Kavad I
488–496 AD | Gap | 498/9–531 AD
Kawād | قباد یکم | کَباد | کَواذ | 𐭪𐭥𐭠𐭲
Recreation of Kavad I ShahanShah of the Sassanid Empire. Similar to Shahanshah Peroz I, his father, Kavad appears with a mural style crown. Atop the crown a large crescent, can be seen. On the Korymbos above the crescent, which have been imagined as pearls. The grouping of pearls in three is something seen at times in coins on many Sassanid kings though not necessarily in the reference of this image. Download
A likeness of Kavad appears in a dish assigned to him, used for this reconstruction. One the outstanding features of the face is thick upper and lower lips. Another unusual feature on the face is depiction of a strait nose, rarely seen in likenesses left from Sassanid Kings. This might be due to limitations in forming metal in the dish. We see The same type of nose in plate depiction of Kavad’s great grandfather Bahram V. Download
Ver.1.2 - Last updated: July 19th 2021, by Mo. Rasoulipour
A previous construction of Kavad I
Read about Kavad and the state of Iran during his reign from the links below.
Insignia
References
A silver plate gold gilded showing a Sassanid King (Possibly Kavad I) hunting ram. This plate was used as the primary source for the reconstruction of Kavad I’s face and crown.
Here are a few coins minted during Kavad’s reign bearing his likeness. These coins have been used for cross referencing Kavad’s face and crown but not directly influenced the likeness.
Visual Description in Literature
“His vest is sky-blue and embroidered in black and white, … his crown is green…“ -Hamzah Isfahani
from - The 'History of the Kings of the Persians' in Three Arabic Chronicles: The Transmission of the Iranian Past from Late Antiquity to Early Islam (Translated Texts for Historians LUP) Paperback – September 1, 2018 - by Robert G. Hoyland
Page 70
Likely Accuracy of the Creative Recreation
Weak-Fair Guess:
Due to the lack of realism in coins minted in this period of Sassanid Empire in this reconstruction, a silver dish believed to be of him, is used. Even though the depiction on the dish is beautiful and believable, it is hard to authenticate in terms of likeness. The depiction in the dish is not an exact match with coins. In addition it is not clear weather the artist has had a good template to depict the king from, in other words we do not know whether the artist has seen the king. For these reasons, this depiction is likely somewhere between a ‘Weak‘ and a ‘Wild‘ guess.
Note: It is not certain that the figure depicted in the silver plate is in fact Kavad I.
See the latest work in progress:
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