Mesopotamian History
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One of the least understood and yet most influential periods in Mesopotamian history coincides with the reign of the Sassanian Empire. Named after an ancestral figure, the Sassanian Empire lasted over four hundred years and 40 kings (Marx, p.1). Born out of the ashes of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanian Empire ushered in an era of cultural and economic revival. Harking back to the dominance of generations long gone, the Sassanian Emperors extended their dominion from their base in the Southwest of Iran to Central and even Western Asia. Sasania profited from a period of intensified trade and exchange, and shepherded Iran's role as a major gateway on the Silk Road that connected the Western world with China. Eventually, however, the wealth of the Empire led to the weakening of its military might, and the Empire fell to the newly formed armies of Islam (ecai.berkeley.edu). As the final great Iranian monarchy before the Arab conquest of Western Asia, the Sassanian Empire holds an important, yet often neglected, piece in the puzzle that is Mesopotamian history. This paper will discuss the impact of the Sassanian kings on the rise and fall of the empire. The focus will be on Chosroe I, who reigned from 531-579 A.D. He was the greatest ruler of the Sassanian dynasty and was also ironically responsible for the downfall of the empire brought about by his centralization of power, which called for a strong leader. Chosroe I was able to fulfill this role, but tho
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order the empire's lands surveyed. Land was to be taxed equally everywhere, and funds that had previously gone to the feudal lords was now to be diverted to the central government. Chosroes may or may not have based his new system on the tripartite Roman model, but nevertheless "under the new system the land was measured, the water rights determined and yearly average rates were set for the land which produced grain, other rates for land which had date palm and olive trees according to the number of the producing trees, and other reforms of which we only have hints" (Frye, p. 327). Thus Chosroes moved initially to divert power away from the nobility, and in doing he strengthened the central government. By clarifying and simplifying the previously arcane tax-code, Chosroes also fostered support for his reign in the peasantry.
The second major reform of Chosroes' reign was the restructuring of the military. Under the previous standing tradition, when war beckoned the Sassanian feudal lords provided their own equipment and brought their retainers and followers to the field. Chosroes was dissatisfied with the lack of central control this afforded him, and in its place constructed a system of 'dehkans' (knights) who were pai
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Approximate Word count = 3683
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)
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