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 (Kasrā 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.
Sassanian art revived forms and traditions native to Persia; and in the Islamic period these reached the shores of the Mediterranean.
The splendour in which the Sassanian monarchs lived is well illustrated by their surviving palaces, such as those at Firuzabad and Bishapur in Fars, and the capital city of Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia.
The Sassanian architect conceived his building in terms of masses and surfaces; hence the use of massive walls of brick decorated with molded or carved stucco.
Sassanian society was divided into the traditional Iranian estates: priest (magian), noble (azatan), and farmer (ram); the last estate also included traders, craftsmen, and bureaucrats.
In the late Sassanian period, the kingdom was divided into four large divisions headed by a military and civil authority.
The court of the Sassanian king was famous for its elaborate protocol and hierarchy of officials in which the priests played an important role.
Feeds |
Contact