Among them, the Persians created the prosperous Persian Empire and Persian culture on the land of Iran, greatly enriching the diversity of human history and affecting the development process of Central and Western Asian civilizations in later generations.

In the first article of Iran, I have fully introduced Iran’s early history for more than two thousand years. Among them, the Persians created the prosperous civilization of the Persian Empire and Persian culture on the land of Iran, greatly enriching the diversity of human history and affecting the development process of Central and Western Asian civilizations in later generations.

Highest Persian Empire

After the demise of Persia, the Iranian plateau became part of the Arab Empire. Persian culture and Islamic culture began to blend with each other on this land, and the Persians were gradually Islamized.

Today we will continue to talk about what interesting historical stories are there in Islamized Iran, and what famous empires were born on Iran’s history after the demise of the Persian Empire.

Iran under the Arab Empire

Previous issue We talked about the last monarch of Sassanthesian Persia in 651 AD, after being defeated by the Arabs, Isiji III was assassinated and killed by slaves during his escape, and the Second Persian Empire ended.

, Yi Siqi III's son Beilus requested reinforcements in the Tang Dynasty in China, but was rejected by Emperor Gaozong of Tang on the grounds that the journey was long. However, Beilus did not give up his plan to restore the country. After being rejected by the Tang Dynasty, he received support from the Tocharians who lived in the Afghanistan area today and began his resumption movement. After

, Beluth led the Tocharians to compete with the Arabs and even once attacked the former land of Persia, almost completing the restoration of Persia. However, Beilus could not resist the Arab counterattack and eastward invasion. In the end, the Arab army occupied Central Asia and formed a border with Tang Dynasty Western Regions .

border between the Arab Empire and the Tang Dynasty

At that time, the elite forces of the Arabs were mainly concentrated in the West, mainly attacking Egypt and the Mesopotamia under the control of the Byzantine Empire. The Arabs who invaded the east basically adopted the policy of fighting and robbing and retreating when facing the Central Asian region under the control of the Tang Dynasty, which made the Tang Dynasty increasingly dissatisfied with the Arabs.

So in 661 AD, Persian prince Belus asked the Tang Dynasty for help again. This time he obtained the consent of Emperor Gaozong of Tang. The Tang Dynasty established the Persian Governor's Office in Afghanistan and eastern Iran today, and established Belus as the governor. In the second year, he was crowned Belus as the king of Persia, allowing him to control all parts of Central Asia and be supported by the Tang Dynasty to resist the Arab invasion.

After that, decades of military struggle occurred between the Persian king of the Tang Dynasty and the Arab Empire, but as time went by, Arab wars in the West gradually won, and the army rushed to Afghanistan to attack the Persian governor's office.

Finally in 675 AD, the Persian Governor's Office was conquered by the Arabs, and Beilus led a group of Persian remnants to Chang'an . Emperor Gaozong of Tang did not blame Beilus for his failure in resistance, but also planned the Persian community in Chang'an and Luoyang to allow them to settle down.

Four years later, Beilus died in Luoyang and was buried in the Persian royal tomb in Luoyang. The Persian restoration movement ended, and the entire Iranian plateau was completely ruled by the Arabs.

Persian prince Beilus

I have explained in detail in the Arab Empire chapter. Here we will mainly stand from the perspective of Iran and talk about some events that have had a significant impact on the subsequent historical trend of Iran.

In the areas conquered by the Arabs at that time, they gave the conquered nations two choices:

First, converting to Islam and becoming Muslims, you can do not have to pay taxes to the government.

Second, continue to maintain the original religious belief, but pay a certain amount of taxes to the government every year.

In fact, in the early Umayyad dynasty of the Arab Empire, the tax amount of Arabia was much lower than that of Byzantine and Persian Empires. So at the beginning, many people in conquered areas were more willing to pay certain taxes to preserve their original religious beliefs and national customs.

However, as the ruling institutions of the Umayyad dynasty gradually became huge and bloated, the government expenditure became larger and larger, and the royal life became more and more luxurious, and taxes gradually began to be imposed, resulting in many pagans being forced to abandon their original beliefs and become Muslims. During this period, many Persians who originally believed in Zoroastrianism gradually converted to Islam.

These foreigners who have converted to Islam are also called " Mevali " by the Arabs. Although they have been exempted from the obligation to pay taxes, they are politically unprivileged and cannot hold any official positions in the empire.

As more and more Persians converted to Islam, and the Iranian plateau where the Persians are located is a must-pass place on the Silk Road, many Mevalli Persians are becoming richer and they gradually want to seek their political due status.

Especially the Persians in the Khorasan region in the eastern Iranian Plateau, they not only control the western section of the Silk Road (China to Europe), but also the southern section of the Silk Road (China to India), becoming the richest Mevalli in the Arab Empire, and also the group that wants to get involved in political interests the most.

Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty

However, the ruling class of the Umayyad dynasty did not delegate power to the Mevalli class, but on the contrary, in the struggle with the Shiites, due to the tight military funds and the royal family began to collect taxes on the Mevalli class in order to maintain their extravagant living expenses, which further led to the dissatisfaction of the Mevalli Persians.

So in 747 AD, in the Khorasan region of eastern Persia, a Maiwali, a Muslim, launched an uprising against the Umayyad dynasty with the slogan of reducing taxes. It is known in history as the Khorasan Uprising and received strong support from the Shiites.

At the same time, Abu Abbas, the great-grandson of Uncle Muhammad, also launched an uprising in Arabian Peninsula , advocating that the caliphate should be held by members of the Hashem family, and publicly declared himself the savior of Muslims.

. During his early years, Abu Muslims established a deep friendship with the Abbas family. So he led the Persian rebels to become loyal to Abbas, and in 750 AD, he helped Abbas destroy the Umayyad dynasty and became the first founding father of the Abbas dynasty of Abbas dynasty .

In addition, in the second year of the establishment of the Abbasid Dynasty, a well-known war broke out between Arabia and Tang dynasties - Battle of Talas . The Tang dynasty was defeated, and a large number of craftsmen were captured. China's papermaking technology was also brought to Arabia by these craftsmen, and thus began to spread to the West.

The Chinese commander of this battle is familiar to everyone, the famous Tang Dynasty general Gao Xianzhi , but few people know that the commander of the Arab army was not Arab, but Abu Muslim, a Persian, who was the founding father of the Abbasid Dynasty.

Abu Muslim

So in the establishment of the Abbasid dynasty and the external conquest, the Persians were the first to bear the brunt of the contributions, which allowed the Persians to successfully gain political status. Since then, the prime ministers of several Abbasid dynasties were all Persians, especially at the national military level. Most of the senior generals were Persians, and even the Caliph’s guards were all acted as Persians.

It can be said that the entire Abbasid dynasty was nominally the Arabs' own dynasty, but in fact it was an empire under the joint rule of the Arabs and Persians.

However, it is precisely because the Persians occupy a considerable proportion of the entire imperial ruling class that threatened the caliph's dominance. After that, while using the Persians to conquer the world, the Abbasid Dynasty tried every means to eradicate the Persian nobles at the core of political power.

For example, during the reign of the second caliph of the Abbasid Dynasty, Mansour, with iron fist, eliminated a group of Persian founding fathers represented by Abu Muslims; during the reign of the fifth caliph, Harun, he eliminated the monopoly of the prime minister's regime and was also the richest Persian Balmark family in the empire.

When the eighth caliph Mutasim was in the era of the eighth caliph, in order to eliminate the Persian Guards, which pose the most powerful threat to the caliph, he promoted a group of Turks to form a new guard - Gulam Guards . In order to avoid the Persian forces, he also brought this guard to move the capital from Baghdad to Samarra.

Turkish soldiers

Mutasim promoted the Turks because his mother was born into a Turkic slave. In addition, the Turks were defeated by the Tang Dynasty and began to move westward. The Turks who had just arrived in the West Asia region had relatively low status and were bought home to be slaves by many Arabs and Persians.

Therefore, Mutasim believed that these Turks under their status had no background power and were easier to control, and could also help him take back military power from the Persians, but he absolutely underestimated the Turks' ambitions.

After he moved the capital, no Persians helped to check and balance the Turks, resulting in the rapid growth of the Turks' power and lost control. Mutasim and the later Caliphs became puppets of the Turks. There were even two Caliphs dug out by the Turkish generals and deposed them as commoners.

Moreover, since its founding, the Arab Empire has implemented the Iqta system , which is somewhat similar to the feudal system in the medieval European era and the feudal system in the Western Zhou Dynasty in China. When the royal power was strong in the early days, this system could play a role in expanding territory and suppressing the royal family. However, as the local princes became more and more powerful, the country was easily facing a split situation.

In the middle and late Arab Empire, the disadvantages of this system gradually became prominent. Governors from all over the country continued to establish new countries independently. Among them, the Persian Governor Safar declared independence in 867 AD and established the Persian Saffar dynasty in southeastern Iran.

The division of the Arab Empire

At this time, the Caliph was just a puppet under the control of the Gulam Guard. Many wars of rebellion depended on the Turks, so a Turkish military aristocratic group called " Mamluk " gradually formed.

These Turks replaced the local separatist regime in the process of counter-rebellion and re-established a new Turkic country. The Safar dynasty in Iran was destroyed by Alputle, a Turkic general who was born in Malumuk in 1002 AD. Subsequently, Alptico established the Turkicized Ghassini dynasty in Iran.

At this time, multiple independent Turkic countries were born throughout Central and West Asia, but the monarchs of these countries called themselves Sudan or Emir. Both of these names mean "governor" to indicate that they still respect the Caliph as their nominal leader.

However, at this time the Caliph was like the Zhou emperor in the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period in China, and it was in name only. The history of West Asia and Iran also entered the Turkic era.

Iran in the Turkic and Mongolization era

In the Turkic era, the role of "supporting the emperor to command the princes" was Seljuk Turkic Empire . Seljuk Sultan not only directly controlled Baghdad, the capital of the Arab Empire, but also conquered many sultans and emirs during the 11th century with its powerful military power, and reunited a large area of ​​land in Central and Western Asia.

The Seljuk Empire's heyday

By 1124, the Jurchens in Northeast China rose and the Khitans were defeated. The Khitan nobles Yelu Dashi led the Khitan remnants to the Western Regions, and established Western Liao here, becoming a neighbor to the east of the Seljuk Empire.

After the founding of the Western Liao Kingdom, it began to expand externally and launched a long-term war of hegemony with the Seljuk Empire to compete for the Central Asian region. In 1142, Seljuk was defeated, and the Turkic Khwarezm Kingdom in Central Asia separated from Seljuk and became a vassal of the Western Liao Dynasty.

After that, with the support of the Western Liao Dynasty, Khwarezm became the vanguard of the Western Liao Dynasty's external expansion and quickly rose in Central Asia. In the Battle of Rai in 1194, he received support from the Arab Caliph, defeated the Seljuk Sultan and occupied the Iranian region.In 1200, it defeated the Turkic Gur dynasty that occupied the Indus River basin, took the Afghan area as its own, and developed into a powerful country in Central Asia, known in history as Khwarezm Empire .

At this time, the Seljuk Empire was invaded by Khwarezm and Western Liao in the east, and the western crusaders were attacked by the European Crusaders in the west. The war of independence broke out in various ethnic groups within the country, and the entire empire fell apart. Many small kingdoms that had just been independent turned to surrender to Khwarezm.

In 1207 AD, Khwarezm, who had become a powerful country, broke the face and defeated the Western Liao, drove the Western Liao power back to China's Xinjiang region, and controlled many important cities on the Silk Road. Also because Khwarezm occupied a large area of ​​land, including ancient Persian land at that time, some countries also called Khwarezm " Middle-aged Great Persian ".

Khwarezm Dynasty

During this period, on the Mongolian grasslands in northern China, Genghis Khan Temujin completed the unification of the Mongolian tribes. In order to open up foreign trade relations, Genghis Khan sent an envoy to enter into a trade treaty with Khwarezm Sultan Mahamo in 1215, and then sent a Mongolian caravan composed of 450 people and 500 camels to carry a large number of gold, silver and jewelry to Khwarezm for trade.

However, when the Mongolian caravan had just entered the territory of Khwarezm (now northwest region of Kazakhstan), the local governor had an intention to find money and falsely accused the Mongolian caravan of being a spy, massacred all of them, and embezzled all the caravan's property and camels.

After this incident was passed back to Mongolia, Genghis Khan wanted to resolve the situation peacefully, and once again sent two envoys to Khwarezm, accusing Khwarezm Sultan Mahamo of betrayal and demanding that he hand over the murderer. However, Mahamo rejected Genghis Khan's request and shaved the two envoys from Mongolia and expelled them from the country.

This series of events and processes are called " Mongolian and Middle Persia diplomatic and trade events ", and the result became the fuse of Mongolia's Western Expedition.

The angry Genghis Khan eased the war against the Jin Dynasty Jin Dynasty Jurchens and began to gather his troops on the Western Front to prepare for the Western Expedition to Khwarezm to wash away the shame.

In 1218, after Mongolia destroyed Western Liao, it officially bordered Khwarezm, and in the second year it started Mongolia's first western expedition .

Mongol first expedition to the west

In 1219 AD, Genghis Khan led an army of 100,000 (800,000 in Persian history books) to personally conquer Khwarezm.

Although Khwarezm had an army of 400,000 at that time, the army was complex, and the Persians, Turks and Arabs were not affiliated with each other, so they could not effectively organize a decisive battle with the Mongolian Western Expedition Army. They could only defend the city behind closed doors and resist the Mongolian army.

At that time, the Mongols inherited and absorbed a large amount of firearm technology and siege equipment during the long-term battle with the Central Plains, which was a high-tech crush for the West at that time.

The Western city defense fortifications in the Middle Ages was not as strong as China's city defense. The Mongols brought from the Central Plains, stone throwing tools, bed crossbows, , cannons, , extended ladders and other siege equipment, facing the Central and Western Asian cities with weak city wall defense, the Mongolian cavalry who were not good at siege suddenly became siege cities and plundering the ground and could do everything.

Moreover, as long as the Mongolian army encounters a city that has resistance, it will definitely massacre after siege. According to records in the Persian chronicle, during the five years of Genghis Khan's western expedition, the death toll in Central Asia exceeded 15 million.

The conquered areas, except for the craftsmen who were brought back to Mongolia and left behind children who were not above the height of the wheel, the rest of the population was basically slaughtered. Genghis Khan placed the Persian and Arab craftsmen he brought back in the Longxi and Hetao areas. He was called the "Huihui people" together with the Persians who entered China in the early days. After that, he gradually developed into one of the 56 ethnic groups in China.

Chinese Hui compatriots

After the fall of the Khwarezmian dynasty, the Mongols did not establish ruling institutions in the Persian region, but simply completed revenge and plunder and withdrew.

Just during the time of Mongolia's withdrawal, western Iran was occupied by Persians who believed in Islam, who established the Mulayi Kingdom, also known as the Imam Dynasty .

This Assassin Sect is another branch of the Shiite branch Ismayi Sect. Its political and religious behavior is very extreme. It often engages assassination activities and trains a large number of excellent assassins. Infiltrating all over the world, the archbishops in the cardinals in Europe are their primary targets for assassination. Therefore, in the West, "professional assassins" are generally considered to be a product of Persia.

By 1251, Genghis Khan's grandson Mengge succeeded to the Mongolian Khan. The Mulayi Kingdom often attacked the Mongolian caravans, and there were reports that a large number of Assassin assassins had entered Mongolia to prepare to assassinate Mengge.

So in 1253, Mongge Khan started his conquest of West Asia again, known in history as the third Mongolian expedition to the West Asia. Mengge asked his younger brother Hulagu to attack West Asia as the commander, and he himself led the Mongolian army to attack China Southern Song and prepared to annex the Central Plains.

Hulagu's western expedition not only swept across Central and Western Asia again, destroying the Mulayi Kingdom, but also conquered Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Dynasty, and carried out a crazy massacre. 800,000 Arabs were massacred. Even the last Arab Caliph Mustah was arrested, allowing the Mass to trample on its death. The Arab Empire, which lasted for more than 600 years, officially ended.

Mongolia's third western expedition

After Hulagu led his army to attack Egypt, but he was unsuccessful with strong resistance from the Egyptian Mamluk dynasty. At this time, news of Mengge's death in attacking Diaoyu City came. Hulagu led his army back to the Persian area to support Kublai called Khan. In order to repay Hulagu's support, Kublai sealed the Persian area to him and established Il Khanate (or Il Khanate ), and Iran's history also entered the Mongolian era.

After the establishment of the Ir Khanate, in order to stabilize its rule in Iran, not only did the Persians give preferential treatment, but also regarded Persian Zoroastrianism as the state religion, making the Mongols a Persian ruler more like the Persians.

But why do we say that the Mongols are more like Persians than Persians? This is because many Persians at that time had abandoned their ancient Zoroastrian tradition, and most of them had accepted and got used to Islam, and it was difficult to change back to the Zoroastrian belief.

Therefore, the rulers of the Ilkhanate gradually discovered this problem. In 1295, during the reign of the seventh monarch, Hezan Khan, he carried out a series of reforms to the country, including converting to Islam. His own name "Hezan Khan" was also changed to "Mahemu Sultan", which marked that the Mongols of the Ilkhanate were officially Islamized.

, and Mahemu also asked his prime minister Rast to compile the famous "History Collection" . This book is the first truly world history book, and the contents of the book include the historical origins, political systems, cultural customs, religious beliefs and other aspects of the countries and nations in the world at that time. To this day, the book "History Collection" is also one of the must-read books for all historians.

The heyday of the Il Khanate

The national power of the Il Khanate seemed to be the same as all Mongolian regimes. After the 14th century, the Mongol rule over the world gradually declined. At this time, the southern Han people continued to resist within the Yuan Dynasty, and the Slavs under the rule of the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe were also constantly revolting. The Chahar Khanate in Central Asia was not only divided into two parts, east and west, but also often broke out between the Ilkhanate.

In order to meet the needs of many wars, the Ir Khanate and the Chahar Khanate absorbed a large number of Turks to join the army, which gave the Turks another chance to prosper and became the aristocratic class in Mongol Empire .

As a result, the Mongols and Turks continued to merge, and many Mongols were gradually being Turkized. Among these Turkized Mongols, a Genghis Khan-like figure was born, Timur, who became a substitute for the orthodox Mongol rule in West Asia.

The conquest of the Timur Empire and the rise of the Shiites

1336 On April 9, 1336, in the Thirsty Stone City in the south of Samarkand, a baby boy was born in a Turkic Mongolian noble family. The baby's hands were stained with blood when he was born. This baby was the later generation of "butcher" - Barushis Timur.

Temur's father Tathahai was a nobleman of the Baru Tsai tribe, one of the descendants of Genghis Khan. However, the Baru Tsai tribe lived and crossed with the Turks for a long time in Central Asia and gradually became Turkic. They looked more like the Caucasian race in appearance and customs. Timur's mother, Tegina, was the daughter of the famous Persian scholar Sadr, and her ancestral roots can be traced back to the ancient Persian royal family.

So, Timur's origin is actually quite noble, but I don't know why some people always like to portray Timur's story into a counterattack legend from a sheep stealing vendor to a generation of emperors.

Temur

Temur inherited his father's title in his early years and became the head of the Thousand Households of the Baru Shrine tribe, and the governor of Hezhong, who was loyal to East Chagatai, Yeliya Sihuo.

One day in 1362, the firefighters searched for beautiful girls in Samarkand to give them to the Khan of the East Chagatai, which aroused dissatisfaction among the local religious circles. The firefighters arrested a group of local religious leaders. After Timur pleaded for them in mercy, he forcibly released the imprisoned religious leaders.

This incident made Timur offend the Governor of the River, Yeliya Sihuo, and the Yeliya Sihuo was the son of Tuhulu Timur, the Great Khan of the East Chagatai. In his rage, the Khan issued a pursuit order to arrest Timur, and Timur immediately began his exile life.

Temur was the first to flee to Afghanistan and defected to his brother-in-law Mirihuxin. The two formed a mercenary army, active in Afghanistan and eastern Iran, and helped local officials everywhere suppress the people's uprising. It was during this period that Timur's foot was injured by an arrow and became a cripple, so he was nicknamed "Timurlan", which means "lame Timur".

Although Timur's feet are lame, his life has opened a new chapter. In just a few years, Timur and Milihuxin's army gradually grew and grew, and their careers changed from helping others to starting their own businesses.

The two led their troops back to the Hezhong area, expelled the governor of the Eastern Chagatai Yeliyasihuo, and ruled the Hezhong area by themselves. But a country can only have one monarch, and there was a conflict between Timur and Mirihuxin, and the two started an internal strife.

Expansion of the Timur Empire

1370, Timur successfully became popular and established the Timur Empire . After dominating the Hezhong area, Timur's ambition began to expand rapidly, and he was well aware of the effectiveness of the terrifying conquest of the Mongols.

During the nearly 30 years of foreign conquest, Timur went wherever he went, like the Mongols who fought in the west, and massacred pagans and resisters under the name of jihad, causing nearly 17 million deaths in total, conquered Afghanistan, Iran, Armenia, and Georgia, invaded Eastern Europe and established a vast empire.

By 1396, Timur, who was in full swing, seized envoys from various countries, including Ming Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire, and expressed his declaration of war on all countries and the second phase of land expansion began.

1398, Timur attacked the Sultanate of Delhi, India, captured its capital, Delhi, and launched a three-day massacre in Delhi. More than 100,000 people were killed, and the head was cut off by Timur and piled into a pyramid.

After occupying northern India, Timur led his army to attack the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt, occupied the Mesopotamian region under its control, and massacred the city again in Damascus, building a pyramid of human heads here.

In the spring of 1402, Timur mobilized 100,000 troops to attack the Ottoman Empire, which was in the rising stage. The Ottoman Sultan Bayeset I was captured. Timur took him back to the capital Samarkand to treat him as a bench and became Timur's human chair.

During this period, the Ming Dynasty broke out in the Jingshou. Timur believed that this was an excellent opportunity to attack China, so he immediately suspended the continued conquest of the Ottomans, returned to Samarkand, stopped tribute to the Ming Dynasty, and prepared 800,000 troops and seven years of food and grass for the purpose of the Eastern Expedition.

in the early 15th century and the Timur Empire

, and the newly won Yongle Emperor Zhu Di also learned of the news and ordered Gansu General Song Sheng to strengthen his garrison and prepare to fight Timur.

Just as the war was about to break out, the elderly Timur suddenly became infected with malaria and began to be bedridden. He died in 1405 at the age of 69. The possible fierce collision between the two powerful Asian empires came to an abrupt end.

After Timur's death, the royal family fought for power and internal struggle was very serious, and the Timur Empire was also divided, and the plan to expedition to the Ming Dynasty naturally went bankrupt. On the contrary, between 1405 and 1433, Emperor Yongle sent Zheng He to the West seven times and arrived at the Timur Empire many times to promote his national prestige.

With the rapid collapse of the Timur Empire, the Turkmens, who were conquered by Timur in their early years, took the opportunity to be independent. In 1447, they revived their previous country - the Black Sheep Dynasty - , and seized the western Iran and the Mesopotamians, replacing the Timur Empire, and becoming the Islamic power in West Asia.

However, the Black Sheep Dynasty ruled extremely short. In a total of 21 years, it was replaced by another Aries dynasty , which was also established by the Turkmens. The success of the Aries dynasty is inseparable from a radical religious organization - Safi Order .

Distribution of Shiites (dark green) and Sunnis in the world today

The Safi Order is a branch of the Shiites in Islam. They promote the use of force to force all Muslims to convert to Shiites. This warlike order established an alliance with the Aries dynasty in the mid-15th century and helped the Aries become the new master of Iran.

In the upper class of the Aries dynasty, in addition to the Turkmen nobles, there is also the Safavi family, who is the leader of the Safi Order. The Safavi family is a Kurd, and the Kurds are descendants formed by the fusion of Persians and Medes, so the Kurds generally regard themselves as Persians and are also the main ethnic group of Iran today.

During the Aries Dynasty, the Turkmen nobles were afraid that the Safi Order was too powerful, so they deliberately or unintentionally attacked the Kurds and the Safi Order, resulting in the complete breakdown of the cooperative relationship between the two sides and a war broke out.

1488, the leader of the Safi Order, Heidal, died in the war with the Aries Dynasty. His one-year-old son Ismay I was elected as the new leader.

Ismayi grew up in the military, giving him great military talent. When he was 15 years old, he would form a new army with his seven Turkmen tribes for a long time. Because this unit wore a red hat, it was called Red Hat Army .

Red Hat Army led by Ismayi I

In 1501, Ismayi led the Red Hat Army to join forces with Azerbaijani and Turkish militias, defeated the Aries Dynasty, occupied Tabriz , and established Safavi dynasty , known in history as The Third Persian Empire .

Although Isma Yi I was young, he had extremely good political means. He claimed to be a descendant of Mohammed's daughter Fatima. In addition, the influence of the Safi Order made him gain a large number of followers of the Shiite Islam.

In addition, Ismayi also claimed to be a descendant of the Sassanian Dynasty, and changed the title of "Sultan" back to the title of " Shah " of the monarch during the Persian Empire, proclaiming that he was the legal heir of the Persian Empire, and therefore gained the support of the majority of Persians. After

, Ismay I expanded rapidly with the slogan of Shiite jihad, occupying most of Iran and the Mesopotamia. Even Georgia, which believes in Christianity, declared surrender to the Safavi Dynasty.

In order to recreate the glory of the Persian Empire, Ismail I turned his attention to the Khorasan region of Persia, fought against the Bukhara Khanate , which was orthodox in the Sunnis, and successfully occupied the entire Iranian plateau and restored the eastern territory of the Persian Empire. After

, Ismayi led the Red Hat Army to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the West. The two sides had been in constant conflicts before, especially in religion. The Ottoman believed in Sunni as the state religion, which was something that Safavidopos could not tolerate.

In 1514, a war broke out between the two sides in the mountains of the Caucasus - Battle of Chardiran , which also started a 41-year tug-of-war between the two Islamic empires.

Ottoman artillery in the Battle of Chardiran

In this battle, the warlike Ismayi despised the power of the Ottoman artillery, which caused his proud Red Hat Legion to become embarrassed under the coverage of the Ottoman artillery. The result of the war was that the Safavi Dynasty was defeated. Because of the tragic failure of this battle, Ismayi never recovered from then on and passed away at the age of 38 in 1524.

After Ismayi I's death, the Shiites respected him as Said , probably similar to the meaning of "saint" in Christianity. Historical circles also believe that he was "the true creator of the Shiite state in Persia."

After Ismayi's death, the empire was quickly attacked by Bukhara in the east and Ottoman in the west. The Third Persian Empire lost a large area of ​​land, and the monarchy's power was also overshadowed by the powerful Turkmenist officials in China. The palace coups occurred frequently, and the Safavi dynasty also declined rapidly.

It was not until 1587 that Safavi's fifth monarch Abbas Great succeeded to the throne that the sluggish Persian Third Reich re-pushed the prosperous era.

The Last Glory of the Persian Empire

Abbas I grew up in various palace coups and conspiracies, and knew the importance of grasping power. Therefore, after he ascended the throne, he implemented the policy of "to calm the country before fighting foreign countries", reached peace with the Ottomans and Bukhara by ceding territory, achieved stability in the external environment, and then began reforms to internal affairs.

Abbas I

The first step in his reform was to eradicate the powerful Turkmen ministers who threatened his rule and suppress the rebel forces in various places, and then moved the capital to Isfahan in the central Iranian Plateau. One was to avoid the Ottoman army, and the other was to leave Tabriz dominated by the Turkmens, and finally grasp the power of the government in his hands.

Step 2: Reform religious policies. Abbas stopped persecuting Sunnis since the establishment of the Safites, and used a moderate approach to make Sunnis and Persian Zoroastrian believers gradually convert to Shiites. Iran became a Shiite-dominated Muslim country during Abbas' reign.

The third step is to reform economic policies. Abbas also took the initiative to accept the Portuguese and British people who came from Europe from afar due to the opening of new routes, and cooperated with them to develop trade, which made Persian commerce and handicrafts prosperous, and the budding of capitalism began to appear in Iran. The new capital Isfahan became very prosperous. There is an Iranian proverb called "Isfahan, half of the world."

The fourth step is to reform foreign policy. Abbas not only did business with the Portuguese and the British, but also changed the usual conservatism of the Eastern Kingdoms, actively sent envoys to European countries to study, establish diplomatic relations with them, and seek allies to attack the Ottoman Empire.

The fifth step is to reform military policies, which is also the most important point in Abbas’s reform content. Abbas purchased a large number of advanced muskets and artillery from Europe, and hired British navigator Anthony Sherry as instructor, training a Persian army that was more modern than the Ottoman army.

Under Abbas' series of reforms, the Safavi dynasty re-entered from the brink of destruction to prosperity and ushered in its own golden age.

Isfahan King Square built by Abbas is the second largest square in the world after Tiananmen Square

In the early days of his succession, Abbas I endured for many years and ceded a large amount of territory to Ottoman and Braha. Now the re-strengthed Third Persian Empire is about to start taking back its own things.

Since 1598, Abbas has begun to attack eastward to deal with the Bukhara Khanate and the Mughal Empire of India. Faced with the Persian New Army, the Bukhara and Mughal troops were defeated step by step, and Abbas finally successfully took back the once lost Eastern territory.

After winning the victory on the Eastern battlefield, Abbas did not rush to attack the Ottomans, but led his army south and used force to recover the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz occupied by the Portuguese, allowing the Safavi Dynasty to regain the trade channels between the East and the West.

After stabilizing the rear, Abbas officially declared war on Ottoman in 1603. At this time, the Ottoman had begun to decline and retreated steadily on the battlefield. The two sides lasted for ten years of war. In the end, the Ottoman was defeated and returned to the once occupied Tabriz, Azerbaijan and other regions, and admitted that the Caucasus occupied by Persia during the war also belonged to Persia.

But Abbas I did not stop coveting the Ottoman Eastern territory. In 1623, he sent troops to attack the Ottoman again, occupying the entire Mesopotamian region, including Baghdad and Basra, and pushing the Safavid dynasty to its peak. Abbas I's reputation also spread far to Europe and was called "Emperor Abbas" by Europeans.

Safavi Dynasty at its peak

However, after Abbas I died in 1629, his heirs were all incompetent people, basically the kind of foolish monarchs who ignored the government all day long, lived in the harem for a long time, and loved to smoke opium, and one was more foolish and one was more incompetent.

It is precisely because of the extreme incompetence of the successors of Persian Shahs that the Safavi dynasty quickly declined, and the neighboring countries naturally did not give up this good opportunity. The Ottomans, Mughals, Russia, Bukhara and other countries came one after another and continued to invade Persian territory.

In the late dynasty, rebellions occurred in Afghanistan, which believed in Sunnis, and in order to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan, the Persian rulers hunted and killed Sunni believers in a large number, which further aroused the resistance of the Afghans.

1709, Afghan noble Milves Hotak announced an uprising, established the Hotak dynasty in Kandahar area, and formally resisted Persian rule.

In 1722, after Milves's son Mahmud ascended the throne, he captured Isfahan and forced Shahtahmasp II to abdicate, and Mahmud officially became the new ruler of Persia.

However, because Mahmud's rule was too brutal, he massacred Shiite believers and members of the Safavid royal family in Isfahan. In addition, the local Persians believed that the Hotak dynasty was an Afghan regime and did not recognize its legitimacy, so uprisings against Mahmud were launched in various places.

Among the many rebel armies, there was a man named Nadirsha. He was born in the Khorasan region of Persia. He was sold as a slave in his early years. Later, he joined the Red Hat Army and made many military achievements in the Red Hat Army, becoming a warlord who dominated the country.

Nadirshar

When various places rebelled against Mahmud, Nadirsha also re-elected the deposed Tahmasp II in 1726 to restore the rebellious ranks in various places. Under the banner of the orthodox Safavi dynasty, he quickly absorbed the surrender of the uprising forces in various places.

Moreover, Nadirsha was also a military genius, and he was invincible in the battle. He not only successfully expelled the Afghans, but also regained the land occupied by the Ottomans and Russia, and successfully invaded Delhi, the capital of the Indian Mughal Empire, looting Delhi, thus establishing a high prestige in Persia and was called "Persian Napoleon" by later generations.

In 1736, the last monarch of Safavi, Abbas III, died, and Nadir Sha established himself as king, established the Afshar dynasty, and officially ended the 235-year rule of the Third Persian Empire.

After the establishment of the Afshar dynasty, Nadirsha had won great victories in launching foreign wars all year round, and used the plundered wealth to build in Persia, which once reproduced the Persian prosperous era during Abbas' reign. So much so that later historians believe that Nadirsha is only one step away from establishing a unified modern Iranian country that is enough to match the British and French empires, thereby changing the future of the entire Middle East. The poor "this step" is in religious policy. Nadirsha was a Shiite believer when he was young, but later converted to the Sunni faith. During his reign, he exploited Shiite believers economically and increased various taxes, resulting in constant resistance in various places. Nadirsha was finally assassinated by a group of nobles who conspired to rebel.

Distribution of Iranian nations

Afterwards, Persia was completely in a state of chaos. All ethnic groups, religions and warlords on the entire Iranian plateau established separatist regimes, leaving great hidden dangers for the future colonial invasion of Western powers.

semi-colonial period and modern Iran

During the Iran separatist period, the relatively strong one in the early days was the Zander dynasty established by the Kurds, which unified the western Persia region. Later, a Turkmenistans living in northeastern Iran rose to establish the Kaijia Dynasty and finally completed the reunification of the Iranian Plateau.

Kaiga Dynasty was established in 1779. Although it nominally unified the Iranian Plateau, the independence of various places is still strong, religious struggles continue, and the land in Afghanistan and the Mesopotamia was completely lost, which basically laid the territory of Iran today.

In the early days of the establishment of the Kaijia Dynasty, the west was constantly invaded by Russia, and the east was also threatened by the colonial invasion of the British East India Company. The once arrogant Persian Empire has now become a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country.

Many knowledgeable people also realized the seriousness of the country's imminent demise. Like the Qing government in the more eastern China, they began to embark on the road of saving the nation.

Iranian version of "Current Situation"

The person who played the role of Zeng Guofan in Iran's history was named Nizam. He was the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kaijia Dynasty. He visited European countries in his early years and was well aware of the great changes that have taken place in the West after the Industrial Revolution. After returning to China, he began to work on Westernization reforms and strive to regain the glory of Persia. It is known in history as Nizam's new policy .

1848, Nizam began to implement reforms. In the military, he rectified the army and solved the problem of loose internal discipline and strict military pay; in the economic and people's livelihood, he reduced taxes, encouraged the opening of modern factories, and also established new schools to send students to Europe to learn advanced knowledge; in the political aspects, he restricted the power of religious forces and local governors, and strictly cracked down on the problems of bureaucratic corruption. A series of reform measures are like the Iranian version of the "Western Affairs Movement".

But because of his crackdown on corrupt officials, he offended a large number of officials, and the newly established modern enterprises affected the interests of feudal landlords. He was finally falsely accused of rebellion and was executed in 1851. The reform failed completely, causing Iran to lose its last chance to revive.

After Nizam's death, the Kaijia Dynasty suffered a serious fiscal deficit. In order to alleviate economic pressure, King Nasserding signed the famous "Tobacco Agreement" with Britain in 1873. The agreement stipulates that for the next 50 years, the monopoly of tobacco production, sales and export of the Caga dynasty will be sold to the British.

As soon as this agreement was released, Iran broke out in great resistance, because most people have been smoking tobacco since the Safavid dynasty and the Portuguese introduced tobacco into Persia. Iran is still a country with a large tobacco population. Tobacco is of great significance to the Iranians.

Iranian favorite hookah

However, because the British monopolized the tobacco industry, they could buy tobacco grown by Persians at a low price, and raised the price of cigarettes for sale to Persians.

So protests against the tobacco agreement began to appear. Workers, farmers, religious circles, and even concubines in the king's harem all protested, and various strikes and market strikes were on hold, refusing to buy British goods, and Nasserding was also killed by the protesters. Muzaffarding, who succeeded to the throne, had to abolish the agreement under pressure from the people.

Tobacco protests marked the beginning of awakening of the national consciousness of the modern Iranian people. After the success of the tobacco protests, the protests did not stop, but instead changed to demand the establishment of a "constitutional monarchy" political system, known in history as " Persian constitutional revolutionary movement ".

In 1906, under the pressure of the masses, Muzaffardin announced his abdication, and Prince Mohammed Ali succeeded to the throne and convened a constitutional conference, passing the Persian Constitution, and the Kaiga Dynasty became a constitutional monarchy.

Just as Iran gradually modernized, Britain and Russia certainly did not want to see a powerful Persian empire appear, so in the second year, they supported Mohamed Ali to launch a coup, dissolve the parliament and revolutionary organizations, and abolish the constitution.

This move aroused dissatisfaction among people everywhere, workers held strikes one after another, and peasant uprisings continued. However, with Russia's support, Mohammed Ali finally suppressed these uprisings and restored the Kaiga dynasty.

Modern Iran lost territory

Since then, the invasions between Britain and Russia have become increasingly serious. The areas that the Kaijia government can effectively control are limited to the central Iranian plateau, and the rest have become the sphere of influence of Russia or Britain, including the capital Tehran, which is controlled by the Russians.

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, although Iran maintained its neutral status, Russia, Britain and Ottoman Türkiye fought on Iranian land in order to compete for Iran's oil fields, similar to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in Northeast China.

This situation has led people everywhere to hate the incompetence and inaction of the Kaiga government even more. In 1921, Persian cavalry commander Reza Khan launched a military coup to control the political situation.

In the same year, in Soviet Russia after the October Revolution, it signed the first equal treaty in Iran with Reza Khan, and returned all the privileges and land that Russia had previously obtained in Iran to Iran.

At the same time, the Soviet Union also stipulated in the agreement that if Iran cannot rely on its own strength to protect itself, and Iran is used by other countries to attack the Soviet Union, then the Soviet Union will send troops to help Iran drive out the enemy.

As soon as the agreement was released, Reza Khan used the pressure of the Soviet Union to force the British to withdraw from eastern Iran and completely escape from British control. In the following years, Reza Khan suppressed local forces supported by foreign countries in various places and completed the cause of independence and unification of the Iranian nation.

Reza Khan

1925, the Iranian parliament granted Reza Khan the dictatorship, and at the same time officially announced the dethrone of the Kaika Dynasty and the establishment of a new constitutional monarchy - Pahlavi Dynasty . Reza Khan officially ascended the throne the following year and was crowned Shah. After Reza Khan ascended the throne, he implemented some modernization reform measures in Iran, such as requiring the whole people to wear suits, build railways, exploit oil, lay telephone lines, etc., which further led Iran to modernize.

In addition, Reza Khan officially renamed Persia as " Iran ". In fact, the term "Iran" comes from Aryan. Since the Sassanid Dynasty, most Persians have begun to call themselves Iranians. In 1935, Reza Khan issued a notice letter to various countries, demanding that "Iran" be used instead of the title of "Persia".

However, there is another view that Reza Khan changed his name to the country in Aryan language, because Hitler praised nationalism at that time and believed that the Aryans were the best race, so Reza Khan changed the name of the country in Aryan language. The evidence for this statement is that after the outbreak of World War II, although Iran declared neutrality, it still maintained trade with Germany and recruited many German officers to train soldiers for Iran. After Germany was defeated, Iran was also the preferred refuge for many Nazi parties.This is why Nazi officers in the movie "Persian Lesson" wanted to learn Persian and fled to Iran.

It is precisely because Reza Khan was close to Nazi Germany. In 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran, arrested Reza Khan and exiled him, allowing Reza Khan's son Mohamed Pahlavi to succeed him.

Pahlavi and Queen Sophia

Pahlavi succeeded to the throne coincided with the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. He took the American camp and, with the help of the United States, in 1962, Pahlavi began the famous " White Revolution " in Iran with the American model as a sample.

revolutionary content mainly includes cracking down on domestic landlords and realizing land redistribution; selling state-owned enterprises and allowing private factories to be run; promoting urbanization construction, implementing universal education and other measures. The combination of

is very effective. Iran's GDP growth rate in 70 years reached more than 170%. By 1977, Iran's per capita GDP reached US$2,316, while China's per capita GDP during the same period was only US$185, and the world's average GDP was US$1,792. Since Japan entered the ranks of developed countries in 1968, Iran has become the second Asian country with the most likely to become a developed country.

The White Revolution is indeed undeniable economic success, but the White Revolution promotes "de-Islamization" in people's livelihood, requiring the implementation of secular open policies. This policy may not be a big problem in other countries, but Iran is a Muslim-majority country, and many Muslims are very dissatisfied with this policy of de-Islamization.

In addition, during the reform, the gap between the rich and the poor of the Iranian people gradually widened, and the lower Muslims gradually became dissatisfied with Pahlavi's democratization reform. However, Pahlavi did not take effective response measures, but used the police and the army to suppress such dissatisfaction.

00 Tehran, Iran in the 70s, and Pahlavi also claimed that he was "second in Cyrus". In 1971, on the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire, Pahlavi held a grand event, broadcasting the grand event to the world through satellites.

This move has attracted even more dissatisfaction among Muslims, because in the Islamic faith, we can only worship the only true God, Allah, and we cannot worship other people or gods.

So since 1977, large-scale protests have erupted in Iran, and eventually evolved into the Islamic Revolutionary Movement led by Shiite scholar Khomeini.

The core of this revolution is to strongly resist the king's promotion of westernization and secularization. However, Khomeini's revolutionary movement was also quite extreme. He even advocated the use of burial to fight injustice and tyranny, to completely overthrow the constitutional monarchy of Iran, and to establish an Islamic state that integrates politics and religion.

After a year of fierce struggle and multiple bloody conflicts, Pahlavi left Iran under pressure. Later on February 11, 1979, Khomeini officially took over Iran and established the Islamic Republic of Iran that has continued to this day. He announced that the subsequent heads of state and religious leaders were the same, and together with the Vatican, he became the only two countries in the world that are united in politics and religion.

Khomeini

Islamic revolution achieved a complete victory, but the passion of the Iranian people continued. They asked Pahlavi, who was in exile to the United States, to come back for trial, so the excited Iranian masses occupied the US Embassy and detained 52 American diplomats as hostages. This is the famous Iran hostage crisis . The movie "Escape from Tehran" is adapted from this incident. The outbreak of this incident led to a complete severance of diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States. Later, with the intervention of the United States, Iran experienced the Iran-Iraq War and fell into the quagmire of war, seriously hindering Iran's economic development. Later, due to the problem of Iran's development of nuclear weapons, it was severely punished by the United States, making Iran's development even more difficult.

Regarding the whole story of the Iran-Iraq War and the relationship between the United States and Iran, I will publish a separate column to discuss with you if you have time. The space here is limited, so I won’t describe it too much.

However, the Iranian people have always regarded "reproducing the glory of the Persian Empire" as their national mission. Today, under the extremely severe external environment, they are still known as the " Middle East Top Four" together with Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey under the assistance of the United States and Europe, and have been firmly following the path of independent development.

Iran military parade

Iran has to say this about the history of Iran. The length is a bit long. Thank you for reading!