Sasanian Iran in the Context of Late Antiquity The Bahari Lecture Series at the University of Oxford (Ancient Iran, 6)

This volume is a collection of papers on the various aspects of Sasanian world which were delivered at the University of Oxford in 2014. Eminent scholars in such fields as numismatics, history, art history, Pahlavi and Zoroastrian Studies provide important observations on the Sasanian Empire and its influence and contact with the neighboring civilizations, as well as the internal developments throughout the four centuries in which the Sasanians held power on the Iranian Plateau and beyond. This volume was previously published by the Jordan Center for Persian Studies, University of California – Irvine. SASANIAN IRAN IN THE CONTEXT OF LATE ANTIQUITY: THE BAHARI LECTURE SERIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 6 Table of Contents 10 Introduction 12 The Numismatic Legacy of the Sasanians in the East 16 Persian Palace Architecture, Garden Design and Digital Archaeology 50 The Tripartite Sasanian Vision of the World 76 Books without Ritual – Ritual without Books 90 The Rise of the Sasanians 118 A Father, a Daughter, and a Son-in-Law in Zoroastrian Hermeneutics 132 The King in the Mirror of the Zand 160 The program of the Bahari Lecture Series 174 Contributors 176 Blank Page 3 This volume is a collection of papers on the various aspects of Sasanian world which were delivered at the University of Oxford in 2014. Eminent scholars in such fields as numismatics, history, art history, Pahlavi and Zoroastrian Studies provide important observations on the Sasanian Empire and its influence and contact with the neighboring civilizations, as well as the internal developments throughout the four centuries in which the Sasanians held power on the Iranian Plateau and beyond. - Contracubierta