An empire created by the Achaemenids in the second half of the 6th-c BC through their conquests of the Medes, Babylonians, Lydians, and Egyptians, extending from NW India to the E Mediterranean. Although it was overthrown by Alexander the Great in the 330s BC, its administrative structure, the satrapal system, survived.
| History of Iran Empires of Persia - Kings of Persia Proto-Elamite civilization (3200–2700 BCE) Jiroft civilization (3000–5th c. BCE) Median Empire (728–550 BCE) Achaemenid Empire (648–330 BCE) Seleucid Empire (330–150 BCE) Parthian Empire (250 BCE– 226 CE) Sassanid Dynasty (226–650) Patriarchal Caliphate (637–651) Umayyad Caliphate (661-750) Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258) Tahirid dynasty (821–873) Alavid dynasty (864–928) Saffarid dynasty (861–1003) Samanid dynasty (875–999) Ziyarid dynasty (928–1043) Buwayhid dynasty (934–1055) Ghaznavid Empire (963–1187) Ghori dynasty (1149–1212) Seljukid Empire (1037–1194) Khwarezmid dynasty (1077–1231) Ilkhanate (1256–1353) Muzaffarid dynasty (1314–1393) Chupanid dyansty (1337–1357) Jalayerid dynasty (1339–1432) Timurid Empire (1370–1506) Qara Qoyunlu Turcomans (1407–1468) Aq Qoyunlu Turcomans (1378–1508) Safavid Empire (1501–1722/1736) Hotaki Ghilzai dynasty (1722–1729) Afsharid dynasty (1736–1802) Zand dynasty (1750–1794) Qajar dynasty (1781–1925) Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979) Iranian Revolution (1979) Provisional Government (1979–1980) Islamic Republic of Iran (1980–Present) |
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The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau (Irān - "Land of the Aryans") and beyond. Generally, the earliest entity considered a part of the Persian Empire is Persia's Achaemenid dynasty (648–330 BC), a united Aryan kingdom that originated in the region now known as Pars province of Iran and was formed under Cyrus the Great.
Name
Persia has long been used by the West to describe the nation of Iran, its people, and its ancient empires. It derives from the ancient Greek name for Iran's maritime province, called Fars in the modern Persian language, Pars in Middle Persian and Pārsā in Old Persian, a word meaning "above reproach".
This area was the core of the original Persian Empire.
History
Achaemenid Empire (648 BC–330 BC)
The earliest known record of the Persians comes from an Assyrian inscription from c. Eventually the Medes came to rule an independent Median Empire, and the Persians were subject to them.
The Achaemenids were the first to create a centralized state in Persia, founded by Achaemenes (Hakhamanish), chieftain of the Persians around 700 BC.
Around 653 BC, the Medes came under the domination of the Scythians, and Teispes, the son of Achaemenes, seems to have led the nomadic Persians to settle in southern Iran around this time — eventually establishing the first organized Persian state in the important region of Anshan as the Elamite kingdom was permanently destroyed by the Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal (640 BC).
Teispes' descendants branched off into two lines, one line ruling in Anshan, while the other ruled the rest of Persia. At this time, the Persians were still tributary to the Median Empire ruled by Astyages. Cyrus rallied the Persians together, and in 550 BC defeated the forces of Astyages, who was then captured by his own nobles and turned over to the triumphant Cyrus, now Shah of a unified Persian kingdom. As Persia assumed control over the rest of Media and their large empire, Cyrus led the united Medes and Persians to still more conquest.
Cyrus' son, Cambyses II, annexed Egypt to the Achaemenid Empire. The empire then reached its greatest extent under Darius I.
The Achaemenid Empire was the largest and most powerful empire the world had yet seen.
Darius built the famous Royal Road by improving ancient trade routes, thereby connecting far reaches of the empire. This was not only good for the empire's subjects, but ultimately benefited the Achaemenids, since the conquered peoples felt no need to revolt.
It was during the Achaemenid period that Zoroastrianism reached South-Western Iran, where it came to be accepted by the rulers and through them became a defining element of Persian culture. Under the patronage of the Achaemenid kings, and by the 5th century BC as the de-facto religion of the state, Zoroastrianism would reach all corners of the empire.
The Achaemenid Empire united people and kingdoms from every major civilization in south west Asia.
Hellenistic Persia (330 BC–150 BC)
The later years of the Achaemenid dynasty were marked by decay and decadence. The greatest empire of the time collapsed in only eight years, when it fell under the attack of a young Macedonian king, Alexander the Great.
The Achaemenid Empire's weakness was exposed to the Greeks in 401 BC, when the Satrap of Sardis hired ten thousand Greek mercenaries to help secure his claim to the imperial throne (see Xenophon, Anabasis).
Philip II of Macedon, leader of most of Greece, and his son Alexander decided to take advantage of this weakness. After Philip's death, Alexander looked toward Persia. The Achaemenid Empire was now in Alexander's hands.
Along his route of conquest, Alexander founded many colony cities, all named "Alexandria". For the next several centuries, these cities served to greatly extend Greek, or Hellenistic, culture in Persia.
Alexander's empire broke up shortly after his death, and Alexander's general, Seleucus I Nicator, tried to take control of Persia, Mesopotamia, and later Syria and Asia Minor.
Greek colonization continued until around 250 BC; Throughout Alexander's former empire, Greek became the common tongue of diplomacy and literature. Incredible statues of the Buddha in classical Greek styles have been found in Persia and Afghanistan, illustrating the mix of cultures that occurred around this time (See Greco-Buddhism), although it is possible that Greco-Buddhist art dates from Achaemenid times when Greek artists worked for the Persians.
The Seleucid kingdom began to decline rather quickly. King Antiochus III's military leadership kept Parthia from overrunning Persia itself, but his successes alarmed the burgeoning Roman Republic. At the same time, the Seleucids had to contend with the revolt of the Maccabees in Judea and the expansion of the Kushan Empire to the east. The empire fell apart and was conquered by Parthia and Rome.
Parthian Confederacy (150 BC–AD 226)
Its rulers, the Arsacid dynasty, belonged to an Iranian tribe that had settled there during the time of Alexander.
The Parthian Confederacy shared a border with Rome along the upper Euphrates River.
During the Parthian period, Hellenistic customs partially gave way to a resurgence of Persian culture. However, the empire lacked political unity. The administration was shared between Seven Parthian clans who constituted the Dahae Confederation, each of these clans governed a province of the empire. Wars with Rome to the west and the Kushan Empire to the northeast drained the country's resources.
Parthia, now impoverished and without any hope to recover the lost territories, was demoralized. It also meant the beginning of the third Persian Empire, ruled by the Sassanid kings. Sassanids were from the province of Persis, native to the first Persian Empire, the Achaemenids.
Sassanid Empire (226–651)
Ardashir I, led a rebellion against the Parthian Confederacy in an attempt to revive the glory of the previous empire and to legitimize the hellenized form of Zoroastrianism practised in south western Iran. In two years he was the Shah of a new Persian Empire.
The Sassanid dynasty (also Sassanian) (named for Ardashir's grandfather) was the first dynasty native to the Pars province since the Achaemenids;
The Sassanid Empire, unlike Parthia, was a highly centralized state. Zoroastrianism was finally made the official state religion, and spread outside Persia proper and out into the provinces. The Catholic (Orthodox) Christian church was particularly persecuted, but this was in part due to its ties to the Roman Empire.
The wars and religious control that had fueled The Sassanid empire's early successes eventually contributed to its decline. Khosrau I was able to recover his empire and expand into the Christian countries of Antioch and Yemen.
However, a subsequent war with the Romans utterly destroyed the empire. Meanwhile, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius had successfully outflanked the Persian armies in Asia Minor and attacked the empire from the rear while the main Iranian army along with its top Eran Spahbods were far from battlefields. (Note: The official religion of the Sassanid empire was Zoroastrianism.
Following the advent of Islam and collapse of Sassanid Empire, Persians came under the subjection of Arab rulers for almost two centuries before native Persian dynasties could gradually drive them out.
Also some Turkic tribes settled in Persia between the 9th and 12th centuries.
In time these peoples were integrated into numerous Persian populations and adopted Persian culture and language while Persians retained their culture with minimal influence from outside.
Islam and Persia (650–1219)
The explosive growth of the Arab Caliphate coincided with the chaos caused by the defeat of Sassanids in wars with the Byzantine Empire. Persia's conquest by Islamic Arab armies marks the transition into "medieval" Persia.
Yazdgerd III, the last Sasanian emperor, died ten years after he lost his empire to the newly-formed Muslim Caliphate.
The Arab empire, ruled by the Umayyad Dynasty, was the largest state in history up to that point. The Umayyads borrowed heavily from Persian and Byzantine administrative systems and moved their capital to Damascus, in the center of their empire. The Umayyads would rule Persia for a hundred years.
The Arab conquest dramatically changed life in Persia. During this time and because of the vast reaches of the Arab empire, many Persian (Iranian) scholars had a direct impact on the European Renaissance centuries later (See full list here).
In 750 the Umayyads were ousted from power by the Abbasid dynasty. By that time, Persians had come to play an important role in the bureaucracy of the empire ISBN 1-84212-011-5.
But political unrest continued. In 819, Samanids carved out an independent state in eastern Persia to become the first native rulers after the Arabic conquest.
In 913, western Persia was conquered by the Buwayhid, a Deylamite tribal confederation from the shores of the Caspian Sea. Rather than a province of a united Muslim empire, Iran became one nation in an increasingly diverse and cultured Islamic world.
Turkic rule (1037–1219)
The Muslim world was shaken again in 1037 with the invasion of the Seljuk Turks from the northeast. The Seljuks created a very large Middle Eastern empire.
In the early 13th century the Seljuks lost control of Persia to another group of Turks from Khwarezmia, near the Aral Sea. The Shahs of the Khwarezmid Empire ruled for only a short while, however, because they had to face the most feared conqueror in history: Genghis Khan.
Under the Mongols and their successors (1219–1500)
In 1218, Genghis Khan sent ambassadors and merchants to the city of Otrar, on the northeastern confines of the Khwarizm shahdom.
Genghis' grandson, Hulagu Khan, finished what Genghis had begun when he conquered Khwarzim Empire, Baghdad, and much of the rest of the Middle East from 1255 to 1258. Iran became the Ilkhanate, a division of the vast Mongol Empire.
In 1295, after Ilkhan Mahmud Ghazan converted to Islam, he renounced all allegiance to the Emperor Chengzong of Yuan China who had recently succeeded his grandfather Kublai Khan as Great Khan.
In 1335, the death of Abu Sa'id, the last well-recognized Ilkhan, spelled the end of the Ilkhanate. This left Iran open to still more conquest at the hands of Timur the Lame or Tamerlane, a Central Asian conqueror seeking to revive the Mongol Empire. He conquered a wide area and made his own city of Samarkand rich, but he made no effort to forge a lasting empire.
For the next hundred years Persia was not a unified state.
Safavid dynasty (1500–1722)
The Safavid Dynasty hailed from the town of Ardabil in the region of Azarbaijan. The Safavid Shah Ismail I overthrew the White Sheep Turkish rulers of Persia to found a new native Persian empire. Ismail expanded Persia to include all of present-day Azerbaijan, Iran, and Iraq, plus much of Afghanistan. Ismail's expansion was halted by the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, and war with the Ottomans became a fact of life in Safavid Iran.
Safavid Persia was a violent and chaotic state for the next seventy years, but in 1588 Shah Abbas I of Safavid ascended to the throne and instituted a cultural and political renaissance.
The Safavids were followers of Shi'a Islam, and under them Persia (Iran) became the largest Shi'a country in the Muslim world, a position Iran still holds today.
Under the Safavids Iran enjoyed its last period as a major imperial power. In 1639, a final border was agreed upon with the Ottoman Empire with the Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin;
Persia and Europe (1722–1914)
In 1722, the Safavid state collapsed. That year saw the first European invasion of Persia since the time of Alexander: Peter the Great, Emperor of Imperial Russia, invaded from the northwest as part of a bid to dominate central Asia.
The country was able to weather the invasions;
The Persian empire experienced a temporary revival under Nadir Shah in the 1730s and 1740s. However, his empire declined after his death. Iran was left unprepared for the worldwide expansion of European colonial empires in the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century.
Persia found relative stability in the Qajar dynasty, ruling from 1779 to 1925, but lost hope to compete with the new industrial powers of Europe; Persia found itself sandwiched between the growing Russian Empire in Central Asia and the expanding British Empire in India. Each carved out pieces from the Persian empire that became Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan amongst other previous provinces.
Although Persia was never directly invaded, it gradually became economically dependent on Europe.
At the same time Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar had granted a concession to William Knox D'Arcy, later the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, to explore and work the newly-discovered oil fields at Masjid Soleiman in southwest Persia, which started production in 1914.
See also: The Great GameWorld War I and the interbellum (1914–1935)
Persia was drawn into the periphery of World War I because of its strategic position between Afghanistan and the warring Ottoman, Russian, and British Empires. The German Empire retaliated on behalf of its ally by spreading a rumour that Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany had converted to Islam, and sent agents through Iran to attack the oil fields and raise a Jihad against British rule in India.
In 1916 the fighting between Russian and Ottoman forces to the north of the country had spilt down into Persia; In 1918 a small force of 400 British troops under General Dunsterville moved into the Trans-Caucasus from Persia in a bid to encourage local resistance to German and Ottoman armies who were about to invade the Baku oilfields.
By World War I, Persia was not the world power it had once been. It had become a tool in the political battles of other empires. In 1919, northern Persia was occupied by the British General William Edmund Ironside to enforce the Turkish Armistice conditions and assist General Dunsterville and Colonel Bicherakhov contain Bolshevik influence (of Mirza Kuchak Khan) in the north.
In 1925, Reza Shah Pahlavi seized power from the Qajars and established the new Pahlavi dynasty, the last Persian monarchy before the establishment of the Islamic Republic. However, Britain and the Soviet Union remained the influential powers in Persia into the early years of the Cold War.
On March 21, 1935, Iran was officially accepted as the new name of the country. After Persian scholars' protests to this decision, in 1953 Mohammad Reza Shah announced both names "Iran" and "Persia" could be used.
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