Encyclopedia of Muhammad

History of Iran

The empire of ancient Persia referred to a series of imperial dynasties which were centered in Persia from the 6th century B.C., also known as the Achaemenid Empire era (Hakhamanshi). The first Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, the son of Cambyses I, 1 around 550 B.C., became one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Europe’s Balkan Peninsula in the West to India’s Indus Valley in the East. This Iron Age dynasty, was a global hub of culture, religion, science, art and technology for more than 200 years before it fell to the invading armies of Alexander the Great.

Although this area seemed to be developed, but the small ages of the empires which existed here suggest that the religious, social, and other systems of the society were extremely weak, because if their society had strong systems, they would have been able to repel off their enemies and sustain their civilization. Since their empires were plagued with corruption, lust for luxuries and power, only the remains of those civilization remain.

Mythological Founder

The founder of the Persian nation was Kaiomurs with the title of Gilshah, or king of the world. He established his capital at Balkh. The wild beasts of the forests were believed to have acknowledged his sway. They paid obeisance at his throne. Kaiomur’s ambition was to civilize the savage tribes of Asia. In these noble efforts he encountered violent opposition from the barbarians called Deeves; so, he sent his handsome son Siamek, with a powerful army to counter them. Among his auxiliaries were lions and tigers eager for the fray. But Siamek was slain in the battle which followed among the mountains.

Siamek had a son named Houscheng. He was placed at the head of a host that went forth to avenge the death of his father; and the Deeves were at last subdued. Kaiomurs died soon after this event, and Houscheng, wise, prudent, and just, succeeded to the throne. It was in his reign that the Persians became fire-worshippers, adoring flame as the symbol of God. Thamauras succeeded Houscheng, and he in turn was followed by Shah Djemsheed, one of the most celebrated monarchs of Persia. Djemsheed, during a reign of many years, accomplished much for the advancement of his people.

He introduced the use of iron, and weaving and embroidering of woolen, silk, and cotton stuffs; and divided his subjects into four castes or classes: priests, warriors, and traders; the fourth caste was composed of husbandmen, who bore the name of Nesoudi. 2

History

Iran was ‘the land of the Aryans’ (derived from the adjective aryana, ‘belonging to the Aryans,’ ‘the land of the Aryans), which became eran in Middle Persian and īrān in modern Persian. The term was preserved by the Iranian tribes and certainly existed in this sense during the 3rd millennium B.C. in western Siberia, in the cultural region of Andronovo where the Iranian tribes came from. After the migration of the Iranian tribes, their arrival on the present Iranian plateau, and the birth of the Median and Persian empires, the term acquired a more precise geographical meaning. It appeared in the Achaemenid inscriptions as the name for the entire territory of the empire. 3

The English name of the country was taken from one of its provinces, which the Greeks called Persis, and the Modern Persians call Pars or Fars, but the Persians themselves called the land Iran – the country of the Aryan or noble race – and tried to persuade themselves that it had existed as an independent kingdom for 6000 years, however, it was conquered and ruled by foreigners at countless times, resulting in independent states. 4

The term Persia was used for centuries, chiefly in the West, to designate those regions where Persian language and culture predominated, alternatively as Pars or Parsa, modern Fars. Parsa was the name of an Indo-European nomadic people who migrated into the region about 1000 B.C. The first mention of Parsa occurs in the annals of Shalmanesar II, an Assyrian king, in 844 B.C. During the rule of the Persian Achaemenian dynasty (559–330 B.C.), the ancient Greeks first encountered the inhabitants of Persis on the Iranian plateau, when the Achaemenids—natives of Persis—were expanding their political sphere. The Achaemenids were the dominant dynasty during Greek history until the time of Alexander the Great, and the use of the name Persia was gradually extended by the Greeks and other people to apply to the whole Iranian plateau. This tendency was reinforced with the rise of the Sasanian dynasty, also native to Persis, whose culture dominated the Iranian plateau until the 7th century A.D. The people of this area have traditionally referred to the region as Iran, ‘Land of the Aryans,’ and in 1935 the government of Iran requested that the name Iran be used in lieu of Persia. The two terms, however, are often used interchangeably when referring to periods preceding the 20th century. 5

Persia was first settled by Elm, son of Shem, who was the son of Noah . It is supposed that Chedorlaomer, 6 who lived in the time of Abraham , was one of the early kings. Persia also has the tomb of Daniel the Prophet, other prominent men of ancient times and the sepulchers of Mordecai and Queen Esther. 7

Around 2250 B.C., the Akkadians became a major force in Mesopotamia. They created what has been called the region’s first empire. It is thought that the Akkadians originally formed a part of the Sumerian civilization; however, they spoke a Semitic language that differed from Sumerian. By defeating the Sumerians, neighboring people called the Elamites, and other city-states, the Akkadians controlled a band of land that stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Their capital, Akkad, was just south of modern-day Baghdad. When their empire fell, around 2125 B.C., independent city-states appeared again. One of them, Ur, managed to extend its control beyond the Zagros Mountains.

Around 2000 B.C., the Babylonians emerged as a power and built a kingdom in the region. Babylon competed with Assyria for influence in Mesopotamia, and by about 1000 B.C. Assyria was the region’s main power. Around that time, a new people began to appear on the fringes of the Fertile Crescent—the Aryans. 8

It is also remarked as a Bible-land. By many, Persia has been claimed as the region where the Garden of Eden was situated; where Abraham was born; where Daniel prophesied. It was under the rule of Cyrus the Great, and the home of the wise men who were the first representatives of the gentiles who came to worship the Christ. When Assyria led the Jews captive to Babylon, it was Persia who humbled her power and vanity and restored Judah to her native land, to rebuild the house of the Lord.

Persia was added to the first Assyrian Empire by Minus about 2050 years B.C., appearing again in its independent state 1937 B.C., under Chedorlaomer. He allied with three other kings and conquered the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and three other kings of that region and made them pay him tribute. After 12 years of servitude, these kings rebelled. Chedorlaomer came again and gained a great victory and carried off a rich booty.

The great Assyrian monarchs conquered the northwestern part of Persia, which was inhabited by the Medes, a sister people to the Persians. They also extended their conquests to the westward and conquered Syria and Samaria. They carried off the ‘Ten Tribes of Israel’ into captivity and settled them in the land of the Medes, the regions about Lake Urmiya, and no doubt the descendants of the ‘Lost Tribes’ dwell in that part of Persia to this day. Under King Cyaxares, the Medes threw off the Assyrian yoke, and allied themselves with Nabopolasser, the father of the great Nebuchadnezzar, they captured and destroyed Nineveh in the year 606 B.C.

They then extended their conquests westward into Asia Minor, and many fierce wars were fought between the Medes and the Lydians. During one of these battles the sun was suddenly eclipsed and turned the day into a dark night. This terrified the combatants of both parties, to the extent that they became eager to conclude peace. The river Halys in Armenia was made the boundary line and the peace was cemented by a marriage between the daughter of a Lydian king and Astyages, the son of King Cyaxares. Cyaxares had some years before giving his daughter Amytis in marriage to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Upon the death of Cyaxares his son Astyages succeeded to the throne of Media, and about the same time the celebrated Croesus succeeded to the Lydian throne. Thus, the three great monarchs of that day, Nebuchadnezzar, Astyages and Croesus were brothers-in-law and formed a sort of triple alliance against the rising power of Persia. 9

After the formation of the great empire, Persia became a portion of the Kingdom of the Medes from 709 to 560 B.C. when Cyrus made the country independent, and on the death of Astyages, the Median King, annexed his country to Persia. 10 Cyrus the Great, who became king of Persia around 557 B.C. was the son of Cambyses I and the grandson of Cyrus 1, both of whom reigned over the empire. 11

After the death of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 562 B.C., and a series of short-lived kings, Nabonidus ascended the Babylonian throne in 556 B.C. and entered into an alliance with Cyrus for a campaign against Media. Cyrus captured the Median capital, Ecbatana, in 550 B.C. and incorporated it within his now enlarged kingdom, transferring its wealth to Persis. (The Greeks, however, continued to use the name ‘Medes’ for his enlarged kingdom of Persia.) After Media fell, King Croesus of Lydia took this opportunity, or made a pre-emptive strike, and launched an attack on Cyrus; but Cyrus repelled him and sacked the Lydian capital of Sardis in 547 B.C. At the same time, he obtained control over the Greek population of western Asia Minor, who had arrived during the Bronze Age and settled in Miletus and elsewhere. In 539 B.C., Cyrus turned on Babylon and added that too to his empire, as well as Syria. He also extended his power into central Asia as far as the River Jaxartes (Syr Darya). It was Cyrus who created the system of satrapies, provinces and regions ruled by a governor or satrap for the Great King. His empire was not the first in the Near East by a long way: there had been empires in Mesopotamia since the 3rd millennium, and both the conquered Assyria and the region of Elam had considerable influence on Achaemenid style. 12

During the rule of the Medes, the creed of the fire worshippers was initiated, its first success being the conversion of the King of Bactria to the new doctrines which spread rapidly, and though probably receiving a check at the time of the Persian conquest, yet they speedily became the established religion of the country under the Achaemenian dynasty.

Cyrus, when he had strengthened his position at home, led his armies into Asia Minor, conquering and taking captive Croesus, King of Lydia, a man famous in classic story for his wealth and misfortunes, and annexing all the Greek colonies lying in those regions. But his greatest exploit was the capture of Babylon, a city deemed to be impregnable, of immense wealth, and boasting a civilization far higher than that possessed by the Persians. With the downfall of this capital, Cyrus became master of Assyria, and his conquest contributed to raise Persia to the chief position in Asia.

According to a legend, Cyrus retired to a fountain in Azerbaijan, where he disappeared forever from the sight of men, but in reality, he died in battle against the Turanians or Tartars, and Cambyses (B.C. 529-522) succeeded him on the throne of Iran. Although the new monarch increased the Persian Empire by the conquest of Egypt, yet he was without his father's ability and was cruel to boot, causing his brother Smerdis to be put to death secretly on suspicion of conspiring against him, and when he himself died by an accident there was no heir to the imperial crown.

However, one of the Magi, or priests, strikingly like the murdered Smerdis, impersonated him, and ruled for a year before his imposture was discovered, when he was overthrown by the chief nobles of Persia, one of whom, under the title of Darius I, was raised to the vacant throne. And once again Persia had a monarch worthy of standing in the place of Cyrus, for Darius (B.C. 521-485) was a leader of men, a great general and a skillful ruler. He enlarged the borders of Persia eastward as far as the Indus; forcing his way northwards into Russia but here the elements obliged him to retreat—and then he turned his attention westwards, meeting a decline of his reign at the hands of the Greeks. The Persian army, mustering some fifty thousand men, all accustomed to war, and having hardly ever defeated, were utterly routed on the plains of Marathon by the patriotism and enthusiasm of the Greeks, who could only produce a force one-fifth of the size of the Persian host, which was compelled to return ignominiously to Persia.

Xerxes (B.C. 485-465), who succeeded Darius, was a man of ordinary ability, and was expected to do better than his father. However, he was determined to undertake the adventure which made his name notorious. He collected the largest army that had ever been known, to conquer the little people of Greece. The result was nothing but continuous defeats which broke the backbone of Persia.

On the death of Xerxes, the kingdom fell into the hands of incompetent rulers; Egypt was lost after being held by Persia for over a century, and disorder and anarchy were rife. 13 The Sassanid Empire was the last pre-Islamic Iranian dynasty that ruled over a large part of western Asia. 14 The Sassanid Persians emerged in the 3rd century in Iran then later throughout most of the Middle East and Central Asia. 15

Dynasties

The Median Empire

The first Aryan tribe to rise to power in Persia was that of Medes, who inhabited the country north of Pars, with their capital at Hagmatana, the classical Ecbatana and the modern Hamadan. It is generally accepted that the Medes and the Persians began to occupy what is now termed Persia about 2000 B.C. 16 The Medes were an Iranian-speaking people whose empire incorporated territory in northern Iran, northern Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, and Armenia in the 9th through 6th centuries B.C. Their homeland was in northwestern Iran, centered around the city of Hamadan, which the Medes called Ecbatana, ‘Place of Assembly’. In the 7th century B.C. an ambitious Median king, Cyaxares, expanded his territory into Turkey, the Caucasus, and Afghanistan by conquering the Urarteans and other people in northern Iran and Armenia and the Assyrians in northern Mesopotamia.

The Medes were Indo-Iranians who, along with other Iranian speakers such as the Persians, moved into the region of present-day northwestern Iran possibly around 1500 B.C. According to Herodotus, the 5th century B.C. Greek historian, the Medes were made up of six separate tribes: Busae, Paretaceni, Struchates, Arizanti, Budii, and Magi. The name of the last of these tribal groups was also the general term used for Zoroastrian priests, indicating that this tribe was of a priestly class or was responsible for sacrifices and other rituals.

The written history of the Medes began in approximately 840 B.C. when the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III mentioned receiving tribute from them. The Medes were also mentioned in chronicles of later Assyrian kings, who forced them to give tribute, and it is apparent that the Medes were a frequent source of trouble for the Assyrians.

According to Herodotus, the first Median king was Deiokes, a tribal leader reputated for being fair and honest in his dealings. As a result, Medes from all six tribes came to him for his judgment on both civil and criminal complaints. Eventually all the tribal leaders got together and proclaimed Deiokes, the king of all six tribes as well as the supreme judge. In exchange, Deiokes requested that a seven-walled citadel to be built for his protection; he also asked for the right to conduct all business and court cases in writing rather than in person. The Deiokes saga as described by Herodotus, however, is usually seen as an origin myth told to the Greek author by Persian sources. Alternatively, Herodotus himself may have pieced together various oral histories and legends to create his written text.

Sometime during the second half of the 7th century B.C., Phraortes and his son Cyaxares united all the Median tribes into a kingdom, after a 28-year period of domination by invading Scythians from the Black Sea steppes. The Medes then conquered the Mannae, a settled people in northwestern Iran, while Cyaxeres invaded the Urartean kingdom around Lake Van in present-day Armenia and added it to his domain. In 612 B.C. Cyaxeres allied with Nabopolassar, king of Babylonia, and their two armies destroyed the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, near present-day Mosul in Iraq; by 606 B.C., Assyrian power had been vanquished. Cyaxeres invaded Lydia in Asia Minor, but the rulers of Babylonia and Cilicia negotiated a peace settlement after five years of fighting. Media and Lydia agreed that the Halys River would serve as their common border.

Their final battle, known as the Battle of Halys or the Battle of the Eclipse, on May 30, 585 B.C., is sometimes recorded as the first ancient battle having an exact date. Soon after reaching the apex of Median power, Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, lost his father’s empire to the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 550 B.C. Astyages was actually the grandfather of Cyrus, a daughter of Astyages having been given in marriage to a Persian who became Cyrus’s father. When the Median king fell into disfavor with his nobles, they captured him and handed him over to Cyrus, who proceeded to form a new empire that included Media and its territories.

As an Iranian, the Medes seem to have been absorbed by the Persians with little difficulty. Medes occupied important military and political positions in the Persian Empire and stood second only to the Persians themselves in status. The Median court rituals were said to have been adopted by the Persians, and the Median capital, Ecbatana, became the summer residence of the Persian kings. 17

Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenids were an ancient Iranian people from the Pars province of southern Iran. Achaemenid kings founded one of the great Iranian dynasties, that gained prominence under Cyrus the Great in about 550 B.C. and faded with the defeat of Darius III by Alexander the Great of Macedonia in 330 B.C. The empire extended from the Indus River in present day Pakistan to the Mediterranean Sea. The Achaemenids formed the first dynasty of what is often referred to as the Persian Empire.

The term Achaemenid originated from a Greek phrase meaning, the family of Achaemenes. Achaemenes is thought to have been a minor 7th century ruler of Ansham in southwestern Iran and the supposed ancestor of Cyrus the Great. Some scholars believe that Achaemenes was a fictional character created by the later Achaemenid King Darius I, who ruled from 522 to 486 B.C., to legitimize his own lineage and claim the throne. 18

The Achaemenian rule of conquered people was generally liberal; the empire was divided into provinces (satrapies), each administered by a satrap who underwent frequent inspections by officials reporting directly to the king. 19

Later on, satraps carved out their own islands of power. Inflation began to bite as taxes kept rising. Even the multiculturalism of the Empire, initially its great strength, had its drawbacks; the huge army was a bewildering ragbag of troops all trained and equipped according to their own traditions, speaking different languages.

In 401 B.C., Cyrus the Younger, Satrap of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, staged a coup against his brother Artaxerxes II (404–358 B.C.) with the help of 10,000 Greek mercenaries who returned home when the coup failed. The information they brought back paved the way for the triumphant arrival of Alexander the Great in 334 B.C. 20

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire was the last pre-Islamic Iranian dynasty that ruled over a large part of western Asia. Following the Achaemenid dynasty, they are considered one of the most powerful and famous Iranian dynasties that influenced the evolution of Iranian culture during their 400-year sovereignty. The dynastic name was derived from Sasan, who is said to have been father or grandfather of Ardashir I, also called Artaxerxes. 21 It existed from 226-651 A.D. and emerged from the preceding Parthian Dynasty. The core territory of the empire was Iran and at its territorial height it stretched from the eastern edge of modern turkey to what is now western Pakistan. 22

Ardashir I, defeated Ardawan (Artabanus IV) at the plain of Hormozgan in 224 A.D. and established the Sasanian Empire. From then on, Ardashir gained the title of ‘King of Kings’ and began the conquest of a territory which would be called Iranshahr. But before this fateful battle between the last Arsacid king and the institutor of the Sasanian dynasty, much had happened internally and externally in order for this new dynasty to come to power. 23

The Sasanians then initiated a process that reinstated the values of Iranian culture. Although certainly still Hellenized, they started ‘Iranization’ unlike the Parthians before them: Zoroastrianism became one of the founding stones of the Empire. However, some of the Sasanian kings even married Jewish and Christian women.

For 400 years, the Sasanian Empire was the major power in the Near East as the rival of the Late Roman Empire. Not only that, but they sustained relations with the Tang Dynasty of China and several Indian Kingdoms where their products and culture were held in high esteem. 25

 

  • 1 John Curtis & Nigel Tallis (2005), Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia, The British Museum Press, London, U.K., Pg. 12.
  • 2 S. G. W. Benjamin (1889), Persia, T. Fisher Unwin, London, U.K., Pg. 1-2.
  • 3 Encyclopedia Iranica (Online Version): http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/geography-i Retrieved: 04-02-2019.
  • 4 H. F. Haig (1923), Persia, A. & C. Black Ltd., London, U.K., Pg. 1.
  • 5 Encyclopedia Britannica (Online Version): https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Iran Retrieved: 08-09-2018.
  • 6 King of Elam (The Bible, Genesis 14:1). He made conquests as far west as Canaan and exercised supremacy over its southeastern part. The Jewish Encyclopedia (Online Version): http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4283-chedorlaomer Retrieved: 04-02-2019
  • 7 Samuel K. Nweeya (1913), Persia: The Land of the Magi or The Home of the Wise Men, Urmia City, Iran, Pg. 20.
  • 8 Touraj Daryaee (2009), Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire, I. B. Tauris, London, U.K., Pg. 2-3.
  • 9 Isaac Adams (1900), Persia by a Persian, N.P., Washington, USA, Pg. 77-79.
  • 10 John Piggot (1874), Persian – Ancient and Modern, Henry S. King and Co. London, U.K.., Pg. 1.
  • 11 John Curtis & Nigel Tallis (2005), Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia, The British Museum Press, London, U.K., Pg. 12.
  • 12 Richard Stoneman (2015), Xerxes: A Persian Life, Yale University Press, London, U.K.., Pg. 35-36.
  • 13 Ella C. Sykes (1910), Persia and its People, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, U.K.., Pg. 13-15.
  • 14 Marsha E. Ackermann, Michael J. Schroeder, Janice J. Terry, Jiu-Hua Lo Upshur & Mark F. Whitters (2008), Encyclopedia of World History, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 412.
  • 15 Barbara A. West (2009), Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 662.
  • 16 Percy Sykes (1922), Persia, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, U.K.., Pg. 7.
  • 17 Barbara A. West (2009), Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 517-518.
  • 18 Jamie Stokes (2009), Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 2.
  • 19 Encyclopedia Britannica (Online Version): https://www.britannica.com/topic/Achaemenian-dynasty Retrieved: 04-02-2019.
  • 20 Ancient History Encyclopedia (Online): https://www.ancient.eu/Achaemenid_Empire/ Retrieved: 04-02-2019
  • 21 Marsha E. Ackermann, Michael J. Schroeder, Janice J. Terry, Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur & Mark F. Whitters (2008), Encyclopedia of World History: The Ancient World, Pre-Historic Eras to 600 C.E, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 412.
  • 22 Jamie Stokes (2009), Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 601.
  • 23 Touraj Daryaee (2009), Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire, I. B. Tauris, London, U.K., Pg. 2-3.}} {{p | Ardashir at best was a regional king, a native of Fars, who overthrew his Parthian ruler suzerain, consolidated and expanded his power over much of the Iranian plateau, established a new dynastic family, and founded an empire. This new empire, which was similar to the Achaemenian Empire in area and size, was based on an effective bureaucracy and military, on the wealth and trade of the Middle East and Central Asia, and on an alliance between ruler-ship and Zoroastrianism. It was in this period that Zoroastrianism was institutionalized. [foot, en, 24, G. R. Garthwaite (2005), The Persians, Blackwell Publishing, Victoria, Australia, Pg. 86.
  • 25 Ancient History Encyclopedia (Online Version): https://www.ancient.eu/Sasanian_Empire/ Retrieved: 04-02-2019.