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| ]], founder of the dynasty, south of ], ].]] | ]], founder of the dynasty, south of ], ].]] | ||
| The '''Sassanid dynasty''' (also '''Sassanian''') was the name given to the kings of ] during the era of the second Persian ], from ] until ], when the last Sassanid ], ], lost a 14-year struggle to drive out the ], the first of the ] empires. | The '''Sassanid dynasty''' (also '''Sassanian''') was the name given to the kings of ] during the era of the second Persian ], from ] until ], when the last Sassanid ], ], lost a 14-year struggle to drive out the ], the first of the ] empires. | ||
| == The Empire == | |||
| The Sassanid era began in earnest in ], when the Shah ] destroyed the ]n Empire which had held sway over the region for centuries. He and his successors created a vast empire, based in ], ], which included those lands of the old ] Persian empire east of the ]. The Sassanids wanted to recreate the glories of ancient Iran and claimed to Persianise the country. They made ] the state religion and claimed in inscriptions to have persecuted other faiths (although these claims are not reflected in native Jewish and Christian sources of the time). It was the shahs' long sought-after goal to reunify all of the old Achaemenid territory, which brought them into frequent wars against the ] and ]. | The Sassanid era began in earnest in ], when the Shah ] destroyed the ]n Empire which had held sway over the region for centuries. He and his successors created a vast empire, based in ], ], which included those lands of the old ] Persian empire east of the ]. The Sassanids wanted to recreate the glories of ancient Iran and claimed to Persianise the country. They made ] the state religion and claimed in inscriptions to have persecuted other faiths (although these claims are not reflected in native Jewish and Christian sources of the time). It was the shahs' long sought-after goal to reunify all of the old Achaemenid territory, which brought them into frequent wars against the ] and ]. | ||
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| Ardeshir's son ] (]–]) continued this expansion, conquering ] and ], while leading several campaigns against Rome. In ], the Persian army defeated the Roman emperor ] at the battle of ] where more than 70,000 Roman soldiers were captured or slain. Valerian then tried to negotiate a peace with Shapur, but was captured by treachery and taken into captivity. Shapur used Valerian as a human stepping-stool to assist the Persian king in mounting his horse, thus subjecting a Roman emperor to the ultimate humiliation by a foreign leader. Valerian's body was later skinned to produce a lasting trophy of Roman submission. | Ardeshir's son ] (]–]) continued this expansion, conquering ] and ], while leading several campaigns against Rome. In ], the Persian army defeated the Roman emperor ] at the battle of ] where more than 70,000 Roman soldiers were captured or slain. Valerian then tried to negotiate a peace with Shapur, but was captured by treachery and taken into captivity. Shapur used Valerian as a human stepping-stool to assist the Persian king in mounting his horse, thus subjecting a Roman emperor to the ultimate humiliation by a foreign leader. Valerian's body was later skinned to produce a lasting trophy of Roman submission. | ||
| Near the end of the ] a new enemy, the barbaric ], or "White Huns," attacked Persia; they defeated the Persian king ] in ] and for some years thereafter exacted heavy tribute. It was not until the reign of ] (]–]), one of the greatest Sassanian rulers, that the Huns were beaten. |
Near the end of the ] a new enemy, the barbaric ], or "White Huns," attacked Persia; they defeated the Persian king ] in ] and for some years thereafter exacted heavy tribute. It was not until the reign of ] (]–]), one of the greatest Sassanian rulers, that the Huns were beaten. Khosro I (531-579 CE), also known as Anushirvan the Just, is the most celebrated of the Sassanid rulers. He reformed the tax system and reorganized the army and the bureaucracy, tying the army more closely to the central government than to local lords. His reign witnessed the rise of the dihqans (literally, village lords), the petty landholding nobility who were the backbone of later Sassanid provincial administration and the tax collection system. Khosro was a great builder, embellishing his capital, founding new towns, and constructing new buildings. He rebuilt the canals and restocked the farms, which had been destroyed in the wars. He built strong fortifications at the passes and placed subject tribes in carefully chosen towns on the frontiers, so that they could act as guardians of the state against invaders. Justinian paid him 440,000 pieces of gold, as a bribe to keep the peace, but he seems to have been a man who genuinely enjoyed the fruits of peace and saw no reason to continue a senseless war. He was tolerant of all religions, though he decreed that Zoroastrianism should be the official state religion, but he was not unduly disturbed when one of his sons became a Christian. Under his auspices, too, many books were brought from India and translated into Pahlavi. Some of these later found their way into the literature of the Islamic world. | ||
| == System of Governing == | |||
| ]The Sassanids established an empire roughly within the frontiers achieved by the Achaemenids, with the capital at Ctesiphon. The Sassanids consciously sought to resuscitate Iranian traditions and to obliterate Greek cultural influence. Their rule was characterized by considerable centralization, ambitious urban planning, agricultural development, and technological improvements. Sassanid rulers adopted the title of shahanshah (king of kings), as sovereigns over numerous petty rulers, known as shahrdars. Historians believe that society was divided into four classes: the priests, warriors, secretaries, and commoners. The royal princes, petty rulers, great landlords, and priests together constituted a privileged stratum, and the social system appears to have been fairly rigid. | |||
| Sassanid rule and the system of social stratification were reinforced by Zoroastrianism, which became the state religion. The Zoroastrian priesthood became immensely powerful. The head of the priestly class, the mobadan mobad, along with the military commander, the eran spahbod, and the head of the bureaucracy, were among the great men of the state. Rome, with its capital at Constantinople, had replaced Greece as Iran's principal Western enemy, and hostilities between the two empires were frequent. Shahpur I (240-272 CE), son and successor of Ardeshir, waged successful campaigns against the Romans and in 260 CE even took the emperor Valerian prisoner. Between 260 and 263 CE he had lost his conquest to Odenathus, and ally of Rome. Shapur II (ruled 309-379 CE) regained the lost territories, however, in three successive wars with the Romans. | |||
| == Deline == | |||
| ⚫ | ]] came close to achieving the Sassanid dream of restoring the Achaemenid boundaries when ] fell to him and ] was under his siege in ]. However, Khosroe II had overextended his army and overtaxed the people. When the Byzantine Emperor ] in a tactical move abandoned his besieged capital and sailed up the ] to attack Persia from the rear, there was no resistance. Heraclius then marched through ] and western Persia sacking ] and the Palace of Dastgerd. After the death of Khosroe II, and over a period of 14 years and twelve successive kings, the Sassanid Empire weakened considerably, and the power of the central authority passed into the hands of the generals. The Sassanid never recovered. | ||
| n the spring of 633 CE a grandson of Khosro called Yezdegerd ascended the throne, and in that same year the first Arab squadrons made their first raids into Persian territory.Years of warfare exhausted both the Byzantines and the Iranians. The later Sassanids were further weakened by economic decline, heavy taxation, religious unrest, rigid social stratification, the increasing power of the provincial landholders, and a rapid turnover of rulers. These factors facilitated the Arab invasion in the seventh century. | |||
| Internal dissension and a long brutal conflict with the Byzantines left Sassanid Persia prey for the Arabs. | |||
| It was the beginning of the end. Yezdegerd was a boy, at the mercy of his advisers, incapable of uniting a vast country which was crumbling into a number of small feudal kingdoms. Rome no longer threatened. The threat came from the small disciplined armies of Khalid ibn Walid, once one of Mohammad's chosen companion-in-arms and now, after the Prophet's death, the leader of the Arab army. | |||
| ⚫ | ] came close to achieving the Sassanid dream of restoring the Achaemenid boundaries when ] fell to him and ] was under his siege in ]. However, Khosroe II had overextended his army and overtaxed the people. When the Byzantine Emperor ] in a tactical move abandoned his besieged capital and sailed up the ] to attack Persia from the rear, there was no resistance. Heraclius then marched through ] and western Persia sacking ] and the Palace of Dastgerd. After the death of Khosroe II, and over a period of 14 years and twelve successive kings, the Sassanid Empire weakened considerably, and the power of the central authority passed into the hands of the generals. The Sassanid never recovered |
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| ==Sassanid rulers== | ==Sassanid rulers== | ||
Revision as of 19:41, 13 April 2005
The Sassanid dynasty (also Sassanian) was the name given to the kings of Persia during the era of the second Persian Empire, from 224 until 651, when the last Sassanid shah, Yazdegerd III, lost a 14-year struggle to drive out the Umayyad Caliphate, the first of the Islamic empires.
The Empire
The Sassanid era began in earnest in 228, when the Shah Ardashir I destroyed the Parthian Empire which had held sway over the region for centuries. He and his successors created a vast empire, based in Firouzabad, Fars, which included those lands of the old Achaemenid Persian empire east of the Euphrates River. The Sassanids wanted to recreate the glories of ancient Iran and claimed to Persianise the country. They made Zoroastrianism the state religion and claimed in inscriptions to have persecuted other faiths (although these claims are not reflected in native Jewish and Christian sources of the time). It was the shahs' long sought-after goal to reunify all of the old Achaemenid territory, which brought them into frequent wars against the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire.
Ardeshir's son Shapur I (241–272) continued this expansion, conquering Bactria and Kushan, while leading several campaigns against Rome. In 259, the Persian army defeated the Roman emperor Valerian at the battle of Edessa where more than 70,000 Roman soldiers were captured or slain. Valerian then tried to negotiate a peace with Shapur, but was captured by treachery and taken into captivity. Shapur used Valerian as a human stepping-stool to assist the Persian king in mounting his horse, thus subjecting a Roman emperor to the ultimate humiliation by a foreign leader. Valerian's body was later skinned to produce a lasting trophy of Roman submission.
Near the end of the 5th century a new enemy, the barbaric Ephthalites, or "White Huns," attacked Persia; they defeated the Persian king Firuz (or Peroz) I in 483 and for some years thereafter exacted heavy tribute. It was not until the reign of Khosroe (or Khosrau) I (531–579), one of the greatest Sassanian rulers, that the Huns were beaten. Khosro I (531-579 CE), also known as Anushirvan the Just, is the most celebrated of the Sassanid rulers. He reformed the tax system and reorganized the army and the bureaucracy, tying the army more closely to the central government than to local lords. His reign witnessed the rise of the dihqans (literally, village lords), the petty landholding nobility who were the backbone of later Sassanid provincial administration and the tax collection system. Khosro was a great builder, embellishing his capital, founding new towns, and constructing new buildings. He rebuilt the canals and restocked the farms, which had been destroyed in the wars. He built strong fortifications at the passes and placed subject tribes in carefully chosen towns on the frontiers, so that they could act as guardians of the state against invaders. Justinian paid him 440,000 pieces of gold, as a bribe to keep the peace, but he seems to have been a man who genuinely enjoyed the fruits of peace and saw no reason to continue a senseless war. He was tolerant of all religions, though he decreed that Zoroastrianism should be the official state religion, but he was not unduly disturbed when one of his sons became a Christian. Under his auspices, too, many books were brought from India and translated into Pahlavi. Some of these later found their way into the literature of the Islamic world.
System of Governing
The Sassanids established an empire roughly within the frontiers achieved by the Achaemenids, with the capital at Ctesiphon. The Sassanids consciously sought to resuscitate Iranian traditions and to obliterate Greek cultural influence. Their rule was characterized by considerable centralization, ambitious urban planning, agricultural development, and technological improvements. Sassanid rulers adopted the title of shahanshah (king of kings), as sovereigns over numerous petty rulers, known as shahrdars. Historians believe that society was divided into four classes: the priests, warriors, secretaries, and commoners. The royal princes, petty rulers, great landlords, and priests together constituted a privileged stratum, and the social system appears to have been fairly rigid.
Sassanid rule and the system of social stratification were reinforced by Zoroastrianism, which became the state religion. The Zoroastrian priesthood became immensely powerful. The head of the priestly class, the mobadan mobad, along with the military commander, the eran spahbod, and the head of the bureaucracy, were among the great men of the state. Rome, with its capital at Constantinople, had replaced Greece as Iran's principal Western enemy, and hostilities between the two empires were frequent. Shahpur I (240-272 CE), son and successor of Ardeshir, waged successful campaigns against the Romans and in 260 CE even took the emperor Valerian prisoner. Between 260 and 263 CE he had lost his conquest to Odenathus, and ally of Rome. Shapur II (ruled 309-379 CE) regained the lost territories, however, in three successive wars with the Romans.
Deline
Khosroe II came close to achieving the Sassanid dream of restoring the Achaemenid boundaries when Jerusalem fell to him and Constantinople was under his siege in 626. However, Khosroe II had overextended his army and overtaxed the people. When the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius in a tactical move abandoned his besieged capital and sailed up the Black Sea to attack Persia from the rear, there was no resistance. Heraclius then marched through Mesopotamia and western Persia sacking Takht-i Sulayman and the Palace of Dastgerd. After the death of Khosroe II, and over a period of 14 years and twelve successive kings, the Sassanid Empire weakened considerably, and the power of the central authority passed into the hands of the generals. The Sassanid never recovered.
n the spring of 633 CE a grandson of Khosro called Yezdegerd ascended the throne, and in that same year the first Arab squadrons made their first raids into Persian territory.Years of warfare exhausted both the Byzantines and the Iranians. The later Sassanids were further weakened by economic decline, heavy taxation, religious unrest, rigid social stratification, the increasing power of the provincial landholders, and a rapid turnover of rulers. These factors facilitated the Arab invasion in the seventh century. Internal dissension and a long brutal conflict with the Byzantines left Sassanid Persia prey for the Arabs. It was the beginning of the end. Yezdegerd was a boy, at the mercy of his advisers, incapable of uniting a vast country which was crumbling into a number of small feudal kingdoms. Rome no longer threatened. The threat came from the small disciplined armies of Khalid ibn Walid, once one of Mohammad's chosen companion-in-arms and now, after the Prophet's death, the leader of the Arab army.
Sassanid rulers
- Ardashir I from 224 to 241.
- Shapur I from 241 to 272
- Hormizd I from 272 to 273.
- Bahram I from 273 to 276.
- Bahram II from 276 to 293.
- Bahram III year 293.
- Narseh from 293 to 302.
- Hormizd II from 302 to 310.
- Shapur II from 310 to 379
- Ardashir II from 379 to 383.
- Shapur III from 383 to 388.
- Bahram IV from 388 to 399.
- Yazdegerd I from 399 to 420.
- Bahram V frmom 420 to 438.
- Yazdegerd II from 438 to 457.
- Hormizd III from 457 to 459.
- Peroz I from 457 to 484.
- Balash from 484 to 488.
- Kavadh I from 488 to 531.
- Khosrau I from 531 to 579.
- Hormizd IV from 579 to 590.
- Khosrau II from 590 to 628.
- Kavadh II year 628.
- Ardashir III from 628 to 630.
- Shahrbaraz year 630.
- Boran and others from 630 to 631.
- Hormizd VI (or V) from 631 to 632.
- Yazdegerd III from 632 to 651.
See also
- List of kings of Persia
- Firouzabad
- Palace of Ardashir
- Ghal'eh Dokhtar, his first base.