabrowa (ed.), The Roman and
ByzantineArmy in the East, (Cracow, 1994), pp. 99-108; also his Die
Einforderung der achaimenidischenTerritorien durch die Ssniden-eine
Bilanz, Festschrift Iradj Khalifeh-Soltani zum 65. Geburtstag
/Ydnme-ye Iradj Khalifeh-Soltani, (Aachen, 2002), pp. 49-75; Z.
Rubin, Civil-War Propaganda andHistoriography, Collection Latomus,
(173, Bruxelles), 1980, p. 216; Ph. Huyse, La Revendication
deTerritoires achmnides par les sassanides: un ralit historique?,
in Ph. Huyse, Iran: Questions etconnaissance, vol. I: La Priode
ancienne, (Paris, 2002), pp. 111-117.12 In support of such an idea
see. Z. Rubin, The Roman Empire in the Res Gestae Divi Saporis
theMediterranean World in Ssnian Propaganda, Electrum, Ancient Iran
and the Mediterranean World, 2(1998), pp. 177-186.
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Sasanians and their Ancestors DARYAEE
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I believe modern scholars are so entrenched in the Classical
historiographical traditionthat they have not looked at another
possibility in explaining Sasanian Persian territorialambitions
which was different from that of the Achaemenids territory. The
Zoroastriantexts describe another kind of territorial view and
division which is important for under-standing the Sasanian view of
the world in late antiquity. In the Middle Persian texts wecome
across this story which is not present in the surviving portion of
the Avesta. This isthe well-known epic tradition, which is the
division of the world by king Frdn amonghis sons. This act of Frdn
is seen as not a sin in the Middle Persian and the Persian
epicliterature, but it has the effect of plunging the world into
war. This deed of Frdn isthat he divided his realm (the world)
between his three sons, Salm, T, and raj. raj isgiven the best
land, i.e., rn, while the other two receive the lesser desired
lands. Conse-quently the following event takes place (Abdh ud Shagh
Sstn 5-6):
az frazandn frdn salm k kiwar hrm ud t k turkestn pad xwadyh dt
raj rndahibed bd u be zad
From the offsprings of Frdn, Salm who ruled over the land of
Rome and T who ruledover the land of Turkestn (Asia = China), they
killed raj who was the lord of the land ofrn.13
The hnme of Ferdows provides the epic narrative of this
tripartition, where Salm andT are discussed in the following manner
(Khaleghi-Motlagh edition I.270-280):
When he (Frdn) revealed his secret planHe divided the world into
three partsOne (considered of) Rome and the Western Clime, the
other the Turkish realm and ChinaThe third was (made up of) the
land of heroes and IranHe first looked into Salms affairAnd found
Rome and the Western Climes fit for himHe ordered Salm to choose an
army(Salm did so) and left for the Western Climes(once there) he
sat upon the royal throneand was called the Lord of the Western
Climeshe then granted the land of Tran to (his other son) Trand
made him the Lord of the Turks and of China
13 The Middle Persian text, Abdh ud Shagh Sstn, passages 5-6 in
The Pahlavi Texts, ed. D.J.M.Jamasp-Asana, (Bombay, 1913),
translated into Persian by T. Daryaee, egafty va Barjesteg-yeSstn,
Matn be zabn-e Pahlav, Iranshenasi, 8/3 (1996), pp. 534-542.
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DARYAEE Sasanians and their Ancestors
390
He assigned Trn army (of his own)And he left with his hostTr
came (to Trn) and sat upon the royal throne,(and) began to rule
(literally: girded himself for the job) generouslythe nobles
scattered jewels upon him (as a sign of submission)and all of the
magnates proclaimed him the King of Trn
Of course following these events king Frdn bypasses the two sons
and chooses raj asking of rn. Another Persian epic, the Knme gives
further elucidation, not on the actionof the brothers but on the
geographical concepts of rn, Trn, and Rm: (Matini editionKnme
8682-8690):
After 181 years elapsedthe firmament brought forth chaos
againFereydun (Frdn) of good fortune had three sonsWhom he loved
dearlyHe divided the earth into three parts for them(and) made
their faces glow with (the joy of) kingshipRome was given to the
brave Salm Together with the whole realm of North
AfricaTransoxiana, Turkish climes, and ChinaWere allotted to the
brave TrIran came to be given to Iraj in the course of that
divisionBecause he was worthy of the Iranian throne(the area) from
Oxus to the Sea of Pars (i.e., The Persian Gulf)Including Kufah is
considered part of IranAlso all of AzerbaijanIs considered part of
Iran by everyone (literally: by those who are sober or drunk)
Here we see that the limits of rn which is given to raj, is from
Oxus to the PersianGulf. More interesting is that Kfa is mentioned
which exists as part of rn in theahrestnh rnahr which tends
suggests a common source or knowledge about thisview of rnahr.14
Our texts specifically states that Salm was given rm / hrm
Rome,thus indicating the western kingdom. Another Middle Persian
text, the Bundahin indicatessarm deh ast hrm The land of Sarm /
Salm is Rome.15 This region, i.e., sarm deh is madeequivalent to
Avestan sairinm dahiiunm in Yat XIII. It appears then that hrm has
re-
14 T. Daryaee, hrestnh rnahr, A Middle Persian Text on History,
Epic and Geography, (Costa Mesa,2002).15 C. Cereti, Zand Wahman
Yasn, A Zoroastrian Apocalypse, IsMEO, (Rome, 1996), 6.3, p.
198commentary.
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Sasanians and their Ancestors DARYAEE
391
placed sairima- of the Avesta in the Middle Persian texts, and
hence the equation. Thisregion which was identified with Anatolia
and remained as Rm in the Islamic period,hence the Seljuk kingdom
was known as the kingdom of the Seljuks of Rm.
What appears to have taken place in the Sasanian period is that
the religious traditionand the epic tradition created the
background to the realities and politics for late antiquePersia. It
is no wonder that the Romans could not understand the way in which
thePersians dealt with them in international arena and at times
made no sense to them. Thiswas because Sasanians saw a constructed
relation in the past between them and theirneighbors, the Romans
and the Turks as found in their sacred / epic tradition and
eluci-dated in the Middle Persian texts. This meant that while the
Roman emperors called theirPersian counterparts fratri meo my
brother, in certain correspondences,16 for the Persiansthis gesture
was not seen to be a sign of mutual respect which existed at the
time, that isthe idea of kings as brothers. In fact if we take the
Persian conception of the past intoconsideration, the Sasanian hn
hs saw the Roman Imperators as their brothers in thesense that they
were literally related to them. That is the Romans were the
descendants ofSalm who had ruled (Middle Persian) hrm (Persian) rm,
i.e., Rome, but in antiquity, werethe sons of Frdn.
It is only in this context that such claim by the Sasanians to
the territory they mentionin Dio Cassius and Herodian that make
sense. That is the imposition of epic / sacred historyonto the
geo-political realities of late antiquity (Herodian VI.2.2):
Believing that the entire mainland facing Europe contained by
the Aegean Sea and thePropontis Gulf (the whole of what is called
Asia) belonged to him by ancestral right, hewas intending to
recover it for the Persian empire.17
I do believe that the Classical historians are echoing Sasanian
propaganda in the con-text of Roman understanding of the past
events. That means the territory that is beingclaimed by the
Persians in these passages is not the Achaemenid territory, but the
myth-ical tripartition of the world by the hero, Frdn. That means
that when buhr I in hisinscription mentions his ancestors
(hnagn),18 he is not claiming relations to the Achae-menids,19 but
rather to the distant past, before the Achaemenids. Before finding
evidencefrom the Persian sources, we should look at Herodian as to
the claim of Ardaxr (HerodianLXXX.4):
,
16 Ammianus Marcellinus, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
MCML, XVII.5.3; also see Procopius,History of the Wars, (Cambridge,
MCMLXI), I.xi.9 for Kawd and Justinians relations;
TheophylactSimocatta, iv.11.11 for Xusr II and Maurice.17 Herodian,
(Cambridge, 1970), VI.2.2.18 KZ nykn w hsynkn / , M. Back, Die
Sassanidischen Staatsinschriften,(Leiden, 1978), Parthian 16; Greek
35, p. 326.19 Gnoli, The Idea of Iran, p. 119ff; and his important
article Linscription de buhr la Kabe-yeZardot et la propaganda
sassanide, in P. Bernard & al. (eds.) Historie et cultes de
lAsie Centraleprislamique, (Paris 1991), pp. 57-63.
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DARYAEE Sasanians and their Ancestors
392
He accordingly became a source of fear to us; for he was
encamped with a large army soas to threaten not only Mesopotamia
but also Syria, and he boasted that he would winback everything
that the ancient Persians had once held, as far as the Grecian
Sea,claiming that all this was his rightful inheritance from his
forefathers.
The idea of the relatedness of the Sasanian Persians to the
Romans is echoed in thehnme. The hnme of Ferdows is the versified
version of the Sasanian royal chronicle,the Xwady-nmag Book of
Kings.20 When in the late sixth century Xusr II (590-628 CE)was
facing trouble from his general Wahrm bn, his father, king Hormizd
IV advised himto go to the Roman emperor to seek help. This for
this advice is as follows (Moscow edition,Vol. IX.629-632):
If you desire to leave your land and home, Then swiftly go from
here to Rome, When youre gone tell Caesar one by one The words of
this remedy-seeking manIn that place there is religion and will, He
is well equipped with weapons and troops, The descendants of Frdn
[in that land] also are your kinsmen,When your affairs are in
difficulty they will be with you
This piece of literary evidence is very important, because it
tells us that the Persian kingdid not see the Roman emperor as his
brother merely because it was an honorary title,rather there was a
historical precedence at work. This is the reference to Frdn,
i.e.,(Middle Persian) Frdn who had divided the world between his
sons, who each had in-herited a third of Frdns realm. This means
that the Sasanian kings were seeing thecurrent events in the
framework of a history which had been sacralized through
theZoroastrian tradition. This history had it that in the ancient
times the world was united bya primordial king, Jamd (Yima of the
Avestan tradition), whose grandson was Frdn.Frdn, however, had
divided the world into three parts and given each of his sons
aregions. Since raj was given rn (the realm of the Sasanians), the
other two brothers,Salm who was given Rome and T who was given Trn
had become jealous and hadmurdered rij and committed fratricide.
With this fratricide, the war of the empires hadbegun and carried
on. The rest of the epic history was about the wars between
theseempires and how the Persians tried to ward off their neighbors
aggressions. Thus the threekings who were brothers, became enemies,
and thus their descendants were both brothersand foes. The
Sasanians were not only trying to ward off the Romans, but also
unite theworld as in the time of Frdn. It is in this light that we
can understand Persian policies
20 On the date and circumstances in which the hnme came about,
see Sh. Shahbazi, On theXvady-nmag in Sh. Shahbazi & al. (eds.)
Papers in Honour of Professor Ehsan Yarshater, (Leiden, 1990),pp.
208-229.
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Sasanians and their Ancestors DARYAEE
393
towards the Romans, and why buhr II in the fourth century calls
the Roman emperor hisbrother, and why Xusr II laid siege to
Constantinople in the seventh century.
Rather when the Sasanian king, buhr II, in the fourth century CE
replied and called theRoman emperor my brother, he was conscious of
the sacred history of his culture. It issaid that Xusr I had placed
three empty thrones at the palace of Ctesiphon, one for eachof the
Chinese, the Turkic, and the Roman rulers.21 The centrality and
superiority of thePersian king above others has also been captured
in an alleged poem discovered by Shafi-Kadkan, attributed to the
time of Xusr II (590-628 CE), found in the work on IbnKhurddbeh
from the first half of the ninth century CE. The poem composed by
Barbed,the famous minstrel of the Sasanian king describes the three
kings of late antiquity in sucha fashion:
The Caesar is like unto the moon and the Khgn to the sun,My lord
is like unto the cloud all-powerful,At will he veils the moon and
at will sun.22
To my mind this was part of the Sasanian tradition which
demonstrated the Persian viewof the world of late antiquity. It was
also symbolic of the fact that all of these kings had tocome
together and be under the rule of the rnahr.23 This means that the
Sasanianconception of the world and its history was essentially
different from that of what Greco-Roman historians represented. It
shows that the Sasanian Persians recognized the Romansas not only
their foes, but also as their brothers. According to the sacred
history, ever sincethe division of the world into three kingdoms,
the Romans had become their foes. Historyhas always been about the
conceptual world view of a people and how they thought abouttheir
past. This past was, however, different for the different people in
late antiquity,according to how they viewed their past and their
ancestors. Thus the Persian religiousworld-view in this period
contributed to the way in which the Sasanians conducted
theirpolitical relations and their foreign policy regarding their
neighbors. By understandingboth the Roman and the Persian
world-view, we can better explain the realities of lateantiquity
and how different people perceived each other and motives for their
actionagainst one another.
I would like to thank Professor G. Gnoli for his insightful
comments during the conference and Dr.M. Omidsalar in matters
relating to Persian epic.
21 P. Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, W.W. Norton &
Company, (New York, 1971), p. 160.22 G. Lazard, The Rise of the New
Persian Language, in R.N. Frye (ed.), The Cambridge History of
Iran,4, (Cambridge, 1975), p. 605.23 The inclusion of the Chinese
was of political necessity.