Персия, Хосров II Парвиз.

KHOSROW II “PARVIZ”, shahanshah of the Sasanian Persian Empire from 590 to 628 AD, sitting on his throne, which according to Byzantine and Islamic sources had an automaton that represented the Cosmos, simulating the movement of the stars, the Sun and the Moon by means of a complex mechanism. Other automatons, which I’ve not included here, surrounded the throne. I also represented the crown suspended with chains, because Khosrow II and other Sasanian kings had crowns so heavy that their neck alone could not support their weight.

Considered the last great king of the Sasanian dynasty, Khosrow II was born in Persia the year 570, the same year that the prophet Muhammad was born in the Arabian city of Mecca. His reign was marked by Persian territorial expansion in the context of the war with the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. In 626, Khosrow made an alliance with the Avar Khaganate and the Slavic tribes of Eastern Europe to besiege Constantinople, but the city resisted. 

According to Islamic tradition, Khosrow, an adherent of Zoroastrianism, once received a messenger from prophet Muhammad himself, demanding him to submit to Islam. Khosrow refused to convert to the new religion and tore Muhammad’s letter to pieces. When Muhammad was informed about Khosrow’s response, he promised the destruction of Khosrow’s empire. Only five years after Khosrow’s death, the Islamic conquest of Persia began. Khosrow’s grandson Yazdegerd III was the last king of the Sasanian dynasty, and Yazdegerd’s son Peroz III spent the rest of his life exiled at the court of the Tang emperor of China. The exiled Sasanians convinced the Chinese emperor to help them retake Iran from the Muslims and restore Sasanian power, but the Turkic nomads attacked the Chinese army before it could reach Iran, which was then part of the short-lived Rashidun Caliphate.