Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Tag: Sasanian

  • A Sasanian taxation list or an early Islamic booty?

    Sárközy, Miklós. 2014. A Sasanian taxation list or an early Islamic booty? A Medieval Persian source and the Sasanian taxation system. In Zoltán Csabai (ed.), Studies in economic and social history of the Ancient Near East in memory of Péter Vargyas, 701–714. Budapest: L’Harmattan.

     The present paper aims at throwing light on a less known Islamic source, containing important materials on the taxation of the Sasanian Empire. This brief but hitherto lesser known source belongs to the Tārīkh-i Ṭabaristān  of Ibn Isfandyār, an important  medieval source of Ṭabaristān.

    Read the article here.

  • Graffito from Dura-Europos

    Wójcikowski, Robert S. 2013. The graffito from Dura-Europos: Hybrid armor in Parthian-Sasanian Iran. Anabasis 4. 233–248.

    Read the article here. Abstract:

    The graffito from Dura-Europos depicting a heavily armored cavalryman is one of the most important sources used to reconstruct the armament of Iranian cavalry units seen in the middle of the third century A.D. The graffito presents a hybrid cuirass that is composed of mail and lamellas. It was probably originally an Iranian construction. The use of hybrid armor should be connected with the process of the adaptation of mail in the Parthian empire and then adjusting this new type of body armor to the realities of cavalry combat. The new hybrid cuirass served its purpose well. It not only survived the Parthian era but also the Arabic conquest of Sasanian Iran in the middle of the seventh century A.D., which is evidently demonstrated by the fact that it was present in the military equipment of Muslim armies in the 16th and 17th centuries A.D.

  • Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians

    Herman, Geoffrey (ed.). 2014. Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians: Religious dynamics in a Sasanian context (Judaism in Context 17). Gorgias Press.

    For the table of contents and more info, see here.

  • Secrecy and canonisation

    Bahari Lecture Series: “Sasanian Iran in the Context of Late Antiquity”

    20 May (Week 4)
    Arash Zeini (University of St Andrews):
    Secrecy and canonisation in Sasanian Iran: A scholastic reading of the Zand

    Tuesday at 5pm
    Ioannou Centre for Classical & Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, Oxford (OCLA)

  • Bahari lecture series

    Sasanian Iran in the Context of Late Antiquity

    Tuesdays of Weeks 2–9 of Trinity Term 2014 at 5pm
    Ioannou Centre for Classical & Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’

    The lectures are convened by Professor Touraj Daryaee and Professor Edmund Herzig and organised by the Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity (OCLA). The full programme is here.

  • The Sasanian Empire as a garden

    The Sasanian Empire as a garden: The limits of Iranshahr

    Speaker: Touraj Daryaee (University of California, Irvine)
    Where: The British Institute of Persian Studies, London
    When: 22 May 2014

    Poster at the BIPS.

  • Public lecture II

    02_Ardashir_investiture2. The Sasanian Empire and religious authority: The case of Zoroastrianism

    As one of the major political and economic powers in the region, the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE) elevated Zoroastrianism to the dominant religious and cultural force within its polity, bringing to the foreground the question of the interaction between religion and sovereignty in the Sasanian era. By providing an historical overview this lecture highlights the dynamics between political and religious authority during the Sasanian era.

    Speaker: Arash Zeini
    Where: University of St Andrews, School of Classics, Swallowgate, S11.
    When: 07 May 2014, 17:30

  • The Sasanian Empire as a garden

    The Sasanian empire as a garden: The walls and rivers of the Sasanian Empire

    This lecture by Touraj Daryaee (UCI) looks at the physical and ideological boundaries which the Sasanians created for the idea of Iranshahr. In this late antique construct, inside the empire, protected by walls and rivers was imagined as a garden where order and beauty was in existence. Outside of the walls and the rivers it was seen as place of wilderness and disorder. This binary division was at the centre of Sasanian ideology which projected peace and power inside, while danger for its people lay outside of its boundaries.

    Speaker: Touraj Daryaee (UCI)
    Where: AIIT, Cambridge
    When: 23 May 2014, 17:30.

  • Markets for land

    Rezakhani, Khodadad & Michael Morony. 2014. Markets for land, labour and capital in late antique Iraq, AD 200-700. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 57. 231–261.

    Read the article here. Abstract:

    Lack of direct evidence on the functioning of factor markets in Sasanian/Late Antique Iraq makes it difficult to present a clear picture of the production side of economy during this period. However, relying on the Talmudic evidence, as well as what is men-tioned in the Mādayān ī Hezār Dādestān (MHD), this article aims to provide an idea of factor markets during the Sasanian period, as well as demonstrating the areas where further evidence and research could render better results and allow us to understand the economy of this region in more depth.

  • A Sasanian chariot

    Shenkar, Michael. 2013. A Sasanian chariot drawn by birds and the iconography of Sraosha. In Sergei Tokhtasev & Pavel Lurje (eds.), Commentationes Iranicae. Vladimiro f. Aaron Livschits nonagenario donum natalicium, 211–223. St. Petersburg: Nestor-Historia.

    Read the article here.