by Mahir Khalifa-zadeh
March 03, 2025
Posted from:
Khalifa-zadeh M., Sasanian Imperial Ideology: From Anāhītā Fire in Pārs to Ādur Gušnasp Fire Temple in Ādurbādagān, International Journal of History, 2025, Vol 7, Issue 1, pp 23-28, DOI: 10.22271/27069109.2025.v7.i1a.344
PDF available at: https://www.historyjournal.net/article/344/7-1-5-963.pdf or
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/388360126_Sasanian_Imperial_Ideology_From_Anahita_Fire_In_Pars_To_Adur_Gusnasp_Fire_Temple_In_Adurbadagan
 |
Ruins of the Sassanid's "cathedral" fire-temple of Ādur Gušnasp (Fire of Warrior Kings),
now Azar Goshnasp in Takht-e Sulaiman, Azerbaijan, Iran |
Abstract: The article analyzes some developments in the ideology of the early Sassanids. The author briefly overviews Ardaxšīr I’s rise to power, highlighting his political ambitions that formed the basis for Sasanian imperial policy and ideology. The Sasanians came to power with political ambitions to restore the Truth and Persian Glory and eliminate the remnants of Hellenism that survived the Parthian period. The author discusses political and ideological reasons that motivated the early Sasanians to declare the fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp in Ādurbādagān as the empire’s most sacred fire. This step and Shāpūr I’s official declaration of Zoroastrianism as the state religion transformed Azerbaijan (Pahlavi: Ādurbādagān) into the empire’s most sacrosanct land, increasing the province’s imperial and strategic value as the center of ideology and propaganda. Finally, it is shown that granting the “cathedral” rank to the Ādur Gušnasp fire temple and attaching themselves to this officially proclaimed the empire’s most sacred victorious warriors’ class fire of the highest grade was a significant shift in the first Sassanids’ imperial ideology.
Keywords: Sasanian ideology, Zoroastrianism, Iran, Adurbadagan, Azerbaijan
Introduction
The Sasanian period was a significant part of Iran’s
history. Some scholars consider the rise of the Sasanians as the result of a
coup d’état by the Medes and Persians against the Parthian Arsacids. Others
have claimed that the Sasanian period was characterized by a Sasanian Parthian
confederacy [1].
Nevertheless, regardless of their Parthian roots, the
Sasanians declared their political mission to restore the
Truth and Persian Glory [2]. Intriguingly, rather than the fire temple of
Anāhītā in Pārs, from where they rose to power, the first Sassanids proclaimed
the holy shrine of Ādur Gušnasp in Ādurbādagān to be the empire’s most sacred
fire, attaching themselves to this victorious warriors’ class fire of the
highest grade [3]. The early Sasanians granted the rank of “cathedral” to Ādur
Gušnasp fire of Media, which was the last surviving fire of the Great Fires of
State that had been established sometime in the Parthian period [4].
Sasanian
imperial ideology [5] had numerous changes during the reign of the Sassanid
Persians [6] , which has incited significant interest in the political,
religious, and ideological reasons behind these political and ideological
shifts, particularly the proclamation of Ādur Gušnasp fire in Azerbaijan as the
empire’s most sacred fire. Indeed, the early Sasanians’ proclamation of
Zoroastrianism as the state religion and Ādur Gušnasp as the empire’s
“cathedral” rank fire temple exemplifies the developments in Sasanian imperial
ideology and strategy, which followed the transformation of Azerbaijan into the
religious and ideological “core” of the empire and the center of official
Zoroastrian propaganda. This significant move had administrative and military
consequences that were addressed in the multi-targeted reforms of Kawād I
(488-531) and Xusrō I Anōšīrvān (531-579)[7].
House
of Sāsān rise to power: brief overview
The House of Sāsān rose in Iran in the late Parthian
period following the internal struggle for power between the different branches
of the House of Arsacids. There is evidence that a certain Sāsān, possibly a
Parthian soldier or someone of Indo-Parthian origin, worked or was stationed in
the house of Pābaq, who was the ruler of Istakhr in Persis/Pārs/Fārs. Some
scholars indicate that Sāsān may have been a custodian of the great fire temple
of Anāhītā where Pābaq was a priest.
The epic treatment in Firdowsi’s masterpiece Šāhnāme,
which was based on the Sasanian chronicle “Xwadāynamāg”, states that Pābaq’s
daughter (or Pābaq’s wife as he had a vision of his wife giving birth to a
great king) [8] was married to Sāsān, and the princess gave birth to Ardaxšīr I
[9].
Indeed, the rise of the House of Sāsān and the origin of Ardaxšīr I
remains mysterious; however, most scholars follow Tabari’s account in the
Šāhnāme that Pābaq’s daughter married Sāsān and gave birth to Ardaxšīr [10] .
When Ardaxšīr came to power, he proclaimed his official genealogy to be
“ardaxšīr ī kay ī pābagān ī az tōhmag ī sāsān nāf ī dārā šāh”, “Ardaxšīr the
Kayānid, the son of Pābag, from the race of Sāsān, from the family of King
Dārāy.” However, Darayee interprets this as: “The Kayānid dynasty in the
Avesta, the mysterious protective deity Sāsān, and the connection to Dārāy
(probably the conflation of the Achaemenids, Darius I and Darius II, and the
Persis kings, Dārāyān I and Dārāyān II) all suggest a falsification of his
lineage [11].”
Nevertheless, Ardaxšīr I officially proclaimed himself a king of
Persian origin and a descendant of the great Achaemenids [12]. However, the
hostilities and internal struggles for power between the great Parsiq (Persian)
and Pahlav (Parthian) families (Houses) continued until the Muslim conquest of
Iran [13].
In 224 CE, on the same day of the decisive battle on the plain of
Hormizdagān (somewhere in Media), slaying the Parthian king Ardawān IV, Ardaxšīr proclaimed himself
šāhanšāh. Later, Ardaxšīr I had himself officially coronated in the captured
Parthian imperial capital Ctesiphon and established the Sasanian empire [14].
Imperial
religion, ideology, and Ādurbādagān [Azerbaijan]
One can interpret that Ardaxšīr I’s official genealogy
and the stone reliefs at Naqsh-e Rostam give information about his official
origin and the political essence of his power: the reinforcement of
Zoroastrianism and the restoration of the Glory of Persians and Persian rule in
the previous lands of the Achaemenids. Ardaxšīr’s official genealogy claims he
was from the family of King Dārāy and supports the belief that he was the
descendant of the Achaemenids and that his political ambitions to follow and
protect Persian Glory [15].
The relief at Naqsh-e Rostam shows Ardaxšīr I
receiving the ring (seal) of kingship as šāhanšāh of Ērānšahr from Ahura Mazdā
propagates the divine blessing (xwarrah) to his kingship and indicates his duty
to follow and enforce Zoroastrianism. The propaganda and ideology in the
Kārnāmag ī Ardašīr ī Pāpagān (Book of the Deeds of Ardeshir, Son of Papak) also
support and proclaim the legitimacy of Sasanian rule and ambitions [16].
Indeed, Ardaxšīr I and his son Shāpūr I had political ambitions to restore
Persia to imperial glory by creating a centralized Sasanian empire in a
Zoroastrian oecumene [17] and the institutionalization of Zoroastrianism as the
sole religion of the state [18]. The rock-carvings at Naqsh-e Rostam show
Ardaxšīr I giving the ring or seal of rule to his son Shāpūr I, which could be
interpreted as meaning that his son was mandated to follow his father’s policy
and ideology and enforce Ardaxšīr I’s legacy. Truly, like his father, Shāpūr I
expressed his devotion to fire as an icon of the religion and officially
proclaimed Zoroastrianism the state religion [19].
Therefore, from these
images, one may assume that Sasanian imperialism [20] was the backbone of
Shāpūr I’s imperial policy, which was ideologically based on Zoroastrianism as
the sole imperial religion and Achaemenid Persian Glory. Consequently, official
state propaganda distanced the Sassanid Persians from the Parthians and
associated them with the Achaemenid Persians [21].
In fact, Shāpūr I was
focused on enforcing a centralized Sasanian state in a Zoroastrian oecumene and
eliminating the last signs of Hellenism that had survived the Parthian period.
He used Sasanian imperialism to strengthen the central power and Zoroastrianism
in lands surrounding Ērānšahr. Shāpūr I established many Bahrām fires for his
soul (Xusraw Šāhbūhr), his daughter (Xusraw ĀdurAnāhīd), and many others. He
also established sacred fires and supported communities of priests in Syria,
Cilicia, Cappadocia, and Armin (Armenia or Arminiyaya) [22].
Politically and
ideologically, the establishment of the sacred fires network was aimed to
strengthen the power of the šāhanšāh and symbolized the unification of the
state, the authority of the hierarchy of priests, and the ubiquitous nature of
Zoroastrian religion. The early Sasanians categorized the fire temples, particularly
the three Great Fires of State, one of which, the fire of Ādur Gušnasp in
Ādurbādagān, was declared the victorious warriors’ (artēštār) class fire of the
highest grade [23].
Interestingly, in the Seleucid and Parthian eras, the
province of Ādurbādagān (Parthian or Arsacid Pahlavi: Āturpātākān) was one of
the strongholds against the spread of the Greek and Roman pantheon in Iran. It
is also highly likely that Āturpātākān was the place where the prophet
Zarathustra was born [24, 25], and where the Holy Avesta was kept in the holy
shrine of the Ātur (Old Persian) or Ādur Gušnasp fire temple in Šiz (now
Takht-e Sulaiman, Azerbaijan) [26, 27].
Ādur Gušnasp, an Ataš Bahrām
(Parthian: Ātaš-i- Wahram or Pahlavi: Ādur Bahrām -“fires of Victory,” was the Zoroastrian
name for the God of War and Victory), was the most sacred and “cathedral” fire
of the highest grade in Zoroastrianism, which had been established in the late
Achaemenid or Parthian era in Ādurbādagān in Media [28]. Each new king, as
Shāpūr I proclaimed, was obligated to make a pilgrimage after their coronation
to Ādur Gušnasp, provide royal gifts, and celebrate Nowruz (No Ruz).
Intriguingly, despite the Sassanids proclaimed their Achaemenid Persian origin,
they followed the Arsacid Parthians’ tradition of donations, which at the time
were donated to the Ādur Burzēn-Mihr fire. This was the second fire the
Sasanians categorized as one of the Great Fires of State. The fire was
established sometime in the 5th or 4th century BC in Parthia (the northeast of
Iran), but at the time of the Sassanids, it had been occupied and destroyed
[29]. Ideologically, the proclamation of the Ādur Gušnasp fire of Media as the
victorious warriors’ class fire of the highest grade, to which the Sasanians
officially attached themselves, demonstrated Persia’s superiority over Media
and Parthia [30].
Next, aiming to secure themselves as the ruling dynasty, the
early Sasanian strategy was focused on putting the politically powerful and
religiously and ideologically influential Zoroastrian clergy or Magi/Magus
(maguš) under the šāhanšāh’s control. Some scholars believe the Maguses, who
played a cathedral role at the time [31], were a class of priests and/or a
tribe from Media. [32, 33], Diakonoff argued that the Maguses supplied the
Medes with court priests as early as under the last Median king Astyages [34].
Therefore, as followers of Achaemenid Persians, the early Sasanians attempted
to control the Maguses of Median and/or Persian origin because they considered
it a high-priority political and ideological task to secure Persian power over
Media and the Medes [35]. It is also possible that the Sasanians knew of
Gaumāta’s or the Maguses’/Medes’ revolt [36].
In this regard, Ardaxšīr I’s and
his son Shāpūr I’s attempts to control the Zoroastrian clergy were a key
element in their imperial strategy that was promoted by Kirdēr the herbed
(priestly teacher), who was the famous and powerful religious leader of the
time. They gave him a position close to the šāhanšāh’s court, ordering him to
categorize the Great Fires and ceremonial protocols. Shāpūr I granted Kirdēr
the title of mobedān mobed (priest of priests). Kirdēr was affiliated with the
fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp in Azerbaijan and had another name Kirdēr-Gušnasp
[37]. The other highly influential and powerful mobedān mobed during Sasanian
King Šāpūr II’s rein was Ādurbād-ī Mahrspandān (“Ādurbād, son of Mahraspand”),
who was also affiliated with Ādur Gušnasp [38].
Politically, by ensuring the
Zoroastrian priests were close to the court, the early Sasanians demonstrated
the unity of State and Church, which were interconnected and mutually
dependent. Ardaxšīr I’s chief priest Kirdēr stated that the “Church and State
were born of one womb [39].” The early Sasanians needed Zoroastrian priests to
act as their counselors in religious affairs to support the dynasty’s claim to
legitimacy [40, 41]. Shāpūr I authorized Kirdēr, who was a Zoroastrian
fanatic, to eliminate Mithraism along the Medes and Maguses of Media and to
strengthen Zoroastrianism in the lands challenged by Christian Byzantium,
allowing him to establish the fire temples around the empire and in Syria and
Armenia.
Next, one can interpret that the Sassanid Persians’ proclamation of
Ādur Gušnasp as the empire’s most sacred and “cathedral” fire was a step to be
politically and ideologically distanced (as proclaimed Achaemenid Persian
descendants) from the Achaeimends’ favored but ruined by the Macedonians the
fire-temple of Anāhītā [42], even though this temple played a key ideological
role in the Sassanids’ rise to power as Goddess Anāhītā blessed restorators of
the Truth and Achaemenid Persian Glory. It should not be excluded that the
early Sasanians needed to prove that they were the rightful restorers of the
Truth (which “must needs be restored by a man of true and upright judgment”)
and the Glory of Persians over the Medians and Parthians [43].
Furthermore, as
the proclaimed descendants of Achaemenid Persians, the early Sassanids may have
been ideologically obligated to demonstrate an anti-Hellenistic reaction [44], to
separate themselves from the Arsacid Parthians, which they claimed were
“unworthy interlopers [45] ” affected by Greek traditions. Therefore, by
granting “cathedral” rank to the last surviving Great Fire of State of Ādur
Gušnasp in Ādurbādagān, which the Macedonians had never damaged, and attaching
themselves to this victorious warriors’ class fire of the highest grade, the
early Sassanids chose to distance themselves from Alexander ransacked the
Anāhītā fire in Fārs demonstrating a strong anti-Hellenistic reaction. This
step indicated the further development or adjustment of the early Sasanian
ideology as follows:
- from the Sassanids’ origin as the restorers of Truth and Achaemenid Persians’
Glory;
- to the fighters or protectors of Truth and Persian Glory, as Sasanian
victorious (pērōzgar) warriors (artēštār).
Furthermore, the proclamation of Ādur Gušnasp fire, the
most sacred imperial sanctuary had other additional political and ideological
grounds.
Indeed, the fire temple of Anāhītā had been sacked by Alexander of
Macedon, who had burnt there the 12,000 oxhides on which the original Avesta
was written in golden lettering and which had been placed in the Fortress of
Archives in the city of Istakhr in Pārs [46]. However, another copy of the
Holy Avesta [47], copied on calf skins was kept in the fire temple of Ādur
Gušnasp in Azerbaijan [48, 49]. In this regard, it should be noted that King
Darius III’s General Aturpāt (Atropates), the satrap of Media, had been able to
secure the holy fire in Ādur Gušnasp. In 324 BC, Aturpāt pacified the unrest
against the Greeks and Alexander decided to keep him as king of the land, which
later became the independent (or semi-independent, vassal of Arsacid Parthia)
kingdom of Atropatena (Greek) or Āturpātākān (Parthian or Arsakid Pahlavi).
Atropates’ daughter was married to Perdiccas, Alexander’s close ally and a
commander of the Macedonian cavalry [50].
Thus, ideologically, it is safe to
assume that Shāpūr I’s decision to declare Ādur Gušnasp, the sole survivor of
the three Great Fires of State, as the empire’s most sacred firetemple had the
logic of the so-called “ideological clean up” of the Macedonians’ destruction
of the Anāhītā fire temple and burning there of the Holy Avesta symbolizing
Shāpūr I's full departure (political and ideological) from the vestiges of
Hellenism surviving from the Parthian period and marked a policy of remedying
the great impact that the Greeks had had on the country as the destroyers of
the Achaemenids to whom the Sassanid Persians attached their genealogy.
Further, politically, selecting Ādur Gušnasp as the cathedral fire temple
allowed Shāpūr I to secure direct control over the powerful Zoroastrian priests
or Maguses affiliated with this temple. It also allowed him to keep the
religious clergy within official Sasanian policy, eliminating any avenue for
anti-dynastic propaganda or even a revolt by the Medes or Maguses.
As the early
Sassanids officially declared their mission to be the restorers of Truth and
Persian Glory, by linking their genealogy to the Achaemenid Persians, it could
be assumed that they selected the “pure clean” fire temple as the most sacred
fire of the Sassanid Persians’ empire because it had never been ruined or
humiliated by Alexander of Macedon. Consequently, the Sassanians attached
themselves to Ādurbādagān’s Ādur Gušnasp fire, where the Holy Avesta was
preserved and proclaimed it to be the empire’s most sacred fire. By
categorizing Ādur Gušnasp as the “cathedral” fire temple, the early Sasanians
transformed Azerbaijan into the empire’s religious and ideological centre, with
military and administrative consequences ensuing [51].
There is no doubt that
the fire temple of Anāhītā in Pārs, from where the Sassanids rose to power, was
the heart of the Sasanian dynasty, who declared themselves the guardians of the
temple [52]. The value of the fire for the Sasanians was demonstrated in the
spring of 632 CE when Yazdgerd III was crowned at the Anāhītā fire temple in
Istakhr, where he had been hiding during Iran’s civil war [53].
However, the
declared political and ideological ambitions of the early Sasamians reasonably
dictated them to distance from the Anāhītā fire temple, humiliated by Alexander
the Great by the burning of the Holy Avesta, following the proclamation Ādur
Gušnasp of Media as the “cathedral” and the most sacred fire of the empire [54].
Furthermore, the attachment of the Sasanians to Ādurbādagān’s Ādur Gušnasp
fire sent a strong political message to those inside the empire and to their
neighbors, particularly the Roman/Byzantium Empire. Starting from Julius
Caesar, the Roman and later Byzantine emperors’ ambitions were compared to
those of Alexander the Great in the East. They propagated themselves as the
successors of Alexander and were full of ambitions to re-conquer and defeat
Persia [55]. In this light, the early Sassanids’ distancing from Alexander’s
ransacked fire of Anāhītā had an additional political and ideological essence,
particularly messaging to the Romans that the Sassanids were ready to fight for
Persia and Persian Glory as the victorious warriors of the Ādur Gušnasp fire
temple.
Next, it is necessary to stress that the Sassanids’ key geopolitical
and religious rival Byzantium acknowledged the imperial, military, and
ideological value of and Ādurbādagān as the Sasanian empire’s most religiously
sacrosanct land holding the empre’s most sacred fire of Ādur Gušnasp. In 623,
the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, during the last Byzantine-Sassanian war of
602-628 CE, occupied Azerbaijan and sacked Ādur Gušnasp intending to crush the
Sassanids’ will and power to fight. As Greenwood mentioned, Heraclius had
recognised the potential for striking at the central Ādurbādagān province of
the Sasanian empire from the north, using Armenia as a bridgehead [56] . Some
scholars have argued, that because Emperor Heraclius’ letters before the war
and the Byzantines’ return to Jerusalem of the Holy Cross, which had been
captured by the Sasanians in 614 and stored in Ādurbādagān’s capital Ganzak
[57], this war was religious revenge [58]. Heraclius ruined the great and
most sacred fire temple of the Sasanians, extinguishing the fire in Ādur
Gušnasp and polluting the lake's water in the fire complex with corpses [59].
Later, in 651, the Muslim Arabs sought to paralyze the Sasanians by focusing
their final attack on Azerbaijan where Yazdgerd III was attempting to establish
his new army.
Finally, the early Sassanids’ proclamation of Ādur Gušnasp as the
empire’s most sacred fire temple with the rank of “cathedral” and the
institutionalization of Zoroastrianism as the state religion reveal the
evolutionary developments in early Sasanian imperial policy and ideology. These
developments transformed Azerbaijan into the religious and ideological “core”
of the Sasanian Empire. As Hakimfar rightly highlighted, when the Magi were
converted to Zoroastrianism under the empire’s chief priest KirdērGušnasp of
Ādur Gušnasp, Azerbaijan became the ideological centre for the propagation of
the Zoroastrian religion [60].
Conclusion
Official Sasanian propaganda presented the Sasanians
as the restorers of Truth and Persian Glory and rulers of the lands that
previously belonged to the Achaemenian dynasty. The Sasanians portrayed
themselves as successors to the Achaemenid Persians. The early Sasanians strove
to eliminate the Parthian era remnants of Hellenism and institutionalize
Zoroastrianism as the only religion of Ērānšahr. King Shāpūr I declared
Zoroastrianism to be the imperial religion and proclaimed the last surviving
Great Fire of State, Ādur Gušnasp in Azerbaijan, to be the empire’s most sacred
fire. Shāpūr I further attached the Sasanians to Ādur Gušnasp victorious
warriors’ class fire of the highest grade and granted it the rank of
“cathedral”. In this light, it can be assumed that the early Sassanids’
attachment to the Ādur Gušnasp fire indicates a further development in their
imperial ideology and policy that moved from the restorers of Truth and Achaemenid
Persian Glory to the protectors or fighters for Truth and Persian Glory.
It is
also rational to believe that the political and ideological distancing of the
early Sassanids from the Anāhītā fire, from which they rose to power but was
ransacked and humiliated by Alexander of Macedon’s burning of the Holy Avesta,
was needed to prove their full and absolute departure from the impacts of the
Greek world.
Ideologically, attaching themselves to the Ādur Gušnasp, the early
Sasanians presented themselves to Ērān and Anērān (non-Iran) as great warriors.
Politically, it could also be considered as the strong message to
Rome/Byzantium, which claimed ownership of Alexander the Great’s heritage that
the Sassanid Persians were legitimate descendants of the Achaemenid Persians
and protectors or “victorious warriors” of the great Achaemenid Persian
heritage.
In the meantime, by keeping the Achaemenid's favored Anāhitā fire in
their hearts and guarding it, the early Sassanids, nevertheless, obligated
every new šāhanšāh after the official coronation to make a pilgrimage and
donate royal gifts to the Ādur Gušnasp fire to signify its highest rank.
Further, the Sasanians reacted to internal political demands by granting Ādur
Gušnasp the honor of being the empire’s “cathedral” rank fire. This
acknowledgment established direct political control through the mobedān mobed
(priest of priests) over the powerful, rich, and influential Zoroastrian
priesthood of Persian and Medes origin. The highest priests, Kirdēr-Gušnasp and
Ādurbād-ī Mahraspānd, who were both affiliated with Ādur Gušnasp, were close to
the crown and advised the šāhanšāhs.
Therefore, by declaring Ādur Gušnasp to be
the empire’s most sacred and “cathedral” fire, the early Sasanians transformed
Ādurbādagān into the religious “core” of the state and the ideological centre
of imperial Zoroastrian propaganda.
Notably, Azerbaijan was a province
controlled by the great Pahlav House of Ispahbudhan, which had close relations
with the other powerful great Pahlav House of Mehrān, the shāh’s dynasty in
Arrān (Albania). Both families were influential in Sasanian internal politics,
as recalling that šāhanšāh Xusrō I’s mother was a Ispahbudhan noblewoman and
the Sasanian military elite were mostly from either the Ispahbudhan or Mehrān Houses.
Therefore, in an attempt to reduce the great feudal lords’ power in the
empire’s internal politics, a high priority of the House of Sāsān was to keep
“an eye” on the Ādurbādagān and Arrān noble (šahrdārān) families’ politics. By
controlling the nobles’ activities, the House of Sāsān focused on preventing
any possible revolt or coup d'etat by the Pahlav Houses, however, general
Bahrām Chōbīn of Mehrān did briefly become šāhanšāh Bahrām VI, claiming that
the Sasanians were usurpers.
Thus, the transformation of Azerbaijan into the
religious centre of the empire was beneficial to the Sassanids’ ideology,
military, administrative, and internal politics. However, Azerbaijan's proximity
to the empire’s war zones meant the province was vulnerable, a fact that both
the Sasanians and their enemies were aware of.
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How to cite this article:Mahir Khalifa-zadeh. Sasanian Imperial Ideology: From Anāhītā Fire in Pārs to Ādur Gušnasp Fire Temple in Ādurbādagān. Int J Hist 2025;7(1):23-28. DOI: 10.22271/27069109.2025.v7.i1a.344
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