Inspired by their powerful ancestors, the Sassanian dynasty restored Persia to imperial glory, ruling lands that stretched from Turkey to Pakistan. The fifth-century Sassanian ruler Bahram V hunts ...

The history of the world is, perhaps unfortunately, the history of empires. As far back as historians can take us, humans have sought to subjugate one another, and some have proved particularly good ...

Invasions of ancient Persia were always daunting tasks. They often led to disaster. In the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, the Persian empire came to dominate a vast and varied geography with Iran at its ...

Since their invention in the tenth century, engineers, soldiers and tinkerers have constantly tried to make firearms more deadly. Typically that involves moving to heavier bullets driven by more ...

The Apadana, which was used as a gathering hall for receptions, was the largest building in Persepolis. A relief on the stairway includes depictions of delegates to the Achaemenid royal court (left), ...

The shadow empires: imperial state formation along the Chinese-Nomad frontier / Thomas J. Barfield -- Written on water: designs and dynamics in the Portuguese Estado da Índia / Sanjay Subrahmanyam -- ...