Sasanian Research Articles

The Border Defense Systems of Sasanian Iran

Almost all the great ancient both Eastern and Western powers sought to secure their borders by erecting border defensive lines. In this respect, Sassanian Iran was no exception. On the borders of the Sassanid Empire at different times, but mainly during the period of the highest power of the Sasanid kingdom (4th—6th centuries CE), strong fortification systems were erected. In scale, they surpassed many of the more famous similar structures created in the Classical world. These included the Wall of the Arabs, the Wall of Gorgan, the Wall of Tammishe, Jar-i Kulbad, the Darband fortification system, and the Darial Gorge.

FEATURES OF THE ARAB-KHAZAR RELATIONS IN THE “HISTORY OF TABARI”

The issue of studying and comparative analysis of the historical materials of Tabari’s chronicle has long been discussed in literature, because it also contains valuable information on the fate of the peoples and state formations of the Muslim East. Researchers agree that the introduction of the prose material of this book into academic circulation could shed light on many aspects of the consistent development and formation of dynasties in the ancient times. However, the narrative tradition of Arabic literature did not allow presenting the material about a particular historical or cultural object in the context of the chronicle. Based on this, in the pre-Islamic part of the Tabari chronicle an important discussion topic is the definition of borders, history, ethnic and religious composition, state structure, diplomatic relations, location of cities and other issues concerning the Khazars. Written monuments are considered a valuable source for determining the zone of distribution of the Khazars and Khazaria, although the boundaries were constantly changing following the changes in the balance of power between the Khazars and neighboring states. In the first centuries the struggle of two empires — Byzantium and Sasanian Iran for dominance in the Middle East — began to increasingly influence the establishment of borders. Later, the Arab Caliphate joined in this struggle against Khazaria to establish control in the Transcaucasia and the Black Sea region. The Tabari chronicle preserved a huge amount of narrative material about the role of the Khazars in the development of the past centuries’ events. Plans of the Abbasid caliphs in the 8–9th centuries undergone major changes due to the resistance of the Khazars. Further clarification of the role of the Khazars and Khazaria is possible only based on a critical analysis of Tabari’s information in comparison with the materials of late medieval authors.

Early historical report of alcohol hepatotoxicity in Minooye Kherad, a Pahlavi manuscript in Ancient Persia, 6th century CE.

Background:Historical evidence revealed that alcoholic beverages have been produced, used and abused thousands of years before the discovery of alcohol by Rhazes for medical purposes. Alcohol-induced liver disease (e.g., steatosis, steatohepatitis, fibrosis and cirrhosis) is one of the most prevalent causes of chronic liver disease all over the world. This study aims to find the early report of this complication in an ancient Persian historical text.Methods:In this study, the book of Minooye Kherad, a Zoroastrian manuscript on wisdom which was written in the late Sassanid Empire (224–637 CE) is reviewed.Results:However, the concept of alcohol hepatotoxicity as one of the most important complications of alcoholism is a new terminology, by researching historical documents it can be found that one of the oldest reports of benefits and disadvantages of drinking wine focusing on liver complications is mentioned in the book of Minooye.Conclusion:Description of the liver disease and damage caused by excessive alcohol consumption in this valuable book can be considered as the early report of hepatotoxicity of alcoholic beverages in the medical history.

DID PATRIARCH ABRAHAM FIGHT THE PERSIANS? NOTES ON JOHN CHRYSOSTOM’S INTERPRETATION OF GEN. 14:1–16

The article discusses the interpretation by St. John Chrysostom of the Old Testament plot which is contained in the Book of Genesis (Gen. 14:1–16), namely Abraham's attack on the army of foreign kings, which invaded Canaan and defeated the coalition of Canaanite rulers in the battle of Siddim. The main problem lies in the fact that commenting on this plot John Chrysostom without any seemingly objective reason identified the opponents of Abraham as the Persians. In addition, the anachronism allowed here by John Chrysostom is obvious, since the Persians first appear in the Old Testament only from the moment of the death of the Babylonian kingdom, i.e. in a fairly late era, more than a millennium distant from events described in Gen. 14:1–16. Adjacent to these issues is the problem of designating the homeland of the Abraham as Persia and Patriarch himself as a Persian. An analysis of the sources taking into account the peculiarities of the worldview of John Chrysostom and the principles of Orthodox-Christian exegesis of the Holy Scriptures shows that St. John saw in (a) Patriarch Abraham and (b) the Jews the prototypes, respectively, of (1) our Lord, Jesus Christ (as a descendant of Abraham in the flesh) and (2) Christians (as descendants of Jews by faith, "New Israel" living in the new "Promised Land" i.e. the Christian Roman Empire). The foreign troops with whom the Patriarch Abraham fought, are metaphorically called by St. John Chrysostom the Persians for the reason that in the 4th century AD the embodiment of the Old Testament prefiguration of the enemy of the "people of God" was the Persian Sasanian empire as the most powerful and dangerous adversary of the Roman Empire on east. A certain role in this was played by the fact that the Persians invaded the Roman provinces from the territory of Mesopotamia, which in the John Chrysostom’s worldview was strongly associated with Persia.

Sources on the northern borders of the Sasanian Empire: a survey

Sources on the northern borders of the Sasanian Empire: a survey

Yazdgird the Forerunner: Early Iranian Cosmopolitanism and its effects on Christian Society in the Sassanid Empire

Yazdgird the Forerunner: Early Iranian Cosmopolitanism and its effects on Christian Society in the Sassanid Empire

Relics and their Movement from Sasanian Iran to the Eastern Roman Empire: The case of Martyropolis and Singar

Relics and their Movement from Sasanian Iran to the Eastern Roman Empire: The case of Martyropolis and Singar

The View from the Frontier and the View from Within: On Christian Persecution in the Fifth Century Sasanian Empire

The View from the Frontier and the View from Within: On Christian Persecution in the Fifth Century Sasanian Empire

An archaeometric perspective on selected Roman and Late Antique glass finds from Dobrudja

This paper reports the results of Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) analyses on 21 glass fragments discovered at Tropaeum Traiani, Carsium, Ulmetum, and Altinum, Constanţa County, Romania, dated to the 1st-6th c. AD. The chemical data indicate a broad palette of compositions: Sb-colorless, Mn-colorless, Sb-Mn colorless, typical blue-green Roman, Série 2.1 and Série 3.2 of Foy glass. A plant ash glass sample was identified – most likely a fragment of a vessel imported from the Sasanian Empire.

New Archaeological Excavations of the Jahangir and Gowriyeh Manor Houses in the West of the Sassanid Empire

ABSTRACT The Jahangir and Gowriyeh monuments, located in Ilam province, were excavated from 2015 through 2019 because of the construction of the Kangir Dam. The lack of information about the date of construction, the sequence of residential layers, and the collapse of these monuments raised many questions. Trenches were dug at both sites revealing square plans without foundations, with walls based on the floors, and each site having its own function. Jahangir is larger than Gowriyeh, but their foundation type is different. The cultural materials retrieved from these sites documented two periods: the Sasanian and the early Islamic. The Islamic period settlement is more substantial in Gowriyeh. The results of the excavations reveal the social process of the high-ranked level of Sasanian society in the region according to the royal-local architecture methods.

The Death of Mani in Retrospect

AbstractThe execution of the prophet Mani (c. 216-273) by the Sasanian king Bahram I (r. 271-274) received sharply different treatments in the historiography of three of the confessional groups of the Sasanian empire. Variously a persecuted prophet, a blasphemous lunatic or a sinister heresiarch the representations of this moment sought to establish its meaning in the context of communal narratives predicated on the claims of sacred history. Despite this, it is notable that Manichean, Christian and Perso-Arabic accounts clearly share features. This indicates not only that Mani’s death became a site of competition between the constituent groups of the Sasanian empire, but that the internal historiographies of these groups were in some sense entwined, or at least sensitive to the historical claims made by their opponents. This is particularly relevant in the case of the Perso-Arabic narrative. This version, which almost certainly descends from a priestly Zoroastrian source, presents a picture of a confident priesthood stiffening the spine of a wavering king. It is contended that the source of this story was composed as a counterstrike in a historical debate in which Christian and Manichean authors had successfully propagated an image of Bahram’s court as religiously tepid and his priests as slanderers or non-entities. That such an intervention was required signals a disjuncture between early and late forms of Sasanian ideology. Moreover, it presents more evidence in support of theories of a late and deliberate construction of Zoroastrian “orthodoxy”.

Uncovering the Islamic Governmental Citadel of Shahdezh in Isfahan, Iran

The magnificent architectural complex known as Shahdezh Citadel is a defensive compound with an area of over 15 ha, sitting atop Soffeh Mountain, close to the city of Isfahan, Iran. It is a unique historical complex due to its majesty, impregnability, and strategic significance, however, studies on the Citadel are limited to a few historical documents and reports on its visible relics. It is for this reason that the present authors began archaeological investigations at this site in the summer of 2004. The main aim of the research was to determine the distribution and function of the architectural remains, as well as the construction and usage periods of the huge complex. To this end, topographic maps were prepared, followed by systematic surface survey and excavation of parts of the castle that were deemed most important. The findings of this research strongly suggest that the Shahdezh Castle was originally constructed in the Sassanid era (224–651 AD) and was later restored and reused by Saljuq rulers (1037–1194 AD) in the Islamic period. Its existence as a governmental citadel located near the Saljuq capital of Isfahan strengthens the authors’ proposition that Saljuq kings settled the royal family at the Shahdezh Citadel and ruled over the country from there.

The Talmud's Red Fence: Menstrual Impurity and Difference in Babylonian Judaism and Its Sasanian Context by Shai Secunda (review)

Reviewed by: The Talmud's Red Fence: Menstrual Impurity and Difference in Babylonian Judaism and Its Sasanian Context by Shai Secunda Alexander W. Marcus Shai Secunda. The Talmud's Red Fence: Menstrual Impurity and Difference in Babylonian Judaism and Its Sasanian Context. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. xvii + 203 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009421000192 The unique aspects of Babylonian rabbinic approaches to niddah, or menstrual impurity, have long been recognized, as have broader conceptual convergences regarding purity among Sasanian Jews, Zoroastrians, and others. Yet until now there have been few studies of these linkages. Shai Secunda's long-awaited monograph, developed from his 2007 doctoral dissertation, fills a significant lacuna with newly published transcriptions and keen analyses of sources related to niddah in the Babylonian Talmud. It represents an important contribution to newly robust research into the Bavli's Sasanian context, advancing scholarly conversations regarding methodological possibilities and the scope of such inquiries. Secunda situates his study around the concept of a "semiotically productive 'red fence' generating meaningful distinctions among the genders and neighboring communities in Sasanian society, and between the Babylonian Talmud and the rest of rabbinic literature" (xi). He thereby introduces us to the core proposition guiding the book: that menstruation was a potent topic for the construction and maintenance of religious boundaries precisely because it was grounded in shared landscapes of meaning. In chapter 1, Secunda expands on his thesis that the Bavli's menstrual discourse constituted "a robust and active notion of difference" in terms of purity, gender, and Jewish identity (2). He surveys scholarship on niddah and purity discourse—from Leviticus to late antique rabbinic sources in Greco-Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia—and engages with the work of Mira Balberg, Beth Berkowitz, Yaakov Elman, Charlotte Fonrobert, Christine Hayes, and others. Through a close reading of the tale of Rav Kahana and the heretic (B. Sanhedrin 37a), examining its development from Palestinian midrashim and its contextual significance within the Sasanian Mesopotamian world, he identifies a "textual differentiation" between "Palestinian sources submerged in the Bavli and their fully edited Talmudic form" (7–8), setting the stage for the rigorous source-critical analyses that follow. In chapter 2, Secunda compares rabbinic discussions of menstruation to Greco-Roman and Iranian sources, respectively, focusing especially on their physiological, etiological, and demonological dimensions. He surveys rabbinic and Zoroastrian sources alongside Greek embryological traditions, noting the [End Page 447] complex, long-standing relationships between them, arguing that "the shift from an Aristotelian downplaying of menses in Palestinian rabbinic embryology to the Bavli and Zoroastrian literature's neo-Galenic embrace of the powers of vaginal blood demonstrates that in Sasanian Iran, menstrual fluid was appreciated as powerful, generative stuff" (49). In chapter 3, he broadens his purview to the local Sasanian context in which the Bavli arose. While Secunda and others have fruitfully explored this ground before—the past several decades being especially rich in such studies—his work here represents a significant theoretical and methodological advance by illuminating how Sasanian interreligious life was informed by distinctions operating within shared conceptual frameworks. Highlighting, for example, Babylonian rabbinic mobilizations of the Iranian term for menstruation—daštān—at B. Taʿanit 22a, B. Shabbat 110a, and B. Avodah Zarah 24b, he observes that "the very stuff which is supposed to distance the 'other' is a commonality" (81). Secunda returns in chapter 4 to the Bavli's distinctive approach to menstruation within rabbinic corpora. He identifies discussions that suggest the Babylonian rabbis' familiarity with Zoroastrian conceptions of purity, and he argues that their construction of "blood science in the Bavli" (96–98) as "impossibly involved" (103) reflects a world of competition and anxiety over menstrual diagnoses and stringencies. He traces textual shifts from "intra-religious competition" in the Yerushalmi and other Palestinian sources to "inter-religious competition in Sasanian Babylonia," for instance, in the tale of Rava and the Sasanian queenmother Ifra Hormiz, who sends him "bloodstains of no halakhic consequence" to examine (B. Niddah 20b), and in the "disquiet" engendered by his passing the final challenge through heavenly intervention alone (84–85, 98–103). Chapter 5 combines the approaches of the previous two chapters, utilizing the topic of menstrual distancing and...

Ottomans and Iranians at Ctesiphon

Ottomans and Iranians at Ctesiphon Zeinab Azarbadegan (bio) KEYWORDS archaeology, Ottoman Iraq, photography, Qajar Iran On the first page of his 1921 book on the triumphs of the Ottoman army in Iraq during the First World War, Mehmed Emin [Yurdakul], a Turkish nationalist poet and politician who had been stationed in Mosul, connected two points in the history of Ctesiphon, an ancient ruin located in the southern deserts of Baghdad. 1 He made a direct connection between Ottoman history and early Islamic history, centering Ctesiphon as a site where Muslims had triumphed over two powerful "infidel" empires: that is, the Sasanians in 637, and the British in 1915. 2 The cover of his book also emphasized the many histories of this place, depicting Ctesiphon alongside the tomb of Selman-ı Pak (Fig. 1). Selman was the only Persian companion of the Prophet, who is remembered as participating in the conquest by inviting the local population to Islam. 3 His tomb is, in this sense, a constant reminder of the Islamic history of this site, even if one is unaware of how Ctesiphon has been remembered in Perso-Islamic historiography. In this article, I consider the meanings that the history of Ctesiphon evoked during the late nineteenth century, particularly between the Ottomans and Qajar Iran—both of whom had a shared understanding of the history of the place through the shared heritage of Perso-Islamic history. Though immensely important for the engagement of the Ottomans, the Qajars, and the local Iraqi population with the past of the region, Ctesiphon did not garner as much attention [End Page 377] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Cover of Selman-ı Pak Meydan Muharebesi – Ktesifon ve Zeyli by Mehmed Emin, published in Istanbul by Matbaa-yi Askeriye in 1921. [End Page 378] from Europeans. 4 This was because it was not a Biblical site, the main object of nineteenth-century European archaeology in Ottoman Iraq. 5 By moving away from how Europeans told histories of the place, I demonstrate the old and new ways that the Ottomans and Iranians engaged and contested ancient history and sites in service of their own imperial aims. Ctesiphon's initial importance in Islamic history lies in the fact that it was the site of the last battle between the Sasanians and the Muslims, in which the Sasanian Empire fell and the Muslims became triumphant over a vast and powerful state. But Ctesiphon looms much larger in Islamic history because it was deemed as a site of miracle by Muhammad. In Perso-Islamic historiography, the great Arch of Ctesiphon cracked on the occasion of the birth of the Prophet. 6 As described in the fourth Baghdad salname, published in 1883 in Baghdad by the provincial administrative elite of the province, the second miracle was that the building did not collapse and had withstood for the past "thirteen hundred years" despite the crack. 7 The crack, which was supposedly visible even in 1883, was a harbinger of the Muslim triumph achieved eighty years after its appearance. The Sasanians were an ancient Persian or Iranian Empire, but the Ottomans considered themselves as an inheritor of this Perso-Islamic past. This was clearly demonstrated in the Baghdad salnames , which contain tables of important events and dynasties as well as narrative histories putting the Ottomans into a clear and continuous line of kingship encompassing all the ancient Iranian empires, including those before the Sasanians. 8 The Ottomans emulated the empires before them and incorporated Sasanian history and its sites in such a way as to be both considered as inheritors of that heritage but also triumphant over it. 9 The narrative history presented in the fourth Baghdad salname, which included the history of Ctesiphon, was translated into Persian for the Qajar [End Page 379] court in Tehran. 10 This was part of the Iranian court's compilation of knowledge to produce a comprehensive geographical encyclopedia of the "Iranian lands" called Mira't al-Buldan (Mirror of the Lands), which included lands outside of the Qajar domains, such as Baghdad and Ctesiphon, within its scope. 11 The history of Ctesiphon was told in a separate entry on "iwan" or iwan-i kasra, and...

Синтез арабо-мусульманской культуры в Персии и Северной Индии: к истории вопроса

The article is devoted to the analysis of the process of the Persian language and culture de-velopment in the Middle Ages and the modern period, its continuity from the Sassanid era to the Samanid and Safavid eras and the synthesis of Arab-Muslim culture in Persia and India. The author turns to the origins of the New Persian language, examines the influence of Iranian culture on the cultural development of neighboring people and demonstrates that the Farsi language influenced the emergence in the Delhi Sultanate of a new Urdu language with a predominance of Persian-Arabic vocabulary. The synthesis of the Arab-Muslim culture of Iran, the mutual influence of the Arab-Islamic and local cultures, clearly manifested in the development of architecture, are considered. Chronologically, the article covers the period of the Middle Ages and the modern period. The re-search is based on the methodological principles of historicism and objectivity, as well as on the his-torical-comparative, historical-genetic, historical-typological methods and civilizational approach. The author concludes that the Iranian cultural influence in the Middle Ages and in the modern peri-od extended to all the eastern lands of Islam – from the Seljuk state to India. The Muslim society was multifaceted, yet subject to the strict rules of Islam. Classical Muslim thought and culture were characterized by a high adaptive capacity. At the end of the twentieth century, the Iranians declared the Persian language an important factor of cultural integration and the foundation of the national mentality. The Farsi language was proclaimed “the second language of Islam”, and the knowledge and study of classical poetry and philosophy of Sufism was recognized as an important means of consolidating the Muslims of the region. This cultural policy contributed to overcoming the interna-tional isolation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and expanding the scope of regional cooperation.

بازنگری دو نظریه از سهگانۀ پورشریعتی در کتاب: (Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran) (افول و سقوط شاهنشاهی ساسانی اتحادیه ساسانی_ پارتی و فتح ایران به دست عربها)

تاکنون نقدهایی مکتوب و شفاهی به کتاب پروانه پورشریعتی با عنوان:Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran وارد شده است که منتقدان با دیدگاه‌هایی متفاوت به ارزیابی اثر و تقویت یا تضعیف نظریه­های وی پرداخته­اند. پرواضح است کتاب­هایی از این­دست که هم ارائۀ جسورانه­ای از کلیات بدیع و ایده­آفرین است و هم دریایی از جزئیات را فراروی مخاطب می­گشاید این قابلیت را داراست که به کرات در بوتۀ نقد، جرح و تعدیل و ترمیم نهاده شود. این نوشتار نیز با هدف پرداختن به جان­مایۀ اثر که همانا سه­گانۀ پورشریعتی در قالب یک نظریۀ کلان و دو نظریۀ خرد است سامان یافته است. نظریۀ کلان مبتنی بر ماهیت کنفدراسیونی نظام حکومتی ساسانی است و نظریه­های خرد بر تمایز فرهنگی- دینی پارسیان و پارتیان و نیز گاهشماری فتوح تمرکز دارد. واکاوی انتقادی با رویکرد تحلیلی حاکی از وجود شواهدی مبنی بر تمرکزگرایی و تمرکزگریزی متناوب در طول حکومت ساسانیان است؛ نکته­ای که غلبۀ نظریۀ کنفدراسیونی بر نظریۀ تمرکزگرایی را در معرفی نظام حکومت ساسانی به چالش می­کشد. همچنین در نظریۀ دوگانگی مذهبی پارسیگ-پهلو با وجود برخی اشارات قابل­تأمل، شواهد متقنی ارائه نمی­شود.

An absolute radiocarbon chronology for the world heritage site of Sarvestan (SW Iran): A late Sasanian heritage in early Islamic era

AbstractThis study presents a new precise radiocarbon chronology for the World Heritage site of Sarvestan (SW Iran). The monument is a key construction in the history of architecture because it is a typical Sasanian construction built during the late Sasanian or early Islamic period. Previous attempts to date the monument have suggested the ages ranging from the middle Sasanian (fifth century CE) to early Abbasid (ninth century CE) era. These age estimations are based on the analysis of architectural plans and techniques, and a few radiocarbon dates with very large age uncertainties. This paper presents the results of a systematic radiocarbon dating of timbers in the walls and charcoals in plaster mortars used in the main dome of the monument. It further applies wiggle matching technique and R_Combine function to substantially reduce the age uncertainties in wood sections. The results indicate that a major construction work was undertaken sometime between 658 and 683 CE, the century of the invasion of Fars by Muslim Arabs. This finding pushes back the age of Sarvestan for two centuries and suggests that the monument was built at the transitional period between Sasanian to Islamic era. Sarvestan would have been an architectural project designed and possibly initiated during the late Sasanian period but mainly accomplished during the second half of the seventh century CE. It can thus be considered a late Sasanian heritage in early Islamic period. Its construction at a time of political unrest further suggests that some areas of Fars may have benefited from certain socio‐political stabilities during the expansion of Islam into the east at mid‐ to late seventh century CE.

Did ancient glassware travel the Silk Road? X-ray fluorescence analysis of a Sasanian glass vessel from Okinoshima Island, Japan

The use of a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer revealed the provenance of a shard of a relief-cut glass bowl which was dedicated to ancient ritual on the sacred island of Okinoshima, Japan over a thousand years ago. The shard was unearthed from one of the ritual sites on the island in the 1950s and is now designated as a national treasure in Japan. A nondestructive and on-site X-ray fluorescence analytical technique was applied to the Okinoshima glass shard to establish where and when it was originally manufactured based on its chemical composition. Clear correspondence of chemical composition between the shard and glass excavated from a Sasanian city site in Mesopotamia demonstrated that the shard was derived from a type of glassware primarily produced in glass workshops within the Sasanian Empire between the fifth and seventh centuries AD. This is the first scientific evidence demonstrating that glass was imported from overseas across thousands of kilometers and then dedicated for the ritual on Okinoshima Island. This simultaneously gives us a glimpse of the specific details of divine rituals conducted on Okinoshima Island in ancient times.

New historical records about the construction of the Arch of Ctesiphon and their impact on the history of structural engineering

A piece of historical research about the construction of the ancient Arch of Taq-iKisra, part of the imperial palace of the Sasanian Empire in the city of Ctesiphon, has been carried out. The information obtained, an analysis using graphic statics, the use of a physical model with hanging chains, and an ad hoc optimization program written in MATLAB have shown that the designer of this sixth century ad arch, a Byzantine named Farghán, was aware of the effects of the uneven distribution of loads and the differential settlements of the foundations on the equilibrium shape of structures working exclusively in compression and was able to control them. This discovery predates the earliest statement about the link between the shape of the catenary and that of an arch, by Robert Hooke, by eleven centuries and makes this building relevant not only because of its historical, archaeological, and architectural importance, but also because of its importance in the history of structural engineering. The building is currently in need of restoration to stop its collapse, and an awareness of the way it was designed could be of practical use for the definition of the intervention needed.

Military Architecture and the Four-Spāhbed System for Defense of the Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE)

This article examines Sasanian military architecture with respect to its integration with the four-region Spāhbed system (Ādurbādagān-Spāhbed, Xwarāsān-Spāhbed, Xwarbārān-Spāhbed and Nēmrōz-Spāhbed) for defending the empire. Following an overview of Sasanian military architecture within Iran, the article examines the Darband wall of the Caucasus in the context of the office of the Ādurbādagān-Spāhbed facing the empire’s north and northwest (Ādurbādagān, Media Atropatene corresponding with the historical Azerbaijan in Iran’s northwest), the Tammisha and Gorgan wall systems of the Xwarāsān-Spāhbed facing the nomadic warrior peoples of the Central Asia, the military architecture of the Xwarbārān-Spāhbed facing the western (Romano-Byzantine) frontiers, and the Khandaq-e Shapur of the Nēmrōz-Spāhbed facing the southwest, notably raiders from the Arabian Peninsula threatening the empire’s southwest marches.