Persia

Date: 1000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.

Locale: Southwest region of modern Iran, bordering the Persian Gulf

Persia

The Parsa, an Indo-European nomadic group, moved into Persis (now Fārs) in what became southern Iran, in about 1000 b.c.e. The Parsa were first mentioned in the annals of an Assyrian king in 844 b.c.e.

History

By the sixth century b.c.e., the Parsa, or Persians, were able to assert themselves and defeat the Median king who had put an end to the Assyrian Empire through a coalition with other Near Eastern peoples, establishing the Achaemenian Dynasty (559-330 b.c.e.). Persian leader Cyrus the Great (r. 558-530 b.c.e.) subjugated the Medes and assumed the title of “king of kings” by capturing Lydia, Syria, Palestine, and other regions in the Near East. He gave the Jews the freedom to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple, which had been destroyed during the Babylonian invasion of Palestine. Cyrus died in the east while fighting the Scythian tribes, and his son Cambyses II (r. 529-522 b.c.e.) ascended the throne.

Cambyses II was able to add Egypt to the Persian Empire, but with his sudden death (522 b.c.e.) in Egypt, Darius the Great (r. 522-486 b.c.e.), who was not directly related to Cyrus, was able to capture the throne. He left a long, trilingual testament to his feats in Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian called the Behistun inscription. He also finished building the famous Achaemenian Persian ceremonial capital, Persepolis. Darius the Great also established a postal system and the Royal Road, which connected Persia to the rest of the Near East.

During the time of Darius’s successor, Xerxes I (r. 486-465 b.c.e.), the Greco-Persian Wars reached their height. The Persians had been annoyed that the Greeks on the mainland had aided the Ionian Greeks in their rebellion against Persia. The Persians were able to sack and burn Athens, but generally the Greeks were able to defend themselves through a series of city-state alliances, such as the Delian League. By the reign of Darius III (r. 336-330 b.c.e.), the last Achaemenian king, the Persian Empire was in decline, and Alexander the Great was able to defeat the Persians in three successive battles.

Alexander wanted to legitimize himself in the eyes of the Persians, so he married the daughters of Darius III and reportedly adopted some Persian customs and dress. After Alexander’s death, his empire was divided between his generals, and between 312 and 301 b.c.e., Seleucus I was able to control Babylonia and Persia. Alexander and the Seleucids are responsible for the spread of Hellenic culture and the Greek language in Persia.

By the third century b.c.e., the Seleucids had been pushed from Persia by the Parthians in the east. The Parthians gradually became the major power in Persia from 245 b.c.e. to 224 c.e. Although their language was Iranian, they were Hellenized and adopted the Greek language and culture during the early part of their rule. This is apparent from their coinage, which bears Greek legends, and the titles they adopted, such as Philhellenos, or “friend of the Greeks.”

The Parthian kings ruled the various provinces of their empire through what has been called a feudal system. Although Arsaces is the first king in the dynasty, Mithradates I (r. 171-138 b.c.e.) is the real founder of the Parthian Empire and the king who reinstated the title “king of kings.” From the time of his rule, the empire became more Iranian in character. The coins began to have Parthian legends, and Persian titles were adopted. The Parthians were often at war with Rome and in one instance were able to completely defeat a Roman army, resulting in the death of Marcus Licinius Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 b.c.e. by the general Surenas.

This Parthian power was apparent through the rule of the last king of kings, Artabanus V, who in 218 c.e. defeated the Romans at Nisibis. However, Artabanus V was defeated and killed by a Persian ruler from the province of Persis, Ardashīr I (r. 224-241 c.e.), in 224 c.e. Ardashīr I, the founder of the Sāsānian Dynasty, was from Persis, the same province in which the Achaemenians originated. The Sāsānians were antihellenic and propagated Persian customs and the Zoroastrian religion, which had been the imperial religion during the Achaemenian period. The coins of Ardashīr and the succeeding Sāsānian kings have the bust of the ruler on the obverse and a fire temple on the reverse, demonstrating the close connection between the church and state.

Shāpūr I (r. 240-272 c.e.), the son of Ardashīr I, expanded the empire, defeated the Roman emperor Gordian in 244 c.e., and eventually captured the emperor Valerian in 260 c.e. Shāpūr I let religious leader Mani propagate his beliefs (Manichaeanism) throughout the empire, which caused dissatisfaction among the Zoroastrian priests. The Sāsānians exacted large sums of gold from the Romans from the third to the seventh centuries c.e.

In the fifth century c.e., the Hephthalites became a menace to the Sāsānians in the east, and the Persian Empire, much like the Roman Empire, had to defend its borders on several fronts. Armenia became a main point of contention between the Persians and the Romans, and by the fifth century, it was split in half, with the western portion under Rome and the eastern half under Persia.

The Sāsānian Empire reached its zenith during the reign of Khosrow I (r. 531-579 c.e.) who made fiscal, military, and social reforms. Some of these reforms were in reaction to Mazdak, a Zoroastrian priest who espoused an egalitarian society. Khosrow II (r. 590-628 c.e.) defeated a challenge by Bahrām VI, who was not a member of the Sāsānian family, with the aid of the Roman emperor Maurice. He then conquered Anatolia, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and parts of Arabia. Even Constantinople came under attack, but the emperor Heraclius countered with a brilliant move and forced the Sāsānians to retreat.

In the seventh century, the Sāsānian Empire was in a state of anarchy and decline that coincided with the rise of Islam and the unification of the Arab tribes in the Arabian peninsula. The last Sāsānian king, Yazdegerd III (r. 633-651 c.e.), was not able to withstand the Arab Muslims and was forced to move from province to province to seek support. The Arab Muslims were able to defeat the Sāsānians at several important battles. These were the Battle of al-Qādisīyah, in which the famous general Rustam Farrokhzad was killed, and the Battle of Nahāvand in the heart of Persia. For the next fifty years, the Arab Muslims quelled local revolts by the Persian population while Yazdegerd’s descendants sought help from the Chinese.

Religion and ritual

Zoroastrianism, the religion adopted by the Achaemenians and Parthians, spread throughout Persia, although other religions were tolerated. During the Sāsānian period (224-651 c.e.), Zoroastrianism and its doctrine were codified by priests and a Zoroastrian church was established with set rules and offices. One constant feature of Zoroastrianism was the worship of the deity Ahura Mazda (Ormazd). Such priests as Kerdir in the third century c.e. and Adur-Farranbag in the fourth century c.e. were responsible for the codification of the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy text. Commentaries on the Avesta, designed to clarify various points, were written in Middle Persian.

During the rule of Shāpūr I in the third century c.e., Mani emerged as an important prophet who espoused a gnostic religion, Manichaeanism. His teaching focused on salvation and was eclectic, antimaterialistic, and apocalyptic. The Zoroastrian priest Kerdir caused the imprisonment and death of Mani, but the religion thrived outside the borders of Persia, especially in Central Asia and as far as China until the thirteenth century. A Zoroastrian priest in the sixth century c.e. by the name of Mazdak interpreted the Avesta quite differently and was able to gather a large following from the masses, and for a while, King Kavadh I (r. 488-531 c.e.) accepted his egalitarian ideas in order to reduce the power of the nobility.

Death and burial

According to the Zoroastrian doctrine, once a person had passed away, his body was deemed polluted and was not to come into contact with humans, the earth, or water. For this reason, the bodies of the dead were exposed to vultures and dogs in designated enclosures called dakhma. The bones were then collected and placed in a receptacle (astodan).

Language and literature

The most important writings regarding the Achaemenian period are the Old Persian royal inscriptions, including the longest of these, Darius the Great’s Behistun inscription, and Xerxes I’s Daiva inscription. All the inscriptions are formulaically constructed and repetitive and at times supply very little information. The Parthians left a few inscriptions in the Parthian and Greek languages, and some documents have been found in Central Asia. The Sāsānians left many more sources, including royal and priestly inscriptions in Middle Persian. There are hundreds of Middle Persian texts, many of which were redacted during the early Islamic period. They primarily concern themselves with religion, sacred history, geography, and law but are still important sources for Sāsānian history. Some Arabic and Persian historical texts also were translations of Sāsānian sources and chronicles.

Writing system

The Achaemenians adopted the cuneiform system of writing from their Mesopotamian neighbors and used it for the Old Persian languages. Aramaic was the language for imperial correspondence and the lingua franca of the ancient Near East. The Parthians and the Sāsānians used varied forms of the Aramaic script for inscriptions and texts. The Aramaic script used by the Sāsānians for the Middle Persian language evolved into a highly cursive script by the seventh century c.e.

Women’s life

The Greek sources do not paint a favorable picture of the royal women in the Achaemenian period; however, this may be a reflection of Athenian prejudices. The Greeks depict royal women in the Achaemenian household as powerful and involved in matters of the state. In the Sāsānian period, several women ruled or had their portrait on coins. The most notable are queens Boran and Azarmidukht, who ruled in the seventh century c.e. Zoroastrian law was very much concerned with purity and pollution; therefore, women were restricted from daily activities during their menstrual periods. There are hundreds of seals belonging to women in the Sāsānian period that had either their name or portrait inscribed on them.

Daily life, customs, and traditions

The historian Herodotus tells us that the Achaemenian Persians’ favorite celebration was birthdays. The Persians had specific customs for every occasion; for example, during meals, one was not to speak as that was viewed as a sin. Lying was the worst sin according to the Persians. Hair that had been cut off and nail clippings had to be collected and put in a particular spot or receptacle. Every Persian boy was taught the art of horsemanship and archery. Hunting was the royal sport in which the Persians engaged, and polo originated in a game played by the Sāsānian kings. Chess and backgammon were popularized and were part of a curriculum that the noblemen had to learn as part of the frahang “learning.” The Achaemenians practiced consanguineous marriages, and by the Sāsānian period, this had become common among the population. According to the Zoroastrian tradition, the ages of nine and fifteen, respectively, were the ideal age for a girl and a boy to be married.

Bibliography

Briant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1998.

Gershvitch, Ilya, ed. The Achaemenid Period. Vol. 2 in The Cambridge History of Iran. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1975.

Wiesehöfer, Josef. Ancient Persia, from 550 b.c. to 650 a.d. London: I. B. Tauris, 1996.

Yarshater, Ehsan, ed. The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods. Vol. 3 in The Cambridge History of Iran. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1983.