History Part I

From Cyrus the Great to the Qajar Dynasty

Man has lived on the Iranian plateau for at least 15,000 years. The earliest inhabitants were nomadic hunters who gradually turned to agriculture and developed permanent settlements. Sialk, not far south of modern Tehran, is the site of one of the world's earliest known settlements. Here, some of the first stages of what we call civilization developed, and significant progress was made in architecture and graphic design. Early Silkware, with its geometric and abstract motifs, has in fact a curiously "modern" look.

Wild wheat and barley were first cultivated in Iran, and introduced as early as the 4th millennium B.C. into Egypt, and from there into Europe. Several animals were domesticated, and major progress was made in the use of metals, particularly copper.

The greatest civilization in Iran during the prehistoric period was that of Elam, the alluvial plain of south-west Iran, today known as Khuzestan. Susa, the Elamite capital, is the site of literally dozens of successive archaeological periods, culminating in the golden age of the thirteenth century B.C. when Elam dominated all of western Iran, as well as the Tigris valley and most of the Persian Gulf region.

Early in the first millennium B.C., major invasions of Indo-European tribes took place. They gave their name for themselves to their new homeland  -- they were Aryans, meaning "of noble origin", and from this the name Iran is derived.

The two main Iranian tribes were the Medes and the Persians. Both settled in the Zagros mountains, where they built fortified cities, were farmers and shepher(ls qood horsemen and ex cellent metal-workers. By the eighth century the Medes had made Ekbatana, modern Hamadan, their capital, while the Persians, their semi-independent vassals, were established in the mountains further south, from where they later moved eastward into what is now the province of Fars, formerly Pars. Here the Persians developed their own culture, including a cuneiform alphabet. The two branches of the Iranian family were united in Cyrus the Great, whose father was the king of the Persians, and mother the daughter of the last Median king Cyrus, who reigned from 550 to 529 B.C., was a brilliant warrior and natural leader. By conquering Lydia, Babylonia and the whole of west Asia, he created the first world empire in history. His concern for his subjects and tolerance in religious and social affairs made him a popular figure, respected as a great ruler even by his enemies and hailed in the Bible as the "Annointed of the Lord". Till 1979, the Empire founded by Cyrus was the oldest monarchy in the world.

The name Persia was given to Iran by the Greeks, who mistook the name of its principal province for that of the whole country. Darius the Great, a member of a collateral branch of Cyrus's Achaemenian dynasty, consolidated the empire and established a highly efficient ad-ministration, based on a system of semi-independent satraps in close contact with the Great King's court by means of a network of royal roads and the world's first postal system. During Darri.us long reign (522 to 486 B.C.), the Achaemenian Empire was extended from Egypt to Central Asia, and Zoroastrianism, a purely Iranian faith, became the official state religion, although the tradition of complete religious tolerance was maintained. His son Xerxes was mainly responsible for the building of Persepolis, the greatest surviving Achaemenian monument.

The Achaemenian Empire eventually fell before the army of world-conquering Alexander, who in 330 B.C. burned Persepolis in revenge for the Persian conquest of Athens under Xerxes. After Alexander's death, the vast territories he had won were divided up among three of his generals, Iran being ruled by Seleucos, whose dynasty las ted less than a century.

The Seleucids were finally defeated in 247 B.C. by the Parthians, a war-like people from east Iran, who ruled Iran for almost five centuries. Relying on their superb cavalry, they fought off repeated Roman invasions, while simultaneously guarding their eastern borders against attacks from the nomadic Scythians.

This long period of national rule set the stage for the Sasanians, another powerful dynasty established in A.D. 211 by Ardeshir, who claimed Achaemenian descent. For 400 years the Sasanians maintained Iran's independence against Roman and Byzantine encroachment, and under their benevolent rule the country prospered economically and socially. In the seventh century, however, worn out by constant war and internal dissent, Iran proved unable to resist the Muslim invasion, which in 651 put an end to the Sasanian dynasty, and prepared the way for an important new era.

The Iranian state was at first divided into a number of provinces ruled by governors appointed by the Caliphs of Islam. Zoroastrianism, except among a defiant few, gave way to Islam. Iranians prospered as senior civil servants, so much so that by the eighth century the Iranian Barmecide family was virtually running the Moslem Empire of the Abbasids, who had themselves come to power with Persian help.

Gradually, independent Iranian dynasties established themselves. The ninth century Taherids were followed by the Saffarids and Samanids, who controlIed all of eastern Iran, the Caliph's authorit~ becoming more and more restricted to theological matters. These independen dynasties did much to encourage a rel awakening of Persian culture, which by now had become deeply Islamic, whil~ preserving a strong sense of Persiar tradition and nationalism. Ferdowsi author of the national epic, the "Shahnameh," based on Sasanian sources, wa' the greatest figure in this cultural revival

In the eleventh century there appeared a new ethnic element, the Turks who migrated from Central Asia t~ north Iran and from there to Anatolia which became the new Turkish home land. Two dynasties of Turkish origin the Ghaznavids (999-1040) and the Seljuks (1040-1220), ruled Iran, but botth became so steeped in the ancient tradi tions of the land that historians rightly consider them Iranian, not alien, dynasties.

Then came a series of devastating invasions. Under Ghengis Khan anc his grandson Hulagu, Iran was ravaged by Mongol hordes, who destroyed city after city and massacred their inhabitants. In time, however, even these wild nomads became Iranianized, and under Hulagu's successors, the Il- Khans there was a revival in Iran's culture and scientific traditions. Another Central Asian conqueror, Teimur, known in th West as Timurlane, then ruled Iran from Samarqand, but after his death in 1404 the country was torn by feuds betwee various Turkish tribes.

At this dark moment another grec national dynasty arose to unite th the country and put Iran firmly bac on the road to prosperity. Under th Safavids, and particularly Shah Abbas the Great (1587- 1628), whose capital Esfahan, became known as "half the world", Iran enjoyed one of its most magnificent eras.

Early in the eighteenth century the Safavid dynasty became weak, and in 1722 the capital was captured by Afghan invaders. The Turks and Russians took advantage of the situation to invade the northern and western parts of the country, thereby threatening Iran with disintegration.

Then once again a strong nationalist appeared to save the day. Nader Shah, who had risen from the ranks of the Safavid army, drove out the invaders and in 1736 was proclaimed king. This last great Asian conqueror added Afghanistan, India, Uzbekistan and Iraq to his empire, but his immense wealth and the continual strain of warfare finally made him miserly and tyrannical, and after his death the empire broke up.

Karim Khan Zand emerged the victor of the resulting struggle for power, and for forty years Iran enjoyed relative peace and prosperity. The Zands chose Shiraz as their capital and built a number of beautiful mosques and other monuments there, many of which survive today.

The Zands were finally defeated in 1787 by a Turkish tribe, the Qajars, who made Tehran their capital and ruled Iran under very difficult circumstances. An unequal war with Russia resulted in the loss of many of Iran's northern provinces, and Iran, realizing it was no longer a major power, was forced to adopt a policy of playing one European power against another in order to maintain its territorial integrity. In 1906 popular demand for constitutional rule came to a head and the Qajar king was forced to grant a Constitution. Iran continued to undergo severe crises, however, the new Parliament being closed by the intervention of Cossack troops, and the country divided into spheres of Russian and British influence.

End of Part I

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