Iran

Iran — page 7
CHAPTER 2 History Iran once known as Persia was one of the most important lands in the ancient world and the center of a great civilization The advanced Bronze Age Elam culture developed in western Iran in about 3200 BCE By 1000 BCE nomadic Iranian peoples equipped with iron weapons and tools were settling in central Iran The most powerful of these tribes was the Medes who founded the first Iranian state in about 605 BCE Cyrus the Great Cyrus or Kuros was a great general and lawgiver who united the Medes with the southern Persians in 549 BCE Cyrus created a vast empire that stretched across the Middle East from the Mediterranean Sea to northern India becoming the first shah or king of kings in Persian history For over 200 years Cyrus and his successors ruled an empire that was feared because of its huge army and admired for its wealth and culture Under these Achaemenid kings Zoroastrianism became the official religion of Persia Greeks and Parthians In three brief years this first Persian empire fell to the whirlwind campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon a region in northern Greece For the next 100 years a foreign dynasty known as the Seleucids ruled Persia adding Greek ideas to the mix of cultures there Over time the lands 12 KEY DATES 605 BCE The Medes establish the first Iranian empire 559 529 BCE Cyrus establishes the Achaemenid empire 485 BCE The Achaemenid empire reaches its greatest extent under Darius I and Xerxes I 330 BCE Alexander the Great conquers Iran 250 224 CE The Parthian empire flourishes 224 651 CE The Sassanid empire flourishes under Seleucid control shrank By 200 BCE real power in Iran lay with the Parthians a people from the southeastern shores of the Caspian Successful in war the Parthian kings ruled much of southwestern Asia for 470 years Their power only ended after defeat in a series of long and expensive wars against Rome The Sassanids The Sassanids ruled Iran from 226 to 651 CE Early Sassanid rulers such as Ardashir and Shapur I aimed to restore the Persian empire to the power it had enjoyed under Cyrus the Great Like the Parthians they were well-organized warriors who led large armies of heavily armored horsemen Great Sassanid kings such as Shapur II and Khosrau I inflicted humiliating defeats on the Romans By 620 CE Sassanid Persia had extended its rule deep into Central Asia to Egypt and Arabia in the west and to northern India in the east