The son and successor of Artaxerxes, Shapur I (r. 241–272), suc-
ceeded in further extending Sasanian territory. He also erected a
great palace (FIG. 2-27) at Ctesiphon, the capital his father had es-
tablished near modern Baghdad in Iraq. The central feature of Sha-
pur’s palace was the monumental iwan,or brick audience hall, cov-
ered by a vault (here, a deep arch over an oblong space) that came
almost to a point more than 100 feet above the ground. The facade
to the left and right of the iwan was divided into a series of horizon-
tal bands made up ofblind arcades,a series of arches without actual
openings, applied as wall decoration. A thousand years later, Islamic
architects looked at Shapur’s palace and especially its soaring iwan
and established it as the standard for judging their own engineering
feats (see Chapter 13).
SHAPUR I AND ROMESo powerful was the Sasanian army
that in 260 CEShapur I even succeeded in capturing the Roman em-
peror Valerian near Edessa (Turkey). His victory over Valerian was
such a significant event that Shapur commemorated it in a series of
rock-cut reliefs in the cliffs of Bishapur in Iran, far from the site of
his triumph.FIG. 2-28reproduces one of the Bishapur reliefs. Sha-
pur appears larger than life, riding in from the right wearing the dis-
tinctive tall Sasanian crown, which breaks through the relief ‘s bor-
der and draws attention to the king. At the left, Valerian kneels
before Shapur and begs for mercy. Similar scenes of kneeling ene-
mies before triumphant generals are commonplace in Roman art—
but at Bishapur the roles are reversed. This appropriation of Roman
compositional patterns and motifs in a relief celebrating the Sasan-
ian defeat of the Romans adds another, ironic, level of meaning to
the political message in stone.
The New Persian Empire endured more than 400 years, until
the Arabs drove the Sasanians out of Mesopotamia in 636 CE, just
four years after the death of Muhammad. Thereafter, the greatest
artists and architects of Mesopotamia worked in the service of Islam
(see Chapter 13).50 Chapter 2 THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST2-27Palace of
Shapur I, Ctesiphon,
Iraq, ca. 250 ce.
The last great pre-Islamic
civilization of the Near
East was that of the
Sasanians. Their palace
at Ctesiphon, near
Baghdad, features a
brick audience hall
(iwan) covered by an
enormous pointed vault.
2-28Triumph of
Shapur I over Valerian,
rock-cut relief, Bishapur,
Iran, ca. 260 ce.
The Sasanian king
Shapur I humiliated the
Roman emperor Valerian
in 260 CEand commem-
orated his surrender in
over-life-size reliefs cut
into the cliffs outside
Persepolis.