Christian Sahner Profile picture
May 10 8 tweets 2 min read
Ancient and medieval Zoroastrianism is famous for the practice of "xwēdōdah," that is, close-kin or incestuous marriage. As far as I'm aware, the first documentary proof of "xwēdōdah" was recently discovered in a legal text written in Pahlavi from 8th-century Tabaristan 1/ Image
The document, dated to 732-33 AD, concerns the transfer of property rights after the death of a man called Rahāg. Under certain conditions, the document states, his property should pass to his wife, a woman named Duxtxwašīh, who was also his granddaughter (!) 2/
The document belongs to a larger collection of 33 Pahlavi texts, mostly of a legal nature, written in eighth-century Tabaristan. This mountainous region of northern Iran (today known as Mazandaran) resisted annexation by the Muslims until the 760s 3/
As a result, Zoroastrians and Zoroastrian law remained dominant for far longer than in other parts of Iran. As Maria Macuch has shown, there are very precise parallels between the legal system in the documents and what we know about law under the pre-Islamic Sasanian kings 4/
The image of the document, along with an edition and translation, comes from: Dieter Weber, "Pahlavi Legal Documents from Tabarestān: The Documents Tab. 11, 28, and 27: A Philological Approach," Res Orientales 28 (2020), 172-75 5/
Astute analysis of its legal content can be found in: Maria Macuch, "Pahlavi Legal Documents from Tabarestān: Two Claims Involving 'Substitute Succession' and a Payment Commitment. The Juristic Context of Tab. 11, 28 and 27," Res Orientales 28 (2020), 191-99 6/
PDF available here 7/ academia.edu/61397165/2020_…
An earlier attempt to decipher the document can be found in: Philippe Gignoux, "Une archive post-sassanide du Tabaristān (II)," Res Orientales 22 (2014), 34-37 8/

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More from @ccsahner

Jan 11, 2021
1/ Who were the earliest women converts to Islam and what was their experience of conversion?

In our new sourcebook, Sean Anthony (@shahanSean) and Keren Abbou Hershkovitz profile several women who were alive at the Prophet's time #ConversionToIslam

ucpress.edu/book/978052029…
2/ In the first entry, @shahanSean translates and comments on the conversion of the Prophet's first wife Khadīja as portrayed in one of the earliest and most famous biographies, the Kitāb al-Maghāzī of Ibn Isḥāq (d. 767)
3/ According to tradition, Khadīja was a widow and wealthy merchant of Mecca, who married Muḥammad after initially hiring him as her agent. She was reportedly the first person to believe in his prophethood, underlining the centrality of women in the Prophet's life
Read 10 tweets
Jul 3, 2020
1/ This week I'm posting about early converts to Islam and what happened to their descendants once inside Muslim society

ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAwn (d. 768) was a famous early Sunnī scholar from Basra whose grandfather had been a Christian deacon enslaved during the conquest of Iraq
2/ The grandfather was called Arṭabān, and judging from the name, he seems to have been a Persian. He was a deacon (shammās) and was captured and enslaved in southern Iraq (Maysān) by one of the Prophet’s Companions, ʿAbdallāh ibn Durra al-Muzanī
3/ This Arṭabān was eventually manumitted, became financially independent, and married another prisoner of war, a woman from Khurasan. Although he began life as a deacon, he seems to have been at home in his new religion, transmitting ḥadīth from ʿUmar, the second caliph
Read 11 tweets
Jun 29, 2020
1/ What happened to the descendants of the Sasanian cavalry (known as the Asāwira) who went over to the Arabs during the conquest of Iraq?

A thread on how Sasanian soldiers transformed into Muslim theologians over the course of several generations
2/ The Asāwira are a famous example of pre-Islamic elites who switched sides during the conquest and were richly rewarded for their loyalty.

They settled mainly in the city of Basra in southern Iraq, where they lived under the patronage of the powerful Arab tribe of Tamīm
3/ The sources report that they had their own quarter in Basra, including their own mosque. They also received the very highest military pension (the ʿaṭāʾ): 2,000 dirhams per year
Read 13 tweets
Jun 22, 2020
1/ A thread on the most famous slave revolt in Islamic history: the Zanj of #Iraq (869-83), who brought the Abbasid caliphate to its knees, followed a messianic preacher and even held slaves of their own

@HenryLouisGates has compared them to Spartacus & Toussaint Louverture
2/ The Arabic term "Zanj" refers to the inhabitants of East Africa, especially along the coast. Many were taken captive in the early Islamic period and brought as slaves to southern Iraq
3/ Slavery was ubiquitous in the early Islamic empire (as it was in many pre-industrial societies around the world). This included black slaves from Sub-Saharan Africa, Berbers from North Africa, Slavs from Eastern Europe, and Turks from Central Asia
Read 13 tweets
Feb 6, 2020
1/ Is it possible to convert to Islam without fully intending to?

Today's martyr is ʿAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ghassānī, an abbot of the famous Monastery of Mt. Sinai in #Egypt, who was executed for converting to #Islam and then returning to #Christianity in the middle of the 8th c. ImageImageImage
2/ The life of ʿAbd al-Masīḥ was written in #Arabic and is one of the earliest Christian texts composed in the language
3/ He was born Qays ibn Rabīʿ ibn Yazīd. He hailed from the famous Christian city of Najrān in southwestern Arabia, or was descended from Najrānī Christians who had settled in Syria or Iraq. This made him a purebred Arab

(Here, the famous Martyrs of Najrān, d. 523) Image
Read 13 tweets
Jan 20, 2020
1/ #Iran dominates #Iraq today, but it wasn't always this way. Thoughts on the relationship between two neighbors in Late Antiquity and the Early Islamic period:

The Sasanians were the last great Persian empire (224-661). They originated in Iran, but ruled from Iraq
2/ Control of Iran and Iraq gave the Sasanians (and other Persian dynasties going back to the Achaemenids) distinct advantages. With the Tigris and Euphrates, Iraq was an agricultural powerhouse. This also made it a tax collector's paradise
3/ By contrast, the Iranian plateau was a great reservoir of manpower, with which an empire could fill an army.

Put simply, Iraq supplied the financial muscle of the state, while Iran supplied the military muscle
Read 12 tweets

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