The Sassanian bas-reliefs are among the most significant historical artifacts of ancient Iran, primarily found in the province of Fars. Approximately 30 Sassanian bas-reliefs exist in Fars, depicting scenes related to power demonstrations, court proceedings, and battles or hunting scenes. Unfortunately, many of these bas-reliefs have suffered damage over the years due to their outdoor exposure and the impact of climatic conditions. Depending on the type of stone and their geographical location, they have been gradually eroded. Given their historical importance for Iran's cultural heritage, a comprehensive program involving study, documentation, conservation planning, and restoration is crucial. The Naqsh-e Rostam Relief Complex houses more than 11 bas-reliefs and numerous inscriptions, all situated in open-air environments and vulnerable to environmental factors such as rain, wind, and temperature fluctuations. These elements have contributed to the gradual deterioration of these ancient artworks. The central question addressed by this article pertains to the process of studying, assessing damage, documenting, and planning the conservation of a rock relief. To answer this, a combination of field and laboratory methods has been employed, including petrography, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The results indicate both physical and chemical weathering in the limestone structure, leading to various forms of damage such as erosion, flaking, cracking, and breakage. Therefore, protective and conservation measures for these prominent bas-reliefs should focus on strengthening and preserving their surfaces against deteriorating agents.

The empowerment of Zoroastrian Magi as a social class was intertwined with the emperors’ power to the extent that the political power of Magi can be regarded as a discontinued historical process with ups and downs. This paper attempts to reassess an apparent contrast between historical narratives and archeological findings (e. g. rock reliefs) concerning the political empowerment of Zoroastrian Magi in the beginning of Sassanid Empire until the reign of Narseh. According to the historical narratives, the Sassanid founding fathers, Ardashir and his Successor Shapur I, emphasized ecumenism (i. e. the possession of political sovereignty and religious power by emperor. ) However, according to the rock reliefs of the 3rd century, shortly after Shapur I, with the rise of Bahram I, a structural split occurred between the emperor’ s power as the sovereign and the power of Magi. Bahram I’ s reign is the first historical period in which Zoroastrian Magi, represented as a social class, obtained a political superiority. Roughly speaking, in this epoch which spanned for almost two decades (the reign of Bahram I, Bahram II, and Bahram III, ) one institutionalized reading of Zoroastrianism developed by an elite Magi, i. e. “ Kartir” , became dominant over others and turned steadily into the Imperial religion. The above contrast can be formulated, as follows: given the fact that an ecumenical power is the ultimate form of sovereignty in a monarch system, why and how a Kartir could gain authoritatively a significant share of power? Through adopting an historical approach, the authors pursue the roots of answer in three related political phenomena: First, the quarrel between Bahram I and Narseh; second, the trial and the execution of Mani the prophet; and third, the institutionalization of Zoroastrianism as the Imperial religion.

According to some contracts and testaments attributed to the Sassanid kings that have been reached to us by historians of the Islamic period, the process of choosing a king was done by the king himself. Another method was reported in Tansar's letter to Gošnasb, in which there were permanent associations for the selection of the king, whose duty was to select the successor after the death of the king, which included Mobadān Mobad, Mahasht's secretaries (Head of secretaries), and Sepāhbod Sepahbazān (Commander-in-Chief of the Army). Until the translation of the Shapur I inscription on Zoroaster's Ka’ba, our knowledge about the women of the Sassanid court was limited to the information we had through the narrations of historians of the Islamic period. By translating Shapur's inscription, new dimensions of power, through noble women and their influence on the issue of succession and legitimacy of the first Sassanid kings, appeared for the researchers. In this research, our effort is to open the third side in the power triangle of the Sassanid period, which was the influential women of the court, with a descriptive-analytical method. Therefore, the status of noble women in the court of Sassanid kings from Ardashir I to Narseh (224-302 AD) and the position of noble women in the coming to power of the kings of this dynasty will be examined. Our case study among these women is “Šāpūrdoxtak ", the Bahram II’ wife and Bahram III’ mother, who was most likely chosen as the crown prince of the Sassanid king for a while.

Since Sassanid era there have been 33 bas reliefs in various parts of Iran including, Salmas, Shahr-e Rey, Taq-e Bostan, Barm-e Delak, Bishapur, Tang-e Qandil, Sar Mashhad, Firuz Abad, Guyum, Darabgerd, Naghsh-e Bahram, Naghsh-e Rajab, Naghsh-e Rostam, and another one in the north of Afghanistan at the "Rag-e Bibi", which is located 10km south of Pol-e Khomri city. These have been studied carefully in various ways by both Iranian and foreign scholars.The bas relief which we have studied in this paper is one of the most sparring matters of the Sassanid's bas reliefs. Despite the conducted studies on the issue, unfortunately neither its identity is clear nor its historical contents.In this article we have referred to the various ideas about the original personality of the afore-mentioned bas relief, its historical contents, and have criticized and analyzed each of them. Based on archaeological evidences and historical sources, we have tried to prove that this bas relief belongs to Bahram II (276- 293 A. D), the fifth king of Sassanid dynasty. The historical contents of this bas relief show the victory of Bahram II over Hormozd "the king of Sakestan, India to the shore of the Sea" that happened in 283 A. D.

In a strange and mythological tale in the so-called historical section of the Shahnameh (the Sassanid empire period of Hurmuzd), Bahram Chobin meets a crowned woman in the palace. After that, he weeps blood, overlooks and changes his manners and speeches. He claims to be a king. A number of eight different interpretations and views have been presented about the identity of this mysterious woman, extracted from the Shahnameh or contemporary writings. These are: (1) a witch, (2) fortune of Bahram, (3) a fairy, (4) an angel, (5) a deceptive soul, (6) Daena, (7) a Demon or female demon, and (8) glory. In addition to the Shahnameh referring to this woman as the "fortune" and two ancient and reliable texts introducing her as a "fairy" (Tarikh-i Tabari or The History of al-Tabari and Tabari and Nihayat al-Arab), the traditions and characteristics of the story show remarkable similarities to the narrative theme of "Fairy and Hero". This lady is more likely to be the fortune of Bahram, originally appeared in the form of a fairy and made him fond of her beauty, and provoked Bahram be a rebel against the Sasanian king as he faced his fortune. Through metamorphoses of Iranian national narratives and dropping some part of her mythological points, this fairy has changed to a good-natured, but obscure lady in the Shahnameh.

Archetypal criticism is one of the modern literal theories based on psychological theories based on Jung ideas. While studying and examining the archetypes of a work, it is revealed, in this type of criticisms how they are understood by the author. Based on these studies, heroic journey is possible in order to achieve the perfection and individuality dream. The present article aims to review Malakut by Bahram Sadeghi from the perspective of archetypal criticism relying on the fundamentals of Carol. S. Pearson and Huo. k. Marr are based on 12 archetypes of awakening heroes. The author tries to introduce these archetypes briefly and also show the fictional characters manifesting these archetypes, following individuation and taking heroic journey. The findings show that Malakut is full of archetypes and due to its psychological approach, it can be analyzed based on archetypal theories.

Lyric is one of the most extensive literary genres. This field is the extended Persian lyric poetry and the continuation of iambic verse. Associating narrative with poetry and presenting it in the form of couplet poem and creating masterpieces such as Nezami's Khamseh and Vis and Ramin made this field flourish.Bahram and Golandam is one of the lyrics that a poet named Aminoddin Mohammad with the pen name Safi from Sabzevar has recited in ninth and tenth centuries. The verse has been attributed to Shamsoddin Katebi Neyshaboori in some sources. In this article, the relation is rejected and after the account of the narrative, the verses and the person that has recited it are introduced. We also consider briefly its narrative motifs.The objective of this article is to introduce one of the famous verses in the opinion of people so that the readers may understand its stylistic and linguistic values and also its plots.

Studying and analyzing the ways of rewriting and recreating in Bahram Beyzai’s literary works is the main goal of this paper. He is a norm-breaker author who destroys the reader’s mental and language structures and defaults. The plays, scripts and narrations which are analyzed in this article are Azhdehaak, Arash, Ahu, Salandar, Talhak va Digaran, Pardeye neiy, Siavash Khani, Shabe hezar-o Yekom and Majlese Ghorbaniye Sennemar. At first, in this research, Beyzai’s descriptive-analytical ways are introduced, and then these ways are analyzed in Beyzai’s works. The ways are generally as follows: 1. recreating an old work on two levels: “changing the plot” and “changing the dutifulness of characters,” and 2. rewriting an old work in some ways by “adding dialogue between characters”, “suggesting cause and effect relation” and “changing the ways of narration.”

Shabdiz and Golgon, two beautiful horses of Khosrow Parviz’s court, have been the subject of many historians, especially Shabdiz, that according to some historical sources, was one of the wonders of the court of Khosrow Parviz. The fame and glory of this historic horse brought it into the world of myths as far as many Persian literary works came out and many poets used it to create unique works. Since the name of Shabdiz is linked to night and darkness, it is a beautiful theme for the poet's imagination to fly in the night sky; however, the poet's imagination was not limited to the night sky, but the sky of the day, with its companionship, Golgon, was seized by him. Nizami is one of the most talented poets in the field, which illustrates the story of these two beautiful horses in the style of Myth-Lyric. The symbolic birth of Shabdiz's birth is somewhat reminiscent of the birth of the Mithras from the Stone and a marker of the new processing of the ancient myths, which undoubtedly derives from the past ritual beliefs in the drawing of day and night as a horse; it is possible that Nizami depicted Shabdiz and Golgon to associate them with Mithras and Bahram and as the symbols of day and night. Golgon symbolizes the day and the brightness of the god Bahram, and his counterpart, Shabdiz, is the night sky, and is a symbol of Mithras, the god of the night, as if they are a concept of time in a hall of symbols and similes. The magic of the Nizami’s word, with the preservation of the historical and structural framework of narrative, has tied the story of these two horses to the ancient beliefs, rituals and mythologies, so that the names of these two always shine in Persian literature.

Exploring the meaning of literary works has always been the focus of critics in this field, but the crucial issue is the use of a methodical approach to reach the hidden meanings in different layers of the text. The transtextual approach is a holistic apparatus among literary theories, through which hidden layers of meaning can be discovered. This theory does not have a precise formulation in semantics. However, its elements, from a holistic viewpoint, show special semantic capacities in the syntagmatic and paradigmatic axis of semantic, which have not been investigated so far. For example, hypertext, intertext and metatext work on the paradigmatic axis of semantic. Paratext works on the syntagmatic axis of semantic and architext works both on the syntagmatic and paradigmatic axis of semantic. As such, the interaction of these elements leads to discovering the overall meaning of the text. Therefore, in this research, according to the new perspective of "Transtexual interpretation, it is aimed to analyze y Testament of Bondar Bidakhsh, using qualitative and quantitative analytical methods and relying on library and documentary studies. By applying the theories of transtextuality and semantics to the play, we both seek to formulate a new theoretical apparatus and show the hidden layers of meaning in this play. The results of this analysis show that Beyzaei conveys meaning to the audience through paradigmatic and syntagmatic transtextual elements and transtexual interpretation is an efficient theoretical apparatus to analyze this work.