Document Type : review paper
Abstract
In the last decades, most scholars who studied the history of Iran in the Sāsānian period, like some of the greatest historians in Islamic times who reflected the content of Xwdāy-Nāmag (the national history of ancient Iranians) in recording Sāsānian history, have accepted that Sāsān was the priest of Ānāhitā Fire-Temple in Estaxr, Bābak’s father and Ardašīr’s grandfather who was the founder of Sāsānian empire. Furthermore, Šāpour’s Ka’be-ye Zardošt inscription, in which Bābak was called Ardašīr’s father and Šāpour’s grandfather, did not clearly mention that Sāsān was Bābak’s father and Ardašīr’s grandfather, so some scholars have curiously and even fancifully tried to show the real identity of Sāsān with their own ideas and conceptions. Therefore, by analyzing the structure and the written pattern of Sāsānian’s inscriptions and with studying the most important historical accounts concerning the kin relationship between the first members of the Sāsānian royal house, this research tries to answer this question, whether Sāsān was a historical or a legendary character or even a god? This research reveals that Sāsān was neither an ancient god nor a legendary character; in fact, he was a historical character—Bābak’s father and Ardašīr’s grandfather.
Keywords
)