Richard Payne is Director of the Chicago Initiative for Global Late Antiquity, and Associate Professor in the Department of History, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the Oriental Institute, at the University of Chicago. He is a historian of the Iranian world in late antiquity, ca. 200–800 CE. His research focuses primarily on the dynamics of Iranian imperialism, specifically how the Iranian (or Sasanian) Empire successfully integrated socially, culturally, and geographically disparate populations from Arabia to Afghanistan into enduring political networks and institutions. His recent book, A State of Mixture: Christians, Zoroastrians, and Iranian Political Culture in Late Antiquity, explores the problem of religious diversity within the empire, showing how Syriac-writing Christians could create a place for themselves in a political culture not of their own making. He is currently at work on the role of Zoroastrian religious institutions and the intersection of ideological and material dimensions in Iranian history. He also maintains interests in the social history of Christian and Zoroastrian communities in the early Islamic world, the interaction of the Near East with Central and Inner Asia, and the comparative study of ancient empires in the Near East and the Mediterranean from the Akkadians to the Romans.
Affiliation as of June 2025: Associate Professor of History, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, ISAC and the College, The University of Chicago.
Email: repayne@uchicago.edu
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