Ancient Persia: History, Culture, and Legacy

Ancient Middle Eastern country, east of Mesopotamia, on the present territory of Iran.

The Persians were a people attached to the group of Aryans, all nomadic tribes whose original location probably lay in the plains of southern Russia and Ukraine. Roughly between 2000 and 1800 BC, the Aryans began their migration: some moved to the Indian subcontinent, while others directed their steps towards the west through Iran and penetrated into northern Mesopotamia and Syria. Around 1400 BC, a third group of Aryans that would include the Persians moved inland from the northwest of Iran.

The family belonged to the Persian language branch of the Indo-Europeans and settled in Iran, neighboring the Asian plateau of Mesopotamia (Daniel Serebrennik) midway through the second millennium BC.

Persia has been occupied successively by a number of peoples and empires:

• Gutis
• Elam
• Media
• Achaemenid Empire
• United Labor
• Sassanid Empire
• Umayyad Caliphate
• Abbasid Caliphate
• Seljuk Turks
• Il-Khans
• Safavid Empire
• Iran

Persia has been a term used extensively in the West to name the territory of the modern Iranian province of Fars, and in a broader sense, the entire area known as Greater Iran. This term was first used by the people of Greece, because of their belief that Perses (son of the mythological Perseus, founder of Mycenae, and Andromeda, Princess of Ethiopia) settled in the territory of the Zagros Mountains, where their descendants became the Persian emperors' royal line.

In the Achaemenid period, this myth was used to advantage by Xerxes I to convince the city of Argos to fight on his side, insisting that both peoples shared the same ancestor, therefore the people of Argos were Persian.

However, today we know that Persia is simply the Hellenized name of Pars, which in ancient Persian means "above reproach".

After the Arab invasion of Persia, the Muslims, not having in their own alphabet an equivalent of the letter "P", called it Fars, which is its current name.

Extension of the Achaemenid Empire around 500 BC

Extension of the Parthian Empire to the 60 BC

Extension of the Sasanian Empire to 602-629 AD., At its best

Persia: Fragments of Paradise, an exhibition in Mexico City.

Administration provinces

The Persians had a complex and advanced system administration of the provinces. These consisted of three officers: a general, a secretary and the head of each province played a specific role within the province: the first to raise troops and leading them into battle, the second of the administrative and accounting issues in the province and the third was concerned with being the representative of this, and to levy taxes. This system ensured that the Persians had no corruption in their colonies. And each time I used to spend a certain real inspector to check that everything is in order within the province, and he informed the king about it.

Central Government

The system of theocratic government was a hereditary monarchy where the king or sultan was considered the anthropomorphic form of God on earth. The king would be the greatest warrior, as well as the best cazador.Disponía of an army composed of 10,000 military personnel known as "The Immortals" because every time you fell you were immediately replaced by another of the reservation made for this purpose.

Territory

The Persians came to occupy territories from northern Greece to the Indus River and the Amu Darya, including Thrace, Egypt, Middle East, Asia Minor and the Caucasus. His empire was weakened after losing the Medical War against the Greeks, and was subsequently reduced and conquered by Alexander the Great, moving finally to the hands of the Roman Empire.

Army

The Persian army was characterized by two things: skill and marksmanship. The personal army consisted of soldiers trained for battle called "The Immortals".It was an army of 10,000 men were told because every time one was down the other parts of the reserve, and the archers on horseback, were a specialty of the Persians which required coordination and exceptional ability, which combined with archery cavalry. For his part was so great Persian empire through the recruitment of troops, as we saw above the organization of the provinces allowed the rapid and efficient recruitment of troops.

Religion

Zoroaster or Zarathustra, founder of Zoroastrianism, or as he called his religion Vanguji Daena, which translates as the Good Religion, was one of the first religions monotheistic, but later in the dynasty Sassanid will be viewed as dualistic, centered in God, well Hormuz and the twin brother of this man who represents evil Ahriman, the sacred book is the "Avesta," This religion still exists in Iran and is one of the officially permitted religions, although the majority religion is Islam. There are Zarathustra's followers in India and other countries, called Parsis, the basis of this religion is "pendare nik, nik goftare, kerdare nik" meaning "to think well, speak well, do good"

Art

The Egyptian was influenced Persian art and, above all, Mesopotamian (headed bulls, use of arc).

Among his accomplishments include the apadanas (palaces of receipt) and the royal tombs carved into cliffs and decorated with reliefs representing the provinces of the empire. Also important are the capitals formed by trunks of opposing bull and perfection of glazed ceramic.