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"Ancient Persia"
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The pharaoh vs. the felines
\"Fighting for land is a tale as old as time. So, when two of the great ancient empires -- Egypt and Persia -- set their sights on the Fertile Crescent, it seemed an epic battle was on the horizon. At first, Cambyses II, the ruler of Persia, proposed love not war, asking to marry his rival's daughter. Amasis, the Egyptian pharaoh, agreed, but then sent an imposter instead of his beloved princess. The claws were out! Cambyses thought of everything he knew about his enemy. What was their weakness? What could he use against them? His solution is as a-mew-sing as it's surprising: Cambyses would use the Egyptians' love of cats to beat them. The line in the litterbox was drawn! Would his scheme win the war or end in cat-astrophe? J. F. Fox goes way, way, way back to find this fascinating story for the Head-to-Head History series, showing how the fate of an empire can rest in four small paws. Historical notes, a glossary, and a bibliography promote inquiry-based learning. Anna Kwan's comic-style speech bubbles and dynamic illustrations showcase plenty of humor and historical detail.\"-- Provided by publisher.
CHILDBOOK
A state of mixture
Christian communities flourished during late antiquity in a Zoroastrian political system, known as the Iranian Empire, that integrated culturally and geographically disparate territories from Arabia to Afghanistan into its institutions and networks. Whereas previous studies have regarded Christians as marginal, insular, and often persecuted participants in this empire, Richard Payne demonstrates their integration into elite networks, adoption of Iranian political practices and imaginaries, and participation in imperial institutions.The rise of Christianity in Iran depended on the Zoroastrian theory and practice of hierarchical, differentiated inclusion, according to which Christians, Jews, and others occupied legitimate places in Iranian political culture in positions subordinate to the imperial religion. Christians, for their part, positioned themselves in a political culture not of their own making, with recourse to their own ideological and institutional resources, ranging from the writing of saints' lives to the judicial arbitration of bishops. In placing the social history of East Syrian Christians at the center of the Iranian imperial story,A State of Mixturehelps explain the endurance of a culturally diverse empire across four centuries.
eBook
Law of Contracts in Late Antique Persia
The article is about private law contracts and their social, economic, and religious background in Sasanian Persia (224–651) before the advent of Islam. After a brief introduction to the sources and research method, the paper examines Zoroastrian moral teachings about obligations in general and contractual obligations in particular. To emphasise the religious background, the Avestan hymn to Mithra and the Vendidad are scrutinised which have a classification of contracts and a pyramid of sanctions for their breach. The second part of the article analyses private law contracts, which can be found in the Sasanian Law Book called Madigan I Hazar Dadestan, such as sale, barter, donation, lease, and loan, together with legal guarantees such as surety and pledge. In addition to legal dogmatics, attention is also paid to gaps in the law and the opportunities they provide for parties to achieve unlawful ends with legal means, as well as the prudence of Sasanian lawyers and how they stopped such abuses of the law.
Journal Article
Understanding Mathematical-based Language: A Case Study of the Chalcolithic Period, Proto-Elamite
This study aimed to validate the hypothesis that indicates ancient Proto-Elamite artists knew about math-based principles of arrangement. A formal and geometric-proportional analysis was carried out on the design of motifs to find the content and to quantify the math-based relations among elements and the effect of curvature on golden division points. The curvature effect in front view was quantified and the basic relation to calculate relative error was developed according to the measurable factors. The results showed that repetition, proximity, and continuation were the techniques used to create unity. The contrast was achieved using exaggeration, incorporation of positive and negative spaces, and breaking of patterns. For further emphasis, the artist broke the overall pattern by making changes in the size and form. The examined proportional models featured a ratio close to the golden number that was used to establish a pleasant link between elements. There was a delectable concinnity between the golden proportional models and the placement of areas visually highlighted. Overall, there are two possible scenarios regarding the ancient designers: they either had an understanding of geometrical laws or were subconsciously inspired by the nature to apply such principles and proportions. There is no doubt that these images have been very skillfully simplified and the knowledge of graphic design among ancient humans cannot be denied.
Journal Article
The Influence of Gondeshapur Medicine during the Sassanid Dynasty and the Early Islamic Period
The development of the most active period of Persian medicine occurred in the ancient city of Gondeshapur, between the third and seventh centuries. Rebuilt between 256 and 260 by Shapur I, the second Sassanid monarch, Gondeshapur is said to have welcomed the first hospital and the consequent study of medicine, mainly based on the Greek system. It has also been mentioned that these teachings would be expanded by his successor, Shapur II. However, both statements need solid confirmation. Nestorian priests-professors and other academics expelled from the Byzantine Empire gave fundamental encouragement to cultural and medical development in Gondeshapur. With Khosrow I, Gondeshapur became a cosmopolitan city with studies of medicine, philosophy, eloquence, and music. The medical studies were conducted in an academic setting, and practiced in a hospital, with the documentary support of a library which would be provided with the main texts, mainly of Greek, Syrian, and Indian origin. The Byzantine-inspired hospital system of Gondeshapur with its own management, organic system, and differentiated personnel, was later reproduced in several cities of the Middle East and medieval Europe under Islamic rule. The academic prestige and functionality of Gondeshapur, which peaked in the seventh century, began to decline in the following centuries apparently due to the creation of similar intellectual and hospital centres in Baghdad, by the Caliph al-Mansur, and the subsequent transfer of doctors, technicians, professors and other personnel from Gondeshapur, to ensure there the operation of hospitals and also medical studies. This cultural policy was continued and expanded by al-Mansur successors, in particular by the Caliph al-Ma’mun, until the tenth century.
Journal Article
Kurt Erdmann (1901-1964)
Kurt Erdmann was one of the foremost German art historians of the first half of the 20th century in the field of medieval and early modern Middle Eastern art.1 In order to understand his life it is important not only to ask who he was, but under what conditions he performed his studies and to look at the context of his life in the history of his time.During much of his life he was a scholar in the Islamic Department of the State Museums of Berlin but was also active in teaching at universities. Although he is perhaps best-known for his publications on Oriental carpets, he wrote on various subjects as his studies encompass the early Iranian dynasties from the Achaemenians to the Sasanians as well as different topics of the long period of Islamic rule and its art production. Like other art historians of the Islamic Department such as Friedrich Sarre (1865-1945) and Ernst Kühnel (1882-1964),2 he started with Western art history and continued from there on into the medieval and early modern Middle Eastern art. He always kept his interest in Western art and was thus able to include this knowledge for his studies in Sasanian art and on Oriental carpets.
Journal Article
The Horse and the Lion in Achaemenid Persia: Representations of a Duality
This paper explores the ambiguous Persian Achaemenid attitude towards the horse and the lion. It examines the way these animals appear in imperial official presentations, local artifacts throughout the empire and Greek textual representations. In the case of the stallion, it looks at the imagery of horse riding or the place of the horse in society and religion alongside the employment of steeds in chariots. Images of the lion are addressed in instances where it appears to be respected as having a significant protective power and as the prey of the chase. This paper attempts to show that this ambiguity corresponds roughly to the dual image of the Persians as both pre-imperial/nomad and imperial/sedentary (and hence allegedly luxurious), a schism that is manifest in both the self-presentation of the Achaemenids and in the Greek texts.
Journal Article
Caylus, Winckelmann, and the art of 'Persian' gems
Although early modern European travellers and antiquarians frequently engaged with the ruins of Persepolis when contemplating Persian antiquity, the pioneering art historians of the eighteenth century turned to engraved gems for their studies of ancient Persian art. In the major published works of Anne-Claude-Phillipe, comte de Caylus and Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the so-called ‘Persian’ gems provided empirical evidence of the art of this lesser known corner of the ancient world. Unlike the Persepolis reliefs, which were known only through engravings, the gems were accessible in European collections, and hence they appealed to the working methods of these two men. The results of Caylus’ and Winckelmann’s studies of ‘Persian’ gems established Persia’s place in art history’s fundamental cultural hierarchy.
Journal Article
History and species of autobiography in Ancient Persia
Autobiography is one of the genres that have been neglected in the researches of Persian literature; While Persian literature is full of examples of autobiography and if we want to refer to provided history of this genre in Persian literature, we will get Ghazzali and Avicenna. We see many examples of this genre in our ancient Iranian culture and literature that language and literary characteristics of them indicate the authenticity and origin of this genre in our culture and literature. Therefore, this article introduces and discusses examples of this genre in ancient Persia. The inscriptions and books of ancient Persia which have autobiographical traits are statistical population of the study. However, because of the varieties of inscriptions only style and narration of three inscriptions of the kings of Achaemenid and Sassanid; Cyrus, Darius and first Shapour have been investigated and the autobiography of \"Mani\" and one of the priests of the Sassanid period called \"Kartir\", have been analyzed from amongst the books of this genre. Methods of this article at first will be checking the content of these records and a compare and classification of their themes, then, index elements of structure of the autobiographies such as Narratology, characters, time and place will be discussed. Results show that we must search the fir t of autobiographies in ancient Persia. They have been published in the form of inscriptions from kings of this period. They also fit with the culture of that time when ideal king was selected based on the principle of race, culture and art. For this reason, king highlighted these three principles in his autobiography. The second category that has a fundamental role in the creation of this genre is religious figures such as Kartir and Manny. So we have mentioned two kinds of political and religious ancient Iranian autobiography. Structure of autobiographies in ancient Persia is so similar that they can be considered like modern forms – their questions are clear and autobiographer just fills them out. This implies the formality of this kind of writing in ancient Persian's courts, So that the structure does not change even by the change in the position of autobiographer. For example, \"Kartir\" has written structure of his writing inscriptions like kings of ancient Iran in the form of text and epilogue but they are different in terms of content, because the content is affected by his position and experience.
Journal Article
A Study of Practical Geometry in Sassanid Stucco Ornament in Ancient Persia
This paper attempts to survey the use of practical geometry in Sassanid stucco ornament in Ancient Persia to understand the construction of geometrical structures and the progressive process of practical geometry. By use of geometrical analysis, we trace changes of ornament and extract the underlying geometrical structure; we also use symmetry groups, the seven frieze groups and the seventeen wallpaper groups, in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of practical geometry in Sassanid stucco ornament. These analyses will evince features of Sassanid stucco ornament such as: motifs as part of the whole; rotational symmetry and repetition of motifs in linear networks; application of complicated geometrical structures with rotational or reflection symmetry; the planning of whole decorative panels. Also, analyzing the Sassanid stucco panels allows us to discover their repetitive units, which are then classified according to frieze and wallpaper groups.
Journal Article