page_title: Fall of the Sasanian Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Fall of the Sasanian Empire
caption_attribution_description: English: Sassanian king Chosroes Parvez has been deposed and placed in house arrest. Mihr-Hurmuzd has been sent to assassinate him. To save time, Chosroes asks his page to bring him prayer items. The naive youth does exactly as he is told, without fetching guards to save his master. Mihr-Hurmuzd waits until the king is done praying and leaps on him, planting a knife in his stomach. The face of the assassin has been left unfinished.
context_page_description: The Sasanian era is one of the most influential periods in Persian Empire/Iran's history. It also marks the third rise of a great Persian empire, a dynasty that rivaled its predecessor, the Achaemenids, who too, like the Sassanids, were native to the province of Pars, and in some instances the Parthians, in glory and power.
  Although it fought many campaigns against the Romans/Byzantines in the west and the nomadic people in the east and north, the Sasanian Empire met its demise not by the Byzantine-Roman Empire, but by emerging Arab Muslims from across its southern borders. However, the conflict with the Byzantines greatly contributed to its weakness, by draining Sassanid resources, leaving it a prime target for the Muslims.
context_section_description: The Sasanian era is one of the most influential periods in Persian Empire/Iran's history. It also marks the third rise of a great Persian empire, a dynasty that rivaled its predecessor, the Achaemenids, who too, like the Sassanids, were native to the province of Pars, and in some instances the Parthians, in glory and power. 
  Although it fought many campaigns against the Romans/Byzantines in the west and the nomadic people in the east and north, the Sasanian Empire met its demise not by the Byzantine-Roman Empire, but by emerging Arab Muslims from across its southern borders. However, the conflict with the Byzantines greatly contributed to its weakness, by draining Sassanid resources, leaving it a prime target for the Muslims.
caption: The assassination of Khosrau II, in a  manuscript of the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp made by Abd al-Samad c. 1535. Persian poems are from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh.
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