The Sasanian Empire

The Sasanian Empire officially known as Eranshahr (Land/Empire of the Iranians), was the last Iranian empire before the Muslim conquests of the 7th–8th centuries.

Senmurv emblem

## Sasanian Empire

### Precced by

* Parthian Empire
* Kingdom of Iberia
* Kushan Empire
* Indo-Parthian Kingdom
* Kingdom of Armenia
* Kings of Persis

### Succeded by

* Rashidun Caliphate
* Dabuyid dynasty
* Bavand dynasty
* Zarmihrids
* Masmughans of Damavand
* Qarinvand dynasty
* Tokhara Yabghus

The Sasanian Empire succeeded the Parthian Empire, and re-established the Persians as a major power in late antiquity alongside its neighbouring arch-rival, the Roman Empire.

The empire was founded by Ardashir I, an Iranian ruler who rose to power as Parthia weakened from internal strife and wars with the Romans. After defeating the last Parthian shahanshah, Artabanus IV, at the Battle of Hormozdgan in 224, he established the Sasanian dynasty and set out to restore the legacy of the Achaemenid Empire by expanding Iran's dominions. At its greatest territorial extent, the Sasanian Empire encompassed all of present-day Iran and Iraq, and stretched from the eastern Mediterranean (including Anatolia and Egypt) to parts of modern-day Pakistan as well as from parts of southern Arabia to the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The Sasanians tolerated the varied faiths and cultures of their subjects, developed a complex and centralized government bureaucracy, and revitalized Zoroastrianism as a legitimizing and unifying force of their rule. They also built grand monuments,Universities, public works, and patronized cultural and educational institutions.

In 230 The Sassanian army assaults the Roman-controlled fraction of Upper Mesopotamia and lay hands on Nisibis, but fails to catch it.

a moment that lead to a series of battles with the Roman Empire until 297 where the Roman Emperor Galerius undoes Narseh. With the Treaty of Nisibis compels Narseh to abandon Armenia and Mesopotamia.

In 301 - The realm of Armenia became the first nation to accept Christianity as the state religion.

360 was marked by the Fondation of the Kidarite kingdom. War between Julian and Persian troops follows his back off and demise; the surrendered territories and Nisibis are brought back to Persia.

420 - Coronation of Bahram V (Bahram Gūr), Peace between Persia and Rome comes to an end. new tensions began that lead to a new series of conflicts where in 526 started the Iberian War until 532.

in 541 - the Lazic War began for control over Lazica.

In 557, Khosrow I, the king of the Sasanian Empire, decided to put an end to the Hephthalite Empire. The campaign was successful. however, in 588, the Turkic Khagan with his Hephthalite subjects, invaded the Sasanian territories south of the Oxus, and the first Perso-Turkic War began.

The war left a power gap and the Eastern Roman Empire took advantage in 614 Khosrow II takes Jerusalem; relics of the True Cross are carried off to Ctesiphon, capital of the Sasanian empire. in 626 - The Sassanids alongside the allied Avars and Slavs besieged Constantinople.

As Yazdegerd III succeeds to the Persian throne in 633, Umar elected caliph with plans for a invasion of Sasanian lands.

From 635 to 651 The Arabs captured Damascus,Jerusalem, Antioch, Tripoli, Egypt... and Persia was annexed to the Rashidun Caliphate.