: The Sasanian Kings and Imam Mahdi: A Cosmic
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How the crowns of ancient Persia foretold the end of time—and why the Sasanians saw themselves as waiting for the promised savior.
We must not merely perform Sasanian identity—we must be Sasanian in action. To truly embody that legacy, we must think as they thought—not just about them, but like them.
To think like the kings of ancient Iran is to enter the realm of Ishrāq—illuminationist philosophy. This is humanity’s oldest wisdom. It begins in the world of lights (the Mīnū), called in the Qur’an the realm of Alast. The very name Ishrāq means “the origin of light”—pointing implicitly to that primordial domain.
In that world of lights, a covenant was made with the fravahars of humanity: that in the material world, those who descend into bodily form would champion the good against evil—knowing good would ultimately triumph. That final victory is the End Times, the age of the Saoshyant—whom Zoroastrians name and we call Imam Mahdi (peace be upon him).
The kings of ancient Iran pondered this covenant. They reflected on the savior of the final age—called Saoshyant in Avestan and Zoroastrian tradition, and Mahdi in ours.
Darius the Achaemenid and his grandson, King Ardashir Babakan, were not merely waiting for Imam Mahdi—they were his maternal ancestors, and among those who anticipated his coming.
I have written previously on Zoroaster, the Saoshyant, and Imam Mahdi—links below.
The kings of ancient Iran were intizar-bearers—those who await the Mahdi. The proof lies in the spherical crown of the Sasanian monarchs.
I have written about the Sasanian crown elsewhere (link below).
The Sasanian crown symbolized the expectation of the Saoshyant—the Zoroastrian name for Imam Mahdi. The reason is straightforward.
In the Avesta, the earth is understood to be round. Here are examples from the Yashts, among the oldest Avestan texts:
Ābān Yasht, fragment 38: “Nariman Garshasp wished to ride across this wide, round, rolling earth with its distant horizons, and conquer the enemy.” (Some sources use the phrase “wide, sphere-like earth.”)
Mehr Yasht, fragment 95: “Mithra comes at every sunset and dawn upon the globe of the earth, and traverses both horizons of this wide, round, rolling earth with its distant shores.” This passage uses the term “globe of the earth.”
The word Sekārna appears in multiple sources—in Avestan, it means “round, rolling, sphere-like” and is used to describe the earth.
Now, you may ask: what does the globe atop the Sasanian crown have to do with the Saoshyant and Imam Mahdi? Consider these famous poetic references to the celestial dome—emphasizing that the dome and the spherical form have always been part of the ancient Iranian conception of the material world:
· Hāfez (Ghazal 143), with the famous phrase “the turquoise dome” (referring to the sky):
“I asked: Who gave you this world-seeing cup, O sage? / He said: The day He made this turquoise dome.”
· Rumi (Dīvān-e Shams, Ghazal 3), referring to “the dome of seven heavens”:
“Pray so much in secret, lament so much by night / That from the dome of seven heavens, a voice reaches your ear.”
· Iqbāl Lāhori (Payām-e Mashriq, section 241), with “the turquoise dome”:
“This turquoise dome, this rise and fall / Entered the lover’s heart, with all its expanse.”
· Asadi Tusi (Garshāspnāme), describing the sky as “the indigo dome”:
“This indigo dome is like a sea / The earth within like an island.”
· Sā’eb Tabrizi (Ghazal 911), with “the dome of the heavens”:
“Do not sleep under the dome of the turbulent heavens / Beneath the shadow of the bridge, do not sleep in spring.”
These examples—from the Avesta and from Iranian poets of the Islamic era—demonstrate that they perceived the world as spherical, with the sky above as a dome. This domed form was carried into the architecture of fire temples and Islamic mosques—an Avestan tradition signifying divine sovereignty over the entire world.
The universe is greater than the material world. The material world is the physical form of existence—one part of a larger whole that includes the world of lights, the realm of meaning, heaven, hell, and other dimensions. But this material world, in the Avesta, is spherical, with a domed sky (the northern hemisphere’s vault). This is why domes were used in ancient Iranian fire temples and Islamic mosques—to symbolize God’s all-encompassing sovereignty over all worlds.
All the wars, battles, and conflicts Iran has waged from antiquity to the present have been in service of the promised victory of good over evil—a promise made in the spiritual realm, to be fulfilled in the End Times with the appearance of Imam Mahdi. This is divine wisdom.
The spherical form of the Sasanian crown is linked to this very truth: it points to God’s universal sovereignty. God created both good and evil in this material world, promised the triumph of good, and took a covenant from our fravahars to fight against devils and evil—and He has guaranteed that victory. That victory will come in the End Times, at the appearance of the Saoshyant (Imam Mahdi).
Thus, the crown of the Sasanian kings points to the triumph of the Mazda-worshippers across all creation—at the time of the appearance of Imam Mahdi in the End Times.
Mahdi—a descendant, through the female line, of the great King Ardashir Babakan, and the most beloved and renowned grandson of Fereydun the Pishdadian.
The ill-minded devil-worshippers of the Pahlavi era sought to drive a false wedge between ancient Iran and the faith of the Imamate and Wilayah. They failed to see that, in illuminationist philosophy, all things are interconnected—and that the Imams are divine lights, having been of God’s light since the very beginning of creation.
