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⇱ Rahim Shayegan - University of California, Los Angeles

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M. Rahim Shayegan is professor of Iranian and the Ancient Near East, the Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Chair of Iranian Studies, and the founding Director of the Pourdavoud Center for the Study of the Iranian World. He received his PhD from Harvard University, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, before joining the NELC faculty at UCLA.

His research and teaching range widely across subjects, periods, and linguistic boundaries. The major tenets of his scholarly pursuit relate to the languages, literary traditions, and history of Iran and Mesopotamia from antiquity to the early medieval period. His research pays special heed to the dialectics at play in cultural and intellectual exchanges between ancient Iran, Mesopotamia, and the Greco-Roman world on the one side, and Central Asia, India, and China on the other side. His interest in establishing connections between neighboring regions reflects his interest in the linguistically heterogeneous empires of (late) antiquity, whose political, ideological, and religious structures are the results of complex processes of cultural borrowings and acculturation.

He has authored and co-edited several books, among them Arsacids and Sasanians: Political Ideology in Post-Hellenistic and Late Antique Persia (Cambridge UP, 2011); Aspects of History and Epic in Ancient Iran (Center for Hellenic Studies—Harvard UP, 2012); The Talmud in Its Iranian Context (co-editor, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010); Persia beyond the Oxus (guest editor, Bulletin of the Asia Institute, 2012); and Cyrus the Great: Life and Lore. Washington, D.C./Cambridge, Mass.: Ilex Foundation/ Center for Hellenic Studies – Harvard University Press, 2019. He is currently preparing a new history of the Sasanian empire and an edition and translation of the Sasanian royal and private inscriptions (third and fourth century CE), under contract with Cambridge University Press.

He has been the recipient of several awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2013–14.
Address: University of California, Los Angeles
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
415 Portola Plaza
386 Humanities Building
Mail code 151105
Los Angeles, California 90095–1511
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books by Rahim Shayegan

Aspects of Epic and History in Ancient Iran: From Gaumāta to Wahnām. Hellenic Studies Series 52. Center for Hellenic Studies – Harvard University Press, 2012.

Papers by Rahim Shayegan

Hellenistic and Late Antique Persia M. Rahim Shayegan Frontmatter More information Sasanian Persi... more Hellenistic and Late Antique Persia M. Rahim Shayegan Frontmatter More information Sasanian Persia, which succeeded the Parthians, was one of the great powers of late antiquity and the most significant power in the Near East, together with the Roman Empire. This book undertakes a thorough investigation of the diverse range of written, numismatic, and archeological sources in order to reassess Sasanian political ideology and its sources and influences in the ideologies of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, Babylonian scholarship and prophecy, and Hellenistic Greek thought. It sheds fresh light on the political complexities of early Arsacid and Sasanian history, especially the situation in Babylon and Elymais, and on the Roman propaganda which penetrated, shaped, and determined Roman attitudes towards Sasanian Persia.
The End of Empires, Universal-und kulturhistorische Studien, 2022
I would like to thank my dear colleagues Michael Gehler and Robert Rollinger for organizing a sti... more I would like to thank my dear colleagues Michael Gehler and Robert Rollinger for organizing a stimulating conference on the End of Empires in a most hospitable setting in Hildesheim. My gratitute also to Jake Nabel for having commented on an earlier version of this contribution.
👁 Fig. 1 Chalcedony intaglio depicting a youthful Tiberius adorned with a Middle Persian inscription, added around the portrait, beginning at 5 o’clock. Paris, Bibliothéque Nationale de France, Département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques, inv. n° Seyring.1973.1.516 (Gyselen 20 J 3)
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👁 name Sasan is a patronymic in -dn of the name *Sds (Sases), who would be the forbear of the later Indo-Parthian rulers Adtir-sasan and Farn-sasan, as well as the Sasanians, is impossible to determine. For one, Sasan as a theophoric name is well attested in Arsacid onomastica (and must not perforce be associated with the Indo-Parthian Sases), and moreover, the reading of the names Farn-sasan and Adir-sasan on the coinage of the former, which was undertaken by Nikitin, is far from certain and requires additional evidence. ’° Qua Indo-Parthian co ity images of copper coins (12 in toto) ascribed to Farn-Sasan in the lection of the British Museum reveal some faint traces of personal names, but these are still a far cry from the copious legends wrested form the coins by Nikitin. On the reverse of one the better preserved coins, one may detect the personal names <(p)- mssn> *farn-sdsan—beginning at 11 o’clock (see Fig. 4a and b)—and possibly <.. .]rs
👁 (s)[...>[.. .]r-sas[an’|—beginning at 5 o’clock (see Fig. 4a and c); on the obverse of yet another coin (Fig. 5a and b), traces of the letters <...Jry ML[KYN > [sanba]r’ sa[han’] may be discerned at 3 o’clock. In the end, aside from perhaps the name Farn-Sasan, there is little else that can be verified through these images.
Bulletin of the Asia Institute 30, 2020
Res Orientales 28, 2020
Toute reproduction, en tout ou en partie, sous quelque forme et par quelque procédé que ce soit, ... more Toute reproduction, en tout ou en partie, sous quelque forme et par quelque procédé que ce soit, est interdite sans l'autorisation écrite préalable de l'Éditeur (GECMO). No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the Publisher (GECMO).
In Essays in Islamic Philology, History, and Philosophy. Edited by Alireza Korangy, Wheeler M. Thackston, Roy P. Mottahedeh, and William Granara. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2016, 29–50. , 2016
Sasanian Political Ideology. In: The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran. Edited by D. T. Potts, 2013, 805–813., 2013
This chapter reviews the religious and mythical allusions embodied in the royal titulature of the... more This chapter reviews the religious and mythical allusions embodied in the royal titulature of the Arsacids and Sasanians. The evolution of Sasanian royal ideology and its relationship to that of Rome are surveyed. The influence of Iranian mytho-epic traditions on Sasanian political ideology is discussed against the backdrop of Iran’s military history. The historicity of the Mazdakite revolution and late Sasanian Iran’s confrontation with Byzantium is assessed.

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