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As against the Achaemenides, emulating the high Semitic culture of the West and the Hellenistic endeavours preceding the Parthian dynasty, the Sasanians pre-eminently were the promulgators of the Iranian principles. Alongside of this, however, although in a subordinate position, the development of the Hellenistic movement and the ancient Irano-Semitic syncretism continued to proceed.
Before it pales the importance of the other facts regarding the political organisation of the Sasanians, centralisation of government in a manner so that the elements of feudal constitution made themselves felt throughout the existence of the empire and even after the Arab conquest, when it left traces in circles representing Iranian traditions.
We will only observe that in connection with the Persian literary age of the Sasanians we have to indicate a series of works of the character of epic tales arisen from the ancient historical period of the western boundary of Persia and representing "stories of the Babylonian kingdom" which have been enumerated among the books of this class and also among Persian books, a circumstance which proves that these tales originated in Sasanian literature.
Simultaneously an ethical amalgamation proceeded especially in Western Persia where Semiticism was powerful for a lengthened period, Nevertheless, the Sasanians continued the unification of the Iranian inhabitants of central and western Persia. The political system of the Sasanian emperors was based on this fusion.
Gutschmid further advanced the conjecture that these apophthegms formed the texts under the portraits of the kings in the book which was used by Hamza Ispahani and which was seen by Masudi. In the book were the portraits of the Sasanians and it was based on the documents found in the royal archives. And the portraits also were prepared from the materials deposited there.
In the first place such an arrangement accords ill with the nature of a statesmen like Ardeshir, for we know from Tabari who follows the official chronicle of the times of the Sasanians, that Ardeshir as well as Shapur I and II themselves chose their respective successors.
Wustenfeld has collected the lives of 590 historians, the first of whom died in the year 50, and the last was born in 1061 A.H. But it is now proved beyond all doubt that many of these writers were Persians who employed the Arabic language and that the art of Arab annalists had its root in the archives of the Sasanians.
From early Sasanians also comes the custom of writing on valuable parchment or paper. Now we revert to the supposition of Gutschmid. On the basis of the last-mentioned work it may be affirmed that in the Sasanian times there existed a certain Taj Nameh comparable to the Khuday Nameh and the Ain Nameh.
Among the sources of our knowledge of the Sasanian institutions, one of the most important is the letter of Tansar to the king of Tabaristan published and translated by Darmesteter in the Journal Asiatique . The information which it gives on points where we can verify it is so exact that we cannot doubt that the letter was composed in the time of the Sasanians.
Noeldeke translated in 1879, the portion relating to the Sasanians into German, and added footnotes to his translation, which are a mine of information on pre-Moslem Persia. The introduction which he wrote to his translation is equally valuable especially for the light it throws on the sources of Firdausi. The following is a translation of that German introduction by Noeldeke.
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