20 • 2 The Middle East Before MuhammadDo you rind this issue petty? Some modern historians think that mate¬
rial motives caused the disputes among Middle Eastern Christians. No
doubt the Egyptians and Syrians resented the high Byzantine taxes. Others
hated having their bishops subordinate to the Constantinople patriarch.
Ancient Middle Eastern mysticism inevitably clashed with Hellenistic ra¬
tionalism. Personality conflicts and power struggles did arise: Christian
bishops were all too human. Keep in mind, though, that Christological is¬
sues were vital to these Middle Eastern peoples, whose lives in this world
were guided by religion to prepare for the Judgment Day and the life to
come. Someday, perhaps, our descendants will wonder why we fought
over abortion, affirmative action, and gun control.
Rome's Persian Rival
The Roman Empire never monopolized the Middle East. There was always
a rival state in Persia that covered not just today's Iran but also what we
now call Iraq (Mesopotamia), in addition to lands farther east, such as
present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia. Mountain ranges,
such as the Zagros in lands north of the Gulf, the Elburz just south of the
Caspian, and the Khurasan highlands, accumulated enough rain and snow
to support the hundreds of hillside agricultural villages. Some Persian
farmers shrewdly channeled groundwater through underground qanats, a
sophisticated irrigation system that sustained farms and homes in other¬
wise parched lowlands. The Persians were better than the Romans at
bronze casting and iron working. Both East and West drew on Persian
architectural motifs, such as domes mounted on squinches, shaded court¬
yards, and huge bas-relief murals.
From 250 B.C.E. to 226 C.E., Persia was ruled by the Parthians, a poorly
understood dynasty. Their written histories have come from the Romans,
who could never subdue them, and the Sasanids, the Persian dynasty that
supplanted them. We can hardly expect these sources to be sympathetic.
But archaeological excavations have proved that the Parthians, who were
enthusiastic horseback riders and hunters, patronized architects and arti¬
sans. They preserved Persian culture and the Zoroastrian religion, yet they
welcomed Buddhists and Jews into their country to live.
Their successors, the Sasanid dynasty, usually get credit for Persia's re¬
vival. Between the third and seventh centuries, they amassed an extensive
empire (shown on Map 2.1), established Zoroastrianism as the state reli¬
gion, and set up a strong and centralized administration. The early Sasa¬
nids sent out scholars to many other countries to collect books, which were