#Sassanian empire

[memories-of-ancients]

Gold coin issued during the reign of Peroz II, Sassanian Empire, circa 325-330 AD

from The LA County Museum of Art

[arioloyal]

Boran dokht [590 - 632 A.D]

Boran dokht was the first empress of the sassanid (persia) empire. She was the daughter of king khosrow II and byzantine princess Maria.

Although her two tenures of rule were shortlived, she did try to bring stability to persia by the implementation of just laws, reconstruction of the infrastructure, and by lowering taxes and minting coins. Diplomatically, she desired good relations with her western neighbours (the byzantinnes) , whom she had an embassy sent to, which was well received by emperor heraclius

A/n: idk why but it kinda reminds me of sibylla's ceremonial crown >_<...

Art by me

Coin source: sekeha . Com

[aurangg]

Look at this beautiful ossuary.

[ashitakaxsan]

Ancient Iranian sword unearthed in Russia

Archaeological news of great significance:An ornate Iranian sword has recently been recovered during an excavation survey in the Black Sea Region,in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia. Tehrantimes.com give us the whole image in details.https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/477732/Ancient-Iranian-sword-unearthed-in-Russia

Dating back to the 4th to the 6th century CE, the sword, along with several relics, have been unearthed from a warrior burial, who was an inhabitant of the Taman Peninsula, Heritage Daily reported on Saturday.

The sword suggests a political and cultural connection with the Sassanian or Neo-Persian Empire from modern Iran and Iraq, likely given as a diplomatic gift or taken as a military trophy, the report added.

Also, the archaeological project yielded pieces of a harness, buckles, and belt tips, as well as high-status items such as glass jugs, wooden and metal utensils, and wooden boxes with decayed cloths.

There is no doubt that the cited warrior was a representative of the elite of Phanagoria and was a bearer of the military aristocratic culture of the Bosporan Kingdom in the Migration Period, said one of the members of the project.

The ancient city of Phanagoria was a Greek colony, first founded in the Taman peninsula by Teian colonists in the 6th century BC after a conflict with the Persian king Cyrus the Great. The city grew into a major trading center that, along with the associated necropolis, covers an area of over 2223 acres.

Image below:King Cyrus the Great. Source:https://heritage-history.com/index.php?c=resources&s=char-dir&f=cyrus1

In many ways, Iran under Sassanian rule witnessed tremendous achievements of Persian civilization. Experts say that the art and architecture of the nation experienced a general renaissance during Sassanid rule.

In that era, crafts such as metalwork and gem engraving grew highly sophisticated, as scholarship was encouraged by the state; many works from both the East and West were translated into Pahlavi, the official language of the Sassanians.

The legendary wealth of the Sassanian court is fully confirmed by the existence of more than one hundred examples of bowls or plates of precious metal known at present. One of the finest examples is the silver plate with partial gilding in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The dynasty was destroyed by Arab invaders during a span from 637 to 651.

[brummie-man-interests]

[kirkland-brand-witch]

[lightdancer1]

Next is Empress Boran, one of the few people who actually was a reigning empress in the long annals of Iranian history:

Next up is the Sassanian Empress Boran, whose life overlaps with the great and ruinous war between the Iranian and Byzantine Empires that would do so much to make the rise of Islam possible. She played a part in the intrigues that surrounded the immediate aftermath of the war and the overthrow of Khusrau II, and is one of the figures given credit for the return of the relic of the True Cross to Byzantium after Heraclius won the one war, only to find himself playing a starring role in the loss of another.

https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/boran-pers

[paulpingminho]

[whencyclopedia]

Ancient Persian culture exerted a powerful influence throughout the Near East, and beyond, for over a thousand years between c. 550 BCE - 651 CE and many aspects of their culture continued to influence others afterwards and up through the present day. The first Persian polity was the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) which fell to Alexander the Great and, after his death, the region was held by the Hellenic Seleucid Empire (312-63 BCE) founded by one of Alexander's generals Seleucus I Nicator (r. 305-281 BCE). Persian culture continued under the Seleucids, however, and again became dominant with the rise of the Parthian Empire (247 BCE-224 CE) and continued, at its greatest height, throughout the Sassanian Empire (224-651 CE) until the Persians were conquered by the invading Muslim Arabs. From the earliest days of the Achaemenid Empire till the last of the Sassanians, the Persians introduced a number of novel concepts in innovations and inventions which are often taken for granted today or whose origins are largely unknown. Literary motifs, the custom of daily teatime, care for dogs, refrigeration and air conditioning, and many other established aspects of daily modern life originated or were developed by the ancient Persians. The Persians held to an oral tradition of transmitting information, however, and so much of their history, until the Sassanian period, comes from others. A large part of whatever written records of the Achaemenids did exist was destroyed by Alexander when he burned the capital city of Persepolis in 330 BCE and the Parthians retained the oral tradition of their precursors and so much of Persian history was preserved by the Greeks and, later, the Romans. These writers did not always represent Persian culture accurately but provide enough information, coupled with archaeological evidence and what Persian sources remain, to recognize the power and vision of the culture and its enduring legacy. Below are ten contributions and historical facts relating to the Persians which are often overlooked or largely unknown. These are only a notable few, however, and do not begin to address the vast scope of Persian achievement.

[paganimagevault]

Gold clasp of eagle, possibly belonging to the House of Karen, 1st-2nd C. CE. Found in Nahavand. The House of Karen seems to have been descended from the Parni, who were themselves an offshoot of the Scythians. Ernst Herzfeld wrote that this item probably belonged to their house.

"House of Karen (Middle Persian: Kārēn; Parthian: 𐭊𐭓𐭍𐭉, romanized: Kārēn; Persian: کارن, romanized: Kārin or Kāren), also known as Karen-Pahlav (Kārēn-Pahlaw) was one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran during the rule of Parthian and Sassanian Empires. The seat of the dynasty was at Nahavand, about 65 km south of Ecbatana (present-day Hamadan, Iran). Members of House of Karen were of notable rank in the administrative structure of the Sassanian empire in multiple periods of its four century-long history.

The Karens, Karan-Vands, Qarinvand dynasty or Karen-Pahlevi as they are also called, claimed descent from Karen, a figure of folklore and son of the equally mythical Kaveh the Blacksmith. Their historical origin however may be that the Karens, along with the House of Mihran, were descended from the Arsacids. According to Movses Khorenatsi, this descent was via one of the three sons of Phraates IV, also named Karen. The fact that Karen may also have been among the family names of the Arsacid dynasty may give credence to this theory.

The first verified reference to the Karenas was during the Arsacid era, specifically as one of the feudal houses affiliated with the Parthian court. In this they were similar to the House of Suren, the only other attested feudal house of the Parthian period. Following the conquest of the Parthians, the Karenas allied themselves with the Sassanids, at whose court they were identified as one of the so-called "Parthian clans". The Armenian Kamsarakan family was a branch of the House of Karen."

-taken from Wikipedia

[memories-of-ancients]

Bronze bust of King Sapur II, Sassanian Empire (Iran), 4th century AD

from Phoenix Ancient Art

[aurangg]

It would be great if I put as much dedication, time and attention that I do into ancient history into something academically useful to me right now.

[todaysjewishholiday]

11 Menachem Av 5784 (14-15 August 2024)

When the Babylonian army first besieged Jerusalem and took captives away to live in exile, the prophet Yirmeyahu sent them a message:

So says HaShem, ruler of the heavenly host, the G-d of Israel, to all the captives, who HaShem has caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat their fruits; marry there, and bear children; and find wives for your sons, and husbands for your daughters, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there, do not waste away. And seek the peace of the city where G-d has sent you as exiles, and pray to HaShem for it; for in the peace of the city shall ye have peace.

The exiles appear to have taken this message to heart. A generation later, when the Persians seized control of Babylon and permitted displaced peoples within the empire to return to their ancestral homelands, many Jews stayed in the Babylonian heartland, tending their gardens, raising their children and grandchildren, and praying for the peace of their cities. Five hundred years later, after another Mikdash had been built and destroyed, the Jews of Babylon were still there, living under yet another Persian empire. They too established rabbinical academies like the one Yochanan ben Zakkai founded at Yavneh. And when the Gemara was compiled it was collected semi independently by both the Galilean and Babylonian sages, with the Talmud Bavli being the more complete and detailed of the two collections. Through centuries of turmoil, and then millennia, the Jewish community of the Mesopotamian river valley remained strong and vibrant. And through it all, the Jews often saw their own welfare as wrapped up in that of their gentile neighbors and sought the peace of their cities.

One such occasion came on the 11th of Av 5493. The Sassanian empire of Tannaitic times had given way to the Islamic caliphates, and the caliphate in its own turn had been absorbed by the Ottoman Empire. The Jews of Sura were now the Jews of Baghdad, and Baghdad was under siege by a Persian army led by Nader Shah Afshar. The Safavid Persians were a theocratic regime which had imposed restrictions on Jewish life similar to those of medieval Western Europe— Jews were forced to live in segregated neighborhoods, wear badges marking them as different, and forbidden from entering most trades and professions. The Jews of the Ottoman Empire by contrast had a large amount of official toleration. And of course the capture of Baghdad by the Shiite Safavids would also bring hardships on the majority Sunni Muslim population of the city.

On the 11th of Av 5493, an Ottoman army led by the 70 year old general and recently retired Grand Vizier Topal Osman broke the Safavid siege and drove off the Persian invasion. Baghdad’s Jewish community rejoiced in the deliverance of the city, and observed 11 Menachem Av as a special commemoration of the deliverance of Baghdad for generations. It has only been since the Second World War and the rise of Arab and Islamic nationalism that the Jews of Babylon once more faced a major persecution. Most of Baghdad’s Jewish population made aliyah under pressure from antisemitic groups which accused them of double loyalties with the newly established Israeli state.

[medieval-elephants]

Trunk show This tenth-century silk fragment-- sometimes called the 'Elephant Tamer' silk-- was excavated in Iran in 1925. Scholars have debated whether it was made in the Byzantine Empire or the area that is now Iran. Or perhaps it was a Persian textile inspired by Byzantine textiles which in turn were inspired by earlier, Sassanian textiles from Persia, as C.J. Hilsdale has suggested... Silk was relatively easy transport and was traded and exchanged widely (hence the term, Silk Road). In particular, textiles might have been a way that images of elephants traveled all the way to places like Japan, where elephants did not live.

Incidentally, some have suggested you can see the tips of elephants' wings at the bottom of the slik. Material: silk Origin: probably Persia (or the Byzantine Empire?) Date: 10th century Now Dumbarton Oaks, BZ.1927.1

[lionofchaeronea]

Aureus (diameter=20 mm; weight=7.02 g) minted by the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193-211 CE) in 204. The coin celebrates Septimius' previous campaign in 198 against the Parthian Empire (which had supported Pescennius Niger, a rival claimant to the Roman throne), culminating in the sack of the Parthian capital of Ctesiphon and the annexation of northern Mesopotamia. (This campaign was to have dire consequences for Rome later on: the weakened Parthians were succeeded by the far stronger Sassanian dynasty, which would threaten the Roman/Byzantine East until the Arab conquests of the seventh century.) The obverse depicts the bust of Septimius, who stresses his piety with the cognomen PIUS and the title P(ONTIFEX) M(AXIMUS). On the reverse is the figure of Victory, holding a laurel wreath and palm frond and surrounded by the legend VICTORIA PARTHICA MAXIMA. This aureus is the only one of its kind known to exist and may have been part of a limited issue, perhaps connected to the Ludi Saeculares (Secular Games) that Septimius held in 204 to celebrate the anniversary of Rome's founding. Photo credit: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com

[howtomuslim]

Early Islamic Expansion- Colonialism or Conquest?

There’s a common narrative among many westerners of how Islam itself in its early days was a coloniser of many peoples and territories. How during its conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries, Islam suppressed the populations and forced upon them a new faith and language, echoing the narrative that its expansionism was strictly conducted by the sword. What was this earth-moving proof that had convinced those who hold this flawed and over-simplified view so deeply?

Firstly, let’s quickly summarise the zeitgeist of the times from a political perspective and then assess what this geographic expansion was and when it all happened. During the life of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, Western Asia was dominated by two empires that were in a bloody and violent war that had lasted for over eight decades. These two empires were the Byzantine and Sassanian empires. In the Arabian Peninsula, a region that wasn’t included in either’s domain, both intertribal aggression and constant raids were also concurrently rampant. When the fledgling faith became threatened in Medina by its various enemies in the early 7th century, the necessity for defence and thereafter the protection of its believers had to take priority for the Muslim regional minority.

With the Battle of the Trench, the failed attack on Medina by the Quraysh clan and their allies against the Muslims, thus began the eventual conquest of Islam overtaking the entire Arabian Peninsula during the lifetime of the Prophet, peace be upon him, followed by the Rashidun Caliphate. This saw the expansion span from the eastern borders of Persia, Turkey to the north, and Libya to the west. Finally, during the Umayyad Caliphate came the crossing of Islam into Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent, into the northwestern African lands of the Maghreb, and into the Iberian Peninsula. From 622 to 750 CE, over 120 years, Islam expanded rapidly across three continents.

Now, with this background, we can indulge in the confirmation or repudiation of the element of colonialism in Islam’s conquests. But one more quick digression: let’s define colonialism in simple terms. Colonialism is when one more powerful people invades and occupies another people, usurps their rights and natural resources for the sole purpose of self-interest, like what the British, French, and Spanish empires did to the world from the 15th to the 20th century, as well as what Israel is currently doing in Palestine during the supposedly civilised 20th century.

Beyond the facts, this foundation is how we must establish our conclusions and how we must compare the behaviour of Islam towards those conquered peoples relative to other nations of the time. We can’t expect Islam to behave as per 21st-century standards or even the 20th century. But even we should question that: was Islam actually more humane than even the colonialists of the 20th century?

One would note, when looking at the Islamic expansion and the short duration it took, the accomplishments suggest a speed of success unheard of. It was true that both the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires had fought their way to their eventual collapse over the decades, but still, the number of the Muslims paled in comparison. There are significant factors that played into this dynamic. These empires had shown extreme oppression towards the inhabitants of those occupied regions, while Islam exhibited a tolerance and relatively fair approach to those of other faiths. In general, in most of the conquered nations, the local inhabitants offered no resistance to the invading Muslims as they had little or nothing to lose by the changing of the guard. In some cases, such as in the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, Islam was a liberator and hence openly welcomed such was the case in the opening of Jerusalem and Jews being allowed to return.

One aspect that differentiated Islamic forces from other preceding victorious armies was that Islam had embedded within its belief system the rules of engagement during warfare, with humanitarian tenets that understood there was to be the protection of women and children and to respect the property and symbols of other faiths. Yes, there were occasions when individuals broke such tenets, but these should be regarded as exceptions.

Was spread by the sword?

This is a narrative originating at the time of the Crusades when the sole ambition was to discredit Islam and give it a barbaric and savage reputation. A common misrepresentation of this narrative was the supposed forced conversions of conquered peoples, whereas the facts suggest that even prior to any imminent military engagement, the Muslim generals would offer the options of conversion to Islam, acceptance of dhimmi status (meaning the payment of an annual jizya tax), or trying their chances at armed conflict. Even upon Muslim victory, the first two options remained available.

The widespread and well-documented dhimmi system that dealt with non-Muslim citizens is proof that no forced conversions took place. There was a structure in place that allowed for religious continuity while also protecting rights with a structure that maintained the retention of physical land and property. Property records show that in the varying lands conquered in the previous Byzantine and Sassanian Empires, Muslims were a small minority during the early Islamic reign, ranging between 10 to 20% of the population up until a century or two after the initial conquest. In certain cases, such as in Iran and Egypt, Muslims as a majority of the population only came into being well into the 9th century. How can that possibly be forced conversion?

Another powerful counterargument for the case against Islamic colonialism is the fact that there was never really any extraction of resources out of the conquered lands and shipped off to Mecca back in Arabia. In actuality, trade and commerce throughout the new Islamic territories blossomed further during Islam’s reign and created a series of powerful cosmopolitan cities across the empire that would eventually become some of the greatest and brightest cities on the planet within the next two centuries: Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Cordoba. Meanwhile, Mecca and Medina, the supposed colonial centres, were humble in their expansion and prosperity for the next millennium and beyond.

A question that can always be asked to further prove this point: would the British ever have moved their capital from London to Delhi?

To exhibit the difference, the capital of the Muslim empire left the Arabian Peninsula with the coming of the Umayyad Caliphate, never to return. Such a decision only reflects that the Islamic empire wasn’t about the benefit of one people, nation, or territory over another, but that a new set of groups of united people, inclusive of those conquered, were now a new nation that had much larger collective aspirations.

One would think that the Islamisation of faith would result in the Arabisation of language, but the reality was the opposite. As the Islamisation of the populations took significant time to materialise, learning the language of the faith, Arabic, was never forced onto others. The fast-paced assimilation of Arabic was principally due to the fact that it was the primary language of trade, governance, and law within the Islamic empires, as well as being a language familiar to the populations of the Levant and Mesopotamia, who were mainly Aramaic speakers.

Arabisation wasn’t about the Muslim faith but was about integrating within a civilisation that was booming not just back in Arabia but everywhere. It became the common language for non-Arabs and non-Muslims to prosper. During the subsequent golden age, thinkers and scholars from across the empire wrote and relayed in Arabic, much in the same way that the English language spread all over the world during the 20th century due to globalisation and technology. Arabic achieved widespread acceptance for the sake of the transfer of knowledge and in aspiring to prosperity.

To learn more about Islam visit: Howtomuslim.org