Two thousand years before Ancient Rome’s fames acquaducts, the Persians had numerous canals channeling water into the forbidding Iranian Plateau, this making it habitable for humans.
The Persian Empire was a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia (now Iran), with boundaries that fluctuated around that core, extending far into regions that would later become Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan.
The first of these was established by Cyrus The Great over 2,500 years ago, in 550 BC, who one of the archeologists interviewed in this film says was one of the very few “who deserved that title.”
For an 850 year period from 651 AD until 1501 AD, the existence of dynastic rule centered in the region, due to a series of foreign invasions, starting with the Arab conquest (and Islamification) of Persia and later, by the Mongol Invasion.
Prior to these, the main religion was Zoroastrianism, founded by the Avestan-speaking philosopher Zoroaster, aka Zarathushtra. He is credited with the authorship of the the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism (the “Avesta”), including the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns, written in the old Avestan language, which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrian thinking. His writing of these was dated to prior to 6000 BCE by Classical Greek writers, such as Plutarch and Diogenes.
This ancient monotheistic Iranian religion and a religious philosophy was once the state religion of the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian empires.
Estimates of the current number of Zoroastrians worldwide vary between approximately 145,000 in the year 2000 and 2.6 million in more recent estimates. The change over the last decade is attributed to a greater level of reporting and open self-identification, more so than to an actual increase in population; however, precise numbers remain difficult to obtain, in part due to high levels of historic persecution in Middle Eastern regions.
Zoroastrianism arose in the eastern region of the ancient Persian Empire, when the religious philosopher Zoroaster simplified the pantheon of early Iranian gods into two opposing forces: Spenta Mainyu (“progressive mentality”) and Angra Mainyu (“destructive mentality”) under the one God, Ahura Mazda (“Illuminating Wisdom”).
Zoroaster’s ideas led to a formal religion bearing his name by about the 6th century BCE and have influenced other later religions including Judaism, Gnosticism, Christianity and Islam.
Dynasties that have been counted as instances of the Persian Empire include:
Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC), also called “First Persian Empire”
Parthian Empire (247-224 AD), also called “Arsacid Empire”
Sasanian Empire (224-651 AD), also called “Neo-Persian Empire” and “Second Persian Empire”
History of Iran under:
Safavid dynasty (1501-1736 AD)
Afsharid dynasty (1736-1796 AD)
Zand dynasty (1750-1794 AD)
Qajar dynasty (1785-1925 AD)
Pahlavi dynasty (1925-1979 AD)
Add comment