Origins and early history (205–310) , as
King of Persis Artaxerxes (Ardaxsir) V. AD.Obverse: Bearded facing head, wearing diadem and Parthian-style tiara, legend "The divine Ardaxir, king" in Pahlavi.Reverse: Bearded head of
Papak, wearing diadem and Parthian-style tiara, legend "son of the divinity Papak, king" in Pahlavi. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the
Parthian Empire and subsequent rise of the Sasanian Empire in mystery. The Sasanian Empire was established in
Estakhr by
Ardashir I. Ardashir's father,
Papak, was originally the ruler of a region called Khir. However, by 200, Papak had managed to overthrow
Gochihr and appoint himself the new ruler of the
Bazrangids. Papak's mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the provincial governor of
Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power over all of Pars. Subsequent events are unclear due to the elusive nature of the sources. It is certain that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, the governor of
Darabgerd, became involved in a power struggle with his elder brother Shapur. Sources reveal that Shapur was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By 208, over the protests of his other brothers, who were put to death, Ardashir declared himself ruler of Pars. , showing
Ardashir I's
victory over
Artabanus IV and his forces. receiving the ring of kingship by the
Zoroastrian supreme god
Ahura Mazda Once Ardashir was appointed
shah (king), he moved his capital further to the south of Pars and founded
Ardashir-Khwarrah (formerly
Gur, modern day
Firuzabad). The city, well protected by high mountains and easily defensible due to the narrow passes that approached it, became the center of Ardashir's efforts to gain more power. It was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgerd. Ardashir's palace was on the north side of the city; remains of it are extant. After establishing his rule over Pars, Ardashir rapidly extended his territory, demanding fealty from the local princes of Pars, and gaining control over the neighboring provinces of
Kerman,
Isfahan,
Susiana and
Mesene. This expansion quickly came to the attention of
Artabanus IV, the Parthian king, who initially ordered the governor of
Khuzestan to wage war against Ardashir in 224, but Ardashir was victorious in the ensuing battles. In a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus himself met Ardashir in battle at
Hormozgan, where the former met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir went on to invade the western provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. of Persian emperor Shapur I (on horseback) capturing Roman emperor
Valerian (standing) and
Philip the Arab (kneeling), suing for peace, following the victory at
Edessa. At that time the Arsacid dynasty was divided between supporters of
Artabanus IV and
Vologases VI, which probably allowed Ardashir to consolidate his authority in the south with little or no interference from the Parthians. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Pars, which was separated from the rest of Iran. Crowned in 224 at
Ctesiphon as the sole ruler of Persia, Ardashir took the title
shahanshah, or "King of Kings" (the inscriptions mention
Adhur-Anahid as his
banbishnan banbishn, "Queen of Queens", but her relationship with Ardashir has not been fully established), bringing the 400-year-old Parthian Empire to an end, and beginning four centuries of Sassanid rule. In the next few years, local rebellions occurred throughout the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of
Sakastan,
Gorgan,
Khorasan,
Marw (in modern
Turkmenistan),
Balkh and
Chorasmia. He also added
Bahrain and
Mosul to the Sassanid possessions. Later Sassanid inscriptions also claim the submission of the kings of
Kushan,
Turan and
Makuran to Ardashir, although based on numismatic evidence it is more likely that these actually submitted to Ardashir's son, the future
Shapur I. In the west, assaults against
Hatra,
Armenia and
Adiabene met with less success. In 230, Ardashir raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively. Ardashīr began leading campaigns into Greater Khurasan as early as 233, extending his power to Khwarazm in the north and
Sistan in the south while capturing lands from Gorgan to Abarshahr, Marw, and as far east as
Balkh. , 1521, pen and black ink on a chalk sketch,
Kunstmuseum Basel) Ardashir I's son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering
Bactria and the western portion of the Kushan Empire, while leading several campaigns against Rome. Invading
Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured
Carrhae and
Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general
Timesitheus defeated the Persians at
Rhesaina and regained the lost territories. The emperor
Gordian III's (238–244) subsequent advance down the
Euphrates was defeated at
Meshike (244), leading to Gordian's murder by his own troops and enabling Shapur to conclude a highly advantageous peace treaty with the new emperor
Philip the Arab, by which he secured the immediate payment of 500,000
denarii and further annual payments. Shapur soon resumed the war, defeated the Romans at
Barbalissos (253), and then probably took and plundered
Antioch. Roman counter-attacks under the emperor
Valerian ended in disaster when the Roman army was defeated and besieged at
Edessa and Valerian was captured by Shapur, remaining his prisoner for the rest of his life. Shapur celebrated his victory by carving the impressive rock reliefs in
Naqsh-e Rostam and
Bishapur, as well as a monumental inscription in Persian and
Greek in the vicinity of
Persepolis. He exploited his success by advancing into
Anatolia (260), but withdrew in disarray after defeats at the hands of the Romans and their
Palmyrene ally
Odaenathus, suffering the capture of his harem and the loss of all the Roman territories he had occupied. In 262 AD, Shapur attacked the Kushans destroying the cities of Begram and Taxila. (300–500) Shapur ordered the construction of the
first dam bridge in Iran and founded many cities. Two cities,
Bishapur and
Nishapur, are named after him. He particularly favoured
Manichaeism, protecting
Mani (who dedicated one of his books, the
Shabuhragan, to him) and sent many Manichaean missionaries abroad. He also befriended a
Babylonian rabbi called
Samuel. This friendship was advantageous for the
Jewish community and gave them a respite from the oppressive laws enacted against them. Later kings reversed Shapur's policy of religious tolerance. When Shapur's son
Bahram I acceded to the throne, he was pressured by the
Zoroastrian high-priest
Kartir Bahram I to kill Mani and persecute his followers.
Bahram II was also amenable to the wishes of the Zoroastrian priesthood. During his reign, the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon was sacked by the Romans under Emperor
Carus, and most of Armenia, after half a century of Persian rule, was ceded to
Diocletian. Succeeding
Bahram III (who ruled briefly in 293),
Narseh embarked on another war with the Romans. After an early success against the Emperor
Galerius near
Callinicum on the Euphrates in 296, he was eventually decisively defeated by them. Galerius had been reinforced, probably in the spring of 298, by a new contingent collected from the empire's
Danubian holdings. Narseh did not advance from Armenia and
Mesopotamia, leaving Galerius to lead the offensive in 298 with an attack on northern Mesopotamia via Armenia. Narseh retreated to Armenia to fight Galerius's force, to the former's disadvantage: the rugged Armenian terrain was favourable to Roman infantry, but not to Sassanid cavalry. Local aid gave Galerius the advantage of surprise over the Persian forces, and, in two successive battles, Galerius secured victories over Narseh. During the second encounter, Roman forces seized Narseh's camp, his treasury, his harem, and his wife. Galerius advanced into
Media and
Adiabene, winning successive victories, most prominently near
Erzurum, and securing Nisibis (
Nusaybin, Turkey) before 1 October 298. He then advanced down the
Tigris, taking Ctesiphon. Narseh had previously sent an ambassador to Galerius to plead for the return of his wives and children.
Peace negotiations began in the spring of 299, with both Diocletian and Galerius presiding. The conditions of the peace were heavy: Persia would give up territory to Rome, making the Tigris the boundary between the two empires. Further terms specified that Armenia was returned to Roman domination, with the fort of Ziatha as its border;
Caucasian Iberia would pay allegiance to Rome under a Roman appointee; Nisibis, now under Roman rule, would become the sole conduit for trade between Persia and Rome; and Rome would exercise control over the five satrapies between the Tigris and Armenia:
Ingilene, Sophanene (
Sophene), Arzanene (
Aghdznik),
Corduene, and
Zabdicene (near modern
Hakkâri, Turkey). The Sasanians ceded five provinces west of the Tigris, and agreed not to interfere in the affairs of Armenia and Georgia. In the aftermath of this defeat, Narseh gave up the throne and died a year later, leaving the Sasanian throne to his son,
Hormizd II. Unrest spread throughout the land, and while the new king suppressed revolts in
Sakastan and Kushan, he was unable to control the nobles and was subsequently killed by
Bedouins on a hunting trip in 309.
First Golden Era (309–379) (),
Met Museum Following Hormizd II's death, northern Arabs started to ravage and plunder the western cities of the empire, even attacking the province of pars, the birthplace of the Sasanian kings. Meanwhile, Persian nobles killed Hormizd II's eldest son, blinded the second, and imprisoned the third (who later escaped into Roman territory). The throne was reserved for a younger son,
Shapur II. During his youth the empire was controlled by his mother and the nobles. Upon coming of age, Shapur II assumed power and quickly proved to be an active and effective ruler. He first led his small but disciplined army south against the Arabs, whom he defeated, securing the southern areas of the empire. He then began his first campaign against the Romans in the west, where Persian forces won a series of battles but were unable to make territorial gains due to the failure of repeated sieges of the key frontier city of Nisibis, and Roman success in retaking the cities of
Singara and
Amida after they had previously fallen to the Persians. These campaigns were halted by nomadic raids along the eastern borders of the empire, which threatened
Transoxiana, a strategically critical area for control of the
Silk Road. Shapur therefore marched east toward Transoxiana to meet the eastern nomads, leaving his local commanders to mount nuisance raids on the Romans. He crushed the Central Asian tribes, and annexed the area as a new province. In the east around 325,
Shapur II regained the upper hand against the
Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom and took control of large territories in areas now known as
Afghanistan and
Pakistan. Cultural expansion followed this victory, and Sasanian art penetrated
Transoxiana, reaching as far as China. Shapur, along with the nomad King
Grumbates, started his second campaign against the Romans in 359 and soon succeeded in retaking Singara and Amida. In response the Roman emperor
Julian struck deep into Persian territory and defeated Shapur's forces at
Ctesiphon. He failed to take the capital, however, and was killed while trying to retreat to Roman territory. His successor
Jovian, trapped on the east bank of the Tigris, had to hand over all the provinces the Persians had ceded to Rome in 298, as well as Nisibis and Singara, to secure safe passage for his army out of Persia. coin based on the coin design of
Shapur II, adding the Alchon
Tamgha symbol and
Alchono () in
Bactrian script on the
obverse. Dated 400–440. From around 370, however, towards the end of the reign of
Shapur II, the Sasanians lost the control of
Bactria to invaders from the north: first the
Kidarites, then the
Hephthalites and finally the
Alchon Huns, who would follow up with an invasion of India. These invaders initially issued coins based on Sasanian designs. Various coins minted in Bactria and based on Sasanian designs are extant, often with busts imitating Sassanian kings Shapur II (r. 309 to 379) and
Shapur III (r. 383 to 388), adding the Alchon
Tamgha and the name "Alchono" in
Bactrian script on the obverse, and with attendants to a
fire altar on the reverse. Shapur II pursued a harsh religious policy. Under his reign, the collection of the
Avesta, the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, was completed,
heresy and
apostasy were punished, and Christians were persecuted. The latter was a reaction against the
Christianization of the Roman Empire by
Constantine the Great. Shapur II, like Shapur I, was amicable towards
Jews, who lived in relative freedom and gained many advantages during his reign. At the time of his death, the Persian Empire was stronger than ever, with its enemies to the east pacified and
Armenia under Persian control.
Intermediate Era (379–498) is a great favourite in
Persian literature and poetry. This illustration (mid-16th-century,
Safavid era) to the Persian poet
Nizami's epic poem
Haft Peykar depicts Bahram and an Indian princess. From Shapur II's death until
Kavad I's first coronation, there was a largely peaceful period with the Romans (by this time the
Eastern Roman or
Byzantine Empire) engaged in just two brief wars with the Sasanian Empire, the
first in 421–422 and the
second in 440. Throughout this era, Sasanian religious policy differed dramatically from king to king. Despite a series of weak leaders, the
administrative system established during Shapur II's reign remained strong, and the empire continued to function effectively. After Shapur II died in 379, the empire passed on to his half-brother
Ardashir II (379–383; son of Hormizd II) and his son
Shapur III (383–388), neither of whom demonstrated their predecessor's skill in ruling.
Bahram IV (388–399) also failed to achieve anything important for the empire. During this time Armenia was divided by a treaty between the Roman and Sasanian empires. The Sasanians reestablished their rule over Greater Armenia, while the Byzantine Empire held a small portion of western Armenia. Bahram IV's son
Yazdegerd I (399–421) is often compared to
Constantine I. Both were physically and diplomatically powerful, opportunistic, practiced religious tolerance and provided freedom for the rise of religious minorities. Yazdegerd stopped the persecution against the Christians and punished nobles and priests who persecuted them. His reign marked a relatively peaceful era with the Romans, and he even took the young
Theodosius II (408–450) under his guardianship. Yazdegerd also married a Jewish princess, who bore him a son called Narsi. Yazdegerd I's successor was his son
Bahram V (421–438), one of the most well-known Sasanian kings and the hero of many myths. These myths persisted even after the destruction of the Sasanian Empire by the Arabs. Bahram gained the crown after Yazdegerd's sudden death (or assassination), which occurred when the grandees opposed the king with the help of
al-Mundhir, the Arabic dynast of
al-Hirah. Bahram's mother was
Shushandukht, the daughter of the Jewish
Exilarch. In 427, he crushed an invasion in the east by the nomadic
Hephthalites, extending his influence into Central Asia, where his portrait survived for centuries on the coinage of
Bukhara (in modern
Uzbekistan). Bahram deposed the vassal king of the Iranian-held area of
Armenia and made it a province of the empire. Bahram V's son
Yazdegerd II (438–457) was in some ways a moderate ruler, but, in contrast to Yazdegerd I, he practised a harsh policy towards minority religions, particularly
Christianity. However, at the
Battle of Avarayr in 451, the
Armenian subjects led by
Vardan Mamikonian reaffirmed Armenia's right to profess Christianity freely. This was to be later confirmed by the
Nvarsak Treaty (484). At the beginning of his reign in 441, Yazdegerd II assembled an army of soldiers from various nations, including his Indian allies, and attacked the
Byzantine Empire, but peace was soon restored after some small-scale fighting. He then gathered his forces in
Nishapur in 443 and launched a prolonged campaign against the
Kidarites. After a number of battles he crushed them and drove them out beyond the
Oxus river in 450. During his eastern campaign, Yazdegerd II grew suspicious of the Christians in the army and expelled them all from the governing body and army. He then persecuted the Christians in his land, and, to a much lesser extent, the
Jews. In order to reestablish Zoroastrianism in Armenia, he crushed an uprising of Armenian Christians at the
Battle of Vartanantz in 451. The Armenians, however, remained primarily Christian. In his later years, he was engaged yet again with the Kidarites right up until his death in 457.
Hormizd III (457–459), the younger son of Yazdegerd II, then ascended to the throne. During his short rule, he continually fought with his elder brother
Peroz I, who had the support of the nobility, and with the Hephthalites in
Bactria. He was killed by his brother Peroz in 459. hunting
argali At the beginning of the 5th century, the Hephthalites (White Huns), along with other nomadic groups, attacked Iran. At first Bahram V and Yazdegerd II inflicted decisive defeats against them and drove them back eastward. The Huns returned at the end of the 5th century and defeated Peroz I (457–484) in 483. Following this victory, the Huns invaded and plundered parts of eastern Iran continually for two years. They exacted heavy tribute for some years thereafter. These attacks brought instability and chaos to the kingdom. Peroz tried again to drive out the Hephthalites, but on the way to
Balkh his army was trapped by the Huns in the desert. Peroz was
defeated and killed by a Hephthalite army near Balkh. His army was completely destroyed, and his body was never found. Four of his sons and brothers had also died. The main Sasanian cities of the eastern region of
Khorasan−
Nishapur,
Herat, and
Marw were now under Hephthalite rule.
Sukhra, a member of the Parthian
House of Karen, one of the
Seven Great Houses of Iran, quickly raised a new force and stopped the Hephthalites from achieving further success. Peroz's brother,
Balash, was elected as shah by the Iranian magnates, most notably Sukhra and the
Mihranid general
Shapur Mihran. Balash (484–488) was a mild and generous monarch, and showed care towards his subjects, including the Christians. However, he proved unpopular among the nobility and clergy who had him deposed after just four years in 488. Sukhra, who had played a key role in Balash's deposition, appointed Peroz's son
Kavad I as the new shah of Iran. According to
Miskawayh (d. 1030), Sukhra was Kavad's maternal uncle. Kavad I (488–531) was an energetic and reformist ruler. He gave his support to the sect founded by
Mazdak, son of Bamdad, who demanded that the rich should divide their wives and their wealth with the poor. By adopting the doctrine of the Mazdakites, his intention evidently was to break the influence of the magnates and the growing aristocracy. These reforms led to his being deposed and imprisoned in the
Castle of Oblivion in
Khuzestan, and his younger brother
Jamasp (Zamaspes) became king in 496. Kavad, however, quickly escaped and was given refuge by the Hephthalite king.
Jamasp (496–498) was installed on the Sasanian throne upon the deposition of Kavad I by members of the nobility. He was a good and kind king; he reduced taxes in order to improve the condition of the
peasants and the poor. He was also an adherent of the mainstream Zoroastrian religion, diversions from which had cost Kavad I his throne and freedom. Jamasp's reign soon ended, however, when Kavad I, at the head of a large army granted to him by the Hephthalite king, returned to the empire's capital. Jamasp stepped down from his position and returned the throne to his brother. No further mention of Jamasp is made after the restoration of Kavad I, but it is widely believed that he was treated favourably at the court of his brother.
Second Golden Era (498–622) () The second golden era began after the second reign of Kavad I. With the support of the
Hephthalites, Kavad launched a campaign against the Romans. In 502, he took
Theodosiopolis in Armenia, but lost it soon afterwards. In 503, he took
Amida on the Tigris. In 504, an invasion of Armenia by the western Huns from the Caucasus led to an armistice, the return of Amida to Roman control and a peace treaty in 506. In 521/522, Kavad lost control of
Lazica, whose rulers switched their allegiance to the Romans; an attempt by the
Iberians in 524/525 to do likewise triggered a war between Rome and Persia. In 527, a Roman offensive against Nisibis was repulsed and Roman efforts to fortify positions near the frontier were thwarted. In 530, Kavad sent an army under
Perozes to attack the important Roman frontier city of
Dara. The army was met by the Roman general
Belisarius, and, though superior in numbers, was defeated at the
Battle of Dara. In the same year, a second Persian army under
Mihr-Mihroe was defeated at
Satala by Roman forces under
Sittas and Dorotheus, but in 531 a Persian army accompanied by a
Lakhmid contingent under
Al-Mundhir III defeated Belisarius at the
Battle of Callinicum, and in 532 an "eternal peace" was concluded. Kavad succeeded in restoring order in the interior and fought with general success against the Eastern Romans, founded several cities, some of which were named after him, and began to regulate taxation and internal administration. After the reign of Kavad I, his son
Khosrow I, also known as Anushirvan ("with the immortal soul"; ruled 531–579), ascended to the throne. He is the most celebrated of the Sassanid rulers. Khosrow I is most famous for his reforms in the aging governing body of Sasanians. He introduced a rational system of
taxation based upon a survey of
landed possessions, which his father had begun, and he tried in every way to increase the welfare and the revenues of his empire. Previous great feudal lords fielded their own military equipment, followers, and retainers. Khosrow I developed a new force of
dehqans, or "knights", paid and equipped by the central government and the bureaucracy, tying the army and bureaucracy more closely to the central government than to local lords. Emperor
Justinian I (527–565) paid Khosrow I 440,000 pieces of gold as a part of the "eternal peace" treaty of 532. In 540, Khosrow broke the treaty and invaded Syria, sacking Antioch and extorting large sums of money from a number of other cities. Further successes followed: in 541 Lazica defected to the Persian side, and in 542 a major Byzantine offensive in
Armenia was defeated at
Anglon. Also in 541, Khosrow I entered Lazica at the invitation of its king, captured the main Byzantine stronghold at
Petra, and established another protectorate over the country, commencing the
Lazic War. A five-year truce agreed to in 545 was interrupted in 547 when Lazica again switched sides and eventually expelled its Persian garrison with Byzantine help; the war resumed but remained confined to Lazica, which was retained by the Byzantines when peace was concluded in 562. In 565, Justinian I died and was succeeded by
Justin II (565–578), who resolved to stop subsidies to Arab chieftains to restrain them from raiding Byzantine territory in Syria. A year earlier, the Sassanid governor of Armenia,
Chihor-Vishnasp of the Suren family, built a fire temple at
Dvin near modern
Yerevan, and he put to death an influential member of the
Mamikonian family, touching off a revolt which led to the massacre of the Persian governor and his guard in 571, while rebellion also broke out in
Iberia. Justin II took advantage of the Armenian revolt to stop his yearly payments to Khosrow I for the defense of the Caucasus passes. The Armenians were welcomed as allies, and an army was sent into Sassanid territory which
besieged Nisibis in 573. However, dissension among the Byzantine generals not only led to an abandonment of the siege, but they in turn were besieged in the city of
Dara, which was taken by the Persians. Capitalizing on this success, the Persians then ravaged Syria, causing Justin II to agree to make annual payments in exchange for a five-year truce on the Mesopotamian front, although the war continued elsewhere. In 576 Khosrow I led his last campaign, an offensive into Anatolia which sacked
Sebasteia and
Melitene, but ended in disaster: defeated outside Melitene, the Persians suffered heavy losses as they fled across the Euphrates under Byzantine attack. Taking advantage of Persian disarray, the Byzantines raided deep into Khosrow's territory, even mounting amphibious attacks across the
Caspian Sea. Khosrow sued for peace, but he decided to continue the war after a victory by his general
Tamkhosrow in Armenia in 577, and fighting resumed in Mesopotamia. The Armenian revolt came to an end with a general amnesty, which brought Armenia back into the Sassanid Empire. Around 570, "Ma 'd-Karib", half-brother of the King of Yemen, requested Khosrow I's intervention. Khosrow I sent a fleet and a small army under a commander called
Vahriz to the area near present
Aden, and they marched against the capital San'a'l, which was occupied. Saif, son of Mard-Karib, who had accompanied the expedition, became King sometime between 575 and 577. Thus, the Sassanids were able to establish a base in
South Arabia to control the sea trade with the east. Later, the south Arabian kingdom renounced Sassanid overlordship, and another Persian expedition was sent in 598 that successfully annexed southern Arabia as a Sassanid province, which lasted until the time of troubles after Khosrow II. Khosrow I's reign witnessed the rise of the
dehqans (literally, village lords), the petty landholding nobility who were the backbone of later Sassanid provincial administration and the tax collection system. Khosrow I built infrastructure, embellishing his capital and founding new towns with the construction of new buildings. He rebuilt the canals and restocked the farms destroyed in the wars. He built strong fortifications at the passes and placed subject tribes in carefully chosen towns on the frontiers to act as guardians against invaders. He was tolerant of all religions, though he decreed that
Zoroastrianism should be the official
state religion, and was not unduly disturbed when one of his sons became a Christian. '' illustration of Hormizd IV seated on his throne After Khosrow I,
Hormizd IV (579–590) took the throne. The war with the Byzantines continued to rage intensely but inconclusively until the general
Bahram Chobin, dismissed and humiliated by Hormizd, rose in revolt in 589. The following year, Hormizd was overthrown by a palace coup and his son
Khosrow II (590–628) placed on the throne. However, this change of ruler failed to placate Bahram, who defeated Khosrow, forcing him to flee to Byzantine territory, and seized the throne for himself as Bahram VI. Khosrow asked the Byzantine Emperor
Maurice (582–602) for assistance against Bahram, offering to cede the western Caucasus to the Byzantines. To cement the alliance, Khosrow also married Maurice's daughter Miriam. Under the command of Khosrow and the Byzantine generals
Narses and
John Mystacon, the new combined Byzantine-Persian army raised a rebellion against Bahram, defeating him at the
Battle of Blarathon in 591. When Khosrow was subsequently restored to power he kept his promise, handing over control of western
Armenia and
Caucasian Iberia. The new peace arrangement allowed the two empires to focus on military matters elsewhere: Khosrow focused on the Sassanid Empire's eastern frontier while Maurice restored Byzantine control of the
Balkans. Circa 600, the
Hephthalites had been raiding the Sassanid Empire as far as
Spahan in central Iran. The Hephthalites issued numerous coins imitating the coinage of Khosrow II. In , Khosrow recalled
Smbat IV Bagratuni from
Persian Armenia and sent him to Iran to repel the Hephthalites. Smbat, with the aid of a Persian prince named Datoyean, repelled the Hephthalites from Persia, and plundered their domains in
eastern Khorasan, where Smbat is said to have killed their king in single combat. After Maurice was overthrown and killed by
Phocas (602–610) in 602, however, Khosrow II used the murder of his benefactor as a pretext to begin a new invasion, which benefited from continuing civil war in the Byzantine Empire and met little effective resistance. Khosrow's generals systematically subdued the heavily fortified frontier cities of Byzantine Mesopotamia and Armenia, laying the foundations for unprecedented expansion. The Persians overran
Syria and captured Antioch in 611. In 613, outside Antioch, the Persian generals
Shahrbaraz and
Shahin decisively defeated a major counter-attack led in person by the Byzantine emperor
Heraclius. Thereafter, the Persian advance continued unchecked.
Jerusalem fell in 614,
Alexandria in 619, and the rest of
Egypt by 621. The Sassanid dream of restoring the
Achaemenid boundaries was almost complete, while the
Byzantine Empire was on the verge of collapse. This remarkable peak of expansion was paralleled by a blossoming of
Persian art,
music, and
architecture.
Decline and collapse (622–651) While successful at its first stage (from 602 to 622), the campaign of
Khosrow II had actually exhausted the Persian army and treasuries. In an effort to rebuild the national treasuries, Khosrow overtaxed the population. Thus, while his empire was on the verge of total defeat,
Heraclius (610–641) drew on all his diminished and devastated empire's remaining resources, reorganised his armies, and mounted a remarkable, risky counter-offensive. Between 622 and 627, he campaigned against the Persians in Anatolia and the Caucasus, winning a string of victories against Persian forces under
Shahrbaraz,
Shahin, and
Shahraplakan (whose competition to claim the glory of personally defeating the Byzantine emperor contributed to their failure), sacking the great Zoroastrian temple at
Ganzak, and securing
assistance from the
Khazars and
Western Turkic Khaganate. by the combined Sassanid, Avar, and Slavic forces depicted on the
murals of the
Moldovița Monastery,
Romania In response, Khosrow, in coordination with
Avar and
Slavic forces,
launched a siege on the Byzantine capital of
Constantinople in 626. The Sassanids, led by Shahrbaraz, attacked the city on the eastern side of the
Bosphorus, while his Avar and Slavic allies invaded from the western side. Attempts to ferry the Persian forces across the Bosphorus to aid their allies (the Sassanid forces being by far the most capable in siege warfare) were blocked by the
Byzantine fleet, and the siege ended in failure. In 627–628, Heraclius mounted a winter invasion of Mesopotamia, and, despite the departure of his Khazar allies, defeated a Persian army commanded by
Rhahzadh in the
Battle of Nineveh. He then marched down the Tigris, devastating the country and sacking Khosrow's palace at
Dastagerd. He was prevented from attacking Ctesiphon by the destruction of the bridges on the
Nahrawan Canal and conducted further raids before withdrawing up the
Diyala into north-western Iran. , daughter of
Khosrow II, the first woman and one of the last rulers on the throne of the Sasanian Empire. She reigned from 17 June 629 to 16 June 630. The impact of Heraclius's victories, the devastation of the richest territories of the Sasanian Empire, and the humiliating destruction of high-profile targets such as Ganzak and Dastagerd fatally undermined Khosrow's prestige and his support among the Persian aristocracy. In early 628, he was overthrown and murdered by his son
Kavadh II (628), who immediately brought an end to the war, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territories. In 629, Heraclius restored the
True Cross to
Jerusalem in a majestic ceremony. In addition, the old Sasanian "land tax" (known in Arabic as
kharaj) was also adopted. Caliph Umar is said to have occasionally set up a commission to survey the taxes, to judge if they were more than the land could bear. The Sasanian Empire was the last native Iranian government before the Arab invasion.
Descended nobility It is believed that the following dynasties and noble families had ancestors among the Sasanian rulers: • The
Dabuyid dynasty (642–760) descendant of
Jamasp. • The
Paduspanids (665–1598) of
Mazandaran, descendant of
Jamasp. • The
shahs of Shirwan (1100–1382) from
Hormizd IV's line. • The
Banu Munajjim (9th–10th century) from Mihr Gushnasp, a Sasanian prince. • The
Kamkarian family (9th–10th century) a
dehqan family descended from
Yazdegerd III. • The
Mikalids (9th–11th century) a family descended from the Sogdian ruler
Divashtich, who was in turn a descendant of
Bahram V. ==Government==