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persian historiography
#8
Short answer would be "no". No Persian histories were preserved in the way the classical ones were. Writing history is a political thing and it seems that in Persia it was state-controlled activity. We know that histories of the kings were preserved in Xvaday Nama which became foundation of Firdawsi's Shahnameh. There are short books in pahlavi like Aydagar e Ardashir e Papakan, Aydegar e Zareran, Xusro ud Redag or mentioned Arda Viraz Namag. There are historical passages in Denkard.None of these is true history. I can hardly believe that this was due to carnage made by Arabs, Turks and Mongols. IMO it results from very different literary tradition and vivid institution of proffessional songs performers/minstrels called gosan, who knew their songs by heart while writing had more practical - administrative function reserved for dabiran. As the result there was no true interest in WRITING history. Naturally mediaeval Persian literature contains numerous references to older books (to be written even by kings) which are now lost however we can say the same about literature of classical world.
Vivid discussion which have continued for some 40 years whether Sasanians were or were not aware of Achaemenids would be foundationless if persian historiography existed.
Patryk N. Skupniewicz
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Messages In This Thread
persian historiography - by elagababbalus - 10-07-2009, 11:07 AM
Re: persian historiography - by Jona Lendering - 10-07-2009, 11:23 AM
Re: persian historiography - by Eleatic Guest - 10-07-2009, 12:22 PM
Re: persian historiography - by elagababbalus - 10-09-2009, 11:39 AM
Re: persian historiography - by D B Campbell - 10-09-2009, 08:03 PM
Re: persian historiography - by Sean Manning - 10-10-2009, 06:01 PM
Re: persian historiography - by Gäiten - 10-10-2009, 07:40 PM
Re: persian historiography - by Roxofarnes - 10-20-2009, 08:36 PM

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