Head of king Shapur II (Sasanian dynasty A.D. 4th century). From The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art permanent collection.

The Sassanid dynasty (also Sassanian) was the name given to the kings of Persia during the era of the second Persian Empire, from 224 until 651, when the last Sassanid shah, Yazdegerd III, lost a 14-year struggle to drive out the Umayyad Caliphate, the first of the Islamic empires.

The Sassanid era began in earnest in 228, when the Shah Ardashir I destroyed the Parthian Empire which had held sway over the region for centuries. He and his successors created a vast empire, based in Firouzabad, Fars, which included those lands of the old Achaemenid Persian empire east of the Euphrates River. The Sassanids wanted to re-create the longed-for ancient empire. Zoroastrianism was made the state religion, and all other faiths were persecuted. It was the shahs' long sought-after goal to reunify all of the old Achaemenid territory, and this brought them into frequent wars against the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire.

Shah Khosrau II (Kasrâ in Arabic) fleetingly achieved this goal in a series of wars against the Byzantine Empire between 602 and 616, conquering Egypt, Syria and Palestine. However, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius turned the tide with a daring invasion of Persia itself. In 628, Khosrau was deposed with Heraclius' army at the gates of the capital of Ctesiphon. In the peace that followed, the Sassanids retreated to their traditional frontiers.

The long war exhausted both sides, and the Sassanids were soon destroyed by the rise of Islam.

Sassanid rulers

• Ardashir I from 224 to 241.
• Shapur I from 241 to 272
• Hormizd I from 272 to 273.
• Bahram I from 273 to 276.
• Bahram II from 276 to 293.
• Bahram III year 293.
• Narseh from 293 to 302.
• Hormizd II from 302 to 310.
• Shapur II from 310 to 379
• Ardashir II from 379 to 383.
• Shapur III from 383 to 388.
• Bahram IV from 388 to 399.
• Yazdegerd I from 399 to 420.
• Bahram V frmom 420 to 438.
• Yazdegerd II from 438 to 457.
• Hormizd III from 457 to 459.
• Peroz I from 457 to 484.
• Balash from 484 to 488.
• Kavadh I from 488 to 531.
  • Djamasp from 496 to 498.
• Khosrau I from 531 to 579.
• Hormizd IV from 579 to 590.
• Khosrau II from 590 to 628.
  • Bahram VI from 590 to 591.
  • Bistam from 591 to 592.
  • Hormizd V year 593.
• Kavadh II year 628.
• Ardashir III from 628 to 630.
  • Peroz II year 629.
• Shahrbaraz year 630.
• Boran and others from 630 to 631.
• Hormizd VI (or V) from 631 to 632.
• Yazdegerd III from 632 to 651.

See also

List of kings of Persia