The Ideas of Iran

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

In the middle of the third century CE, the Sasanian emperor Shapur I (r. 240–270 CE) declared that his empire should be called Eranshahr, meaning “the land of the Iranians.” Eranshahr represented a political and ideological reinterpretation of the concept of Eran, as reflected in the Avesta, the sacred scripture of the Zoroastrians, adapted to serve the needs of the Sasanian Empire. The seventh-century Arab conquests and the gradual spread of Islam marked a major turning point in Iranian history. For nearly a century, Iran lacked a clear political and cultural centre of gravity. Nevertheless, the memory of Eran and its pre-Islamic legacy remained resilient, adapting to and incorporating new linguistic, literary, religious, intellectual, and political influences. With the Abbasid Revolution of 750 CE, Khurasan (covering today’s northeastern part of Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) emerged as a new centre of Iranian political and cultural identity. Over time, the Khurasanis revived ideas of pre-Islamic Iran through memories and traditions that had survived the Arab conquests. The Khurasanis developed a new vision of Iran that was more dynamic and inclusive than before, welcoming diverse groups of people without undermining their local social, political, and cultural traditions. Khurasan was ruled by Turko-Persian Muslim dynasties that modelled themselves on both mythical and historical Iranian kings, promoted the Persian language, and revived pre-Islamic Iranian political and cultural traditions. Until the rise of Safavid Iran, which introduced new conceptions of Iranian identity, Khurasan remained the living repository of the pre-Islamic Iranian legacy and the centre of the Islamised Persian cultural tradition. Despite repeated changes to Iran’s geographic boundaries, the ideas of Iran established by the Sasanians never disappeared; instead, they were continuously transmitted and transformed across different historical periods and regions. In this seminar course, we will explore large-scale historical questions concerning cultural continuity. What does Iran mean? How was it formed as an idea and practised as a reality? How were linguistic, literary, intellectual, political and artistic traditions originating in the pre-Islamic period transmitted and transformed throughout the Islamic era? The course adopts a longue durée approach to provide a comprehensive overview of the historical evolution of the memory of Iran, which has survived multiple invasions and helped sustain cohesion among diverse groups of people. It is organised thematically while following a chronological structure, addressing (a) the formation of Iran as both an idea and a reality, (b) the Arab conquests and the formation of Khurasan, and (c) the revival of the memory of Iran within an Islamic framework. The course requires students to engage with primary sources in their original languages and in translation, and to analyse them within their historical contexts.