From the beginning of this article, Middle Eastern civilization entered the period of Persian Empire civilization. Persian civilization was the earliest Middle Eastern civilization to come into contact with Chinese civilization since recorded history. It began with the rise of the Persians led by Cyrus II in the mid-6th century BC and ended with the rise of the Saudi Arabians in the mid-7th century AD. It spanned more than 1,200 years and spanned the Achaemenid Dynasty, Parthian Empire and Sasanian Empire three periods.
During these three periods, Persia continued to have wars with the surrounding ancient and powerful empires. It ruled a large area from the Black Sea Central Asia in the north of today's Turkey for a long time, and its influence was extremely far-reaching. To this day, many Persian arts and crafts and buildings are still preserved in Iran, Iraq and other places, and there are still many believers in the ancient Persian religion "Zoroastrianism".
Not only that, the development of the Persian Empire made chess widely spread in Eurasia. Even the roots of the English vocabulary for bazaar, orange and lemon are derived from Persian.
So understanding Persia is crucial for us to understand the current Middle East and fill the gaps in the history of the Middle East. Next, let us walk into the ancient Persian civilization.
. The origin of ancient Persian civilization
After experiencing the previous two civilizations ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia, we can understand that if we want to understand a civilization, we cannot just focus on it. At its most glorious moment, it is also very necessary to understand the ins and outs of this civilization.
As a close neighbor of ancient Mesopotamia, Iran (including today's Iran, Iraq and other places) also has a very long prehistoric culture. According to the evidence available to archaeologists, during the Paleolithic period, important Persian cities such as the coast of Lake Urmia, the Zagros Mountains, Khorasan, the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, Khuzestan, and Fars The surrounding areas already have extensive relics of extensive human activities.
From 7000 BC to 5000 BC, Iran entered the era of "Agricultural Revolution". A large number of stone farm tool fragments and livestock bone fossils were unearthed in the above areas. From 5000 BC to 3500 BC, Iran entered the period of prehistoric Chalcolithic use. Beginning in 3500 BC, various parts of Iran entered the Bronze Age one after another. Local residents had frequent contacts with Mesopotamia and Central Asia. Metallurgy and pottery became increasingly mature, and hieroglyphic writing symbols gradually took shape.
The first people to shine the light of civilization in ancient Iran were the Elamites in Khuzestan in the southwest. During our journey to Mesopotamian civilization, we mentioned the Elamite Kingdom many times, which almost ran through the entire history of ancient Mesopotamian civilization.
The Elamites are the indigenous people living in Khuzestan. Their language is quite similar to the Sumerians and the Dravidians, the earliest founders of ancient Indian civilization. According to the speculations of existing scholars, Elamite is related to Baluchi in southeastern Iran today, Brahui in southern Afghanistan, Tamil, Telugu, Aina, German and The Dravidian language in Sri Lanka is related to inheritance and is one of the earliest hieroglyphic scripts used for writing records in human history.
Beginning in 3000 BC, Elamite evolved into a linear font, and then evolved into another cuneiform font, which modern scholars have successfully interpreted. Between the 27th century BC and the 7th century BC, the Elamite civilization entered the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and entered the stage of ancient Iranian civilization. In Khuzestan in southwestern Iran, as well as west of Fars and south of Lorestan, they interacted with the Sumerians, Akkadians , Amorites , Assyrians , Chaldeans The influence has written the splendid human civilization.
From 2700 BC to 2550 BC, the first war in recorded history broke out between the Sumerian city-states Kish and Lagash and the Elamites. After the Sumerian Akkadian Empire unified southern Mesopotamia, it also conquered the Elamite city-states Susa and Awan many times.King Naram-Sin of Akkadian also concluded an alliance with the Elamite city-state of Susa, which was engraved on clay tablets in Akkadian and Elamite in cuneiform script, and was found by archaeologists at the Susa site. Excavate.
In 2230 BC, the Kuti people in the northwest of the Zagros Mountains destroyed the Akkadian Kingdom. The Elamites got rid of the threat of Mesopotamian civilization and made great progress. By 2112 BC, the heyday of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Elam was attached to the rulers of the Third Dynasty of Ur. In 2004 BC, the Elamites invaded southern Mesopotamia and destroyed the Third Dynasty of Ur. In 1764 BC, Hammurabi, the great monarch of the ancient Babylonian kingdom , went on an expedition to Elam. The Elam kingdom was conquered, and "Elam" disappeared from literary records for hundreds of years.
It was not until 1300 BC to 1100 BC that the word "Elam" reappeared in literary records. The Elamites initially formed an alliance with the Kassites to stabilize their political power. In 1158 BC, they invaded southern Mesopotamia, defeated the Kassites, sacked Babylon, and removed the statues of Marduk and Hammu. The Rabbinic Code stone carvings and the Manish Tusu obelisk were plundered to Susa. This is also the reason why the stele of the Code of Hammurabi was excavated in Iran.
At the end of the 8th century BC, Elam again submitted to the powerful Assyrian empire , but after its decline, Elam formed an alliance with the Chaldeans in the south. In 596 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom established by the Chaldeans went on an expedition to Elam and captured Elam Sussa. Soon after, Cyrus II founded the Persian Empire, and Elam was included in the territory of the Persian Empire and became a province of the Persian Empire.
Although the development history of the Elamite civilization as an independent civilization has ended, there are still deep historical origins and cultural heritage between the Elamite civilization and the Persian Achaemenid dynasty that later entered the stage of history.
Cyrus II, the founder of the Achaemenid dynasty, had the Elamite name "Kuraish". The inscriptions on the Behistun stone are also recorded in ancient Persian , Akkadian and Elamite. Moreover, during the Achaemenid and Parthian dynasties, the Elamites were still an important ethnic group in southwestern Iran. Until the European Middle Ages, Elamite had been the mainstream language in Khuzestan.
2. The process of the ancient Persians coming to the forefront
As can be seen from the previous article, the ancient Persians were not the indigenous residents of Iran. So when did they start entering Iran?
This involves another ethnic group, the "Aryans". In the broad sense, Aryans generally refer to various races of the Indo-European language family . In the narrow sense, Aryans refer specifically to several branch groups of the Indo-Iranian language family in Asia. In this sense, both ancient India and ancient Persia belong to the Indo-Iranian language family. The best proof is that "Aryan" means "noble" in Sanskrit and means "faith" in ancient Persian.
It is for this reason that the ancient Persians called their hometown "Iran", which means "the country of the Aryans". For the same reason, the Persian government officially changed its name to "Iran" in 1935.
Around 2000 BC, affected by climate change, different ethnic groups in the Indo-European language family experienced a wave of migration. A large number of ethnic groups moved to the Mediterranean coast of southern Europe, and another large group moved to the Central Asian grasslands in the hinterland of Asia. The Indo-European groups that entered the Central Asian grasslands gradually developed into two groups: the Iranian language family and the Indian (Sanskrit) language family.
Most of the Iranian-speaking people migrated westward from the Central Asian steppes, passing through Khorasan and the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, and entered the Zagros Mountains in western Iran. This group of people divided into two groups. Among them, the ethnic group living in the central and northern Zagros Mountains, which has long ruled the Kermanshah, Hamadan area, and the south bank of Lake Urmia, is called the "Medes" in history. ", and the ethnic group living in the southern part of the Zagros Mountains and controlling the Parsa area is the protagonist of this article, the "Persians".
It is worth mentioning that this migration also involved China's Shang Dynasty Wu Ding period. A group of Aryans from Central Asia migrated eastward and met the Shang Dynasty army. Oracle records : "Fu Hao led the army to the west. , beheaded more than 20,000 people." Effectively prevented the Aryans from infiltrating into the eastern Central Plains. Fu Hao has also made outstanding contributions to the protection of Chinese civilization.
Turning his sights back to Central Asia, just as the Elamites were declining, the Medes entered the political stage of Iran. But compared to the frequent exchanges between the Elamites and Mesopotamia, there are very few historical records about the Medes. Even in the historical documents of the ancient Greek era, information about the Medes is very scarce. What is even more regrettable is that the Mede cultural sites excavated by archaeologists in recent years are also extremely limited.
The earliest reference to the Medes is an Assyrian inscription from 836 BC, and the area where they lived was called "Pasua". After that, relevant records disappeared for hundreds of years. Later, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus also mentioned the Medes many times in his book "History", but there is still a lack of supporting evidence from relevant historical materials and archaeological evidence, and their credibility is questionable.
According to Assyrian inscriptions and scattered records from classical era Greeks, after the Medes moved into northwest Iran, they were divided into six groups and attached to the Assyrian Empire in the form of a tribal alliance. In 678 BC, the Median tribal alliance developed into the Kingdom of Media1, with its capital at Ecbatana (near today's Hamadan, a city in northwestern Iran). It went through four kings. In 612 BC, the Medes and Chaldeans formed an alliance, destroyed the Assyrian Empire, and captured Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire.
After that, a protracted war broke out between the Kingdom of Media and the Kingdom of Urartu, with both sides winning or losing. At its peak, it once controlled a vast area in eastern Anatolia, Khorasan in northeastern Iran, and the Persian Gulf coast in southwestern Iran. At this time, the Persians were just one of the many vassals of the Mede Kingdom.
Between 585 BC and 550 BC, Astyages, the last king of the Media, married the Persians and married his daughter to the leader of the Persian Achaemenid tribe Cambyses I , and they had a child. His son was Cyrus II.
In 559 BC, Cyrus II raised his troops to rebel against the Media, captured the Median capital Ecbatana, captured the Median king alive, destroyed the Median kingdom, and established the Achaemenid dynasty. The Iranian region finally entered the era of the Persian Empire. After the establishment of the Persian Empire, the Medes were gradually assimilated into the Persians.
3.The First Persian Empire
Based on the existing inscriptions and archaeological data, it can be preliminarily judged that the Persians are not a blood group in the true sense. They are Persian tribes who moved to the Fars area in southwest Iran and gradually merged with the local aborigines. A specific ethnic group formed after fusion.
Persian identity is a regional ethnic identity that transcends blood ethnic identity. This identity directly affected the social and political foundation of the subsequent "Achaemenid Dynasty".
In the currently known historical documents, the earliest Persian leader to emerge was Achaemenid, the leader of the Achaemenid clan in the Pasargadi tribe. In 700 BC, under his leadership, the Persians submitted to King Anshan of Elam. In the middle of the 7th century BC, Theispes, the son of Achaemenids, became the leader of the Persians and attached themselves to the Kingdom of Medes.
In 670 BC, the Persians allied themselves with the Medes and rebelled against the Assyrian king Sennacrib. After the Medes were defeated by the Scythians, the Persians occupied Anshan, the old capital of Elam. The Persian leader Teispes claimed to be king of Anshan and governed the Elamite territories.
According to the inscription on the Ariaramnes gold plate, after the death of Ironispes, Cyrus I, the eldest son of Ironispes, occupied Anshan and inherited the "King of Anshan", and the second son Ariyaramnes occupied Fars. Successor to "King of Persia".
Assyrian inscriptions record that King Cyrus I of Anshan sent his son Aruku to Nineveh, Assyria, as a hostage and attached to the Assyrian Empire.After his death, his son Cambyses I rebelled against the Assyrian Empire and surrendered to the Mede Kingdom. Later, the king of the Median Kingdom married Cambyses I and gave birth to Cyrus II.
In 559 BC, after the death of Cambyses I, Cyrus II became King Anshan. He first concentrated his efforts to unify the Persian tribes in Fars, established the Achaemenid dynasty in Pasargadi, 75 kilometers northwest of Anshan City, and abolished the "Persian" dynasty of his uncle. "King" throne, integrating royal power into one body.
In 555 BC, Cyrus II first formed an alliance with the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom to rebel against the Medes. In 550 BC, he captured Ecbatana, the capital of the Mede Kingdom, and destroyed the Mede Kingdom. He continued the old system of the Median Kingdom, protected the privileges and autonomous status of the Median nobles, and built the Median capital Ecbatan into the "summer capital" of the Achaemenid dynasty.
In 549 BC, Cyrus II conquered all Elamite tribes and Susa became the new capital of the Persian Empire. Only a year later, Cyrus II annexed Assyria, Syria and Armenia and other regions that were originally part of the Kingdom of Medes, and directed his troops towards the Kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor.
In 547 BC, Cyrus II defeated a military alliance composed of Lydia and Greek immigrant Ionians on the upper reaches of the Tigris River. In 546 BC, he captured Sardis, the capital of the Kingdom of Lydia, and captured its king Croesus.
Later, for the sake of the stability of his rule, Cyrus II treated Croesus with courtesy and made Sardis the capital of the dynasty in Asia Minor. After that, many Ionian city-states along the coast of Asia Minor surrendered one after another.
After conquering Asia Minor, Cyrus II invaded Parthia in northeastern Iran in 545 BC, occupied Bactria and Sogdian controlled lands in Central Asia, and continued to attack Gandhara of the Indus basin.
In 540 BC, Cyrus II led the Persian army to attack the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom established by the Chaldeans after a short rest. This history has been described in detail in the Mesopotamian Civilization series, here No longer.
As a result, in 539 BC, the army of Cyrus II defeated the army of the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom on the banks of the Tigris River, and the city of Babylon surrendered without a fight. Cyrus II captured the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom without bloodshed and destroyed the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom.
After that, Cyrus II was no longer satisfied with the title of King Anshan, and began to call himself King of Babylon and King of Sumerian Akkadian at the same time, declaring himself the king of the world and the king of kings, and named himself the god Marduk. nominally ruled Babylonia. Cyrus granted amnesty to the world, continued the old system and original religion of Babylonia, rebuilt the temple, and gained the support of the Babylonians . The Achaemenid dynasty has now become the overlord of the Middle East, and the first ancient Persian empire in history was born.
Cyrus II was not only the founder of the empire, but also a great conqueror in human history. In just 20 years, he made the Persian army synonymous with galloping on the battlefield and being invincible. The territory of the Persian Empire grew from the small land of Fars in southwest Iran to a huge empire stretching from the east coast of the Aegean Sea in the west to the Indus Valley in the east.
Although he died in a battle to quell the rebellion of another Aryan branch, the Massagetae, in 530 BC, Cyrus's immortal achievements laid a solid foundation for the long-term continuation of the Persian Empire.
The Persian Empire after Cambyses II, Darius I, Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I, Xerxes II, Sogdianus, Darius II, Artaxerxes II, Artaxerxes III, Artaxerxes IV, Darius III , a total of eleven kings. In 331 BC, Alexander defeated Darius III at Gaugamela, forcing him to flee to the eastern part of the Iranian Plateau, where he was killed by his subordinate Besus, the governor of Bactria. The Achaemenid dynasty, which had existed for 228 years, came to an end.
Okay, that’s it for this article. I hope it will be helpful for you to understand the history of the Persian Empire and the Middle East. In the next article, we will go into the first empire of the Persians and learn more about its great achievements. This is the 610th article shared with you. Welcome to read and see you in the next article.
