An Intertextual explanation of the Sassanid architecture influence on Islamic architecture in terms of the concept of architecture and construction technology

The hypothesis of the Sassanid architecture's influences on Islamic architecture has been discussed in former inquiries with regards to the formalistic and decorative congruencies, but the fact that these similarities can be attributed to other periods has been neglected. Architecture as a knowledge and profession has a sociotechnical nature, therefore these two aspects should be assayed in influence explanation in addition to physical evaluation. As such, this study explores these influences in the deeper layers, that is, circumstances of architecture as a part of knowledge and profession as well as building technology of structural elements in the Sassanid and Islamic epochs that have been negligibly investigated in prior studies. The theoretical foundation of this assessment relies on the intertextuality theory, and the data are taken from historical texts for analysis. This study aims to reveal the architecture status and its actors’ position in the Sassanid era by providing a diachronic understanding of architecture and a scrutiny reflection on the construction process to indicate their impacts on the subsequent text, that is, Islamic architecture. elucidating this relevance can assist in boosting or weakening the main hypothesis as well as the origin of the formation of Islamic architecture. The current research process is qualitative, retrospective, and reliant on predominantly Inductive arguments and of an interpretive-historical approach. The results and discussion demonstrate that Islamic architecture is entirely indebted to the Sasanian architectural tradition in terms of its concept, status, and, administrative system but in construction technology scope, although Islamic architecture relies on the previous methods, some alterations have been made in the implementation form and materials to evolve the previous techniques.