Author | William B. Fisher, Ilya Gershevitch, Ehsan Yarshater, Richard Nelson Frye, John Andrew Boyle, Peter Jackson, Laurence Lockhart, Peter Avery, Gavin Hambly, Charles P. Melville (eds.) |
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Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Discipline | History of Iran |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Published | 1968–1989 |
No. of books | 8 |
OCLC | 159881392 |
The Cambridge History of Iran is a multi-volume survey of Iranian history published in the United Kingdom by Cambridge University Press. The seven volumes cover "the history and historical geography of the land which is present-day Iran, as well as other territories inhabited by peoples of Iranian descent, from prehistoric times up to the present. [1]
The publication started in 1968 and in 1989 the last volume was published. The idea of publishing such a survey of Iranian history and culture was conceived in 1959 by Arthur J. Arberry. According to the scholar Hubert Darke, who served as editorial secretary to the project between 1970 and 1993, "The series was planned to be not simply a political history of Iran but to survey the culture which has flourished in the Iranian region and this culture's contribution to the civilization of the world. All aspects of the religious, philosophical, economic, scientific, and artistic elements in Iranian civilization have been studied, but with some emphasis on the geographical and ecological factors that have contributed to its special character." [1]
The series consists of seven volumes. Volume 3 was published in two parts. [1]
The title, editors and the publication date of the series are [1]
Balash was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 484 to 488. He was the brother and successor of Peroz I, who had been defeated and killed by a Hephthalite army.
Arsaces I was the first king of Parthia, ruling from 247 BC to 217 BC, as well as the founder and eponym of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia. The leader of the Parni, one of the three tribes of the Dahae confederacy, Arsaces founded his dynasty in the mid-3rd century BC when he conquered the satrapy of Parthia from Andragoras, who had rebelled against the Seleucid Empire. He spent the rest of his reign consolidating his rule in the region, and successfully stopped the Seleucid efforts to reconquer Parthia. Due to Arsaces' achievements, he became a popular figure amongst the Arsacid monarchs, who used his name as a royal honorific. By the time of his death, Arsaces had laid the foundations of a strong state, which would eventually transform into an empire under his great-grandnephew, Mithridates I, who assumed the ancient Near Eastern royal title of King of Kings. Arsaces was succeeded by his son Arsaces II.
Shahre Ray, Shahr-e Ray, Shahre Rey, or Shahr-e Rey or simply Ray or Rey (ری), is the capital of Rey County in Tehran Province, Iran. Formerly a distinct city, it has now been absorbed into the metropolitan area of Greater Tehran as the 20th district of municipal Tehran, the capital city of the country.
Phraates II was king of the Parthian Empire from 132 BC to 127 BC. He was the son and successor of Mithridates I.
Arsaces II, was the Arsacid king of Parthia from 217 BC to 191 BC.
Ehsan Yarshater was an Iranian historian and linguist who specialized in Iranology. He was the founder and director of the Center for Iranian Studies, and Hagop Kevorkian Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Columbia University.
Andragoras was an Iranian satrap of the Seleucid provinces of Parthia and Hyrcania under the Seleucid rulers Antiochus I Soter and Antiochus II Theos. He later revolted against his overlords, ruling independently from 245 BC till his death.
The Treaty of Nvarsak was signed between the Armenian rebel leader Vahan Mamikonian and the representatives of the Sasanian King of Kings (shahanshah) Balash at Nvarsak in 484.
Sistān, also known as Sakastān and Sijistan, is a historical region in present-day south-eastern Iran, south-western Afghanistan and extending across the borders of south-western Pakistan. Mostly corresponding to the then Achaemenid region of Drangiana and extending southwards of the Helmand River not far off from the city of Alexandria in Arachosia. Largely desert, the region is bisected by the Helmand River, the largest river in Afghanistan, which empties into the Hamun Lake that forms part of the border between Iran and Afghanistan.
Meshan was a province of the Sasanian Empire. It consisted of the Parthian vassal kingdom of Characene and reached north along the Shatt al-Arab river and then the lower Tigris to Madhar and possibly further. Its inhabitants included Babylonians, Arabs, Iranians, and even some Indians and Malays. The province was very fertile, the best place for barley according to Strabo, and contained many date palms. It was also an important trading province along the Persian Gulf.
The House of Karen, also known as Karen-Pahlav, was one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran during the rule of Parthian and Sassanian Empires. The seat of the dynasty was at Nahavand, about 65 km south of Ecbatana. Members of the House of Karen were of notable rank in the administrative structure of the Sassanian empire in multiple periods of its four century-long history.
Amazasp III or Hamazasp I was a king (mepe) of Iberia from 260 to 265 AD. According to Cyril Toumanoff he may have been a scion of the Pharnavazid dynasty, while Richard N. Frye states that he was an Iranian, possibly related to the royal Sasanian family.
Parthia is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC, and formed part of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire after the 4th-century BC conquests of Alexander the Great. The region later served as the political and cultural base of the Eastern Iranian Parni people and Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire. The Sasanian Empire, the last state of pre-Islamic Iran, also held the region and maintained the seven Parthian clans as part of their feudal aristocracy.
Khwadāy-Nāmag was a Middle Persian history from the Sasanian era. Now lost, it was imagined by Theodor Nöldeke to be the common ancestor of all later Persian-language histories of the Sasanian Empire, a view which has recently been disproven. It was supposed to have been first translated into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa', who had access to Sasanian court documents. According to Nöldeke's theory, the book itself was composed first under the reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan, and redacted in the reign of the last Sasanian monarch, Yazdegerd III. Khwaday-Namag was the primary source of the 10th-century Persian epic Shahnameh written by Ferdowsi. Khwaday-Namag was also translated to New Persian, and was expanded using other sources, by Samanid scholars under the supervision of Abu Mansur Mamari in 957, but only the introduction of this work remains today.
Hyspaosines was the founder of Characene, a kingdom situated in southern Mesopotamia. He was originally a Seleucid satrap installed by king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but declared independence in 141 BC after the collapse and subsequent transfer of Seleucid authority in Iran and Babylonia to the Parthians. Hyspaosines briefly occupied the Parthian city of Babylon in 127 BC, where he is recorded in records as king (šarru). In 124 BC, however, he was forced to acknowledge Parthian suzerainty. He died in the same year, and was succeeded by his juvenile son Apodakos.
Eran-asan-kerd-Kawad or Iran asan kar(t) Kavad was a Sasanian city founded by Kavad I in the Hulwan region. It was the capital of a province possibly identical to the Hulwan region and bordering the provinces of Syarazur (Shahrizor) and Garamig. The geographer Josef Markwart placed the city between Adiabene and Garamig. It is mentioned in both Armenian sources and the Middle Persian Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr.
Ruyan, later known as Rustamdar (رستمدار), was the name of a mountainous district that encompassed the western part of Tabaristan/Mazandaran, a region on the Caspian coast of northern Iran.
Karka d-Ledan, also known as Eranshahr-Shapur, and Eran asan kar(t) Kavad, was one of the four Sasanian major cities of Khuzestan. It was (re)founded by King of Kings (shahanshah) Shapur II in 338, who had a winter palace established there. Karka d-Ledan is identified with the modern site of Ivan-e Kerkha.
Khuzistan or Huzistan was a Sasanian province in Late Antiquity, which almost corresponded to the present-day province of Khuzestan. Its capital was Gundeshapur. During the late Sasanian era, the province was included in the southern quadrant (kust) of Nemroz.