Write the capitals of the ancient states of Persia. Ancient Persia. From tribe to empire. Ancient Persia, video
All the inhabitants of the times of the power of Persia knew what Persepolis was. Actually, the name of the state of Persia, thanks to the allegories of the Greeks, takes on behalf of the capital city. But Persepolis did not become known to the present world immediately, only in 1767 information about the current state of affairs of the former capital of Iran, burnt down by Alexander the Great, became known.
Persepolis. Description of the legendary city
The construction of the city began during the period of power of Persia - during the reign of Darius I. Around 515 BC. construction began on the new capital of Iran, the city of Pars. But it so happened that the Greeks began to use a different form in their names - Persepolis, and the whole state was Persia. So, the answer to the question in which country Persepolis was located is ambiguous.
It took half a century to build the city. The best builders of the huge Persian empire were involved here, which made the new city amazingly beautiful and luxurious. The total area of Persepolis is estimated at 135 thousand square meters. m. The city was surrounded on three sides by a wall (5 m thick and up to 15 meters high), the rest of it was supported by a rock. Inside there were many structures from barracks and stables to the king's palace.
Reconstruction of Persepolis
The central place in Persepolis is occupied by Apadana - a ceremonial hall with many slender columns. Its construction began under Darius I, and was completed under his son Xerxes. Apadana is a square with a side of 60 meters. The building was surrounded on three sides by twelve-column porticoes, and at the corners were towers with stairs. Two staircases led to apadana, richly decorated with various reliefs. Due to its importance, apadana was associated with two royal palaces - Darius and Xerxes.
Apanada
The Persepolis palaces of Darius (Tachara) and Xerxes (Hadish) were decorated with reliefs and gold plating. In a word, the palace complex and the decoration of the palaces of Persepolis corresponded to all the prevailing trends of their time. Also, already under Xerxes, the city was replenished with a harem building.
Another important structure of Persepolis is the Hall of Columns (Throne). Its construction dates back to 466 BC. But the beginning of work on it is attributed to Darius himself. In terms of its functional purpose, the building is a royal treasury, where the most valuable exhibits of the ruler, as well as gifts presented to him, were located.
The construction was actually completed under the grandson of Darius Artaxerxes I, only later Artaxerxes III built another royal palace in Persepolis. But many people were still allocated to maintain the safety of the capital, because all this was built of adobe bricks, which was subjected to the blow of the elements during the rainy season. And all this was supported in magnificent decoration for just one day of the year - New Year's Day. It was on this day that the king, together with his retinue and the guard of the "immortals", came to this city, all the rest of his time he spent in other residences.
The end of all this splendor was put by a fire, set by the legend by Alexander the Great himself, who conquered this city in 330 BC. In the Middle Ages, Persepolis still retained little attention, but after a certain period the city fell into complete desolation and began to be subjected to analysis by the local inhabitants. Only in the 30s of the XX century was the first serious survey of the ruins of the capital of Persia carried out, which prevented the complete destruction of the city and contributed to the further study and restoration of buildings.
In the south of the capital of Iran, in the central part of the state, there is the third largest city of this country - the city of Isfahan, the ancient capital of Persia, and now the administrative center of the ostan (province) of the same name. This one and a half million, by the standards of the Iranians, is a real metropolis: its "orbit" includes the nearby cities of Najafabad, Khaneh Isfahan, Khomeini Shahr, Shahin Shahr, Zarrin Shahr and Foolad-e-Mobarak. The ancient city is located on the banks of the Zayande River (which translates as "giving birth", "giving life") - the largest in the central part of the Iranian plateau, on which, at an altitude of about 1575 m, Isfahan is located. Against the background of the rest of the Iranian rivers, Zayande is quite full of water. This is the true breadwinner of a vast area, providing 2700 km 2 of irrigated land. It is here, on the banks of Zayande - in the Kaleh Bozi caves - that some of the earliest local traces of human presence were found: Peleolithic hunters chose these places 40,000 years ago. Zayande played an important role in the life of Isfahan: she turned this city into a blooming oasis in the middle of a rather deserted mountainous area (a system of canals leading water to the suburbs has existed since the 17th century), she also contributed to the development of trade and economic growth of the city, fed and protected it residents. And even spurred the development of technical and architectural solutions: expanding, the city occupied both banks, which led to the need to build bridges, of which there are 11 in Isfahan. All, except one, function as dams. But an oriental man could not just build a bridge - he was certainly engaged in decorating even the most ordinary functional buildings. Therefore, the bridges of Isfahan are rightfully listed among its attractions.
The oldest (XI-XII centuries) - Shakhrestan, or "State", was built on the site of the ancient (III-VII centuries) bridge and compared to its "colleagues" looks modest, but thorough and reliable, giving an idea of the early principles construction. The luxurious Si-o-Se-Pol ("Bridge of 33 arches"), consisting, as it were, of 33 connected small bridges with a total length of almost 300 m, was erected at the very beginning of the 17th century. in order to connect the Armenian colony of Julfa with the city. The real Armenian city of Julfu was destroyed by Shah Abbas I the Great (1571-1629) in an effort to divide his and the Ottoman possessions of the desert. He resettled the inhabitants from the left bank of the Araks to the right bank of the Isfahan Zayand, and destroyed their city. Armenians still make up a large community in Isfahan. Another name for Si-o-Se-Pol is the Allaverdi Khan Bridge (the head of its construction).
The most famous and one of the most beautiful in the East and in the world, of course, is the Khadzhu Bridge (c. 1650) - the creation of Shah Abbas II (1632-1666), which allowed pedestrians (lower tier), horses and carts (upper tier) to move. along the roadway at 7.5 m. The 14 m high bridge consists of 23 arches. It is precisely these arches, decorated with ornaments and illuminated in the evening, that draw attention to Khaj.
The history of the city is more than 2500 years old. One of the earliest mentions is found in the great scientist of the Hellenistic era, Claudius Ptolemy (c. 87-165). The city was part of the Elamite Empire (2700-539 BC), under the name of Aspandana, was part of the Median kingdom (670-550 BC), then - the Achaemenid empire (VI-IV centuries BC) BC) and the Parthian Empire (c. 250 BC - 220 AD). Favorable geographical location - at the intersection of trade routes led to the flourishing of the city, which lasted until the 7th century, when it was captured by the Arabs, who ruled there until the 10th century.
From VIII to XIII centuries Isfahan was reborn in trade, he had enough strength to recover even after the defeat, which was brought in 1237 by the troops of the Mongols. But the rich Isfahan attracted the attention of many commanders, and in 1387 it was conquered by Tamerlane (1336-1405). The reign of the Iranian Shah dynasty of the Safavids (1501-1722) brought a special prosperity to the city. Thanks to them in the XVI-VII centuries. Isfahan was one of the largest cities in the world, and powerful rulers did everything to make it also the most beautiful. The arts are developing in this influential political and economic center, right on the Silk Road. Artists and architects received special patronage under the aforementioned Shah Abbas I. At his court, the Isfahan school of Iranian miniature was formed, for which masterly drawing with light illumination, the desire to convey volume and movement, detailing and the widespread use of gold for backgrounds and ornaments on clothes were especially important ... The largest representative of the Isfahan school was the master of genre scenes and portraits Reza Abbasi (c. 1575-1635). Under Abbas I, Isfahan itself was re-planned, rebuilt and re-blossomed.
New palaces and mosques, bazaars and public parks are being erected - everything that the capital, which Isfahan again becomes, should have. The city is adorned today by the Imperial Palace of Ali-Gapu, which began to be built at the end of the reign of this outstanding Shah Chehel-Sotun. Under Abbas I, the famous ensemble of Imam Square, included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, was also formed. The largest in Isfahan (1611-1641) with unique acoustics adorns it in the south, the Grand Bazaar in the north, the Ali-Gapu palace closes the square in the west, and the outstanding monument of Persian architecture, the Sheikh Lutfalla Mosque (1603-1617), - in the east. At the same time, the art of carpet weaving, characteristic of Iran, flourishes - Isfahan's workshops are famous throughout the world. In the east, the carpet symbolically represents a mini-model of the world, hence the attention to the quality of production and the content of the image. Traditionally, the center of Isfahan carpets is decorated with a medallion made of intricate plant ornament - this is a sacred flower or an all-seeing divine eye. The image became more complicated, hunting scenes appeared, and modern masters often depict romantic scenes in the spirit of the works of Omar Khayyam. Isfahan carpets can be recognized by their masters' love for a red or blue background, as well as by the wool cut to a few millimeters. By the way, Iran still produces more carpets than all other carpet weaving centers put together.
In 1722, Isfahan was plundered by the Afghans: the city was partially destroyed, and the population was significantly reduced. With the development of sea trade, the importance of the Silk Road decreased. The transfer of the capital to, which took place in the 18th century, finally slowed down the further development of the city, although in cultural terms it experienced a certain rise in this century as well. Subsequently, the inhabitants of Isfahan, together with the whole country, experienced wars with The Russian Empire and the period of British rule. The RSFSR recognized the independence of Iran in 1921 and since then has maintained very friendly relations with it. For example, in the 1960-1970s, with the support of Soviet engineers, one of the largest steel plants in the region was built in Isfahan, and then an oil refinery and metallurgical plant. The Ukrainian-Iranian aircraft Ir-An-140 is being assembled at the aircraft building enterprise of Khesa. Isfahan has an experimental nuclear reactor and all the infrastructure for the production of nuclear fuel.
But this is not what makes Isfahan attractive. The city is literally buried in greenery, its parks are a special pride: among the famous are the park around Chehel-Sotun ("The Palace of Forty Columns") and the Hasht-Behesht Palace ("Eight Doors of Paradise"). The latter is a remnant of the famous Chor-Bag alley ("Street of Four Gardens"), which was more than 3 km long, about 32 m wide, smelled of jasmine and roses and descended from the Shah's residence with terraces decorated with fountains and cascades. Today, more than 5,000 individuals live in the bird garden on the river bank, and the city is decorated with fountains, parks, gardens and lush flower beds everywhere. It is not for nothing that one of the most luxurious varieties of roses was named after this fantastic beauty of the city "Isfahan".
general information
The administrative center of the ostan is Isfahan.
Other variants of the name: Aspandana (ancient), Ispagan.
Language: Persian (Farsi).
Ethnic composition: more than 50% - Persians, approx. 50% - others (Azerbaijanis, Gilaks, Kurds, Arabs).
Religion: Islam.
Currency unit: Iranian rial.
Largest river: Zayande.
The most important airport: Isfahan International Airport.
Numbers
Area: approx. 106 km 2.
Population: 1,583,609
Population density: 14 939 people / km 2.
Height above sea level: 1590 m.
Economy
Industry: textile, food (butter, sugar), cement, footwear, metallurgy, oil refining, experimental nuclear reactor.
Agriculture: plant growing (growing of citrus fruits, fruit growing), animal husbandry.
Service sector: tourism, trade, transport.
Climate and weather
Moderate. Arid.
Average January temperature:+ 3 ° C.
Average temperature in July:+ 28 ° C.
Average annual rainfall: 122.8 mm.
sights
■ Religious buildings: Mosque Jame, or Friday (IX-XX centuries), Chehel-Dokhtaran minaret (1107), Sareban minarets (late XII century), Lutfalli mosque (1603-1617), Imam mosque (1611-1641 biennium), Cathedral of Holy Christ the All-Savior (Vanksky, 1655-1664);
■ Mausoleums of Imamzade Jafar(XIV century), Harune-Velaya (1512, rest. In 1656);
■ Caesarea Bazaar(XVII century);
■ Madare-Shah madrasah complex(1706-14);
■ Imam Square- a UNESCO World Heritage Site;
■ Ali-Gapu Palace(15th century, expanded in the 17th century), behind it is the Shah's garden with palace pavilions (Chehel-Sotun, 1590, with paintings and mirror mosaics, etc.); bird garden;
■ Bridges: Khadzhu (c. 1650), Si-o-Se-Pol, or Allaverdi Khan (c. 1600), Shakhrestan (XI-XII centuries).
Curious facts
■ The unique acoustics of the Imam Mosque allows you to hear even whispers from the opposite corner. But in the Ali-Gapu palace ("Ali's Gate"), acoustics manifests itself in a different way: in the palace hall for centuries, two opposite corners have been erased by curious almost to black, because if one of them talk to each other, then in some amazing way the speakers (even in a half-whisper) they will hear each other, but the people around them will not.
■ From the Savafid era, Isfahan inherited an amazing attraction - the swinging minarets of Minar Jomban. They rise above the grave of a dervish of the 14th century. Abu Abdullah, who is still revered. Somehow miraculously, if you swing one tower, the second begins to echo it by itself. To the delight of the observers, minarets are shaken by hand by ministers every day: having climbed into one of the towers, they simply begin to push its walls until they feel the amplitude of vibrations.
■ Not far from Isfahan, there is still a Zoroastrian temple of the 4th-7th centuries, the sacred fire in which, according to local residents, has been maintained for hundreds of years.
■ Isfahan's beauty attraction is high quality rose water made from real Persian roses. The aroma of flowers is collected by distillation.
■ The most expensive Persian carpet of the 16th century. was sold in London in 1928 for $ 111,555. It was made in Isfahan.
■ Most of the carpets in the city are made of cotton wool, and silk carpet makers are also known.
■ Modern play Polo was once brought by British servicemen from the East, and since then it has been perceived as a completely English entertainment. Few people know that this game originated in Iran: the famous Imam Isfahan Square was previously nothing more than a place for playing polo. Until now, high pillars of the original form adorn both sides of the square - these are the former gates of the court players, who were often headed by Shah Abbas I himself, a passionate polo fan. The Mongols adopted the game from the Iranians and spread it all over the world, and only then the British revived it and gave polo a second life.
■ The great Tajik scientist, philosopher and physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037) spent the last few years of his life in Isfahan.
■ Previously, there were about 3,000 pigeon towers in Isfahan: pigeons were used to naturally fertilize the fields. There are about 700 dovecotes left: they are very original architectural structures of the 13th-17th centuries.
Persepolis is the ancient capital of Persia, one of the famous cities of antiquity and one of the wonders of the world, albeit unofficial. It can be safely put on a par with the pyramids in Egypt, the ruins of the Colosseum and other similar historical monuments.
Today it is the most popular tourist destination in Iran, where thousands of tourists flock every day, in addition, it is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Persepolis is located 55 km northeast of Shiraz, and I wrote in detail about how to get here at the end of the post. There is also detailed information about the cost of entry and opening hours.
The city was founded in 560 BC. ancient Persian king Darius I, it was he who made it the capital of the entire powerful empire of the Achaemenids (the first capital was Pasargadae, located 70 km north). The best architects, sculptors and builders of their time have been working on the construction for more than 60 years. They erected ten-meter-high walls around the city, so that one could get inside only through the main "gate of all nations" (or the gate of Xerxes). And there were also magnificent palaces with columns, water supply and other utilities, and all this during the time of BC!
Something like this it looked like:
At the entrance you are greeted by huge columns. It is interesting that on the stones you can see inscriptions like "Vasya was here", only they were made by highly respected counts and lords. There are inscriptions from the early 20th century!
Now everything is fenced with glass, so not only writing, but also touching the history will not work.
Apadana Palace stands out for its size. It was so huge that the vault was supported by 72 massive columns; meetings with delegations, receptions and holidays were held here.
Remains of the Apadana Palace
A gentle staircase leads to the palace. It is specially made so that you can enter in a chariot. I may have revisited the Game of Thrones series, but for some reason I walked through these ruins and recalled scenes from the movie :-)
And here is the cuneiform. Remember the lessons of history?
Other bas-reliefs depicting scenes of life or myths have been preserved on the stairs.
The second largest building in Persepolis was the palace of a hundred columns, where gold-jewels conquered by the Persians were kept in the dungeons.
The reliefs on the stairs to the palace are remarkably well preserved. Perhaps they depict real scenes of offering gifts to the king.
There were private residential palaces for the kings Darius and Xerxes next to the Apandan palace, now you can only imagine how magnificent it was.
Take a closer look at the columns and see the symbol of Zoroastrianism and the unofficial symbol of all Iran - Faravahar. The ancient Persians considered him to be a guide angel for the soul.
Initially, it was a symbol of the winged sun, but then a person was added to it. Stickers with Faravahar are found even on the rear windows of cars, just like we have "Thank you grandfather for the Victory."
The tombs of the kings Artaxerxes I and Artaxerxes II rise on a hill above the city.
Tombs of the kings
In 330 BC, that is, after only 200 years after its foundation, the city was conquered and burned by the army of Alexander the Great. Historians believe that this was revenge for the burning of the Acropolis in Athens by the Persians.
What can be seen now is just a shadow from former greatness cities and empires, but even that is impressive.
Helpful information
Entrance fees to Persepolis- 200 thousand riyals (slightly more than $ 5). By the way, for locals this price is several times lower.
Working hours: from 08:00 to 17:30. As long as possible in summer.
What to take with you: bring sunglasses, a hat, cream and water. There is almost no shade on the territory, and it is rather stuffy on a hot day. You will have to leave a backpack between the cashier and the entrance in a special cell, if you have one.
Most tourists come to the ancient city in organized groups by buses or 3-4 people by taxi. For example, in my guesthouse in Shiraz there was an announcement that the whole car in Persepolis + Naksh Rustam costs $ 40, that is, $ 10 per person if you recruit four people. Taxi drivers on the street generally agree for $ 30. For some reason, on the day when I had to go, the people didn't get enough - I had to try ways to get there myself - now I can tell you :)
1. Taxi from Shiraz ($ 30-40 per car)
2. By minibus or shared taxi (savari) from Shiraz to the town of Marvdasht, and from there by taxi.
Minibuses and savari depart from a small station next to the main bus station, right on the river bank. The minibus costs 25,000 riyals ($ 0.7, 40 minutes), and savari 50,000 ($ 1.4, 30 minutes on the way). At the exit in Marvdasht, you will be immediately caught by local taxi drivers, do not agree to go for more than 100,000 riyals ($ 2.7, 10-15 minutes). The way back is done in the same order.
Local minibus
3. On savari directly from Shiraz to Persepolis.
At the same small bus station, you can try to find savari right before the end of the journey. I won't say exactly for the price, but not much more expensive than if you go with a transfer.
In ancient times, Persia became the center of one of the greatest empires in history, stretching from Egypt to the Indus River. It included all the previous empires - Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Hittites. The later empire of Alexander the Great almost did not include territories that had not previously belonged to the Persians, while it was smaller than Persia under King Darius.
Since its inception in the 6th century. BC. before the conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century. BC. for two and a half centuries, Persia occupied a dominant position in the ancient world. Greek domination lasted for about a hundred years, and after its fall, the Persian state was revived under two local dynasties: the Arshakids (Parthian kingdom) and Sassanids (New Persian kingdom). For more than seven centuries, they kept Rome in fear, and then Byzantium, until in the 7th century. AD the Sassanid state was not conquered by the Islamic conquerors.
The geography of the empire.
The lands inhabited by the ancient Persians only approximately coincide with the borders of modern Iran. In ancient times, such boundaries simply did not exist. There were periods when the Persian kings were the rulers of most of the then known world, at other times the main cities of the empire were located in Mesopotamia, west of Persia proper, and it also happened that the entire territory of the kingdom was divided between the rival local rulers.
A significant part of the territory of Persia is occupied by a high arid plateau (1200 m), crossed by mountain ranges with individual peaks reaching 5500 m.In the west and north, there are the Zagros and Elburz mountain ranges, which frame the highland in the form of a V, leaving it open to the east. The western and northern borders of the highland approximately coincide with the current borders of Iran, but in the east it extends beyond the borders of the country, occupying part of the territory of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Three areas are isolated from the plateau: the coast of the Caspian Sea, the coast of the Persian Gulf and the southwestern plains, which are the eastern continuation of the Mesopotamian lowland.
Directly west of Persia is Mesopotamia, home to the world's most ancient civilizations. The Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria had a significant impact on the early culture of Persia. And although the Persian conquests ended almost three thousand years after the heyday of Mesopotamia, Persia in many ways became the heir to the Mesopotamian civilization. Most of the major cities of the Persian Empire were located in Mesopotamia, and Persian history is largely a continuation of Mesopotamian history.
Persia lies on the path of the earliest migrations from Central Asia. Slowly moving westward, the settlers skirted the northern tip of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan and turned south and west, where through the more accessible areas of Khorasan, southeast of the Caspian Sea, they entered the Iranian plateau south of the Elburz Mountains. Centuries later, parallel to the early route ran the main trade artery connecting the Far East with the Mediterranean and providing control of the empire and the transfer of troops. At the western end of the highlands, it descended into the plains of Mesopotamia. Other important routes linked the southeastern plains through the heavily rugged mountains to the highlands proper.
Away from several main roads, thousands of agricultural communities were scattered along long and narrow mountain valleys. They led natural economy, due to their isolation from their neighbors, many of them remained aloof from wars and invasions and for many centuries carried out an important mission to preserve the continuity of the culture so characteristic of the ancient history of Persia.
HISTORY
Ancient Iran.
It is known that the most ancient inhabitants of Iran had a different origin than the Persians and peoples related to them, who created civilizations in the Iranian Highlands, as well as the Semites and Sumerians, whose civilizations arose in Mesopotamia. During excavations in caves near the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, skeletons of people dated to the 8th millennium BC were discovered. In the north-west of Iran, in the town of Goy-Tepe, the skulls of people who lived in the 3rd millennium BC were found.
Scientists have suggested calling the indigenous population the Caspians, which indicates a geographical connection with the peoples who inhabited the Caucasus Mountains to the west of the Caspian Sea. The Caucasian tribes themselves, as you know, migrated to more southern regions, to the highlands. The "Caspian" type, apparently, was preserved in a greatly weakened form among the nomadic tribes of the Lurs in modern Iran.
For the archeology of the Middle East, the central issue is the dating of the appearance of agricultural settlements here. Monuments material culture and other evidence found in the Caspian caves indicate that the tribes inhabiting the region from the 8th to the 5th millennium BC. were engaged mainly in hunting, then moved on to cattle breeding, which, in turn, approx. IV millennium BC replaced by agriculture. Permanent settlements appeared in the western part of the highlands even before the 3rd millennium BC, and most likely in the 5th millennium BC. The main settlements include Sialk, Goy-Tepe, Gissar, but the largest were Susa, which later became the capital of the Persian state. In these small villages, adobe huts crowded together along winding narrow streets. The dead were buried either under the floor of a house or in a cemetery in a crooked ("uterine") position. The reconstruction of the life of the ancient inhabitants of the highlands was carried out on the basis of the study of utensils, tools and ornaments that were placed in the graves in order to provide the deceased with everything necessary for the afterlife.
The development of culture in prehistoric Iran took place progressively over many centuries. As in Mesopotamia, brick houses began to be built here. large sizes, to make items from cast copper, and then from cast bronze. Stone seals with carved patterns appeared, which were evidence of the emergence of private property. The large jugs found for storing food suggest that supplies were made between harvests. Among the finds of all periods, there are statuettes of the mother goddess, often depicted with her husband, who was her husband and son at the same time.
Most notable is the huge variety of painted earthenware, some of which have walls no thicker than shells. chicken eggs... Depicted in profile, figurines of birds and animals testify to the talent of prehistoric artisans. Some clay products depict a person himself engaged in hunting or performing some kind of rituals. Around 1200-800 BC painted pottery is replaced by one-color - red, black or gray, which is explained by the invasion of tribes from as yet unidentified regions. Pottery of the same type was found very far from Iran - in China.
Early history.
The historical era begins on the Iranian Highlands at the end of the 4th millennium BC. Most of the information about the descendants of the ancient tribes who lived on the eastern borders of Mesopotamia, in the Zagros mountains, is gleaned from the Mesopotamian chronicles. (There is no information in the annals about the tribes inhabiting the central and eastern regions of the Iranian Highlands, because they had no ties with the Mesopotamian kingdoms.) The largest of the peoples inhabiting the Zagros were the Elamites, who captured the ancient city of Susa, located on the plain at the foothills Zagros, and the powerful and prosperous state of Elam, who founded there. The Elamite chronicles began to be compiled ca. 3000 BC and were conducted for two thousand years. Further to the north lived the Kassites, barbarian horse tribes, who by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. conquered Babylonia. The Kassites adopted the Babylonian civilization and ruled southern Mesopotamia for several centuries. Less significant were the tribes of the Northern Zagros, Lullubei and Gutii, who lived in the area where the great Trans-Asian trade route descended from the western tip of the Iranian Highlands to the plain.
The invasion of the Aryans and the Medes kingdom.
Starting from the 2nd millennium BC waves of tribal invasions from Central Asia fell one after another on the Iranian plateau. These were the Aryans, Indo-Iranian tribes who spoke dialects that were the proto-languages of the modern languages of the Iranian Highlands and Northern India. They also gave Iran his name ("the homeland of the Aryans"). The first wave of conquerors swept in approx. 1500 BC One group of Aryans settled in the west of the Iranian Highlands, where they founded the state of Mitanni, another group in the south among the Kassites. However, the main stream of Aryans passed Iran, turning sharply to the south, crossed the Hindu Kush and invaded North India.
At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. along the same path, a second wave of newcomers, the Iranian tribes proper, arrived in the Iranian Highlands, and a much more numerous one. Some of the Iranian tribes - the Sogdians, Scythians, Saki, Parthians and Bactrians - retained their nomadic way of life, others went beyond the highlands, but two tribes, the Medes and the Persians (Parsa), settled in the valleys of the Zagros ridge, mixed with the local population and adopted their political , religious and cultural traditions. The Medes settled in the vicinity of Ecbatana (modern Hamadan). The Persians settled a little further south, on the plains of Elam and in the mountainous region adjacent to the Persian Gulf, which was later called Persis (Parsa or Fars). It is possible that the Persians originally settled north-west of the Medes, west of Lake Rezaye (Urmia), and only later moved south under the pressure of Assyria, which was then experiencing the peak of its power. On some Assyrian bas-reliefs of the 9th and 8th centuries. BC. depicts battles with the Medes and Persians.
The Medes kingdom with its capital in Ecbatana was gradually gaining strength. In 612 BC. The Median king Cyaxar (reigned from 625 to 585 BC) entered into an alliance with Babylonia, captured Nineveh and crushed the Assyrian state. The Median kingdom stretched from Asia Minor (modern Turkey) almost to the Indus River. During just one reign, Media from a small tributary principality turned into the strongest power in the Middle East.
Persian state of the Achaemenids.
The power of Media did not last longer than two generations. The Persian dynasty of Achaemenids (named after its founder Achaemen) began to rule in Pars even under the Medes. In 553 BC. Cyrus II the Great, Achaemenid, the ruler of Parsa, raised a revolt against the Medes king Astyages, the son of Cyaxar, as a result of which a powerful alliance of the Medes and Persians was created. The new power threatened the entire Middle East. In 546 BC. King Croesus of Lydia led a coalition directed against King Cyrus, which, in addition to the Lydians, included the Babylonians, Egyptians and Spartans. According to legend, the oracle predicted to the Lydian king that the war would end with the collapse of the great state. The delighted Croesus did not even bother to ask which state was meant. The war ended with the victory of Cyrus, who pursued Croesus as far as Lydia and there captured him. In 539 BC. Cyrus occupied Babylonia, and by the end of his reign he expanded the borders of the state from Mediterranean Sea to the eastern outskirts of the Iranian Highlands, making Pasargadae, a city in southwestern Iran, as the capital.
Organization of the Achaemenid State.
Apart from a few brief Achaemenid inscriptions, we draw basic information about the Achaemenid state from the works of ancient Greek historians. Even the names of the Persian kings entered historiography as they were written by the ancient Greeks. For example, the names of the kings known today as Cyaxar, Cyrus and Xerxes are pronounced in Persian as Uvakhshtra, Kurush and Hshayarshan.
The main city of the state was Susa. Babylon and Ecbatana were considered administrative centers, and Persepolis was the center of ritual and spiritual life. The state was divided into twenty satrapies, or provinces, headed by satraps. Representatives of the Persian nobility became satraps, and the position itself was inherited. This combination of the power of an absolute monarch and semi-independent governors amounted to characteristic feature political structure countries for centuries.
All provinces were connected by postal roads, the most significant of which, the “royal road”, 2400 km long, ran from Susa to the Mediterranean coast. Despite the fact that a single administrative system, a single currency and a single official language were introduced throughout the empire, many subordinate peoples retained their customs, religion and local rulers. The period of the Achaemenid rule was notable for its tolerance. Long years of peace under the Persians favored the development of cities, trade and Agriculture... Iran was enjoying its Golden Age.
The Persian army differed in composition and tactics from previous armies, for which chariots and infantry were typical. The main striking force of the Persian troops was horse archers, who bombarded the enemy with a cloud of arrows, without coming into direct contact with him. The army consisted of six corps of 60,000 soldiers each and elite formations of 10,000 people, selected from members of the noble families and called "immortals"; they also constituted the personal guard of the king. However, during the campaigns in Greece, as well as during the reign of the last king from the Achaemenid dynasty, Darius III, a huge, poorly controlled mass of horsemen, chariots and infantrymen went into battle, unable to maneuver in small spaces and often significantly inferior to the disciplined infantry of the Greeks.
The Achaemenids were very proud of their origins. The Behistun inscription, carved on the rock by the order of Darius I, reads: “I, Darius, the great king, the king of kings, the king of countries inhabited by all peoples, has long been the king of this great land, stretching even further, son of Hystaspes, Achaemenides, Persian, son Persian, Aryan, and my ancestors were Aryans. " However, the Achaemenid civilization was a conglomerate of customs, culture, social institutions and ideas that existed in all parts of the Ancient World. It was at that time that East and West first came into direct contact, and the resulting exchange of ideas was never interrupted thereafter.
Hellenic dominion.
Weakened by endless rebellions, uprisings and civil strife, the Achaemenid state could not withstand the armies of Alexander the Great. The Macedonians landed on the Asian continent in 334 BC, defeated the Persian troops on the Granik River and twice defeated huge armies under the command of the incompetent Darius III - at the Battle of Issus (333 BC) in southwestern Asia Minor and under Gaugamela (331 BC) in Mesopotamia. Having seized Babylon and Susa, Alexander went to Persepolis and set it on fire, apparently in revenge for the Athens burned by the Persians. Continuing eastward, he found the body of Darius III, killed by his own warriors. Alexander spent more than four years in the east of the Iranian Highlands, founding numerous Greek colonies. He then turned south and conquered the Persian provinces in what is now West Pakistan. After that, he went on a hike to the Indus Valley. Back in 325 BC. in Susa, Alexander began to actively encourage his soldiers to marry Persians, cherishing the idea of a single state of Macedonians and Persians. In 323 BC. Alexander died of a fever in Babylon at the age of 33. The vast territory he conquered was immediately divided between his military leaders, who competed among themselves. And although the plan of Alexander the Great to merge Greek and Persian culture was never realized, the numerous colonies founded by him and his successors over the centuries retained the originality of their culture and exerted a significant influence on the local peoples and their art.
After the death of Alexander the Great, the Iranian Highlands became part of the Seleucid state, which got its name from one of its commanders. Soon the local nobility began to fight for independence. In the satrapy of Parthia, located southeast of the Caspian Sea in an area known as Khorasan, a nomadic tribe of Parns revolted, expelling the Seleucid governor. The first ruler of the Parthian state was Arshak I (ruled from 250 to 248/247 BC).
Parthian state of the Arshakids.
The period following the revolt of Arshak I against the Seleucids is called either the Arshakid period or the Parthian period. Constant wars were fought between the Parthians and the Seleucids, ending in 141 BC, when the Parthians, led by Mithridates I, took Seleucia, the capital of the Seleucids on the Tigris River. On the opposite bank of the river, Mithridates founded a new capital, Ctesiphon, and extended his dominion over most of the Iranian highlands. Mithridates II (ruled from 123 to 87/88 BC) further expanded the boundaries of the state and, having assumed the title "king of kings" (shahinshah), became the ruler of a vast territory from India to Mesopotamia, and in the east to Chinese Turkestan.
The Parthians considered themselves the direct heirs of the Achaemenid state, and their relatively poor culture was made up for by the influence of Hellenistic culture and traditions, introduced earlier by Alexander the Great and the Seleucids. As before in the Seleucid state, the political center moved to the west of the highlands, namely to Ctesiphon, therefore in Iran there are few monuments in good condition that testify to that time.
During the reign of Phraates III (reigned from 70 to 58/57 BC) Parthia entered a period of almost continuous wars with the Roman Empire, which lasted almost 300 years. The opposing armies fought over a vast territory. The Parthians defeated the army under the command of Marcus Licinius Crassus at Carrhos in Mesopotamia, after which the border between the two empires lay along the Euphrates. In 115 A.D. Roman Emperor Trajan took Seleucia. Despite this, the Parthian state held out, and in 161 Vologes III devastated the Roman province of Syria. However, the long years of war bled the Parthians bled, and attempts to defeat the Romans on the western borders weakened their power over the Iranian Highlands. Rebellions broke out in a number of areas. The satrap of Farsa (or Parsa) Ardashir, the son of a religious leader, declared himself a ruler as a direct descendant of the Achaemenids. After defeating several Parthian armies and killing the last Parthian king Artaban V in battle, he took Ctesiphon and inflicted a crushing defeat on the coalition, which was trying to restore the power of the Arshakids.
Sassanid state.
Ardashir (ruled from 224 to 241) founded a new Persian empire known as the Sassanid state (from the ancient Persian title "sasan", or "commander"). His son Shapur I (reigned from 241 to 272) retained elements of the former feudal system, but created a highly centralized state. Shapur's armies first moved east and occupied the entire Iranian plateau up to the river. Indus and then turned westward against the Romans. In the battle of Edessa (near modern Urfa, Turkey), Shapur captured the Roman emperor Valerian, along with his 70,000-strong army. The prisoners, including architects and engineers, were forced to work on the construction of roads, bridges and irrigation systems in Iran.
Over the course of several centuries in the Sassanid dynasty, about 30 rulers were replaced; often successors were appointed by the higher clergy and feudal nobility. The dynasty waged continuous wars with Rome. Shapur II, who ascended the throne in 309, fought three times with Rome during the 70 years of his reign. The greatest of the Sassanids is Khosrov I (ruled from 531 to 579), who was called the Just or Anushirvan ("Immortal soul").
Under the Sassanids, a four-tier system of administrative division was established, a flat rate of land tax was introduced, and numerous artificial irrigation projects were carried out. Traces of these irrigation structures are still preserved in the southwest of Iran. The society was divided into four classes: warriors, priests, scribes and commoners. The latter included peasants, traders and artisans. The first three estates enjoyed special privileges and, in turn, had several gradations. From the highest gradation of the estate, the Sardars, governors of the provinces were appointed. The capital of the state was Bishapur, the most important cities were Ctesiphon and Gundeshapur (the latter was famous as a center of medical education).
After the fall of Rome, Byzantium took the place of the traditional enemy of the Sassanids. Violating the treaty of eternal peace, Khosrow I invaded Asia Minor and in 611 captured and burned Antioch. His grandson Khosrov II (reigned from 590 to 628), nicknamed Parviz ("Victorious"), briefly returned the Persians to their former glory of the Achaemenid times. In the course of several campaigns, he actually defeated the Byzantine Empire, but the Byzantine emperor Heraclius made a daring dash across the Persian rear. In 627, the army of Khosrow II suffered a crushing defeat at Nineveh in Mesopotamia, Khosrow was deposed and stabbed to death by his own son Kavad II, who died a few months later.
The powerful Sassanid state found itself without a ruler, with a destroyed social structure, exhausted as a result of long wars with Byzantium in the west and with the Central Asian Turks in the east. Within five years, twelve half-ghost rulers were replaced, unsuccessfully trying to restore order. In 632, Yazdegerd III restored central authority for several years, but this was not enough. The exhausted empire could not withstand the onslaught of the warriors of Islam, who were irresistibly rushing to the north from the Arabian Peninsula. They dealt their first crushing blow in 637 at the Battle of Kadispi, as a result of which Ctesiphon fell. The final defeat of the Sassanids suffered in 642 at the Battle of Nehavend in the central part of the highlands. Yazdegerd III fled like a hunted beast, his murder in 651 marked the end of the Sassanid era.
CULTURE
Technology.
Irrigation.
The entire economy of ancient Persia was based on agriculture. Rainfall in the Iranian Highlands is insufficient for extensive agriculture, so the Persians had to rely on irrigation. The few and incomplete rivers of the highlands did not provide the ditches with sufficient water, and in the summer they dried up. Therefore, the Persians developed a unique system of underground canals-ropes. At the foot of the mountain ranges, deep wells dug through hard but porous layers of gravel to the underlying waterproof clays that form the lower boundary aquifer... The wells collected melt water from the mountain peaks, which were covered with a thick layer of snow in winter. From these wells, underground conduits, as tall as a man, burst with vertical shafts located at regular intervals, through which light and air came for the workers. Water conduits came to the surface and served as sources of water all year round.
Artificial irrigation using dams and canals, which originated and was widely used on the plains of Mesopotamia, spread to a similar natural conditions the territory of Elam, through which several rivers flow. This area, now known as Khuzistan, is densely indented by hundreds of ancient canals. Irrigation systems reached their highest development during the Sassanian period. Numerous remains of dams, bridges and aqueducts erected under the Sassanids still exist today. Since they were designed by captured Roman engineers, they are like two peas in a pod reminiscent of similar structures found throughout the Roman Empire.
Transport.
The rivers of Iran are not navigable, but in other parts of the Achaemenid empire, water transport was well developed. So, in 520 BC. Darius I the Great reconstructed the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea. During the Achaemenid period, extensive construction of land roads was carried out, however, paved roads were built mainly in swampy and mountainous areas. Significant sections of narrow, stone-paved roads built under the Sassanids are found in the west and south of Iran. The choice of the site for the construction of roads was unusual for that time. They were laid not along the valleys, along the banks of the rivers, but along the ridges of the mountains. Roads descended into the valleys only to make it possible to cross to the other side in strategically important places, for which massive bridges were erected.
Along the roads, at a distance of a day's journey from one another, post stations were built, where horses were changed. There was a very efficient postal service, with postal couriers covering up to 145 km per day. The center of horse breeding since time immemorial has been the fertile area in the Zagros mountains, adjacent to the Trans-Asian trade route. The Iranians from antiquity began to use camels as beasts of burden; in Mesopotamia, this "mode of transport" came from Media approx. 1100 BC
Economy.
Agricultural production was the backbone of the economy of Ancient Persia. Trade also flourished. All the numerous capitals of the ancient Iranian kingdoms were located along the most important trade route between the Mediterranean and The Far East or on its offshoot towards the Persian Gulf. In all periods, the Iranians played the role of an intermediate link - they guarded this route and kept some of the goods transported along it. During excavations in Susa and Persepolis, wonderful items from Egypt were found. The reliefs of Persepolis depict representatives of all the satrapies of the Achaemenid state, presenting gifts to the great rulers. Since the time of the Achaemenids, Iran has exported marble, alabaster, lead, turquoise, lapis lazuli (lapis lazuli) and carpets. The Achaemenids created fabulous reserves of gold coins minted in various satrapies. In contrast, Alexander the Great introduced a single silver coin for the entire empire. The Parthians returned to the gold currency, and during the time of the Sassanids, silver and copper coins prevailed in circulation.
The system of large feudal estates that developed under the Achaemenids survived to the Seleucid period, but the kings in this dynasty significantly eased the position of the peasants. Then, during the Parthian period, huge feudal estates were rebuilt, and under the Sassanids this system did not change. All states sought to obtain maximum income and established taxes on peasant farms, livestock, land, introduced poll taxes, and made tolls for travel on the roads. All these taxes and fees were collected either by imperial coin or in kind. By the end of the Sassanian period, the number and magnitude of levies had become an intolerable burden on the population, and this tax press played a decisive role in the collapse social structure the state.
Political and social organization.
All Persian rulers were absolute monarchs who ruled their subjects at the behest of the gods. But this power was absolute only in theory, in fact, it was limited to the influence of hereditary large feudal lords. The rulers tried to achieve stability through marriages with relatives, as well as by marrying the daughters of potential or actual enemies, both domestic and foreign. Nevertheless, the rule of monarchs and the continuity of their power were threatened not only by external enemies, but also by members of their own families.
The Median period was distinguished by a very primitive political organization, which is very typical for peoples moving to a sedentary lifestyle. The Achaemenids already had the concept of a unitary state. In the Achaemenid state, the satraps were fully responsible for the state of affairs in their provinces, but could be subjected to an unexpected inspection by inspectors, who were called the eyes and ears of the king. The royal court constantly emphasized the importance of the administration of justice and therefore continuously moved from one satrapy to another.
Alexander the Great married the daughter of Darius III, retained the satrapies and the custom of prostrating before the king. The Seleucids adopted from Alexander the idea of the fusion of races and cultures in the vast expanses from the Mediterranean to the river. Ind. During this period, there was fast development cities, accompanied by the Hellenization of the Iranians and the Iranization of the Greeks. However, there were no Iranians among the rulers, and they were always considered outsiders. Iranian traditions were preserved in the Persepolis region, where temples were built in the style of the Achaemenid era.
The Parthians tried to unite the ancient satrapies. They also played an important role in the fight against the nomads from Central Asia advancing from east to west. As before, the satrapies were headed by hereditary governors, but a new factor was the lack of natural continuity of royal power. The legitimacy of the Parthian monarchy was no longer undeniable. The successor was chosen by a council made up of the nobility, which inevitably led to an endless struggle between rival factions.
The Sassanian kings made a serious attempt to revive the spirit and original structure of the Achaemenid state, partly reproducing its rigid social organization. In descending order were vassal princes, hereditary aristocrats, nobles and knights, priests, peasants, slaves. The state administrative apparatus was led by the first minister, who was subordinate to several ministries, including the military, justice and finance, each of which had its own staff of skilled officials. The supreme judge was the king himself, and justice was administered by the priests.
Religion.
In ancient times, the cult of the great mother goddess, a symbol of procreation and fertility, was widespread. In Elam, she was called Kirisisha, and throughout the Parthian period her images were cast on Luristan bronze items and were made in the form of terracotta, bone, ivory and metal figurines.
The inhabitants of the Iranian Highlands also worshiped many deities of Mesopotamia. After the first wave of Aryans passed through Iran, Indo-Iranian deities such as Mithra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatya appeared here. In all beliefs, there was certainly a pair of deities - the goddess, who personified the Sun and the Earth, and her husband, who personified the Moon and natural elements. Local gods bore the names of the tribes and peoples who worshiped them. Elam had its own deities, primarily the goddess Shala and her husband Inshushinak.
The Achaemenid period was marked by a decisive turn from polytheism to a more universal system reflecting the eternal struggle between good and evil. The earliest inscription from this period - a metal tablet made before 590 BC - contains the name of the god Aguramazda (Ahuramazda). Indirectly, the inscription may be a reflection of the reform of Mazdaism (the cult of Aguramazda) carried out by the prophet Zarathushtra, or Zoroaster, which is narrated in the Ghats, the ancient sacred hymns.
The identity of Zarathushtra continues to be shrouded in mystery. Apparently, he was born approx. 660 BC, but perhaps much earlier, and maybe much later. The god Ahuramazda personified the good beginning, truth and light, apparently in opposition to Ahriman (Angra Mainu), the personification of the evil principle, although the very concept of Angra Mainu could appear later. In the inscriptions of Darius, Ahuramazda is mentioned, and the relief on his tomb depicts the worship of this deity at the sacrificial fire. The chronicles suggest that Darius and Xerxes believed in immortality. The worship of the sacred fire took place both inside temples and in open places. Mages, originally members of one of the Median clans, became hereditary priests. They oversaw the temples, took care of strengthening the faith, performing certain rituals. An ethical doctrine based on good thoughts, good words and good deeds was honored. Throughout the Achaemenid period, the rulers were very tolerant of local deities, and since the reign of Artaxerxes II, the ancient Iranian sun god Mithra and the goddess of fertility Anahita received official recognition.
The Parthians, in search of their own official religion, turned to the Iranian past and settled on Mazdaism. Traditions were codified, and magicians regained their former power. The cult of Anahita continued to enjoy official recognition, as well as popularity among the people, and the cult of Mithra crossed the western borders of the kingdom and spread to most of the Roman Empire. In the west of the Parthian kingdom, Christianity, which was widespread here, was tolerated. At the same time, in the eastern regions of the empire, Greek, Indian and Iranian deities united in a single Greco-Bactrian pantheon.
Under the Sassanids, continuity was preserved, but at the same time there were some important changes in religious traditions. Mazdaism survived most of the early reforms of Zarathushtra and became associated with the cult of Anahita. To compete on equal terms with Christianity and Judaism, the sacred book of the Zoroastrians was created Avesta, a collection of ancient poems and hymns. The magicians still stood at the head of the priests and were the guardians of the three great national fires, as well as the holy fires in all important settlements. Christians by that time had long been persecuted, they were considered enemies of the state, since they were identified with Rome and Byzantium, but by the end of the Sassanid rule, the attitude towards them became more tolerant and Nestorian communities flourished in the country.
Other religions also arose during the Sassanian period. In the middle of the 3rd century. preached by the prophet Mani, who developed the idea of uniting Mazdaism, Buddhism and Christianity and especially emphasized the need to free the spirit from the body. Manichaeism demanded celibacy from the priests, and virtue from the believers. Followers of Manichaeism were supposed to observe fasts and offer prayers, but not worship images and not make sacrifices. Shapur I favored Manichaeism and, perhaps, intended to make it the state religion, but this was sharply opposed by the still powerful priests of Mazdaism, and in 276 Mani was executed. Nevertheless, Manichaeism persisted for several centuries in Central Asia, Syria and Egypt.
At the end of the 5th century. preached by another religious reformer - a native of Iran Mazdak. His ethical doctrine combined both elements of Mazdaism and practical ideas about non-violence, vegetarianism and community life. Kavad I initially supported the Mazdakians sect, but this time the official priesthood was stronger and in 528 the prophet and his followers were executed. The advent of Islam put an end to the national religious traditions of Persia, but a group of Zoroastrians fled to India. Their descendants, the Parsis, still practice the Zarathushtra religion.
Architecture and art.
Early metalwork.
In addition to the colossal number of ceramics items, items made of durable materials such as bronze, silver and gold are extremely important for the study of Ancient Iran. A huge number of so-called. Luristan bronzes were found in Luristan, in the Zagros mountains, during illegal excavations of the graves of semi-nomadic tribes. These unparalleled examples included weapons, horse harness, jewelry, and objects depicting scenes from religious life or ritual purposes. Until now, scientists have not come to a consensus as to who and when they were made. In particular, it was suggested that they were created from the 15th century. BC. to 7 century. BC, most likely - by the Kassites or Scythian-Cimmerian tribes. Bronze items continue to be found in the province of Azerbaijan in northwestern Iran. In style, they differ significantly from the Luristan bronzes, although, apparently, both of them belong to the same period. Bronze items from northwestern Iran are similar to recent finds from the same region; for example, the finds of the accidentally discovered treasure in Ziviya and the wonderful gold goblet found during excavations in Hasanlu-Tepe are similar to each other. These items date back to the 9th – 7th centuries. BC, in their stylized ornament and depiction of deities, Assyrian and Scythian influences are visible.
Achaemenid period.
Architectural monuments of the pre-Achaemenid period have not survived, although the reliefs in the palaces of Assyria depict cities in the Iranian Highlands. It is very likely that for a long time even under the Achaemenids, the population of the highlands led a semi-nomadic lifestyle and wooden buildings were typical for the region. Indeed, Cyrus's monumental structures at Pasargadae, including his own tomb resembling a wooden house with a gabled roof, as well as Darius and his successors at Persepolis and their tombs at nearby Nakshi Rustem are stone replicas of wooden prototypes. In Pasargadae, royal palaces with pillared halls and porticoes were scattered across a shady park. In Persepolis, under Daria, Xerxes and Artaxerxes III, reception halls and royal palaces were built on terraces raised above the surrounding area. At the same time, it was not arches that were characteristic, but columns typical of this period, covered with horizontal beams. Labor, construction and finishing materials, and decorations were delivered from all over the country, while the style of architectural details and carved reliefs was a mixture of artistic styles prevailing then in Egypt, Assyria and Asia Minor. During excavations in Susa, parts of the palace complex were found, the construction of which was begun under Darius. The plan of the building and its decoration show a much greater Assyro-Babylonian influence than the palaces at Persepolis.
Achaemenid art was also characterized by a mixture of styles and eclecticism. It is represented by stone carvings, bronze figurines, figurines made of precious metals and jewelry. The best jewelry was discovered in a random find made many years ago, known as the Amu Darya treasure. The bas-reliefs of Persepolis are world famous. Some of them depict kings during solemn receptions or defeating mythical beasts, and along the stairs in the large reception hall of Darius and Xerxes, the royal guard lined up and a long procession of peoples bringing tribute to the lord is visible.
Parthian period.
Most of the architectural monuments of the Parthian period are found west of the Iranian Highlands and have few Iranian features. True, during this period an element appears that will be widely used in all subsequent Iranian architecture. This is the so-called. aivan, a rectangular vaulted hall, open from the side of the entrance. Parthian art was even more eclectic than the art of the Achaemenid period. In different parts of the state, products of different styles were made: in some - Hellenistic, in others - Buddhist, in the third - Greco-Bactrian. Plaster friezes, stone carvings and wall paintings were used for decoration. During this period, glazed earthenware, the forerunner of ceramics, was popular.
Sassanian period.
Many structures from the Sassanian period are in relatively good condition. Most of them were built of stone, although burnt bricks were also used. Among the surviving buildings are royal palaces, temples of fire, dams and bridges, as well as entire city blocks. The place of columns with horizontal ceilings was taken by arches and vaults; square rooms were crowned with domes, arched openings were widely used, many buildings had ayvans. The domes were supported by four tromps, cone-shaped vaulted structures that overlapped the corners of the square rooms. Ruins of palaces have survived in Firuzabad and Servestan, in southwestern Iran, and in Kasr Shirin, on the western edge of the highlands. The largest was the palace in Ctesiphon, on the river. The tiger known as Taki-Kisra. In the center of it there was a giant aivan with a vault 27 in height and a distance between the supports equal to 23 m. More than 20 temples of fire have survived, the main elements of which were square rooms topped with domes and sometimes surrounded by vaulted corridors. As a rule, such temples were erected on high rocks so that the open sacred fire could be seen at a great distance. The walls of the buildings were covered with plaster, on which a pattern made using the notched technique was applied. Numerous reliefs carved into the rocks are found along the shores of reservoirs fed by spring waters. They depict kings before Aguramazda or conquering their enemies.
The pinnacle of Sassanian art is fabrics, silver dishes and cups, most of which were made for the royal court. Scenes of royal hunting, figures of kings in solemn decoration, geometric and floral ornaments are woven on thin brocade. On the silver bowls, there are images of kings on the throne, battle scenes, dancers, fighting animals and sacred birds made by the technique of extrusion or appliqué. The fabrics, in contrast to the silver dishes, are made in styles that came from the west. In addition, graceful bronze incense burners and wide-necked jugs were found, as well as earthenware with bas-reliefs covered with shiny glaze. The mixing of styles still does not allow us to accurately date the objects found and to determine the place of manufacture of most of them.
Writing and Science.
The oldest written language of Iran is represented by as yet not deciphered inscriptions in the proto-Elamite language, which was spoken in Susa approx. 3000 BC The much more developed written languages of Mesopotamia quickly spread in Iran, and Akkadian was used by the population in Susa and the Iranian Highlands for many centuries.
The Aryans who came to the Iranian Highlands brought with them Indo-European languages, different from the Semitic languages of Mesopotamia. In the Achaemenid period, royal inscriptions carved into the rocks were parallel columns in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian. Throughout the Achaemenid period, royal documents and private correspondence were carried out either in cuneiform on clay tablets or in writing on parchment. At the same time, at least three languages were in use - ancient Persian, Aramaic and Elamite.
Alexander the Great introduced the Greek language, his teachers taught about 30,000 young Persians from noble families in the Greek language and military science. On his great campaigns, Alexander was accompanied by a large retinue of geographers, historians and scribes who recorded everything that happened day after day and got acquainted with the culture of all the peoples who met along the way. Particular attention was paid to navigation and the establishment of maritime communication. The Greek language continued to be used under the Seleucids, while the ancient Persian language was preserved in the Persepolis region. Greek served as the language of trade throughout the Parthian period, but Middle Persian became the main language of the Iranian Highlands, representing a qualitatively new stage in the development of Old Persian. Over the centuries, the Aramaic script, which was used for writing in the ancient Persian language, was transformed into a Pahlavian script with an undeveloped and inconvenient alphabet.
During the Sassanian period, the Middle Persian language became the official and main language of the inhabitants of the highlands. Its writing was based on a variant of the Pahlavi script known as the Pahlavi-Sassanian script. The sacred books of the Avesta were recorded in a special way - first in the zend, and then in the Avestan language.
In ancient Iran, science did not rise to the heights that it reached in neighboring Mesopotamia. The spirit of scientific and philosophical search was awakened only in the Sassanian period. The most important works have been translated from Greek, Latin and other languages. It was then that Book of Great Deeds, Book of ranks, Iran countries and Book of Kings... Other works from this period have survived only in a later Arabic translation.
In the middle of the VI century. BC e. the Persians entered the arena of world history - a mysterious tribe, about which the previously civilized peoples of the Middle East knew only by hearsay.
About morals and customs ancient persians known from the writings of the peoples who lived next to them. In addition to mighty growth and physical development, the Persians had a will that was hardened in the fight against the harsh climate and the dangers of nomadic life in the mountains and steppes. At that time, they were famous for their moderate lifestyle, temperance, strength, courage and solidarity.
According to Herodotus, Persians wore clothes made of animal skins and felt tiaras (caps), did not use wine, ate not as much as they wanted, but as much as they had. They were indifferent to silver and gold.
Simplicity and modesty in food and clothing remained one of the main virtues even during the domination of the Persians over the entire Middle East, when they began to dress in luxurious Median outfits, wear gold necklaces and bracelets, when fresh fish from distant seas, fruits from Babylonia and Syria. Even then, during the coronation ceremony of the Persian kings, the Achaemenid ascending the throne had to wear the clothes that he wore without being a king, eat some dried figs and drink a cup of sour milk.
The ancient Persians were allowed to have many wives, as well as concubines, to marry close relatives, such as nieces and half-sisters. Ancient Persian customs forbade women to show themselves to strangers (among the numerous reliefs in Persepolis there is not a single female image). The ancient historian Plutarch wrote that the Persians are characterized by wild jealousy not only towards their wives. They even kept the slaves and concubines locked up so that outsiders would not see them, and carried them in closed carts.
History of ancient Persia
Persian king Cyrus II of the Achaemenid clan for short term conquered Media and many other countries and had a huge and well-armed army, which began to prepare for a campaign against Babylonia. A new force appeared in Southwest Asia, which managed in a short time - in just a few decades- completely change the political map of the Middle East.
Babylonia and Egypt abandoned a long-term hostile policy towards each other, for the rulers of both countries were well aware of the need to prepare for a war with the Persian Empire. The beginning of the war was only a matter of time.
The Persian campaign against Babylon began in 539 BC. e. Decisive battle between the Persians and the Babylonians happened near the city of Opis on the Tigris River. Cyrus won a complete victory here, soon his troops took the well-fortified city of Sippar, and the Persians captured Babylon without a fight.
After that, the eyes of the Persian ruler turned to the East, where for several years he waged an exhausting war with the nomadic tribes of Central Asia and where he eventually died in 530 BC. e.
Cyrus' successors, Cambyses and Darius, completed the work he had begun. in 524-523 BC e. the campaign of Cambyses to Egypt took place, as a result of which the power of the Achaemenids was established on the banks of the Nile. Ancient Egypt became one of the satrapies of the new empire. Darius continued to strengthen the eastern and western borders of the empire. By the end of the reign of Darius, who died in 485 BC. e., the Persian state dominated on a huge territory from the Aegean Sea in the west to India in the east and from the deserts of Central Asia in the north to the rapids of the Nile in the south. The Achaemenids (Persians) united almost the entire civilized world known to them and owned it until the 4th century. BC e., when their state was broken and conquered by the military leadership genius of Alexander the Great.
Chronology of the rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty:
- Achaemen, 600s BC.
- Teispes, 600s BC
- Cyrus I, 640 - 580 BC.
- Cambyses I, 580 - 559 BC.
- Cyrus II the Great, 559 - 530 BC.
- Cambyses II, 530 - 522 BC
- Bardia, 522 BC
- Darius I, 522 - 486 BC
- Xerxes I, 485 - 465 BC
- Artaxerxes I, 465 - 424 BC
- Xerxes II, 424 BC
- Sekudian, 424 - 423 BC
- Darius II, 423 - 404 BC
- Artaxerxes II, 404 - 358 BC
- Artaxerxes III, 358 - 338 BC
- Artaxerxes IV Arses, 338 - 336 BC
- Darius III, 336 - 330 BC
- Artaxerxes V Bessus, 330 - 329 BC
Persian Empire Map
The Aryan tribes - the eastern branch of the Indo-Europeans - by the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. inhabited almost the entire territory of present-day Iran. Itself the word "Iran" is the modern form of the name "Ariana", ie. the land of the Aryans... Initially, these were warlike tribes of semi-nomadic herders who fought in war chariots. Some of the Aryans migrated to North India even earlier and captured it, giving rise to the Indo-Aryan culture. Other Aryan tribes, closer to the Iranians, remained to roam in Central Asia and the northern steppes - the Scythians, Saki, Sarmatians, etc. The Iranians themselves, having settled on the fertile lands of the Iranian Highlands, gradually abandoned their nomadic life, engaged in agriculture, adopting the skills of the Mesopotamian civilization. It reached a high level already in the XI-VIII centuries. BC e. Iranian craft. Its monument is the famous "Luristan bronzes" - skillfully made weapons and household items with images of mythical and really existing animals.
"Luristan Bronzes"- a cultural monument of Western Iran. It was here, in the immediate neighborhood and confrontation with Assyria, that the most powerful Iranian kingdoms were formed. The first of them increased Medes(in the northwest of Iran). The Medes kings participated in the destruction of Assyria. The history of their state is well known from written records. But the Median monuments of the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. very poorly studied. Even the capital of the country, the city of Ecbatana, has not yet been found. It is only known that it was located in the vicinity of the modern city of Hamadan. Nevertheless, two Median fortresses already explored by archaeologists from the times of the struggle with Assyria speak of a rather high culture of the Medes.
In 553 BC. e. Cyrus (Kurush) II, the king of the subordinate Persian tribe from the Achaemenid clan, rebelled against the Medes. In 550 BC. e. Cyrus united the Iranians under his rule and led them to conquer the world... In 546 BC. e. he conquered Asia Minor, and in 538 BC. e. Babylon fell. Cyrus's son, Cambyses, conquered Egypt, and under King Darius I at the turn of the 6th-5th centuries. before. n. e. Persian Power reached the greatest expansion and flowering.
Monuments of her greatness are the royal capitals excavated by archaeologists - the most famous and best studied monuments of Persian culture. The oldest of these is Pasargadae, the capital of Cyrus.
Sassanian revival - Sassanian state
In 331-330. BC e. the famous conqueror Alexander the Great destroyed the Persian Empire. In revenge for Athens, once devastated by the Persians, the Greek Macedonian soldiers brutally plundered and burned Persepolis. The Achaemenid dynasty ended. The period of Greco-Macedonian rule over the East began, which is usually called the era of Hellenism.
For the Iranians, the conquest was a disaster. Power over all neighbors was replaced by humiliated submission to old enemies - the Greeks. The traditions of Iranian culture, already shaken by the desire of kings and nobles to imitate the vanquished in luxury, were now finally trampled upon. Little changed after the liberation of the country by the nomadic Iranian tribe of the Parthians. The Parthians expelled the Greeks from Iran in the II century. BC e., but they themselves borrowed a lot from Greek culture... The Greek language is still used on the coins and inscriptions of their kings. Temples are still being erected with numerous statues, according to Greek models, which seemed to many Iranians blasphemy. Zarathushtra in ancient times forbade the worship of idols, commanding to honor the inextinguishable flame as a symbol of the deity and to offer sacrifices to it. It was the religious humiliation that was the greatest, and it was not for nothing that the cities erected by the Greek conquerors were later called "the structures of the Dragon" in Iran.
In 226 A.D. e. the rebellious ruler of Pars, bearing the ancient royal name Ardashir (Artaxerxes), overthrew the Parthian dynasty. The story of the second began Persian Empire - Sassanid powers, the dynasty to which the winner belonged.
The Sassanids sought to revive the culture of ancient Iran. The very history of the Achaemenid state by that time had become a vague legend. So the society that was described in the legends of the Zoroastrian priests-mobed was put forward as an ideal. The Sassanids built, in fact, a culture that had never existed in the past, thoroughly imbued with a religious idea. This had little to do with the era of the Achaemenids, who willingly adopted the customs of the conquered tribes.
Under the Sassanids, the Iranian decisively triumphed over the Hellenic. Greek temples completely disappear, the Greek language is no longer in official use. The broken statues of Zeus (who was identified with Ahura Mazda under the Parthians) are being replaced by faceless fire altars. Naqsh-i-Rustem is decorated with new reliefs and inscriptions. In the III century. the second Sassanian king Shapur I ordered to carve his victory over the Roman emperor Valerian on the rocks. On the reliefs of the kings, a bird-shaped farn overshadows - a sign of divine protection.
Capital of Persia became the city of Ctesiphon, built by the Parthians near the emptying Babylon. Under the Sassanids, new palace complexes were built in Ctesiphon and huge (up to 120 hectares) royal parks were laid out. The most famous of the Sassanian palaces is Tak-i-Kisra, the palace of King Khosrov I, who ruled in the 6th century. Along with the monumental reliefs, the palaces were now adorned with fine carved ornamentation over a lime mixture.
Under the Sassanids, the irrigation system of Iranian and Mesopotamian lands was improved. In the VI century. the country was covered by a network of caries (underground water pipelines with clay pipes), stretching up to 40 km. The caries were cleaned through special wells dug every 10 m. The caries served for a long time and ensured the rapid development of agriculture in Iran during the Sassanid era. It was then that the cultivation of cotton and sugarcane began in Iran, and horticulture and winemaking developed. At the same time, Iran became one of the suppliers of its own fabrics - both woolen and linen and silk.
Sassanian state was much less Achaemenid, covered only Iran itself, part of the lands of Central Asia, the territory of present-day Iraq, Armenia and Azerbaijan. She had to fight for a long time, first with Rome, then with Byzantine Empire... Despite all this, the Sassanids held out longer than the Achaemenids - more than four centuries... Ultimately, the state, exhausted by continuous wars in the west, was engulfed in a power struggle. This was taken advantage of by the Arabs, who carried by force of arms a new faith - Islam. In 633-651. after a fierce war, they conquered Persia. So it was over with the ancient Persian state and ancient Iranian culture.
The ancient Greeks, familiar with the organization of state administration in the Achaemenid empire, admired the wisdom and foresight of the Persian kings. In their opinion, this organization was the pinnacle of the development of the monarchical form of government.
The Persian kingdom was divided into large provinces, called satrapies after the title of their rulers - satraps (Persian, "kshatra-pavan" - "guardian of the region"). Usually there were 20 of them, but this number fluctuated, since sometimes the management of two or more satrapies was entrusted to one person and, conversely, one area was divided into several. This pursued mainly the purposes of taxation, but sometimes the peculiarities of the peoples inhabiting them, and historical characteristics were also taken into account. The satraps and rulers of the smaller regions were not the only representatives of local government. In addition to them, in many provinces there were hereditary local kings or sovereign priests, as well as free cities and, finally, "benefactors" who received cities and districts for life, or even hereditary possession. These kings, rulers and high priests in their position differed from the satraps only in that they were hereditary and had a historical and national connection with the population, who saw them as carriers of ancient traditions. They independently exercised internal government, preserved local law, a system of measures, language, imposed taxes and duties, but were under the constant control of satraps, who could often intervene in the affairs of the regions, especially during unrest and unrest. Satraps also resolved border disputes between cities and regions, litigation in cases when the participants were citizens of different urban communities or different vassal regions, regulated political relations. Local rulers, like the satraps, had the right to directly communicate with the central government, and some of them, such as the kings of the Phoenician cities, Cilicia, Greek tyrants, maintained their army and navy, which they personally commanded, accompanying the Persian army on large campaigns or performing military orders of the king. However, the satrap could at any time demand these troops for the tsarist service, put his garrison in the possessions of local rulers. The main command over the troops of the province also belonged to him. The satrap was even allowed to recruit soldiers and mercenaries on his own and at his own expense. He was, as it would have been called in an era closer to us, the governor-general of his satrapy, ensuring its internal and external security.
The supreme command of the troops was carried out by the commanders of four or, as during the subordination of Egypt, five military districts into which the kingdom was divided.
Persian control system gives an example of the amazing respect by the winners of local customs and the rights of the conquered peoples. In Babylonia, for example, all documents of the times of Persian rule in legal terms do not differ from those relating to the period of independence. It was the same in Egypt and Judea. In Egypt, the Persians left the same not only the division into nomes, but also the sovereign surnames, the disposition of troops and garrisons, as well as the tax inviolability of temples and the priesthood. Of course, the central government and the satrap could intervene at any time and decide matters at their own discretion, but for the most part it was enough for them if the country was calm, the taxes were proceeding regularly, the troops were in order.
Such a control system did not take shape in the Middle East overnight. For example Assyria initially relied only on force of arms and intimidation in the conquered territories. The regions taken "with battle" were included directly into the House of Ashur - the central region of the Assyrian Empire. Those who surrendered at the mercy of the victor often retained their local dynasty. But over time, this system turned out to be poorly suited for managing the growing state. Reorganization of management carried out by King Tiglatpalasar III in the CNT c. BC e., in addition to the policy of forced resettlement, and changed the management system of the regions of the empire. The kings tried to prevent the emergence of overly powerful families. To prevent the creation of hereditary possessions and new dynasties among the rulers of the regions, to the most important posts often appointed eunuchs... In addition, although major officials received huge land holdings, they did not form a single array, but were scattered throughout the country.
But still, the main support of Assyrian rule, as well as Babylonian later, was the army. Military garrisons literally girdled the entire country. Taking into account the experience of their predecessors, the Achaemenids added to the power of arms the idea of a "kingdom of countries", that is, a reasonable combination of local peculiarities with the interests of the central government.
The vast state needed the means of communication needed to control the central government over local officials and rulers. The language of the Persian chancellery, in which even royal decrees were issued, was Aramaic. This is due to the fact that in fact it was in common use in Assyria and Babylonia even in Assyrian times. The conquests by the Assyrian and Babylonian kings of the western regions, Syria and Palestine, further contributed to its spread. This language gradually took the place of the ancient Akkadian cuneiform in international relations; it was even used on the coins of the Asia Minor satraps of the Persian king.
Another feature of the Persian Empire that admired the Greeks there were wonderful roads, described by Herodotus and Xenophon in stories about the campaigns of King Cyrus. The most famous were the so-called Royal, which went from Ephesus in Asia Minor, off the coast of the Aegean Sea, to the east - to Susa, one of the capitals of the Persian state, through the Euphrates, Armenia and Assyria along the Tigris River; the road leading from Babylonia through the Zagros mountains to the east to the other capital of Persia - Ecbatana, and from here to the Bactrian and Indian border; the road from the Isa Gulf of the Mediterranean Sea to Sinop on the Black Sea, crossing Asia Minor, etc.
These roads were not only laid by the Persians. Most of them existed in Assyrian and even earlier times. The beginning of the construction of the Royal Road, which was the main artery of the Persian monarchy, probably dates back to the era of the Hittite kingdom, located in Asia Minor on the way from Mesopotamia and Syria to Europe. Sardis, the capital of Lydia, conquered by the Medes, was connected by a road with another large city - Pteria. From him the road went to the Euphrates. Herodotus, speaking of the Lydians, calls them the first shopkeepers, which was natural for the owners of the road between Europe and Babylon. The Persians continued this path from Babylonia further east, to their capitals, improved it and adapted it not only for trade purposes, but also for state needs - mail.
The Persian kingdom also took advantage of another invention of the Lydians - the coin. Until the VII century. BC e. Throughout the East, a natural economy dominated, money circulation was just beginning to emerge: the role of money was played by metal ingots of a certain weight and shape. These could be rings, plates, mugs without embossing and images. The weight was different everywhere, and therefore, outside the place of origin, the ingot simply lost its value as a coin and had to be weighed again each time, that is, it was made an ordinary commodity. On the border between Europe and Asia, the Lydian kings were the first to go over to the minting of a state coin of a clearly defined weight and value. Hence, the use of such coins spread throughout Asia Minor, to Cyprus and Palestine. The ancient trading countries - Babylon, Phenicia and Egypt - kept the old system for a very long time. They began to mint coins after the campaigns of Alexander the Great, and before that they used coins made in Asia Minor.
Establishing a unified tax system, the Persian kings could not do without minting coins; in addition, the needs of the state that held mercenaries, as well as the unprecedented flourishing of international trade, caused the need for a single coin. And a gold coin was introduced into the kingdom, and only the government had the right to mint it; local rulers, cities and satraps for payment to mercenaries received the right to mint only silver and copper coins, which outside their area remained an ordinary commodity.
So, by the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. in the Middle East, through the efforts of many generations and many peoples, a civilization arose, which even freedom-loving Greeks was considered ideal... Here is what the ancient Greek historian Xenophon wrote: “Wherever the king lives, wherever he goes, he makes sure that everywhere there are gardens called paradis, full of everything beautiful and good that the earth can produce. He spends most of his time in them, if the season does not interfere with this ... Some say that when the king gives gifts, first those who distinguished themselves in the war are summoned, for it is useless to plow a lot if there is no one to protect, and then - those who cultivate the land in the best way. for the strong could not exist if it were not for the workers ... ".
It is not surprising that this civilization developed precisely in Western Asia. She not only arose earlier than others, but also developed faster and more energetically, had the most favorable conditions for its development thanks to constant contacts with neighbors and the exchange of innovations. Here, more often than in other ancient centers of world culture, new ideas arose and important discoveries were made in almost all areas of production and culture. Potter's wheel and wheel, making bronze and iron, war chariot as fundamentally new means of warfare, various forms of writing from pictograms to the alphabet - all this and much more genetically goes back precisely to Western Asia, from where these innovations spread throughout the rest of the world, including other centers of primary civilization.
