1995/01/01 by Touraj Daryaee · 39 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #Ancient Near East History #Ancient history #Byzantine Studies and History #Eurasian Exchange Networks #Historiography #History #History of Islam #Islam #Law #Ninth #Period (music) #Philosophy #Political science #Politics #Reign #Zoroastrianism
paper · doi:10.1080/00210869508701832
published in Iranian Studies 28(3-4), 129-141 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 1995/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The Omission of the Achaemenids from Indigenous Accounts of Iranian history has puzzled many and led to the assumption that the Sasanids were unaware of the Achaemenids and did not have any historical memory of them; that, if anything, the Sasanids were heirs to the Parthians. The argument put forth is that, with some exceptions, sources from the Islamic period do not really show that the Sasanids knew about the Achaemenids. Indeed, it is correct that the Islamic sources have only a vague recollection of the Achaemenids. But does the vagueness in Islamic historiography in the ninth and the tenth centuries prove that the Sasanids (A.D. 224-651) were unaware of the Achaemenids (550- 331 B.C.) during their rule? The question of why the Achaemenids, in spite of their outstanding political and military achievements, were omitted from the national tradition during the reign of the Sasanids--who originated from the same region--has remained unanswered.