The Obituary
Founded when Ardashir I overthrew the Parthians, the Sasanian Empire ruled Persia and Mesopotamia for over four centuries as Rome’s and then Byzantium’s great eastern rival. It built a centralized state, made Zoroastrianism official, and presided over a flourishing of art, architecture, and learning at its capital Ctesiphon. The ruinous war with Byzantium in the early 7th century left both empires spent. When Arab Muslim armies struck in the 630s, the weakened Sasanians could not hold; the last shah, Yazdegerd III, was killed in flight in 651, ending the dynasty.
Worth remembering
- Zoroastrianism was its state religion, with grand fire temples across the empire.
- It and the Byzantine Empire fought a final exhausting war from 602 to 628 that left both vulnerable.
Sources
- Sasanian Empire founded by Ardashir I in 224 CE after defeating the Parthians Wikipedia
- Empire fell to the Arab conquest, with Yazdegerd III dying in 651 CE Encyclopaedia Britannica
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.