Iran before Islam: Propaganda and Religion AD 224
– 652
30 June 2005 – 8 January 2006
Exhibition closed
Like the ancient Persian kings Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes, the
Sasanians came from Parsa (Persis) in southern Iran. They were
named after Sasan, a legendary ancestor. When Ardashir I killed the
Parthian king Ardavan (Artabanus IV) at the battle of Hormizdgan in
AD 224, he became the new king of kings of Iran and the dynasty
remained in power until the arrival of the Arabs in 642. Yazdgird
III, the last Sasanian ruler was murdered in AD 651.
From the beginning of their rule in AD 224, the Sasanian kings
were keen to stress their religious affiliation and their position
as the rightful kings of Iran. They were followers of
Zoroastrianism, an ancient Iranian religion named after the prophet
Zarathustra. Rock-reliefs, coins, silver plates and other small
objects always depict the Sasanian king as a ruler who is protected
by divine beings and defeats the enemy both at home and abroad. He
is the rightful possessor of the khvarenah (modern Persian
farr-izadi), the god-Given Glory.
With the arrival of Islam in the middle of the seventh century
AD, Sasanian iconography does not disappear and the idea of divine
kingship is adopted by various Islamic dynasties. In the nineteenth
century, the Qajar rulers of Iran imitate the image of the
victorious Sasanian king both on rock- reliefs and coins.
Image: A bronze figure of a Sasanian
king