Central Asia has many rivers, but in the writings of classical authors, the two most well-known rivers were the Oxus and the Jaxartes. The Oxus is approximately 1,553 miles (2,500 kilometers) long. The name of the river in Middle Persian was Wehrōd. The Muslim Arabs who conquered Central Asia in the eighth century CE called the river Jeyhun. The region north of the Oxus and south of the Jaxartes (Syr Darya) was called Transoxiana (the land beyond the Oxus). The Arab Muslims called this region Mawara’ al-Nahr, or “the land beyond the river.” Amu Darya is the Persian name for the river. Originating in the Pamir Mountains in the southeastern corner of Central Asia, the Amu Darya is formed by the convergence of several rivers, including the Panj and Vakhsh. Today, the Amu Darya forms a section of the border between Afghanistan and the two Central Asian republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as a portion of the border between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan before flowing northwest to reach the Aral Sea.
The second major river, the Jaxartes, is approximately 1,374 miles (2,212 kilometer) long. In Persian the name of Jaxartes is Syr Darya, which derives from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta. The Arab Muslims who conquered Central Asia in the eighth century CE called the river Seyhun. The Jaxartes is formed by the confluence of the Naryn and Qoradarya Rivers in the eastern Farghaneh Valley. The river moves in a northwesterly direction through present-day Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and southern Kazakhstan before it empties into the Aral Sea. For centuries the region of Transoxiana, lying between the Oxus River (Amu Darya) to the south and the Jaxartes to the north, was a major center of Iranian culture and civilization.
Gold chariot from the Oxus Treasure, the most important surviving collection of gold and silver metalwork, including 200 coins, from the Persian Achaemenid period. (Jupiterimages)
The treasure was discovered by local villagers, who sold their finds to a group of three merchants from Bokhara. Afterward the merchants were attacked and robbed as they were traveling from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, to Peshawar in northwestern India (present-day Pakistan). When notified of the ambush, Captain F. C. Burton, a British officer working in Afghanistan, caught up with the robbers and forced them to return a large part of the treasure to the merchants. The merchants agreed to sell Burton a gold armlet, which was eventually “acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum” in London (Curtis: 60). The merchants sold the remainder of the treasure in the bazaars of Rawalpindi. A portion of the treasure was purchased from the local dealers by Major General Alexander Cunningham (1814–1893), the director general of the Archaeological Survey of India, who sold the gold and silver objects to “Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, who on his death in 1897 bequeathed them to the British Museum” (Curtis: 60).
See also: Ancient Provinces: Bactria; Transoxiana; K&Q, Achaemenid: Cyrus II the Great; Peoples: Achaemenid Empire
Further Reading
Curtis, John. Ancient Persia. London: British Museum Press, 2000.
Panjkand
Panjkand (Panjakent) was a major urban and commercial center of Sogdiana (Sogd), an Iranian-speaking region, that extended from the Oxus River (Amu Darya) in the south to the Jaxartes River (Syr Darya) in the north, with its central region located in the Zarafshan and Kashka Darya River Valleys in present-day Tajikistan and eastern Uzbekistan. The city, located 37 miles (60 kilometers) east of Samarqand, came into existence sometime in the fifth century CE but was destroyed by Arab Muslims in 780. Panjkand served as the commercial heart of the Silk Road for nearly 400 years and included Zoroastrian, Hindu, Jewish, and Christian communities. The Sogdian merchants of Panjkand who traded with China, Persia, and Rome displayed a high level of tolerance for various religious traditions whose adherents traveled along the Silk Road. Liberality toward various religious communities was interwoven with a deep curiosity about cultures beyond Central Asia and was reflected in Sogdian art, which borrowed heavily from Persian, Greek, Indian, and Chinese motifs and designs. The scenes of fighting, hunting, and feasting in particular remind us of the Iranian tradition of razm-u bazm (warfare and feasting), which was brilliantly depicted by the Persian poets of the Islamic era and, in particular, the greatest of all Persian epic poets, Ferdowsi. The tolerant attitude toward religious diversity did not change as the Sogd region came under Hephthalite rule in the fifth century CE and then passed on to the Western Turk Empire. Thus, Buddhism, Judaism, Nestorian Christianity, Manichaeism, and various cults such as the cult of the goddess Nanaia coexisted with Zoroastrianism. A significant number of painted scenes depicting the worship of various gods, dating from between the sixth and eighth centuries, have been unearthed in the temples, palaces, and dwellings of Panjkand.
See also: Ancient Cities: Samarqand; Ancient Provinces: Sogdiana
Further Reading
Barthold, V. V. Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion. London: Luzac, 1977.
Boulnois, Luce. Silk Road: Monks, Warriors, and Merchants. Translated by Helen Loveday. Geneva: Airphoto International, 2005.
Sims, Eleanor, Boris Marshak, and Ernst Grube. Peerless Images: Persian Painting and Its Sources. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Sinor, Denis. “The Establishment and Dissolution of the Turk Empire.” In The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, edited by Denis Sinor, 285–316. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Pasargadae
Located nearly 19 miles (30 kilometers) from the ceremonial Persian Achaemenid capital of Persepolis and 56 miles (90 kilometers) from the city of Shiraz, the capital of the southern Iranian province of Fars, Pasargadae is one of the most important historical and archaeological sites of ancient Iran. Pasargadae served as the capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire during the reign of Cyrus II the Great (r. 558–530 BCE). According to several classical authors, Pasargadae was chosen as the first residence of Cyrus because it was the site of his last and decisive battle against the Medes. As the geographer Strabo wrote, “Cyrus held Pasargadae in honor because he there conquered Astyages the Mede in his last battle, transferred to himself the empire of Asia, and constructed a palace as a memorial to his victory” (Strabo: 15.3.8). It was after this victory that he marched north and captured Hagmatana or Ecbatana (modern-day Hamedan), the Median capital in today’s western Iran. The origins and the meaning of the word “Pasargadae” are uncertain. The Greek writer Herodotus noted that the Persian nation contained a number of tribes; he claimed that one of the groups persuaded by Cyrus to revolt against the Median king, Astyages, were the Pasargadaes (Herodotus: 1.125). On the Achaemenid fortification tablets discovered at Persepolis, there are references to Batrakata or Batrakatash, which may have been the Elamite name for Pasargadae.
Pasargadae also houses the simple but majestic tomb of Cyrus, who died in battle in Central Asia in 530 BCE. The tomb of Cyrus was identified through a cuneiform inscription that reads “I, Cyrus, the King, an Achaemenid.” The earliest archaeological work on Pasargadae dated the inscription to the reign of Cyrus. More recent studies have, however, maintained that all the inscriptions at Pasargadae were incised after the death of Cyrus, most probably during the reign of Darius I (r. 522–486). Arrian wrote that
Tomb of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, at Pasargadae in the southern Iranian province of Fars. Situated in the fertile Dasht-e Morghab (Murghab), Pasargadae was the first capital founded by Cyrus, as well as his final resting place. (Suronin/Dreamstime.com)
the tomb of Cyrus 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 roof 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’s body, and a great divan with feet of hammered gold, spread with covers of some thick, brightly coloured material, w
ith a Babylonian rug on top. Tunics and candyes—or Median jackets—of Babylonian workmanship were laid out on the divan, and (Aristobulus says) Median trousers, various robes dyed in amethyst, purple, and many other colours, 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’s 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.” (Arrian: 6:29)
Aside from the tomb of Cyrus, Pasargadae contained a variety of buildings, including palaces, pavilions, fire altars, gardens, and a large park. According to David Stronach, “the plan of the Pasargadae palaces marks one of the true revolutions in ancient Near Eastern architectural history in as much as a single-focal axis, such as had dominated monumental architectural traditions in the Near East for millennia, gives way to a truly open, symmetric four-sided structure with no principal axis and no fixed focal point” (Stronach and Gopnik: Pasargadae). One of the important structures in Pasargadae was Zendan-e Soleyman (Prison of Solomon), a stone tower built on the plain next to the river Polvar. The exact function of this building is uncertain. However, some scholars have maintained that Zendan housed the Achaemenid royal insignia, which included the “royal garments and shoes; the upright purple tiara; the scepter in his right hand and the lotus blossom in his left; lance and bow” (Wiesehöfer: 32). They have also suggested that the royal investiture during the reign of Persia’s Achaemenid kings probably took place on the roof of Zendan-e Soleyman (Wiesehöfer: 32). Even after the death of Cyrus and the transfer of the capital from Pasargadae to Susa, Ecbatana, and Persepolis, the Achaemenid kings returned to Pasargadae as the site for their royal investiture. According to the Greek author Plutarch, after the death of Darius II in 405 BCE, Artaxerxes II, Darius’s oldest son and successor, went to Pasargadae “to have the ceremony of his inauguration consummated by the Persian priests” (Plutarch: 2:704). Plutarch also wrote that in Pasargadae there was “a temple dedicated to a warlike goddess, whom one might liken to Minerva, into which when the royal person to be initiated has passed, he must strip himself of his own robe, and put on that which Cyrus the first wore before he was king; then, having devoured a frail of figs, he must eat turpentine, and drink a cup of sour milk” (Plutarch: 2:704). Once the investiture ceremony was completed, “the new king then had to perform a series of symbolic acts (acceptance of the official seal, confirmation of privileges, confirmation or new conferment of offices and functions), thereby assuming his ‘official duties’” (Wiesehöfer: 32).
Pasargadae was excavated for the first time by Ernst Herzfeld, originally in 1923 and again in 1928. In 1933, the Hungarian-born British orientalist Aurel Stein mapped out a part of the site. In 1949, the Iranian archaeologist Ali Sami conducted an excavation that lasted for six years. From 1961 to 1963, David Stronach excavated the site on behalf of the British Institute of Persian Studies.
See also: Ancient Cities: Persepolis; K&Q, Achaemenid: Cyrus II the Great; Peoples: Achaemenid Empire; Religion: Magi
Further Reading
Arrian. The Campaigns of Alexander. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. New York: Dorset, 1986.
Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. London: Penguin Books, 1972.
Plutarch. Lives. 2 vols. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2006.
Strabo. The Geography of Strabo. Translated by Horace Leonard Jones. London: William Heinemann, 1930.
Stronach, David, and Hilary Gopnik. “Pasargadae.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2009, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/pasargadae.
Wiesehöfer, Josef. Ancient Persia. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.
Persepolis
Called Takht-e Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid) in Persian, Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty beginning with the reign of Darius I (r. 522–486 BCE). The name of the site was coined by the ancient Greeks, who referred to the region of Parsa as Persis and the royal city of the Persian king as “Persai polis” or “city in Persis.”
Persepolis is located on the plain of Marvdasht, 35.4 miles (57 kilometers) northwest of the present-day city of Shiraz in the southern Iranian province of Fars. In 518 BCE, four years after he had seized the reins of power, Darius I embarked on an ambitious project to build a new palace complex at the foot of the mountains east of the plain of Marvdasht. According to the Iranian scholar A. Shapur Shahbazi, the name of this mountain was originally Kuh-e Mehr (Mount of Mithra) but was changed in the 13th century to Kuh-e Rahmat (Mount of Mercy). Based on this assertion, Shahbazi concluded that the Persians of the Achaemenid era held the site sacred and associated it with Mithra, the deity of oaths and covenants as well as the sun god.
A large artificial terrace platform covering an area of 1.3 million square feet (125,000 square meters) was erected, and ceremonial halls, residential palaces, a treasury, and a chain of fortification were built on it. Ornate palace inscriptions by Darius welcomed visitors from distant provinces of the Persian Empire. In one of his inscriptions at the site, Darius acknowledged that the building of the structures on the site had been accomplished by artisans who hailed from the various nations that inhabited the Persian Empire. Indeed, the architecture of Persepolis borrowed heavily from the artistic and architectural designs of ancient Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Lydia, and many other nations. Workers from places as far away as Egypt, Lebanon, Lydia, India, and Central Asia contributed significantly to the construction and design of the magnificent palace complex. After the death of Darius I, his son Xerxes I (r. 486–465 BCE), followed by his grandson Artaxerxes I (r. 465–424 BCE), added their own buildings and inscriptions to the palace complex.
The main structures of Persepolis consisted of the grand double staircases; the palace of Darius I; the audience palace, known as Apadana; Xerxes I’s Throne Hall, better known as the Hall of a Hundred Columns; the palace of Xerxes I; the second palace, or the harem of Xerxes I; the Tripylon, or the entranceway to the private palaces; and the treasury. The palace of Darius I was the oldest building in the complex, while the audience palace, or Apadana, was the largest and most impressive structure in Persepolis. The central hall of Apadana could host 10,000 guests. Its gigantic roof rested on large cedar beams imported from Lebanon and was further supported by long columns. The Hall of a Hundred Columns was the second-largest palace of Persepolis, and the palace of Xerxes I was twice the size of Darius’s palace. Xerxes also added his own harem or private quarters for the members of the royal family. The construction of another important structure, namely the Tripylon, began during the rule of Xerxes I but was not completed until sometime during the reign of Artaxerxes I.
Between 1931 and 1934, a team of archaeologists from the University of Chicago under the supervision of Ernst Herzfeld made a significant discovery. Within the remains of the treasury, they unearthed some 30,000 clay tablets, each of which painstakingly recorded payment of rations and salaries to a wide variety of individuals and groups, including state officials, workers, and members of various religious communities. The tablets offered a glimpse into the administrative acumen of the Achaemenids, whose fame had previously rested solely on their military exploits and conquests. Above the structures and palaces built atop the massive terrace platform, two royal tombs were carved into the hillside overlooking Persepolis. In place to this day, the tombs are those of Artaxerxes II (r. 404–359 BCE) and Artaxerxes III (r. 359–338 BCE).
The walls of the palaces and audience halls of Persepolis were adorned with sculptural figures representing the various provinces of the Persian Empire. The figures are shown walking in a
long procession, and each bears a gift intended for the Great King. Depicted among these sculptural reliefs are representatives of the Medes, the Elamites, the Armenians, the Arians, the Babylonians, the Lydians, the Arachosians, the Assyrians, the Cappadocians, the Egyptians, the pointed-hat Scythians, the Ionians, the Bactrians, the Gandarians, the Parthians, the Asagartians, the Amyrgaean Scythians, the Indians, the Thracians, the Arabs, the Zarangians, the Libyans, and the Ethiopians. A Persian or Median officer holds the hand of the leader of each delegation and guides the visiting dignitaries into the presence of the Achaemenid monarch.
Persepolis, Takht-e Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid) in Persian, served as an important ceremonial and administrative center of the Persian Achaemenid Empire beginning in the reign of Darius I. The magnificent palace complex, which is located around 60 kilometers from the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, was one of the most celebrated sites of the ancient world. (Arazu/Dreamstime.com)
The reasons why Darius I built Persepolis and the functions behind its enormous structures have been extensively debated. Some scholars have maintained that Persepolis was built as a ceremonial palace for celebrating the Persian New Year (Nowruz). Others have rejected this theory, arguing that there is no evidence that the Achaemenid kings of ancient Iran celebrated Nowruz. And yet others have suggested that Persepolis was an architectural demonstration of Persian imperial power, one that also served as a major political and administrative center of the Achaemenid Empire.
Persepolis was burned and destroyed by Alexander the Macedon in 330 BCE. Before the arrival of Alexander’s army in Persepolis, the Persian official responsible for the citadel rushed to the Macedonian camp and surrendered peaceably in hopes of saving the city and the palace complex. The Macedonian invaders did not, however, show any mercy. They looted the palaces and the vaults of the treasury, which contained enormous amounts of gold and silver. They then proceeded to massacre the inhabitants of the citadel as well as those who lived in the town below. Once they had completed their slaughter, Alexander torched the palace complex, which was the envy of the ancient world.
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