Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T06:11:11.579Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Get access

Summary

This volume encompasses a time span of about one thousand years, from the emergence of the Seleucid empire in 312 B.C. to the collapse of the Sasanian empire in A.D. 651. The period saw the rise and fall of three mighty dynasties, the Seleucids, the Arsacids, and the Sasanians, as well as the formation of a number of states and empires to the east, notably the Greco-Bactrian kingdom and the Kushan empire. In the religious sphere the millennium witnessed the expansion of gnostic tendencies in western Iran and Mesopotamia, culminating in the appearance and spread of Manichaeism; the consolidation of Zoroastrianism under the Sasanians as an authoritarian state Church; and the birth and suppression of the egalitarian movement of the Mazdakites. In more general terms, the era saw the ascendency and demise of Hellenism in Iran; the development of a distinct Iranian art-style with wide impact; the evolution of a national saga; the development of local systems of writing in the major provinces; and finally, the shaping of an administrative system and court procedures which were to play an important role in the 'Abbasid caliphate and its eastern vassal states.

THE HISTORY OF THE PERIOD

Seleucus, one of Alexander's generals, seized Babylon in 312 B.C. and forged a large empire which included most of western Asia. The eastern provinces of the empire, however, where the Parthians, Bactrians, Sogdians and Chorasmians lived, did not remain long in the possession of the Seleucids, slipping away from their hold when the satrapies of Bactria and Parthia aspired to sovereignty. The defection in 246 B.C. of Diodotus, satrap of Bactria, marked the beginning of a new dynasty, the Greco-Bactrian, which gradually expanded southward, occupying the Kabul valley, the Peshawar region, and Taxila in the Punjab.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Burstein, S. M. The Babyloniaca of Berossus (Malibu, Ca., 1978)
Dihkudā, , Amthāl u bikam II, 2nd printing (Tehran, 1959)
Duchesne-Guillemin, J.Ahriman et le Dieu suprême dans les mystères de Mithra”, Numen II (1955)Google Scholar
Duchesne-Guillemin, J., The Western Response to Zoroaster (Oxfored, 1958)
Jackson, A. V. W., Zoroastrian Studies (New York, 1928; repr. 1965), Ch. 13.
Khwārazmī, , Mafātihal-’ulūm, ed. van Vloten, (Leiden, 1895).
Livshitz, V. A., “New Parthian documents from south Turkmenistan”, A Ant ASH XXV (1977).Google Scholar
Lyons, I. and Ingholt, H., Gandhāran Art in Pakistān (New York, 1957).
Marc-Aurèle, (Paris, 1882), apud Cumont, Oriental Religions.Google Scholar
Unvala, M. R., ed. Dārāb Hormazyār's Rivāyat, I (Bombay, 1922).
Widengren, G., “Der iranische Hintergrund der Gnosis”, Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte IV (1952)Google Scholar
Widengren, G., Stand und Aufgaben der iranischen Religions-Geschichte (Leiden, 1955).

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×