Shapur "Sakanshah" was a Sasanian prince who served as the governor of Sakastan under his brother king (shah) Shapur II (r. 309–379).

Biography[edit]

Shapur served as the governor of Sakastan–a province far away from the imperial court in Ctesiphon, and had since its conquest by Ardashir I (r. 224–240), served as a difficult area for the Sasanians to maintain control over.^[1] As a result, the province had since its early days functioned as a form of vassal kingdom, ruled by princes from the Sasanian family, who held the title of sakanshah ("king of the Saka").^[1] Although native Sakastani soldiers had helped Shapur II in his wars against the Romans, they were probably mercenaries, and the province still remained relatively decentralized.^[1] In 311, while Shapur was travelling from Sakastan to Istakhr, a city in Pars, he stopped at the ruins of the ancient Achaemenid capital of Persepolis, and had an inscription carved at the Tachara, the former palace of Darius the Great.^[2]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

• Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (1997). "Sīstān". The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume IX: San–Sze. Leiden, and New York: BRILL. pp. 681–685. ISBN 9789004082656.
• Christensen, Peter (1993). The Decline of Iranshahr: Irrigation and Environments in the History of the Middle East, 500 B.C. to A.D. 1500. Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 1–351. ISBN 9788772892597.
• Gazerani, Saghi (2015). The Sistani Cycle of Epics and Iran's National History: On the Margins of Historiography. BRILL. pp. 1–250. ISBN 9789004282964.
• Wiesehöfer, Josef (2001). Ancient Persia. Translated by Azodi, Azizeh. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-86064-675-1.