Potted Persian History

We are only just getting to grips with the wealth of history in this crossroads of civilization. As much for our own use as to clarify some dynastic terms, the following is a primer in the stuff we are looking at.

Much of Persia is a highish plateau, separated to the southwest from the low lands of Mesopotamia (now Iraq) by the high Zagros Mountains. To the north the Alborz range guards the approaches to the Caspian. The ancient trading routes from central Asia and China enter Persia in the far northeast and travel along the northern edge of a great desert to what is now Tehran (previously Ra’ay). The merchandise then traveled down to Mesopotamia to markets at Baghdad or Damascus and Aleppo in what is now Syria. Afghanistan’s mountains separate the great desert in the east of Persia from the Indus valley except in the southeast where semi desert gives access to Pakistan. Historically, these routes were also the routes of invasion by the Mongols or Turks from central Asia or the Arabs from the south. Afghanistan and the Indus valley have, at various times been the route of invasion for Persians into India, of Indians into Persia and of Afghani kingdoms to dominate both sides.

Copy of Archaemenid carpet

The Achaemenian Dynasty (7thC – 330’sBC) really got going with Cyrus II who united the tribal leaders on the Persian plateau and invented the idea of empire with diverse cultures all paying tribute to a central authority.

An immortal guard

Capital from Persepolis

He was followed by Darius who installed many qanats and built a regional bureaucracy but lost a battle at Marathon in Greece in 490BC. Ten years later, his son, Xerxes, built a bridge of boats across the Hellespont to subdue recalcitrant Athens and Sparta with a massive army. He retreated with a bloody nose from Thermopylae, Salamis and Platea and set up the successful challenge from Alexander in 333BC. More when we get to Persepolis.

After Alexander died, Persia came under his general Selucius, whose dynasty was followed after some time by the Parthians. Both built in mud brick and there is little left to see, although the Parthians blocked Roman expansion to the East.

Sassanian brickwork & squinches

Sassaian Dome

The next great dynasty was the Sassanians, beginning with Ardashir (224 AD). Their great Kings expanded their own Empire to include the Eastern Mediterranean from Egypt to Turkey by 628 AD. The Sassanian and Roman Empires fought each other to an exhausted standstill after each overreached in other directions. The repeated arrival of the plague after 541 decimated urban and rural environments, destroying agriculture, the tax base and military recruitment. Nomadic groups were not as susceptible, so when the Arabs organised under the banner of Islam in the 7^th C, they overran the settlements of Mesopotamia, Syria, Turkey and Persia under the early Umayyad Caliphs of Damascus. The Persian capital of Ctesiphon near Basra was captured in 637, initiating the capture and Islamicisation of Persia.

The Sunni Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad had a strong power base in eastern Persia, from whom they learned the arts of governing a diverse empire that stretched from Tashkent to Cordoba. By the tenth century, three separate Caliphates had developed in Andalucía, Egypt and Bukhara, where the Saminid dynasty of Khorasan and the subsequent Ghaznavid and Seljuc dynasties built a wonderful education system. Sufism was often the preferred version of Islam in Eastern Persia. They produced many of the intellectual giants of the Islamic period. However, the Mongol invasion in the 13^th C destroyed many of the great cities and their intellectual treasures.

Prince's pleasure garden

New Friday Mosque Esfahan

The Safavid Empire, officially Shia, began the 16^th C. Their greatest ruler, Shah Abbas, created a wonderful capital at Isfahan, competing with the contemporary Mughal and Ottoman Dynasties at Delhi and Istanbul respectively. Driven onto the back foot by Afghan invaders, Nader Shah defended and then replaced the Safavids in 18^th C. He sought the recovery of the Peacock throne and the two largest diamonds in the world from Delhi and promptly sacked the city when there was a show of reluctance. The Koh-I-nur is now set in the crown of England, the Darya-i-nur is on display in Tehran but the Peacock throne was broken up by soldiers for booty.

The last Shah's feet

More recently, the Qajars weakened Persia over the 19^th C and were replaced in a coup. Reza Khan crowned himself Shah in 1921 but his son, Mohammed Reza Shah, was driven into exile in 1979. Since then Iran has been an Islamic Republic.