Iran Zamin 2

Darius The Great ( Dariush I)

2006-05-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

Darius the Great (ca. 549 BC– 485/486 BC; Old Persian Dārayawuš: "He Who Holds Firm the Good"), was the son of Hystaspes and Persian Emperor from 521 BC to 485/486 BC. His name in Modern Persian is داریوش (Dariush), in Hebrew דַּרְיָוֵשׁ (Daryawesh) and the ancient Greek sources call him Δαρεῖος (Dareios).

Biography:
The principal sources for the life of Darius are his own inscriptions, especially the great inscription of Behistun in which he explains how he gained the crown and put down many rebellions. There are also some informations related to his past, for example we know that his fathers name was Hystaspes. In modern times the veracity of Darius has often been doubted, but without any sufficient reason or suggestion of alternatives. The accounts given later by Herodotus and Ctesias of his accession are in many points evidently dependent on this official version, with many legendary stories interwoven, e.g. the tale that Darius and his allies left the question as to which of them should become king to the decision of their horses, and that Darius won the crown by a trick of his groom. Herodotus also informs us of Dariuse' past. He mentions that Hystaspes was a soldier in the Persian army during the last war of Cyrus the Great, which took place in 530. According to the story of Herodotus, Cyrus becomes suspicious of the son of Hystaspes, who was "about twenty at the time and had been left behind in Persia because he was too young for war". So he sent back Hystaspes to gain control over Darius. A few days later, Cyrus was killed in action. Cambyses was appointed as the new king and Hystaspes became the satrap ( governor) of Parthia.

Rise to Power:
Darius belonged to the cadet branch of the Achaemeid Dynasty. After the suicide of Cambyses II on March 21, Gaumata ,( Cyrus's younger son), seized the whole empire and ruled in under the name of Bardiya ( Smerdis), another son of Cyrus the great. No one dared to challenge him except Darius. Darius " with the help of Ahuramazda", decided to regain the kingdom for the royal family. According to an inscript found at Susa, both Darius's father, Hystaspes and his grandfather, Arsames, were alive when Darius became the king. Assisted by six noble Persians, whose names Darius proclaimed at the end of the Behistun Inscription, he surprised and killed Gaumata in a Median fortress and gained the crown. He also married Atossa, the widow of the false Smerdis and daughter of king Cyrus the great. In time, Xerxes, Darius's son from Atossa, would succeed his father on the throne.
These sudden changes in the central authority in Persia was percieved by the rulers of the eastern provinces as an opportunity to regain their independence. In Susiana, Babylon, Media, Sagartia, and Margiana, people in power pretended that they are from the royal race and gathered large armies to revolt. Even in central Persia, Vahyazdata imitated the example of Gaumata and introduced himself as the True Bardiya. Darius, with only a very small army of Persians and Medes and some loyal generals, overcame all these difficulties. By 520 BC all the rebellions were put down. Even Babylon, which had revolted twice, and Susiana, which had rebelled three times, both submitted, and recognized Darius's government as legitamit.

Governance
One of the first acts of Darius was to establish that, by the grace of Ahuramazda, he had overcomed all his enemies and promoted the monotheistic religion of Zoroaster. At Behistun, Darius ordered the relief and inscription of his victory by the help of Ahuramazda to be carved. Unfortunately, the text had to be written in Elamite and Akkadian cuneiform, the most common scripts of the ancient Near East. This was against Darius' chauvinist feelings, and he therefore ordered the invention of a special, Aryan alphabet suited for the Persian language.
Darius was also a great statesman and organizer. He thoroughly revised the Persian system of administration and also the legal code. His revisions of the legal code revolved around laws of evidence, slave sales, deposits, bribery, and assault. The time of conquests had come to an end; the wars which Darius undertook, like those of Augustus, only served the purpose of gaining strong natural frontiers for the empire and keeping down the barbarous tribes on its borders. Thus Darius subjugated the wild nations of the Pontic and Armenian mountains, and extended the Persian dominion to the Caucasus; for the same reasons he fought against the Saka and other Iranian steppe tribes, as well as the mysterious Turanians from beyond the Oxus. In the process of these campaigns he made military reforms such as introducing conscription, pay for soldiers, military training and he also made changes in the army and navy. But by the organization which he gave to the empire he became the true successor of the great Cyrus. His organization of the provinces and the fixing of the tributes is described by Herodotus (iii. 90 if.), evidently from good official sources. He divided the Persian Empire into twenty provinces, each under the supervision of a governor or satrap. The satrap position was usually hereditary and largely autonomous, allowing each province its own distinct laws, traditions, and elite class. Every region, however, was responsible for paying a gold or silver tribute to the emperor; many areas, such as Babylonia, underwent severe economic decline resulting from these quotas. Each satrapy also had an independent financial controller, an independent military coordinator as well as the satrap, who controlled administration and the law. All three probably reported directly to the king. This more evenly distributed power within the satrapy and lowered the chance of revolt. Darius also increased the bureaucracy of the empire, with many scribes employed to provide records of the administration.
Another innovation that dates back to the age of Darius is the construction of Royal roads. The roads themselves were centuries old and connected the main urban centers of the ancient Near East. But Darius introduced a system of caravanserais where a traveler could change horses and find a place to sleep. More important, those traveling on behalf of the Persian government, like the inspectors known as the king's eyes, received passports that entitled them to food rations all along the road. From the Persepolis fortification tablets, we learn that Darius' uncle Pharnaces was in charge of the department that gave out these passports.
Another reform by Darius was the rewriting of the Calendar. At the time Babylonian astronomers (the Chaldaeans) had invented a better system for the intercalation of months. Darius introduced it everywhere in the entire empire. Our first evidence for this calendar dates to 503 BCE, but an earlier introduction can not be excluded. This Babylonian calendar is still used by the Jews.

Building Projects
Many building projects were initiated during the reign of Darius, with the largest being the building of the new capital of Persepolis ( and Susa). The city would have walls sixty feet high and thirty-three feet thick and would be an enormous engineering undertaking. Darius' tomb was cut into a rock face not far from the city. He dug a canal from the Nile to Suez, and, as the fragments of a hieroglyphic inscription found there show, his ships sailed from the Nile through the Red Sea by Saba to Persia.
Darius also commissioned the extensive road network that was built all over the country and beyond, known as the Royal Road.
Darius is also remembered for his Behistun Inscription which was chiselled into the rock face near the town of Behistun. It showed Darius' successful ascension to the throne and described Darius legitimacy to be king.

Economy, diplomacy and trade
Darius is often renowned above all as being a great financier. He fixed the coinage and introduced the golden Daric. He tried to develop the commerce of the empire, and sent an expedition down the Kabul and the Indus, led by the Carian captain Scylax of Caryanda, who explored the Indian Ocean from the mouth of the Indus to Suez. During his reign, the population increased and industries flourished in towns. Persia under Darius probably had connections with Carthage (cf. the Karka of the Naghshe Rustam inscription) of Sicily and Italy. At the same time he attempted to gain the good-will of the subject nations, and for this purpose promoted the aims of their priests. He allowed the Jews to build the Temple of Jerusalem. In Egypt his name appears on the temples which he built in Memphis, Edfu and the Great Oasis. He called the high-priest of Sais, Tzahor, to Susa (as we learn from his inscription in the Vatican Museum), and gave him full powers to reorganize the "house of life," the great medical school of the temple of Sais. In the Egyptian traditions he is considered as one of the great benefactors and lawgivers of the country. In similar relations he stood to the Greek sanctuaries (cf. his rescript to "his slave" Godatas, the inspector of a royal park near Magnesia on the Maeander, in which he grants freedom of taxes and forced labor to the sacred territory of Apollo); all the Greek oracles in Asia Minor and Europe therefore stood on the side of Persia in the Persian Wars and admonished the Greeks against attempting resistance.
Weights and measures were standardised (as in a "royal cubit" or a "king’s measure") but often they still operated side by side with their Egyptian or Babylonian counterparts. This would have been a boon for merchants and traders as trade would now have been far simpler. The upgraded communication and administration networks also helped to turn the Empire ruled by the Achaemenid dynasty into a seemingly commercial entity based on generating wealth.
Darius also continued the process of religious tolerance to his subjects, which had been important parts of the reigns of Cyrus and Cambyses ( this was revolutionary since at the time it was accepted to call deviators barbaric and kill them). Darius himself was completely monotheistic - in royal inscriptions Ahuramazda is the only god mentioned by name. But, time and again he is mentioned worshipping, funding or giving 'lip-service' to various pantheons of gods. This was important as the majority of the empire's inhabitants were polytheists. Also, like many other Persian Kings, he maintained a no-slave policy; for example, all workers at the Persepolis site and other sites made for him were paid, which was revolutionary at the time. His human rights policies were also common to his ancestors and future Persian kings, continuing the legacy of the first human rights document ever made.

European and North African campaigns
About 512 BC Darius undertook a war against the Scythians. A great army crossed the Bosporus, subjugated eastern Thrace, Macedonia submitted voluntarily, and crossed the Danube. The purpose of this war can only have been to attack the nomadic tribes in the rear and thus to secure peace on the northern frontier of the empire. Yet the whole plan was based upon an incorrect geographical assumption; a common one in that era, and repeated by Alexander the Great and his Macedonians, who believed that on the Hindu Kush (which they called the Caucasus Indicus) and on the shores of the Jaxartes (which they called Tanais, i.e., the River Don) they were quite near to the Black Sea. Of course the expedition undertaken on these grounds could only prove a failure; having advanced for some weeks into the Russian steppes, Darius was forced to return. The details given by Herodotus (according to him, Darius had reached the Volga) are quite fantastic; and the account which Darius himself had given on a tablet, which was added to his great inscription in Behistun, is destroyed with the exception of a few words.
Although European Greece was intimately connected with the coasts of Asia Minor, and the opposing parties in the Greek towns were continually soliciting his intervention, Darius did not meddle with their affairs. The Persian wars were begun by the Greeks themselves. The support which Athens and Eretria gave to the rebellious Ionians and Carians made their punishment inevitable as soon as the rebellion had been put down. But the first expedition, that of Mardonius, failed on the cliffs of Mount Athos (492 BC), and the army which was led into Attica by Datis in 490 BC was beaten at the Battle of Marathon. Before Darius had finished his preparations for a third expedition an insurrection broke out in Egypt (486 BC).

Death
The last letter from Babylon that is dated to the reign of Darius was written on 17 November 486, and the first one from the reign of his son and successor Xerxes on 1 December. In the two weeks between these dates, Darius died, after thirty days of illness, about sixty-four years old. He had been a great king, as even his Athenian enemies admitted. Thirteen years after his death, the tragic poet Aeschylus evoked the days of Darius as the golden age of Persia.
The body of King of Kings was placed in a coffin and transported to Naqsi Rustam, where his tomb had been prepared a long time before his death. Like the Behistun inscription, the tomb text at the tomb of Naqš-i Rustam is a rather stereotypical autobiography and it is interesting to see how Darius wanted to be remembered. In the upper part, he summarizes his reign and recalls the confused early days and his conquests:

Ahuramazda, when he saw this earth in commotion, thereafter bestowed it upon me, made me king; I am king. By the favor of Ahuramazda I put it down in its place; what I said to them [my subjects], that they did, as was my desire. If now you shall think that "How many are the countries which King Darius held?" look at the sculptures of those who bear the throne, then shall you know, then shall it become known to you: the spear of a Persian man has gone forth far; then shall it become known to you: a Persian man has delivered battle far indeed from Persia.

Watch this beautiful documentary by Farzin Rezaian about Dariush the Great and his Palaces!

Persian Royal Road

2006-05-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Persian Royal Road was an ancient highway built by the Persian king Darius I in the 5th Century BCE. Darius built the road to facilitate rapid communication throughout his very large empire from Susa to Sardis. These couriers could travel 1,677 miles (2,699 km) in seven days. Most of our knowdelge about the Road comes from the Greek historian Herodotus who wrote, "There is nothing in the world that travels faster than these Persian couriers." Herodotus' praise for these messengers — "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness of night prevents them from accomplishing the task proposed to them with the very utmost speed" — is the inspiration for the unofficial motto of postal carriers.
Since the time of Herodotus the course of the road has been reconstructed by archeological research, and other historical records. The Road began in the west in Sardis (about 60 miles east of Izmir in present-day Turkey), traveled east through what is now the middle northern section of Turkey to the old Assyrian capital Nineveh (present-day Mosul, Iraq), then traveled south to Babylon (present-day Baghdad, Iraq). From near Babylon, it is believed to have split into two routes, one traveling northwest then west through Ecbatana and on along the Silk Road, the other continuing east through the future Persian capital Susa (in present-day Iran) and then southeast to Persepolis.
Herodotus describes the road between Sardes and Susa as follow (Histories 5.52-53):

Everywhere there are royal stations with excellent resting places, and the whole road runs through country which is inhabited and safe.
Through Lydia and Phrygia there extend twenty stages, amounting to 520 kilometers.
After Phrygia succeeds the river Halys, at which there is a gate which one must needs pass through in order to cross the river, and a strong guard-post is established there.
Then after crossing over into Cappadocia it is by this way twenty-eight stages, being 572 kilometers, to the borders of Cilicia.
On the borders of the Cilicians you will pass through two sets of gates and guard-posts: then after passing through these it is three stages, amounting to 85 kilometers, to journey through Cilicia.
The boundary of Cilicia and Armenia is a navigable river called Euphrates. In Armenia the number of stages with resting-places is fifteen, and 310 kilometers, and there is a guard-post on the way.
Then from Armenia, when one enters the land of Matiene, there are thirty-four stages, amounting to 753 kilometers. Through this land flow four navigable rivers, which can not be crossed but by ferries, first the Tigris, then a second and third called both by the same name, Zabatus, though they are not the same river and do not flow from the same region (for the first-mentioned of them flows from the Armenian land and the other from that of the Matienians), and the fourth of the rivers is called Gyndes [...].
Passing thence into the Cissian land, there are eleven stages, 234 kilometers, to the river Choaspes, which is also a navigable stream; and upon this is built the city of Susa. The number of these stages amounts in all to one hundred and eleven.
This is the number of stages with resting-places, as one goes up from Sardes to Susa. If the royal road has been rightly measured [...] the number of kilometers from Sardes to the palace of Memnon is 2500. So if one travels 30 kilometers each day, some ninety days are spent on the journey.

Because the road did not follow the shortest nor the easiest route between the important cities of the Persian Empire, archeologists believe the western-most sections of the road may have originally been built by the Assyrian kings, as the road plunges through the heart of their old empire. More eastern segments of the road (in present-day northern Iran) are coincident with the major trade route known as the Silk Road. However, Darius I made the Royal Road as it is recognized today by improving the road bed and connecting the parts together in a unified whole, primarily as a quick mode of communication using the kingdom's pirradaziš, or messengers. Our information about pirradaziš come from a number of tablets at Persopolis. These tablets refer to the system of horse changing on the Royal road that was called pirradaziš (a word related to modern Persian pishtaz, "post"). From these tablets, we know a lot about the continuation of the road from Susa through the formidable Persian gate to Persepolis -23 stages and a distance of 552 kilometers- and about other main roads in the Achaemenid empire. No less important was, for example, the road that connected Babylon and Ecbatana, which crossed the Royal road near Opis, and continued to the holy city of Zoroastrianism, Rhagae. This road continued to the far east and was later known as Silk road.
Herodotus describes the pirradaziš ,for which he uses another name, in very laudatory words:
There is nothing mortal which accomplishes a journey with more speed than these messengers, so skillfully has this been invented by the Persians. For they say that according to the number of days of which the entire journey consists, so many horses and men are set at intervals, each man and horse appointed for a day's journey. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness of night prevents them from accomplishing the task proposed to them with the very utmost speed. The first one rides and delivers the message with which he is charged to the second, and the second to the third; and after that it goes through them handed from one to the other, as in the torch race among the Greeks, which they perform for Hephaestus. This kind of running of their horses the Persians call angareion.

The construction of the road as improved by Darius was of such quality that the road continued to be used into Roman times. A bridge at Diyarbakir, Turkey still stands from this period of the road's use. Unfortunatly, the remains of this road will soon go under water as the construction of the Sivand Dam reaches it's last stages. Archaeologists are currently doing their best to save the site by making new discoveries before the watering of the Dam takes place at the end of May.

Pasargadae: The Tomb of Cyrus The Great

2006-04-01T16:45:00.000-08:00

Pasargadae was a city in ancient Persia, and is today an archaeological site. Its ruins lie 87 km (54 mi) northeast of Persepolis, in present Fars province of Iran, and was the first capital of the Persian Empire. The construction of the capital city by Cyrus the Great, begun in 546 BCE or later, was left unfinished, for Cyrus died in battle in 530 BCE or 529 BCE.
The archaeological site covers 1.6 square kilometres, and includes a structure commonly believed to be the mausoleum of Cyrus, the fortress of Tall-e Takht sitting on top of a nearby hill, and the remains of two royal palaces and gardens. The gardens provide the earliest known example of the Persian chahar bagh, or four-fold garden design.
Although there are many important monuments at Pasargadae, I am going to concentrate on one that is undoubtedly the most important of all; the Tomb of Cyrus the Great.
The tomb has six broad steps leading to the sepulchre, the chamber of which measures 3.17 m long by 2.11 m wide by 2.11 m high, and has a low and narrow entrance. The style and construction of the tomb show strong connections with Anatolian tombs of a similar period. In particular, the tomb at Pasargadae has almost exactly the same dimensions as the tomb of Alyattes II, father of the Lydian King Croesus. (Croesus was spared by Cyrus during the conquest of Lydia, and became a member of Cyrus' court.) Some scholars believe that Cyrus may have "imported" Lydian stonemasons for the construction of the tomb. In general, the art and architecture found at Pasargadae exemplified the Persian synthesis of various traditions, drawing on precedents from Elam, Babylon, Assyria, and ancient Egypt, with the addition of some Anatolian influences.
The most detailed account about the tomb come from one of Alexander's warriors, Aristobulus who was ordered to enter the tomb when Alexander decided to pay a visit to the Tomb of Cyrus the Great. Aristobulus describes the seen as such:

The tomb was in the royal park at Pasargadae; a grove of various sorts of trees had been planted round it; there were streams of running water and a meadow with lush grass. The base of the monument was rectangular, built of stone slabs cut square, and on top was a roofed chamber, also built of stone, with access through a door so narrow that only one man at a time - and a little one at that - could manage, with great difficulty, painfully to squeeze himself through.
Inside the chamber there was a golden coffin containing Cyrus' body, and a great divan with feet of hammered gold, spread with covers of some thick, brightly colored material, with a Babylonian rug on top. Tunics and a candys -or Median jacket- of Babylonian workmanship were laid out on the divan, and Median trousers, various robes dyed in amethyst, purple, and many other colors, necklaces, scimitars, and inlaid earrings of gold and precious stones. A table stood by it, and in the middle of it lay the coffin which held Cyrus' body.
Within the enclosure, by the way which led up to the tomb, a small building had been constructed for the Magi who guarded it, a duty which had been handed down from father to son ever since the time of Cyrus' son, Cambyses. They had a grant from the King of a sheep a day, with an allowance of meal and wine, and one horse a month to sacrifice to Cyrus. There was an inscription on the tomb in Persian, signifying:

"O man, I am Cyrus son of Cambyses, who founded the empire of Persia and ruled over Asia. Do not grudge me my monument."

Account has it that Alexander had always intended to visit the Tomb of Cyrus the Great. But by the time he got the chance to make this dream come true he found that all it contained except the divan and the coffin had been removed. Even the royal remains had not escaped desecration, for the thieves had taken the lid from the coffin and thrown out the body; from the coffin itself they had chipped or broken various bits in an attempt to reduce its weight sufficiently to enable them to get it away. However, they were unsuccessful and went off without it.
Aristobulus tells us that he himself received orders from Alexander to put the monument into a state of thorough repair: he was to restore to tie coffin what was still preserved of the body and replace the lid; to put right all damage to the coffin itself, fit the divan with new strapping, and to replace with exact replicas of the originals every single object with which it had previously been adorned; and, finally, to do away with the door into the chamber by building it in with stone, covered by a coat of plaster, on which was to be set the royal seal. Alexander also had the Magians who were guarding the monument at the time arrested and punished.
During the Islamic conquest of Iran, the Arab armies came upon the tomb and planned to destroy it, considering it to be in direct violation of the tenets of Islam. The caretakers of the grave managed to convince the Arab command that the tomb was not built to honor Cyrus, but instead housed the mother of King Solomon, thus sparing it from destruction. As a result, the inscription in the tomb was replaced by a verse of the Qur'an, and the tomb became known as "Qabr-e Madar-e Sulaiman," or the tomb of the mother of Solomon. It is still widely known by that name today.
I wrote this post since lately there has been many talks about the Seyvand Dam and how its construction may possibly destroy this 2,500- year- old historical ruin. The Seyvand Dam is schedual to open at the end of May 2006 and currently many archaeologists are working at the area that will soon be covered under water.
Also see the biography of Cyrus the Great and some pictures that I took while visiting the area.

Watch this beautiful documentary by Farzin Rezaian about Cyrus the Great and the Empire he built.

King Xerxes I ( khashayar shah)

2006-03-30T02:29:00.000-08:00

Xerxes I (modern Persian spelling خشایارشاه), was a Persian Empire (reigned 485 - 465 BC) of the Achaemenid dynasty. "Xerxes" is the Greek transliteration of the Persian throne name Khshayarsha or Khsha-yar-shah, meaning "ruler of heroes". In the Book of Ezra and in Book of Esther, the Persian king Axašweroš (אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ) probably corresponds to Xerxes I.Xerxes became king of Persia at the death of his father Darius the Great in 485, at a time when his father was preparing a new expedition against Greece and had to face an uprising in Egypt (Herodotus' Histories, VII, 1-4). According to Herodotus, the transition was peaceful this time. Because he was about to leave for Egypt, Darius, following the law of his country had been requested to name his successor and to choose between the elder of his sons, born from a first wife before he was in power, and the first of his sons born after he became king, from a second wife, Atossa, Cyrus' daughter, who had earlier been successively wed to her brothers Cambyses and Smerdis, and which he had married soon after reaching power in order to confirm his legitimacy. Atossa was said to have much power on Darius and he chosed her son Xerxes for successor.

Our knowledge about Xerxes, his life and his wars mostly comes from the Greek historian Herodotus and hence, is not to be trusted. Sadly the image Herodotus created of Xerxes as well as many other Persian rulers is the one that most frequently lingers in the mind of the western people. But keep in mind that Herodotus was writing about a king ( Xerxes) who invaded his country. No doubt he wasn’t going to write anything favourable on his behalf.

After quelling the revolt of Egypt, and appointing his brother Achaemenes as governor or satrap of Egypt, Xerxes finally decided to pursue the project of his father to punish the Athenians for their interference in the Ionian rebellion and their victory of Marathon. In most of the known accounts it is frequently noted that the Persians wanted to “punish” the Athenians for helping the Ionian revolt and destroying one Sardis, the former capital of the kingdom of Lydia, which was then the capital of the most important Persian satrapy in Asia Minor. However, they never speak of why the Athenians cooperation with the Ionians was such a big deal to the Persians. In reality the Persians felt insulted and betrayed by the Athenians since the tyrant of Athens, Hippias, had a treaty with the Persians. Athenians were always threatened by the ever growing powers of the Spartans. To be able to survive Hippias asked the Persians to protect the Athenians against any threat by the Spartans and the Athenians will always be loyal to the Persians. Hence, when Hippias decided to send a force of 200 triremes with a body of embarked infantry to help the Ionian revolt the Persians became furious with rage and decided to take revenge!

From 483 Xerxes prepared his expedition with great care: the Xerxes channel was dug; provisions were stored in the stations on the road through Thrace; two bridges were thrown across the Hellespont. Xerxes concluded an alliance with Carthage, and thus deprived Greece of the support of the powerful monarchs of Syracuse and Agrigentum. Many smaller Greek states, moreover, took the side of the Persians, especially Thessaly, Thebes and Argos. Herodotus claims that a large fleet and a numerous army, about 2,000,000, were gathered to bestow punishment on the unfaithful Athenians. But in reality the true number was probably far closer to 250,000 at most. Logistically, an army of two million would be almost impossible to muster, even with the vast wealth under Xerxes control.

In the spring of 480 Xerxes set out from Sardis. At first Xerxes was victorious everywhere he went. The Greek fleet was beaten at Artemisium, Thermopylae stormed, Athens conquered, the Athenians with Sparta driven back to their last line of defence at the Isthmus of Corinth and in the Saronic Gulf. But Xerxes was induced by the astute message of Themistocles (against the advice of Artemisia of Halicarnassus) to attack the Greek fleet under unfavourable conditions, instead of sending a part of his ships to the Peloponnesus and awaiting the dissolution of the Greek armament. The Battle of Salamis (September 28, 480) was won by the Athenians, but the war as whole was Xerxes victory. From this point on opinions diverge about what happened. Some believe that having lost his communication by sea with Asia, Xerxes was forced to retire to Sardis and other believe that Babylonian’s revolt was the real reason for his return to Sardis so that from there he could have his eyes on Babylon. In any other event the army which he left in Greece under Mardonius was in 479 beaten at Plataea. The defeat of the Persians at Mycale roused the Greek cities of Asia.

The Battle at Athens which Xerxes commanded, is usually mistaken as a battle between Greeks and Persians, rather the truth is that Xerxes went to punish the Athenians for the looting and destruction of Greek cities in Anatolia, which was under Persian control. He had the help of other Greek cities and Macedonia in his campaign. Xerxes took Athens, and after a short period of time left, as it was not in his interest to take the city, but to punish the officials for previous war against other Greek cities in Persian territory. The important thing to remember in history is that the Persians never fought with Greece, but with individual, and often allied Greek states (cities) as Greece was never a united country but divided in bickering provinces (cities) which on occasions united to fight the Persians. The Persians themselves had Greek cities as allies, for instance the ones in the Anatolian region which the Athenians warred with and led to the subsequent punishment by Xerxes.

Old Age:
Of the later years of Xerxes little is known. He sent out Satapes to attempt the circumnavigation of Africa, but the victory of the Greeks threw the empire into a state of slow apathy, from which it could not rise again. He left inscriptions at Persepolis, where he added a new palace to that of Darius, at Van in Armenia, and on Mount Elvend near Ecbatana. In these texts he merely copies the words of his father. In 465 he was murdered by his vizier Artabanus who raised Artaxerxes I to the throne.

Sizdah Bedar ( 13 Bedar)

2006-03-29T00:12:00.000-08:00

The tradition of leaving the house on the thirteenth (Sizdah) day of Farvardin, the last day of the Norooz period, and spending that day outside with joy, laughter and pleasure has been in practice since ancient times in Iran. This is the last phase of the celebrations of the New Year ( Norouz). This joyous celebration has its roots in the Zoroastrian belief that laughter and joy symbolize the throwing away of bad thoughts. According to Zoroastrianism, bad thoughts are the gift of Ahreeman (the devil) and his offspring and the festival of the New Year will cleanse all bad thoughts. The celebrations defeat the enemies and plant shoots of comradeship and peace. The custom of kissing each other on the cheeks also comes from a belief that it cleanses the individual.

On the last day of the New Year celebrations, the 13th of the first month Farvardin, it is the custom of Iranians to pass as many hours as possible outdoors. All people leave their homes to go to the parks or local plains for a very festive picnic. It is a must to spend this day in nature and the occasion is called Sizdah-Bedar. It is generally believed that if people stay home something bad can happen.

This day was not celebrated in this manner before Islam and might be several rituals in one. It is possible that this day was devoted to the deity Tishtrya (Tir), protector of rain. In the Zoroastrian calendar each day is named after a deity and this particular day in the month of Farvardin is named after Tishtrya. In the past there were outdoor festivities to pray to this Eyzad in hope of rain that was essential for agriculture. The act of throwing away the Sabzeh from Haft Seen into rivers and running waters on this day also indicates veneration for a water deity. The act symbolically represents an offering made to such a deity.

However, Anahita was the goddess protector of running waters and not Tishtrya. It appears that at least part of the celebration is to pay respect to some water deity. Tishtrya/rain or Anahita/water are likely mixed together to preserve veneration for water deities in general. In ancient mythology the deity Vata the rain-bringer was associated with Harahvati Aredvi Sura, which means possessing waters (Anahita is a later assimilation of this deity). She personified a mythical river and all rivers flow out of this one. Clouds also took up rain from the same mythical river every year. Tishtrya goes to the river once per year in the shape of a white stallion to fight the Demon of Dearth appearing in the shape of a black stallion. After Tishtrya’s victory he rushes into the sea and water is hurried all over, and Vata snatches some for the clouds. The rest of the water is mixed with seeds of plants, which sprout as the rain falls. Ancient Iranian rituals quite often enacted their mythologies, waters were respected and many rites existed with respect to waters. It is very likely that several of these were combined to preserve some aspect of the ancient celebrations venerating waters. Till the 19th century there was horse racing on this day, which very likely represented the fight between the two stallions.

Another account of Zorastrian folk stories mentiones that twelve devilish spirits sent by Ahreeman are eating away at the 12 pillars of the world all year around, and at the end of the year when the pillars are on the verge of collapse, the evil spirits come to earth to celebrate. While they are dancing with joy, during the first 12 days of Norooz, the pillars are restored to their original state due to the people's joy, celebrations and goodwill. The bad spirits will again start eating away at the pillars on the thirteenth day of the year hoping to topple the world once again. The first twelve days of the year were therefore considered particularly significant and had the important duty of safekeeping the world and the lives of people on earth. The thirteenth day of the year was considered the beginning of the normal period of the year.

In Iranian stories it is stated that the world’s length of life is 12 thousand years and the number 12 is taken from the 12 months of the year. On expiry of the 12000 years, the world’s lifespan is over and the world’s population has the prime duty of fighting against Ahreeman. On the expiry of 12000 years, according to Zoroastrian folklore, the people will completely defeat the Ahreeman and with the appearance of Shoosaianet, the last face of Ahreeman will be destroyed and the war of Ahooramazda against Ahreeman will result in Ahooramazda's absolute victory. From then onward there will not exist a materialistic earth and the people will return to their permanent place in the heavenly body 'Minoo' enjoying universal happiness, peace and tranquility.

Iranians today regard this day as a bad omen and believe that by going into the fields and parks they avoid the misfortunes that could befall them. This notion is contrary to the Zoroastrian doctrine where all days were regarded as sacred and were named after venerated deities. According to Muslim’s popular belief, the 13th day of the month is a day with unfortunate consequences (nahs in Islamic terminology); therefore Iranians could have combined the two. By going outdoors into the fields, the ancient festivities were observed while the Islamic ideas are also incorporated into the occasion. Muslims today still have a prayer for rain called ‘namaz e baran’, which is used at times of prolonged drought.

All kinds of food and delicacies are prepared with tea, local drinks, fruits, bread, cheese and fresh herbs, noodle soup called ‘ash-e reshteh’ and herbed rice with lamb (baqali polo and bareh) are favorites. The wealthy Iranians will spend the day in their country homes and estates, while the entire day will be spent in their gardens. The occasion is a communal one and all close relatives and friends will participate. Wheat or barley shoots (sabzeh) that are grown especially for New Year and are kept throughout the festivities are discarded in nature mainly in running waters and small rivers at the end of the day. Another tradition on the 13th, is the knotting of blades of grass by unmarried girls in the hope of finding a husband. The knotting of the grass represents the bondage of a man and a woman. The picnic ends with the setting of the sun. The occasion has no religious significance and is celebrated by all.

Also see Norooz festival, Mehregan Festival and the Tirgan Celebration.

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

2006-03-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

One of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World was the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. It was a massive tomb, built in the city of Halicarnassus, in Asia Minor by a Persian Satrap named Mausolus. During his reign he succeeded to conquer vast territories; at the height of his powers, Mausolus and his queen, Artemisia, controlled most of southwest Asia Minor.
Most of the accounts about Mausolus and his queen has come from ancient Greek writers, such as Pilny, hence open to speculations. Some especially insist that Mausolus did nothing remarkable during his life and taxed the people heavily in order to build himself beautiful palaces. Those who believe he was a knowledgeable, powerful leader tend to maintain that his province was so far from the Persian capital that it was practically autonomous as a result condemn any credit associated with the achievement of the Persians, in another word they believe that he was successful because he was deeply influence by the Greeks. The truth is that he was a man who embraced many cultures, ( he was at egypt and the model of his tomb was partly influenced by the Pyramids of Egypt), and that is precisely why he succeded in building one of the most extra ordinary monuments in the world.
When the Persians expanded their ancient kingdom to include Mesopotamia, Northern India, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor, the king could not control his vast empire without the help of local governors or rulers—the satraps. Mausolus was such a satrap; from 377 to 353 BC, king Mausollos of Caria with his queen Artemisia reigned the Asia Minor.
Mausolus decided to build a new capital, a city as hard to capture as it was magnificent to look at. He chose the town Halicarnassus. If Mausolus' ships blocked a small channel, they could keep all enemy warships out.
Mausolus started making Halicarnassus a fit capital for a warrior prince. His workmen deepened the city's harbour and used the dredged up sand to make protecting arms in front of the channel. On land, they laid out paved squares, streets, and houses for ordinary citizens, and on one side of the harbour they built a massive fortress-palace for Mausolus, positioned so that there were clear views out to sea and inland to the hills--the places that enemies might attack. In the centre of the city Mausolus planned to spot a resting place for his body after he was dead. It would be a tomb that would forever show how glamorous he and his queen were.
Then in 353 B.C. Mausolus died, leaving his queen and sister Artemisia broken-hearted. (It was the custom in Caria for rulers to marry their own sisters. One reason for these marriages might have been that it kept the power and wealth in the family.)
Openions divert with respect to time of the construction of Mausolus’ tomb. Some believe that he started building the tomb when he was alive and his wife continued on with he project after his death. Other’s believe that Artemisia decided to build the most splendid tomb in the known world as a tribute to Mausolus and hence the construction of the tomb started after his death. Soon after the death of Mausolus, Artemisia found herself in a crisis. Rhodes, an island in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Asia Minor, had been conquered by Mausolus. When the Rhodians heard of his death they rebelled and sent a fleet of ships to capture the city of Halicarnassus. Knowing that the Rhodian fleet was on the way, Artemisa hid her own ships at a secret location at the east end of the city's harbour. After troops from the Rhodian fleet disembarked to attack, Artemisia's fleet made a surprise raid, captured the Rhodian fleet, and towed it out to sea. Artemisa put her own soldiers on the invading ships and sailed them back to Rhodes. Fooled into thinking that the returning ships were their own victorious navy, the Rhodians failed to put up a defence and the city was easily captured quelling the rebellion.
Artemisa lived for only two years after the death of her husband. The urns with their ashes were placed in the yet unfinished tomb. As a form of ritual sacrifice the bodies of a large number of dead animals were placed on the stairs leading to the tomb, then the stairs were filled with stone and rubble, sealing off the access. According to the historian Pliny, the craftsmen decided to stay and finish the work after their patron died "considering that it was at once a memorial of their own fame and of the sculptor's art."
The beauty of the Mausoleum is not only in the structure itself, but in the decorations and statues that adorned the outside at different levels on the podium and the roof. These were tens of life-size as well as under and over life-size free-standing statues of people, lions, horses, and other animals.
Vitruvius records that the architect responsible for the Mausoleum was Pytheos, the designer of the Athena temple at Priene and that the reliefs which the memorial was embellished were the works of the greatest sculptors of the time such as: Bryaxis, Leochares, Scopas, and Timotheus, each was responsible for one side of the mausoleum. The Mausoleum also holds a special place in history as it was not dedicated to the gods of Ancient Greece.The last written document of a visitor is the one of Bishop Eustathius, he observes in his commentary on Homer, in the twelfth century, that the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus is a marvel.
It was untouched when the city fell to Alexander the Great in 334 B.C. and still undamaged after attacks by pirates in 62 and 58 B.C. It stood above the city ruins for some 17 centuries. Then a series of earthquakes shattered the columns and sent the stone chariot crashing to the ground ( This was the first time that a heavy stone structure had been placed on top of the roof of a monument and hence the practice of this form of architecture was born at this point). By 1404 A.D. only the very base of the Mausoleum was still recognizable. Crusaders, who had occupied the city from the thirteen century onward, recycled the broken stone into their own buildings. In 1522 rumours of a Turkish invasion caused Crusaders to strengthen the castle at Halicarnassus (which was by then known as Bodrum) and much of the remaining portions of the tomb was broken up and used within the castle walls. Indeed sections of polished marble from the tomb can still be seen there today. Some of the sculptures survived and are today on display at the British Museum in London.

Also see The Hanging Gardens of Babylon another one of the 7 wonders of the world!

General Mardonius

2006-03-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

Mardonius (d. 479 BC) was a Persian commander during the Persian Wars with Greece in the 5th century BC. He was the son of Gobryas, a Persian nobleman who had assisted the Achaemenid prince Darius when he claimed the throne. Darius, Gobryas and five others had killed the Magian who had usurped the throne, Gaumâta, on September 29, 522 BCE. As usual, the alliance between the new king and his friend was cemented by diplomatic marriages: Darius married Gobryas' daughter, and Gobryas married Darius' sister. That Mardonius was the last-mentioned couple's firstborn son is very likely, because he has the same name as Gobryas' father (which is known from the Behistun inscription).
Stories about Mardonius usually divert at this point. There are two acounts usually used as the source of information for his life. One is the not so accurate Herodotus who sees him as the army general of his enemy and the other are the information writen here and there on tablets and walls which attempt to demonstrate the Persian's account of his life.
From a cuneiform tablet known as Persepolis Fortification tablet 684, we know that Mardonius was married to a woman named Ardušnamuya. This text was written in March 495, which offers a terminus ante quem for the wedding ceremony. This contradicts the words of the Greek researcher Herodotus, who states that Mardonius was still 'being a young man and recently married to Artozostre, a daughter of king Darius' in 492 (Histories 6.43). On the other hand, there is no reason to doubt Herodotus' words that Artozostre/Ardušnamuya was the daughter of Darius and his beloved wife Artystone.
As special representative of king Darius the Great, Mardonius was sent to Lydia (western Turkey) after the revolt of the Ionian Greeks (499-494). He had to reorganize the region, and did so in a very moderate way.

Mardonius sailed along the coast of Asia and came to Ionia. I shall now relate a thing that will be a great marvel to the Greeks: Mardonius deposed all the sole rulers of the Ionians and established democracies in the cities.
[Herodotus, Histories 6.43]

His fleet and army then passed across the Hellespont. Here, Herodotus writes that the fleet was destroyed in a storm off of Mount Athos; and the Persians lost 300 ships and 20 000 men. Mardonius himself was commanding the army at the time, which was fighting a battle in Thrace. Mardonius was wounded, but was victorious. The navy and the army continued to Macedonia, which was added to Darius' kingdom as well. After his enormous victories and partly as a result of the loss of his fleet in the strom he retreated back into Asia Minor. Mardonius had been very successful. There are indications that his army reached the Danube, because an Old Persian inscription was discovered near Kölmer in Rumania. (The possibility that the inscription was brought to Rumania from its original site, however, can not be ruled out.) The conquest of Macedonia was important, as it was a fine base for further conquests in Europe and posessed gold mines. Darius was fully entitled to claim in his inscription at Naqš-i Rustam that he had conquered the Yaunâ takabarâ, the 'Greeks with sun hats', a reference to the Macedonian headwear.
In 490, the Persians conquered the islands in the Aegean Sea, but Mardonius, who had already lost a fleet, was not in charge of this expedition. The 600 ships were commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. Herodotus again presents the expedition as a punitive action against Eretria and Athens, who had supported the Ionian revolt. But he is almost certainly wrong, because the army was too small to attack Athens. In reality, the aims of the expedition of Datis and Artaphernes were to add the Aegean island Naxos to the empire, and, in doing so, to create a buffer zone between Ionia and the Greek mainland. They also had to conquer Euboea (with its capital Eretria) and bring back the former ruler of Athens, the pro-Persian tyrant Hippias. The expedition succeeded brilliantly. Except for their last objective, everything went according to plan.
Having conquered Macedonia and the Aegean islands, Darius could attack the Greek mainland whenever he desired. This would be a difficult expedition because the Greek soldiers were better equipped than the Persians and their subjects. Therefore, the Persians had to muster a very large army, but king Darius the Great died shortly before it was to set out (November 486). He was succeeded by his son Xerxes, Mardonius' cousin and brother-in-law.
Mardonius came back into favour under Xerxes I. Xerxes was at first not interested in renewing the war with Greece, but Mardonius repeatedly tried to convince him that he must avenge Darius' defeat, in opposition to another advisor, Artabanus, who urged more caution in the matter. Herodotus, who portrays Mardonius as somewhat of an evil advisor (as opposed to a number of other good advisors whose arguments are never followed), says that Mardonius simply wanted to become the governor of Greece.
Right before the expedition to Greece however, a rebellion in Egypt started, postponing the newly formed expedition plans. Immediately after this revolt, Xerxes, Mardonius, Megabyzus and four other commanders could go to the west, where a large army was gathering in Sardis.
The first year of the expedition was a big success. The Persians were not in a hurry, because they had an enormous army (about 600,000 men) and had to wait for the harvest in Thrace and Macedonia. In July and August, they stayed at Therma (Thessaloniki), and then moved south to Greece. Thessaly was conquered without much troubles, and on 17, 18 and 19 September (or one day later) a double battle took place. The Persian navy was able to drive the Greek navy away from its positions at Artemisium, and the army destroyed the Greek garrison at Thermopylae.
Boeotia was added to the Achaemenid empire, and on September 27, Athens was captured; next day, the acropolis fell and the Persian navy ocuupied the Athenian harbor. Persian cavalry destroyed the sanctuary of Poseidon near Corinth and fired burning arrows at one of the Corinthian harbors.
Xerxes' victory was almost complete. The Greek navy had fled to Salamis, an island opposite the harbor of Athens, separated from the mainland by a narrow strait. Unfortunately, when a part of the Persian navy tried to attack the Greek positions on Salamis, they suffered heavy losses. This was a minor setback. At this point, Herodotus writes that after the loss at Salamis, Mardonius attempted to convince Xerxes to stay and fight yet another battle. This time he could not persuade Xerxes, but when Xerxes left he did become governor of the parts of Greece that had been conquered. In the Persian accounts, Xerxes motive for retreating from the war was unsettelments at Babylonia. There were disturbing rumors, and Xerxes decided that it was better that he went back to Sardes, where he could keep an eye on both Greece and Babylonia. It was a wise decision. In the summer of 479, the Babylonians revolted again (this time, their leader was Šamaš-eriba) and Xerxes had to suppress their rebellion.
Meanwhile, Mardonius was left in charge of the Persian army in Greece. His army was comparatively small, probably 150,000 men. After all, the main army was needed at the main battle ground, Babylonia. To feed his men, he had to retire to Thessaly, from where he opened negotiations with Athens. He offered the town a beautiful position in the Achaemenid empire if only they recognized the overlordship of king Xerxes. It was a brilliant move, because if the Athenians accepted this offer, there was no navy to protect southern Greece anymore. The Athenians had much to gain from the deal, because they would become the most important city state in Greece. However, they stubbornly refused.
In the spring, Mardonius marched to the south again, reoccupying Boeotia and moving to Athens. He hoped that the Athenians would be more forthcoming, but he was wrong. Having received a new refusal to surrender, Mardonius plundered Athens. (Archaeologists digging in Persepolis have discovered a statue of Penelope that was probably taken away from Athens.)
It seemed that Mardonius was master of the situation. The Spartans, who had the best infantry of Greece, refused to assist the Athenians. It was only after an ultimatum by the Athenians that if they did not come to their help, they would be forced to surrender and give their navy to Mardonius, that Sparta acted. It sent an army to the north and invited all Greeks to join in the struggle for the liberation of Greece.
The Greeks gathered in the south of Boeotia, on the foothills of the Kithaeron mountain range. Their counted some 100,000 soldiers; almost every Greek able to carry weapons had come Boeotia. For example, the Athenians had manned only a few galleys; all rowers and marines were now on Mount Kithaeron. This Greek army was unable to move into the plain, because they could not afford to go far beyond the sources at the foothills. After all, August can be very hot in Greece. Since no side dared to advance, a war of nerves started.
Herodotus, who is our main source for the battle of Plataea, describes several engagements that take place on several days. A Persian cavalry squadron tried to provoke the Greek contingent from Megara, but was defeated. After this success, the Greeks decided to leave the mountains and to descend into the plain between the river Asopus and a small town called Plataea, where a large source in the middle of the plain (near the hill in the middle of the map) would refresh them. All this time, the two armies refrained from real attacks, because they received the same omens: they would only be victorious when the other side attacked first (and moved away from its water supply).
Mardonius however, was in a hurry. His supplies were running out, he could see the Greek army growing every day and one of his advisors has already suggested to return to Thessaly and use gold and silver to bribe the Greek leaders. Mardonius would have none of it: he still hoped to settle the matter with honorable, military means.
To stop the growth of the other army, he unexpectedly and successfully attacked a large supply train in the Kithaeron. Short cavalry charges, meant to provoke his enemies into battle, were executed, but the Greeks wisely resisted the temptation.
Herodotus tells that one night, a Persian ally, the Macedonian king Alexander, came to visit the Athenians, telling them that the Persians would attack at dawn. Immediately, the Athenian officers informed the supreme commander of the Greeks, the Spartan prince Pausanias. He understood that if the Persians attacked, it would be saver to have the well trained Spartans on the defensive left wing to counter the Persian main force, and to post the experienced Athenians -already victorious at Marathon- on the offensive right wing. At dawn, the two contingents changed positions. After reports of a Persian counter-manoeuvre, the two Greek contingents return to their original positions.
He seems to have misunderstood the incident. It is implausible that Alexander of Macedonia could leave the Persian camp without being seen. It is likelier that Mardonius sent the Macedonian king on his mission. It was a brilliant trick to create panic among the Greeks, who started all kinds of exhausting movements.
In this way, the day passed without fighting, and Mardonius became even more anxious to attack. During the night, his mounted archers attacked the source between Plataea and the Asopus, hoping to force the Greek troops to go back to the south, to the sources on the slopes of the Kithaeron mountains. They stood their ground during the day -being continually harassed by the Persian archers- but after sunset, they retreated as Mardonius had planned.
At dawn, Mardonius learned that his opponents had fled, and thinking he had already won the battle, ordered the pursuit of the Greeks. He first attacked the Spartans, who were forced back. Pausanias even had to sent a messenger to ask the Athenians for help, but they were unable to offer assistance, because they were intercepted by Mardonius' Greek allies. One of the Persian contingents even broke through the Greek battle array and reached the foothills of the Kithaeron.
At this moment, while he was pursuing the retiring Spartans, Mardonius was killed. It is not known how this happened, but we can be sure that Mardonius, who knew that his army had been victorious, died as a happy man.
This incident changed the battle, because the Persians lost courage, which gave the Spartans a brief pause. They were able to regroup and attack the Persian contingent in front of them. The struggle did not last long: the demoralized Persians took their heels. The Persian camp was captured by the Athenians, and that meant the end of the war. One of Mardonius subordinates, Artabazus, was able to lead a large Persian contingent back to Asia, for which he was rewarded by Xerxes, who offered him the satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia, i.e., the northwest of what is now Turkey.
Herodotus has a very strange story to tell about an event that took place after the battle.

The body of Mardonius however had disappeared on the day after the battle [...] I have heard the names of many men of various cities who are said to have buried Mardonius, and I know that many received gifts from Artontes, the son of Mardonius, for having done this.

To the Greek audience of Herodotus, this made perfect sense, but a Persian would be shocked to hear this. It was not their custom to bury the dead. Zoroastrianists preferred to have their bodies exposed to the vultures.

The Persian Immortal Army

2006-02-08T00:27:00.000-08:00

The Persian Immortals were a Persian elite Royal Guard active during the Achaemenid Period. Much of our information about the Immortals is from the depictions of the Greek "historian" Herodotus during the Persian Wars. He first mentions the Immortal army in his description of the battle of Thermoplyae (480 BCE), where he calls them the Athanatoi or the Ten Thousand. He describes them as :

a body of picked Persians under the leadership of Hydarnes, the son Hydarnes. This corps was known as the Immortals, because it was invariably kept up to strength; if a man was killed or fell sick, the vacancy he left was at once filled, so that the total strength of the corps was never less -and never more- than ten thousand.
Of all the troops in Persian army, the native Persians were not only the best but also the most magnificently equipped; their dress and armor I have mentioned already, but I should add that every man glittered with the gold which he carried about his person in unlimited quantity. They were accompanied, moreover, by covered carriages full of their women and servants, all elaborately fitted out. Special food, separate from that of the rest of the army, was brought along for them on dromedaries and mules. (Histories 7.83; tr. Aubrey de Selincourt)

Its been said that the regiment accepted only Median or Persian applicants. About the uniform and the equipment of the Immortals Herodotus mentioned that:

The dress of these troops consisted of the tiara, or soft felt cap, embroidered tunic with sleeves, a coat of mail looking like the scales of a fish, and trousers; for arms they carried light wicker shields, quivers slung below them, short spears, powerful bows with cane arrows, and short swords swinging from belts beside the right thigh. (Histories 7.61; tr. Aubrey de Selincourt)

Herodotus mentions that in the Thermoplylae these corps played a major role. The Greeks had blocked a narrow road along the coast and prevented the Persians from invading Greece. The Immortals however, made a detour and attacked the Greeks at the rear. The Immortals are also mentioned during the second year of the war (479 BCE), when they remain in Greece under the commandment of Mardonius.
As mentioned previously the Immortals are depicted only through the views of Herodotus. No other source mentions the name of this group of a Persian elite troop. There implications however, can be found on the coloured glazed bricks and carved reliefs at the Achaemenian capitals, such as the Palace of Artaxerxes at Susa and Persepolis. They are often represented standing stiffly at attention, each soldier's wooden spear with its silver blade and pomegranate insignia held upright and resting firmly on his toe. They wore elaborate robes and much gold jewellery. An elite 1,000 of the Immortals were further distinguished by having gold pomegranates on their spears.

King Shahriar

2006-02-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

Shahriar is the fictional Sassanid king in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, who is told stories by Scheherazade (Shahrzad). He ruled over an empire from Persia to India, over all the adjacent Islands and a great way beyond the Ganges as far as China. Shahryar’s younger brother, Shah Zaman or Shaw-zummaun, ruled over Samarkand.
Shahryar is betrayed by his wife, which makes him go mad and believe that all women will, in the end, betray him. So every night for three years the mad king takes a wife and has her executed the next morning, until he marries the beautiful and clever Scheherazade, the vizier’s daughter. For 1001 nights, Scheherazade tells Shahryar a story, stopping at dawn with a cliffhanger, forcing him to keep her alive for another day so that she can complete the tale.
For 1001 nights this went on and, in the end, Shahryar spared her life (and the world benefited from her 1001 stories). The nucleus of these stories is formed by an old Persian book called Hezar-afsana or the "Thousand Myths".
The story of Scheherzade inspired the great Russian composer Rimsky- Korsakov to write a beautiful symphony by the name of "Scheherzade" which I strongly recommend to everyone!

Marlik Culture

2006-01-19T13:19:00.000-08:00

Marlik culture was discovered in the green and fertile lands of Northern Iran just South of the Caspian Sea. The amazing archeological founds on this site are associated with 10th-12th century BC. Some researchers believe that Marlik has attained its name from the innumerable snakes that have inhabited it. (As 'Mar' means snake in the Persian language). Whereas, some believe that, Marlik, the name the local villagers gave to the mound, is 'Marda-lik' (place of the Marda or Amarda), and the Greek historian Strabo describes the Marda as living in this part of Ancient Persia. There are some significant similarities between the metalwork at Marlik and some of those found at Sialk near Kashan, and as the finds at Sialk are dated as slightly later than those of Marlik, it is suggested that the Amarda around Marlik and the Sepid Rud, relocated to the central Iranian plateau near Sialk where they were eventually assimilated into the general Median population. In the excavations performed on this site, a large number of broken earthenware pieces can be noted. Moreover, two tiny statues of cows in admiralty metal, two cylindrical seals, fourteen gold buttons and other unique objects have been discovered. In this hillock, there is the remnants of a quadrangular structure with an approximate area of 30 sq. m. the same probably being a tomb or temple.
This hillock was also a site where the local commanders or princes who ruled in the 2nd or 1st millennium BC. were laid to rest. According to the tradition of the times, the dead were buried along with their treasures. About 25 tombs have been discovered, in some of which are human carcases, besides which, articles such as earthenware and bronze vessels, decorative buttons, arrows, swords, spears, bronze and earthenware statues, daggers, hemlets and etc. have been discovered. Fabrics from this site determine the fact that weaving was a progressive technology in Iran thousands of years ago, and more so in Gilan. About 11 seals have been discovered in these excavations, and these have interesting designs and patterns on them. There is a seal engraved in the Cuneiform script. The people who buried their dead at Marlik remain something of a puzzle for history. They seem not to have left any written records, and aside from the cemetary at Marlik there is not very much in the archaeological record to fill out their history.
If the original population abandoned the valley soon after the burials, this may explain why the cemetary was forgotten and not looted in the intervening years. This theory still remains unconfirmed, and it remains true that little can be said with any certainty about the people who buried their royalty atop the mound at Marlik. The artifacts recovered at Marlik contain many unusual items which have helped to develop current thinking on the chronology of metal working in late bronze age cultures. It is significant to note that without scientific excavation procedures, it would have been impossible to date and locate these items, and it would have been impossible to appreciate their unique and important place in the archaeological record.
After all their trials and travails, the archaeologists at Marlik were ordered to abandon the site in November of 1962 after a change in government which brought the allies of the smugglers and antique dealers, some of which were in the family of the Shah, to power. Forced to abandon the excavation, there was little that could be done other than return to Teheran to appeal the decision. When a team was permitted to return to the mound one year later, it was clear that little more could be done as the entire area had been ravaged by illegal digging. A brief survey showed some 2000 holes had been haphazardly dug around the valley, and everything that had been despoiled was now lost to history. It is difficult to say what was destroyed, and to this date the only material of the Marlik people to be available to science is the collection from the excavation which is housed at the Muzeh Iran Bastan (Archaeological Museum in Teheran).
Recently Archaeologists have gone back to this site for new excavations. Their efforts have led into new developments in our understanding of Marlik architecture and new artifact discoveries.

The Xerxes Canal

2006-01-14T02:39:00.000-08:00

In 480 B.C., King Xerxes,(khashayar), of Persia ordered his men to build a canal a mile and a quarter long through a peninsula in Northern Greece- conceivably one of the biggest engineering assignments of it's time. The canal was critical to Xerxes' plan of invading Greece, a goal that his general, Mardonius, had unsuccessfully attempted 12 years earlier. Mardonius's fleet was destroyed in a storm while sailing around the tip of the peninsula, and Xerxes wanted to avoid a similar setback by building the canal. Xerxes went on to invade Greece, starting a brief period of Persian conquest in Europe. In the 2,500 year since, historians have debated whether the famed canal of Xerxes was really dug all the way from Coast to Coast. Some have doubted its existence, pointing to a rocky plateau that they argue would have made the construction an impossible task for workers of those days. Now, scientists from Britain and Greece have come up with what they say is conclusive evidence that the canal was indeed built. The structure now lies buried and a map has been drawn detailing the canal's dimensions ans courses. The findings confirms the description given in an account by the ancient Greek histiruan Herodotus, which some scholars have long regarded with skepticism. Buried under centuries of silt and alluvium, the structure is testament to remarkable military strategy, work-force management and civil engineering. It also tells of an eager king who was in such a hurry to conquer the World that he never thought of preserving the canal as a perminent waterway.Spanning about 100 feet at the surface, the canal was just wide enough for two war galleys to pass. Its sides sloped inward, forming a width of roughly 50 feet at the bottom, about 45 feet below the surface. The construction was as much of a feat of management as it was of engineering. Upon the completion of the canal, the Persian fleet made it safely to the Agean Sea, where it was joined by troops that had taken the land route from the North. The ships sailed on to Greece. Xerxes's soldiers stormed the Coast and advanced deep into Greek territory. They destroyed Athenes but eventually lost to Athenians in a battle that ended the Persian's fleeting imperial presence in Europe.

The Status Of Science In Ancient Iran

2006-01-14T02:06:00.000-08:00

Who says we Iranians have no Plato, Oghlidous or Apolinious? In my mind I always percieved the vanishment of the discoveries of Iranian scholars as a fault of the persian community and the fact that they dont appriciate what they have and always take it for granted. What is evident though is that our country has been percieved as a golden land, plundered by many conquerers such as Alexander the Great and Changeez The Moghol whose goal was to destroy the ever growing Persian civilization. You would be surprise to learn some of the famous philosophers whom you might have thought to be greek were actually persian or the fact that most earned their scholarship through Persian Scientists or philosophers. Arabs alone did serious damege to our Scientific heritage and that is one of the reasons why Persian philosophers like Estans-e- Razi are unknown to the world while an undergraduate student like myself can borow Arsitotle's gatherings at the university library. It has been documanted that when the Arabs invaded Persia they massacred Iranians and confiscated their belongings. All Persian cities were looted repeatedly. They destroyed everything in order to inplant their ideas in peoples minds. For example in "kharazm" they asked for 4000 educated people among the population and beheaded all of them. In "kerman", they asked people to bring their ancient books as a form of tax or else they would be deeply punished. The citizen presented their mathematics and philosophy books in order to save their lives. The same fate repeated with the Mogols attacks. The truth is that there were both scientists and scientific books in ancient Iran, many volumes of which were looted and burnt.

Some Important Notes to Remember:

I could proudly claim we Iranians have used the solar calendar ever since we reckoned the need to keep track of our days. While even today there are many cummunities that use a lunar calendar despite the fact that urban and agricultural societies need a solar calendar to be able to function sceintifically. Even Omar Khayam has cited that he used ancient sourses for designing his "Jalali Calendar", which is a more accurate calendar than the "Gregory Calendar" which was designed 200 years after the "Jalali Calendar" and todays Christian calendar is based on it.
While "Plutarch", a Roman historian-army commander, was traveling in Persian in 700 BCE, he passed through a city called "Hekmatane", (todays Hamedan). In "Hekmatane", he came across a school (university) whome he discribed as to have a head faculty and 100 students. In the school they learned astronomy, medicine, philosophy and mathematics. Very many of the world's greatest scholars and physicians visited them at the university. "Plutarch" mentioned of similar schools in all Iranian cities. If science did not prevail in Iran, then what were these people studying? what happened to that knowledge?
"Plotinus", a Greek historian who visited Iran in 100 BCE, wrote, "when I was in Iran, they were measuring the radius of the Earth and its curvature". Other refrences to the spherical shape of the Earth can be found in "Yasht's". To measure the Earth's radius you have to be familiar with astronomy and mathematics. This was when the Greeks still assumed that the Earth was a flat land sorrounded by water.
"Phisaghorous", (Pythogarus) the Greek philosopher and mathematician spent 20 years of his life in Iran and "Babylon", (which was a part of the acient Persian Empire), accurding to his biography. During this time he learned the knowledge of the "Moghan", (Magi). His philosophy of light was under the influence of Persians who believed in spherical Earth rotating around the central Sun. There has also been doubts about the famous theory of right angle triangles. Today, it is a know fact that the theory did not belong to "Pythogarus" but was named after him later on. Towards the end of "Ghajar" era, French archaeologists found some documents in "Elam" which was published in France. Among the findings were 17 cases of the right-angle triangles with different dimensions and calculations similar to those of "Pythogarus". Apparently, they were looking for a single solution and its possible that they found it.
There is an ancient Greek thesis from somebody named "Paapoos". He cited "Estaans" the Moughan as a naturalist philosopher believing in "self management and self-recycling power of nature provided that humans do not destroy it". This philosophy is still valid and we have to take care of our environment.
"Oghladous" was an Iranian who was born in Asia Minor and migrated to "Eskandarieh" (Alexandria) to work and never lived in Greece.
While the Greeks had no progressive calculation and mathematics and nothing to offer in Algebra, Babylonians were using a numaric system and had even invented 0. At this time Greeks used alphabets for numbers. "Araashmidous" the greatest mathematician in ancient Greece, wrote a book to represent a big number, and called it his masterpiece. However, thousands of years before the Greeks, Elamians had a numaric system similar to what we have today.

How Arabs Changed Iran's Fate

2006-01-12T15:55:00.000-08:00

I have always been wanting to figure out the reasons for which the lizard eating Arab tribes succeeded in conquering the Persian Empire and forcing them to give up their religion and rituals while they had been standing against the more powerful Roman Empire for all those centuries. Well, in fact, the defeat of the Persian Empire had little to do with the Arab armies being too strong. Arabs moved towards Iran with the purpose of popularizing their new religion, Islam and destroying Zoroastriasm. At this time Persia was under the influence of Sassanian royal family whom in a little while became extremely weak. "Ghobad II", had killed all the members of the royal family, hence, there where no strong rulers left to role the Empire, (in a pariod of 3 years 10 rulers gained power and got exterminated).
To introduce to you the reasons for our loss, I will put them in point forms below:

the disability of the royal family to perform their duty and to keep the Empire toghether as a result of their conflicts.
the lose of faith in the Mazdiyasma religion since it required people to spend a good part of their days performing the rituals and limiting their behaviours accordingly (one of the rituals was to keep everything clean at all times). These somewhat hard to fallow rituals resulted in people getting tired and look for something different.
the sensetized population of the Western part of the Empire, ( Semitic race whom lived in todays Iraq).
the unhuman like treatment of the citizens of the Iranian cities by the invaders (Arabs).

There has been many evidances of the harsh treatment of Persians by Arabs when they conquered their cities. Forexample, in "kazeroun", the birth place of "salman-e-Parsi", the invaders beheaded one thousand non-Muslims everyday! How much do u think the over all population of "kazeroun" was in those days to have 1000 people killed everyday? In "kharazm", they band people from speaking Farsi ordering their soldiers to cut off the tongue of anyone who dared to speak Farsi. That is how people of "Kharazm" stopped speaking their mother tongue and the popular "kharazmi" dialect vanished. This is why in Arabic, Iranian people are called "Ajam", meaning mute!

Mithraism

2006-01-12T15:37:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard the name Mitra before? As Mitra is a popular name among us Iranians these days, the roots of the name goes back as far as 1735BC. In ancient Persia, before the time of the prophet Zarathushtra, the worshiping of the sun god Mithra and of the water goddess Anahita,was popular among not only persians but all around the world. This ancient religion was referred to as Mithraism, the life savior and guirdiance of the ppl of pre_christ era. The story of Mithraism somewhat reflects that of the christ. Iranian scholar Dr.Behrooz, in the course of his research has found evidance that supports the existance of a personality claiming to be the Messiah who called himself Mehr or Mithra. Legends about Mehr claim that he was conceived by a young virgin named Anahita or Nahid. It is claimed by the cult that Nahid became empregnated magically while bathing in the waters of Lake Hamun in Sistan. Mithra the god of love represents all the male energies. On the other hand Anahita represents all of the female energies and feminine forces of nature. Like the Yin and Yang of the Tao religion, Mehr and Nahid are depicted inevery fibre of the cosmos, dancing with one another and thereby moving the universe forward towards perfection and immortality. The era of Mithraism continued all the way to the time of Sasanian who strognly favoured Zorastrianism hence destroyed most belongings of the Mithraism in the Persian Empire. A similar fate destroyed Mithraism in the west when the birth of christianity took over Mithraism. The Romans feared being taken over by the Persians and tried to become independent. The Roman Empire was in constant conflict with the Persian Empire becaouse they regarded Iran as the birth place of Mithraism and feared the Persian influences on their idiologies. Consequently, they felt the need for an independent government and that was the base for growth of christianity.

Today we can get a glimce of the remainders of Mithraism in "Taghe Boostan" in a cave like cunstruction, or "fire-temple" in Bishapur in Iran and in Milan, Italy or Basilca of Trajan. Some reminders of Mithraism has even been depicted in the poetry of the famous Persian poet, Hafez.

Some Important Notes:

the word "Metropolitan", means the city of Mitra or the city of the Sun and was known to mean the capital city!
the name of the city Milan, Italy comes from the word Mehrayns or Mirans which were the centers of Mithraism in the ancient world.
the names of the days of the week in English have their roots in the Mithraism and the Persian language, eg:

* Mahshid (god of moon), Monday

* Bahramshid (day of TeeVis), Tuesday

* Titshid (the Vedin day), Wednesday

* Berjisshid (Tour day), Thursday

* Nahidshid (god of firtility), Friday

* Keyvanshid (day of Saturn), Saturday

* Mehrshid (day of Sun), Sunday