Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire.

Mirkovic, Alexander

Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. By TOURAJ DARYAEE. London: I. B. TAURIS in association with Iran Heritage Foundation, 2013 (reprint). Pp. xxvi + 225, illus. $29 (paper).

Iranian studies is regrettably a small field, and within it, an even smaller number of researchers focus on the Sasanian Empire. Touraj Daryaee claims that this lack of attention is not accidental, but that it reflects a widely held belief that non-Western nations do not have history. These sentiments of the author are on target, because Iran definitely has a lot of history, but that history has been consistently overlooked or, worse, distorted. One only needs to recall the racially charged movie 300, to see how the popular culture of the West caricatures Iran.

Even among scholars, ancient Persia and today's Iran have often been on the receiving end of these on occasion accidental but now and again purposeful efforts at distortion. The Iranian grudge against Western biases is longstanding. First the Athenians, then Alexander the Great, then the Romans, then the Crusaders, then the British, the Russians, and finally today the Americans, have tried to marginalize Iran. To see the world from the point of view of Iran is really a lesson that we should not miss and this book provides us with a unique opportunity. Touraj Daryaee is one of those brave pioneers who have decided to carry the burdens of Persian studies and to contribute to our education by writing one of the few histories of the Sasanid state and society in circulation, offering his readers not only a rare glimpse into Persian history, but also an exceptional opportunity to correct a persistent historical prejudice.

In addition to being one of the few available books on Sasanian Persia, this is also a good history, which is no small achievement, considering the difficulties of the field. The Sasanian period (224-651 C.E.), sandwiched between the glorious classical Persia of the Achaemenids (550-330 B.C.E.) and the widely known Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates (661-1258 C.E.) is a difficult area to study. It requires knowledge of several research languages, such as Greek and Latin, because of the long-standing rivalry between the Graeco-Roman East and the Sasanians. Knowledge of Sanskrit and the Vedas also comes in handy, because the Sasanians codified the Zoroastrian holy writings, the Avesta, the language and the content of which are fairly similar to the Vedas.

Knowledge of Arabic is highly recommended, since many of our best sources come from the pen of Arab historians, such as Al-Tabari, whose writings still provide the main storyline of Sasanid history and Daryaee has wisely used them in this book in abundance. Knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic is also a great asset, because the Babylonian Talmud was put together under the Sasanians and it is now seen as a very good source for social history of the empire. One should also mention Syriac, the language of the Church of the East, the officially recognized Christian Church in the Sasanian Empire (known in the West as the Nestorian). All these languages are needed in addition to the official language of the Sasanids, Middle Persian. Sasanid Persia, thus, is not only the victim of a number of modern and pre-modern prejudices, but is also a difficult period to study.

The author makes it clear that he would like to write a Sasanian history from the insiders', that is, an emic, point of view. This is not an easy task, because of the nature of our sources. For example, Daryaee largely dismisses Greek and Roman sources as hostile. He correctly stresses that too often Sasanian history has been treated as an appendix to Roman history. This might have been a somewhat rash decision, since historians often deal with hostile sources in creative ways. The other problem of biased sources concerns the Muslim historians, especially those writing under the Abbasids, who out of their own convictions purposefully presented the Sasanians as a corrupt culture which "prepared the way" for Islam. Teleology is a great enemy of history. This prejudice persisted until recently in the Arab world as well as in Iran itself.

Considering that the author has made a case for the biases of previous scholarship, one wonders why readers were not more explicitly informed about these Abbasid biases. For example, in several places, the author claims that Zoroastrians, while facing prejudice, were nonetheless considered "people of the book." This statement does not square with the proclamation in the Quran that only Jews, Christians, and Sabians (Gnostics) were considered "people of the book." This is not a major reproach, but a sympathetic reminder that all biases should be treated equally, whether Graeco-Roman or Muslim-Abbasid.

The book is divided in five sections covering political, social, religious, cultural, and economic history. The first section is a well-written storyline of Sasanian dynastic history. I found this chapter the most interesting, full of imaginative portraits, inventive interpretations of well-known episodes, all of these a signal that Daryaee was writing a very creative re-interpretation of the Sasanian story. It is fairly obvious that the author is moving away from the narrative of political history into social and cultural history presented in the remaining sections. There is great deal of original research in these sections on social, religious, and economic history, especially in the usage of Sasanian seals and the description of the administrative structure of the empire.

While these chapters break some new ground in Sasanian social history, they do not read as well as the first chapter. It would, in my opinion, be an improvement if the author were to abandon the use of relatively obscure jargon and adopt more common expressions. For example, throughout the book the term "Iranshahr" is consistently used. Nothing would be lost by replacing that term with an adequate English translation, "Greater Iran," and a lot would be gained in clarity and approachability of the text. I know that Middle Eastern scholars often feel the need to introduce neologisms into their professional discourse, but this practice often hurts more than it helps.

The book itself is short, about 150 pages of actual text on Sasanian history, and I am certain that the author will eventually produce a more comprehensive version. That would be a continuation of an already excellent project and I await eagerly the expanded edition. As it stands, the book is already an excellent introduction to Sasanian history, useful not only to a general readership, but also to experienced scholars. It is not only readable, but it contains extensive and up-to-date notes and a large and comprehensive bibliography. It is clear that Touraj Daryaee possesses a full mastery of his field and has produced a useful, appealing, well-researched, and innovative monograph aimed at introducing a general readership to Sasanian history.

ALEXANDER MIRKOVIC

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN