The Blackwell Companion to the Sasanian Empire, which is under preparation by the co-editors M. Rahim Shayegan and Touraj Daryaee (UCI), is designed as an exhaustive, but accessible, introduction to the many facets of the Sasanian world. It takes into account both the diachronic perspective, in order to contextualize Sasanian cultural practices in the continuity of Iranian traditions, and the synchrony to expose the extent of Sasanian interactions with empires and cultures of late antiquity. Its exhaustive character, notwithstanding, the Companion volume is geared towards a wider audience, which includes specialists, scholars in neighboring disciplines, students, and informed readers.
The introductory chapter by the co-editors will outline the history of the empire, introduce a new periodization, and provide a survey of the source material, as well as a discussion of the major methodological challenges facing the study of Sasanian Iran. The volume is organized in 57 independent chapters encompassing the sum of our knowledge on the Sasanian civilization, including an exhaustive bibliography and copious indices.