Coordinates: 32°17′N 48°31′E / 32.283°N 48.517°E / 32.283; 48.517

Gundeshapur (Persian Persian: گندی‌شاپور‎, Gund-ī Shāh Pūr, Gondeshapur, Jondishapoor, Jondishapur, and Jondishapour, Gundishapur, Gondêšâpur, Jund-e Shapur, Jundê-Shâpûr, etc. (means Army of Shapour), Pahlavi Weh-Andiôk-Šâbuhr^{[citation needed]}, Classical Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܠܦܬ‎ Beth Lapat and Greek Bendosabora) was the intellectual center of the Sassanid empire and the home of the Academy of Gundishapur.

Founded in 271 CE by the Sassanid king Shapur I, Gundeshapur was home to a teaching hospital, and also comprised a library and an centre of higher learning. It has been identified with extensive ruins south of Shahabad, a village 14 km south-east of Dezful, to the road for Shush, in the present-day province of Khuzestan, southwest Iran. It is not an organised archeological place as of today, and except of the ruins it is full of remainings like broken ceramics.

Gundeshapur or Jondi Shapour, was a renowned academy of learning in the city of Jondi Shapour during late antiquity, the intellectual center of the Sassanid Empire. It offered training in medicine, philosophy, theology, and science. It has been a center for training scientists for centuries. Iranian, Greek, Indian, and Roman scientists conducted studies and scientific research there. The faculty was versed not only in the Zoroastrian and Persian traditions, but in Greek and Indian learning as well. According to The Cambridge History of Iran, it was the most important medical center of the ancient world during the 6th and 7th centuries. Will Durant has lauded the Iranian civilization for having built such an academy. Einstein has praised his disciple, Professor Hesaby, for having belonged to a country where an academy had been built 1,700 years ago.

Mani (in Middle Persian and Syriac Mānī, Greek Μάνης, Latin Manes; also Μανιχαίος, Latin Manichaeus, from Syriac ܡܐܢܝ ܚܝܐ Mānī ḥayyā "Living Mani", c. AD 216–276), of Iranian origin, of Jewish-Christian background , was the prophet and the founder of Manichaeism, a gnostic religion of Late Antiquity which was once widespread but is now extinct. Mani was born in or near Seleucia-Ctesiphon in Asuristan (Assyria), at the time still part of the Parthian Empire. Six of his major works were written in Syriac Aramaic and the seventh, dedicated to the king of the empire, Shapur I, was written in Middle Persian. He died in Gundeshapur, under the Sassanid Empire.

Until the 20th century, no reliable information on Mani's biography was known. Such medieval accounts as were known are either legendary or hagiographical, such as the account in Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadim, purportedly by al-Biruni, or were anti-Manichaean polemics, such as the 4th century Acta Archelai. Among these medieval accounts, Ibn al-Nadim's account of Mani's life and teachings is generally speaking the most reliable and exhaustive. Notable in this account is the near-complete absence of the "Third Ambassador", who is merely mentioned with the name bašīr, "messenger of good news", and the absence of the topos of "Mani the Painter" (which in other Islamic accounts almost completely replaces that of "the founder of a religion").

Hormizd I was the third Sassanid King of Persia from 270/72 to 273.

He was the youngest son of Shapur I (240–270/72), under whom he was governor of Khorasan, and appears in his wars against Rome (Historia Augusta, Trig. Tyr. 2, where Nöldeke has corrected the name Odomastes into Oromastes, i.e. Hormizd).

In the Persian tradition of the history of Ardashir I (226–240 [died 241/42]), preserved in a Pahlavi text (Nöldeke, Geschichte des Artachsir I. Papakan), Hormizd I is made the son of a daughter of Mithrak, a Persian dynast, whose family Ardashir had extirpated because the Magi had predicted that the restorer of the empire of Persia would come from his blood.

According to legend, this daughter alone was saved by a peasant; Shapur I saw her and made her his wife, and afterwards her son Hormizd I was recognized and acknowledged by Ardashir. In this legend, which has also been partially preserved in Tabari, the great conquests of Shapur I are transferred to Hormizd I. In reality he reigned only one year and ten days.

Bahram I (Persian: بهرام‎ Bahrām) (also spelled Varahran or Vahram, r. 273–276) was the fourth Sassanid emperor of the second Persian Empire. He was the eldest son of Shapur I and succeeded his brother Hormizd I (r. 272–273), who had reigned for only a year.

The theophoric name Bahram comes from middle Persian Varahrän, 'victory', that is represented by the Zoroastrian divinity of the same name (see Vahram).

According to a Pahlavi inscription, Bahram I was the son (not, as the Greek historiographers and Tabari note, the grandson) of Shapur I (r. 241–272).

The earliest reference to Bahram I occurs in the coronation monument of Bahram's grandfather Ardeshir I at Naqsh-e Rajab. There, the future king appears as a smaller figure between Ardeshir and Ahura Mazda, and Bahram is seen bowing before the divinity after whom he is named. Similar iconography, such as the boar motifs in the seals and crown of Bahram, apparently reinforced the association with the yazata of victory.

Bahram died (apparently of disease) in 276. He was succeeded by his son who bore the same name and is known to history as Bahram II.

Ardashir I (died 242 AD) was the founder of the Sassanid Empire, was ruler of Istakhr (since 206?), subsequently Fars Province (since 208?), and finally "King of Kings of Sassanid Empire" (after 226) with the overthrow of the Parthian Empire. The dynasty founded by Ardashir would rule for four centuries, until it was overthrown by the Rashidun Caliphate in 651.

Ardashir (Arđaxšēr from Middle Persian and Parthian Artaxšaθra, Pahlavi ʼrthštr, "Who has the Divine Order as his Kingdom") is also known as Ardeshīr-i Pāpagān "Ardashir, son of Pāpağ", and other variants of his name include Latinized Artaxares and Artaxerxes.

Ardeshir was born in the late 2nd century in Istakhr, what is present-day Fars in Iran, He was the son of Babak (Papak or Pabag) and Princess Rodak, descendant of the Shabankara tribe. According to a letter from Ardavan V, Ardashir was of Kurdish descent. Ardashir is said to have ruled the town of Darabgerd and received the title of "argbadh". Upon Pāpağ's death, Ardashir's elder brother Šāpūr ascended to the throne. However, Ardashir rebelled against his brother and took the kingship for himself in 208.