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Sasanian defense lines
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Sasanian defense lines
The defense lines of the Sasanians were part of their military strategy and tactics. They were networks of fortifications, walls, and/or ditches built opposite the territory of the enemies. These defense lines are known from tradition and archaeological evidence.
The fortress systems of the Western, Arabian, and Central Asian fronts were of both defensive and offensive functions.
The rivers Euphrates, Great Zab, and Little Zab acted as natural defenses for Mesopotamia (Asoristan). Sasanian development of irrigation systems in Mesopotamia further acted as water defense lines, notably the criss-crossing trunk canals in Khuzestan and the northern extension of the Nahrawan Canal, known as the Cut of Khusrau, which made the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon virtually impregnable in the late Sasanian period.
In the early period of the Sasanian Empire, a number of buffer states existed between Persia and the Roman Empire, which played a major role in Roman-Persian relations. Both empires gradually absorbed these states, and replaced them by an organized defense system run by the central government and based on a line of fortifications (the limes) and the fortified frontier cities, such as Dara, Nisibis (Nusaybin), Amida, Singara, Hatra, Edessa, Bezabde, Circesium, Rhesaina (Theodosiopolis), Sergiopolis (Resafa), Callinicum (Raqqa), Dura-Europos, Zenobia (Halabiye), Sura, Theodosiopolis (Erzurum), Sisauranon, etc.
According to R. N. Frye, the expansion of the Persian defensive system by Shapur II (r. 309–379) was probably in imitation of Diocletian's construction of the limes of the Syrian and Mesopotamian frontiers of the Roman Empire over the previous decades. The defense line was in the edge of the cultivated land facing the Syrian Desert.
Along the Euphrates (in Arbayistan), there was a series of heavily fortified cities as a line of defence.
During the early years of Shapur II (r. 309–379), nomadic Arabian tribesmen made incursions into Persia from the south. After his successful campaign in Arabia (325) and having secured the coasts around Persian Gulf, Shapur II established a defensive system in southern Mesopotamia to prevent raids via land. The defensive line, called the Wall of the Arabs (Middle Persian: War ī Tāzīgān, in Arabic: خندق سابور Khandaq Sābūr, literally "Ditch of Shapur", also possibly "Wall of Shapur"), consisted of a large moat, probably also with an actual wall on the Persian side, with watchtowers and a network of fortifications, at the edge of the Arabian Desert, located between modern-day Basra and the Persian Gulf. The defense line ran from Hit to Basra, on the margin of fertile lands west of Euphrates. It included small forts at key spots, acting as outliers for larger fortifications, some of which have been uncovered.
The region and its defense line was apparently[original research?] governed by a marzban. In the second half of the Sasanian history, the Lakhmid/Nasrid chiefs also became its rulers. They would have protected the area against the Romans and against the Romans' Arab clients, the Ghassanids, sheltering the agricultural lands of Sasanian Mesopotamia from the nomadic Arabs. The Sasanians eventually discontinued the maintenance of this defense line, since they perceived the main threats to the empire lay elsewhere. However, in 633, the empire's ultimate conquerors actually came from this direction.
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Sasanian defense lines
The defense lines of the Sasanians were part of their military strategy and tactics. They were networks of fortifications, walls, and/or ditches built opposite the territory of the enemies. These defense lines are known from tradition and archaeological evidence.
The fortress systems of the Western, Arabian, and Central Asian fronts were of both defensive and offensive functions.
The rivers Euphrates, Great Zab, and Little Zab acted as natural defenses for Mesopotamia (Asoristan). Sasanian development of irrigation systems in Mesopotamia further acted as water defense lines, notably the criss-crossing trunk canals in Khuzestan and the northern extension of the Nahrawan Canal, known as the Cut of Khusrau, which made the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon virtually impregnable in the late Sasanian period.
In the early period of the Sasanian Empire, a number of buffer states existed between Persia and the Roman Empire, which played a major role in Roman-Persian relations. Both empires gradually absorbed these states, and replaced them by an organized defense system run by the central government and based on a line of fortifications (the limes) and the fortified frontier cities, such as Dara, Nisibis (Nusaybin), Amida, Singara, Hatra, Edessa, Bezabde, Circesium, Rhesaina (Theodosiopolis), Sergiopolis (Resafa), Callinicum (Raqqa), Dura-Europos, Zenobia (Halabiye), Sura, Theodosiopolis (Erzurum), Sisauranon, etc.
According to R. N. Frye, the expansion of the Persian defensive system by Shapur II (r. 309–379) was probably in imitation of Diocletian's construction of the limes of the Syrian and Mesopotamian frontiers of the Roman Empire over the previous decades. The defense line was in the edge of the cultivated land facing the Syrian Desert.
Along the Euphrates (in Arbayistan), there was a series of heavily fortified cities as a line of defence.
During the early years of Shapur II (r. 309–379), nomadic Arabian tribesmen made incursions into Persia from the south. After his successful campaign in Arabia (325) and having secured the coasts around Persian Gulf, Shapur II established a defensive system in southern Mesopotamia to prevent raids via land. The defensive line, called the Wall of the Arabs (Middle Persian: War ī Tāzīgān, in Arabic: خندق سابور Khandaq Sābūr, literally "Ditch of Shapur", also possibly "Wall of Shapur"), consisted of a large moat, probably also with an actual wall on the Persian side, with watchtowers and a network of fortifications, at the edge of the Arabian Desert, located between modern-day Basra and the Persian Gulf. The defense line ran from Hit to Basra, on the margin of fertile lands west of Euphrates. It included small forts at key spots, acting as outliers for larger fortifications, some of which have been uncovered.
The region and its defense line was apparently[original research?] governed by a marzban. In the second half of the Sasanian history, the Lakhmid/Nasrid chiefs also became its rulers. They would have protected the area against the Romans and against the Romans' Arab clients, the Ghassanids, sheltering the agricultural lands of Sasanian Mesopotamia from the nomadic Arabs. The Sasanians eventually discontinued the maintenance of this defense line, since they perceived the main threats to the empire lay elsewhere. However, in 633, the empire's ultimate conquerors actually came from this direction.
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