Capital City of Sasanian Empire

Last updated: May 23rd, 2025 at 12:20 pm · Est. Reading Time: < 1 minute

The Shahanshah of Sasanian Iran used to live in Tysfwn, a metropolitan urban area on the banks of the River Tigris.  Tisfūn of Pahlavi sources is Tisfūn of Farsi sources, Ctesiphon of Greek sources, Quṭaisifūn قطيسفون in early Arabic sources, and al-Madain المدين in late Arabic sources, Māḥūzī of Syriac and Babylonia of Talmud sources.

This city was a metropolitan consisting of five or seven cities on both banks of the River Tigris.¹

Today it is a small village by name of Madain in modern Iraq, where ruins of its magnificent past can be seen approximately 32 Km south of Baghdad.

Further Reading

Touraj Daryaee. Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2009.

https://historyofislam.org/pre-islamic-arab-politics

Endnotes

1. The Chronicle of Khuzistan, A Short Chronicle on the End of the Sasanian Empire and Early Islam: 590 – 660 A.D., ed. and trans. Nasir al-Ka’bi (Piscataway, NJ: Gorbias Press, 1916), 8).