شهناز حجتی نجف ابادی

Establishing order and then establishing security is one of the most important functions of any government or political system, and considering that in any political system, establishing order and establishing security is related to the issue of the continuation of the power and dominance of the rulers, so it can be said that the existence of order and security in The different forms are directly related to the manner and quality of the ruler's rule. Accordingly, in the political culture of ancient Iran, improving the quality of the kingdom of the emperors or practicing self-reliance based on the Yazidi tradition, has removed part of the security and order gaps in the society that led to the decline of the government and the fall of the kingdom. The book Ahed Ardashir contains the instructions of Ardashir, the founder of the Sassanid dynasty, addressed to his successors and derived from the political thought of ancient Iranians. This research, with a descriptive-analytical method, seeks to answer the question, what strategies does Ardeshir recommend in his directive in order to create order and security in the society, in the field of Shahriaran governance? And what is the purpose of Ardeshir in presenting these strategies? The results of the research indicate that Ardeshir presents the dos and don'ts of Shahriari in different political, social and cultural fields, taking into account the principles governing the ideology of the Sasanian government. It can be said that Ardeshir's short-term goal of expressing these strategies was to improve the quality of governance for the kings after him, to create order and maintain security both internally and externally, and his long-term goal was to maintain and survive the government or political system.

The Battle of Harran was the first military encounter between the Parthians and the Romans in the first century BC. Despite the advantages that the Romans had in terms of military experience, equipment, techniques and personnel, they suffered a heavy defeat because this failure in the future political and military relations between the Romans and The Parthians were very influential, the sociological study of this war becomes important. As sociologists of war in their researches about wars examine the underlying factors of war, the phenomenon of war and the consequences of war, this research aims to analyze the phenomenon of Harran war by relying on the opinions of some sociologists in the field of war and with descriptive and analytical method. examine. The findings of this research show that according to the theories of sociologists of war, the weak morale of the Roman forces caused by factors such as the influence of Roman soldiers from influence groups outside the army, some otherworldly beliefs and beliefs of the Romans and individual mistakes of the commander led to their defeat. The strength of the command of the Parthian army in using the strategy of psychological warfare with tactics or strategies such as destroying the will and ability of the Romans to fight, depriving the Romans of the support of their allies and obtaining military information through the use of infiltrators, became the basis for the victory of the Parthians.

In the elementary school textbooks published between 1925-1941, a narrative of the history of the Parthians in Iran has been formulated, which has significant discourse and ideological aspects. Accordingly, the students were exposed to a newly-crafted narrative of the ancient history of Iran in which the rise of the Sasanians was like the victory of light over darkness, and nationalism over xenophilia. In this narrative, not only were the Parthians not considered as Iranian, but there was also a kind of domination of non-Iranian spirit over the Iranian identity, which was terminated by the rise of the Sassanids, and thus a period of national salvation began. The main question of the present research is that which discourse and ideological contexts influenced the dominant narrative in the mentioned texts and turned it into an anti-Parthian narrative, and on the contrary, the Sassanians became known as the saviors of Iran from darkness and ruin? The hypothesis is that ideological requirements, legitimizing requirements as well as the strengthening of a sense of nationalism among elementary school children led to the emergence of a narrative, the focus of which was denial, humiliation and trying to abandon the Parthian heritage.

The Marxist narrative of Iranian history around the 1960s and 1970s was strongly influenced by the rise of the Marxist historical school in the Soviet Union, which narrated the history of Iran within Marxist theoretical-conceptual frameworks. Ehsan Tabari, not as a historian, but as one of the most important theorists of the Tudeh Party, tried to read the history of ancient Iran in accordance with the party views and in line with its political goals. This type of re-reading has several important features: first, he formulated the periods of ancient Iranian history on the basis of Marxist intellectual-conceptual logic and in accordance with Marx's proposed formations. Second, in proportion to the characteristics of the Iranian social system, he considered the characteristics of the social formations of the history of this period to be not pure and homogeneous, but mixed. Third, explained and analyzed the Zoroastrian duality in the form of a prototype of the Marxist dialectic. Fourth had an empathetic and praiseworthy attitude combined with an internationalist approach to the social and cultural spheres of ancient Iranian society. The question of the present study is about the historical attitude of Ehsan Tabari towards the ancient history of Iran. Findings indicate that Ehsan Tabari narrated the history of ancient Iran in a special theoretical-conceptual framework based on Marxist logic and dialectical materialism. This narrative was accompanied by aspects of pride in cultural heritage or, in fact, a combination of Marxist anti-nationalist foundations and non-chauvinist patriotism or patriotism.

It has been greatly considered about the foundations of political power and legitimacy in ancient Iran, especially in the Sassanid era. Moreover, the divinity of monarchy, descent, power and justice have often been mentioned as the four elements of power and gaining legitimacy in ancient Iran, but so far a comparative study has not been done related to Sassanid era and the other periods. Considering the difference in the elements of legitimacy in different governments of Iran before Islam, the present research took advantage of the comparative method of research and relied on the Persian and Arabic sources of the Islamic period including the Khoday Namag or kings’ books and other written sources left from the Sassanid period to compare these elements in Sassanid and Parthian eras. The result of this comparison illuminate that these sources have paid less attention to the legitimizing elements in introducing the Parthian government and have written more in the direction of delegitimizing the Parthians, while they strongly seek to introduce the legitimizing elements for the Sassanid government

Ehsan Tabari's critical approach to the archaic ideology of the Pahlavi government is an ideological, hostile and militant confrontation that has meaning in the discourse and political atmosphere of Iran in this period. Tabari tries to challenge the official archaic discourse of the Pahlavi government as a heterogeneous voice. This approach is more militant, ideological, and political in nature than it is concerned with relying on historiographical documents and it is a function of the political-ideological position of the historian as a militant left-wing ideologue attached to the theoretical logic of Marxism in the re-reading of history. This critical approach has several important features: First, it challenges the Pahlavi government's arrogant and glorious official account of the fundamental concept of monarchy in a moralistic-instructive perspective and by including it under the concept of degeneration, Second, it attacks the racial-nationalist character of this archaic ideology by relying on the concept of internationalism And third, by proposing some critical perspectives, he assesses the institutionalizations that emerge from this archaic worldview as emerging from a kind of historical illusion that leads to institutional chauvinism. In this research, with an analytical approach, Ehsan Tabari's critical insight into the archeological ideology of the Pahlavi government will be analyzed and an attempt will be made to question the various layers of this critical approach and the factors influencing its formation as well as its constructive contexts.

After the collapse of the Achaemenids, with the arrival of Alexander in Iran and the establishment of the Seleucid dynasty, the city-building and settlement policy of Greek immigrants in Iran was implemented by Alexander and the Seleucids in order to achieve their political goals. The presence of Greeks in Iran, of course, with the support of their own government, caused changes in various cultural aspects of Iran. It can be assumed that the role and position of women in Iranian society was also influenced by Greek culture. Considering this issue, the problem of this research is raised as follows; What effect did the spread of Greek culture have on the role and status of Iranian court women during the Seleucid and Parthian eras? The findings of this research show that women in the Greek culture of the Hellenic era had a higher position than in the pre-promotion periods. Accordingly, the spread of Greek culture in the post-Achaemenid Iranian society had a positive effect on the role and status of women. Reports in some texts of ancient historians and unearthed works from archaeological excavations in the territory of the two Seleucid and Parthian states provide the most available information about the status of women of the upper classes of the society. From the information of such sources, it can be inferred that women have a very active and prominent presence in various political and social fields during this period. Their presence in social, economic, religious or artistic activities, with the finding of figurines and seals and the effect of seals and other works in different regions and based on the data of the texts of some ancient historians, clearly shows that the role and position of women in The Parthian and Seleucid period not only did not decline, but also had many developments under the influence of Hellenism.

The view of Abu Rayhan Biruni toward the history of Ancient Iran is of cultural-critical feature due to his reviewing the pure political and authoritative approaches. Such an insight is the consequence of some important element including the development of Iranism discourse in this era and the methodological distinctions in the historical view of Abu Rayhan Biruni. The present research is to analyze and explain these multidimensional features in the account by Abu Rayhan Biruni pertaining to the history of Ancient Iran. The results of research illustrate that the cultural approach of Abu Rayhan toward the ancient history of Iran includes both the mythological and historical aspects away from any bias and it merely Challenges the political and authoritative approaches in the Iranian-Islamic system of historiography. Finally, it is an opening toward reviewing this span of time in Iran and this issue is regarded as one of the elements consciously or unconsciously effective on the Iranian identity.

According to the content of jurisprudential and legal books compiled during the Sāssānīān period and according to scholars of this field, gender is one of the basis and criteria that make a difference between the legal status of individuals in society, as the duties and rights of women in social structures and institutions in accordance with legal laws, show the inferior position of women to men. This superiority of men over women in the content of some texts of this period, such as the text of Ardāvīrāfnāme, belonging to the sixth century AD and the reign of Ḵosrow Anūšīrvān (539-579 AD), is quite evident. Most of the content of this prophetic text refers to the description of the hellish punishments of women who have failed or committed sins in the field of family and marital relations. On the other hand, we know that Mazdak had a special and, of course, deconstructive view of women. The official sources of the Sassanid’s have negatively assessed Mazdak's slogans and goals about women. But following Mazdak's special approach to women in society, under the slogan of equality for all, women were granted freedoms that resulted in norm-breaking behavior by people, generally in the lower classes of society, which ultimately led to disorder and corruption. In this article, an attempt is made based on Avestan, Pahlavi, Persian, and Arabic sources in the heart of the Iranian social system, to introduce the production of the text of Ardavirafnameh as a corrective reaction by religious men and government officials against the irregularities and corruption caused by the dissemination of Mazdaki teachings in the Iranian society. It was understood that the production of this text was a corrective and purposeful action in the direction of Ḵosrow Anūšīrvān's social reforms to restore order in the society after Mazdak’s uprising.

The political structure of the Parthian government, the cultural diversity in the Parthian society, along with the particular religious’ approach of the Parthian kings and the successive Roman invasions of the western borders of the Parthian Empire, generally created critical conditions in Iranian society in the second and early third centuries, In such circumstances, Ardeshir Babakan from a religious family in the province of Persia, succeeded in providing the cause for the fall of the Parthian government and during two years of continuous political and military activities, transferred the country's political power from the Parthian family to the Sassanid family. Ardeshir's ability to transfer power from the legitimate kings of the country to his family, which was due to his correct understanding of the critical situation of society, on the one hand, and overcoming political, military, religious and social crises and disorders by having some personality traits and characteristics. And his behavior makes it possible to explain Ardeshir's personality and performance in the form of the theory of the charismatic leader Max Weber. Thus, the main issue of this research is to explain the personality of Ardeshir Babakan in the form of Max Weber's charismatic theory. Studies show that in addition to Ardeshir's personality and behavioral characteristics, the social and political conditions of the society could have paved the way for the emergence of a new leadership with a new ideology in the country. The findings of this study indicate that Ardashir I Sassanid with all personality traits, by taking some measures and with special attention to the Zoroastrian religion and the design of a new discourse of unity of religion and state to resolve political and social crises in society and finally aside. Taking over the government and choosing a suitable successor can be a charismatic leader. The research method in this article, according to its sociological approach, is to describe and analyze the data in the framework of "Charisma Theory" and to recognize the dimensions of personal, family, political and historical personality of Ardeshir Babakan in the framework of this theory

In the representation and retelling of the Mani religious movement in the first centuries' historiography, three main approaches can be identified except in a few narrations. These representations (at least in two approaches) are formulated with the central concept of "Zandiq." These three approaches are: First, the approach of conscious transition and conciseness, based on attitudes and narrations with anti- Zandiq content, with prominent representatives such as Tabari, Abu Hanifa Dinevari, Muskawiyyah, and Ibn Athir; Second, a historical-theological approach based on a heretical reading of the Mani movement with the world - influential historians such as Abu Rihan al-Biruni, al-Maqdisi, Tha'labi, Ya'qubi, and Khawaja Nizam al-Mulk al-Tusi; Third, a relatively descriptive-historical approach with a comparably lower value of judgments with historians such as Masoudi and Gardizi. In a deep entanglement with the discourse of this age, these three approaches create a set of propositions and narratives around the issue of Mani, of which this character and his religious movement are the focal points. The problem of this study is to explain why and how the Mani religious movement is represented in the historiography of the first centuries; With the hypothesis that the various aspects of this re-reading have been the product of the political, theological, and cultural space of this period as well as the ideas, methods, and insights of the historians of this period.

Based on the political culture of Iran during the Sassanid Period, the existing order in society is an example of heavenly order, and the King and other social classes are responsible for the establishment of order in society. However, the occurrence of Mazdak’s social movement in the 5th century was a sign of disruption in the social order of the time and demonstratedthat the prevalent political and social structures and the laws dominating the society had deviated from their main framework. Egalitarianism and justice-seeking, as the most important goals of Mazdak’s uprise, signify the existence of injustice and disorder in society. However, Mazdak and his movement have had an extremely negative and ambiguous reflection in the sources of the Sassanid period (Khwaday-Namag, a Middle Persian history text) and post-Sassanid Pahlavi texts. The writers of these texts introduce Mazdak as a satanic force and his movement as the cause of disorder in the Sassanid society. This study, which was conducted following a descriptive- analytic method, examines the relationship between Mazdak and his movement and social order. A careful study of Sassanid and post-Sassanid sources reveals that Mazdak’s uprise was the outcome of disorder in society and the poor government of the country in the Sassanid period.

Khwadāy-Nāmags are the result of the Sassanid Empire chronicling during the last centuries of their government. Although the genuine Khwadāy-Nāmags have been demolished, but the resources derived from them, such as the Shahnameh and the Islamic chronicles, show the Sassanid approach to the Parthians. So, to obtain the latest reports of the Sassanid era about the Parthians' history, it can be said that the most important sources are the works of Islamic historians who lived between the third to the fifth Hijri centuries and used the Khwadāy-Nāmags and other historical records produced in the mentioned era. The dual and paradoxical view of the Sasanians about the Parthians is distinguishable in these sources; on the one hand, according to the ancient Iranian political thoughts and the kingdom traditions, the Parthians stood in the genealogic dynasty of Iran's mythical kings, who had deserved to take the political power due to the possession of power in central Iran, and, the type of their government and their religious attitude have been criticized and denounced in these resources, on the other hand. According to many evidences, however, in the late centuries of the Sassanid rule, the famous Parthian families were among the high-ranking civil and military officials who provided important services. Through a descriptive-analytic approach to remaining narratives, the present study is to analyze the dual and paradoxical viewpoint of the Sassanians about the Parthians. The results show that the falsification and distortion of the Parthian history events and what can be recognized as an exaggerated and extreme confrontation between the natures of these governmental systems in Sassanian history are because of the chronicling manners the Sassanians used during the last centuries of their rule.

An origin of power and legitimating factor of kingdom in the Sassanid era was divine glory, but nature and mortar of this power was according to the will and acceptance of a group of elites including high priests (Mobbedans), military and
bureaucratic aristocracy, and other great ones and nobilities who were of importance and influence as hidden layers of power. At the time of strong and potent kings, this collective power came under of king's individual power, but at the time of other kings, it was this collective power that not only under shadowed king's individual power but also the whole political of Sassanid.  There was always conflict and tension among these layers of power which comprised top classes of the society. Sometimes a presence of common interests caused unanimity and convergence among these classes, but most of the time relationship between these classes was hypertensive, hostile, and based on jealousy, rivalry, criticism and conspiracy, and intrigue. On the other hand, since the kings saw their influence, ruling and supremacy in danger, they always looked at them with fear, caution combined with pessimism, meanwhile according to centralized policy in Sassanid era the king should by acting as chief of high layers of society to have them under his and supervision and establish balance of power among them, and in order to protect and stabilize the monarchy's ruling and power, should establish a proper relationship with them,  and by supporting Zarathustra religious apparatus against minorities and protecting priests' rational interests made the religious apparatus support structure of government and legitimacy of Sassanid dynasty. However, from the second half of Sassanid ruling, this relationship becomes disturbed, and the social order faces crisis; crisis of legitimacy, management, strife and quarreling,  rivalry, treason, suspicion, conspiracy, coup d'état and insurgency, abuse of
privileges and power, bigotry, violence, and greed of authorities which as a result of distrust or lapse of confidence as the most important pillar of social capital, confront the whole set with inability and inefficiency in composing or observance of organizational principles and structural ، and by ruling of such circumstances, the connections are completely ruined and Sassanid regime breaks down.

The historical evidence indicates that Arsacid kings tried to introduce themselves as heirs and the legitimize successors of Achaemenid kings; accordingly, they claimed their ancestral lands. They used this idea as means to legitimize their rule over Iran and to consolidate their political power. The aim of this paper, based on sources and documents and by using historical research methods is to show: first Arsacids claimed themselves as heirs and successor of Achaemenids in order to legitimize their political power; second, the study concludes that this idea took shape during the presence of Arsacids in East of Asia Minor and through political and cultural relations with Iranian governors and families in this region.