THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

PERSIAN EMPIRE

The Persian Empire is any of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia (now Iran). The first of these was established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, with the Persian conquest of Media, Lydia and Babylonia.

ZOROASTRIANISM AND ISLAM

Persian dynastic history was interrupted by the Islamic conquest (651 AD) and later by the Mongol invasion. The main religion of ancient Persia was Zoroastrianism, but after the 7th century this was replaced by Islam.

IRAN

In the modern era, a series of Islamic dynasties ruled Persia independently of the universal caliphate. Since 1979 Persia (Iran) has been an Islamic republic.

PERSIAN DYNASTIES

Median Empire (728-549 BC)

Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC)

Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD, also called the "Arsacid Empire"

Sasanian Empire (224–651), also called the "Neo-Persian Empire"

Safavid dynasty (1501–1736)

Afsharid dynasty (1736–1796)

Zand dynasty (1750–1794)

Qajar dynasty (1785–1925)

Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979)

FAMOUS KINGS OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

Cyrus the Great

Cambysses

Darius the Great

Xerxes

Artaxerxes I

TYPE OF GOVERNMENT

Persian government was a monarchy system in which the kings had the final say so in how things where supposed to be handled.

The first king through 559-529 BCE and the last king ruled from 336-330 BCE.

The empire was divided into twenty provinces each ruled by a governor and called satraps.

XERXES I OF PERSIA

Xerxes I of Persia, meaning "ruling over heroes", 519–465 BC, also known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth of the king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire. He ruled from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC.

He is notable in Western history for his invasion of Greece in 480 BC. Like his predecessor Darius I, he ruled the empire at its territorial apex, although Xerxes I would briefly manage to conquer even more land of mainland Greece than Darius I through the battles at Thermopylae and Artemisium, overrunning Attica, Boeotia, Euboea, Thessaly, and the rest of mainland Greece to the north of the Isthmus of Corinth, until the losses at Salamis and Plataea which reversed these gains and would eventually end the second invasion decisively.

WORLD’S FIRST HUMAN RIGHTS CHARTER

It was the Persians who are thought to draft the world’s first human rights charter. This charter is better known as the Cyrus Cylinder, as it is a baked-clay cylindrical object from 539 BC with engraved Akkadian language.

The artifact was created under King Cyrus’s orders, when his army marched inside Babylon, and bloodlessly conquered the fabled city. As for the contents of ancient inscriptions on the tablet, they mainly pertain to – equality for all races, religions and languages; along with the opportunity of slaves and deported people to return to their original homelands.

WORLD’S FIRST VERTICAL AXIS WINDMILL

The core technology of windmills obviously came from wind sails that were used for the maneuvering of ships. The first historically documented vertical axis windmill is Persian, with accounts of the tech being as old as 1,500 years.

This particular specimen’s vertical sail was built from bundled reeds or timber, and they were in turn were fixed to the central vertical shaft with the help of horizontal struts. The bidirectional system was perhaps further fine-tuned with the use of strategically placed external walls that aided in the guiding of the available wind in the desired direction.

FIRST ANCIENT REFRIGERATORSThe Persian prowess in cooling and refrigeration tech is even older with the first crafting techniques of ancient refrigerators coming from circa 400 BC. Known as Yakhchals (or ice pits), these designs generally comprised of large yet insulated underground huge storage spaces.

The subterranean areas additionally consisted of Qanat, or wind catchers for creating natural ventilation that aided in temperature drops to even frigid conditions. These underground chambers were literally topped off by stepped dome like structures made of heat-resistant mud bricks, built with the help of a mortar consisting of sand, lime, egg white, goat hair and ash. These ingeniously engineered installations was mainly used to store ice and even food items during the rigorous summer months.

PARADISE GARDENSIt was during the time of the Achaemenid Dynasty that the notion of an earthly paradise came into existence – with one legend of Zarathushtraeven proclaiming the creation of a paradise-like community garden.

In that regard, the term for spectacularly well-tended gardens in Old Iranian, is ‘pairi-daeza‘. This is turn was transmuted to ‘paradeisos‘ in Greek, and made way to ‘paradis‘ in Old French – from which the common English term is ultimately borrowed.

THE IMMORTALSThe Immortals were the Achaemenid King’s vibrantly dressed personal division armed with spears and bows, and they were actually chosen from the regular conscripts of the nation’s army (based on their physical prowess and stamina).

The name ‘Immortal’ possibly stems from the Persian Amartaka, and according to Herodotus, their numbers were always kept at 10,000 with ready replacements always taking the vacated positions of those who were killed, injured or taken sick. The tradition of the Immortals were kept also alive during the latter Sassanian period. However, the spear-and-bow carrying infantrymen were then replaced by the crème de la crème of 10,000 Savaran knights. This prestigious unit was called the Zhayedan, and it might have provided the basis for the formation of the ‘Athanatoi‘, an ‘Immortal’ army unit of the Eastern Romans (Byzantines) raised during 10th century AD.

FIRST UNIFORMS OF THE MILITARY FORCESThe Iranian people have always maintained their unique pattern of clothing, which is mainly mirrored by their riding attires of leather boots, trousers, tunic and cap. In addition to that, the Achaemenidsintroduced the very concept of uniforms for armies, after which the classical Greeks adopted the nifty system.

The Sassanians continued with the tradition of elegant attires and ensembles being flaunted in lavish court cultures, with multifarious regal colours ranging from gold, purple to red and crimson. But perhaps the most recognizable Persian contribution to the world of fashion is the seamed fitted coat, with their initial designs being made from animal skins. These clothing objects were mainly adopted to guard against the cold weathers that were prevalent in most of Iran’s and Khorasan’s mountainous areas.