Sasanian Debt-Law and the Idea of Justice<

Ali Anooshahr - University of California, Los Angeles

The paper to be presented comes out of a research project in the Book of a Thousand Judgments, the 6th or 7th century Sasanian legal handbook. The rulings on debt-law were extracted and arranged by three categories: those decisions that favored the creditors, those that generally benefited the debtor, and those that aimed at making a compromise.

The results were quite different from the pre-conceived expectations of brutal and corrupt oppression of the oppressed by the oppressors. The jurist seemed to have been motivated by an underlying concern for protecting the creditors but never at the expense of damaging a piece of property. They also had expressed concerns about rendering justice to the poor and the unprotected and had made some provisions to that end.

What will be presented at the conference will be an attempt to contextualize the foregoing conclusions in the 6th century and within the circumstances of the accession of Khusraw I and the aftermath of the populist Mazdaki revolts in the Persian empire. The evidence of Sasanian administrative seals, as well as the 9th and 10th century Persian and Arabic historical/literary compositions will be used.