1
Department of History, Faculty Literature and Humanities, Urmia University, Urmia.
2
Department of Geography, Encylopaedia Islamica Foundation, Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/hfr.2026.238623
Abstract
The relations between Sasanian Iran and Georgia from the 3rd to the mid-6th century AD were shaped within a context where the expansion of the Sasanian state’s structural authority coincided with a divergent trend in Georgia’s political and religious developments. During this historical period, the consolidation of Sasanian influence in Georgia, the establishment of the Chosroid dynasty (281 AD), the Christianization of Georgia (337 AD), and the Irano-Roman rivalry created a framework in which administrative and military convergence between the two powers was accompanied by the political divergence of the Georgian court. The central question of this study is: How did the structural convergence of the Sasanian state with Georgia persist despite the emergence of political divergence in that territory? The primary objective of this research is to explain the soft power mechanisms of the Sasanian state and the reasons for their failure in the face of Georgia’s political shifts. This study employs a historical method with a descriptive-analytical approach, based on library data and Georgian, Armenian, and Roman narrative sources. The findings indicate that while continuous religious pressure and Irano-Roman competition necessitated the maintenance of convergent structures, political convergence remained unsustainable, ultimately leading to overt conflicts by the mid-5th century AD
