The Iranian Revival [antikvár]

Introduction The 970-0dd years between Alexander's comet-like conquest of the Orient and the irresistible tramp of the armies of Islam were years of flux and change. Foremost among these changes was the massive increase in the size of the civilized world. The focus of the ancient world had been the eastern Mediterranean and the great river valleys of Egypt and Mesopotamia, while the new world of the Iranian Parthians stretched from China to Britain, connected by the arteries of trade. The Parthians, enjoying the profits and privileges of middlemen, exchanged friendly embassies with Han China in the east and in the west met the expanding power of the Republic of Rome. It was not only rare merchandise that traveled along the trade routes but also men and ideas. This was a time of ferment which saw the birth and spread of new religions. It began with a spirit of tolerance and syncretism, although it ended with oppression and bitter fighting. Out of India came Buddhism, fired with proselytizing zeal. Entrenched in Iran and to become the state church in the 3rd century ad was Zoroastrianism, with its strange western deviation, Mithraism. After the death of Jesus, Christianity spread both east to Iran and west, and by the 4th century had become the state religion of Byzantium. With the formal adoption of different faiths by the two great rivals, Byzantium and Sasanian Iran, the stage was set for centuries of reUgious war and persecution. From 240 ad the Prophet Mani preached a new universal faith, an amalgam of all of these, but, like Jesus, he died for his vision, as did Mazdak two centuries later for teaching a simple communism at a time of disastrous political and economic failure. It was the burning fervor of yet another new message, that of the Arab merchant Muhammad, which inspired the Arabs to sweep away the old order. By that time, interrupted only by the brief rule of the quarreling Hellenes, the Iranians had been masters of the Orient for over i ,000 years. It was time for a change, for a pause, before once again the Iranian genius and thirst for power flared up to form fresh empires under the banners oflslam. But who were these restless Iranian warriors, who conquered and ruled Western Asia for so long? As far as we know today, they belonged to a large loose confederation of tribes, the earhest of which probably entered the land now known as Iran in the late second millennium bc and we first hear of two tribes, the Medes and the Persians, in the 9th century BC. This book is not concerned with the early history of these Iranian peoples and of their first world empire, that of the Achaemenian Persians, but with their achievements after the cataclysm that was Alexander the Great. Alexander had dreamed of the fusion of east and west but he died too young. His ideas were partially realized by his successors, the dynasty founded by his general Seleucus, and, more surprisingly, also by the succeeding dynasty of Iranian rulers, the Parthians. These nomads had only recently arrived in northeast Iran but embraced Hellenism so enthusiastically that their kings called themselves Philhellenes. After 400 years of rule the Parthians were followed in the 3rd century ad by another Iranian dynasty, the Sasanians, who claimed to be the heirs ofthe Achaemenians. Iran has long been called the crossroads of Asia, for it occupies a strategic position between east and west and forms a land bridge between the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. It is a land of contrasts, between the dry, incredibly clear and invigorating air ofthe Iranian plateau lying over i ,500 meters above sea level and the humid heat ofthe sea coasts; between gray desert and barren mountain and immensely fertile plains and valleys; between the restless world of the Central Asian nomads and the rich farmers and merchants of Mesopotamia. During the period covered by this book the Mesopotamian alluvium was the grain bowl ofthe Iranian empires. There were no obvious and easily held frontiers, either to the east or to the west, and their estabHshment and maintenance were a constant problem. The Iranians themselves had come from the east, but pressing behind them were more land-hungry hordes, who continually harassed the eastern borders. And the Iranian dream of recreating the Achaemenian empire also caused recurrent conflict in the west. Until recently this millennium has been comparatively neglected, but this has now changed and major new discoveries are made each year. This book, written when 1 was a Calouste Gulbenkian Research Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, attempts to give an outline ofthe history and archaeology ofthe Parthians and Sasanians. The subject is, however, a complex one covering many disciplines and 1 should like to apologize for any errors and to thank friends and colleagues who generously helped me, among them David Stronach, Richard Frye, Dietrich Huff, Ed Keall, John Hansman, John Curtis, and Michael Roaf, who kindly read my typescript. 1 am also indebted to Basil Gray, Graham Speake and Hilary Kay for their patience and help and, above all, to my husband, Luke. I dedicate this book to my cousin, Jocelyn Baber, who first taught me, in the depths of her Italian castle, to love unearthing the past.