LA THÉORIE MILITAIRE SASSANIDE: REGARDS CROISÉS

Sasanian military theory has not been studied in depth since C. A. Inostrancev’s paper, published in 1926, which proposed a translation of the Persian Ēwēn-nāmag cited by Ibn Qutayba in the ‘Uyūn al-aḫbār. This article offers a reassessment of this topic and aims to give a wider look at the theoretical sources which were part of the Iranian de re militari literature. The matters covered by these documents are exposed and compared with the data collected by emperor Maurice about the Sasanian art of war in the Strategikon (late 6^th century). We also take into account the fragments of Persian literature preserved in many Muslim furūsiyya treatises. Some of these prescriptions attributed to ancient Persian sources are presented with new translations as an appendix to this article. [Authors].