The Sas(s)anid Empire was the second Persian empire of antiquity. The name of the empire, whose proper name was Eranshahr, derives from the last pre-Islamic Persian dynasty of the Sassanids (Persian ساسانیان, DMG Sāsānīyān). In medieval Shāhnāme, the dynasty is named after Papak or Bābak, the son (in other versions: the father) of the progenitor Sasan. With very few exceptions (Bahram Chobin in 590 as well as Shahrbaraz in 630), all the great kings belonged to the Sassanid family until the end. In recent research, the etymologically more correct spelling Sāsāniden has largely prevailed over the long common spelling Sassaniden.
In modern historiography, the term Sassanid is applied not only to the ruling dynasty but also to the population of their empire. The Sassanid empire extended roughly over the territories of the present-day states of Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, as well as some peripheral areas. It was thus located at an economically and politically important crossroads between East and West. The empire existed between the end of the Parthian Empire and the Arab conquest of Persia, i.e. from 224 or 226 until the Battle of Nehawend in 642 or until the death of the last Great King Yazdegerd III in 651.
The Sassanid Empire, which in research is sometimes also referred to as the New Persian Empire (in distinction to the Old Persian Empire of the Achaemenids and Teispids), was for centuries an important great power and a rival of the Roman or Eastern Roman Empire. Apart from warlike conflicts (see Roman-Persian Wars), there were also numerous peaceful contacts between Romans and Sassanids, who influenced each other in many ways. Sassanid traditions also had a great influence on the Umayyads, Samanids, and especially the Abbasids.
In current research, increasing attention is being paid to the history and culture of the Sassanid Empire in the context of Late Antiquity and to the importance of this second great power of Late Antiquity alongside Rome.
