The Persian Empire

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  George Cawkwell, Introduction to Xenophon’s The Persian Expedition

  Now as for the stories invented by Herodotus and certain writers on Egyptian affairs, who deliberately preferred to the truth the telling of marvelous tales and the invention of myths for the delectation of their readers, these we shall omit, and we shall set forth only what appears in the written records.

  Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, Book 1

  The real fact is, young Europe is whipped and schooled into admiration of Greece, till no one dares give a candid opinion. Otherwise, how can men in their senses affect to believe all that stuff about the invasion of Xerxes?

  Edward E. Eastwick, Journal of a Diplomat’s Three Years’ Residence in Persia

  There is no foreign land. It is the traveler only that is foreign.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Anyone who knows, and knows that he knows,

  Makes the stallion of intellect leap over the dome of heaven.

  Anyone who does not know, but knows that he does not know,

  He will nevertheless make his lame little donkey arrive at destination.

  Anyone who does not know, and does not know that he does not know

  Is trapped for ever in double ignorance

  Persian poem by anonymous poet

  I was 12 years old when I first visited the archaeological monuments of ancient Iran. I accompanied my parents, who had decided to travel from the capital city of Tehran to the city of Shiraz in the southern province of Fars during the Persian New Year, Nowruz, and visit their friends and colleagues. Because Shiraz is located approximately 422 miles (nearly 680 kilometers) south of Tehran, we decided to divide the trip into two halves by making a four-day stop in the city of Isfahan, 250 miles (402 kilometers) south of Tehran. I had heard a great deal about the breathtaking magnificence of Isfahan, but no one could have prepared me for the majesty and exquisite artistic beauty that the city’s arts and architecture offer. Isfahan served as the capital of the Safavid dynasty (r. 1501–1722) from 1598 to 1722. The Safavid monarchs, particularly Shah Abbas the Great (r. 1571–1629), built numerous palaces, mosques, schools, bazaars, and bridges in the city. During our short stay we visited the historic Chahar Bagh Avenue, the Chehel Sotun Palace, the Hasht Behesht Garden, the world-renowned Naqsh-e Jahan Square, the Shah Mosque, the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, the Āli Qapu Palace, the Grand Bazaar, the Menar Jonban Mausoleum, and the Zoroastrian fire temple at Ateshgah on the western edge of the city. Crossing the Zayandeh Rud into the Armenian enclave of Julfa and visiting its magnificent church was the crowning experience in this short but eye-opening excursion.

  I was filled with excitement when we departed Isfahan for Shiraz. My parents had spoken to me about the ancient dynasties of pre-Islamic Iran: the Medes, the Achaemenids, the Arsacids or the Parthians, and the Sasanians. I understood from these conversations that the province of Fars or the ancient Parsa was the birthplace of two of these dynasties, namely the Achaemenids and the Sasanians. For a young boy my age, traveling to a region that had given birth to two of ancient Iran’s great dynasties was a dream come true. As our car approached Pasargadae and later Naqsh-e Rostam and Persepolis, I could not contain my excitement. Here in front of my eyes stood the architectural remains of the ancient Persian Achaemenids who created a vast empire, which at its apex stretched from the Indus River Valley in present-day Pakistan to the Danube River in Southeastern Europe and from the Jaxartes River (Syr Darya) in Central Asia to Libya in North Africa.

  At Pasargadae we visited the simple but majestic tomb of Cyrus II the Great, founder of the Achaemenid dynasty who is mentioned in the Old Testament as the Lord’s Anointed and God’s Messiah. Cyrus liberated the Jews after his conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE. The Jews who had lived in captivity in Babylon were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple, which had been destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadrezzar. A short distance from Pasargadae we stopped at Naqsh-e Rostam, which served as the royal necropolis or burial site for four kings of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty. I was astonished by the sight of the rock-carved tombs of four of the Achaemenid dynasts, Darius I (r. 522–486 BCE), Xerxes (r. 486–465 BCE), Artaxerxes I (r. 465–424 BCE), and Darius II (r. 423–404 BCE). During the reign of the Sasanian dynasty (r. 224–651 CE), Naqsh-e Rostam emerged as an important center for royal and religious ceremonies. Several Sasanian rock reliefs are carved at the base of the cliff below the tombs of the Achaemenid kings. The most impressive among these is the gigantic relief that depicts the victory of the second Sasanian king, Shapur I (r. 240/241/242–270/272 CE), over Roman emperor Valerian in 260 CE. The Persian monarch sits on his horse, while Valerian kneels in front of him. Another impressive structure at Naqsh-e Rotam is the Ka’ba-ye Zardosht (Ka’ba of Zoroaster), which faces the rock of Hossein Kuh where the four Achaemenid royal tombs are cut into the cliff. The tower-shaped building stands opposite the tomb of Darius II. The Ka’ba, which was probably built sometime during Achaemenid rule, contains a staircase and a door as well as blind windows in dark gray limestone on all four sides. No one knows with any certainty how the building acquired its name. It was certainly not a Zoroastrian temple or shrine, and there are no indications that pilgrims visited the site. Today most scholars consider the tower-shaped structure to be an Achaemenid royal tomb. During the reign of the Sasanian monarch Shapur I, three royal inscriptions in Parthian, Middle Persian, and Greek were incised into the three walls of the building. The only wall without an inscription is the entrance wall on the north side. Shapur’s inscription provides the reader with the royal lineage of the Sasanian monarch, the countries he ruled, and his triumphs over three Roman emperors: Gordian III, Philip the Arab, and Valerian. Below Shapur’s inscription, the powerful Zoroastrian high priest Kartir added his own inscription.

  We drove from Naqsh-e Rostam to the ruins of the palace complex of Persepolis, which was built by the Persian Achaemenid monarch Darius I and his successors. The magnificent royal complex included reception halls, audience halls, private quarters, and a large treasury. Persepolis was burned and destroyed by the Macedonian conqueror Alexander in 330 BCE. Our trip to the beautiful city of Shiraz, the resting place for two of the Persian world’s greatest poets, Sa’di (1210–1291/1292) and Hafez (1315–1390), as well as the home to numerous architectural wonders, such as the Citadel of Karim Khan (Arg-e Karimkhani), the Mosque of Vakil and its exceptional tile work, the Old Friday Mosque (Masjed-e Atigh), the theological School of Khan (Madresseh-ye Khan), and the famous and popular Garden of Eram (Bagh-e Eram), dazzled my eyes and awakened me to the brilliance of the Iranian artists and architects of the past.

  Two years after the trip to southern Iran, I accompanied my parents on a trip to the two western Iranian cities of Hamedan and Kermanshah. In Hamedan or ancient Hagmatana (Greek: Ecbatana), which served as the capital of the Median Empire and later as the summer capital for the Achaemenid and Parthian Arsacid Empires, we visited Esther and Mordechai, a Jewish shrine. Next came a visit to the mausoleum of Abu Ali Sina (Ibn Sina), known in medieval Europe as Avicenna, the celebrated Persian physician and philosopher, and the tomb of the 11th-century mystic and poet Baba Taher Oryan. At Ganj Nameh, a few miles outside of the city, we saw the royal inscriptions of the Persian Achaemenid kings Darius I and Xerxes carved in granite.

  On the road from Hamedan to Kermanshah we first stopped at an ancient site, identified by some as the temple of Anahita (Anahid), the Iranian goddess of water, in the city of Kangavar and then proceeded on for an unforgettable visit to Bisotun and the rock inscription of the Achaemenid king Darius I. Finally, during a long stay in Kermanshah we visited the Sasanian rock reliefs at Taq-e Bostan (Garden’s Arch), a short distance from the city.

  The trips to Isfahan, Shiraz, Hamedan, and Kermanshah instilled in me a deep interest in the rich history and culture of ancient Iran. I began to read the works of classical writers as well as any book or article written by scholars that I could get my hands on. The years
of reading, studying, and traveling inside and outside Iran, particularly in the Middle East and Central Asia, only deepened my fascination. From the very beginning, I could not escape the fundamental fact that the field of Iranian history and culture suffers from the paucity of primary sources, including books, historical narratives, chronicles, and documents written by Iranians. The meagerness of written Iranian sources have forced historians to rely heavily on the writings of the Greeks and Romans, who were not only hostile and biased toward Iranians but also ignorant about the diverse and complex cultures and societies that flourished within the boundaries of various Iranian states. The majority of these writers did not speak any Iranian language, had never traveled or lived in an Iranian-populated region or community, and showed no genuine interest in and appreciation for the country’s rich and complex civilization. Their scanty knowledge was also limited for the most part to the western provinces of Greater Iran. Thus, in their writings they frequently ignored the Iranian hinterland as well as the vast and important eastern provinces of Greater Iran, which enjoyed close political, cultural, economic, and diplomatic ties with such important centers of world civilization as China and India. Worse, at times gossip, malice, and spite as well as wild legendary accounts infected their narratives. Engrossed with exotic tales of sex, violence, greed, and betrayal, they often portrayed the Iranian states as arrogant and barbarian imperial powers that emerged from nowhere and conquered the world by luck, treachery, deceit, and brutality. Unfortunately, our perception of ancient Iran in the West continues to be shaped by this narrow, simplistic, and Manichaean narrative, which views ancient Iran as a mere antithesis of ancient Greece, with the former representing oriental despotism and the latter embodying freedom and democracy. And yet despite all their deficiencies and biases, it would be absurd to suggest that we should ignore and discard the writings of classical authors, for they are in fact among the most important foundations of our knowledge about ancient Persia. Without these writings, our knowledge of ancient Iran would be minuscule, limited to a small number of rock inscriptions and reliefs as well as archaeological finds, which though highly valuable cannot possibly be sufficient for writing a cohesive historical narrative. Notwithstanding all their shortcomings, the works of the ancient Greek and Roman authors provide us with a wealth of valuable and vital information without which we would not be able to study the rich and fascinating history of ancient Iran. Instead of taking these writings at face value, however, the task of scholars should be to piece through and identify the factual and reliable information while at the same time discarding the fictitious, ahistorical, and legendary.

  The ancient Iranians traced their origins to Indo-Europeans who roamed the vast Eurasian steppes east of the Volga River between 5000 and 2000 BCE. They most probably lived in a society that consisted of two principal social groups, namely priests and herdsmen. These early Iranians practiced ancestor worship. They also venerated natural forces and made offerings to fire, wind, and water and believed in a multiplicity of gods. Among these gods, the greatest was Ahura Mazda (lord of wisdom). Aside from Ahura Mazda, there were also lesser deities such as Mithra (the guardian of covenants as well as the sun god) and Anahita (the goddess of water). With the advent of the Bronze Age, there appeared the horse-drawn chariots and a new class of warriors. In contrast to the majority pastoralist population, which remained wedded to herding animals, the new warrior class adopted a life of fighting and raiding. It is from this new class that new leaders or warrior chiefs emerged. The growing power of the warrior class, who were introducing violence, death, and destruction, ignited an outcry from the majority pastoralist population. As the cultural leaders of their society, the priests began to voice the grievances of cattle herders denouncing violence and calling for compassion and justice. The Iranian prophet Zarathushtra or Zarathustra, known in the West as Zoroaster, most probably emerged at this historical juncture.

  The date for Zoroaster is uncertain. He most probably lived in great antiquity, many centuries before the formation of Iranian kingdoms by the Medes and the Persians on the Iranian plateau. The language used by the Iranian prophet belonged to an eastern Iranian group, leading some scholars to conclude that Zarathustra preached his religion either somewhere in the southern regions of Central Asia, such as Chorasmia on the lower reaches of the Oxus River (Amu Darya) south of the Aral Sea, or Bactria in present-day northern Afghanistan. In his poetical and personal poems and hymns known as the Gathas, Zoroaster spoke about the violence and brutality of nomadic warriors who showed no mercy and compassion toward the cattle herders. He also introduced a new religion whose teachings left a profound impact on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as on Greek and Roman religious practices and thought. Zoroastrianism, the religion that was founded based on his teachings, provided ideas and concepts that proved fundamental to shaping the world’s major faiths as we know them today.

  The Iranian prophet worshipped Ahura Mazda, the architect of the universe and everything that was good and beautiful. Ahura Mazda had created the world through his holy spirit, Spenta Mainyu, and with assistance from six holy immortals called Amesha Spentas. These holy immortals had been brought into existence by Ahura Mazda to help him with completing the creation of the world. The six holy immortals, together with Ahura Mazda and his holy spirit Spenta Mainyu, constituted the Heptad, or the holy seven in Zoroastrian teachings.

  Ahura Mazda, who stood for truth and righteousness, was opposed by an adversary, the evil spirit Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), a wicked, destructive, and deceitful force who had given birth to lie, falsehood, decay, and death. In the struggle between Ahura Mazda, the good, and Angra Mainyu, the evil, human beings were free to choose the path of truth and righteousness or falsehood and lie. Those who adopted good thoughts, good words, and good action as the foundation of their personal ethics were to enjoy a life of peace and tranquility here and hereafter. Those who chose the lie over the truth and adopted evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds were condemned to a life of pain and suffering in this life and beyond.

  The date for the arrival of the Iranian-speaking groups on the Iranian plateau is uncertain and subject to a great deal of speculation. In the seventh century BCE, the Medes emerged as the first Iranian group to establish a powerful state in the territory of present-day Iran. They were an Iranian-speaking group who arrived in western Iran at a thus far undetermined date. Evidence regarding the origins of the Medes and the internal organization of their society is meager. Archaeological excavations at Median sites in western Iran have so far produced valuable but scanty results. The Assyrian royal inscriptions as well as Babylonian chronicles shed some light on isolated events and encounters between the Medes and their neighbors, particularly the Assyrians, but do not provide any clear outline of Median history, politics, and social organization. Herodotus provides a wealth of information, but under closer scrutiny his narrative is found to be riddled with fictitious stories and legendary tales.

  Before the arrival of the Medes in western Iran, the Zagros mountain range was home to numerous non-Iranian groups. The most prominent among these were the Qutis, the Lullubis, and the Kassites who had settled in the present-day western Iranian province of Luristan. From the 14th to the 11th century BCE, Elamite and Assyrian kings organized military campaigns against these mountain communities to collect booty in slaves, horses, gold, and silver.

  The Medes were mentioned for the first time in the royal inscription of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (r. 858–824 BCE), who stated that he had destroyed Median cities, killing their warriors and carrying off spoils and booty. Though the Assyrians penetrated the Median territory and plundered towns, they do not seem to have retained their hold on the country at this time. The son and successor of Shalmaneser III, Shamsi Adad V (r. 823–811 BCE), attacked and defeated the Medes, devastating and destroying Sagbitu, the royal city of a Median chief, along with 1,200 of the chief’s smaller cities. The Medes are mentioned again in the inscriptions of the Assyria
n king Adad-nirari III (r. 810–783 BCE), who lists them as one of the tributaries of the Assyrian state. The royal inscriptions from the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (r. 744–727 BCE) also make reference to Media as one of the countries invaded, plundered, destroyed, and burned by his armies.

  Several of Tiglath-pileser III’s successors, particularly Sargon II (r. 721–705 BCE), Sennacherib (r. 704–681 BCE), Esarhaddon (r. 680–669 BCE), and Ashurbanipal (r. 669–627 BCE), tried with varying success to impose Assyrian rule over the Medes. Sargon II perhaps tried harder than any other Assyrian monarch to subjugate the “mighty Medes,” who “had cast off the yoke of Ashur [Assyria], and were scattered over mountain and desert, like [thieves]” (Luckenbill: II:23, 24). The Assyrian king claimed that he conquered and brought within the border of Assyria 34 districts of the Medes, turned their lands “into deserted mounds,” and received tribute from “22 city prefects of the mighty Medes in form of horses, mules, cattle and sheep” (Luckenbill: II:15, 23, 24, 58).

  The references made in Assyrian inscriptions clearly demonstrate that there were numerous fortified towns ruled by Median chiefs in the western part of present-day Iran, most probably southeast of Lake Orumiyeh (Urmia) in extreme northwestern Iran. Assyrian royal inscriptions also make frequent reference to Media as one of the countries invaded, plundered, destroyed, and burned by Assyrian armies. The Assyrian kings claimed that they annexed the lands and cities of powerful Medes, carrying off booty and forcing them to pay tribute in the form of people, horses, mules, camels, cattle, and sheep. To establish tighter control over the Median populated territory, at least one Assyrian king installed royal eunuchs as provincial governors responsible for collecting taxes. The Assyrians, however, were not content with collecting booty and imposing direct rule over the Medes. They also deported conquered populations and resettled them in Assyria. Like other groups who had been conquered by the Assyrians, many Medes were forced to move out of their homes and resettle in Assyria. Another tool of co-option and integration was the recruitment of fighting men from conquered areas into the Assyrian army. This policy undermined the military cohesiveness of the conquered people, who lost any potential to resist Assyrian domination. It also allowed the Assyrian state to erase the identity of the non-Assyrian population groups and assimilate their best fighters and units into the Assyrian military hierarchy.