Farrokh, K. (2023). Observation of the role of climate and Geography in the war planning of the Sasanian Spāh. Hunara: Journal of Ancient Iranian Arts and History, Vol.1, No.1, pp.61-70. (original) (raw)
Related papers
HISTORIA I ŚWIAT, 2021
This article examines Sasanian military architecture with respect to its integration with the four-region Spāhbed system (Ādurbādagān-Spāhbed, Xwarāsān-Spāhbed, Xwarbārān-Spāhbed and Nēmrōz-Spāhbed) for defending the empire. Following an overview of Sasanian military architecture within Iran, the article examines the Darband wall of the Caucasus in the context of the office of the Ādurbādagān-Spāhbed facing the empire's north and northwest (Ādurbādagān, Media Atropatene corresponding with the historical Azerbaijan in Iran's northwest), the Tammisha and Gorgan wall systems of the Xwarāsān-Spāhbed facing the nomadic warrior peoples of the Central Asia, the military architecture of the Xwarbārān-Spāhbed facing the western (Romano-Byzantine) frontiers, and the Khandaq-e Shapur of the Nēmrōz-Spāhbed facing the southwest, notably raiders from the Arabian Peninsula threatening the empire's southwest marches.
Military Architecture and the Four-Spāhbed System for Defense of the Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE)
Historia i Świat, 2021
This article examines Sasanian military architecture with respect to its integration with the four-region Spāhbed system (Ādurbādagān-Spāhbed, Xwarāsān-Spāhbed, Xwarbārān-Spāhbed and Nēmrōz-Spāhbed) for defending the empire. Following an overview of Sasanian military architecture within Iran, the article examines the Darband wall of the Caucasus in the context of the office of the Ādurbādagān-Spāhbed facing the empire’s north and northwest (Ādurbādagān, Media Atropatene corresponding with the historical Azerbaijan in Iran’s northwest), the Tammisha and Gorgan wall systems of the Xwarāsān-Spāhbed facing the nomadic warrior peoples of the Central Asia, the military architecture of the Xwarbārān-Spāhbed facing the western (Romano-Byzantine) frontiers, and the Khandaq-e Shapur of the Nēmrōz-Spāhbed facing the southwest, notably raiders from the Arabian Peninsula threatening the empire’s southwest marches.
Katarzyna Maksymiuk, Geography of Roman-Iranian Wars: Military Operations of Rome and Sasanian, 2019
The book, that has been published by Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities in 2012 and is essentially a revised and expanded translation of a study written in Polish titled Geografia wojen rzymsko-irańskich. Działania Rzymu i Iranu w okresie sasa-nidzkim, has been published in English and prepared primarily for students who take interest in the history of the Near East. The study discusses the names of the regions and sites where wars, conflicts, sieges and conquests took place between the Roman and Sasanian empires, and the border changes brought about by the treaties made between the sides throughout a time frame from the first quarter of the 3rd century A.D. to the early Islamic conquests in the first quarter of the 7th century A.D. In the first chapter of the study which is comprised of two main chapters, a short introduction is made and after that, a rundown on the modern literature that has been inspirational for the making of the study, is given, the structure of the study, the method used and the constraints of the subject have been formed in a reasonable manner. In the same chapter, the situation of the Roman-Persian borders in the 2nd century A.D. is described and the fragile relations , diplomatic and military conflicts between the two long-standing enemies are roughly discussed.
Interaction of military geography, meteorology and military art based on the example of war events
2021
Examining the relationship between geography, geospatial information, and military activities is not a new idea, it has been part of military art since ancient times. Methods have changed, the role of knowledge of space has not diminished over the centuries, it has only changed. Throughout history, there have been several wars and battles in which the battlefield itself has played an important role. Knowledge, or lack of knowledge of weather elements, terrain, geographical features decisively influenced the outcome of events, therefore combat events and military science mutually shaped each other. In this paper, I will present the evolution, development of this interaction and the necessary change in the study with some developed historical examples.
Castles, Walls, Fortresses. The Sasanian Effort to Defend the Territory
HISTORIA I ŚWIAT, nr 9 , 2020
Defensive structures have been applied as the permanent elements of the Iranian urbanism, from the first phases of sedentism in the Neolithic period onwards. Following the Iranian tradition in architecture, Sasanian fortifications having local features were constructed in adaptation with the regional circumstances. Nevertheless, we can find some similarities in the components of the defensive installations. The defensive structures located within the Sasanian territory turned Iran into the unconquerable fortress providing Sasanians with military, political, cultural, and economic dominance over a vast area of the ancient world for more than four centuries.
Just Deserts: Roman Military Operations in Arid Environments (108 BC-AD 400). (MPhil dissertation)
A great deal of academic work has been devoted to the study of Roman warfare. The most common iterations of this attention relate to the development of Roman military practice over time; this particular study examines Roman military operations over space as well, specifically focusing upon the arid regions of the East and North Africa. Utilising extant textual and material evidence as well as modern scholarship, this study argues that there was no 'Eastern way of war', but that adaptations were made based upon conditions on the ground, including climate, terrain and opposing forces.
Ancient Arms Race Volume 1 (Table of Contents), 2022
Which ancient army boasted the largest fortifi cations, and how did the competitive build-up of military capabilities shape world history? Few realise that imperial Rome had a serious competitor in Late Antiquity. Late Roman legionary bases, normally no larger than 5 ha, were dwarfed by Sasanian fortresses, often covering 40 ha, sometimes even 125-210 ha. The latter did not necessarily house permanent garrisons but sheltered large armies temporarily-perhaps numbering 10,000-50,000 men each. Even Roman camps and fortresses of the early and high empire did not reach the dimensions of their later Persian counterparts. The longest fort-lined wall of the late antique world was also Persian. Persia built up, between the fourth and sixth centuries AD, the most massive military infrastructure of any ancient or medieval Near Eastern empire-if not the ancient and medieval world. Much of the known defensive network was directed against Persia's powerful neighbours in the north-rather than the west. This may refl ect diff erences in archaeological visibility more than troop numbers. Urban garrisons in the Romano-Persian frontier zone are much harder to identify than vast geometric compounds in marginal northern lands. Recent excavations in Iran have enabled us to precision-date two of the largest fortresses of Southwest Asia, both larger than any in the Roman world. Excavations in a Gorgan Wall fort have shed much new light on frontier life, and we have unearthed a massive bridge nearby. A sonar survey has traced the probable terminal of the Tammisheh Wall, now submerged under the waters of the Caspian Sea. Further work has focused on a vast city and settlements in the hinterland. Persia's Imperial Power, our previous project, had already shed much light on the Great Wall of Gorgan, but it was our recent fi eldwork that has thrown the sheer magnitude of Sasanian military infrastructure into sharp relief.