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A partial timeline for Persia

A partial timeline for Persia

Last updated on: August 28, 2026 at 9:54 am by Dan Peterson

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A partial timeline for Persia 2026-08-28T09:54:16-06:00 Dan Peterson

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My official presidential portrait at Interpreter Foundation headquarters, by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: The Interpreter Insights Podcast — August 27, 2026: Terry Hutchinson and Dan Peterson —

In the August 27, 2026, 2026 episode of The Interpreter Insights Podcast, our host Terry Hutchinson interviews the President of The Interpreter Foundation, Dan Peterson, about the Interpreter Foundation’s past year and upcoming projects.

Our interviews today were conducted in the Church History Library in Salt Lake City. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I was picked up this morning at 8:45 by our producer, Russ Richins, and I rode up with him and eventually also with James Jordan and Mark Goodman to the Church History Library in Salt Lake City. (Russ and Mark and James constitute Red Brick Film Works.) There, I interviewed Matt Grow, managing director of the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, regarding Brigham Young and the St. George Utah Temple. At that point, I sat in on the interview that our own Camrey Bagley Fox did with Matt Grow and Brett Dowdle on the Utah War.

Afterwards, Russ and Mark and James and Camrey and I walked to The Garden Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building across from Temple Square where, as is its custom on filming days, Red Bricks Film Works bought our (today, late) lunch. After all of the filming equipment was packed up, I was back home by around 4 PM or maybe 4:30 PM.

As my Malevolent Stalker has correctly deduced over at the Peterson Obsession Board, it’s lavish rewards like these that motivated me to go into filmmaking in the first place and, indeed, into apologetics more generally — and it’s lavish rewards like these that keep me involved: I don’t receive any actual payment from my involvement with the Interpreter Foundation or with the Becoming Brigham project but, really, why should I care? Not only did I get a free trip to and from Salt Lake City today (both directions during rush hour, no less!) — it cost me absolutely nothing! — but I enjoyed a cold glass of Coke Zero© (with real ice) and half of a French dip sandwich at the expense, ultimately, of the donors to the Becoming Brigham series — a group that includes me and my wife. It is they who have made the project possible. And they are the reason that I’m able to live so extravagantly and so well.

A public domain political map of Iran, from the Nations Online Project. Modern Iran doesn’t map precisely onto ancient Persia, but this map will serve my purpose here well enough.

Drawing on several online chronologies, I’ve constructed a simple timeline for the history of Persia between the time of Christ and the country’s conquest by the Arabs in the early seventh century. I intend to use it as a tentative outline for writing up a brief narrative that I’ll eventually use in my revision and expansion of Abraham Divided, which will necessarily use a different title. I share it with you here below:

Early First Century — People from Persia (“Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites,” according to Acts 2:9) are listed as being among the audience at Pentecost.

Later in First Century — Tradition identifies the apostles Thaddeus (aka Judas; Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13; perhaps also John 14:22) and Bartholomew (aka Nathaniel; John 1:45–51 and 21:2, etc.) as early missionaries to Persia, along with Addai or Thaddeus of Odessa, said to be one of the Seventy.

2nd–3rd Century — Christianity takes root in urban centers and along trade routes under the Parthian Empire, largely independent of Roman oversight.

3rd Century — The Christian movement establishes an organized hierarchy, centered at the capital of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, under early leaders such as Bishop Pappa.

211 AD — Ardashir I establishes the Sassanian or Sassanid Empire in Istakhr , in the present-day southwest Iranian province of Fars. The capital of Fars is Shiraz.

ca. April AD 216 – 2 March AD 274 or 26 February AD 277 — lifetime of the Iranian prophet Mani, who was the founder of Manichaeism

224 — Ardashir I defeats the last Parthian Shahanshah Artabanus IV, ending the Parthian Empire.

226–651 — Under the Sassanian or Sassanid Empire, the Jewish community in Mesopotamia and Persia grows significantly, and foundational work on the Babylonian Talmud takes place.

269 — Persians defeat the Romans at the Battle of Edessa and take emperor Valerian prisoner for the remainder of his life.

339–379 — Persian Emperor Shapur II enforces a double-tax and state-sponsored persecution, driven by political suspicions of Christian loyalties to the Roman Empire, which, from Constantine on, has become Christianized.

363 — Battle of Samarra (363) between the Roman Empire and the Sassanid or Sassanian Empire — hereafter simply Sassanid — in which Roman emperor Julian is wounded, and subsequently dies of his wounds.

410 — The Synod of Seleucia convenes, establishing official internal independence for the Persian Church and recognizing its Catholicos (patriarch).

421-422 — Roman–Sassanid War, after which Persian Empire agrees to tolerate Christianity and Roman Empire agrees to tolerate Zoroastrianism

424 — The Synod of Dadyeshu formally declares the Persian Church entirely independent of Western/Roman ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

486–488 — The Persian Church officially adopts East Syriac theology, later labeled “Nestorianism” by the Western church due to cultural and political schisms. Persian missionaries simultaneously expand eastward along the Silk Road into India, Central Asia, and China.

570-578 — Aksumite–Persian wars, Yemen is annexed by the Sassanid Empire.

590 — Khosrow II becomes ruler of the Sassanid Empire. During his rule, which lasted until 628, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon are annexed into the Empire.

620 — The Sassanid Empire reaches its greatest height, encompassing all of present-day Iran and Iraq and stretching from the eastern Mediterranean (including Anatolia and Egypt) to Pakistan, and from parts of southern Arabia to the Caucasus and Central Asia.

626 — Sassanid Empire lays unsuccessful siege to Constantinople in June and July.

628 — On 25 February, Khosrow II is deposed and killed by his son Kavad II.

628 — On 6 September, Ardashir III becomes ruler of the Sassanid Empire.

632 — On 16 June, Yazdegerd III becomes ruler of the Sassanid Empire.

633 — The Battle of Ullais, in May, in which Arab forces defeat the Sassanid Empire.

634 — Led by Bahman Jaduya, forces of the Sassanid Empire defeat Arab forces in the Battle of the Bridge, in October.

636 — Arab invasion brings end of Sassanid dynasty and beginning of Islamic rule.

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