Reorienting the Sasanians

'When it comes to the Sasanian Empire, most of our attention is turned toward its western neighbour, the Roman Empire. Khodadad Rezakhani has produced a brilliant synthesis and narrative of East Iran, showing how important the other side of the Sasanian Empire was for understanding Iranian and Eurasian history in Late Antiquity.This book must be read not only to understand the Sasanian World, but also to form a wider perspective of late antique history in general.' Touraj Daryaee, Maseeh Chair in Persian Studies and Culture Director of the Jordan Center for Persian Studies, University of California A narrative history of Central Asia after the fall of the Greek dynasties and before the rise of Islam Central Asia is commonly imagined as the marginal land on the periphery of Chinese and Middle Eastern civilisations. At best, it is understood as a series of disconnected areas that served as stop-overs along the Silk Road. However, in the mediaeval period, this region rose to much prominence and importance as one of the centres of Persian-Islamic culture, from the Seljuks to the Mongols and Timur. Khodadad Rezakhani tells the back story of this rise to prominence, the story of the famed Kushans and mysterious 'Asian Huns', and their role in shaping both the Sasanian Empire and the rest of the Middle East. Khodadad Rezakhani is a Humboldt Stiftung Fellow at the Institut für Iranistik, Freie Universität Berlin. Cover image: Cover image: Antiochos I of Kommagene shaking hands with Herakles (detail). First-century BC relief from Arsameia (c) Klaus-Peter Simon/Wikimedia Commons Cover design: Barrie Tullett [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-0029-9 Barcode

Khodadad Rezakhani is an Associate Research Scholar at the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-RahmanI Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, Princeton University.