Pourshariati P. Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire. The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran

London - New York: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation, 2008. – 552 p.This is a monumental work of first-class scholarship. Its publication represents a landmark, and it immediately becomes the point of departure for further work on the many subjects it deals with. I can think of few other books I have read over the years that can match this work’s astounding combination of originality, bold vision, clarity of presentation, meticulous examination of the sources, and practical puzzle-solving. I learned immensely from reading it. Dr. Pourshariati’s book is in my view one of the most important individual contributions to our understanding of the history of Iran since Christensen’s «L’Iran sous les Sassanides», published seventy years ago. Especially remarkable is the breadth of the author’s agenda, and the way in which she has convincingly woven together different strands. These include: the political rivalry of the great families, the Sasanians’ collapse before Byzantine and Muslim attacks, the religious diversity of medieval Iran, questions of historiography, the substance of the Iranian popular epic, and the important details to be gleaned from seals and other documents. Any one of these would be (and for many scholars has been) a subject for full immersion for many years, but Pourshariati has integrated each into a complex and meaningful whole, even as she has made signal contributions to the more detailed study of each one.
Dr. Pourshariati’s book proposes a reinterpretation of the structure of the Sasanian Empire and of the power struggle that followed the end of the Byzantine-Persian War of 602–
628. The author argues that throughout most of its history the Sasanian state was a confederative structure, in which the north and east (the old Parthian territories of Media and Khurasan) were highly autonomous both politically and culturally. It was Khusraw II’s (590–628) disastrous effort to centralize the state that led to its collapse and to the Arab Conquests. Dr. Pourshariati also argues for a significant redating of critical moments in the Arab conquests in Iraq. Taken as a whole, «Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire» is original, innovative, bold, and generally persuasive.Note on transliteration andcitationThe problem
Sources and methodologyPreliminaries
The Arsacids
Agnatic familiesPolitical History
Sasanian polity revisited: the Sasanian–Parthian confederacy
Sasanians / Arsacids
Christensen’s thesis
Dynasticism
Early Sasanian period
Yazdgird I, Bahram V Gur, and Yazdgird II / the Surens
Mihr Narseh Suren
Yazdgird I
Bahram V Gur
Yazdgird II
Piruz / the Mihrans
Izad Gushnasp Mihran
Shapur Mihran
Bilash and Qubad / the Karins
Bilash
Sukhra Karin
Qubad
Shapur Razi Mihran
Mazdakite uprising
Khusrow I Nowshirvan / the Mihrans, the Ispahbudhan, and the Karins
Khusrow I’s reforms
Interlude: Letter of Tansar
The four generals
The Mihrans
The Ispahbudhan
The Karins
Hormozd IV/ the Mihrans
Bahram-i Mah Adhar
Simah-i Burzin Karin
Bahram-i Chubin Mihran
Khusrow II Parviz / the Ispahbudhan
Vistahm Ispahbudhan
Smbat Bagratuni
Thelast great war of antiquity
Shahrvaraz Mihran
Farrukh Hormozd Ispahbudhan
Khusrow II’s depositionThe Arab conquest of Iran
Question of sources: the futuh and Xwaday-Namag traditions
Futuh
Revisiting Sayf’s dating
Shiruyih Qubad and Ardashir III: the three armies
Shiruyih Qubad
Ardashir III
Shahrvaraz’s insurgency
Burandukht and Azarmidukht: the Parsig–Pahlav rivalry
The Ispahbudhan
Analepsis: Arab conquest of Iraq
Azarmidukht andthe Parsig
Burandukht and the Pahlav
Thebattle of Bridge
Yazdgird III: Arab conquest of Iran
The conquest of Ctesiphon
The conquest of Khuzistan
The conquest of Media
The conquest of Rayy
The conquest of Gurgan and Tabaristan
The mutiny of Farrukhzad
The conquest of Khurasan and the mutiny of the Kanarangiyan
The conquest of Azarbayjan
Epilogue: repercussions for early Islamic historyDynastic polities of Tabaristan
The Al-i Bavand
Kayus
Bav
The Karins in Tabaristan
The Al-i Jamasp
Jamasp
Piruz
Jil-i Jilanshah
The Arab conquest of Tabaristan
Peace treaty with Farrukhzad and Jil-i Jilanshah
Farrukhan-i Bozorg Dhu ’l-Manaqib
Yazid b. Muhallab’s unsuccessful conquest of 716–718
Khurshid Shah
The spahbed Karin
Sunbad’s murder
Khurshid’s death and the final conquest of TabaristanReligious Currents
Sasanian religious landscape
Post-Avestan period
Orthodoxy – Heterodoxy
Two pillars: the monarchy andthe clergy?
Kirdir
Aturpat
Zurvanism
Zandiks
Circle of Justice
Mazdakite heresy
Jewish andChristian communities
Mihr worship
Mithra
Mihr worship in the Achaemenid and the Arsacid periods
The Parsig–Pahlav religious dichotomy
Mihr worship in the quarters of the north andeast
Mihr worship in Tabaristan
Mihr worship among the Mihran
Mihr worship among the Karin
Mihr worship in ArmeniaRevolts of late antiquity in Khurasan and Tabaristan
Bahram-i Chubin
Mithraic purview of Bahram-i Chubin’s rebellion
Bahram-i Chubin and the apocalypse
The ‘Abbasid revolution
Inner–Outer Khurasan
Post-conquest Iran and contemporary scholarship
Bihafarid
Interlude: Arda Wiraz Nama
Mithraicpurview of Bihafarid’s rebellion
Sunbad the Sun Worshipper
Sunbad and Bahram-i Chubin: recurrent narrative motifs
Mithraicpurview of Sunbad’s rebellion
Sunbad and the apocalypse
Gentilitial background of SunbadTables, figures and map
Key
Conquest of Iraq
Conquest of Iran
Seals
Genealogical tree
Map of the Sasanian empire