Download PERSIA Persia is a region which corresponds roughly with the

PERSIA
Persia is a region which corresponds roughly with the modern political borders of Iran in
Western Asia, although at times regions in Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia would
also have been considered part of its territory. There has never been a political entity called
“Persia”; both the terms “Persian” (of Greek origin) and “Iranian” (with “Aryan,” Indo-European
roots) can be used of a variety of cultures and political entities throughout the history of this
region, or in a more limited way to refer to speakers of Indo-Iranian languages and dialects.
The history of urban culture in Persia seems to begin in the late 5th millennium BCE, with the
emergence of Susa (modern Shush) in the lower Zagros Mountains. Susa is mentioned in
Sumerian and Akkadian texts as well as in Hebrew Bible (as “Shushan”), and remains an
important city throughout the ancient history of Persia.
Bronze Age Persia was home to several cultures including Elam (ca. 3200 – 539 BCE), a
civilization which competed with the various Mesopotamian cultures to its west throughout its
long history. The Elamites spoke a language unrelated to the Semitic or Indo-European language
families known in the region, but eventually adapted Akkadian cuneiform to their purposes. The
Elamite religion was a polytheistic one with a little-understood pantheon possibly ruled by a
goddess (Pinikir / Kiririsha). The Elamites lost some degree of autonomy to the Iranian Medes
in 616 BCE, but it was in 540 BCE that Susa fell to the ACHAEMENID Persian dynasty.
In the first centuries of the Iron Age, there is some evidence for nomadic Iranian groups calling
themselves “Parsa” in a region between the Tigris River and the Persian Gulf. A few Assyrian
texts from the 9th c. BCE mention the “Parsua.” Achaemenid kings of the 6th c. BCE may have
had these groups in mind when they boasted of their Iranian (“Ariya”) origins.
The origins of the Achaemenid dynastic line are traced to the region of present-day Fars
province, but by 500 BCE the empire ruled territory from the northeastern borders of the Greek
world to the Indus Valley. Achaemenid traditions and styles reached the Aegean through the
Greco-Persian Wars, and were deliberately spread throughout the empire via a royal
iconographical program. The Achaemenid Empire fell to ALEXANDER THE GREAT in 334 BCE.
In the late 4th c. BCE, Persia came under the control of the Seleucid Empire, with its capital at
Seleucia (until 240 BCE), followed by Antioch. This led to direct exchange between Hellenistic
Greek ideas and those of local Iranian or Persian tribes. In the middle of the 2nd c. BCE, the
ARSACID or Parthian Empire took Persia from the Seleucids, remaining in power until 224 CE.
Susa and Ctesiphon were made capitals of the new state, and as it expanded it became more and
more culturally heterogeneous. Greek and Iranian SYNCRETISM became common, while a
minority of Jews and early Christians seem to have been tolerated peacefully.
Control of Persia shifted to the SASANIAN Empire in 224 CE, which maintained a capital at
Ctesiphon. At its greatest extent, the Sasanians controlled territory ranging from Turkey to
Central Asia, and from the Caucasus to Egypt and Yemen. Although ZOROASTRIANISM became
the official religion under Sasanian control, Judaism, Manichaeism, Buddhism, and other faiths
were known to have been practiced throughout the empire. In the early 7th c. CE, ongoing wars
with Rome and other social conflicts weakened Sasanian control and Persian territory was
conquered under the leadership of the Rashidun Caliphate. Persia was subsequently controlled
by a succession of Islamic caliphates and dynasties.
The legacy of Persia in the ancient world is substantial. The Achaemenid, Arsacid, and Sasanian
Empires were no less powerful than the Greeks and Romans, and each innovatively combined
local artistic traditions with the iconographical tropes of other dominant powers in the Near East.
Although scholars are divided as to the chronology of the canonization of Zoroastrianism, early
acts of religious toleration—such as CYRUS the Great’s edict(s) restoring the people and gods of
the lands conquered by Assyria to their homelands—were later put to use in the spread of
Zoroastrianism. MANICHAEISM, founded by the Iranian prophet MANI (ca. 216-276 CE), left a
lasting impression on the religious fabric of antiquity. And the evolution of the Nestorian
(Church of the East) and Jacobite (Syriac Orthodox) Churches took place within the context of
the Sasanian Empire, which pressured Christians in Persia to sever their ties with Rome.
SUGGESTED READINGS:
Alvarez-Mon, Javier, and Mark B. Garrison (eds.). Elam and Persia. Eisenbrauns, 2010.
Ball, Warwick. Towards one world: ancient Persia and the West. East & West Publishing Ltd.,
2010.
Shayegan, M. Rahim. Arsacids and Sasanians: political ideology in post-Hellenistic and late
antique Persia. Cambridge, 2011.
H.D.