~50 min read • Updated Mar 28, 2026
Sassanid Society
Beyond the Euphrates or Tigris, throughout the history of Greece and Rome, lay that almost hidden empire which for a thousand years had stood apart from developing Europe and from Asian invaders. It had never forgotten its Achaemenid greatness, had slowly healed from the wounds of Parthian wars, and had preserved its unique aristocratic culture so skillfully under the capable Sassanid kings that it later transformed the Islamic victory over Iran into a cultural renaissance of Persia.
Iran in the third century was larger than modern Iran. As its name implies, it was the land of the Aryans and included Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Sogdia, Bactria, and Iraq. Pars, formerly the name of the present province of Fars, formed only a part of the southeastern portion of this empire; but the Greeks and Romans, who paid little attention to “barbarians,” gave the name of only one part to the whole. A mountain barrier, running from the Himalayas in the southeast to the Caucasus in the northwest, divided the land in two; in the east lay a high barren plateau; in the west were the lush valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, whose waters in flood flowed into countless canals and made western Iran rich in wheat, dates, grapes, and other fruits. Along the rivers or in the intervals between them, in the hill country or in the oases, lay thousands of villages, hundreds of towns, and dozens of cities, the most important of which were Ecbatana, Rayy, Mosul, Istakhr (formerly Persepolis), Susa, Seleucia, and the vast and magnificent capital of the Sassanids, Ctesiphon.
Ammianus Marcellinus describes the Iranians of this period as “almost all slender and rather dark ... with fairly interesting beards, and long, coarse hair.” The people of the higher classes were not coarse-haired and not all slender; they were often well-built, proud of their bearing, character, and agility, and fond of dangerous sports and splendid garments. Men wore turbans, loose trousers, and sandals or laced boots; the wealthy wore woolen tunics or robes, belts, and swords; the poor made do with cotton, wool, or skin clothing. Women wore boots and short trousers, shirts and loose cloaks, and an overgarment that folded from excessive width; they gathered their dark hair in a bun in front and let the tail fall behind, adorning it with flowers. All classes loved color and ornament. Devout Magi and Zoroastrians wore white garments as a sign of purity; generals preferred red; kings distinguished themselves by wearing red shoes, blue trousers, and a cap surmounted by a globe or the head of an animal or bird. In Iran, as in civilized societies, clothing made half the man and more than half the woman.
The cultivated Iranian was usually, like the French, sensitive, quick-witted, and sharp-minded; he was often pleasure-loving but agile and ready when necessity demanded; “careless and excessive in speech ... more cunning than brave, and therefore to be feared only from a distance.” This was exactly the distance they always kept from their enemies. Poor Iranians drank beer, but almost all classes, including the gods, preferred wine; pious and thrifty Iranians poured wine in religious ceremonies and waited for the gods to come and drink it; then they themselves drank the sacred wine. Iranian customs in this Sassanid period, according to accounts, were harsher than in Achaemenid times and milder than in Parthian times; but Procopius’s stories inform us that the Iranians were more noble than the Greeks. Diplomatic ceremonies and customs at the Iranian court were largely adopted by the Greek emperors; the two rival sovereigns addressed each other as “brother,” granted immunity to foreign political agents, and exempted them from inspection and customs duties. The source of European and American diplomatic customs can be sought in the courts of the kings of Iran.
Ammianus says: “Most Iranians indulge excessively in sexual relations,” but admits that sodomy and prostitution were less common among them than among the Greeks. Rabbi Gamaliel praises the Iranians for three qualities: “They are moderate in eating, moderate in private, and moderate in marital relations.” The utmost effort was made to encourage marriage and increase the birth rate to provide sufficient manpower for the wars; in this matter the god of love was Mars, not Venus. Religion commanded marriage, performed the marriage ceremony with great splendor, and taught that fertility strengthened Ahura Mazda, the god of light, in his battle with Ahriman, the devil of the Zoroastrian faith. The head of the family performed ancestor worship at the family hearth, and therefore desired children to preserve this rite and his lineage after him; if he had no male child, he adopted a son. Parents generally arranged their children’s marriages, more often through professional matchmakers; but a woman could marry without parental permission. Dowry and bride price made early marriage and childbearing possible. Polygamy was permitted and was recommended in case of the first wife’s infertility. Adultery had matured. A husband could divorce his wife for infidelity, and a wife could divorce her husband for cruelty and failure to provide. Concubinage was unhindered. These concubines, like the Greek hetairai, were free to appear in public and attend men’s banquets; but legal wives were usually kept in the women’s quarters; this ancient Iranian custom was transferred to Islam. Iranian women were extremely beautiful, and perhaps for this reason they had to be protected from men. In Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh it is the women who arouse men’s desires and take the lead in flirtation and seduction. Feminine beauty prevailed over masculine laws.
Children were raised with the help of religious faith, which seems necessary for strengthening parental authority. Their amusements were ball games, heroic sports, and chess, and in adolescence they participated in the family’s adult entertainments. These entertainments consisted of archery, horsemanship, polo, and hunting. The Sassanid Iranians considered music necessary for religious rites, love, and war. Ferdowsi says that in royal banquets and feasts “music and the singing of beautiful women adorned the scene”; the lyre, guitar, flute, reed, trumpet, drum, and other instruments were plentiful; according to tradition, Barbad, Khosrow Parviz’s favorite musician, composed 360 melodies and sang one of them to the king every night throughout the year. Religion also played a significant role in education; elementary schools were located in temples and children were taught by the Magi. Higher education in literature, medicine, sciences, and philosophy was given at the famous University of Jundishapur in Khuzestan. Sons of local kings and satraps often lived near the king and studied with the royal princes in a school attached to the court.
Pahlavi, the Indo-European language of Iran in Parthian times, remained in use in Sassanid times. Only 600,000 words of its literature have survived, all related to religion. We know that this literature was extensive; but since the Magi were its guardians and transmitters, they allowed most non-religious works to perish. (A similar process has probably misled us into thinking that early medieval literature in the Christian world was predominantly religious.) The Sassanid kings were enlightened patrons of literature and philosophy — and above all Khosrow Anushirvan: at his command the works of Plato and Aristotle were translated into Pahlavi and taught at the University of Jundishapur, and he himself even read them. During his reign many historical events were recorded and compiled, the only surviving part of which is the Karnamak-i Ardashir-i Papakan. This book is a mixture of history and a love story that later became the basis of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. When Justinian closed the schools of Athens, seven of its professors fled to Iran and took refuge at Khosrow’s court. After a time they longed for their homeland; the “barbarian” king, in his 533 treaty with Justinian, stipulated that the Greek sages should be allowed to return and be safe from persecution and harassment.
Under the rule of this enlightened king, the University of Jundishapur, founded in the fourth or fifth century, became “the greatest cultural center of its time.” Students and professors flocked to it from all parts of the world. Nestorian Christians were accepted at the university and brought Syriac translations of Greek works on medicine and philosophy. The Neoplatonists sowed the seeds of Sufism there; and the medical traditions of India, Iran, Syria, and Greece mingled there to create a flourishing school of therapy. According to Iranian medical theory, disease resulted from the pollution or impurity of one of the four elements — fire, water, earth, wind; Iranian physicians and Magi said that public health required the burning of all putrefying materials, and personal hygiene required complete obedience to the cleanliness precepts of the Zoroastrian religion.
What we know of Iranian astronomy in this period is that it had established a regular calendar. According to this calendar, the year was divided into twelve thirty-day months, and each month into two seven-day weeks and two eight-day weeks, with five extra days added at the end of the year. Astrology and sorcery were public matters, and no important action was taken without consulting the position of the constellations; and every earthly event was believed by the people to result from the war of lucky and unlucky stars in the sky — just as angels and demons fought in the human soul — and this was in truth the same battle of Ahura Mazda and Ahriman.
Zoroastrianism regained its former power and dominance through the Sassanid dynasty; lands and a tithe of agricultural produce were dedicated to the Magi; the state rested on religion, just as it did in Europe at that time. The Mobed of Mobeds, whose power was second only to the king’s, ruled over a powerful and visible class called Magi or Magians, whose rank was hereditary. The Magi ruled the spiritual life of all Iranians, frightened sinners and rebels with hell, and kept Iranian thought in bondage for four centuries. They sometimes protected citizens from the oppression of tax collectors and the poor from the tyranny of the powerful. The Magi’s organization was so wealthy that kings sometimes borrowed large sums from the temple treasuries. Every major city had a fire temple in which the sacred flame, as a sign of the god of light, always burned. Only a pure and clean life could save the soul from Ahriman; in the battle against the devil, it was essential to use the help of the Magi and their prophecy, incantation, sorcery, and prayers. The soul thus aided attained purity and sanctity, passed the terrible court of the Day of Resurrection, and found eternal joy in paradise.
Beside this official religion, other faiths had little place, Mithra, the sun god, who had been very popular among the Parthians, no longer received the worship worthy of the great helper of Ahura Mazda. But the Zoroastrian Magi, like Christian, Muslim, and Jewish clergy, considered apostasy from the national religion a great sin. When Mani (c. 216–276) claimed to be the fourth prophet of God in the line of Buddha, Zoroaster, and Christ, and proclaimed a religion based on celibacy, pacifism, and piety, the zealous and nationally fanatical Magi crucified him, and Manichaeism was forced to seek its success outside Iran’s borders. Nevertheless, the Sassanid Magi and kings generally showed tolerance toward Judaism and Christianity, just as the popes behaved more mildly toward the Jews than toward heretics. Many Jews took refuge in the western provinces of the Iranian Empire. When the Sassanids came to power, Christianity was established in Iran; this religion was tolerated as long as it had not become the official faith of Iran’s ancient enemies, Greece and Rome; but after Christian clergy, as they did in Nisibis in 338, took an active role in defending Byzantine territory against Shapur II, and Iranian Christians openly showed their natural hope for Byzantine victory, Christianity was persecuted. In 341, Shapur ordered the massacre of Christians in his empire; until he limited this order to priests, monks, and nuns, many inhabitants of Christian villages had been killed; even so, during this persecution, which continued until Shapur’s death (379), 16,000 Christians were killed. Yazdegerd I (399–420) restored religious freedom to the Christians and helped them rebuild their churches. In 422 a council of Iranian bishops made the church of Iranian Christians independent of Greek and Roman Christianity.
Amid religious worship and disputes, government decrees and crises, and internal and external wars, the people impatiently provided the means to strengthen the state and the temples, cultivated the land, grazed the flocks, and engaged in handicrafts and trade. Agriculture was a religious duty, and people were told that heroic deeds such as making the desert habitable, cultivating the land, destroying pests and weeds, making barren lands fertile, and using rivers for irrigation ensured the final victory of Ahura Mazda over Ahriman. The Iranian peasant needed much spiritual consolation, for he usually worked for great landowners and gave from one-sixth to one-third of his produce to the state as taxes and dues. Around 540, the Iranians learned the art of sugar-making from sugarcane from India; the Greek emperor Heraclius found a storehouse full of sugar in the royal palace of Ctesiphon (627); the Arabs, who conquered Iran fourteen years later, soon learned how to plant sugarcane and took it to Egypt, Sicily, Morocco, and Spain, from where it spread throughout Europe. Animal husbandry was one of the Iranians’ outstanding occupations; Iranian horses were the best after Arabian horses in breed, agility, beauty, and speed; every Iranian loved his horse, just as Rostam loved Rakhsh. The dog was so useful in guarding flocks and homes that the Iranians considered it a sacred animal; and the Iranian cat had gained fame and distinction throughout the world.
Iranian industry in Sassanid times moved from the domestic to the urban form. Guild unions were numerous, and in some cities a revolutionary working class had emerged. Silk weaving had been imported from China; Sassanid silks were desired everywhere and served as models for the textile industries of Byzantium, China, and Japan. Chinese merchants came to Iran to sell raw silk and buy carpets, jewels, and geese; Armenians, Syrians, and Jews connected Iran, Byzantium, and Rome with their active trade. Good roads and bridges, which were carefully maintained, enabled the state post and merchant caravans to connect Ctesiphon with all the provinces; and ports had been built in the Persian Gulf to accelerate trade with India. Government regulations limited the prices of grain, medicine, and other necessities of life and prevented hoarding and monopoly. The wealth of the upper classes can be seen from the story of an Iranian nobleman who invited a thousand guests to dinner, and when he found that he had more than five hundred dishes, borrowed five hundred more from his neighbors.
The feudal lords, who usually lived on their rural estates, organized the exploitation of land and people and, in time of war, formed regiments from their subjects. With passionate and courageous hunting, they trained themselves for battle; they served as trained cavalry officers, and they and their horses, like late medieval European feudal lords, were armored; but they were behind the Romans in disciplining their soldiers or in using the latest engineering techniques of siege and defense. Socially higher than these landowners were the great nobles who ruled the provinces as satraps or headed government departments. Administration apparently was very good, for although taxes were lower than those of the Eastern and Western Roman emperors, their collection was less harsh, and Iran’s treasury was often fuller than that of the emperors. In 626, Khosrow Parviz had money equivalent to 460,000,000 dollars in his coffers, and the country’s annual revenue was equivalent to 170,000,000 dollars, which, considering the purchasing power of gold and silver at that time, was a very large sum. Law was made by the kings, their advisers, and the Magi on the basis of Avestan precepts; the interpretation of the law and supervision of its execution was the responsibility of the Magi. Ammianus, who had fought the Iranians, describes Iranian judges as “upright men, experienced, and knowledgeable in law.” In general the Iranians were known as honest people. Oaths in court were accompanied by religious ceremonies; the punishment for perjury was very severe in law, and in hell there was an endless rain of arrows, axes, and stones. To discover crime the ordeal method was used: suspects were asked to walk on red-hot metal, or pass through fire, or eat poisoned food. Infanticide and abortion were prohibited and carried severe punishment; the penalty for sodomy was death; a man whose adultery was exposed was exiled, and an adulterous woman lost her nose and ears. Convicts could appeal to higher courts, and the death penalty could only be carried out after review and approval by the king.
The king attributed his power to the gods and considered himself their deputy and showed their status in the decrees he issued in their name. Whenever the occasion demanded, he called himself “King of Kings, King of the Aryans and non-Aryans [Iran and Aniran], Lord of the World, Born of the Gods.” Shapur II had added this phrase to the title: “Brother of the Sun and Moon, Companion of the Stars.” The Sassanid kings, who were theoretically despotic, usually in practice worked in consultation with their ministers who formed the government: Masudi, the Muslim historian, praised “the brilliant administration of the Sassanid kings, their orderly policy, their care for their subjects, and the prosperity of their dominions.” Khosrow Anushirvan, according to Ibn Khaldun, said: “Without an army, there is no king; without revenue, there is no army; without taxes, there is no revenue; without agriculture, there is no tax; without just government, there is no agriculture.” In normal times, the monarchy was hereditary, but it could be transferred by the king to one of the younger sons; in two cases supreme power reached queens. When there was no direct heir, the nobles and Magi chose someone for the throne, but their choice was limited to members of the royal family.
The king’s life was full of exhausting obligations. He was expected to show the utmost courage in hunting; he went hunting in a pavilion with a silk curtain drawn by ten decorated camels, seven camels carried his throne, and a hundred camels carried his musicians. Ten thousand horsemen might accompany him, but if we consider the Sassanid rock reliefs reliable, he had to mount his horse in the final stage of the hunting trip and personally pursue a deer, wild goat, gazelle, buffalo, tiger, lion, or one of the other animals gathered in his park or “paradise.” When he returned to his palace, he found himself amid a thousand retinue and numerous ceremonies facing a series of state affairs. He had to wear garments heavy with jewels, sit on a golden throne, and wear a crown so heavy that it had to be suspended from his motionless head at an imperceptible distance. In this form and appearance he received ambassadors and guests, performed hundreds of political ceremonial rites, judged, and received reports and news of appointments. Those who came near him bowed, kissed the ground, rose only with his permission, and held a handkerchief in front of their mouths when speaking lest their breath pollute him. At night he went to one of his wives or concubines and joyfully sowed the royal seed.
The Sassanid Kingship
According to Iranian traditions, Sasan was a Mobed in Persepolis; his son Babak was a minor prince in Khor; Babak killed Gochihr, the ruler of Fars, made himself king of that region, and by will transferred his power to his son Shapur; Shapur died in an accident and his brother Ardashir succeeded him. Ardavan V, the last Parthian or Arsacid king of Iran, refused to recognize this new local dynasty. Ardashir killed Ardavan in battle (224) and became King of Kings (226). He replaced the weak Parthian feudal monarchy with a powerful royal government that managed affairs through a centralized but expanding administrative organization; he gained the support of the clergy by restoring Zoroastrianism and its hierarchy; and by announcing that he would eradicate Hellenistic influence in Iran and avenge Darius III on Alexander’s successors and recover all the territories of the Achaemenid kings, he aroused the people’s pride. He almost fulfilled all his promises. His rapid campaigns extended Iran’s borders in the northeast to the Oxus and in the west to the Euphrates. At his death (241), he placed the crown on his son Shapur’s head and ordered him to drive the Greeks and Romans into the sea.
Shapur I (241–272) had inherited all his father’s power and ability. Rock inscriptions describe him as a man of beautiful and noble features; but this is undoubtedly an official compliment. He had an excellent education and loved knowledge; he was so enchanted by the conversation of the sophist Eustathius, the Greek ambassador, that he thought of abdicating and becoming a philosopher. Unlike Shapur II, he granted complete freedom to all religions, allowed Mani to preach at his court, and declared that “Magi, Manichaeans, Jews, Christians, and followers of other faiths in his empire should be safe from any harassment.” Continuing the editing of the Avesta, which had begun in Ardashir’s time, he urged the Magi to include works of metaphysics, astronomy, and medicine, often taken from India and Greece, in this sacred Iranian book. He was generous in supporting art. He was not equal to Shapur II or the two Khosrows in military command, but he was the best administrator in the long Sassanid line. He built a new capital called Shapur that still bears his name in its ruins, and at Shushtar, on the Karun River, he erected one of the great engineering works of antiquity. This structure was a dam made of basalt blocks that formed a bridge 520 meters long and 6 meters wide; to build this dam, the river’s course was temporarily diverted, its bed was paved, and gates were created in the dam to regulate the water flow. According to tradition, Shapur used Roman engineers and prisoners to design and build this dam, which remained in operation until the present century. Although Shapur was not fond of war in his heart, he was forced to resort to it, attacked Syria, reached Antioch, was defeated by the Roman army, and made a peace treaty with the Romans (244) by which he returned all the territories he had previously taken from them. Angry at Armenia’s cooperation with the Romans, he entered that country and established a pro-Iranian dynasty there (252). After securing his right flank in this way, he resumed the war with Rome. He defeated and captured Emperor Valerian (260), plundered Antioch, and took thousands of prisoners to be used for forced labor in Iran. Odenathus, the governor of Palmyra, allied with Rome and forced Shapur to recognize the Euphrates again as the border between Iran and Rome.
His successors from 272 to 302 had no greatness; history mentions Hormizd II (302–309) briefly because he preserved peace and prosperity. He repaired public places and private dwellings, especially the homes of the poor, at government expense. He established a new court for hearing the complaints of the poor against the rich and often presided over it himself. We do not know whether these strange habits caused his son to be deprived of the throne or not; in any case, when Hormizd died, the nobles imprisoned his son and gave the crown and throne to his unborn child, whom they named Shapur II with certainty and confidence; and to make his reign completely assured, they tied the royal crown to his mother’s belly.
With such an auspicious beginning, Shapur II entered the longest reign in Asian history (309–379). From childhood he was trained for war; he strengthened his will, and at the age of sixteen he took the reins of government and the conduct of the battlefield. He attacked eastern Arabia, destroyed several villages, killed thousands of prisoners, and tied the remaining prisoners together with a rope passed through their wounds. In 337, to gain control of the trade routes to the Far East, he resumed the war with Rome and, with several intervals of peace, continued it almost until his death. The conversion of Rome and Armenia to Christianity gave new intensity to the ancient struggle, as if the gods had joined the war with Homeric anger. For forty years, Shapur fought a long series of Roman emperors. Julian pushed him back to Ctesiphon but himself retreated in a disgraceful manner. Jovian, defeated by Shapur’s skillful maneuver, was forced to make peace with him (363) and cede the Roman provinces on the Tigris coast and all of Armenia to him. When Shapur II died, Iran was at the zenith of its prestige and power and a hundred thousand acres of land had been strengthened with human blood.
In the next century, war was transferred to Iran’s eastern border. Around 425 a tribe of Turanians, whom the Greeks knew as the Hephthalites and mistakenly called the White Huns, occupied the region between the Oxus and Jaxartes. Bahram V, the Sassanid king, who was called Bahram Gur for his fearlessness in hunting (420–438), fought them courageously and defeated them; but after his death the Turanians, due to their fertility and warlike nature, spread to distant regions and formed an empire that extended from the Caspian Sea to the Indus River. The capital of this empire was Gorgan, and its major city was Balkh. The Turanians defeated Peroz, the Sassanid king (459–484), killed him, and made his successor Balash (484–488) their tributary.
Iran, simultaneously with this threat from the east, was plunged into chaos due to the king’s struggle with the nobles and Magi to preserve his authority. Kavad I (488–531) thought of weakening his enemies by strengthening a communist movement whose main target was the nobles and Magi. One of the Zoroastrian Magi, named Mazdak, around 490 AD declared himself God’s messenger for promoting an ancient faith. The principles of that religion, according to him, were: all people are born equal; no one has a natural right to own more than another; property and marriage are human inventions and base mistakes; and all things and all women should be the common property of all men. His enemies claimed that under the pretext of protesting against property and marriage and achieving the ideal city, he was promoting theft, adultery, and incest. The poor and some other people gladly accepted his words, but perhaps Mazdak himself was surprised by the king’s agreement with that religion. His followers not only seized the homes of the wealthy but also their harems and took possession of their most beautiful and expensive concubines. The aggrieved and angry nobles imprisoned Kavad and raised his brother Jamasp to the throne. After three years of imprisonment in the “Castle of Oblivion,” Kavad escaped from prison and took refuge with the Hephthalites. The Hephthalites, who wanted a dependent person to rule Iran, provided an army for him and helped him conquer Ctesiphon. Jamasp abdicated, the nobles fled to their estates, and Kavad again became King of Kings (499). After consolidating his power, Kavad attacked the communists and killed Mazdak and thousands of his followers. Perhaps that movement raised the status of workers, for subsequent government council decrees were signed not only by princes and Magi but also by guild leaders. Kavad ruled for another generation, fought and defeated his old Hephthalite friends, but did not achieve decisive success in the war with Rome; at his death he left the throne to his second son Khosrow, the greatest Sassanid king.
Khosrow I (531–579), whom the Greeks called Chosroes and the Arabs called Kisra, and the Iranians added the title Anushirvan (possessor of immortal soul) to his name. When his older brothers called him “the Just”; and perhaps if we separate justice from mercy, he deserved this title. Procopius describes him as “a great master in pretending to piety” and a treaty-breaker; but Procopius was among his enemies. Tabari, the Iranian historian, praised his “sharpness, culture, wisdom, courage, and prudence” and put an inaugural speech in his mouth that, if not true, is well fabricated. He completely reorganized the government; in choosing his assistants he considered only merit and paid no attention to rank and position; and he chose Buzurgmehr, his son’s tutor, as minister, who became a worthy minister. He replaced the feudal princely army with a disciplined and competent permanent army. He created a fairer tax system and codified Iranian laws. He built dams and canals to improve city water and irrigate fields; he made barren lands fertile by giving oxen, agricultural tools, and seeds to peasants; he prospered trade by building, repairing, and maintaining bridges and roads; and he devoted all he could with zeal and enthusiasm to serving the people and the country. He encouraged — compulsorily — marriage on the grounds that Iran needed a larger population to preserve its borders and territory. He encouraged single men to marry by providing dowries for women and facilities for raising children from the government budget. He maintained and educated orphans and destitute children at government expense. He punished heresy with death but tolerated Christianity, even in his own harem. He gathered philosophers, physicians, and scholars from India and Greece at his court and enjoyed discussing with them issues of life, government, and death. Once during a discussion the question arose: “What is the greatest misfortune?” A Greek philosopher replied: “Old age accompanied by poverty and stupidity”; a Hindu answered: “A troubled soul in a sick body”; Khosrow’s minister attracted everyone’s admiration by saying: “In my opinion the greatest misfortune for a person is to see the end of his life approaching without having practiced virtue.” Khosrow supported literature, sciences, and scholarship generously and provided the expenses of many translations and historiographies; during his reign the University of Jundishapur reached its peak. He maintained the security of foreigners so well that his court was always full of distinguished strangers.
When he ascended the throne, he declared his desire for peace with Rome. Justinian, who had plans for Africa and Italy, agreed; and in 532 the two “brothers” signed an “eternal peace” treaty. When Africa and Italy fell, Khosrow jokingly demanded a share of his spoils on the grounds that if Iran had not made peace with him he could not have won, and Justinian sent him valuable gifts. In 539, Khosrow declared war on Rome on the pretext that Justinian had violated the treaty between them; Procopius confirms this accusation; perhaps Khosrow thought it wise to attack Rome while Justinian’s army was still busy in the West and not wait for a victorious and powerful Byzantium to turn all its forces against Iran. Moreover, Khosrow believed that Iran must finally gain control of the gold mines of Trebizond and reach the Black Sea. So he marched on Syria; he besieged Hierapolis, Apamea, and Aleppo, withdrew from them after receiving heavy ransoms, and soon reached the gates of Antioch. The fearless people of that city, from the top of the defensive wall, welcomed him not only by raining arrows and catapult stones on his soldiers but also with the impudent taunts for which they were famous. The angry king captured the city in a sudden attack and plundered its treasures. He burned all its buildings except the great church; massacred some of the people of the city and sent the rest to Iran to form the inhabitants of a new “Antioch.” Then with joy he bathed in the same Mediterranean Sea that had once been Iran’s western border. Justinian sent his general Belisarius to save those regions, but Khosrow, with the spoils he had obtained, peacefully crossed the Euphrates, and that cautious general did not pursue him (541). The failure of the Iran-Rome wars was undoubtedly due to the difficulty of maintaining an occupation force on the other side of the Syrian desert or the Taurus mountain range on the enemy’s side; new advances in transportation have made larger wars possible. During three other invasions of Roman Asia, Khosrow made rapid advances and sieges, took tributes and prisoners, plundered villages, and returned unhindered (542–543). In 545, Justinian paid 2,000 pounds of gold (840,000 dollars) to Khosrow for a five-year truce, and at the end of five years another 2,600 pounds for a five-year extension. Finally (562), after wars that lasted a generation, the two old kings agreed to maintain peace for fifty years; Justinian agreed to pay Iran 30,000 pounds of gold (7,500,000 dollars) annually, and Khosrow gave up his claim to the disputed territories in the Caucasus and the Black Sea coasts.
But Khosrow’s work with war was not yet finished. Around 570, at the request of the Himyarites of southwestern Arabia, he sent an army to that region to free them from the yoke of Abyssinian conquerors; when freedom was achieved, the Himyarites found that their land had become an Iranian province. Justinian had made a treaty of alliance with Abyssinia; Justin II, his successor, considered the expulsion of the Abyssinians from Arabia an unfriendly act; moreover, the Turks on Iran’s eastern borders had secretly agreed with Rome to attack Khosrow; Justin II declared war on Khosrow (572). Khosrow, despite his pride, personally went to the battlefield and captured the border city of Dara from the Romans; but his health did not help him and for the first time he was defeated (578), returned to Ctesiphon, and there in 579, at an unknown age, bade farewell to life. During his forty-eight years of rule he was victorious in all wars and battles except one, had expanded his empire on all sides, had made Iran more powerful than at any time since Darius I, and had established such a correct administrative order that when the Arabs conquered Iran they adopted it almost without any change. Khosrow, who was almost contemporary with Justinian, was considered by the common belief of the time greater than Justinian, and all future generations of Iran also consider him the most powerful and capable king in their history.
His son, Hormizd IV (579–589), was deposed by one of his generals. This general was Bahram Chobin, who first made himself regent for Khosrow II (589), son of Hormizd IV, and a year later made himself king. When Khosrow reached adulthood, he demanded his crown and throne from him; Bahram did not accept this demand; Khosrow fled to Hierapolis in Roman Syria; Maurice, the Eastern Roman emperor, told him that he would restore his kingdom on the condition that Iran leave Armenia; Khosrow accepted this proposal, and the people of Ctesiphon witnessed the rare event of Roman soldiers helping to place an Iranian prince on the throne.
Khosrow Parviz (the Victorious) reached the highest power that Iran had seen since Xerxes, and [due to the pride resulting from that same power] prepared the ground for the fall of his empire. When Phocas killed Maurice and took his place, Parviz declared war on that usurper (603) to avenge his friend; the result was that the ancient enmity between the two empires began anew. Because Byzantium had been weakened by chaos and division, the Iranian armies were able to capture Dara, Amida, Edessa, Hierapolis, Aleppo, Apamea, and Damascus (605–613). Parviz, intoxicated with success, declared jihad against the Christians; 26,000 Jews joined his army. In 614, their joint forces plundered Jerusalem and killed 90,000 Christians. Many Christian churches, including the “Church of the Resurrection,” were completely burned; and the True Cross, the most beloved relic of the Christians, was taken to Iran. Parviz wrote a letter to Heraclius, the new Roman emperor, and raised a question in theology: “From Khosrow, the greatest of the gods and lord of all the earth, to Heraclius, his worthless and senseless servant: You say that you trust in your God, so why did He not save Jerusalem from me?” In 616, an Iranian army captured Alexandria, and by 619 all of Egypt, which had been out of Iranian possession since Darius II, belonged to the King of Kings. Meanwhile, another Iranian army marched on Asia Minor and captured Chalcedon (617); the Iranians held that city, which was separated from Constantinople only by the Bosporus strait, for ten years. During those ten years Khosrow Parviz destroyed churches; took their wealth and art works to Iran; and, by imposing heavy taxes, so exhausted western Asia that it could not resist the Arab attack that occurred a generation later.
Khosrow left the conduct of the war to his generals, went to his luxurious palace in Dastgerd (about ninety-six kilometers north of Ctesiphon), and devoted himself to art and love. He gathered architects, sculptors, and painters to make his new capital more beautiful than the old capital, and had images of Shirin, his most beloved of three thousand women, carved on stone. The Iranians complained that Shirin was a Christian, and some even claimed that he had also converted the king to Christianity; in any case, in the midst of his holy war, Khosrow allowed her to build many churches and monasteries. But Iran, which had become rich with war spoils and countless slaves, could forgive the king’s preoccupation with pleasure and art, and even his religious tolerance. The Iranians considered his victories the final triumph of Iran over Greece and Rome, and the victory of Ahura Mazda over Christ.
Finally Alexander’s answer was given, and revenge was taken for Marathon, Salamis, Plataea, and Arbela.
Of the Byzantine Empire nothing remained but a few Asian ports, a few pieces of Italian soil, North Africa, Greece, an undefeated naval force, and a besieged capital gripped by terror and despair. Heraclius spent ten years rebuilding a new country from the ruins of his land and raising a new army; then instead of crossing the Chalcedon strait, which required heavy costs and losses, he sent his fleet into the Black Sea, passed through Armenia, and attacked Iran from behind. Just as Khosrow had destroyed Jerusalem, Heraclius destroyed Cloromia, Zoroaster’s birthplace, and extinguished its eternal sacred fire (624). Khosrow sent his armies one after another to confront him; all of them were defeated, and as the Greeks advanced, Khosrow fled to Ctesiphon, his generals, angered by his insults, conspired with the nobles to depose him. They imprisoned him and gave him only bread and water; they killed eighteen of his sons before his eyes; finally one of his other sons named Shiroyeh killed him (628).
III – Sassanid Art
Of the wealth and splendor of the Shapurs, Kavads, and Khosrows nothing remains but the artistic ruins of the Sassanid period; but even this amount is enough to astonish us at the durability and flexibility of Iranian art, from the time of Darius the Great and Persepolis to the time of Shah Abbas the Great and Isfahan.
What remains of Sassanid architecture is completely secular; all the fire temples have disappeared and only the remains of royal palaces remain; these are “gigantic skeletons” whose decorated stucco facades disappeared long ago. The oldest of these palaces is the palace of Ardashir I in Firuzabad, located southeast of Shiraz. No one knows the date of this palace; the range of conjectures spans from 340 BC to 460 AD. After fifteen centuries of heat and cold, theft and war, the great dome of this palace still covers a hall that is thirty meters high and seventeen meters wide. Its portal arch, which is 27 meters high and 13 meters wide, divides a facade 52 meters long into two parts; this facade was destroyed in recent times. From the central square hall, arched pendentives led to the base of a circular dome. The pressure of the dome was imposed on two hollow walls in an interesting and unusual arrangement, on the inner and outer parts of which a barrel vault had been built, and on this foundation, which had been created by strengthening the inner wall with the outer wall, buttresses resting on continuous columnar piers of solid stone had been added. The architecture of this palace is completely different from the columnar style of Persepolis — this method, although crude and primitive, used forms that later reached their perfection in Justinian’s Santa Sophia.
Not far from this palace, in Sarvestan, there is a ruin whose date is unknown, a facade with three arches, a large central hall with two side rooms, whose roofs consist of melon-shaped domes, barrel vaults, and semi-domes that serve as buttresses. The pendentive skeletal architecture of the Gothic may have been adapted from these semi-domes by removing all parts except its supporting mold. Northwest of Susa there is a ruin of another palace, the Ivan of Kerche. This palace is the oldest example of a transverse hall built with diagonal beams. But the most interesting remains of the Sassanid period — which frightened the Arab conquerors with their grandeur — was the royal palace of Ctesiphon, which the Arabs called the Taq-i Kisra. This is probably the building that a Greek historian describes in 638 and says: “Justinian prepared Greek marble for Khosrow and sent skilled craftsmen who built a palace in Roman style near Ctesiphon for him.” The northern wing of this building collapsed in 1888; its dome is gone; three large walls 35 meters high have risen and have a horizontal facade divided into five rows of blind arches. A large central arch, which is twenty-six meters high and twenty-two meters wide and is the tallest and widest elliptical arch known so far, led to the roof of a hall that was 35 meters long and 23 meters wide; the Sassanid kings loved vast space. These ruined facades are imitations of crude Roman facades, such as the Theater of Marcellus. These facades are more majestic than beautiful; but one cannot judge the beauties of the past from the current ruins.
The most interesting remains of the Sassanid period are not the mud-brick palaces that have fallen victim to time, but the rock reliefs that have remained on the chest of some Iranian mountains. These wonderful reliefs are direct descendants of the Achaemenid rock reliefs and in some cases are placed next to them; as if they want to emphasize the continuity of Iranian power and the equality of the Sassanid kings with the Achaemenid kings. The oldest Sassanid reliefs show Ardashir with his foot on the back of one of his enemies — probably the last Arsacid emperor. The rock reliefs of Naqsh-e Rostam, near Persepolis, are finer and more beautiful and show Ardashir, Shapur I, and Bahram II; these kings form the majestic figures of the relief, but they too, like other kings and men, do not reach the elegance and proportion of animals in form. Similar reliefs in Naqsh-e Rajab and in Shapur show powerful stone images of Shapur I, Bahram I, and Bahram II. In Taq-e Bostan, near Kermanshah, two arches resting on columns are deeply carved into the stone; the reliefs on the inner and outer faces of the arches show Shapur II and Khosrow Parviz hunting; the stone has come to life with images of fat elephants and wild boars; the branches and leaves of the trees are carved carefully, and the capitals are adorned with beauty. These reliefs lack the elegance of movement or softness of lines, individual distinction, and sense of landscape of Greek works, and show little trace of modeling; but in terms of dignity and majesty, vitality, and power and solidity they are comparable to most rock reliefs of the Roman Empire.
These reliefs were apparently colored, as were many images of the palaces; but only traces of their color remain. However, existing documents make it clear that the art of painting flourished in Sassanid times; it is said that Mani founded a school of painting; Ferdowsi speaks of high-ranking Iranians who decorated their buildings with images of Iranian heroes; and al-Buhturi, the Arab poet (d. 897), describes the wall paintings of the palace of Ctesiphon. Whenever a Sassanid king died, the best painter of the age was summoned to make an image of him for the collection kept in the royal treasury.
Sassanid textile industry benefited from painting, sculpture, pottery, and other decorative forms. Silk, embroidered, brocade, and damask fabrics, tapestries, chair covers, canopies, tents, and carpets were woven with great patience and masterful skill, and then dyed in yellow, blue, and green colors. Every Iranian, except the peasant and the Mobed, desired to wear a garment belonging to a higher class than himself; gifts often consisted of luxurious garments; and large colored carpets, from Assyrian times, were among the accessories of wealth in the East. Two dozen Sassanid fabrics that have survived the ravages of time are among the most valuable existing fabrics. Sassanid fabrics were even admired and imitated in that era, from Egypt to Japan; and during the Crusades these pagan products were preferred for covering the relics of Christian saints. When Heraclius captured Khosrow Parviz’s palace in Dastgerd, embroidered fabrics and a large carpet were among his valuable spoils. Khosrow Anushirvan’s “winter carpet” or Baharistan had scenes of spring and summer to make him forget winter: in this carpet fruits and flowers are depicted with rubies and diamonds beside silver streets and pearl streams on a gold background. Harun al-Rashid prided himself on having a large Sassanid jewel-encrusted carpet that had thickened from the abundance of jewels. The Iranians composed odes in praise of their carpets.
Of Sassanid pottery nothing remains except pieces made for daily use. However, the pottery industry had advanced greatly in Achaemenid times, and it must have continued to some extent in Sassanid times so that it could reach that perfection after the Arab conquest. According to Ernest Fenollosa, Iran was probably the center from which even enameling reached the Far East; and art historians still disagree on whether glazing on pottery and cloisonné enameling originated from Sassanid Iran or Syria or Byzantium. Metalworkers of Sassanid times made pitchers, cups, bowls, and goblets that seemed made for a giant race; they turned them, carved designs on them with chisel or pen, or hammered a design in reverse from behind; and they fashioned delightful images of animals, from rooster to lion, as handles or spouts. The famous cup known as the “Cup of Khosrow” in the National Library of Paris has medallions of crystal glass set in a network of hammered gold; according to tradition, this cup was among the gifts of Harun al-Rashid to Charlemagne. The Goths probably learned this inlay art from the Iranians and took it to the West.
Silversmiths made valuable vessels and, along with goldsmiths, paid jewel-adorned ornaments for the adornment of wealthy men and women as well as ordinary people. Several silver vessels from Sassanid times still exist that are kept in the British Museum, the Hermitage in Leningrad, the National Library of Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The designs on these vessels always consist of images of kings and nobles hunting, and in them animals are drawn with more taste and success than humans. Sassanid coins, for example those of Shapur I, were sometimes equal in beauty to Roman coins. Even books of the Sassanid period can be considered works of art; according to tradition, when Mani’s books were publicly burned, the gold and silver pieces of their covers melted and dripped on the ground. Precious raw materials were also used in Sassanid household furnishings; Khosrow I had a golden table adorned with jewels; Khosrow II made a table of amber for his savior, Emperor Maurice, which rested on golden jewel-adorned bases.
On the whole, Sassanid art represents the laborious revival of art after four centuries of decline in the Parthian period. If we judge cautiously from its remnants, we must say that it does not reach the perfection and grandeur of Achaemenid art, nor can it equal the art of post-Islamic Iran in terms of innovation, delicacy, and taste. But this art preserved the power and solidity of ancient times in its rock reliefs and, in its decorative subjects, to some extent foreshadowed the artistic richness of the future. The art of this period gladly accepted new ideas and styles, and Khosrow I, while defeating Greek [Eastern Roman] generals, used this taste to bring Greek artists and engineers to Iran. Sassanid art paid its debt by spreading its artistic forms and motives in the East — in India, Turkestan, and China, and in the West — in Syria, Asia Minor, Constantinople, the Balkans, Egypt, and Spain. Perhaps its influence helped Greek art to abandon its insistence on displaying classical images and turn to the decorative Byzantine method; and it assisted Latin Christian art to turn its attention from wooden ceilings to barrel vaults and brick or stone domes and buttressed walls. The art of building large gates and domes, which was characteristic of Sassanid architecture, was transferred to Islamic mosques and palaces and Mongol temples. Nothing is lost in history: sooner or later, every creative idea finds opportunity and transformation and adds its color and spark to life.
The Arab Conquest
After killing his father and ascending the throne, Shiroyeh — who had been crowned as Kavad II — made peace with Heraclius; he surrendered Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and western Mesopotamia to him; he sent back to their countries the Romans who had been captured by Iranian armies, and returned the remnants of the “True Cross” to Jerusalem. Heraclius naturally rejoiced at such a worthy victory. But he did not notice that on the same day, in 629, while the “True Cross” was being placed in its temple in Jerusalem, a group of Arabs attacked the Greek garrison near the Jordan River. In the same year an epidemic spread in Iran and killed thousands, including the king. Ardashir III, Shiroyeh’s seven-year-old son, was raised to the throne; a general named Shahrbaraz killed that son and usurped the throne; Shahrbaraz’s own soldiers killed him and dragged his corpse through the streets of Ctesiphon crying: “Whoever does not have royal blood in his body and sits on the throne of Iran will fall to this fate.” Ordinary people are always more monarchist than the king. Chaos now ruled a realm exhausted by twenty-six years of continuous war. Social disorder added to the moral corruption that had come to Iran with wealth and conquest. Within four years nine rulers claimed the throne, but were either killed, fled, or died of unnatural natural causes, and thus disappeared from the scene. The provinces, and even the cities, one after another declared their independence and separation from the central government that no longer had the ability to rule. In 634 the royal crown was conferred on Yazdegerd III, who was of the Sassanid lineage and the son of a concubine.
In 632, Muhammad [peace be upon him] died after establishing a new Arab country. Umar, the second caliph, in 634 received a letter from Muthanna [ibn Haritha], his general in Syria, saying that Iran was in chaos and ready for conquest. Umar assigned the best Arab commander, whose name was Khalid [ibn al-Walid], to this mission. Khalid set out with an army of Bedouin Arabs, accustomed to fighting and thirsty for spoils, along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf and sent this message to Hormuz, the governor of the border province: “Accept Islam to be safe, or pay the jizya ... Now people are coming to you who love death as you love life.” Hormuz challenged him to single combat; Khalid accepted his invitation and killed him. The Muslims overcame all obstacles and reached the Euphrates; Umar, to save an Arab army elsewhere, recalled Khalid; Muthanna took his place as commander and with a reinforcing force crossed the Euphrates on a pontoon bridge. Yazdegerd, who was then a twenty-two-year-old youth, delegated supreme command to Rostam [Farrokhzad], the governor of Khorasan, and ordered him to gather a huge force to save the country. The Iranians confronted the Arabs at the Battle of the Bridge, defeated them and pursued them recklessly; Muthanna reorganized the disordered ranks of his army and in the Battle of Buwaib almost completely destroyed the disorganized Iranian forces (634). The Muslim casualties were heavy; Muthanna died from the wounds he had received; but the caliph sent a more capable general named Sa’d [ibn Abi Waqqas] in his place, along with a thirty-thousand-man army. Yazdegerd armed 120,000 Iranians to counter this action. Rostam led them from the Euphrates toward Qadisiyyah; there, during four bloody days, one of the most decisive battles in Asian history took place. On the fourth day, a sandstorm blew toward the Iranian army; the Arabs took advantage of the opportunity and defeated their enemies, who had lost their sight due to the storm. Rostam was killed, and his army scattered (636). Sa’d, who now saw no resistance against him, advanced his forces toward the Tigris River, crossed it, and entered Ctesiphon.
The simple and harsh Arabs, with amazement, stared at the royal palace, the great portal arch, the marble hall, the wonderful carpets, and the jewel-adorned throne. For ten days they labored to load and carry the spoils. Perhaps because of such weaknesses and difficulties, Umar ordered Sa’d not to advance further; he said: “Iraq is enough.” Sa’d obeyed this order and spent the next three years consolidating Arab rule over Mesopotamia. Meanwhile, Yazdegerd gathered another army of 150,000 soldiers in his northern provinces; Umar sent a 30,000-man army to confront him; at Nahavand, the Arabs achieved a great victory due to the superiority of their military tactics, which was called the “Victory of Victories”; 100,000 Iranian soldiers were trapped in narrow valleys and killed (641). Soon all of Iran fell to the Arabs. Yazdegerd fled to Balkh, sought help from China, but his request was not accepted; he sought help from the Turks and took a small force from them, but as soon as he set out on his new campaign, some Turkish soldiers killed him for his jewels (652). Thus the Sassanid dynasty was extinguished.
Written & researched by Dr. Shahin Siami