The intellectual center of the Iranian Empire was the city of Gundeshapur, founded as a place ce to house Roman prisoners of war and used as a royal winter residence. There was an Academy of Gundishapur that Khosrow expanded significantly. It taught astronomy, medicine, philosophy, physics, poetry, and rhetoric. The academy combined knowledge from Greek and Indian sources as well as Iranian.
Gundeshapur taught medicine not under an apprenticeship system. Students worked in a hospital supervised by the entire medical faculty. It is thought that there were even exams required before completion of study. The academy also had a department focused on the study of maritime diseases and their treatment.
The Encyclopedia Iranica tells us:
John of Ephesus, who even apologizes for eulogizing ... an enemy, states that Ḵosrow “was a prudent and wise man, and all his lifetime he assiduously devoted himself to the perusal of philosophical works … He took pains to collect the religious books of all creeds, and read and studied them, that he might learn which one were true and wise and which were foolish.”
Khosrow himself is believed to have said:
We have not declined to adopt anything which was good nor to avoid anything which was bad. Affection for our forebears did not lead us to accept customs which were not good.
Khosrow's name in Iranian texts during and after his reign is mentioned numerous times. He created a golden age of culture. Part of his ability to do so much was because he concentrated power on his central authority, which angered many of the nobles in the far-reaching empire. After his death, there were significant changes.
He was succeeded by his son, but before we get into that, I want to talk about how Christians fared inside the Iranian Empire whose ruler followed Zoroastrianism. That will be for tomorrow.
