ABSTRACT
The period o f Sasanian rule forms an im portant part o f the background to the history o f Islamic Persia. The Sasanian house, the last o f the major pre-Islamic dynasties, ruled Persia from the early third century a d until the 630s. It is hardly surprising that this long stretch o f centuries - a little over four hundred years - should have left its mark on Persian history and society. The most enduring o f Persia’s subsequent dynasties, the Safawids, survived for not much more than two centur ies, and this was unusually long by the standards o f the Islamic era.
