Persian Civilization - Key Terms

Abu Bakr
The controversial successor of Muhammad that caused the schism between Shiis and Sunnis, Abu Bakr was the close personal friend of the prophet who took his place instead of Ali, Muhammad's cousin and brother in law. Abu Bakr took over after Muhammad, taking down both the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires in order to found the first Arab-Muslim Empire, the Umayyads. 

Achaemenid Empire

This first world empire.  Initially established by Cyrus the Great, the empire would come to encompass the vast majority of Southern Asia through Egypt and Turkey.  The Dynasty includes such leaders as Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes and more. 

Ahura Mazda

The Most High God of the Zoroastrianism Faith.  The creator of all things, as proclaimed by Zoroaster. 

Ahriman
The opposite of Ahura Mazda in the Zoroastrian Faith, he is the Christian equivalent of the Devil.  

Alexander the Great

A Greek military leader who was responsible for the overthrow of the Achaemenid empire.  His military invasion also brought Hellenism into the region as well as Greek influence as far as Modern day Afghanistan. 

Aramaic

The official language of the Persian, Assyrian and Babylonian Empires.  The language was the language of trade from approximately 700- 320 B.C. 

Arsacid Empire

Overthrew the Seleucid dynasty and reestablished a Persian Empire.  The empire covered much the same lands as the Achaemenid Empire and set Persia as the Roman counterpart. 

Ctesiphon

The capital city throughout a number of empires, including the Parthians and the Sassanids.  Ctesiphon was a major militaristic target for the Roman Empire throughout the era of competition between the two superpowers.  The city is located near Baghdad in Modern Day Iraq.

Cyrus Cylinder

The world’s first humanitarian charter.  The Cylinder is a document written in Akkadian.  Cyrus is reported to have spoken the words written on the Cylinder after conquering Babylon.  The scroll gives freedom of religion to the conquered peoples under the Persian Empire.

Cyrus the Great

The militaristic leader that led the Achaemenid Empire into dominion over the bulk of Central Asia and the Middle East.  He brought unity, through military force, to the Medes, the Lydian and the Babylonian empires. 

Darius

The third emperor of the Achaemenid dynasty.  He is the leader who organized the empire.  He was responsible for building projects all over the region, but focusing on Susa, and Persepolis. 

Elamite Empire 

A small kingdom located on the shore of the Persian Gulf.  The kingdom lasted until the advent of the Achaemenid Empire. 

Farsi/Persian

The name of the language of Iran, transliterated (Farsi), and anglicized (Persian). 

Farr

The belief in divine Grace.  If a ruler had approval from God, he was able to rule, or he had Farr.

Fereydun

A mythological Iranian King who held Farr and was able to overthrow the corrupt king Zahhak. 

Gnosticism

The religion wherein a physical being is corrupt and salvation comes as one is able to thrust off the physical husk.  It is a minimalistic ideology.  Gnosticism greatly influenced the early forms of many religions including Manichaeism and Mazdakism.

Ionia

The name of Ancient Greece.  The name is still in use in the Persian language. 

Jamshid

One of the most well known figures in Iranian mythology.  He is a character in the Persian epic, Shahnameh, composed by Ferdowsi.

Karbala

The site where Husayn, son of Imam Ali, was massacred along with everyone in his party as they were traveling to challenge Umayyad rule. Karbala is a very important event to Shiis because that is when Husayn became a martyr for their beliefs.

Key Khosrow

An important figure in the Shahnameh.  He is responsible for the end of the poor relations between the houses of Iran and Turon.  He is another example of Farr.

Khosrow I

Ruled during the Sasanian Empire.  He brought about much reform in the military and in social spheres. He also made a peace treaty with the Greeks that brought peace between the Roman Christian Empire and the Zoroastrian Sasanids for a time.

Ma'mun
Ruled during the Abbasid Empire, Ma'mun appointed Taher as his general who then went on to create his own empire called the Taherid Dynasty. Ma'mun launched a cultural renaissance by supporting Greek, Arab, and Persian thinkers at court. He supported the Mu'tazila and Persianism in the Abbasid period peaked under his rule. 

Mani

The man who fathered Manichaesism.  Mani strove to meld many of the then current religions into a fused religion, which emphasized the suppression of the physical in favor of the spiritual. He lived during the early Sasanian Empire. 

Musa al-Khwarizimi
 Wrote the first text that solved linear and quadratic equations. His famous work, al-Jabr wa al-Muqbabala, is where we derive the word algebra from. 

Mu'tazila
A group of Muslims whose thought was based on Aristotelian logic. They rejected the belief of predestination because a just God would not punish you for something you were already predestined to do. They argued that the Koran has a literal, outer meaning, but also an inner spiritual meaning. 

Noruz

Nowruz is the traditional celebration of the ancient Persian New Year. Nowruz means “New Day” and is celebrated the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in the Iranian calendar. It was originally a Zoroastrian holiday and believed to have been invented by Zoroaster himself. Since the Achaemenid Empire, the date of Nowruz has been set as the Spring Equinox. During that time, kings from different nations under the Persian Empire would bring gifts to the Shahanshah of Persia. It is thought that the Jewish festival of Purim is adopted from the Persian New Year. Haft Sin, or the seven S’s, is the traditional table setting of Nowruz. It includes seven items starting with the letter S in the Persian alphabet. 

Pahlavi Script

The language sometimes referred to as Parsi or Sasanian Middle Persian. It used a form of the Aramaic script. It was probably only known by a small minority, largely scribes.

Parthia

A region in the east of present day Iran. The Parthians were originally a nomadic people who raided the eastern edges of the Achaemenid Empire until they settled in Parthia and became subjects of that empire.  The Parthians helped drive the Greek Seleucid empire out of Persia and established the Parthian empire under Mithridates (Mehrdad) I. He built an army camp outside Seleucia, which later became Ctesiphon, the capital of the empire.

Persepolis

Persepolis was one of the three capitals of the Achaemenid Empire. Persepolis was a complex of palaces located 70 kilometers northeast of Shiraz, founded by Darius. The earliest remains date from 518 BCE. Construction continued after Darius’s death by his son Xerxes and even until the downfall of the Achaemenid dynasty and conquest by Alexander the Great. Under Alexander the Great, Persepolis was burned, although it is not clear if it was intentional. 

Persia

The name of the country of Iran from the 6th century BCE until 1935 CE. 

Rostam

Rostam is the greatest hero of Iranian mythological history and a character in the first cycle of the Shahnameh. It is said that he was so large when he was born that he had to be delivered by cesarean section, the world’s first. 

Salm, Tur and Iraj

A myth from the first cycle of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.  Salm, Tur and Iraj are the three sons of Fereydun who inherit his world empire. The west is given to Salm, the north and east to Tur, and Iran (the center of his empire) to the youngest son, Iraj. Salm and Tur are jealous of Iraj and attack and kill him. This sparks a feud between Iraj and Turan that lasts for a long time in Iranian myth and legend.

Sasanid Empire

The Sasanid Empire is the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 CE to 651 CE. Under Sasanid rule, the orthodox version of Zoroastrianism was re-instated. Sasanid rulers held the title of Shahanshah and assumed guardianship of the sacred fire, the symbol of the national religion. 

Satrap

During Darius’s reign, he divided his empire into twenty satrapies, each with a governor known as a satrap, as well as a military commander. Each satrap had a good deal of autonomy and reported to the ruler. It was an effective governing system even though it did not stop revolts and rebellions in the various regions and provinces. 

Shah

Shah literally means “king”. 

Shahanshah

Shahanshah literally means the “king of kings”. It was the title that many Persian rulers took. Basically it means emperor. 

Shanameh

Shahnameh is the best-known and complete source of Persian mythology. It means “The Book of Kings” and was written by the poet Ferdowsi around 1000 CE. It is made up of three cycles: the Pishdadiyan; which is pure mythology, the Keyanyan; a combination of myth and legend, and the Sasanian; an account of the history of the Sasanian monarchy. 

Silk Road

The Silk Road was an extensive network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East Asia with the Mediterranean and North Africa and Europe. Its name comes from the lucrative Chinese silk trade. The general route passed along northern Iran and was an important path for cultural, commercial and technological exchange. During the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian Royal Road linked different routes of the Silk Road. The Royal Road ran from Susa to the port of Smyrna in modern Turkey. It had postal stations and relays at regular intervals with fresh horses and riders at each relay. 

Susa

Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran. Today, the modern Iranian town of Shush is located at the site of ancient Susa. 

Ummayads
661-750 C.E. They were the first Arab-Muslim dynasty after Abu Bakr defeated the Sasanids. They stressed the primacy of Arabs but adopted many Sasanid administrative processes. Arabic became the official language at court but because many people still spoke Persian the two scripts fused together. 

Wild Ass Bahram I

Bahram V or Wild Ass Bahram was the fourteenth Sasanid King of Persia. He was the son of Yazdegerd I and took the throne by force. He loved music, wine, women and hunting gur (wild ass). According to tradition, he died in quicksand while hunting. 

Xerxes

Xerxes was the son of Darius and continued his work on Persepolis during the Achaemenid Empire. 

Yazdegerd I

Yazdegerd I (399-421 CE) was a Sasanid king who was favorable to Christians, which angered Zoroastrian priests. The Shahnameh describes his death; he was kicked to death by a mysterious, and possibly divine, horse. 

Zoroaster

Zoroaster is the prophet of the Zoroastrian faith. The date of his birth is a matter of controversy, but it is said to be sometime between 1000 BCE and 600 BCE. 

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism is the world’s first recorded monotheistic religion. It has ideas of last judgment, heaven, hell and Satan. The holy book is the Zend-Avesta, which was written in Avestan: the language of the Achaemenid dynasty. Ahura Mazda is the one creator and ruler of all. Cyrus the Great was the first Zoroastrian Persian emperor. The Zoroastrian symbol Faravahar is meant to symbolize the ideal state.