Abstract
The evidence of the history of the Persian Gulf in the pre-Islamic period is steadily growing. This is important because in comparison with the Mediterranean1 and the Black Sea,2 information on the Gulf is rather meager.3 This chapter does not attempt to provide a complete history of events, but rather focuses on the region’s slow cyclical rhythms with a four-hundred-year perspective. The Parthian Empire (247 b.c.e.–224 c.e.), which ruled the Near East in antiquity, had benefited from the Silk Road trade, which was not only land-based but also a sea trading route. The Parthians ruled in what may be called a feudal system, in which the local kingdoms along the Persian Gulf, in both the northern and southern region, were semi-independent. We know, for example, of a king or local ruler named Sanatruq who ruled over Bahrain.4 His name suggests that the ruler was Parthian, so we may surmise that he was installed by the Parthian king of kings. We also come across the title of Arabczrch. The Arabarch was a high official in the Parthian period who appears to have patrolled the desert area where the Arabs lived.5 Thus, the Parthians were certainly aware of the importance of their southern provinces and concerned with their control.
The usual diacritics for Avestan, Middk Persian and names have been omitted or simplified for the general reader. I would like to thank H. M. Al-Naboodah for comments, M. Kervran for her kindness in providing me with her latest unpublished manuscript on Bahrain and W. Soward for reading the manuscript.
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Notes
F. Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (New York: Harper and Row, 1972); and also his Memory and the Mediterranean (New York: Vintage Books, 2001).
Neal Ascherson, Black Sea (New York: Hill and Wang, 1995);
and more recently Charles King, The Black Sea: A History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).
C. E. Bosworth, trans., The History of al-Tabari, vol. 5, The Sasanids, the Byzantines, the Lakmids, and Yemen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999), 15.
M. A. R. Colledge, The Parthians, Ancient Peoples and Places (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967), 63.
I. Gershevitch, The Avestan Hymn to Mithra (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959), 80–81; See also Rashn Yasht, 15–19; Vendidad, XIX.39; Vispered, X.1. We know that this division is as old as the time of Zoroaster. In Yasna, 32.3 Zoroaster accuses the Daevas of such a crime: But all you Daevas are seed of evil thought, as is the “great” person worshipping you, as well as the actions of deceit and contempt, for which again and again you have become notorious in the seventh clime of the earth.
(H. Humbach, The Gathas of Zarathushtra and the Other Old Avestan Texts, Part I, Introduction: Text and Translation, Heidelberg 1991, 132.) Thus in a hymn to Mithra we fi nd an old reference to the division of the world, confi rmed by the Gathas of Zoroaster.
In India as well we come across such a division where the world is divided into seven regions (Sanskrit dvipa) which should convince us that the seven-partite division of the world is of Indo-Iranian origin (See M. Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism, vol. 1 (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1989), 134).
See also M. Schwartz, “The Old Eastern Iranian World View According to the Avesta,” in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2, The Median and Achaemenian Periods, ed. Ilya Gershevitch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 643.
Shahpur, Kaʿba-yi Zardusht (ŠKZ) 1–3. Ph. Huyse, Die dreisprachige Inschrift shabuhrs I. an der Kaʿba-i Zardusht, vol. 1, Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum (London, 1999), 22–24. An identical list is supplied at Naqsh-i Rustam;
see M. Back, Die Sassanidischen Staat-sinschriften, Acta Iranica 18 (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1978), 285–;
Richard N. Frye, The History of Ancient Iran (Munich, Germany: C. H. Beck, 1984), Appendix 4, 371.
For the evidence of Sasanian presence see B. de Cardi, “A Sasanian Outpost in Northern Oman,” Antiquity 46, no. 184 (December 1972): 308;
also D. T. Potts, “A Sasanian Lead Horse from North Eastern Arabia,” Iranica Antiqua 28 (1993): 197.
S. M. Awtab, Kitab ansab al-ʿarab, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Arabe 5019, 271r., after R. Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs from the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (New York and London: Routledge, 2001), 28.
Th. Nöldeke, Die von Guidi herausgegeben Syrische Chronik (Wien, 1893), 47.
The administrative reforms have been associated with Khusrau I in the sixth century. The reforms probably began during the reign of Kawad as a result of the Hephthalite victories during his father’s rule and as a result of Sasanian attempts to contend with several fronts at the same time. The Middle Persian and Islamic texts as well as the numismatic evidence suggest this fact. (T. Daryaee, “The Effect of the Arab Muslim Conquest on the Administrative Division of Sasanian Persis/Fars,” Iran 41 (2003): 1–12;
also see the comments of G. Gnoli, “The Quadripartition of the Sassanian Empire,” East and West 35 (1985): 270.)
For the numismatic evidence, see F. Gerent, “Deux notes à propos du monnayage du Xusro II,” Revue belge de Numismatique 140 (1994): 37. The same ordering is also found in the Armenian Geography of Xorenatsi;
see J. Marquart, Eranshahr nach der Geographie des Ps. Moses Xorenacʿi (Berlin, 1901).
T. Daryaee, Shahrestaniha-i Eranshahr, A Middle Persian Text on Late Antique Geography, Epic and History (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2002), 18–19, no. 25.
G. Rothstein, Die Dynastie de Lahmiden in al-Hira. Ein Persischen Geschichte zur Zeit der Sasaniden (Berlin, 1899), 134–38.
M. J. Kister, “Al-Hira, Some Notes on its Relations with Arabia,” Arabica 11 (1968): 167–68.
R. N. Frye, History of Ancient Iran; H. Mahamedi, “Walls as a System of Frontier Defense During the Sasanian Period,” Menog-i Xrad: The Spirit of Wisdom, Essays in Memory of Ahmad Tafazzoli, ed. T. Daryaee and M. Omidsalar (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2004), 157.
J. C. Wilkinson, “The Julanda of Oman,” The Journal of Oman Studies 1 (1975): 98 and Potts, Arabian Gulf in Antiquity, vol. 2, 329.
Monique Kervran, Fredrik Hiebert, and Axelle Rougeulle, Qalʿat al-Bahrain: A Trading and Military Outpost 3rd millennium b.c. –17th century a.d. (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2005), 211.
C. E. Bosworth, “Iran and the Arabs Before Islam,” in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3(1), The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods, ed. Ehsan Yarshater (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 600.
This is told by Nadr of Abd ad-Dar in Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (New York: Inner Traditions International, 1983), 89.
Z. Rubin, “The Reforms of Khusro Anushirwan,” in The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East: States, Resources and Armies, vol. 3, ed. A. Cameron (Princeton, NJ: The Darwin Press, 1995), 285.
A. H. M. Jones, “Asian Trade in Antiquity,” in Islam and the Trade of Asia, ed. D. S. Richards (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970), 9.
For the different routes which the Sasanians used, see A. Mustaufi, Rah-ha-yi sasani [Sasanian Roads], Geographical Publication of the University of Tehran, no. 1 (Tehran, n.d.); for the roads in Fars and Kirman, see Christopher Brunner, “Geographical and Administrative Divisions: Settlements and Economy,” in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3 (2), The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods, ed. Ehsan Yarshater (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 750–54.
For a good discussion of this building activity during this period see N. V. Pigulevskaïa, Les villes de l’état iranien aux épogues parthe et sassanide (Paris, 1963).
H. al-Isfahani, Kitab-i tarikh-i sini-yi muluk al-arz waʾl-anbiyaʾ, ed. S. H. Taqizadeh (Berlin, Germany, 1921), 44.
Potts, Arabian Gulf in Antiquity, vol. 2, 233. Also see R. N. Frye, “Bahrain under the Sasanians” in Mesopotamien und seine Nachbarn, vol. 2, ed. H. J. Nissen and J. Renger (Berlin, Germany: Berliner Beiträge zur Vordern Orient, 1983).
M. G. Morony, “The Late Sasanian Economic Impact on the Arabian Peninsula,” Nameye Iran-e Bastan, The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies, vol. 1, no. 2 (2002): 37.
Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Istakhri, Kitab al-Masalik waʾl Mamalik, trans. (Persian) as Masalik va Mamalik, Iraj Afshar (Tehran: Bungah-i Taijuma va Nashr-i Kitab, 1340/1961), 34; of course this is untrue, but the statement may mean that the pearls of Fars were valued over other pearls;
for a complete list of products of Fars see Paul Schwarz, Iran im Mittelalter nach den arabischen Geographen, Teil II (Leipzig, Germany: Otto Wigand, 1910).
Procopii Caesariensis Historiarum Temporis Sui Tetras Altera, De Bello Gothico, Lib. IV, cap. XVII, 212, translated from the Greek into Latin by Claudius Maltretus (Venice, 1729), in A Source Book for Medieval Economic History, Roy C. Cave and Herbert H. Coulson (New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1965), 244–45.
A. Williamson, “Persian Gulf Commerce in the Sassanian Period and the First Two Centuries of Islam,” Bastanshinasi va Honar-i Iran 9–10 (1972): 97–109;
M. Kervran, “Forteresses, entrepôts et commerce: une histoire à suivre depuis les rois sassanides jusqu’ aux princes d’ormuz,” Itinéraires d’orient, hommages à Claude Cahen, Res Orientales 6, eds. R. Curiel and R. Gyselen (Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l’étude de la civilisation du Moyen-Orient, 1994): 325–50.
M. Sutuda, ed., Hudud al-ʿAlam, Zaban va Farhang-i Iran 98 (Tehran, Iran: Tahuri Press, 1362/1983), 130, 131, 132, 135.
Istakhri, Masalik waʾl Mamalik, 37; E. H. Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, A Study in T’ang Exotics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963), 12–13.
B. Farahvashi, ed., Karnamak i Ardashir i Papakan (Tehran, Iran: University of Tehran Press, 1354/1976), 46; Kervran, “Forteresses, entrepôts et commerce,” 325–50.
Also I. Ra’in, Darya navardi-yi iranian [The Seamanship of Iranians], vol. 1 (Tehran, 1350/1972), 251–55;
and F. Fiorani Piacentini, “Ardashir I Papakan and the Wars against the Arabs: Working Hypothesis on the Sasanian Hold of the Gulf,” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 15 (1985): 57–77.
R. Boucharlat and J. F. Salles, “The History and Archaeology of the Gulf from the 5th Century b.c. to the 7th Century a.d.: A review of the Evidence,” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arab Studies 11 (1981): 66; the authors identify Rew-Ardaxshir with Bushehr, 69. Bushehr was a diocesan center for a Christian archbishop created in Fars in 415/420 a.d. under Shahpur II, 69–70.
D. Huff, “Archeology IV. Sasanian,” Encyclopædia Iranica 2 (1987): 303.
N. M. Lowick, The Coins and Monumental Inscriptions, Siraf XV (London: British Institute of Persian Studies, 1985), 11–16.
Valeria Fiorani Piacentini, Merchants, Merchandise, and Military Power in the Persian Gulf: (Suriyan/Shahriyaj-Siraf), Atti Della Accademia Nazionale Dei Lincei (Rome: Accademia Nazionale Dei Lincei, 1992), 117.
Astodon: a receptacle for bones; see L. Trümpelmann, “Sasanian Graves and Burial Customs,” Arabic orientale, Mésopotamie et Iran méridional: de lʾâge du fer au début de la période islamique, Histoire du Golfe (Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 1984), 317;
L. Trümpelmann, Zwischen Persepolis und Firuzabad, Gräber, Paläste und Felsreliefs im alten Persien (Mainz, Germany: Verlag Philipp Von Zabern, 1992), 19–20; the cemetery at Siraf also contained chambers, measuring 2 meters across by 1.5 meters high which contained bones.
See D. Whitehouse, “Excavations at Siraf: Fifth Interim Report,” Iran X (1972): 65.
D. Whitehouse and A. Williamson, “Sasanian Maritime Trade,” Iran XI (1973): 35.
D. Whitehouse, “Excavations at Siraf: Fourth Interim Report,” Iran IX (1971): 3. There is a Sasanian copper coin in Siraf;
see D. Whitehouse, “Excavations at Siraf, Sixth Interim Report,” Iran XII (1974), 7.
Sylvia A. Matheson, Persia: An Archaeological Guide, 2nd ed. (London: Faber and Faber, 1976), 247; see now 3rd edition (Tehran, Iran: Yassavoli, 2000), 135–37.
H. St. J. B. Philby, “Southern Najd,” The Geographical Journal 55 (1920): 168; Potts, Arabian Gulf in Antiquity, vol. 2, 208.
Mahmood Ibrahim, Merchant Capital and Islam (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), 48.
J. C. Wilkinson, “Suhar in the Early Islamic Period: The Written Evidence,” South Asian Archaeology, vol. 2, ed. E. Taeddi (1973), 888.
D. Whitehouse, “Maritime Trade in the Arabian Sea: The 9th and 10th Centuries a.d.,” South Asian Archaeology vol. 2, ed. M. Taddei (1977), 874–79.
B. de Cardi, “The British Archaeological Expedition to Qatar 1973–1974,” Antiquity (Rome, Italy) 48, no. 191 (September 1974): 199.
B. de Cardi, “Archaeological Survey in N. Trucial States,” East and West (Rome, Italy) 21, no. 3–4 (September–December 1971): 260 and 268.
D. C. Baramki, “An Ancient Caravan Station in Dubai,” Illustrated London News 2903 (1975); Potts, Arabian Gulf in Antiquity, vol. 2, 298.
H. M. al-Naboodah, “The Commercial Activity of Bahrain and Oman in the Early Middle Ages,” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 22 (1992): 81.
Procopius I, History of the Wars, Books 1–2 (Persian War), trans. H. B. Dewing, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1914; repr. London: W. Heinemann, 1953–62), 12.
J. Kröger, “Sasanian Iran and India: Questions of Interaction,” South Asian Archaeology 5 (1979): 441–48.
Kosma aigyptiou monachou Christianike topographia [The Christian Topography of Cosmas, an Egyptian Monk], trans. and ed. J. W. McCrindle (London: Halduyt Society, 1897; repr. New York: Burt Franklin, 1973), 365.
For the identification of the following mints, see R. Gyselen, “Ateliers monétaires et cachets sasanides,” Studia Iranica 8, fasc. 2 (1979): 210.
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© 2009 Lawrence G. Potter
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Daryaee, T. (2009). The Persian Gulf in Late Antiquity: The Sasanian Era (200–700 c.e.). In: Potter, L.G. (eds) The Persian Gulf in History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230618459_3
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