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Iranian History in Pre‐Islamic Times

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Philip Huyse
Philip Huyse*
Affiliation:
CNRS/Université Paris III
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Extract

Some Fifteen Years Ago, The First Fascicle of What Seemed to be an almost megalomaniacal undertaking was published; since 1982 the Encyclopaedia Iranica (EIr) has not stopped growing slowly but steadily, and one can not imagine Iranian studies anymore without it. In the course of a decade and a half, in which eight impressive volumes have left the editorial rooms of the Center for Iranian Studies at Columbia University in New York, its wealth of learned information has made it an indispensable multidisciplinary tool for non-specialists and specialists alike interested in just about any aspect of Iranian civilization. Meanwhile it can easily bear comparison to that other major enterprise called Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE), which is all the more astonishing in view of the fact that even fewer scholars are working in the field of Iranian studies than in that of Classical studies. Were it not for the exemplary international cooperation between scholars of four continents, this monumental encyclopaedia would probably have remained just a concept.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 3-4: A Review of the “Encyclopaedia Iranica” , Summer Fall 1998 , pp. 417 - 430
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1998

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References

1. On this term cf. Schmitt, R. “Thronnamen bei den Achaimeniden,” Beiträge zur Namenforschung 12 (1977): 422-25Google Scholar and idem, “Achaemenid Throne-Names,” Annali dell'Istituto Orientate di Napoli 42 (1982): 83-95.Google Scholar

2. Histoire de l'Empire Perse. De Cyrus à Alexandre (Paris: 1996Google Scholar [in one volume] and Leiden: 1997 [printed in two volumes as the tenth volume of the AHWJ]). It was recently translated in English by P. T. Daniels and published by Eisenbrauns as From Cyrus to Alexander. A History of the Persian Empire (Winona Lake: 1998)Google Scholar (Henceforth: Briant, Histoire).

3. Cf. Huyse, Ph. “Die Namen der sechs Mitverschworenen des Dareios im Liber Memorialis des Lucius Ampelius,” Acta Orientalia Belgica 7 (1992): 159-71Google Scholar (where the numbering of cross-references to the footnotes got mixed up). In the text series of the Bibliotheca Teubneriana there is an edition by E. Assmann (1935 = 1976) and in the Budé series there is a recent annotated edition with French translation.

4. Whereas I can see that it is useful to have “early” articles on ANABASIS (R. Schmitt) and CYROPAEDIA (H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg), since the letter X (Xenophon) is still quite a while away, I do not understand why DEIPNOSOPHISTAI (J. Duchesne-Guillemin) was not published under the name of its author Athenaeus (unless it was not delivered in time).

5. In quoting authors like Herodotus or Plutarch, Artoxerxes, it would be good if not only the [correct!] (chapter and) paragraph numbers were given, but also line numbers.

6. Ctesias, in particular, is regrettably often quoted according to the old and outdated edition by Gilmore; I would refer those who cannot read Greek, and to whom Jacoby's edition (Greek text without translation) is therefore unusable, to a recent French translation in the popularizing series La roue à livres (edited by Les Belles Lettres), which is entirely based on Jacoby's presentation: Ctésias. Histoires de l'Orient. Translation and commentary by Auberger, Janick; preface by Malamoud, Charles (Paris: 1991).Google Scholar

7. Das Reich der Achaimeniden. Eine Bibliographic Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran. Ergänzungsband 15 (Berlin: 1996). As a supplement for more recent titles one may want to use the invaluable commented bibliography by P. Briant, “Bulletin d'histoire achéménide (BHAch) I.” Topoi. Suppl. 1 Recherches récentes sur l'Empire achéménide. (Lyon: 1997), 5-127.Google Scholar It is planned to continue this series of most useful bulletins at regular intervals.

8. cf. Mayrhofer, M. Die altiranischen Namen. Iranisches Personennamenbuch I/2 (Wien: 1979), 22Google Scholar nr. 36.

9. cf. Briant, Histoire, 123.

10. “La fin du royaume d'Anšan et la naissance de l'Empire perse,“ ZA 75 (1985): 280-85.Google Scholar cf. Briant, Histoire, 28. 906.

11. cf. Ahn, G. “Religiöse Herrscherlegitimation im achämenidischen Iran,“ Acta Iranica 31 (1992): 187 n. 29.Google Scholar

12. This solution has been adopted by Lecoq, P. Les inscriptions de la Perse achéménide. Traduit du vieux perse, de l'élamite, du babylonien et de l'araméen (Paris: 1997), 173Google Scholar (henceforth: Lecoq, Inscriptions) among others.

13. See the explanations of Mayrhofer, M. Die altiranischen Namen. Iranisches Personennamenbuch I/2, 12.Google Scholar

14. On both inscriptions see Huyse, Ph. “Die Begegnung zwischen Hellenen und Iraniern. Griechische epigraphische Zeugnisse von Griechenland bis Pakistan,“ in Iran and Turfan. Beiträge Berliner Wissenschaftler, Werner Sundermann zum 60. Geburtstag gewidmet (Wiesbaden: 1995), 104f.Google Scholar with bibliography in nn. 38f.

15. cf. Gschnitzer, F. “Eine persische Kulturstiftung in Sardeis und die ‘Sippengötter’ Vorderasiens,“ in Im Bannkreis des Alten Orients (Festschrift K. Oberhuber) (Innsbruck: 1986), 45-54.Google Scholar

16. cf. Szemerényi, O. “Iranica V, 59-70,“ in Acta Iranica 5 (1975): 350-54Google Scholar [= Scripta Minora IV (Innsbruck: 1991)].

17. For the latest discussions cf. Schmitt, R. “Bemerkungen zu dem sog. Gadatas-Brief,“ ZPE 112 (1996): 95-101Google Scholar and Briant, Histoire, 507-9, 977 with bibliography.

18. “Mithra the Baga,“ in Histoire et cultes de l'Asie Centrale pré-islamique (Paris: 1991), 177-86.Google Scholar

19. cf. Huyse, Ph. Iranische Namen in den griechischen Dokumenten Ägyptens. Iranisches Personennamenbuch V/6a (Wien: 1990), 39Google Scholar nr. 40a for further references.

20. “The Greek and Hebrew Versions of the Book of Esther and its Iranian Background,“ Irano-Judaica III (1994): 34-39.Google Scholar

21. See the new edition by R. Schmitt of the Old Persian text of the Bisitun inscription of Darius the Great, Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum I/I/I (London: 1991), 51Google Scholar with further literature and Ahn 1992 [see above n.11], 143.

22. See Briant, Histoire, 490-91.

23. Ibid., 1185 in the index under “Lettre … royale.”

24. The History of Theophylact Simocatta. An English Translation with Introduction and Notes (trans.by , M. and Whitby, M.)(Oxford: 1986; repr. 1997).Google Scholar

25. “Von angaros und anderen iranischen Boten,“ HS 106 (1993): 272-84.Google Scholar

26. “Etimologia e semantica del gr. àngaros“ Glotta 73 (1995/96): 210-22.Google Scholar

27. Lendle, O. Kommentar zu Xenophons Anabasis (Bücher 1-7) (Darmstadt: 1995), 62-90Google Scholar (with a detailed discussion of the events of the battle).

28. Epigraphisch-exegetische Noten zu Dareios’ Bīsutūn-Inschriften. SbÖAW 561 (Wien: 1990), 56-60.Google Scholar

29. See Sims-Williams, N. “Old Persian patišuvarna “cup”, Acta Iranica 30 (1990): 240-43.Google Scholar

30. Das Antike Persien. Von 550 v. Chr. bis 650 n. Chr. (München-Zürich: 1994), 71-89Google Scholar (an English translation of this introduction to pre-Islamic Iranian history with most useful bibliographical essays has meanwhile been published).

31. Untersuchungen zu Xenophons Kyrupädie (Stuttgart-Leipzig: 1995).Google Scholar

32. Histoire, 1169, index under “déportation.” Briant not only deals with forced transfers of populations from one region to another, but also with the exile of individuals (although that might perhaps have been a separate article).

33. Since another article in this volume has been devoted to these periods of pre-Islamic history, I refrain from giving an extensive list of entries here.

34. , M. and Whitby, M. The History of Theophylact Simocatta. An English Translation with Introduction and Notes (Oxford: 1986; last repr. 1997).Google Scholar

35. Another recent translation—the first complete one into any modern language—which is of some importance to Iranian studies is The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor. Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 284-813. Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Mango, C. and Scott, R. (Oxford: 1997).Google Scholar Among other things, it deals with the history of the Arabs under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties.

36. On this matter, as well as on other things related to the trilingual inscription ŠKZ, see the commentary in Huyse, Ph. Die dreisprachige Inschrift Sābuhrs I. an der Kaᶜba-i Zardušt (ŠKZ). Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum III/I/Texts I (London: 1999).Google Scholar

37. The most detailed annotations can be found in the edition of Fontaine, J. Ammien Marcellin. Histoire. Livre 23-25. Bd. IV.2. Commentaire (Paris: 1977)Google Scholar in the French Budé series. The description of the Persian empire was also deliberately left out in the otherwise thorough commentary of books 23-25 by Brok, M. F. A. De perzische expeditie van keizer Julianus volgens Ammianus Marcellinus (Groningen: 1959).Google Scholar

38. Cf. Ph. Huyse 1999 (n. 37), vol. 2, 62-64 for more details.

39. See Sims-Williams, N. in Boyce, M. BAI 4 (1990), 8, n. 7.Google Scholar

40. Huyse, Ph. “Kerdīr and the first Sasanians,” Proceedings of the Third European Conference of Iranian Studies. Pt. 1. Old and Middle Iranian Studies (Wiesbaden: 1998): 109-20.Google Scholar