Iran History
Prehistory |
There are records
of numerous ancient civilizations on the
Iranian plateau before the arrival of
Iranian tribes from Central Asia during the
Early Iron Age.
The earliest
archaeological artifacts in Iran were found in
the
Kashafrud and Ganj Par sites that date back
to
Lower Paleolithic. Mousterian Stone tools
made by Neanderthal man have also been found.
There are also 9000 year old human and animal
figurines from Teppe Sarab in Kermanshah
Province among the many other ancient artifacts.
There are more cultural remains of
Neanderthal
man dating back to the
Middle Paleolithic period, which mainly have
been found in the Zagros region and fewer in
central Iran at sites such as Shanidar, Kobeh,
Kunji, Bisetun, Tamtama,
Warwasi, Palegawra, and Yafteh Cave.
Evidence for
Upper Paleolithic
and
Epipaleolithic
periods are known mainly from
the
Zagros region in the caves of
Kermanshah and
Khoramabad.
In the
6th millennium BC the world developed a
fairly sophisticated agricultural society and
proto-urban population centres. The
south-western part of Iran was part of the
Fertile Crescent where most of humanity's
first major crops were grown. 7000 year old
jars of
wine
excavated in the
Zagros Mountains
(now on display at The University of
Pennsylvania) and ruins of 7000 year old
settlements such as
Sialk are further testament to this. Two
main Neolithic Iranian settlements were the
Zayandeh Rud civilization,
Ganj Dareh. One of main civilizations of
Prehistoric
Iran was the
Elam to the east of
Mesopotamia, which started from around
5000 BC, and lasted well into the
6th century BC.
| The Early Bronze Age
saw the rise of urbanization into organized city states
and the invention of writing (the
Uruk period) in the Near East. One of Iran's main
civilizations of this time was the
Jiroft Civilization in southeastern Iran. Recent
excavations at the sites have produced the world's
earliest inscription which pre-dates Mesopotamian
inscriptions |
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Early history and statehood
Modern Iranians
are descendants of early Proto-Iranians. Having
descended from the Proto-Indo-Iranians, the
Proto-Iranians separated from the Indo-Aryans
around in the early
2nd millennium BC. The Proto-Iranians are
traced to the
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, a
Bronze Age culture of Central Asia. By the
1st millennium BC,
Medes,
Persians,
Bactrians and
Parthians populated the
Iranian plateau, while others such as the
Scythians,
Sarmatians,
Cimmerians and
Alans populated the steppes north of the
Black Sea. The
Saka and
Scythian tribes remained mainly in the south
and spread as far west as the
Balkans and as far east as
Xinjiang.
During the
Neo-Assyrian Empire the Persians and the
Medes were vassals of Assyria and paid tribute.
In the second half of the
7th century BC, the
Median tribes gained their independence and
were united by
Deioces. In 612 BC the Babylonian king
Nabopolassar, along with
Cyaxares the Mede, finally destroyed
Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, and Assyria
fell. The Medes are credited with the foundation
of Iran as a nation and empire, and established
the first Iranian empire, the largest of its day
until
Cyrus the Great established a unified empire
of the Medes and
Persians leading to the
Achaemenian Empire
(648–330 BC).
Cyrus the Great
created the
Cyrus Cylinder, considered to be the first
declaration of human rights. He was the first
king whose name has the suffix "Great" and the
first
Shah of Iran to be known by that title.
Cyrus also banned slavery in all of the
conquered areas that became the Persian Empire.
Cyrus' seminal ideas greatly influenced later
human civilizations; Cyrus' principles of ruling
– advocating "love" rather than "fear"
– influenced the original
U.S. Constitution.
After Cyrus' death, his son
Cambyses ruled for seven years (531-522 BC)
and continued his father's work of conquest,
making significant gains in Egypt. A power
struggle followed Cambyses' death and, despite
his tenuous connection to the royal line,
Darius was declared king (ruled 522-486 BC).
He was to be arguably the greatest of the
ancient Persian rulers.
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The
Arg-e Bam
citadel,
built before
500 BC. A
great
example of
Iranian
castles of
the time.
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Parthian Empire
(248 BC – 224 AD)
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Parthia
was led by the
Arsacid dynasty, who reunited and ruled over
the Iranian plateau, after defeating the
Greek
Seleucid Empire, beginning in the late
3rd century BC, and intermittently
controlled
Mesopotamia between ca 150 BC and 224 AD. It
was the second native dynasty of ancient Iran (Persia).
Parthia was the arch-enemy of the
Roman Empire in the east; and it limited
Rome's expansion beyond
Cappadocia (central
Anatolia). The Parthian armies included two
types of
cavalry: the heavily-armed and armoured
cataphracts and lightly armed but
highly-mobile
mounted archers. For the Romans, who relied
on heavy
infantry, the Parthians were too hard to
defeat, as both types of cavalry were much
faster and more mobile than foot soldiers. On
the other hand, the Parthians found it difficult
to occupy conquered areas as they were unskilled
in
siege warfare. Because of these weaknesses,
neither the Romans nor the Parthians were able
to completely
annex
each other.
The Parthian
empire lasted five centuries, longer than most
Eastern Empires. The end of this long lasted
empire came in 224 AD, when the empire was
loosely organized and the last king was defeated
by one of the empire's vassals, the Persians of
the
Sassanian dynasty.
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Zoroastrianism
Before the Islamic
conquest of Persia,
Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the
Sassanian Empire of Persia (224-651 AD) and
played an important role in the earlier
Median,
Achaemenian and
Parthian dynasties. The Iranian
Prophet
Zoroaster is considered by numerous scholars
as the founder of the earliest religion based on
revealed scripture. Many scholars point out that
Judaism and subsequently,
Christianity and
Islam have borrowed from
Zoroastrianism in regards to the concepts of
Eschatology,
Angelology and
Demonology, as well as the fallen angel
Satan, as the ultimate agent of evil.
Zoroastrian
monotheism has had major influence on the
religions of the Middle Eastern monotheisms in
adaptations of such concepts as heavens, hells,
judgment day and messianic figures. These
concepts, amongst many others reflect the
extreme
dualism of
Persian culture which has influenced
Eastern and
Western civilization. According to Professor
Mary Boyce, who was the world's leading
doyenne of
Zoroastrian studies and
Iranology, Zoroastrianism is the oldest of
the revealed credal religions, and it has
probably had more influence on mankind, directly
and indirectly, than any other single faith.
Despite its
persecution of certain "Christians" during the
fourth century,
fifth century Zoroastrian Iran became a
haven for
Nestorians fleeing Christian territories
that supported the
Council of Ephesus. As a result, the
Assyrian Church of the East was formed
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Sassanian Empire (224 – 651 AD)
The first Shah of the
Sassanian Empire,
Ardashir I, started reforming the country both economically
and militarily. The empire's territory encompassed all of
today's Iran,
Iraq,
Armenia,
Afghanistan, eastern parts of
Turkey, and parts of
Syria,
Pakistan,
Caucasia,
Central Asia and
Arabia. During
Khosrau II's rule in 590-628, Egypt,
Jordan,
Palestine and
Lebanon were also annexed to the Empire. The Sassanians
called their empire Erânshahr (or Iranshahr,
"Dominion of the Aryans", i.e. of
Iranians)
A chapter of Iran's history
followed after roughly six hundred years of conflict with the
Roman Empire. During this time, the Sassanian and
Romano-Byzantine armies clashed for influence in Mesopotamia,
Armenia and the Levant. Under Justinian I, the war came to an
uneasy peace with payment of tribute to the Sassanians. However
the Sassanians used the deposition of the Byzantine Emperor
Maurice as a casus belli to attack the Empire. After many
gains, the Sassanians were defeated at Issus, Constantinople and
finally Nineveh, resulting in peace. With the conclusion of the
Roman-Persian wars, the war-exhausted Persians lost the
Battle of al-Qâdisiyah (632) in
Hilla to the invading forces of Islam, (present day
Iraq).
The Persian general
Rostam Farrokhzad
had been criticised for his decision to
face the Arabs on their own ground, suggesting that the Persians
could have prevailed if they had stayed on the opposite bank of
the
Euphrates. The first day of battle ended with Persian
advances and the Arab force appeared as though it would succumb
to the much larger
Sassanian army. In particular, the latter's elephants
terrified the Arab cavalry. By the third day of battle, Arab
veterans arrived on the scene and reinforced the Arab army. In
addition a clever trick whereby the Arab horses were decorated
in costume succeeded in frightening the Persian elephants. When
an Arab warrior succeeded in slaying the lead elephant, the rest
fled into the rear, trampelling numerous Persian fighters. At
dawn of the fourth day, a sandstorm broke out blowing sand in
the Persian army's faces resulting in total disarray for the
Sassanian army and paving way for the
Islamic conquest of Persia.
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The
Sassanian Empire at its greatest extent |
The Statue of
Khosrow Parviz
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Iran and the Islamic culture and
civilization
The
Islamization of Iran was to yield deep
transformations within the cultural, scientific,
and political structure of Iran's society: The
blossoming of
Persian literature,
philosophy,
medicine and
art became major elements of the
newly-forming Muslim civilization. Inheriting a
heritage of thousands of years of civilization,
and being at the "crossroads of the major
cultural highways", contributed to Persia
emerging as what culminated into the "Islamic
Golden Age". During this period,
hundreds of scholars and scientists vastly
contributed to technology, science and medicine,
later influencing the rise of European science
during
the Renaissance.
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The most important scholars of
almost all of the Islamic sects and schools of thought were
Persian or live in Iran including most notable and reliable
Hadith collectors of
Shia and
Sunni like
Shaikh Saduq,
Shaikh Kulainy,
Imam Bukhari,
Imam Muslim and
Hakim al-Nishaburi, the greatest
theologians of Shia and Sunni like
Shaykh Tusi,
Imam Ghazali,
Imam Fakhr al-Razi and
Al-Zamakhshari, the greatest
physicians,
astronomers,
logicians,
mathematicians,
metaphysicians,
philosophers and
scientists like
Al-Farabi,
Avicenna, and
Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī, the greatest
Shaykh of Sufism like
Rumi,
Abdul-Qadir Gilani.
Photo taken from medieval manuscript by
Qotbeddin Shirazi
(1236–1311), a Persian Astronomer. The
image depicts an epicyclic planetary model. |
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