The Sassanids
The Sassanid dynasty (AD 224–651) was the last great Persian empire before the Muslim conquest, and is often referred to as the Neo-Persian empire. It was founded by Ardashir I after the fall of the Parthian empire, and was named after Ardashir’s father Sassan. The Sassanids ruled over an area that stretched from the Eastern Roman empire to India and China. The dynasty had a total of 35 kings (shahs) and two queens. In AD 651 the last Sassanid king Yazdegir III was killed in the city of Marv in present-day Turkmenistan as the result of internal intrigues.
The rise of the Sassanid empire is reflected in various types of art, such as architecture and bas-reliefs. The Sassanids are also famous for their splendid silver artefacts, a large number of which are on display in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Sassanid art resurrected forms and traditions from Iran’s golden age, of which the opulent palaces of the Sassanid kings in Ctesiphon in present-day Iraq serve as an example.
Sassanid coins
Sassanid coins were minted in gold, silver or bronze. In addition to minting silver and bronze coins, the Sassanids reintroduced gold coins (dinars) weighing 4.5 grams. Moreover, they minted silver coins to become increasingly thin, and thus larger in diameter.
The obverse side of the coins would often portray the shah. A bust of the shah is depicted in profile with the face turned to the right, with a beard, crown and diadem, and with his hair tied up and wearing a necklace. The reverse showed a depiction of an altar flanked by two priests guarding the holy fire, often with two symbols on each side of the flame representing the symbols of the dynasty and the diadem.
In addition to these features we find important iconographic elements that can help us date Sassanid coins. For example, each king was depicted with his own special crown (tadj), which is a key attribute to identify the issuer. The coronation ceremony and thus the inauguration of a new crown had a strongly symbolic value. Furthermore, the detailed depictions of the priests’ vestments and their attributes on the reverse side of the coins are important clues for dating them to a particular period.
Bahram (Varhran ) II (AD 276–293)
This gold coin was minted during the reign of Bahram II, who ruled from AD 274 to 293. Bahram II was the fifth king of the Sassanid dynasty and issued four different types of coins:
- The Shah’s portrait alone
- The Shah with the queen
- The Shah with his son Bahram III
- The Shah with his mother and father.
The gold coin belongs to the first group, in which the shah is portrayed alone. These coins are extremely rare. The coin weighs 7.257 grams, corresponding to the weight of the early dinars from this dynasty.
The coin bears no indications of where and when it was minted, because Sassanid coins did not commonly show their year of minting until the reign of Firuz I (AD 457–484), nor their place of minting until the reign of Bahram IV (AD 388–399).
Obverse side: A bust of the king in profile with his face turned right. The king is depicted with a beard, crown and a winged diadem, with his hair tied up and wearing a necklace.
The Sassanid Arami inscription reads:
MaZDaYaSN BaGI VaRaHRAN MaLKAN MaLKA AIRAN Wa ANiRAN MiNUCHaTRI MiN YaZDAN
“Worshipper of the holy Hormazd, Varhran, king of kings (shah of shahs) of Iran and other Sassanid territories, envoy of the gods.”
Reverse side: An altar flanked by two priests guarding the holy fire. Two symbols flank the flame: that of the dynasty and that of the diadem.
The Sassanid Arami inscription reads:
NuRA Zi VaRahRan
“The fire of Varhran”
Postscript
In the seventh century AD, rivalry broke out between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Persian Sassanids. After the death of the prophet Mohammed in AD 632 an Islamic empire was founded. The Muslim conquerors quickly gained control of Byzantium before proceeding to subject the Persian Empire to their rule.
The Muslim conquerors who succeeded Mohammed, the Umayyads (AD 651–750), adopted the Sassanid coin system.
Several hundreds of Sassanid coins have been found in the European part of Russia as well as in Scandinavia, but not yet in Norway. These coin finds stem from the time of Shah Khusrau II, who ruled during the period AD 590–628. The only find ever made in Norway is a fragment stemming from the Ispahbads (rulers) of Tabaristan, south of the Caspian Sea. These coins are imitations of Sassanid coins. The coin fragment was found by archaeologists from the Museum of Cultural History at Heimdalsjordet in Sandefjord in 2012, during the Gokstad revitalised research project.
References
De Morgan, J. (1923-36): Manuel de numismatique orientale de l’antiquite et du moyen age, Paris. Tome l, pp. 307-8.
Göbl, R. (1968): Sasanidische Numismatik, Braunschweig. p. 78, tafel 3, nr. 48 (variant).
Khazaei, H. (1992): En persisk gullmynt fra 300-tallet e.Kr., Oslo, Nr. 1, NNF- Nytt – Norsk Numismatisk Tidsskrift
Sarfaraz, A.A. og F. Avarzamani (2013): Iranian Coins. From the Early Beginning to Zand Dynasty, Teheran 1391.
Sellwood, D., P. Whitting og R. Williams (1985): An Introduction to Sassanian Coins, London. p. 8.
Valentine, W.H., (1921): Sassanian Coins, London 1921. pp. 41-2.