"In this book, Touraj Daryaee provides an account of Sasanian Persia. Drawing on extensive new sources he paints a portrait of Sasanian life and unravels the divergent strands that contributed to the making of this great Empire: religion - not just Zoroastrianism but also Manichaeism; the economy; administration; the multiple languages and their literature; as well as the Empire's often neglected social history. Daryaee also explores - for the first time in an integrated book on the Sasanians - their descendants' attempts for more than a century after their defeat to establish a second state and reveals how their values and traditions have endured, both in Iranian popular culture and in the literary tradition of the Persian language and literature, to the present day." "Sasanian Persia is a unique examination of a period of history that still has great significance for a full understanding of modern Iran."--Jacket.