Mabānī-yi Tārīkh-i Sāsānīyān Persiska (Farsi) 1402

The Sasanian Empire, officially known as the Empire of the Iranians, existed prior to the early Muslim conquests of the 7th–8th centuries CE. Named after the House of Sasan, it endured for more than four centuries, from 224 to 651 CE, making it the longest-lasting imperial dynasty in Iranian history. The Sasanian Empire succeeded the Parthian Empire and reestablished Iran as a major power of Late Antiquity, standing alongside its great rival, the Roman Empire (and later the Byzantine Empire after 395 CE). The book The Foundations of Sasanian History focuses on this significant period in Iranian history.

The empire was founded by Ardashir I, an Iranian ruler who rose to power amid the decline of the Parthians, weakened by internal strife and wars with Rome. After defeating the last Parthian king, Artabanus IV, at the Battle of Hormozdgan in 224 CE, Ardashir established the Sasanian dynasty and sought to revive the legacy of the Achaemenid Empire through the expansion of Iranian territories. At its greatest extent, the Sasanian Empire encompassed all of present-day Iran and Iraq, stretching from the eastern Mediterranean (including parts of Anatolia and Egypt) to areas of modern-day Pakistan, and from southern Arabia to the Caucasus.