Ardashir I
Ardashir I, also known as Ardashir the Unifier, was the founder of the Sasanian Empire, the last empire of ancient Iran. After defeating the last Parthian shahanshah Artabanus IV on the Hormozdgan plain in 224, he overthrew the Arsacid dynasty and established the Sasanian dynasty. Afterwards, Ardashir called himself shahanshah and began conquering the land that he called Eranshahr, the realm of the Iranians.
There are various historical reports about Ardashir's lineage and ancestry. According to al-Tabari's History of the Prophets and Kings, Ardashir was son of Papak, son of Sasan. Another narrative recorded in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan and Ferdowsi's Shahnameh states that Ardashir was born from the marriage of Sasan, a descendant of Darius III, with the daughter of Papak, a local governor in Pars.
According to al-Tabari's report, Ardashir was born in the outskirts of Istakhr, Pars. Al-Tabari adds that Ardashir was sent to the lord of Fort Darabgard when he was seven years old. After the lord's death, Ardashir succeeded him and became the commander of Fort Darabgard. Afterwards, Papak overthrew the local Persian shah named Gochihr and appointed his son, Shapur, instead of him. Shapur and his father, Papak, suddenly died and Ardashir became the ruler of Pars. Tension rose between Ardashir and the Parthian empire, and eventually on April 28, 224, Ardashir faced the army of Artabanus IV in the Hormozdgan plain, where the Parthian shahanshah was defeated and killed in battle.
According to the royal reports, it was Papak who overthrew Gochihr, the local Persian shah, and appointed his son, Shapur, instead of him; Ardashir refused to accept Shapur's appointment and removed his brother and whosoever stood against him and then minted coins with his face drawn on and his father, Papak's behind. It is probable that the determining role that is stated about Ardashir in leading the rebellion against the central government is the product of the later historical studies. Papak had probably united most of Pars under his rule by then.
Ardashir had an outstanding role in developing the royal ideology. He tried to show himself as a worshiper of Mazda and a descendant of the gods who possesses khvarenah, the divine royal glory attributed to kings in Zoroastrianism. In order to legitimize his rule and delegitimize that of the Parthians, he claimed descent from mythical Iranian shahs and presented himself as a continuator of the Achaemenids, the creators of the first Persian empire, although the current belief is that the early Sasanians did not know much about the history of the Achaemenids. On the other hand, some historians believe that the first Sasanian shahanshahs were familiar with the Achaemenids and their successors deliberately turned to the legendary Kayanians. They knowingly ignored the Achaemenids in order to attribute their past to the Kayanians; and that was where they applied holy historiography.
In order to remark his victories, Ardashir carved petroglyphs in Firuzabad, Naqsh-e Rajab and Naqsh-e Rustam. In his petroglyph in Naqsh-e Rustam, Ardashir and Ahura Mazda are opposite to each other on horsebacks and the corpses of Artabanus and Ahriman are visualized under the hooves of the horses of Ardashir and Ahura Mazda. It can be deduced from the picture that Ardashir assumed or wished for others to assume that his rule over the land that was called "Iran" in the inscriptions was designated by the lord. The word "Iran" was previously used in Avesta and as "the name of the mythical land of the Aryans". In Ardashir's period, the title "Iran" was chosen for the region under the Sasanian rule. The idea of "Iran" was accepted for both the Zoroastrian and non-Zoroastrian societies in the whole kingdom and the Iranians' collective memory continued and lived on in the various stages and different layers of the Iranian society until the modern period today. What is clear is that the concept of "Iran" previously had a religious and ethnic application and then ended up creating its political face and the concept of a geographical collection of lands.
Etymology
"Ardashir" is the New Persian form of the Middle Persian name, which is ultimately from Old Iranian *Artaxšaθra-, equivalent to Greek Artaxérxēs, and Armenian Artašēs. Literally, Ardashir means "the one whose reign is based on honesty and justice". The first part of *Arta-xšaθra- is adapted from the religious concept of justice known as Ṛta or Asha and the second part is related to the concept "city" and "kingdom".Three of Achaemenid kings of kings and four of the local Shahs of Pars—known as Frataraka and Kings of Persis—were named Ardashir, and Ardashir I has been Ardashir V in the chain of local Shahs.
Historiography
The primary references of the Sassanian era can be divided to the two categories "text remnants" and "reports":Text remnants
Text remnants include inscriptions, leather writings, papyri and crockeries written in multiple languages and scripts. Examples of text remnants related to Ardashir I include his short inscription in Naqsh-e Rajab and also Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht.Reports
Reports are texts that are written in various languages and periods. The basis of the writings of all Muslim historians, has been the official Khwaday-Namag of the Sassanian court that have utilized the recorded diaries in the official calendars of the court as references. Khwaday-Namag was prepared at the end of the Sassanian era in Middle Persian. The title of the Arabic translation of the book was Seir-ol Moluk-el Ajam and the Persian version was Shahnameh. Today, none of the direct translations of Khwaday-Namag or its original Persian text are available.Greek-Roman
is one of the resources of Parthian history that has given a report about the downfall of the Parthians and the rise of Ardashir I.Herodian's History has also extensively explained the procedure of the change of monarchy from Parthian to Sassanian.
Although Agathias lived during the time of Khosrow I, due to his access to the royal yearbooks in Ctesiphon archives, his history book is one of the main sources. However, he has used colloquial statements in reporting the story of Ardashir's youth.
Armenian
The Armenian history in the Sassanian era is completely connected with Iranian royal history; thus, not only do the writings of then Armenian historians provide important matters about the adventures of Iranian kings of kings, but show the status of Iran-Armenia relations. Armenian History by Agathangelos is one of Armenian resources about the early Sassanian era.Movses Khorenatsi, known as the Armenian Herodotus, an historian of the fifth century AD has stated a story about Ardashir I that is relatively similar to the adapted story from the biography of Cyrus the Great.
Syriac
Another class of Sasanian history references is the books written by Christians in Syriac language.Arbella's Chronicles is a text written in mid-sixth century AD and includes the history of Christian regions of Mesopotamia from the second century until 550. The book is very valuable for the period of the downfall of the Parthians and the rise of the Sasanians.
History of Odessa is a book written in 540 and includes chronicles from 132 BC until 540.
Chronicles of Karakh Beit Solug, is a short but important source that presents valuable information about the early Sasanian period.
Middle Persian
Kār-Nāmag ī Ardašīr ī Pābagān is an epic story about Ardashir I and the procedure of his ascension to the throne of Iran. The text was written in about 600 AD and in the end of Sasanian era in Middle Persian language.New Persian
is the largest and most important reference about the reports related to the national Iranian history. It presents helpful information about the Sasanian organizations and civilization.Bal'ami's History, which is a Persian rewrite of Tabari's History, is one of the most important Persian prose works about the Sasanians. Apart from the Arabic text, the work is valuable, since it provides the Persian equals of Arabic expressions in Tabari's History.
Farsnameh is one of the helpful Persian references about Sasanian history that presents valuable information about the status and the rankings of grand appointed governors and their positions, while they were considered part of the public relative to the kings.
Ibn Isfandiyar's History of Tabaristan is another one of Sasanian history sources. The Letter of Tansar is written in the book.
Mojmal al-tawarikh is a text with limited value, since most of its reports are mentioned extensively in other sources.
Ardasgir's Oath is a letter or preach by Ardashir I about government rituals that is named in Mojmal al-tawarikh.
Arabic
Tabari's History is a book series in Arabic that is the main and essential source about Sasanian history.Al-Masudi's The Meadows of Gold is another source about the Sasanian history.
Lineage and ancestry
There are different historical reports about Ardashir's ancestry and lineage. According to Al-Tabari's report, Ardashir was son of Papak, son of Sasan. Another statement that exists in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan and is told the same way in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, states that Ardashir was born as a result of the marriage of Sasan, a descendant of Darius III, with the daughter of Papak, a local governor in the province of Pars. In Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, which was written after him, Ardashir is announced "a Papakan king with a paternal line from Sasan and a maternal line from Darius III". Daryaee intends to say that according to that line in the text, it can be deduced that Ardashir has claimed his lineage to whoever he could. Relating Ardashir to the legendary Kayanians with the nickname Kay beside connecting himself to Sasan, who has been a guardian and mysterious deity and also to Dara, which is a combination of Darius I and II the Achaemenid with local Persian shahs Dara I and II, shows the former's fake lineage.Since Ardashir had claimed his royal lineage to Sasan, it is important to inspect who Sasan was. First it was composed that the epigraphic form "Ssn" on potterywares and other documents imply that Sasan was a Zoroastrian deity, though he is not mentioned in Avesta or other ancient Iranian texts. Martin Schwartz has recently shown that the deity shown on the potterywares is not related to Sasan, but shows Ssn, an old Semitic goddess that was worshiped in Ugarit in the second millennium B.C. The word "Sasa" is written on coins found in Taxila; it is probable to be related to "Sasan", since the symbols on the mentioned coins are similar to the coins of Shapur I. It is remarked in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh about Sasan's Oriental lineage that might imply that his house had come from the Orient. After all and considering all the difficulties, it can be said that Ardashir claimed his lineage to be belonging to gods and the Sasanians may have raised Sasan's rank to a god's. The primary Islamic sources, which are adapted from Sasanian statements, have emphasized on Sasan being a mysticist and hermit and have actually stated India, which is the center of asceticism, as Sasan's origin. That was the only way for Ardashir to forge himself a double noble-religious lineage. It is not strange that Ardashir's religious lineage is emphasized in religious Sasanian statements and his noble lineage is emphasized in royal reports and then they are linked to religious statements about him. Anyway, whoever Sasan was and wherever he lived, he was not a native Persian and the eastern and western Iranian Plateau are mentioned as his origins in the references.
File:Silver coin of Ardashir I, struck at the Hamadan mint.jpg|left|upright=1.5|thumb|Silver drachma of Ardashir I, struck at the Hamadan mint, dated c. 238–239. The obverse of the coin depicts Ardashir I with legend "The divine Mazdayasnian King Ardashir, King of King of the Iranians", while the reverse shows a fire altar with the legend "Ardashir's fire".
Most of foreign sources are unanimous in considering an unknown lineage for Ardashir; for example, Agathias has stated that Papak was a shoemaker who found out from astronomic proofs that Sasan would have a great son; thus Papak allowed Sasan to sleep with the former's wife and the result was Ardashir. Shakki considered Agathias's narrative a useless and vulgar story by the familiar Sergeus, Surianian translator of Khosrow I's court, ordered by the opponents and foes of Sasanians. Shakki said it was obvious Sergeus the Christian had induced that nonsense to Agathias. Like he had cleared Ardashir's family tree, and it was adapted from the imaginations of Christians and the materialist and atheist league. Shakki's reasoning is based on the current norm in marital customs that the children resulting from a woman's marriage with a second spouse will belong to the first spouse. In the three-language inscription of Shapur I's on Ka'ba-ye Zartosht in Naqsh-e Rustam, Sasan is introduced only as a nobleman and Papak as a king.
There are opinions about the validity and authenticity of each of the mentioned narratives. Some have considered Al-Tabari's report suspicious since he presents an elaborate family tree of Ardashir that relates his generation to mythical and mighty ancient Iranian kings. Some consider the reports of Karnamag and Shahnameh more justifiable, since Ardashir being Sasan's son and his adoption by Papak aligns with Zoroastrian norms and customs. However, some have questioned the reports of Karnamag and Shahnameh, considered them mythical and intended to legitimize the founder of the Sasanian dynasty.
Due to the high number of reports about Ardashir's lineage, it is not easy to accept any; though it should not be ignored that most of the founders of dynasties claimed to be descendants of ancient kings in order to become legitimate. About that, Daryaee says: "If Ardashir had been evolved from a noble house, he would have insisted on a report; while various stories show that he intended to gain legitimacy from all Iranian traditions and perhaps foreign tribes."
In sources, Ardashir's religious relations and his father being a cleric are mentioned; so it can be deduced that Ardashir had no connections with royal houses and was only a cleric's son who knew about religion, but was not a cleric himself; and that was how he, by his religious knowledge, found the chance to be the first person in his inscriptions receiving the royal ring from Ahura Mazda, something a Persian nobleman did not need and only a newcomer had to claim to be from the line of gods. It should be mentioned that it was not precedent to Ardashir to take a royal ring from Ahura Mazda, and it is not seen even in Achaemenid inscriptions.