Colorful silk textiles laid out, symbolizing the ancient Silk Road journey

eLibrary: Sasanian Empire (224-651)

The Sasanian dynasty ruled for over four centuries from 224 to 651CE. At its peak the Empire encompassed all of present-day Iran and Iraq, and stretched from the Levant to the Indian subcontinent and from South Arabia to the Caucasus and Central Asia. The period marked a high-point in Persian civilization.

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Articles

Akbarzadeh, D. A Note on Sasanian Glassware and Zoroastrian Sacred Numbers (Sasanian to Post-Sasanian Periods). Iranian Journal of Archaeological Studies, 12(2), 2022. pp.37-45. [pdf]

Akhavan Aghdam, N., 2014. Iconographic interpretation of hunting scenes in Sasanian metalwork. Kimiya-ye-Honar, 3(12), pp.33-50. [pdf]

Alford, D., Kin and culture: clan, household and family formation in late antique Armenia (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford).2023 [pdf]

Bagot, D.J. State and Aristocracy in the Sasanian Empire, PhD Thesis, St Andrews, 2015, 285pp [pdf]

Blair, S.S. and Bloom, J.M ‘The Mirage of Islamic Art: Reflections on the Study of an Unwieldy Field’, originally published in The Art Bulletin, 85(1), 2003, 152-84 [pdf]

Brunner, C.J., 1974. Middle Persian inscriptions on Sasanian silverware. Metropolitan Museum Journal, 9, pp.109-121. [pdf download]

Cacharelias, D. Mutual influences in the art of Byzantine and Sasanian Empires.1988 [pdf]

Compareti, M. The state of research on Sasanian painting. Int. J. Eurasian Stud, 1, 2011. pp.108-152. [pdf]

Cox, K. From the Senmurw to the Simorg: Persian Identity in Early Islamic Iran Reflected in Mythical Birds, MA Thesis, Chicago, 2024, 45pp [pdf download]

Daryaee, T. Sasanian Persia The Rise and Fall of an Empire, London, 2009, 248pp [pdf]

Daryaee, T. Sasanian Kingship, Empire and Glory: Aspects of Iranian Imperium. Raj-o-Ganj Papers in Honour of Professor Z. Zarshenas, Edted by, V. Nadaf, F. Goshtasb, M. Shokri-Foumeshi, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, 2013. pp.11-22. [pdf]

Farrokh, K., Karamian, G. and Maksymiuk, K. A synopsis of sasanian military organization and combat units. Publishing House of Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities.2018. [pdf]

Farrokh, K., Karamian, G., Kubik, A. and Oshterinani, M.T. An Examination of Parthian and Sasanian military Helmets (2nd-century BC-7th century CE). Crowns, Hats, Turbans and Helmets: The Headgear in Iranian History, 1, 2017. pp.121-63. [pdf]

Grimm. O (e.a) Bird of Glory: the Falcon (and its Absence) in Sasanian Art, Raptor on the Fist: Falconry, its Imagery and similar Motifs throughout the Millenia on a Global Scale, 2020. [pdf]

Guand-da, Z., Litvinsky, B. and Shabani Samghabadi, R., 1996. History of civilizations of Central Asia: The Crossroads of Civilization: AD 250 to 750 (Vol. 3). UNESCO Publishing.1996. [book]

Harper H.O. and Meyers, P. Silver Vessels of the Sasanian Period, Royal Imagery, Met, New York, 1981, 273pp. [pdf download]

Hassanabadi, M. ‘The Situation of Women in Sasanian Iran: Reflections on the Story of Bahrām Gōr and his Mistress’, Orientalia Suecana, 58, 2009, 60-68. [pdf]

Jalalipour, S. Persian Occupation of Egypt 619-629: Politics and Administration of Sasanians.2013. [pdf]

Javadi, S., 2021. Naturalism in Sassanid Art. Manzar: The Iranian Scientific Journal of Landscape, 13(54). [pdf]

Kadoi, Y., A twenty-year retrospect on ‘The Mirage of Islamic Art’: polarising Islamic art, consolidating Persian art, Journal of Art Historiography Number 28 June 2023 [pdf]

Kaim, B.,. Women, dance and the hunt: splendour and pleasures of court life in Arsacid and early Sasanian art. The Parthian and Early Sasanian Empires: Adaptation and Expansion, 2016,90-106. [pdf]

Khosrosani, A., 2020. A critique of the book decline and fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian–Parthian confederacy and the Arab conquest of Iran. Pizhuhish nāmah-i intiqādī-i mutūn va barnāmah hā-yi ̒ulūm-i insāni (Critical Studies in Texts & Programs of Human Sciences), 20(6), pp.67-89. [pdf]

Maksymiuk, K. Marriage and divorce law in Pre-Islamic Persia. Legal status of the Sassanid’woman (224–651 AD). Cogent Arts & Humanities, 6(1), 2019. p.1703430. [pdf]

Malekān, M. and Mohammadifar, Y. A study of the imagery and place of women in the Sasanian period: Sigillographic evidence. Sasanika Archaeology, 14, 2013. pp.1-21. [pdf]

Mirsky, D. ” Frightful Persecutions” or” Persians Who Protect Us?”: Re-examining the Jewish Experience Under Sasanian Rule (Doctoral dissertation).2012 [pdf]

Mohammadifar, Y. A Study of the Imagery and Place of Women in the Sasanian Period: Sigillographic Evidence. by: Greg Watson, Sasanika Archaeology14.2013. [pdf]

Mousavi, A., Persia (Achaemenid to Sasanid Empires), c. 550 BCE–651 CE. 2020 [pdf]

Mousavi, A. and Daryaee, T., 2012. The Sasanian empire: an archaeological survey, c. 220–AD 640. A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, pp.1076-1094. [pdf]

Mousavi Kouhpar, S.M., 2006. An overview of the Depiction of Female Figures on Sasanian Silverwork. The International Journal of Humanities, 13(3), pp.83-94. [pdf]

Olson, M. Goddesses, Priestesses, Queens and Dancers: Images of Women on Sasnian Silver, BA Thesis, Illinois Wesleyan Univ. 2008. [pdf]

Patterson, L.E.. Minority religions in the Sasanian Empire: Suppression, integration and relations with Rome. Sasanian Persia: Between Rome and the Steppes of Eurasia, 2017. pp.181-198. [book]

Pashazanous, H. and Afkande, E., 2014. The Last Sasanians in Eastern Iran and China. Anabasis, Studia Classica et Orientalia, 5, 2014. pp.139-155. [pdf]

Payne, R. 16: The reinvention of Iran: The Sasanian Empire and the huns. The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila, 2014. p.282. [book]

Pourshariati, P. Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire The Sasanian–Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran, London, 2008, 553pp. [pdf]

Rapp Jr, S.H. New Perspectives on ‘The Land of Heroes and Giants’: The Georgian Sources for Sasanian History. e-Sasanika, 2014. 13, p.32. [pdf]

Rezakhani, K. History from the edge: teaching early Islamic history from sub-Sasanian coins. J. Numis. Assoc. Aust, 30, 2020. pp.127-147. [pdf]

Rezakhani, K. ReOrienting the Sasanians: East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh University Press. 2017. [book]

Sazonov, V., Observations on Iranian cultural history and ideology. 2023 [pdf]

Shenkar, M., 2015. Rethinking Sasanian Iconoclasm. Journal of American Oriental Society, 135(3), pp.471-498. [pdf]

Zhang, Z. The Last Sasanians and Ṭukhāristān (Doctoral dissertation, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem).2022. [pdf]

Zychowicz-Coghill, E. Remembering the ancient Iranian city from late antiquity to Islam: Hamza al-Isfahani and the Sasanian Book of Kings. Remembering and Forgetting the Ancient City, 2, 2022. p.247. [pdf download]