LIVING

LIKE KINGS
The Sasanian kings were the last
rulers of pre-Islamic Iran. Acutely
aware of the ancient past, they
promoted their image through art,
ensuring that their influence would
stretch far into the future
By Matthew P. Canepa

W
hile not as well-known as that of the Achaemenid dynasty
(550–330 BC), the second Persian empire ruled by the Sasa-
nian dynasty (AD 224–642) is a pivotal but often overlooked
period of ancient Western Asian art and archaeological history. Stand-
ing at the cusp of the ancient and medieval worlds, the Sasanian empire
was the last great Iranian empire to rule over Western Asia before the
coming of Islam, extending at its height in the seventh century from
the Nile to the Oxus. Over the course of late antiquity, Sasanian art,
architecture, and court culture created a new dominant aristocratic
common culture in western Eurasia, beguiling their Roman, South
Asian, and Chinese contemporaries and deeply imprinting the later
Islamic world.
The arts of Sasanian Iran play a central role in two major upcom-
ing exhibitions due to open in London this spring and Los Angeles
next year. ‘Epic Iran: 5000 Years of Culture’ at the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London presents some 350 objects in a survey of Iranian
visual and material culture from around 3200 BC to the present day,
focusing primarily on small objects, manuscripts and textiles as well
as modern and contemporary painting and photography. At the Getty
Villa in Los Angeles, ‘Persia: Iran and the Classical World’ (scheduled
to open in March 2022), will explore the many exchanges between
ancient Iran and the Mediterranean throughout the rise and fall of
Iran’s great empires.
Before their rapid ascent to becoming the Iranian kings of kings
– an ancient Western Asian imperial title used by the Achaemenids
before them – the Sasanians ruled as local kings of the south-western
province of Persia amid the ruined palaces and tomb monuments of
the first Persian empire. The Sasanians, however, understood their
own dynasty to have originated from the ancient and legendary Kay-
anids, celebrated in the Zoroastrian religion’s sacred texts and in
contemporary oral epic traditions. Although the Sasanians were not 1. Plate with king with the
able to read the Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions, their own Mid- crown of Shabuhr II slaying
dle Persian inscriptions contain many themes and phrases present a stag, c. late 4th century,
Sasanian, Iran, silver and
in the Achaemenid inscriptions suggesting a robust oral tradition, gold, diam. 18cm.
which amalgamated the historical Achaemenids with Iranian epic British Museum, London

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and Zoroastrian religious historiography as preserved in the mythological Peshdadian and Kayanid ‘dynasties’
the Avesta, the oldest Zoroastrian texts. Like the Achaeme- who presided over the first golden ages of the earth as well
nids, the Sasanians understood their empire to spiral out as fought against dragons, demons and evil non-Iranian
from Persia, and conceived of themselves as battling the usurpers. This mythological history, present in the texts
forces of evil to set the world in its proper god-given order. of the nascent Zoroastrian religion, appealed to a wider
The Sasanian empire was founded when Ardaxshir I number of Iranian peoples beyond Persia. After his vic-
(r. 224 – c. 242) revolted from his overlord, the Parthian king tories over the Roman armies and successful invasion of
of kings Ardawan IV, defeating and killing him in the Battle northern India, Shabuhr I proclaimed himself to be ‘King
of Hormozgan. After mopping up resistance in northern of Kings of Iranians and Non-Iranians’.
Iran, Ardaxshir I took control of the Iranian plateau and Despite setbacks, the new empire contended with, and
pushed into Mesopotamia and Syria, soon bringing him into often defeated, the economic and military might of the
conflict with the Romans. His son and successor Shabuhr Roman empire and resisted the military pressures of the
I (c. 242–272) expanded the empire eastward into northern steppe while harnessing trade over sea and land. Aided by
India at the expense of the Kushan empire and westward the reforms of Husraw I, by the late sixth century the Sasa-
into Roman territory, raiding several important Roman nians had forged from heterogenous crown lands, client
cities and deporting their inhabitants, including those of kingdoms, semi-autonomous city-states, and aristocratic
Antioch. Turning back several Roman armies, Shabuhr estates a centralised empire. With mercantile networks
I even captured the Roman emperor Valerian (and held that extended from the Persian Gulf to the South China
him prisoner until his death in 260), which he celebrated Sea, the ‘Empire of the Iranians’ exercised power over
in his later monumental rock reliefs and luxury objects. Mesopotamia, Iran, portions of the Caucasus, South and
Ardaxshir I named his empire Erānshahr, the ‘Empire Central Asia, and briefly during the empire’s apogee under
of the Iranians’, adapting the ancient religious concept of Husraw II (590–628), Egypt, Anatolia, and Thrace, to the
the ‘Iranian Expanse’ – the eastern Iranian ‘holy land’ and walls of late Roman Constantinople. By the late empire, the
one of the legendary homelands of the Iranians. While Sasanian court had produced an epic history, the Xwadāy-
used in a religious sense in early Zoroastrian texts and by nāmag (The Book of Lords), the inspiration for Ferdowsi’s
the Achaemenids to designate their ethno-ruling class, the medieval poem the Shāhnāma (The Book of Kings), which
Sasanians for the first time in history employed ‘Iran’ and presented the dynasty as the inheritors of an Iranian tradi-
‘Iranian’ in a unitary religious, ethnic, social and politi- tion of kingship that began with the first king of humanity.
cal sense. As they took supreme power, they soon laid To support their claim to royal power, the Sasanians
claim to the more expansive eastern Iranian legacies of repurposed and reinterpreted venerable ruins such as the

2. Cameo showing Shabuhr I

Fig 1. photo: © The Trusteesof the Brtish Museum, London

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3. Rock relief of Ardaxshir I (r. 224–c. 242) at the

Achaemenid necropolis of Naqsh-e Rostam and the palace ‘holy land’ to Central Asian invaders. In the late Sasanian
of Persepolis, splicing the old ‘Achaemenid-Kayanid’ sites, empire, the Iranian king of kings was understood to reign
with new Sasanian monuments, inscriptions and rituals. at the cosmological centre of the earth with other lands
Parts of Persepolis were rebuilt and served as a fire temple and peoples in constellation around him. Sasanian pal-
and one of the empire’s coronation sites. At the old Ach- aces and audience halls encompassed a stunning array of
aemenid necropolis of Naqsh-e Rostam the Sasanian kings spatial and topographical symbols to manifest this royal
carved monumental rock reliefs into the living rock below vision, and their domed and vaulted palace and temple
the Achaemenid tombs (Fig. 3). Moreover, Shabuhr I details architecture pushed premodern engineering to its limits.
in an inscription carved into the site’s Achaemenid tower Although it has suffered over the ages, the arch of their
the foundation of memorial cult centred around sacred main palace in Ctesiphon remains the largest brick arch
fires. Functioning as both reliquary and stage set, they con- in existence (Fig. 4).
nected the Sasanians not just to historical kings but also to The interiors of the palace not only modelled Sasa-
the Iranian past stretching back to the beginning of time. nian cosmology but also animated it before the eyes of the
The Sasanians also built new sanctuaries, palaces and king, court, and foreign envoys. Late antique and medieval
thrones that they presented as primordially ancient. Some sources note that Sasanian audience halls and banqueting
had been sacred sites for centuries but were lavishly rebuilt, halls alike contained fixed places, which were specially
such as the sanctuary at Kuh-e Khwaja, which marked the assigned to each member of the Iranian aristocratic hier-
site where, according to Zoroastrian eschatology, the Future archy, from his high officials, to the governors and nobles
Saviour would emerge to fight the final battles between of the realm to minor court functionaries. The proximity
good and evil. Others were ‘newly ancient’ sites created of a courtier’s place to that of the sovereign manifested his
Photo: © Matthew P. Canepa

ex novo to buttress their burgeoning imperial cosmology relative stature and importance, and if the king of kings
and new vision of the Iranian past. For example, the fire became displeased, a courtier’s place in the audience hall
at the grand temple of Adur Gushnasp in Iranian Azerbai- or his banqueting cushions could be moved or removed
jan was understood to have existed since the beginning completely. This spatial map also included places for all
of time, though archaeological investigations prove that the sovereigns of the world as well as members of Iranian
the first building phase of the complex commenced only courtly society. The four golden thrones provided around
in the fifth century – not by coincidence around the same that of the king of kings for the emperors of Rome, China,
time the empire lost control of much of its eastern Iranian India and the steppe were of course never occupied by any

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THE SASANIAN EMPIRE

4. The Great Palace of the Sasanian kings (the Taq-e Kesra),

actual emperors, but presented them as servants of the of simple yet powerful themes and iconographies that
Iranian king of kings who could be rewarded or punished appear in a range of media. As indicated by coinage, which
at will like a disgraced courtier. provides the most complete record of how Sasanian rulers
The space of the audience hall expanded to encompass represented themselves, all kings wore a personal crown
symbolically not only the seven continents, but also the distinguished by increasingly complex combinations of
entire cosmos. Descriptions of miraculous Sasanian thrones astral divine symbols, such as solar rays, lunar crescents,
or throne rooms appear in a variety of post-Sasanian literary stars and wings. According to literary sources each king’s
sources, including evidence from multiple corroborating royal costume differed in colour and ornament. The image
traditions. These include Roman campaign dispatches, of the king dominates all aspects of Sasanian art and appears
reports of the Arab sack of the empire’s sprawling adminis- in a wide variety of media, including architectural reliefs
trative centre in Mesopotamia clustering around Ctesiphon in stucco, fresco, silver vessels, rock crystal, semi-precious
in AD 637, medieval Islamic chronicles and poetic remem- stones, cameos, seals, and textile. Even enemies grudgingly
brances deriving from Sasanian court propaganda, and described the Sasanian sovereign’s court costume as visu-
later tenth-century eyewitness accounts of the ruins in ally overwhelming – and envoys of rival empires counted
geographical texts. The audience hall at the sanctuary of themselves fortunate to view the Iranian king in his glory,
Adur Gushnasp (modern Takht-e Solayman) is said to have dripping with pearls, glinting jewels and shimmering
been equipped with automata to create artificial thunder gold-stitched robes resplendent with representations of
and rain and portrayed the king of kings in heaven among supernatural creatures.
the heavenly spheres and angels. The enormous throne Sasanian precious metal vessels and silk robes of honour
that Husraw II built in the royal district outside Ctesiphon represent two of the great artistic and political traditions
portrayed the heavens, zodiac and the seven continents of late antique Western Asia. Transmitted materially and
in its vault as well as a mechanism that told time, which reinterpreted conceptually, they were one of the key medi-
according to some descriptions, consisted of a vault that ums wherein Roman, Iranian, Indian, Turkic and Chinese
moved in time with the night sky. tastes commingled and competed over centuries, and the
Much like Sasanian art in general, the Sasanian royal rituals involving their gifting and use survived until the
image represents the final stage of transformation of the early modern period. Sasanian silver served two primary
traditions of ancient Mesopotamia, as well as Iranian and purposes within and eventually beyond the frontiers of
Central Asian Hellenism, while marking the emergence the Persian Empire. A special group of objects were specifi-
of the new medieval visual cultures of the Mediterranean cally designed to bring the royal image before the eyes of
and Western Asia. But compared to the conservatism of the great and minor nobility in a medium that was intrin-
the Achaemenid and, for that matter, the Seleucid and sically precious (see cover). The most popular types of
Roman imperial image, Sasanian kings revelled in variety vessels portrayed the king hunting a variety of quarry (Fig.
and innovation. The Sasanian court produced a repertoire 1). These vessels were, in a sense, portable and distributable

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5. Textile portraying a creature symbolic of the Iranian

monuments, supplementing the static repertoire of the this transregional and transcontinental aristocratic taste
early rock reliefs and offering a variation of the themes for Iranian luxury tableware, silver and silk.
known through literary sources and stucco fragments that In the face of the inexorable advance of the Arab armies
graced palace interiors and the landscape of the empire. through the Iranian Plateau, the last Sasanian king, Yaz-
A larger group of objects played a more practical, though dgerd III, fled towards China but was killed in 651 in Merv.
certainly not prosaic role, as tableware for the bazm, the His sons and descendants lived on as a court in exile in
formal banquets in which the ritualised consumption of China, serving as Tang officials for several generations.
wine was a prominent feature. While many vessels were Despite Islam’s subsequent expansion into eastern Iran
created for provincial gentry at their own tables, a small and Central Asia, Iranian aristocratic traditions lived on
number of objects were gifts from the courts of high offi- among local Iranian elites in the highlands of the former
cials and even the king of kings. They rendered a courtier Sasanian Empire and in Sogdiana, and the Abbasid caliphs
socially and politically visible and powerful, albeit always looked to Sasanian court protocols for inspiration. More
dependent on largesse flowing from the king of kings. In importantly, Sasanian kingship became the touchstone
this the vessels were part of the same symbolic order as the for the development of later royal and aristocratic iden-
banqueting cushions that marked a courtier’s place at the tities under Islam in Iran and Central Asia as breakaway
bazm (and, consequently, his social standing), and the rich states emerged from the Caliphate’s sprawling holdings.
clothing, elaborate headgear, belts, and jewellery that the With Persianate culture as an aristocratic common culture
king bestowed on them to be worn at table. from the Balkans to Bengal, the early modern empires of
Finely woven Sasanian textiles were the envy of the the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals all shared an appre-
world and their innovative ornamental patterns lived on for ciation for Persian culture and this ancient heritage. The
centuries after the fall of the empire. Iranian textile orna- Sasanian dynastic history became the ultimate histori-
ment became increasingly entangled with Central Asian cal referent, joining Islam as a source of legitimacy for
trends (Fig. 5), Sasanian figural ornament being imitated Muslim kings as well as a framework for understanding
widely by the Sogdians, an eastern Iranian people who interstate relations and the cosmic order, and for living a
were the great mercantile middlemen of Eurasia. Once noble, cultivated life. o
the empire fell and sumptuary restrictions evaporated
within Iran (and associating closely with an enemy became Matthew P. Canepa is Professor and Elahé Omidyar
irrelevant), waves of Sasanian-inspired textiles flooded Mir-Djalali Presidential Chair in Art History
Eurasia and became part of the visual repertoire of power and Archaeology of Ancient Iran at University of
for many who had previously just viewed them from afar. California, Irvine. His most recent book is The
Elites in China, Korea and Japan all prized Iranian silver Iranian Expanse: Transforming Royal Identity
and glass and a comparison among objects found in tombs through Landscape, Architecture, and the Built
and temple treasuries around the Sea of Japan illustrate Environment (550 BCE–642 CE).

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