The Persian Empire

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  The Alborz Mountains also play an important role in the story of the emergence of the legendary Kayanian dynasty. The death of Garshashp, king of the legendary Pishdadian dynasty, leaves the throne of Iran vacant. The Turanians and their king Afrasiyab, who are presented as the formidable enemies of Iran, use the weakness of the Iranian state to attack. The Iranian nobility appeals to the great hero Zal to lead the resistance against the foreign invaders. Zal appoints his son, Rostam, as the commander of Iran’s army. But both Zal and Rostam are painfully aware that aside from a strong army and a capable general, the country also needs a new king who possesses the divine glory (farr or farr-e izadi) and the sufficient qualifications to rule. They therefore select a descendant of the great king Fereydun, who like his ancestor lives in hiding in the Alborz Mountains. This young and capable man is Kay Qobad (the Avesta’s Kavi Kavata), who agrees to ascend the throne of Iran as the founder of the Kayanian dynasty. The son and successor of Kay Qobad, Kay Kavus orders the demons (devs/deevs) to build two large and magnificent palaces for him on the Alborz Mountains.

  See also: Ancient Provinces: Hyrcania; Legendary Kings: Arash; Fereydun; Kaveh; Zahhak

  Further Reading

  “The Alborz.” Mountain Professor, http://www.mountainprofessor.com/the-alborz.html.

  Ferdowsi. Shahnameh. Edited by Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh. New York: Mazda Publishers, 1997.

  Ferdowsi, Abulqasem. Shahnameh. Translated by Dick Davis. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007.

  Kia, Sadeq. Mah-e Farvardin Ruz-e Khordad. Tehran: Iran Kudeh, Number 16, 1952.

  The Zend-Avesta, Part II. Translated by James Darmesteter. Oxford: Clarendon, 1883.

  Anshan

  In antiquity, Anshan referred to an Elamite-populated region in the present-day southern Iranian province of Fars. The exact date for the arrival in Anshan of Iranian-speaking people, particularly the Persians, is unknown. Some scholars assert that they reached Anshan as early as 1600 BCE, while others claim that the Persians began to penetrate the region of Fars circa 1000 BCE. Anshan was the birthplace of Cyrus II the Great (Kurush II), the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. The father of Cyrus II, Cambyses I (Kambujiya I), and his grandfather, Cyrus I (Kurush I), were kings of Anshan and vassals of the Median kings who ruled their empire from Hagmatana (Ecbatana), present-day Hamedan in western Iran. Cyrus the Great also referred to himself as the king of Anshan. It is not exactly clear when the name of the region changed from Anshan to Parsa. Some scholars have maintained that the name of the region changed from Anshan to Parsa (Persia) during the reign of Darius I (r. 522–486 BCE).

  Ancient Sumerian and Akkadian writings from the third millennium BCE contain the earliest references to Anshan or Anzan. These sources indicate that Anshan served as a major political center for the Elamite kings during the second half of the third millennium BCE. Until recently, scholars generally subscribed to the widely held belief that Anshan was located somewhere in the central regions of the Zagros mountain range in western Iran. It was also believed that Parsua or Parsumash, which is mentioned for the first time on a stone slab dating from the reign of the Assyrian king Adad-nirari (r. 810–783 BCE), referred to Parsa, the province from which the Persian king Cyrus II rose to power and prominence. In addition, it was believed that King Kurash or Kurush of Parsumash or Parsuwash, who sent his oldest son Arukku to Nineveh with tribute for the Assyrian monarch Assurbanipal (r. 668–627 BCE), was Cyrus I, the king of Parsa and the grandfather of Cyrus II the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire. Based on these conjectures, experts concluded that the Neo-Assyrian Parsua of the mid-seventh century was a reference to Parsa, the land of the ancient Persians. This theory, however, has been rejected more recently by a group of scholars who have maintained that the Parsua mentioned in Assyrian sources refers instead to a place in western Iran, specifically the central Zagros region of Iran, and does not have any direct connection with Parsa, the birthplace of Cyrus and his dynasty in southern Iran.

  In 1879, the Assyrian-born archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam unearthed one of ancient history’s most significant artifacts, a find that would shed considerable light on the history of Anshan and on the history of ancient Persia. In Babylon, at a site associated with the chief Babylonian god Marduk, located in present-day southern Iraq, Rassam discovered the Cyrus Cylinder. On this cylindrical tablet, Cyrus II introduced himself as the son of Cambyses I, the grandson of Cyrus I, and a descendant of Teispes, all of whom were kings of Anshan. It becomes clear from the Cyrus Cylinder that the ancestors of Cyrus, starting with his great-grandfather, ruled Anshan. Anshan was a small kingdom during the ascendency of the Medes to power. Once the Median kingdom established itself as the dominant power on the Iranian plateau, northern Mesopotamia, and eastern Asia Minor, Anshan became a tributary of the Median state, and its rulers acted as the vassals of Median kings.

  It was only after 559 or 558 BCE, when Cyrus II ascended the throne of Anshan, that the relationship between the Persians and their Median overlord began to undergo a major transformation. Sometime around 554/553 or 550/549 BCE, Cyrus revolted against the authority of the Median king Ashti Vega, who appears in Herodotus’s history as Astyages. After several confrontations in which he was initially unsuccessful, Cyrus finally managed to defeat the Medes and seize their capital. From this union between the kingdom of Anshan and the much larger and more prosperous kingdom of Media, Cyrus’s empire was founded. The inscription on the Cyrus Cylinder demonstrates that during the reign of Cyrus, the name of the region from which the Persian king had hailed was Anshan and that the name Parsa (Persis, Persia) was introduced sometime later.

  In 1961, a team under the direction of Fereydun Tavalloli from the Archaeological Service of Iran excavated an archaeological site called Tal-e Malyan in Fars province of Iran. Tal-e Malyan is located 22 miles (36 kilometers) northwest of the city of Shiraz, the capital of Fars. In 1971, an American archaeological team led by William Sumner from the University of Pennsylvania and Ohio State University began their excavation of Tal-e Malyan. This team worked for several seasons on the site until 1978, when their work was interrupted by the onset of the Iranian Revolution. Based on the study of the excavated Elamite-inscribed bricks and tablets, particularly a building brick of the Elamite monarch Hatelutus-Insusinak, Tal-e Malyan has been identified as the site of the ancient city of Anshan.

  See also: K&Q, Achaemenid: Cyrus II the Great

  Further Reading

  Carter, E., and M. W. Stolper. Elam: Surveys of Political History and Archeology. University of California Press Publications, Near Eastern Studies 25. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.

  Carter, Elizabeth, and Ken Deaver. Malyan Excavation Reports, Vol. 2, Excavations at Anshan (Tal-e Malyan): The Middle Elamite Period. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, 1996.

  Hansman, J. “Anshan.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1985, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/anshan-elamite-region.

  Levine, Louis D. Geographical Studies in the Neo-Assyrian Zagros. Toronto and London: Royal Ontario Museum and British Institute of Persian Studies, 1974.

  Luckenbill, Daniel David. Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia. 2 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1926.

  Miller, Naomi F., and Kamyar Abdi. Yeki Bud Yeki Nabud Essays on the Archeology of Iran in Honor of William M. Sumner. Los Angeles: Costen Institute of Archeology Press, 2003.

  Pritchard, James B. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953.

  Sumner, William M. Early Urban Life in the Land of Anshan: Excavations at Tal-e Malyan in the Highlands of Iran. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, 2003.

  Arachosia

  Arachosia was the name given by classical authors to an Iranian-populated region in present-day southern Afghanistan whose most important city today is Qandahar (Kandahar). The geographical boundaries of Arachosia are unclear, but it is gener
ally believed that the province takes its name from its principal river, the present-day Argandab, a tributary of the Helmand River. The longest river in present-day Afghanistan, the Helmand rises in the Hindu Kush Mountains of northern Afghanistan and empties into Hamun-e Helmand Lake near Zabol at the Afghan–Iranian border. In the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book, the region is called Harakhushti (The Zend-Avesta, Part I: Vendidad, 1.13). In his inscription at Bisotun in western Iran, the Persian Achaemenid king Darius I (r. 522–486 BCE) mentions Arachosia, which he called Harauvatish, as one of the provinces that came into his possession after he seized the throne in 522 BCE (Kent: 116–134). Arachosia is also mentioned in one of Darius’s inscriptions as a source of ivory, which was used in the construction of the king’s royal palace in Susa, one of the capitals of the Achaemenid dynasty (Kent: 144). The Arachosians served in the armies of the last Achaemenid monarch, Darius III, when he fought Alexander the Macedon. When Darius III was defeated and the region came under Macedonian rule, Alexander appointed one of his generals, Meno, as the governor of Arachosia. When Meno died in 325 BCE, another of his commanders, Sibyrtius, became the satrap of the province. Arachosia came under Seleucid rule for a short time before it was seized by Demetrius, ruler of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom based in today’s northern Afghanistan. The region was probably incorporated into the emerging Arsacid (Parthian) Empire (r. 247/238 BCE–224 CE) during the reign of Mithridates I (r. 171–139/138 BCE). The reigns of the successors of Mithridates I, Phraates II (r. 139/138–128 BCE) and Artabanus I (r. 128–124/123 BCE), saw Scythian groups from Central Asia invade and occupy Arachosia and the neighboring province of Drangiana (present-day Sistan-Baluchistan), which came to be known as Sakastana (the land of the Sakas) and later Sistan.

  Isidore of Charax, the author of Parthian Stations, called Arachosia “White India” and identified it as a province of the Arsacid (Parthian) Empire (Isidore of Charax: 9). After the invasion of present-day northern Afghanistan by the Iranian-speaking Yüeh-chih (Yuezhi) or Tochari, the entire territory of present-day Afghanistan came under the Kushan dynasty, which originated from one of the branches within the Yüeh-chih. The Kushans established a powerful empire, which at its height stretched from Central Asia to India. In 224 CE, Ardashir I, founder of the Sasanian dynasty, defeated and killed Artabanus IV, the last Arsacid monarch, on the battlefield. In 225, Ardashir moved against the Kushans who submitted to the Sasanian monarch. This allowed the Sasanians to list the province formerly known as Arachosia as part of their newly established empire. In his inscription at Naqsh-e Rostam in Fars province of southern Iran, Shapur I included “Kerman, Seistan, Turan, Makuran, Paradene, Hindustan [= Sind], the Kushanshahr up to Peshawar, and up to Kashgar, Sogdiana and to the mountains of Tashkent, and on the other side of the sea, Oman,” as parts and provinces of his empire in the east (Frye: 371). The name Arachosia was apparently abandoned sometime during the late Kushan or early Sasanian periods.

  See also: Ancient Cities: Bisotun Inscription; Naqsh-e Rostam; K&Q, Achaemenid: Darius I; K&Q, Arsacid/Parthian: Mithridates I; K&Q, Sasanian: Ardashir I; Shapur I

  Further Reading

  Arrian. The Campaigns of Alexander. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. New York: Dorset, 1986.

  Barthold, W. An Historical Geography of Iran. Translated by Svat Soucek. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.

  Frye, Richard Nelson. The History of Ancient Iran. München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1984.

  Isidore of Charax. Parthian Stations. Edited and translated by W. H. Schoff. Philadelphia: Commercial Museum, 1914.

  Kent, Roland G. Old Persian. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1950.

  Schmitt, R. “Arachosia.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1986, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arachosia.

  The Zend-Avesta, Part I: The Vendidad. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.

  Aria

  Aria, which appears as “Haroyu” in the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book, and as “Haraiva” in Old Persian, was the name of an Iranian-populated province in present-day northwestern Afghanistan whose most important urban center today is the city of Herat (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Yasht, 10.14; Kent: 117, 119). The exact geographical boundaries of ancient Aria are unclear, but it is generally believed that the province was centered around the valley of the river Hari Rud. Aria was bordered by Sattagydia and Gandhara to the east; Parthia to the west; Bactria, Margiana, and Chorasmia to the north and east; and Sagartia, Drangiana, and Arachosia to the south. In his Geography, Strabo described Aria as a region “enclosed by mountains and in part having their habitations in the plains,” which “are intersected by rivers that irrigate them” (Strabo: 11.10, 1–11.1). He identified the main cities of Aria as Artacaena, Alexandria, and Achaia (Strabo: 11.10, 1–11.1). According to Pliny, the city of Alexandria, corresponding with today’s Herat in northwestern Afghanistan, was founded by Alexander the Macedon.

  In his inscription at Bisotun in western Iran, the Persian Achaemenid king Darius I (r. 522–486 BCE) included Haraiva or Aria in the list of the provinces that came into his possession after he seized the throne in 522 BCE (Kent: 117, 119). Herodotus also mentions Aria together with Parthia, Chorasmia, and Sogdiana as being among the 20 provinces that paid tribute to the Persian Achaemenid king (Herodotus: 3.93). The successors of Darius I, including Xerxes I and Artaxerxes II, also listed Aria among the provinces of the Achaemenid Empire (Kent: 151, 155). Arians participated in the armies of the last Achaemenid monarch, Darius III, when he fought Alexander the Macedon. Aria benefited enormously from being located on the ancient routes, which linked Mesopotamia and Iran to India, Central Asia, and China. After the fall of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BCE, Alexander the Macedon and his armies invaded and seized Aria after capturing Hyrcania and Parthia. When Alexander died in 323 BCE, his short-lived empire disintegrated into chaos and civil war. Alexander’s ambitious generals fought one another as each sought to carve out a kingdom of his own. In the struggle between Eumenes and Antigonus, the governor of Aria/Drangiana joined the governors of other “Upper Satrapies” and sided with Eumenes against Antigonus (Wiesehöfer: 107). When Seleucus I, a general in Alexander’s army, seized Iran between 312 and 301 BCE, Aria became a province of the Seleucid Empire. Among the early Seleucid settlements and fortresses in Iran was Soteira in Aria (Wiesehöfer: 108). As Seleucid power declined in the east, Aria became a disputed region lying between the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in present-day northern Afghanistan and the Arsacid kingdom based in northeastern Iran. During the reign of the Arsacid dynasty (247/238 BCE–224 CE) Aria prospered, as it was one of the trading centers of the famed Silk Road used by merchants and ordinary folks to travel from Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Iran to India and China. Isidore of Charax listed Aria as one of the important commercial links and supply stations on the overland trade route between Levant and India. He named the three cities of Candac, Artacauan, and Alexandria of the Arii as the three major urban centers of Aria (Isidore of Charax: 8).

  Much of the territory of present-day Afghanistan became part of the Kushan Empire toward the end of the second century BCE. During Kushan rule, Aria as well as other parts of Afghanistan prospered, as the region enjoyed close trade and commercial ties with India to the south, Central Asia and China to the north and northeast, and the Parthian Empire and Rome to the west. After the fall of the Kushan dynasty at the hands of the Persian Sasanians in 225 CE, the territory of ancient Aria was incorporated into the emerging Sasanian Empire (r. 224–651 CE). In his inscription at Naqsh-e Rostam near present-day Shiraz in southern Iran, the second Sasanian monarch, Shapur I, listed Harey or Aria as one of the provinces of his empire (Frye: 371).

  See also: Ancient Cities: Bisotun Inscription; K&Q, Achaemenid: Darius I; K&Q, Arsacid/Parthian: Mithridates I; K&Q, Seleucid: Seleucus I Nicator; Peoples: Alexander of Macedon (the Great); Seleucids