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Find your way through history.

Explore 279 entries across places and centuries. Follow an event, compare its context, and examine the evidence.

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Period filters include entries whose date ranges overlap your selection. These date bands are browsing aids, not universal historical eras.

2 entries · Oldest periods first

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224–651 CEIn-depth study

Silver head of a Sasanian king, Iran, about the fourth century CE. The ruler is not securely identified; this surviving object is not a portrait of a named king.
Picture source & rights
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Fletcher Fund, 1965 · 65.126 · Public domain / CC0 · Resized and converted to WebP · Licence terms

Middle East / Empire

Sasanian Iran: kingship, craft and exchange

Between the Parthian and early Islamic periods, Sasanian rulers built a major Iranian empire. Silverwork, court imagery and exchanges with neighbouring societies reveal more than its wars with Rome.

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1501–1722 CEIn-depth study

The Feast of Sada, a folio from the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, about 1525, attributed to Sultan Muhammad and made in Tabriz. This Safavid painting illustrates a legendary story, not an eyewitness scene of ancient Iran.
Picture source & rights
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Gift of Arthur A. Houghton Jr., 1970 · 1970.301.2 · Public domain / CC0 · Resized and converted to WebP · Licence terms

Middle East / Culture

Safavid Iran: faith, illustrated books and imperial cities

Safavid Iran connected a new dynastic and religious order with manuscript painting, textiles and urban patronage. Its visual culture belongs alongside Ottoman and Mughal histories, not inside them.

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