The Hindi-Urdu word for wrestler—pahalvan—comes from Pahalav or Parthians, who ruled Persia nearly 2,000 years ago, and controlled trade routes that connected India to Central Asia. Until the rise of the Arab empire in the seventh century, it was the Persians who were the masters of West Asia. Alexander fought the Persians. Romans fought the Parthians. Byzantium fought the Sasanians. Then, things changed.
Two centuries of silence followed, after the empire was overrun by Islam. The old ways were declared idolatrous and purged. The civilisation accepted the new faith but refused to erase its past entirely. It declared autonomy by pursuing a new form of Islam, one that rejected the Arab ways, and privileged the bloodline of the prophet, that gave rise to a line of religious teachers, the Imams.
But before the Imams, before Islam, Persia was the land of the Zoroastrian faith, the world’s oldest monotheistic faith, one that inspired even Jewish patriarchs with ideas such as the walled garden or paradise. It flourished during the period of the Sasanian Empire, which ruled Iran and much of West Asia from about AD 224 AD to AD 651. The dynasty rose when Ardashir I defeated the Parthian ruler Artabanus IV and established a new imperial order in Persia.
From the beginning, the Sasanian rulers closely linked political authority with Zoroastrian religious ideology. Through art, architecture, coinage, and royal symbolism they promoted the idea that kingship operated under divine protection and that the empire existed to uphold the sacred order described in the Zoroastrian scriptures.
Zoroastrianism traced its teachings to the prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster), who is believed to have lived many centuries earlier, perhaps around 1200 BC, according to some scholars. Zarathustra taught devotion to the supreme god Ahura Mazda, the “Wise Lord,” who created the world and represented truth and cosmic order. Incidentally, the Strait of Hormuz is probably named after Ahura Mazda (Ohrmazd).
Ahura Mazda was surrounded by the Amesha Spentas, or “Bounteous Immortals,” who were aspects or companions of the supreme god. The religion also recognised numerous yazatas, worthy beings who assisted the divine order. Important among them were Mithra, associated with contracts and light; Anahita, the powerful goddess of water and fertility; Tishtrya, connected with the star Sirius and rain; and Verethragna, the god of victory. From here came the Christian concept of Archangel and guardian spirits.
In Zoroastrian belief the world is the arena of a moral struggle between truth (asha) and falsehood (druj). The destructive force opposed to Ahura Mazda is Angra Mainyu, often called Ahriman, the spirit of chaos and deception. Divine forces are opposed by a host of demonic beings known as daevas, followers of Angra Mainyu who spread lies, disease, and disorder. Human life was, therefore, seen as participation in a cosmic moral struggle. Through royal imagery, temple patronage, and religious symbolism, the Sasanian state portrayed itself as the defender of truth against these destructive forces.
Zoroastrians introduced the world to the concept of Judgement Day, and a bridge that the dead had to cross, which narrowed for the faithless and widened for the faithful, an idea that is today very much part of Islamic lore.
Sasanian rulers used art to express these beliefs. Rock reliefs carved into cliffs at places such as Naqsh-e Rustam show kings receiving a ring of authority from Ahura Mazda. In these images the god and the king face each other, symbolising the divine origin of royal power. Such scenes visually reinforced the ideology that the monarch ruled with sacred legitimacy. The king was believed to possess khvarenah, a divine glory that marked him as the rightful protector of the realm.
Fire temples also played an important role in this religious landscape. These temples housed sacred fires that were carefully maintained by priests known as magi. Some fires became especially famous, such as the royal fire associated with the sanctuary at Takht-e Soleyman. Temples served not only as places of worship but also as symbols of imperial unity.
Coins issued by Sasanian rulers show the crowned bust of the king on one side and the sacred fire altar on the other. By placing the fire altar on currency used throughout the empire, the rulers constantly reminded people that the state and religion were inseparable. When the empire finally collapsed in 651 AD during the Arab conquests, the fire-altar coins disappeared, and were replaced by coins with the Arabic script. A few who clung to the old ways found refuge near the Gujarat coast, and became part of India as ‘sugar in milk’. These were the Parsis and the more recent migrants, the Iranis.
Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (Book of Kings) broke the “silence” of two centuries following the Arab conquest by actively reviving the Persian language, restoring pre-Islamic national identity, and documenting the history of Iran through epic poetry. Completed in 1010 AD, this massive epic utilised almost pure Persian, avoiding Arabic loanwords, which established it as a foundational literary work that kept ancient Persian traditions alive. Ferdowsi’s patron to whom he dedicated his masterpiece was Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, the same one who raided India’s Somanth temple.