05-29-2006, 09:25 PM
There is no such thing as Persian historiography in "our" sense of the word. If there was any, it is now lost, although echoes survive in the Avesta (the sacred book of Zoroastranism) and Shahname (the Epic of Kings by Firdausi). It is interesting that all westerners were called Romans, including, for example, Alexander the Great. This says something about the impression Rome made.
Still, there are inscriptions and texts like the Res Gestae Divae Saporis that deal with the Roman wars. Perhaps the most impressive source is the Sassanid rock art. With one possible exception, only victories over Roman emperors were considered to be important enough for rock reliefs. Here are some examples:
[url:399pgpjd]http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/sassanids/sassanid-reliefs.html[/url]
At the moment, Farhad Assar (Oxford) is preparing the first (!!) edition of Parthian sources - coins, cuneiform tablets, ostraca, et cetera. He has already prepared a family tree of the Arsacids and has now reconstructed the Parthian calendar. I will be writing an article about this man because it strikes me as remarkable that four centuries of Iranian history have been ignored and are now depending on one man's efforts. Cf. [url:399pgpjd]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Iranica-L/[/url]
Still, there are inscriptions and texts like the Res Gestae Divae Saporis that deal with the Roman wars. Perhaps the most impressive source is the Sassanid rock art. With one possible exception, only victories over Roman emperors were considered to be important enough for rock reliefs. Here are some examples:
[url:399pgpjd]http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/sassanids/sassanid-reliefs.html[/url]
Quote:What do we know from first-hand Persian sources? How many Western historian are actually doing research in Iranian libraries?Not too much. It is interesting to notice that the Cambridge History of Iran almost ignores the Parthians; the chapter on the subject is essentially an update of the scholarship of Bivar in the 1930's.
At the moment, Farhad Assar (Oxford) is preparing the first (!!) edition of Parthian sources - coins, cuneiform tablets, ostraca, et cetera. He has already prepared a family tree of the Arsacids and has now reconstructed the Parthian calendar. I will be writing an article about this man because it strikes me as remarkable that four centuries of Iranian history have been ignored and are now depending on one man's efforts. Cf. [url:399pgpjd]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Iranica-L/[/url]
