History of Cashmere Research - Yezdajird
Researching the threads of Cashmere use in ancient times, is literally like unravelling a haystack to find the needle - or in hope of finding the needle.
This evening I came across a paper, with the heading 'Cashmere and the Ancient Persians', perfect I thought, exactly what I wanted to learn more about...
Well it turns out it is a little more about the history of Cashmere (Kashmir), although there was one interesting mention of actual cashmere cloth. The article mentions that Cashmere cloth was well known to the ancient Persians, for it's warmth and durability. Cashmere was considered to be one of the commissariat requisites necessary for a new army.
Yezdajird (also spelt Yazdegerd III / Yazdgerd III / Yazdgird III) was the last of the Sassian kings, and in one of his letters to his feudal princes (no names mentioned), he makes mention of the 'cloth of Cashmere', also with a request for the princes to meet him at Khoi-assan to make yet another stand against the advancing power of the Arabs. Something he was not successful in achieving.
*This image from the Afrasiab Murals (dated around the 7th century) shows a foreign visitor at the court of King Varkhuman, due to the nature of his sumptuous dress & garment symbols, some feel this may be Yazdegerd III.
Further research for the letter sent to the Princes has yet to bring forth said letter, however one has to feel for this ruler, the last of the Sasanian Kings of Iran, from 632 - 651. Ascending the throne at the age of eight, it was the army commanders, courtiers & aristocracy, who essentially ruled and fought constantly amongst themselves.
The Sasanian Empire was weakened by this lack of decent management, and Yazdagerd spent most of his short reign fleeing from one province to another, trying to raise army troops. When the Arabs united under Islam, this signified the end to the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire after more than 400 years of rule.
Research:
https://archive.org/stream/asiaticpaperspap01modiuoft/asiaticpaperspap01modiuoft_djvu.txt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazdegerd_III
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrasiab_murals
https://www.livius.org/articles/dynasty/sasanians/
Image Acknowledgements:
Coin - By Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27462121
Painting - By Painting: Unknown 7th century artist.Photographer: undetermined - This file has been extracted from another file, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95912662
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