Ancient Percia

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]

The Iranian
plateau, much of the territory
of present-day Iran, was first populated in the
9th century BCE,
when the Medes people migrated there from Central Asia. The
Medes
were followed by the Persians in the 8th century BCE, and these two
groups
laid the foundation for a series of empires that arose on the
Iranian plateau
over the next thousand years. Around 750 BCE the
Medes people formed their own
kingdom, called Media, in the
northwest plateau, becoming powerful enough by 612
BCE to defeat the
older Assyrian Empire to the west. In 550 BCE, however, the
Persian
leader Cyrus the Great led the Persians into battle against the ruling
Medes
people, resulting in the unification of the two groups under the name
of
the victor, the Persians. Cyrus also captured the city of Babylon
on the
Euphrates River and freed the Jewish captives there, earning
himself a place in
the Book of Isaiah. The first Persian Empire,
the Achaemenid, emerged from
Cyrus' victories, and lasted until the
2nd century BCE. The Achaemenid Empire
was the largest empire yet
seen in the ancient world, extending at its height as
far east as
the Hindu Kush mountains in present-day Afghanistan. Economically,
the
Achaemenids established an efficient trade system throughout their
empire.
Persian words for many commodities spread throughout the
region as a result of
this commercial activity, some of which are
still used in English today.
Examples include bazaar, shawl, sash,
turquoise, tiara, orange, lemon, melon,
peach, spinach, and
asparagus.

The Greeks
of the eastern Aegean coast were
the first western subjects of the Achaemenid
Empire, bringing the
Greek and Persian cultures together for the first time. It
was the
start of a long relationship between the two, which would later result
in
frequent military conflict as their respective empires grew.
Religiously, the
Achaemenid Empire featured a variety of
polytheistic religions, or those that
worship more than one god.
What its followers claimed was the world's first
monotheistic
religion developed on the Iranian plateau, though, based on the
teachings
of the prophet Zoroaster (also called Zarathustra). By the time of the
Achaemenid
Empire, Zoroastrianism - which most religious scholars now categorise
as
dualism, not monotheism - was gaining converts among the Persians.

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]

Zoroastrianism

By the 4th
century
BCE, Macedonia had become a strong force in the west, challenging first

Greece, then lands further east. About 330 BCE, Alexander the Great
of Macedonia
invaded Persia and sacked the capital at Persepolis,
ending the Achaemenid
Empire. Although Alexander has achieved almost
mythic status in western history,
the Persian view of him is
understandably quite different. Persia did not regain
its
Achaemenid-era power until the Sassanid Empire rose in the 3rd century
CE.
In the meantime, Persia was ruled by weaker dynasties, the
Seleucid and the
Parthian, a period sometimes called the Hellenistic
period in Iran because of
the Greek cultural influence. Greek
statues and temples from this era have been
found as far east as
Punjab and the Persian Gulf region. Anti-Greek sentiment
that began
under the late Parthian Empire and continued under the Sassanids,
however,
has led to a poor memory of this period of Persian history. As we shall

see, the influence was not only one way; Persian culture, and
especially
religion, would also have a great effect on many
Judeo-Christian ideas

الموضوع الأصلي : Ancient Percia المصدر : مُنتَدَيَاتْ صُـوتــْ بَــلَــدْنََــا

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eNg AhMeD