The Iranian Expanse：Transforming Royal Identity through Architecture, Landscape, and the Built Environment, 550 BCE-642 CE

TheIranianExpanseexploreshowkingsinPersiaandtheancientIranianworldutilizedthebuiltandnaturalenvironmenttoformandcontestIranianculturalmemory,royalidentity,andsacredcosmologies.Investigatingoverathousandyearsofhistory,fromtheAchaemenidperiodtothearrivalofIslam,TheIranianExpansearguesthatIranianidentitieswerebuiltandshapednotbyroyaldiscoursealone,butbystrategicchangestoWesternAsia’scities,sanctuaries,palaces,andlandscapes.TheIranianExpansecriticallyexaminestheconstructionofanewIranianroyalidentityandempire,whichsubsumedandsubordinatedallprevioustraditions,includingthoseofMesopotamia,Egypt,andAnatolia.ItthendelvesintothestartlinginnovationsthatemergedafterAlexanderundertheSeleucids,Arsacids,Kushans,Sasanians,andthePerso-MacedoniandynastiesofAnatoliaandtheCaucasus,apreviouslyunderstudiedandmisunderstoodperiod.MatthewP.CanepaelucidatesthemanyrupturesandrenovationsthatproducedanewroyalculturethatdeeplyinfluencednotonlyearlyIslam,butalsothewiderPersianateworldoftheIl-Khans,Safavids,Timurids,Ottomans,andMughals.