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Recent Trends in Late Antique Iranian Studies, Part IV: Urban, Agricultural, and Administrative Processes and Transformations in Late Antique Iran

Panel 160, sponsored byAssociation for the Study of Persianate Societies, 2009 Annual Meeting

On Monday, November 23 at 5:00 pm

Panel Description

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.

Disciplines

History

Participants

Dr. Richard W. Bulliet -- Presenter
Dr. Michael G. Morony -- Discussant
Prof. Parvaneh Pourshariati -- Organizer
Prof. Hugh Kennedy -- Presenter
Dr. Ghazzal Dabiri -- Chair
Dr. Khodadad Rezakhani -- Organizer, Presenter

Presentations

Prof. Hugh Kennedy

Early Islamic Iraq and the Heritage of Late Sasanian Administrative Practice

Early Islamic Iraq and the Heritage of late Sasanian administrative practice. This paper looks at the legacy of the Sasanian Empire in the earliest phases of Islamic administrative practice in Iraq. It will take as its starting point the introductory section of the Kitab al-Wuzara of al-Jahshiyari, with its emphasis on continuity between late Sasanian and early Muslim traditions. It will then look a recent research on the financial systems of the sixth and early seventh century Persian Empire and compare them with the administrative system of Iraq, as we understand it, in the years between the conquest of c.636 and the death of the Caliph Mu’awiya b. Abi Sufyan in 661. Special attention will be paid to the achievements, real or imaginary, of Ziyad b. Abi Sufyan during his period as governor of Iraq and all the East. The paper will also use the earliest examples we have of Islamic coinage. It will be suggested that the Sasanian legacy of administrative practice was of central importance in the assessment and collection of taxes and that the early Muslim state could not have maintained itself without the cooperation of local bureaucrats. By contrast, it will be argued that the distribution of tax revenues, though the mechanisms of ata (salary/pension) and diwan (register of those eligible for payments) was a specifically Islamic system, born out of the unprecendented situation caused by the vast immigration of Arabs, mostly of Bedouin origin, into southern Iraq and their establishment in the garrison cities (amsar) of Kufa and Basra.
Dr. Khodadad Rezakhani

Late Antique Economy of Iran: Empires, Microsystems, and Economic Boundaries, 500-800 CE

Late Antiquity in Iran and Iraq, the core territories of the Sasanian Empire and their Islamic successors, was a period of economic change and transformation. Nowhere can this be seen better than in agriculture and agricultural production. Archaeology, paleobotany, and geological surveys give us ample evidence for a profound change in the agricultural production and its relation to the commercial economy during the period of late antiquity. Increased investment and expansion of the irrigation systems, as well as a shift towards more commercial agriculture instead of subsistence agriculture, aimed at a market economy, seems to be among the most significant markers of this economic transformation. Using a combination of archaeological and paleobotanical evidence, coupled with recently discovered textual evidence, this paper proposes to present a picture of the late antique economy of Iran. Other than the effects of this transformation on the economy of the Sasanian Empire and the relationship between these changes and Sasanian financial policies, it is suggested that the changing economy provided the necessary basis for the establishment of the successful Islamic states that came to replace the Sasanians and dominate the region. Particular attention is given to the economic theories concerned with the rise of “capitalism” in this region, and the Susiana/Deh Luran plains of southwestern Iran are used as “test cases” to demonstrate the process of transformation proposed in the paper.
Dr. Richard W. Bulliet

Cotton Farming and the Transition from a Sasanid to an Islamic Economy

This paper will propose that a hitherto unsuspected boom in cotton farming transformed the economy and landscape of the Iranian plateau in the ninth and tenth centuries. The wearing of cotton cloth was directly connected with conversion to Islam, and the ulama who emerged as the leaders of the Muslim community were prominent in the new industry. Profits from cotton farming financed the startling growth of Iranian cities during this period.