Ashkanid Dynasty

Less than a hundred years after Alexander’s death, the empires of his generals started breaking apart. Everywhere in occupied territories, people and local rulers started rebelling. The first and most successful of these rebellions came from north-east of Iran, in province of Parthav, where it is know knows as Tajikstan.

Around 250 BC, Arashk, the chief of a local tribe in Parthav, organised local rebellions against the rule of Selucid Antiochus II. Arashk is believed to have been of a mixed Scythian-Parthav race. The sure thing is that the people of northern Parthav at that time had very close ties with Scythians, who were a nomadic people ruling over the south Russian steps from Mongolia to Hungary.

Arashk was assisted in his rebellion by his brother, Teerdaad. The brothers slowly gained more and more success in their effort, and by 247, they had the whole Parthav under their rule. At that time, Parthav (later to be known as Khorasan), included present day Tajikstan, Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekstan, much of western Afghanistan, and the whole north-eastern portion of Iran. Arashk is believed to have established his first capital in A(ra)shkabad, the present day city of Esghabad, capital of Turkmanistan.

By this time, the Selucid king had started noticing this local uprising, and sent several armies to capture Arashk, all unsuccessful. It is most likely that guerrilla style fighting of Parthavs , or Parthians, and their extraordinary cavalry forces were major reasons why Antiochus failed to succeed.

Until his death in 211, Arashk was successful in liberating the whole eastern part of former Achaemenid empire from the rule of Selucids, except northern India. It is certain that Arashk was a military genius, and also a great organiser who succeeded in uniting the nomadic tribes. He was so well respected that the future rulers of the dynasty added his name to theirs as a sign of respect.

It was for long believed that Arashk was replaced on the throne by his brother Teerdaad. But recently there has been new findings that suggest that he was succeeded by his son, Arashk II. Until the reign of Mehrdad (Mithradates) II the Great in 123, we do not have detailed description of the reign of the kings. All is certain is that most of the reign of kings like Pheriapit and Phraates I was spent in fighting the Greeks and conquering more territories.

Mehrdad II is known as one of the greatest rulers of the Ashkanid (Arsacid) dynasty, not because of his military ability, but for his organising. Mehrdad established his rule over all the country by creating a very efficient tax system modelled after the Achaemenid system. Like them, he also divided the country into Kheshtarpats (Satrapis), and appointed governors. He also created Mehestan parliament which was based on an old Parthian institution which included the influential people of the community and acted as the advisory board for the chief. Mehrdad invited all of the noblemen and the local powers to sit in Mehestan, or the “House of Nobles.” This way, Mehrdad was both successful in controlling the activities of these local powers and preventing them from becoming rebellious, and also using their advise in better ruling the country. Mehrdad also moved his capital form Ashkabad to Sad Darvaaze (Hecatompolis), almost in the centre of Parthav.

Following Mehrdad’s death in 87 BC, the empire fell to a temporary state of Chaos. Since Mehrdad had no direct descendants, a dispute about his successor swept through the court. By law, only the members of Ashkanid family could become kings, but there was no specifications about how the selection should be made. Since the beginning of the empire, the chiefs of other Parthian tribes would have selected a member of the immediate royal family as the new emperor. This time though, there were several candidates. This caused a schysm which resulted in succession of several members of the Ashkanid family to the throne of Arashk. Finally Farhad (Phraates) III settled the dispute by killing all the other pretenders and becoming the sole ruler in 70 BC. Farhad’s son, Orod (Orodes) II, 57-38 BC, is probably the most well-known of all Ashkanid emperors. It was during his reign that the Roman consul L. Crasus attacked the western boundaries of Parhtian Empire in Syria and was defeated and killed by Surena, chief commander of Parthian armies.

After the glory days of Mehrdad II and Orod II, the Parthian empire fell to a state of instability. Local rulers, taking their pattern from the Ashkanids themselves, started using their privileged status as the courtiers and the noble men to gain autonomous power in the country. Very much like Medieval Europe, a very complex system of Feudalism was established. The Nobles would be assigned a certain territory to rule and to profit from, and in exchange they owed the Imperial court a fixed amount of tax, and soldiers in time of war. Ashkanid emperors, much like their French, English, or Russian counterparts 12 centuries later, help almost no real power or authority. Except for some scarce periods of central power, like Ardavan II 12-38 AD, and Valash I 51-78 AD, central power was a puppet in hands of the six noble families which ruled as officials of the country. During the second and early third centuries AD, this situation got even worse, and even strong rulers like Valash III could not rescue the dynasty anymore. This was the lowest point of Ashkanid Empire that led to the rebellion of Ardeshir I Sasani and resulted in a change of dynasties.

In the sense of foreign policy, most of the second half of the Ashkanid rule was spent in fighting Romans. The Parthian-Roman wars which started with the attack by Crassus on Syria, continued during the three centuries that followed that incident. Generation after generation of Parhtian and Roman emperors fought against each other, and none were greatly successful. Wars with Romans was the legacy that Ashkanids left to their successors, the Sasanids.