Farrokh Kaveh, Karamian Gholamreza, Maksymiuk Katarzyna. A Synopsis of Sasanian Military Organization and Combat Units

Archeobooks, 2018. — 157 p.Modern scholarship in the domain of classical military studies increasingly acknowledges the efficacy and professional nature of the Sasanian military machine, or Spāh in antiquity. More specifically, scholars now acknowledge that the Sasanians matched the Romans (later Romano-Byzantines) in military sophistication. As expostulated in this book and a 2017 text, the Sasanian army was (like its Roman counterpart) a professional organization composed primarily of armored cavalry, infantry, foot and horse archers as well as elephant corps. The Spāh was often supported by auxiliary troops (esp. slingers and javeliners) as well as highly effective allied forces notably Albanian, Armenian, and Naṣrids cavalry. Western scholarship and Iranian military historians have significantly enhanced the breadth of research and academic maturity of the field of Sasanian military studies. This has resulted in a paradigm shift concerning a previous generation of Western academics who have tended to minimize, downplay, or even ignore the Sasanian military machine (especially the Savārān) concerning influence on the Roman and Western military traditions.