Shapur I

“ No common vender could hope to pass its shining portal [146] save in the rear of the train that yearly followed the rajahs.
"'So they urged their beasts with all diligence. Foremost in the caravan, and most zealous of all, was Shapur. In his heart burned the desire to be first to enter the Golden Gate, and the first one at the palace with his wares. But, half-way across the desert, as they paused at an oasis to rest, a dire lameness fell upon his camel, and it sank upon the sand. In vain he urged it to continue its journey. The poor beast could not rise under its great load. ”

“ Julian (361–363) died fighting the Persians (against Shapur II) ; his successor Jovian (363–364) had to conclude a disgraceful peace, giving up Nisibis and all the provinces beyond the Tigris (363) . There were, of course, intervals, sometimes long intervals, of peace, during which the Emperor sent friendly embassies to his brother the King of Kings. But, speaking generally, the background of the story of Eastern Christianity during the first five or six centuries is this eternal struggle between Rome and Persia ”

“ It is strange that anyone can forget the Persian martyrs. Not in the worst time of Roman persecution was there so cruel a time for Christians as under Shapur II of Persia. In proportion to its extent and the time the persecution lasted, Persia has more martyrs than any other part of the Christian world. The cause of the persecution may easily be understood. As long as the Roman Empire was pagan the Persian king had no particular prejudice against Christians. Indeed, while Rome persecuted them, Christians found an asylum under the protection of her enemy. ”

“ In 363 the emperor Julian, at the head of a strong army, advanced to Ctesiphon, but was killed. His successor Jovian was defeated and made an ignominious peace, by which the districts on the Tigris and Nisibis were ceded to the Persians, and the Romans promised to interfere no more in Armenia. In the rock-sculptures near the town Shapur in Persis (Stolze, Persépolis, pl. 141) the great success is represented; under the hoofs of the king's horse lies the body of an enemy, probably Julian, and a suppliant Roman, the emperor Jovian, asks for peace. ”

“ Like the Arsacids the kings resided in Ctesiphon, where, out of the vast palace built by Chosroes I., a portion at least of the great hall is still erect. On the ruins of Seleucia, on the opposite bank of the Tigris, Ardashir I. built the city of Veh-Ardashir (“good is Ardashir”) , to which the later an kings added new towns, or rather new quarters. In Susiana Architecture
and Arts. Shapur I. built the great city of Gondev-Shapur, which succeeded the ancient capital of the Persian Empire. At the same time the mother-country again gained importance ”

“ Thou shalt go forth an apostle of my alchemy. Wherever thou seest a heart bowed down in some Desert of Waiting, thou shalt whisper to it: 'Patience! Here, if thou wilt, in these arid sands, thou mayst find thy Garden of Omar, and from these daily tasks that prick thee sorest distil some precious attar to sweeten all life!' So, like the bee that led thee to my teaching, shalt thou lead others to hope."
"'Then Shapur went forth with the crystal vase, and his camel, healed in the long time of waiting, bore him swiftly across the sands to the City of his Desire. ”

“ No man knew the place of the house of Omar, since he had taken upon himself the life of a hermit. Somewhere, they knew, in the solitude of the desert, he was practising the mysteries of his art, and probing deeper into its secrets, but no one could point to the path leading thither. Only the bees knew, and, following the bee, Shapur found himself in the old alchemist's presence. ”

“ In his royal style he assumed the designation “Mazdayasnian” (Μασδάσνας) , and the fire-cult was everywhere vigorously disseminated. Simultaneously the old claims to world dominion made their reappearance. After the defeat of Artabanus, Ardashir, as heir of the Achaemenids, formulated his pretensions to the dominion of western Asia (Dio. Cass. 80, 3; Herodian vi. 2, 4; Zonar. xii. 15; similarly under Shapur II.: Ammian. Marc. xvii. 5, 5) . ”

“ See lives of the Gordians by Capitolinus in the Scriptores historiae Augustae; Herodian vii. viii.; Zosimus i. 16, 18; Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii. 5; Eutropius ix. 2; Aurelius Victor, Caesares, 27; article Shapur (I.) ”

“ The reign of Arshak is, indeed, contemporary with the great wars which were waged by Shapur with the power which disputed his supremacy over the East. However little credit we may attach to the narrative of the Armenian historian, it is at least plain that a king who owed his throne to the Cæsars was often their enemy and never their loyal ally. ”

“ None the less Mani found means to diffuse his creed far and wide over the whole empire. Even the heir to the throne, Hormizd I. (reigned 272–273) , was favourably disposed to him; but Shapur’s younger son, Bahram I (273–276) , yielded to sacerdotal pressure, and Mani was executed. After that Manichaeism was persecuted and extirpated in Iran. Yet it maintained itself not merely in the west, where its head resided at Babylon—propagating thence far into the Roman Empire—but also in the east, in Khorasan and beyond the bounds of the Sassanian dominion. ”

“ Shapur first made Christians pay double taxes to subsidize the war; [125] then begins the long list of executions and torture which lasts throughout his reign. Christianity is punished by death; all Persians must show their loyalty to the King of Kings by accepting his religion. [126] Simon Bar Ṣabbâe, Papa's successor at Seleucia-Ctesiphon, is told to worship the sun. He answers: "The sun put on mourning when its Creator died, as a slave for its master." His companions are killed before him, five bishops and a hundred priests ”

“ N.W. by the Boshavir River, with the ruins of the old city of Beh-Shahpur (Beshāver, Boshāvir, also, short, Shāpūr) and Sassanian bas-reliefs on its banks. There also, in a cave, is a statue of Shapur. The remainder of the district is mostly hilly country intersected by numerous streams, plains and hills being covered with zizyphus, wild almond and oak. The district is divided into two divisions: town and villages, the latter being called Kuh i Marreh and again subdivided into (1) Pusht i Kuh; (2) Yarrūk; (3) Shakān. It has forty-six villages and a population of about 15,000 ”

“ We shall have occasion to recur to it when we treat of the “Manners and Customs” of the Neo-Persian people.
<>
The glyptic art of the Sassanian is seen chiefly in their bas-reliefs; but one figure “in the round” has come down to us from their times, which seems to deserve particular description. This is a colossal statue of Sapor I., hewn (it would seem) out of the natural rock, which still exists, though overthrown and mutilated, in a natural grotto near the ruined city of Shapur. ”

“ Although preparations were made for following up the war with Persia and securing the frontier, a truce was patched up, rather to the disadvantage of the empire, Armenia and the adjacent country being half conquered and annexed by Shapur. ”

“ Ardashir associated with himself on the throne his son Shapur, who successfully continued his work.
Under the tombs of Darius I. at Persepolis, on the surface of the rock, Ardashir has sculptured his image and that of the god Ahuramazda (Ormuzd or Ormazd) . Both are on horseback; the god is giving the diadem to the king. Under the horse of the king lies a defeated enemy, the Parthian king Artaban ”

“ Tyr. 2, where Nöldeke has corrected the name Odomastes into Oromastes, i.e. Hormizd) . In the Persian tradition of the history of Ardashir I., preserved in a Pahlavi text (Nöldeke, Geschichte des Artachsir I. Pāpakān) , he is made the son of a daughter of Mithrak, a Persian dynast, whose family Ardashir had extirpated because the magians had predicted that from his blood would come the restorer of the empire of Iran. Only this daughter is preserved by a peasant; Shapur sees her and makes her his wife, and her son Hormizd is afterwards recognized and acknowledged by Ardashir. ”

“ SHAH ROKH, Shah of Persia, A. D. 1747-1751. SHAHAPTIAN FAMILY, The. See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: NEZ PERCÉS. SHAHPUR. One of the capitals of the later Persian empire, the ruins of which exist near Kazerun, in the province of Fars. It was built by Sapor I., the second of the Sassanian kings, and received his name. G. Rawlinson, Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 4. {2900} SHAKERS, The. "From the time of the first settlements until the age of the Revolution, if there were any communistic societies founded, [in the United States] I have met with no account of them. ”

“ The turning of Persian Armenia into a satrapy in 428 I have already told; but no fresh persecution was undertaken till that of Yazdegerd II, in 439, ending in Vartan’s revolt just detailed. Shahpur of Armenia was a prince of great wisdom, generosity, and public spirit; he patronized men of learning, founded schools, made large grants from the treasury for scholarship, and sent scholars to all the great seats of learning to teach and acquire the languages, literature, and history of other nations, after which they wrote and translated hundreds of volumes. ”

“ What the emperors have commanded me is this: that, whosoever will not sacrifice to the gods and offer incense to them, I should employ against him stripes, and combs, and sharp swords.
Sharbil said: The kings of this world are conscious of this world only; but the King of all kings, He hath revealed and shown to us that there is another world, and a judgment in reserve, in which a recompense will be made, on the one hand to those who have served God, and on the other to those who have not served Him nor confessed Him. ”

“ The procession of murders and sudden deaths becomes indeed monotonous, but was now to be broken for a while by the advent of another of those strong men who every now and again make, as it were, a landmark in Indian history.
This was Shahâb-ud-din who, counting the time during which he was his elder brother's deputy, was to reign for close on fifty years, and once more weld the principalities of India proper into one solid empire. ”

“ The Jews, who through envy are in some way naturally opposed to the Christian religion, were likewise offended. They therefore brought accusations before Sapor, the reigning sovereign, against Symeon, who was then archbishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, royal cities of Persia, and charged him with being a friend of the Cæsar of the Romans, and with communicating the affairs of the Persians to him. Sapor believed these accusations, and at first, ground the Christians with excessive taxes, although he knew that the generality of them had voluntarily embraced poverty. ”

“ Thou hast authority, as judge: do whatsoever thou wilt, and show no pity.
The judge said: How can he that hath had no pity on his own body, so as to avoid suffering in it these tortures, be afraid or ashamed of not obeying the command of the emperors?
Sharbil said: Thou hast well said that I am not ashamed: because near at hand is He that justifieth me, and my soul is caught up in rapture towards him. For, whereas I once provoked Him to anger by the sacrifices of idols, I am this day pacifying Him by the inflictions I endure in my person: for my soul is a captive to God who became man. ”

“ But Mahomed Shahâb-ud-din left his pet Turki slave Kutb-din-Eîbuk behind him at Delhi, and he, assuming almost regal honours, "compelled all the districts around to acknowledge the faith of Islâm."
How many murders go to the making of a Moslem is a question which might fairly be asked. Converts, however, hardly came in fast enough for Shahâb-ud-din's zeal, so the next year saw him back again to help his slave in crushing the Râjah of Kanauj, who, doubtless, had not been of Prithvi-Râj's host. ”

“ She disembarked on the 14th of Khoiak, amid the acclamations of the people: “She comes, the daughter of the King of the South, Nitauqrît, to the dwelling of Amon, that he may possess her and unite her to himself; she comes, the daughter of the King of the North, Shapenuapît, to the temple of Karnak, that the gods may there chant her praises.” As soon as the aged Shapenuapît had seen her coadjutor, “she loved her more than all things,” and assigned her a dowry, the same as that which she had received from her own parents, and which she had granted to her first adopted daughter Amenertas. ”

“ We Musalmans have our horns in the thicket; shall not Hindus help to disentangle them? When the Feringhis are smitten and sent to perdition, then will be the time for us true believers to deal fitly with the Hindu dogs. Will it not be then as it was in the days of the great Shah Nadir? Once more the Afghans, men of your race and faithful sons of the Prophet, will pour into the plains and set up a new and glorious kingdom. Who reigns now in Delhi? Bahadur Shah, toothless, feeble-kneed, a puppet in the hands of the Feringhis, doing nought from sunrise to sunset but invent foolish verses. ”

“ An expedition under Sir James Outram was sent from Bombay to the Gulf of Persia. The capture of Bushire by the English and their victory at Mohamrah brought the Shah of Persia to withdraw his troops from Afghanistan. Herat was relinquished. While the war lasted a new danger to the British Indian Empire arose at Delhi. In July, the heir-apparent of old Bahadur Shah, the reigning King of Delhi, suddenly died. A younger queen was believed to have poisoned him. She persuaded Bahadur Shah to proclaim her son heir to the throne. Lord Canning withheld Great Britain's recognition. ”