Memory and Identity in Sasanian Persia

Sacred History and the Historiography of Ancient Iran. The Sasanian Empire was one of the most significant empires of late antiquity. As the dominant force in the Middle East, spanning Egypt, India and Mesopotamia, the Sasanian kings from Ardashir I (224CE) ruled an imperial, centrally administrated, multi-lingual state. Here, Touraj Daryaee shows how the idea of Iran - its attributes, mores, values, boundaries and traditions - was brought to the Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian populations of the Sasanian Empire and accepted and internalized by these religious communities. By tracing the political accommodations reached in the the Sasanian court back to the Zoroastrian texts of the Avesta, Daryaee demonstrates why scholars, scribes and the state continued to emulate and propagate the memory of the Peshdadian, Kayanian and Sasanian empires - even into the Islamic period. Memory and Identity in Sasanian Persia will be an essential work for scholars of Iran, Zoroastrianism and those seeking to understand the history of Middle-Eastern antiquity.