the sassanian collapse

When one considers the empires of historical Eurasia, perhaps it is the Roman Byzantines that first come to mind. Indeed, the Romans are certainly well known for their history, a result of their diverse interactions with other powers throughout their period and the records preserved by the Roman Byzantines and the aforementioned nations of interaction. However, the Sassanid Empire, although less known, should not be overlooked. The Sassanid Empire existed alongside the Romans with many comparable achievements in influence and scale. While the fall of the Romans is documented fairly well, certainly a result of being split into two separate entities with separate records. However; the collapse, or rather, disappearance of the Sassanid Empire is quite a bit more difficult to determine. How did such a prominent power as the Sassanid Empire disappear in such an abrupt manner? Many scholars have attempted to address this question, with a good deal of success considering the lack of detailed records one would normally hope to recover from an entity with the size and scope the possessed by the Sassanians.
As previously mentioned, the study of the fall of the Sassanid Empire is far from new. Many scholars have contributed to the study over the years, often citing well known materials and authors on the subject. David Morgan examines the work of Touraj Daryaee, Parvaneh Pourshariati, and Greg Fisher in his paper “Sasanian Iran and the Early Arab Conquests.” 1 Morgan explores the different theories presented by the previously mentioned scholars, citing their work as the basis of his paper. Morgan posits that a major obstacle in unraveling the history surrounding the fall of the Sassanian Empire presents itself in the lack of primary sources, as well as the fact that the sources currently relied upon exist in more languages than any individual could hope to master2. This issue presents itself as a rather difficult task to overcome, however calling on the work of several