Pioneering studies of Sasanian legal administration(s) during the past two decades has
already led to exhilarating results. This research promises to pave the way for future
studies on the much-neglected issue of the potential influence, practical and
theoretical, of Sasanian juridical institutions and ideas on the development of the
shari?a. Bringing together the results of this research in the context of 1) Sasanian
family law and the position of women therein, and juxtaposing this in relation to 2) the
mechanism at the disposal of the “minority” religio-juridical establishments, the first
panel of Recent Trends in Late Antique Iranian Studies, Panel I: “Legal Structures of
Iran in Late Antiquity,” will shed new light on important dimensions of Iranian legal
system in the late antique period.
A major bone of contention in the studies of Iran in the early medieval period revolves
around issues of continuity or lack thereof in its history. Presenting new perspectives
on chronological problems surrounding watershed events in the history of Iran, Panel II:
“Problematics in Chronological Demarcations of Late Antique Iran,” will reflect upon
axiomatic chronologies adopted thus far in the field, and the political and cultural
ideological implications of maintaining or revising these chronological schemas. Recent
studies on the shu?ubiyyacontroversy will provide a potentially crucial test case for
discussing issues of continuity and rupture in this domain.
Panel III: “Aesthetic, Sacred and Martial Expressions of Iran in the Late Antique
period,” discusses the latest research on important aspects of the history of Iran in the
late antique period. The first paper in this panel explores the use of pearls as the
favorite gems of Sasanian kings and elites, while the second paper investigates the
archaeological evidence for the creation of major Zoroastrian shrines and the
reinterpretation of the ancient Avestan past during the late Sasanian period. The third
paper considers possible Sasanian roots for the moral and martial codes of later Islamic
brotherhoods, while the fourth paper re-examines the enigmatic, but crucial military
corps known as the asawira in the early Islamic sources.
Finally, the fourth panel, Panel IV: “Urban and Agricultural Processes and
Transformations,” offers state-of-the-arts research -- conducted from a long-duree
perspective -- on the continuities and ruptures in the urban, agricultural and
administrative landscape of Iran during antiquity (500-850s) and the new
historiographical methodologies used for obtaining these results.
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Prof. Joel Walker
The Gentleman Wore Pearls:
Pearled Vestments and Male Jewelry
in the Sasanian and early Islamic Middle East
Pearls, the only gem created by a living animal, were important markers of elite status in the Sasanian Empire (224-642). Sasanian art and literature indicate that the empire’s elites decorated their jewelry, clothes, weapons, and even their shoes with pearls. The Persian king of kings had the privilege of wearing the largest and finest of the sea’s gems. Byzantine and Syriac sources preserve multiple stories about splendid royal pearls lost in battle by Sasanian kings or given as diplomatic gifts by their Indian counterparts. Pearled vestments and weapons were also used in Sasanian diplomacy. In his efforts to lure the Khazars away from the Byzantine orbit, Khusro II argues that he could have given the Khazars twice as much, “including purple robes embroidered with gold and encrusted with pearls” (Movses Daxuranci, History of the Caucasian Albanians, 2.11).
Many aspects of Sasanian pearl culture continued under early Islamic rule. Narratives of the Arab conquest in the 640s emphasize the marvel of the Bedouin when confronted with the unimaginable riches of captured Sasanian cities. At Nihavand in western Iran, the local Zoroastrian administrator is reputed to have handed over two chests full of large pearls (Baladhuri, Futuh, 305). At the Sogdian city of Paykend, the treasures captured by Muslim armies included two giant pearls the size of pigeon eggs (Tabari, Ta’rikh II, 1188, cited by Donner, Great Arab Conquests, 259). Other stories report the survival and reuse of luminous royal pearls captured at Ctesiphon. Behind these stories lay important economic developments in the Persian Gulf during late antiquity, where the archaeology of coastal sites attests to increased exploitation of the Gulf’s most productive pearl beds. My paper will combine artistic, literary, and archaeological evidence to examine these developments, providing insight into the role of pearls in the articulation of elite identity in the Sasanian and early Islamic Middle East.
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Prof. Matthew Canepa
This paper argues that the holiest sanctuaries of Zoroastrianism, the Great Fires of Iran (Adur Gushnasp, Adur Farnbag and Adur Burzen-Mihr) were subject to a drastic ideological revision by the Sasanian dynasty and reflected the extensive dynasty’s manipulation of Iranian identity. The most ritually and architecturally potent
sites of Middle Iranian religious experience coalesced around the three great fires of Iran, created by Ohrmazd, “for the protection of the world.” Tradition held that the
fires once moved around the world, giving protection from the forces of darkness wherever needed; only later did they settle at a permanent site, always in
connection with the actions of one of the primordial Airya heroes like Yima xshaeta, Kauui Haosrauuah or Zarathrushtra’s royal patron, Wishtaspa. Despite their apparent
antiquity, their names are not mentioned at all in the Avestan texts, indicating that these fires emerged from a much later time and their traditions were malleable from the start. The earliest textual evidence on their foundation legends comes from the
Bundahishn. Earlier, non-art historical scholarship placed the fires foundation in the
late Achaemenid era, largely since this was where Mary Boyce had conjectured that the Zoroastrian temple cult of fire took form. In short: before the Sasanians, there
are simply no primary sources of any kind (archaeological, sigilliographical, epigraphical etc.) that can corroborate these late Middle Persian sources.
Furthermore there is no evidence of any sort that can reliably attest to fires’ existence anytime before the Parthian era and this too is doubtful. The only secure corroboration comes in the Sasanian era and in the form of archaeological evidence, with which the philologically oriented field of ancient Iranian studies is often uncomfortable. Rather than an ancient foundation whose details are lost in the depths of time, this paper argues that the only reliable primary sources, that is archaeological and art historical evidence, suggest that the prominence of the fires was a Middle Iranian, if not discretely Sasanian, invention.
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Abolala Soudavar
Recent studies of the Sufi/ dervish orders as well as the rites of the Zurkhaneh have
hinted at possible connections to an ancient Mithraic cult. Yet, as noted by Marcel
Simon in regards to Roman Mithraic societies, the latter did not offer a new cult but
rather the possibility of adhesion to a brotherhood. The purpose of this paper is to
suggest the existence of similar Mithraic societies in pre-Islamic Iran, with a
hierarchical structure, a code of conduct, initiation rites and symbols that was
subsequently inherited by a vast segment of Iranian society at the sub-elite level,
organized as brotherhoods. They of course had to adjust the tenets of their
teachings to the prevailing religious atmosphere and underwent several
metamorphoses; but because of their hierarchical structure, these brotherhoods had
always the potential to grow militant and become a political force. Thus at times,
they were feared and persecuted by the elite in power, and at others, they actually
took the reins of power.
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Prof. Hossein Kamaly
Whence Came the Asw?r?n? Where Did They Disappear?
According to early Muslim chroniclers, a group of elite Sasanian cavalrymen, known as the asw?r?n (aka usw?r?n, as?wira, us?wira, aw?wir?t, etc), played a decisive role during the Arab/Islamic Conquests in Persian territories, and for that they received a most lucrative reward (sharaf al-?at??’). The military prowess and superior horsemanship of the asw?r?n, and their dreaded five-pronged arrows (fanjik?n, panjg?n) were all of legendary fame.
Strangely, no mention of the asw?r?n appears in sources dating back to the Sasanian period. Major Sasanian inscriptions, i.e. Ka?ba-ye Zardosht (3rd century CE), Kerd?r (late 3rd century CE) and Narseh (late 3rd to early 4th century CE), do not mention the word. Even the word asw?r is absent from those inscriptions. Also, later Middle Persian sources do not unequivocally attest to the usage of this word in the same sense that it appears in later Muslim sources.
This paper elucidates the provenance of the asw?r?n, both as a historically identifiable group and as a historically constructed identity-label. It traces the use of this label as a nisba, and its significance in the shu??biya discourse. The portrayal of the asw?r?n in modern Iranian historiography is also discussed.
