Los efectivos del último ejército de la Persia Sasánida (572-642). Una solución desde las fuentes

Abstract

The question of the number of troops that existed in the Sassanids’ armies during the 6th and 7th century has received various answers. Answers that, paradoxically, have not taken into account the specific and multiple information that provide the sources of this period. From our side in this paper, we address this question taking into account all the sources, whether these are Byzantine, Oriental, Persian or Perso-Islamic, and we try to show that the careful study of the data and the critical comparison permits us to evaluate with extreme precision the military power of the Sassanian Persia and to establish a comparative basis to shed new light on the late conflicts between Sassanid Persia and the Justinian’s or Heraclius’ Byzantium as well as those with the Arab armies of early Islam.