Sasanian Society.

• Author: Shayegan, M. Rahim
• Position: Book review

Sasanian Society. By AHMAD TAFAZZOLI. Ehsan yarshater distinguished lecture series, vol. 1. New York: BIBLIOTHECA PERSICA PRESS, 2000. Pp. v + 71 (paper).

This handsome booklet on Sasanian Society contains the sum of three lectures delivered at Harvard University on April 1-5, 1996, by the late Ahmad Tafazzoli, the inaugural lecturer of the Ehsan Yarshater Distinguished Lectures in Iranian Studies. Unfortunately the author was not to have the opportunity personally to rework these lectures for publication, as he was assassinated in Tehran by those who, on account of his alleged pursuit of a prohibited form of nationalism rooted in the Iranian past and at variance with an ecumenical Muslim identity, eliminated the most brilliant Iranist of his generation, who had single-handedly represented the entire field of Iranian Studies in post-revolutionary Iran. Despite the careful editing by the late D. N. MacKenzie, professor emeritus of Iranistik at the University of Gottingen, this survey of Sasanian society would have been a different one, and surely better, had the author lived long enough to complete this task.

The study, which is organized around the central themes of the author's three lectures, is divided as follows: foreword by the editor Roy P. Mottahaedeh, short biography and bibliography of the author; chapter I: Warriors (pp. 1-17); chapter II: Scribes and Secretaries (pp. 18-37); chapter III: Dehqans (pp. 38-59); bibliography.

At the outset one may point out that this book, notwithstanding its deficiencies, is still an admirable achievement and ought to be regarded as a most valuable and, for the foreseeable future, irreplaceable reference work on Sasanian culture and society. That said, and before a more thorough review is undertaken, we should also mention that the book suffers from several lacunae both thematic and methodological. It is certainly regrettable that other crucial social categories of the Sasanian empire--on the one hand, the priesthood, and on the other, farmers, artisans, laborers, and merchants--were omitted altogether from the study. The fact that no lecture was dedicated to these social groups may suggest that no analysis of their Wirken was ever intended, although we should not second-guess the intentions of the departed. Another, in my opinion more problematic, shortcoming is the treatment of Sasanian society as a monolithic block, without distinguishing the subtle changes that the categories of warriors and...