persian historiography

[elagababbalus]

Hello,

I have a question that has puzzled me for a while and I am hoping someone could shed some light on it. In all the material I have read on the Roman empire and its relations with the Persians the source material is all Greek/Roman. What Persian material exists is inscriptions and the like not historians.

Is there no Persian equivalent to Ammianus/Procopius/Tacitus etc? Or is that there are historians but they haven't been translated to Western languages or there were Persian historians but they have since been lost due to the wars with the Arabs/Mongols?

Thanks for any help

[Jona Lendering]

Is there no Persian equivalent to Ammianus/Procopius/Tacitus etc?

No. The closest we get to a long historical text is the Behistun Inscription and, centuries later, the Deeds of the Divine Shapur (no longer online, I think). There are some other bits of pieces, like the historical remarks in the apocalyptic text known as the Book of Arda Wiraz, but generally speaking, history as a literary genre was not developed. The reconstruction of Parthian history is almost completely based on coinage and ostraca, and only a handful of written sources (overview).

An interesting phenomenon is what I call "absolutizing the sources". Because there are so preciously few sources, everything is taken as if it is the undeniable truth; I wrote about that here. Any remark by Herodotus or Ammian is taken literaly, and anthropological insights into the nature of oral society are simply ignored, because that would at first sight mean that you have really nothing left. Yet, the combination of archaeology, state-of-the-art understanding of oral traditions, and anthropology have facilitated important new conclusions about, say, the rise of Iranian power in the seventh/sixth centuries BCE.

You may like Josef Wiesehofer's Ancient Persia; he offers an overview of the history and sources. For Achaemenid history, there's always Briant's Brick.

I hope this helps. I'd wish I could follow this thread a bit more over the next couple of days, but I will fly to Tehran next Friday, and will remain in the Middle East for about a month.

[Eleatic Guest]

Only the Greek (since the 5th c. BC) and the Chinese (since the 1st c. BC) culture have recorded events in antiquity in a manner which we are prepared to call history. That said, we know of some ethnic non-Greek historians (Jews, Phoenicians, Babylonians) also dedicating themselves to historical writing, but they were culturally drawn into the Hellenistic cosmos and composed their works in Greek.

[elagababbalus]

thanks for the information Jona and Stefan

[D B Campbell]

For Achaemenid history, there's always Briant's Brick.

lol

From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (Hardcover)
Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 2.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 4 pounds

hock:

[Sean Manning]

And the Brick still isn't much of a narrative history, so you need another weighty tome for that!

One problem is that in Roman times cuneiform fell out of use in Mesopotamia, while Egypt had already become part of the Greek world. So I think that the kind of non-narrative sources which we have for Achaemenid times aren't available any more.

[Gäiten]

You just have to remember what high carnage was done to Persia (Muslim conquest, Mongol conquest, Timur Tamerlane`s holocaust).

[Roxofarnes]

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.