اسماعیل سنگاری

The Sasanian emperors heavily relied on a steady stream of financial resources to effectively govern their vast overseas territories. One of the ways they achieved this was through the construction of hydraulic structures and the promotion of agricultural development. The region of Āsōristān, situated along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, proved to be a strategic area for the Sasanian expansionist plans. The rulers of the Sasanian Empire referred to the southern part of Āsōristān as the heart of Iranshahr due to its fertile land and high population density. The state’s abundant arable lands, coupled with the implementation of effective irrigation policies by the Sasanian rulers, led to a prosperous agricultural sector in the region. The establishment of new cities and the improvement of hydraulic structures further contributed to the growth of the population and the development of arable land, consequently resulting in increased tax revenues for the state. However, man-made water structures necessitated specialized oversight and upkeep by labor. Despite significant investments by the government in irrigation projects, these structures tended to deteriorate without proper maintenance, and the absence of enough workers due to chronic wars and failure to rebuild led to the development of the wetlands. The economic prosperity and military might of the Sasanian Empire were interconnected, and the collapse of either could spell doom for the imperial system. This study aims to explore the relationship between the Āsōristān hydraulic structures and the Arab conquest using library resources and a descriptive-analytical approach. According to historical records, the research findings indicate that following the rule of Khosrow Parviz, the participation of Iranians in internal conflicts, coupled with the neglect and failure to repair hydraulic systems, led to the expansion of wetlands in Āsōristān and the devastation of crucial agricultural areas due to massive floods. The Āsōristān region, which used to generate the highest tax revenue for the Sasanian Empire, experienced a decline. The economic prosperity of the empire was closely tied to its military might, which contributed to the downfall of one aspect that was interconnected with the collapse of another aspect.

The bear hunting silver plate housed in the Abkhazia Museum stands out as a distinctive example of artwork from the Sasanian period. Its portrayal of bears being hunted, alongside the utilization of a lasso as the primary hunting instrument, renders it a unique specimen among Sasanian hunting vessels. This study employs an iconographic analysis approach to investigate the scene depicted on the plate, which has been previously attributed by Lukunin to Bahram I, the fourth ruler of the Sasanian dynasty, prior to his ascension to the throne. The objective of this research is to offer a comprehensive analysis of the entire scene depicted on the plate, followed by a detailed examination of each motif in isolation. Finally, an evaluation is provided regarding the realism or symbolism inherent within the scene, drawing upon available information. This study constitutes a descriptive-analytical inquiry into ancient Iranian art, drawing upon data collected from both library sources and online visual repositories.

According to some contracts and testaments attributed to the Sassanid kings that have been reached to us by historians of the Islamic period, the process of choosing a king was done by the king himself. Another method was reported in Tansar's letter to Gošnasb, in which there were permanent associations for the selection of the king, whose duty was to select the successor after the death of the king, which included Mobadān Mobad, Mahasht's secretaries (Head of secretaries), and Sepāhbod Sepahbazān (Commander-in-Chief of the Army). Until the translation of the Shapur I inscription on Zoroaster's Ka’ba, our knowledge about the women of the Sassanid court was limited to the information we had through the narrations of historians of the Islamic period. By translating Shapur's inscription, new dimensions of power, through noble women and their influence on the issue of succession and legitimacy of the first Sassanid kings, appeared for the researchers. In this research, our effort is to open the third side in the power triangle of the Sassanid period, which was the influential women of the court, with a descriptive-analytical method. Therefore, the status of noble women in the court of Sassanid kings from Ardashir I to Narseh (224-302 AD) and the position of noble women in the coming to power of the kings of this dynasty will be examined. Our case study among these women is “Šāpūrdoxtak ", the Bahram II’ wife and Bahram III’ mother, who was most likely chosen as the crown prince of the Sassanid king for a while.

Bahrām II was crowned as the fifth Sasanian king in 276 A.D. When he came to the power and crowned in the court, like his ancestor, Ardaxšīr Bābakān, he tried to depict his victories over the enemies and also his crowning on the rock reliefs in order to legitimize his kingship and stabilize his power. Among Bahrām II archeological and artistic works, his rock reliefs and coins are very various and prominent, compared to his ancestors which shows a change. Also, among Sasanian kings, women’s presence in Bahram II rock reliefs is more seen than any other Sasanian king, especially in his coins. Based on written evidences and in a descriptive-analytical way, the current research aims to analyze the position of women in the reliefs and coins of Bahram II. Based on the written and archaeological evidences, the widespread presence of women in the coins and reliefs of Bahram II -compared with his predecessors- can be attributed to the special status of some court women and their empowerment during the reign of Bahram II.

Some scholars doubt that the dialog "Alcibiades Major" was written by Plato, but this conversation has an important place among the works belonging to the Platonic school. "Alcibiades Major" contains a dialog between Socrates and the young Alcibiades, and in some parts of the conversation they also talk about the Achaemenid Empire. In this study, only one part of the conversation has been considered, namely that Socrates mentions Cyrus the Great and Xerxes I as the only people the young and ambitious Alcibiades respects. Thus, the aim of this study is to identify, through a critical and comparative reading of the conversation of "Alcibiades Major", the concepts and images that led the author to mention the names of Cyrus and Xerxes as the only honorable persons for Alcibiades". Finally, this study aims to analyze the hidden ideas that existed in the public opinion of the Greeks of the 5th and 4th centuries BC about these two Achaemenid great kings.

Beyond the central deserts of Iran, Sistān and Khorāsān formed the eastern states of the Sasanian Empire, which were considered rich and economically prosperous states at the time. On the other hand, although the neighborhood with the eastern nomadic tribes the dangers it posed to their inhabitants but had given them a strategic aspect. Besides, it affected the events of these states extremely. Hence, the Economic, Political, and social situation studies of this region, particularly in the last half-century of the Sasanian dynasty, which finally ended in the downfall of their dynasty, can be considered important. The present study intends to find out the effects that the Economic, Political, and social situation of the Sasanian eastern states had on the fall and conquest there by the Muslim Arabs based on library resources using a descriptive-analytical research method. The research findings suggested that the invasion of nomads and forced migrations to the eastern Sasanian states caused diversity in the demographic composition; there. This factor, along with their lack of political and economic dependence on the central government, doubled the incentive for achieving power among local rulers; Eventually, they caused the fall of the Sasanian dynasty.

How the universe was originally created and the creation of natural elements and their fit with numbers has always been of human interest. Although the myths of creation reflect the mindset of primitive man, they often seek a purposeful structure. With the importance and role that water has in life and has caused it to play a special role in the beliefs of all nations, a group of ancient tribes sought the origin of all creation in water. The existence of water at the beginning of creation based on ancient Iranian texts has always been considered and in the belief of the ancient Iranians, the creation of water takes place after the sky. In pre-Zoroastrian religions and also in Zoroastrian religion, water has always been sacred and goddesses and goddesses were in charge of protecting and guarding it. A significant part of the myths of ancient Iranian religions is dedicated to water. In the cultural and biological system of the early periods of life, humans used special methods to recognize and introduce the phenomena of existence, one of which is myth. Myths are among the first arguments and cognitive explanations of early humans to determine the nature and location of the available and unknown elements of nature, and they include part of the human cognitive system in the beginning of mankind.  This research has studied and analyzed the role of sacred numbers three and seven in the creation of waters with a descriptive and analytical approach. The results of the research indicate that numbers influence nature and the objects under their control, and in this way they mediate between God and the world of creation. In between, the number three is more spiritual and has a role in religious belief and Yazidi and good affairs, and the number seven is more material and sometimes spiritual in the creation of water.

Sasanid Empire fell in 651 AD, with the invasion of the Arabs, however, the literary and archaeological evidence left by them shows that their jurisprudential-legal heritage remained in Iranshahr for centuries.  Preserving the continuity of the generation and wealth in Zoroastrian religion is of great importance, and the continuity of the era could be maintained through a male child. Without a son, a person could solve this deficiency through some means: an adopted son, or surrogate marriages were arranged in that man's name. The children from these marriages also belong to the deceased. Stūrīh was one of the types of surrogate marriage and was organized to provide a successor and an heir. Stūrīh has two aspects, financial and religious, and the woman's motivation for taking up Stūrīh was mostly its financial aspect. This research aims to study the issue of Stūrīh based on the 11th and 28th post-Sasanian documents of Tabaristān and show women's financial matters in Stūrīh. Thus, these documents introduce us the process of accepting financial issues in the periods after the fall of the Sasanids in areas still influenced by the legal culture of the Sasanid period. The method of the research is  descriptive-analytical, based on a case study of Tabarestān, post-Sasanian documents and library study. Studies in these documents show that jurisprudential laws in Zoroastrian society benefited a certain coherence and order. Zoroastrian society had not severed its connection with the past, and the same laws remained in force and were implemented in the post-Sasanian society.

Jiroft, which according to some researchers and archaeologists, is identical and tantamount to Mesopotamia civilization, has a rich context of admirable and valuable ancient materials. These materials, appeared out of the ground due to a flood in 2002AD, are sign of a culture of thousand years in this region of Iran, which could be said to have been dormant in this landscape for several millennia. These materials are regarded as relaters of ancient culture of the jiroft, that in case of being decoded, they have so many unsaid about mythological debates, rituals, beliefs and notions dominating on the society of their own period. Analyzing the three works containing the leitmotiv of palm tree, this study aims to conceive non-written language of culture of Jiroft by which, they assist in renovation of context and framework of this ancient culture. By using the descriptive-analytical method, observation of discovered works and relying on archeological data and library research, this study aims to analyze and portrait the leitmotiv of the palm tree in art of the Jiroft.

In the surviving texts from the classical period of Greece, we come across a common word-especially in reference to the Achaemenid Persians-that is still used in the political literature of the contemporary world: Barbarian, derived from the Greek word βάρβαρος. This word, first used in the second book of Homer's Iliad as βαρβαρόφωνος (= speaking a foreign language), indicated only linguistic heterogeneity and meant stranger. Between the 7th and 6th centuries BC, the use of this word increased and it was used not only for linguistic "othering" but also to refer to cultural differences and appreciation of the social system of non-Greeks. In the upcoming study, the authors aimed to analyze the semantic implications of the word βάρβαρος and highlight the turning points of its development by scrutinizing Homer's Iliad and other preserved fragments from the 6th century BC (Archaic period). The results of the present study, based on library sources, show that the word βάρβαρος has been associated with negative connotations (implicit or explicit) since the beginning of its existence in Homer's poetry. Moreover, with Solon's reforms in Athens and the increasing enslavement of non-Greeks in the Greek world of the 6th century BC, the boundary between the two terms "barbarian" and "slave" was gradually erased, and the humiliation of barbarian slaves led to the emergence of the idea of "Greek superiority over non-Greeks."

The four holy beings are among the oldest religious beliefs formed among peoples and nations, in fact, these are the first forces that come from the Almighty. In all religions and since ancient times, they respected and valued these forces and created different symbols for the four holy ones. Also, people of different cultures gave them different names such as Angel, God, Messenger and goddess. Belief in these angels is considered one of the important topics of divine religions. The position, role and characteristics of angels can express the type of vision and worldview of the beliefs and followers of many religions. This research with a descriptive, analytical method and with a theoretical and documentary approach aims to deal with the attributes and characteristics of these four creatures in addition to their roles and duties. And have a look around the concepts and use of the number four. The results of the research indicate that due to the centrality of belief in God in the religions of Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Judaism, the four holy beings have a lot in common in some features.

Folk medicine in the Safavid period was influenced by several epistemological, cultural and social contexts. On the one hand, the long-lasting established historical, intellectual and cultural traits established the status of the Iranian society of the Safavid era as a pre-modern society. On the other hand, the occurrence of some political, social and cultural changes in this period influenced the cultural situation, the system of beliefs, worldviews, norms and actions of the social classes in the context of everyday life. These two major components directly and indirectly affected the state of folk medicine in this period. It is hypothesized that the folk medicine of the Safavid period is affected by some factors, such as the mythic nature of the society, reliance on pre-modern cosmology, the predominance of foreign sciences and approaches based on astrology, the spread of superstition and also the structural state of science. Using an analytical approach, the author tries to explain which of the epistemological, cultural and social factors highly affected the folk medicine in the Safavid era?

Female Icons and images of women have been displayed in a wide range of artworks in Sassanian period, especially on the silverwares. These feminine icons are reflection of the beliefs and ideas of Iranians toward women in Iranian society which owe their existence to the craftsmen and artists. Therefore, the significance of the study of the female icons carved on Sasanian silver vessels, is undeniable. In this study, images of royal couples on three Sassanian silverwares, have been studied, according to Erwin Panofsky method, who is one of the pioneers in the field of art history. In this method, the details of each icon, have been described, firstly. Then, the iconographical descriptions have been provided. Finally, the iconological analysis of each image has been presented according to the previous findings. The present study, suggests that the tradition of associating with women in banquets, which has been also mentioned in literary and historical texts, is rooted in the ancient culture of ancient Iran and has always been one of the most important and prominent components of this culture.

Achaemenids founded an integrated civilization including Babylon, Assyria, Elam, Lydia, Media, Egypt, Greeks of Asia Minor and some parts of India during the sixth to fourth century BC.  The founder of the Achaemenid civilization, Cyrus II, came to power in 559 BC. During 559 to 539 BC, by conquering Ecbatana, Sardis, Babylon and coasts of Asia Minor, Cyrus became the heir of great civilizations of West Asia. Ancestry of Persian Cyrus II, has been one of the most controversial issues of the Achaemenid civilization in the last decades, which brought about different and sometimes opposite ideas. Roots of this challenge would be found in the fundamental written sources related to this period, because in addition to deficiency and limitation, which are characteristics of classical texts of the ancient period, narratives have other problems such as contradiction and paradox; so that, at least, three general different contents would be seen in narratives on this issue. Some narratives consider Cyrus as a Median-Persian. Others believe that his father was a bandit and his mother was a goatherd. Archeological sources call him “Cyrus, King of Anshan”. One of the most important sources about Cyrus II’s ancestry is Herodotus Halicarnassus’s narrative in his first book called Clio, in which he is considered as Persian-Median. This research aims to study and analyze Herodotus’s narrative about the Persian-Median ancestry of Cyrus II. The research method was library descriptive-analytic, using archeological and literary evidence.

The Persian Empire was founded after the conquest of Cyrus II (559-529B.C). Cyrus II, the founder of Persian Empire, came to power in 559 BC. During 559 to 539 BC, by conquering Ecbatana, Sardis, Babylon and coasts of Asia Minor, Cyrus was able to be the heir of great civilizations such as Assyrian Empire, Elam, Median Kingdom, Lydia and Babylonia. However, there is little or no clear information about the early stages of his life and his coming to power. As sources tell of the early stages of his life, different images emerge. One of these sources that is of great importance is the narrative of Ctesias. Ctesias describes Cyrus as the son of a bandit and a maid of the tribe of Mard, who revolts against them by passing through the stages of power in the Median Valley, transferring power to his family. This image of Cyrus is in contrast to the image presented by other literary and material sources of the Near East and classical Greek texts. In those narratives, Cyrus' place is considered to be the continuation of a royal family. This article aims to analyze the different aspects of narrative of Ctesias and to study why this narrative and the various elements within it have been formed. In this regard, this research will address this issue in a descriptive-analytical and library method, by studying literary and material data of the Achaemenid period.

Social history examines a wide range of different aspects of past human life and culture. A comprehensive study of the social history of any nation requires attention to all the causes and factors that are involved in the process of shaping their social history, which is one of the most influential components in the social history and collective identity of nations. In the Sassanid period, one of the most valuable legacies left from the artistic past is that the language of communication includes the meanings of their feelings, relationships, thoughts and ideas. By studying these works, the researcher will gain a clear understanding of their social, political, historical life, customs and beliefs. The purpose of this study is to identify and study the social history of the Sassanids as a great culture of ancient Iran based on the design and role of their crown. This research is based on the purpose of basic research and based on the nature and method of analytical-historical research. How to collect information in this research is a documentary method (library) based on which all historical sources and evidence have been studied. The results of this study show many symbolic concepts of the crown designs of Sassanid kings that can be studied by studying these designs and recognizing the hidden concepts in it to some extent to the prevailing social, political and religious situation and the independence and strength of the government and other political events. And achieved the social of that period.

The expanded territories of the ancient Iranian empires raise a question for the audience, at first glance, despite a display of authority and domination of the kings, that how the central governments extended their domination over these regions and defended it against foreign threats. In the wide Sasanian Empire, one policy of the emperors of the dynasty was to establish new cities and renew old ones to expand their dominance over the country. As a result of these efforts in which required the founding and reconstruction of intercity pathways for moving goods and troops, a vast network of cities and routes were gradually formed. In this network, cities had the role of nodes for controlling and providing the essential resources and supplies for the central government. Thus, it can assume that the network of cities, moreover expanding the dominance of the Sasanian government, also had affected their fall. This study aimed to find appropriate answers for this question, using library resources through a descriptive-analytical methodology that what role the communication network of Sasanian cities has played in the Arabs conquests. The result findings indicate that the vast communication network of the Sasanian cities has not only facilitated the Arabs troops’ movement and campaign, but they were also able to weaken the defensive power of cities through Blocking support routes. Moreover, The Arabs had been able to consolidate their occupancy and dominance by capturing the cities as network’s connection points.

Among the works that have played a significant role in identifying the culture, civilization and art of ancient Iran, is the works of art of the Sassanid period, research on which removes countless unknowns. Signs of changes in the political history of the Sassanids can be found in the study of various works and especially the designs engraved on the crowns of the kingdom. The purpose of this study is to look at the political history of the Sassanid monarchy by studying several examples of crowns of the Sassanid period. This research is based on the purpose of basic research and based on the nature and method of historical-analytical research. The question that can be asked in this article is what is the reason for the different types of royal crowns in the surviving works and on what basis? By studying the Sassanid political history and deep reflection on the diversity and different designs of the Sassanid kings, it can be assumed that each of the Sassanid kings, according to the independence of thought, religion and the power of the creator of his own crown, was a sign of the king's power. The result of the study and analysis is that these crowns bring with them information about the political events and happenings in the history of the Sassanid dynasty. Sassanid princes from the beginning of the dynasty to the end of it used various crowns whose crowns are different from each other. It was partial and general.