ABSTRACT
Persia's empires have had considerable influence on the culture and world-view of its neighbors. The Seleucids and the Parthians were never regarded as authentic Persian dynasties. The Arab Empire of the Pious Caliphs, the Umayyads and the Abbasids drew upon the Persian administrative and political traditions. These dynasties presided over the rebirth of Persian culture, letters and political thought and saw in the Sassanids. During the Qajar era, Persia was drawn into the Anglo-Russian rivalry. The Persian civilization owes it origins to the convergence of two major factors. The first was the eastward expansion of urbanism and imperialism of the major Mesopotamian powers. The second was the westwards and southwards migrations of various Aryan tribes. The ideocratic nature of Sassanid Persia was complemented by administrative and fiscal development along bureaucratic lines. The Persian bureaucratic model that was believed to have reached its zenith under the Sassanids.
