tour 11 of 11
Iran before Islam: The Sasanians
The Sasanian legacy
With the collapse of the Sasanian empire in AD
651 and the introduction of Islam as the new state religion, the
art and culture of pre-Islamic Iran did not disappear. It continued
to play an important role in the Islamic world for centuries. The
religious imagery and Zoroastrian symbolism of the Sasanian period
were adopted by various Islamic dynasties, who found the idea of
divine kingship too attractive to abandon. Zoroastrianism survives
today as a minority religion in Iran, India and other parts of the
world.
Under the Qajar
rulers of Iran, who came to power at the end of the eighteenth
century, many Sasanian themes were revived. Fath 'Ali Shah
(1797-1834), a devout Muslim, created a society which stressed the
importance of its ancient pre-Islamic heritage. The king was
portrayed as the mighty hero who enjoyed divine protection.
Rock-reliefs, coins and tiles of the nineteenth and early twentieth
century copy Sasanian motifs, including hunting scenes with the
royal horseman.
The
sixth-century gilded silver plate and the two twentieth-century
banknotes shown here provide interesting evidence for the
continuity of Sasanian symbols. The plate has carved in its centre
a mythical creature that combines a bird's wings and the
forepart of a dog. Its wings curl forwards over its shoulders, like
the wings on the crowns of some of the Sasanian
kings.
Most banknotes of
the Pahlavi dynasty (rulers of Iran from 1926 to 1979) show either
the ruins of Persepolis or motifs associated with the ancient
Persian empire. However, both of those shown here - a 500 Rial note
from 1944 and a 10 Rial note from 1948 - show the same mythical
dog-bird seen on the gilded silver plate. This motif was commonly
used by the Sasanians from the sixth century onwards; in
Zoroastrianism dogs guide the souls of the dead to the world of the
gods.