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The Sasanian period(224-637 AD)

The Sasanian period marks the end of theancient and the beginning of the medieval era inthe history of the Middle East. Universalistreligions such as Christianity, Manichaeism,and even Zoroastrianismand Judaism absorbed local religions and cultsat the beginning of the 3rd century. Both the Sasanianand the Roman empires ended by adopting anofficial state religion, Zoroastrianismfor the former and Christianity for the latter.In Mesopotamia, however, older cultssuch as that of the Mandaeans,the moon cult of Harran, and otherscontinued alongside the great religions.The new rulers were not as tolerant as the Seleucidsand Parthians had been, and persecutionsoccurred under Sasanian rule.

After Ardashir I, the first of the Sasanians,consolidated his position in Persis (modern Farsprovince), he moved into southern Mesopotamia,and Mesene submitted. In 224 he defeated andkilled the last Parthian ruler, ArtabanusV, after which Mesopotamia quickly fellbefore him and Ctesiphon became the main capitalof the Sasanian empire. In 230 Ardashirbesieged Hatra but failed to take it. Hatracalled on Roman aid, and in 232 the Romanemperor Severus Alexander launched a campaignthat halted Ardashir's progress. At the death ofSeverus Alexander in 235 the Sasanianstook the offensive, and probably in 238 Nisibisand Harran came under their control. Hatrawas probably captured in early 240, after which Ardashir'sson Shapur was made coregent; Ardashirhimself died soon afterward. The Romanemperor Gordian III led a large army against ShapurI in 243. The Romans retook Harran and Nisibisand defeated the Sasanians at a battlenear Resaina, but at Anbar, renamed Peroz-Shapur("Victorious Is Shapur"), the Sasaniansinflicted a defeat on the Romans, who lost theiremperor. His successor, Philip the Arabian, madepeace, giving up Roman conquests in northern Mesopotamia.Osroene, however, which had been returned to thelocal ruling family of Abgar byGordian, remained a vassal stateof the Romans. Shapur renewedhis attacks and took many towns, including Dura-Europus,in 256 and later moved into northern Syria and Anatolia.The defeat and capture of the Roman emperor Valerianat the gates of Edessa, probably in 259, was thehigh point of his conquests in the west. On Shapur'sreturn to Ctesiphon the ruler of Palmyra,Septimius Odaenathus (also called Odainath),attacked and defeated his army, seizing booty. Odeanathustook the title of emperor, conquered Harranand Nisibis, and threatened Ctesiphonin 264-266. His murder relieved the Sasanians,and in 273 the Roman emperor Aureliansacked Palmyra and restored Romanauthority in northern Mesopotamia. Peace betweenthe two empires lasted until 283, when the Romanemperor Carus invaded Mesopotamiaand advanced on Ctesiphon, but the Romanarmy was forced to withdraw after Carus' suddendeath. In 296 Narseh I, the seventh Sasanianking, took the field and defeated a Roman forcenear Harran, but in the following year he wasdefeated and his family was taken captive. As a result, the Romanssecured Nisibis and made it their strongestfortress against the Sasanians. The Romanprovince of Mesopotamia, which was the landbetween the Euphrates and Tigrisin the northern foothills, became in effect amilitary area with limes (the fortified frontiers of the RomanEmpire) and highly fortified towns.

Under Shapur II the Sasanians againtook the offensive, and the first war lasted from 337 to 350; itended with no result as Nisibis was successfullydefended by the Romans. In 359 Shapuragain invaded Roman territory and captured the Romanfortress Amida after a long and costly siege. In363 the emperor Julian advanced almost to Ctesiphon,where he died, and his successor Jovian had togive up Nisibis and other territories in thenorth to the Sasanians. The next war lasted from502 to 506 and ended with no change. War broke out again in 527,lasting until 531, and even the Byzantinegeneral Belisarius was not able to prevail; asusual, the boundaries remained unchanged. In 540 the Sasanianking Khosrow (Chosroes) I invaded Syriaand even took Antioch, although many fortressesbehind him in northern Mesopotamia remained in Byzantinehands. After much back-and-forth fighting, peace was made in 562.War with the Byzantine Empire resumed 10 yearslater, and it continued under Khosrow'ssuccessor, Hormizd IV. Only in 591, in returnfor their assistance in the restoration to the Sasanianthrone of Khosrow II, who had been deposed andhad fled to Byzantine territory, did the Byzantinesregain territory in northern Mesopotamia. Withthe murder in 602 of the Byzantine emperor Maurice,who had been Khosrow's benefactor, and theusurpation of Phocas, Khosrow IIsaw a golden opportunity to enlarge Sasaniandomains and to take revenge for Maurice. Persianarmies took all northern Mesopotamia, Syria,Palestine, Egypt, and Anatolia.By 615, Sasanian forces were in Chalcedon,opposite Constantinople. The situation changedcompletely with the new Byzantine emperor Heraclius,who, in a daring expedition into the heart of enemy territory in623-624, defeated the Sasanians in Media.In 627-628 he advanced toward Ctesiphon, but,after sacking the royal palaces at Dastagird,northeast of Ctesiphon, he retreated.

After the death of Khosrow II, Mesopotamiawas devastated not only by the fighting but also by the floodingof the Tigris and Euphrates, bya widespread plague, and by the swift successionof Sasanian rulers, which caused chaos. Finallyin 632 order was restored by the last king, Yazdegerd III,but in the following year the expansion of the MuslimArabs began and the end of the Sasanian empirefollowed a few years afterward.

Unlike the Parthians, the Sasaniansestablished their own princes as rulers of thesmall kingdoms they conquered, except on the frontiers, wherethey accepted vassals or allies because theirhold over the frontier regions was insecure. By placing Sasanianprinces over the various parts of the empire, the Sasaniansmaintained more control than the Parthians had.The provincial divisions were more systematized, and there was ahierarchy of four units--the satrapy (shahr inMiddle Persian), under which came the province(ostan), then a district (tassug), and finallythe village (deh). In Mesopotamiathese divisions were changed throughout Sasanianhistory, frequently because of Roman invasions.

Many native tax collectors were replaced by Persians,who were more trusted by the rulers. In addition to the many tollsand tariffs, corvée, and thelike, the two basic taxes were the land and polltaxes. The latter were not paid by the nobility,soldiers, civil servants, andthe priests of the Zoroastrianreligion. The land tax was a percentage of theharvest, but it was determined before the collection of thecrops, which naturally caused many problems. Khosrow Iundertook a new survey of the land and imposed the tax in aprearranged sum based on the amount of cultivableland, the quantity of date palmsand olive trees, and the numberof people working on the land. Taxes were to be paid threetimes a year. Abuses were still rampant, but this wasbetter than the old system; at least, if a drought or some othercalamity occurred, taxes could be reduced or remitted. Althoughinformation is contradictory, it appears that religiouscommunities other than the Zoroastrian one had extrataxes imposed on them from time to time. This wasespecially true of the growing Christian community,particularly in the time of Shapur II, after Christianitybecame the official religion of the RomanEmpire.

Religious communities became fixed under the Sasanians,and Mesopotamia with its large Jewishand Christian populations experienced changesbecause of the shift in primary allegiance from the rulerto the head of the religious group. The exilarchof the Jews had legal and tax-collectingauthority over the Jews of the Sasanianempire. Mani, the founder of the Manichaeanreligion, was born in lower Mesopotamia, and hisreligion spread quickly both to the east and west, even beforehis death. In its homeland, Mesopotamia, it cameunder severe persecution by the priests of the Zoroastrianreligion, who viewed Manichaeism as a dangerousheresy. Christianity, however, was viewed not asa heresy but as a separate religion, tolerated until it becamethe official religion of the enemy Roman Empire;Christians were then regarded as potentialtraitors to the Sasanian state. The first largegrowth of Christianity in Mesopotamiacame with the deportation and resettlement of Christians,especially from Antioch with its patriarch,during Shapur I's wars with the Romans.In a synod convened in 325, the metropolitansee of Ctesiphon was made supremeover other sees in the Sasanian empire, and thefirst patriarch or catholicoswas Papa. In 344 the first persecutions of Christiansbegan; they lasted with varying degrees of severity until 422,when a treaty with the government ended the persecutions.

The earliest contemporary mention of Christiansin Mesopotamia is in the inscriptions of Karter,the chief Zoroastrian priest after the reign of ShapurI. He mentions both Christians and Nazareans,possibly two kinds of Christians, Greek-speakingand Syriac-speaking, or two sects.It is not known which groups are meant, but it is known thatfollowers of the Gnostic Christian leaders Bardesanes(Bar Daisan) and Marcion were active inMesopotamia. Later, after the Nestorianchurch separated from the Monophysites,whose centre was in Antioch, the Nestorianchurch dominated Mesopotamia until the end ofthe Sasanian dynasty, when the Monophysiteswere growing in numbers. After about 485 the Sasaniangovernment was satisfied that the Nestorianchurch in their domains was not loyal to Byzantium,and further persecutions were not state-inspired but ratherprosecuted by the Zoroastrian clergy. At the endof the Sasanian period, the Nestorianswere fighting the Monophysites, now called Jacobites,more than the Zoroastrians. The Jacobitesestablished many monasteries, especially in northern Mesopotamia,whereas the Nestorians were cool toward monasticism.

Ethnicity became less important than religiousaffiliation under the Sasanians, whothus changed the social structure of Mesopotamia.The Arabs continued to grow in numbers, both as nomadsand as settled folk, and Arabicbecame widely spoken. King Nu'man III of the Arabclient kingdom of the Lakhmids of Al-Hirahin southern Mesopotamia became a Christianin 580, but in 602 he was deposed by Khosrow II,who made the kingdom a province of the empire. This act removed abarrier against inroads by Arab tribesmen fromthe desert, and, after the union of Arabs in thepeninsula under the banner of Islam, the fate ofthe Sasanian empire was sealed. The Muslims,on the whole, were welcomed in Mesopotamia asdeliverers from the foreign yoke of the Persians,but the conversion of the mass of the populationto Islam did not proceed rapidly, mainly becauseof the well-organized Christian and Jewishcommunities. The arrival of Islam, ofcourse, changed the history of Mesopotamia morethan any other event in its history.

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