دو چشم زمین: هنر و آیین پادشاهی بین روم و ایران ساسانی

by Matthew P. Canepa, هایده مشایخ (Translator)

خداوند از همان آغاز مقرر داشت که جهان با دو چشم روشن شود؛ با قدرتمندترین امپراتوری یعنی رومیان و خردمندترین پادشاهی دوراندیش یعنی کشور پارس (ایران)<\b>

عنوان این کتاب برگرفته از نامه خسرو دوم پرویز شاهنشاه ساسانی به امپراتور روم است.
این کتاب بر یک دورۀ محوری در تاریخ سیاسی و مذهبی، یعنی دورۀ زمانی بین جهان عصر باستان و جهان سده‌های میانه در منطقۀ مدیترانه و خاور نزدیک تمرکز می‌کند و شرایط و انگیزه‌های این دو نظام جهانی و مقدس و متخاصم را با موشکافی دقیق تجزیه و تحلیل و تبادلات بینافرهنگی و ارتباطاتی آنها را، حتی با وجود رقابت بررسی می‌کند.

Genres: History, Middle East, Art

646 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2009

Reviews

[Aroosha Dehghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب فوق العاده با ترجمه بسیار عالی.
البته که این کتاب تاریخ عمومی نیست و نیاز به مطالعات پیش زمینه داره.

[Fadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Canepa's exhaustive analysis and even greater list of references unveils the cultural relationship between the Eastern Romans and Sasanian Irans beneath the imperial and militaristic endeavours we are used to seeing in books, movies and games. Ultimately, it sets the precedent for the exchanges between a European superpower and its Eurasian counterpart.

The fall of the Parthian confederacy at the hands of the centralised Sasanian dynasty in the first quarter of the 200s AD revitalised the Iranian war machine, especially under its second monarch, Shapur. As Rome struggled to deal with the Crisis of the Third Century and dozens of Roman and non-Roman usurpers and breakaway states, the Sasanians centralised power and smashed through the eastern provinces on a scale similar to Germany's blitzkrieg. A Roman emperor was captured and enslaved for the rest of his life, one was killed and one was forced to sue for peace in a shameful deal, all of this achieved by the seemingly invincible Shapur. It'd also be the first and last time the regents would see each other in person, the rest of their shared history involved their envoys meeting their adversary as an intermediate.

The settlement opened the way for the normalisation of relations between the leaders and "eyes of the earth", culminating in exchange of cultural icons, symbols, materials and practices which each sought to appropriate and incorporate into their own imperial display of power and hegemony. This climaxed with emperors and shahs "adopting" each other's crown prince to ensure their succession in the event of attempted usurpations and assassinations. This perpetual self-aggrandisement inevitably led to the rulers viewing themselves as gods or equal to the gods on a scale of despotism unwitnessed in previous human history. Eastern Roman emperors required utter prostration before them and the monopolisation of the valuable purple silk while the shahs were the only ones permitted to possess and wear gold unless am aristocrat was bestowed with that honour, an honour which could be revoked at any time. The ultimate alliance between the courts under Maurice and Khusrau seemingly brought global peace until the slightest disruption ignited a full-scale war which was to rage for three decades. In the end, it exhausted both powers financially, militarily and economically. Iran would completely fall to the tide of Islam while Constantinople's richest eastern provinces would also be lost.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a brief study of the symbols of kingship between the Iranian and Roman empires prior to the rise of the Caliphate. I would not recommend this to a general reader.