Asoristan

30°53′41″N 47°34′41″E / 30.89472°N 47.57806°E / 30.89472; 47.57806

Asōristān
Province of the Sasanian Empire
226–637
Map of Asoristan and its surrounding provinces
Capital	Ctesiphon
Historical era	Late Antiquity
• Sasanian conquest	226
• First Muslim campaign	633
• Second Muslim campaign	637
Preceded by Succeeded by Parthian Empire Rashidun Caliphate
Today part of	Iraq

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Asoristan or Beth Aramaye (Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭮𐭥𐭥𐭮𐭲𐭭 Asōristān, Āsūristān) was the name of the Sasanian province of and Babylonia from 226 to 637.^[1][2][3]

Name[edit]

The Parthian name Asōristān (𐭀𐭎𐭅𐭓𐭎𐭕𐭍; also spelled Asoristan, Asuristan, Asurestan, Assuristan) is known from Shapur I's inscription on the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht, and from the inscription of Narseh at Paikuli.^[1] The adjective āsōrīg in Middle Persian accordingly means "Babylonian".^[1] The region was also called several other names, In Aramaic the region was called Beth Aramaye lit. “land of the Arameans”.^[1][3] (Classical Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪܝܢ), Bābēl / Bābil, and Erech / Erāq. After the mid-6th century it was also called Khvārvarān in Persian.

The name Asōristān is a compound of Asōr ("Babylonian") and the Iranian suffix -istān ("land of"). The name Babylonia, in the form Asōristān, was shifted to include what had been ancient Babylonia by the Parthians, and this continued under the Sasanians.^[4] On the other hand Syriac Āṯōr means “Assyria”—hence the confusion of Āsōristān with Assyria, which one already notices in Ammianus Marcellinus, and which has prevailed among scholars until recently.^[1] During the Parthian Empire much of the historical country of Assyria (Athura), however, lay to the north of Asoristan, in the independent Assyrian frontier provinces of Beth Nuhadra, Beth Garmai, Adiabene, Osroene and Assur, when these were conquered by the Sassanid Empire in the mid 3rd century AD these were reincorporated into Asoristan.^[5]

History[edit]

Asōristān, Middle Persian "Babylonia",^[1] was the capital province of the Sasanian Empire and was called Dil-ī Ērānshahr, meaning "Heart of Iran".^[2] The city of Ctesiphon served as the capital of both the Parthian and Sasanian Empire, and was for some time the largest city in the world.^[6]

Āsōristān, that was populated mainly by Christian Arameans, was always unreliable; and the government did little to create loyal population. the Arab population were rather hostile after the abolition of the semi-independent kingdom of Hira. Āsōristān therefore was easily conquered by the Arabs after their victory at Qadisiyah. There's no source of resistance from the population against the invading Arabs. The richest province called “the heart of the Empire of Iran” del-e Ērānšahr, was thus lost to the Arabs.^[1]

A marzupan of this province is attested under Shapur II, Yazdegerd I, Peroz I. a Mobad is attested under Khosrow I. when Mār Abā was Nestorian catholicos. This province disappeared as an administra­tive unit as a result of the reforms of Khosrow I, but Elias of Naṣībīn calls Zīād and al-Ḥajjāj governors of Bēṯ Āramayē in Syriac for Iraq in his Arabic text. The Nestorian church province of Bēṯ Āramayē dependent on the patriarchal see at Seleucia is attested in 486, 544, ca. 612, the mid-8th century, ca. 900, and in the 12th century, and included the bishoprics of Kaškar (Wāseṭ), Bēṯ Darayē, Zawābī, Al-Hirah, and Anbar (Peroz Shapur).^[3]

The Assyrian Church of the East was founded in Asōristān and it was an important centre of the Syriac Orthodox Church.^[7] Asōristān was largely identical with ancient Mesopotamia.^[1]

Population[edit]

The population of Asorestan was a mixed one, The majority of the population were Arameans, speaking East Aramaic dialects, as did the Jews. The Iranians were found in the higher classes of society, as courtiers, army officers, civil servants, judges, and feudal lords, living partly in the country, partly in Ctesiphon, where they possessed houses.^[1] The Greek element in the southern cities, still strong in the Parthian period, was absorbed by the Semites in Sasanian times.^[1] This element was composed of Arameans, Jews, and Arabs. The Arabs were nomads in the vicinity of the desert. The Jews were chiefly farmers, but to some extent also dwelling in cities, concentrated around Sura, Pumbadita, and above all Nehardea.^[1]

Language[edit]

The Main language spoken in Asoristan was Eastern Aramaic, spoken by the Arameans and the Jewish population.^[1]

Religion[edit]

The religious demography of Mesopotamia was very diverse during Late Antiquity. From the 1st and 2nd centuries Syriac Christianity became the primary religion, while other groups practiced Mandaeism, Judaism, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, and the ancient Assyro-Babylonian Mesopotamian religion.^[8] Assyrian Christians of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Assyrian Church of the East were probably the most numerous group in the province.^[8]

Mesopotamian religion[edit]

The old Mesopotamian religion of the indigenous Assyrians and Babylonians remained strong in places, particularly in the north, in Assyria proper. Temples were still being dedicated to Ashur, Shamash, Ishtar, Sin, Adad/Hadad, Tammuz, Nergal, Bel and Ninurta in Assur, Arbela, Edessa, Amid, Nohadra, Kirkuk, Sinjar, Nineveh Plains, and Harran among other places, during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, and traces would survive into the 10th century in remote parts of Assyria.^[9]

Christianity[edit]

Asorestan, and particularly Assyria proper, were the centers for the Church of the East (now split into the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church), which at one time extended far beyond the confines of the by then defunct Sasanian empire and was the most widespread Christian church in the world, reaching well into Central Asia, China, Mongolia Tibet and India as well as the Aegean. It sees as its founders the apostle Thomas (Mar Toma), and Saint Thaddeus (Mar Addai), and used the distinctly Syriac version of Eastern Aramaic for its scriptures and liturgy. The Holy Qurbana of Addai and Mari is one of the oldest Eucharistic prayers in Christianity, composed around the year 200 AD. The Church of the East was consolidated in 410 at the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, held at the Sasanian capital, Selucia-Ctesiphon, which remained the seat of the Patriarchate of the Church of the East for over 600 years.

Mandaeism[edit]

The Mandaeans, who are according to their traditions the original followers of John the Baptist, are the last surviving Gnostics from antiquity.^[10] According to most scholars, Mandaeism originated sometime in the first three centuries CE, in either southwestern Mesopotamia or the Syro-Palestinian area.^[11] However, some scholars take the view that Mandaeism is older and dates from pre-Christian times.^[12] Mandaeans assert that their religion predates Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as a monotheistic faith.^[13] Their language and script is Mandaic, a form of Aramaic. Two of their important religious texts, written between the 1st and 3rd centuries, are the Ginza Rabba and the Mandaean Book of John (preserving original traditions about John the Baptist). The Mandaean population numbers between 60,000 and 100,000 today.^[14] Mandaeism flourished in the Parthian and early Sassanid period in the region.^[15]

Manichaeism[edit]

The religion of Manichaeism, founded by Mani (216–276), originated in 3rd century Asorestan, and spread across a vast geographical area. In some instances, Manichaeism even surpassed the Assyrian Church of the East in its reach, as it was for a time also widespread in the Roman Empire. While none of the six original Syriac scriptures of the Manichaeans have survived in their entirety, a long Syriac section of one of their works detailing key beliefs was preserved by Theodore Bar Konai (a Church of the East author from Beth Garmaï), in his book Ketba Deskolion written in about 792. Like the Church of the East, the traditional center of the Manichaean church was in Seleucia-Ctesiphon.^[16] Mani dedicated his only Middle Persian writing, the Shāpuragān, to Shapur I.

Judaism[edit]

The Jewish community of Babylonia came to prominence in the 3rd century CE as a center of Jewish scholarship owing to the decline of the Jewish population in the Land of Israel. The Jewish–Roman wars, the Crisis of the Third Century, and Rome's conversion to Christianity all led to an increase in Jewish immigration to Asoristan, and the region became the main center of Judaism in Late Antiquity. This set the stage for the composition of the major book defining Rabbinic Judaism, the Babylonian Talmud, which was written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic in Asoristan between the 3rd and 5th centuries. The Babylonian Talmudic academies were all established relatively near to Seleucia-Ctesiphon. The first Talmudic academy was founded in Sura by Rav (175–247) in about 220. One of the most influential Talmudic teachers, Rava (270–350), who was influenced by both Manichaean polemic and Zoroastrian theology, studied in another Talmudic academy at Pumbedita.

Zoroastrianism[edit]

The Sasanian state religion, Zoroastrianism, was largely confined to the Iranian administrative class, and did not filter down to the Assyrian-Babylonian population.^[8]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

• Morony, Michael G. (2005) [1984]. Iraq After The Muslim Conquest. Gorgias Press LLC. ISBN 978-1-59333-315-7.^{[permanent dead link]}

Further reading[edit]

• Rezakhani, Khodādād (2018). "Mesopotamia, Persian". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.