The Persian Empire

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  As one of the most historical and archaeological sites of the ancient world, Persepolis has been recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Cultural Heritage Site.

  See also: K&Q, Achaemenid: Artaxerxes I; Darius I; Xerxes I; Primary Documents: Document 14; Document 33

  Further Reading

  Boardman, John. Persia and the West: An Archaeological Investigation of the Genesis of Achaemenid Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000.

  Herzfeld, Ernst. Iran in the Ancient East. New York: Hacker Art Books, 1989.

  Mousavi, Ali. Discovery Persepolis. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2012.

  Sami, Ali. Persepolis (Takht-i Jamshid). Translated by the Reverend R. Sharp and M. A. Cantab. Shiraz: Musavi Printing Office, 1977.

  Shahbazi, A. Shapur. “Persepolis.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2009, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/persepolis.

  Stronach, David, and Ali Mousavi. Ancient Iran from the Air. Darmstadt/Mainz: Verlag Phillip von Zabern, 2012.

  Ray

  Known in pre-Islamic times as Rhagae, Ray was an important urban center during the Median (ca. 678–549 BCE), Achaemenid (550–330 BCE), Arsacid (247/238 BCE–224 CE), and Sasanian (224–651 CE) periods. Today, Ray is located a short distance south of Tehran, the capital of Iran, but with the rapid growth of Tehran in all directions, Ray has been incorporated as a neighborhood within the capital city. In ancient times, Ray was located on the main trade route connecting China, India, and Central Asia to western Iran and Mesopotamia.

  In the 20th century, several mounds, including Cheshmeh Ali and Kuh-e Sorsoreh, attracted archaeologists to the ancient city of Ray. The first layer of Cheshmeh Ali dates back to a period between 5500 and 5200 BCE. Jars, vessels, and pots have been excavated from this site. Above this layer, archaeologists have identified an Iron Age layer dating back to 1000 BCE. The layers immediately above the Neolithic occupation belong to the Arsacid or Parthian period. During the long Arsacid rule, the site housed a citadel as well as a stone fortress. In excavations at the site, archaeologists have unearthed coins dating back to the reigns of Mithridates I (r. 171–139/138 BCE), Mithridates II (r. 124/123–88/87 BCE), Orodes I (r. 81/80–76/75 BCE), Phraates III (r. 71/70–58/57 BCE), Vonones (r. 8/9 CE), and Pacorus (r. 78/77–109/108 CE). In a nearby mound archaeologists discovered Sasanian-era settlements as well as a Sasanian fire temple.

  A Muslim shrine called Bibi Shahrbanu on a hill in Ray is popularly believed to contain the body of Shahrbanu, a daughter of Yazdegerd III (r. 633–651 CE), the last king of the Persian Sasanian dynasty. A legend tells how the Persian princess was captured by the invading Arab armies and transported to Medina, in western Arabia, where she married Hussein, the grandson of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, and the second son of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the messenger of Islam, and Fatima, Muhammad’s favorite daughter. According to the same legend, Hussein and Shahrbanu had a son, Ali Zayn al-Abedin, who succeeded his father after Hussein was martyred on the plains of Karbala in southern Iraq in 680. According to this legendary lineage, the Shia imams, starting with Zayn al-Abedin, carried royal Persian blood and were directly related through Shahrbanu to the Sasanian royal dynasty. Meanwhile, after the death of her husband Hussein, Shahrbanu returned to Iran, but the enemies of Hussein pursued her all the way to Ray. In a last desperate effort to save her life, the Persian princess sought God’s protection. In response to her plea, the mountain suddenly opened, allowing her to conceal herself among the rocks. Sometime later a shrine was erected on the site, which emerged as a shrine for pilgrims through many centuries down to our time. There is no historical evidence to confirm the validity of the Shahrbanu legend and her marriage to the third Shia imam, Hussein. The scholar Mary Boyce has maintained that the site was a pre-Islamic holy place dedicated to the veneration of the “Zoroastrian divinity” and the goddess of waters, “Anahitā,” who carried the title of Banu (Lady), and “her shrine at Ray may well have been devoted to her as Šahrbānū [Shahrbānū] ‘Lady of the Land [Iran]’” (Boyce: Bibi Šahrbānū).

  Ray was the domain of the Mehran, one of the most powerful families of ancient Iran, particularly during the reign of the Sasanian monarchy. Sasanian army commander Bahram Chobin (Chubin), who seized the throne and was crowned as Bahram VI (r. 590–591 CE), hailed from the Mehran family. After the invasion of Iran by Arab Muslims and the fall of the Sasanian dynasty, Siyavash, a grandson of Bahram Chobin, revolted against the Arabs, but his rebellion was crushed. Ray prospered during the Islamic era, particularly during the reign of the Saljuq dynasty (r. 1037–1156). The city, however, was razed by the Mongols in the 13th century.

  See also: Ancient Cities: Bibi Shahrbanu; Religion: Anahita

  Further Reading

  Boyce, Mary. “Bibi Šahrbānū.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1989, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bibi-sahrbanu.

  Curzon, George. Persia and the Persian Question. 2 vols. London: Longmans, Green, 1892.

  Jackson, A. V. W. Persia Past and Present. London, 1906.

  Kiani, M. Y. “Parthian Sites in Hyrcania: The Gurgan Plain.” Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, suppl. 9. Berlin, 1982.

  Matney, T. “Re-excavating Cheshmeh Ali.” Expedition 37(2) (1995): 26–38.

  Rante, Rocco. “Ray i. Archeology.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2010, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ray-i-archeo.

  Schmidt, E. F. “The Persian Expedition.” Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts 33 (1935): 56.

  Samarqand

  A major urban center of Sogdiana, 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 importance of Sogdiana is reflected in the mention of its name in the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book. Here, Sogdiana was described as the second of the good lands and countries, which the great god Ahura Mazda created (The Zend-Avesta, Part I: The Vendidad). Until its destruction by Mongols in the 13th century CE, the city of Samarqand was also known as Afrasiyab.

  Samarqand was one of the most important Iranian-populated cities of Sogdiana. The ancient Greeks called the city Maracanda. Archaeological excavations indicate that Samarqand was founded as a walled urban center before the establishment of the Persian Achaemenid Empire (r. 550–330 BCE) sometime between 650 and 550 BCE. After the fall of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty in 330 BCE, Alexander and his Macedonian army invaded Bactria and Sogdiana. The resistance against the Macedonians was first organized by Bessus, the Persian governor of Bactria who proclaimed himself the King of Asia after killing the last Achaemenid monarch, Darius III. After Bessus was captured and killed, a revolt erupted against the Macedonians under the leadership of Spitaman (Spitamanes), a Sogdian dignitary who laid siege to Samarqand. When Alexander sent one of his generals to relieve the city, Spitaman inflicted a crushing defeat on the Macedonian army. This defeat forced Alexander to rush to Samarqand, but he was informed that Spitaman had already departed for Bactria. Spitaman was eventually defeated and killed.

  The Macedonians joined Sogdiana to Bactria to create a new province, but they never managed to impose their direct rule over the region. Each city in the region seems to have retained a high level of autonomy. Samarqand became part of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, which ruled from 250 to 125 BCE. This kingdom, which was based in present-day northern Afghanistan, ruled the territory extending from the Hindu Kush mountain range in the south to the Zarafshan River Valley in the north. The Greco-Bactrian kings also used Afghanistan to penetrate northern India. The Greco-Bactrian kingdom was destroyed by the Tochari or Yüeh-chih (Yuezhi) nomadic groups, who eventually created the Kushan Empire. The Kushans ruled a vast empire that extended from the Tarim Basin in present-day western China to northern India. The Kushan state incorporated the region of Sogdiana and the city of Samarqand. In the second half of the fifth century CE, the Hep
hthalites invaded and occupied Sogdiana. Crossing the Oxus, they repeatedly threatened the eastern frontiers of the Sasanian Empire, defeating Persian armies and killing the Sasanian monarch, Peroz. Determined to avenge the humiliating defeat his grandfather had suffered at the hands of the Hephthalites, the Sasanian monarch Khosrow I Anushiravan negotiated an alliance with the Western Turk Empire, which in the sixth century CE had emerged as the dominant political and military power in Central Asia. The Hephthalites were eventually defeated in a sustained military campaign organized jointly by the Western Turk Empire from the north and the Sasanian Empire from the south. With the destruction of the Hephthalite Empire, Sogdiana, including the city of Samarqand, was incorporated into the Western Turk state. Like other cities of Sogdiana, however, Samarqand retained its own rulers, who carried the royal title “Ekhshid.”

  Invading Muslim Arab armies captured Samarqand in 712 CE. The Tang dynasty (r. 618–907 CE) in China attacked the region of Transoxiana in 748/749 CE. The Abbasids (r. 750–1258) based in Baghdad responded to the Tang invasion by sending a large army to Central Asia. The inevitable clash between the Muslim and Tang armies came in 751 on the Talas River on the present-day border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. After a long and fierce battle, the Chinese were forced to accept defeat and retreat to the Tarim Basin in the present-day Xinjiang province of northwestern China. The Muslim victory at Talas guaranteed the triumph of Islam over Buddhism in Central Asia. As Islam established itself as the dominant religion in Transoxiana and the western regions of present-day China, Buddhism retreated eastward. It was from captured Chinese prisoners of the 751 war that the people of Samarqand learned how to manufacture paper, an art that spread from Central Asia to the Near East and beyond.

  In the 9th and 10th centuries, Samarqand served as one of the most important urban centers of the Persian Samanid state (r. 819–999), although it was the city of Bokhara that emerged as the capital of the emirate after Ismail I ascended the throne. The unknown author of the geography known as Hodud ul-Alam min al-Mashriq el al-Maghrib, which was written in the 10th century in the late Samanid period, described Samarqand as a large and prosperous center for merchants and traders from all over the world (Anonymous, Hodud ul-Alam: 107). Samarqand was also a major center for production of paper, which was exported to other countries (Anonymous, Hodud ul-Alam: 108). The open and tolerant environment of Samarqand was reflected in the fact that the Manicheans, the followers of the Iranian prophet Mani, who suffered persecution in the rest of the Islamic world, enjoyed the freedom to practice their religion in the city (Anonymous, Hodud ul-Alam: 107).

  See also: Ancient Cities: Bokhara; Panjkand; Ancient Provinces: Sogdiana; Transoxiana

  Further Reading

  Anonymous. Hodud ul-Alam min al-Mashriq ila al-Maghrib [The Regions of the World from East to West]. Edited by Manoochehr Sotoodeh. Tehran: Tahuri Bookstore, 1983.

  Grenet, Frantz. “Samarqand.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2002, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/samarqand-i.

  Manz, Beatrice Forbes. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

  Nemtseva, N. B., with notes by M. Rogers. “The Origins and Architectural Development of the Shah-i zinde.” Iran 15 (1977): 51–73.

  Paul, J. “The Histories of Samarqand.” Studia Iranica 22 (1993): 69–92.

  Shishkina, G. V. “Ancient Samarkand: Capital of Soghd.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 8 (1994 [1996]): 81–99.

  The Zend-Avesta, Part I: The Vendidad. Translated by James Darmesteter. Oxford: Clarendon, 1895.

  Sar Mashhad

  Sar Mashhad is a village in the southern Iranian province of Fars. The village is situated 40 miles (nearly 65 kilometers) south of the city of Kazerum and 136 miles (218 kilometers) from the city of Shiraz, the capital of Fars province. During the reign of the Achaemenid dynasty, a branch of the Royal Road, which connected the Persian capital of Susa to Persepolis, passed near the village. Sar Mashhad is home to a rock relief dating back to the reign of the fifth Sasanian king of kings, Bahram II, who ruled from 276 to 293 CE. The rock relief, which was carved on a mountain at a height of 65 feet from the ground, depicts the Sasanian monarch hunting two lions. As he kills the two wild beasts, Bahram holds the hand of his queen, while the Zoroastrian high priest Kartir and a prince of the royal family, most probably the king’s son and crown prince, Bahram (the future Bahram III), watch the royal hunt. Below the rock relief of Bahram is an inscription by Kartir that describes the career and achievements of the powerful high priest who served four Sasanian monarchs: Shapur I, Hormozd I, Bahram I, and Bahram II.

  See also: K&Q, Sasanian: Bahram I, Bahram II, Bahram III; Peoples: Sasanian Empire; Prophets: Kartir

  Further Reading

  Daryaee, Touraj. Sasanian Iran (224–651 CE): Portrait of a Late Antique Empire. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 2008.

  Frye, R. N. “The Political History of Iran under the Sasanians.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanid Periods, edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 116–180. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

  Shahbazi, A. Shapur. “Bahrām (2).” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1988, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bahram-the-name-of-six-sasanian-kings.

  Skjærvø, Prods Oktor. “Kartir.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2011, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kartir.

  Taq-e Bostan

  In Persian, taq means “arch” and bostan means “garden.” Taq-e Bostan therefore means “Garden’s Arch.” Taq-e Bostan is an important Sasanian historical site located near the city of Kermanshah in western Iran. The site is home to two arched grottoes, two royal investiture scenes, and two highly detailed reliefs of a royal hunt dating back to the reign of the Persian Sasanian dynasty (r. 224–651 CE). The reliefs provide the visitor with a rare glimpse into the daily life of Iran’s Sasanian kings.

  Taq-e Bostan is located at the foot of a mountain where a stream fed by a natural spring flows into a large artificial pool. During the reign of the Sasanian dynasty, several Persian monarchs chose the site for their statues and rock reliefs. The site probably had historical and religious significance even before the rise of the Sasanian monarchy to power. Several factors contribute to this likelihood. Taq-e Bostan is located only a short distance west of Bisotun, the site of the rock inscription of Darius I (r. 522–486 BCE) of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty. Excavations at Taq-e Bostan by an Iranian archaeological team led by Seyfollah Kambakhsh Fard in 1970 also unearthed a Parthian cemetery at the top of a nearby rock cliff and a very short distance to the west discovered another Parthian site on a hillside known as Kuh-i Paroo.

  Before ascending the Sasanian throne, the Persian king Bahram IV (r. 388–399 CE), who had served as the governor, or the shah of Kerman in southeastern Iran, founded a city in close proximity to Taq-e Bostan and named it Kermanshah after his former title. The city was located on the main trade route that linked China, India, and Central Asia to Iran and Mesopotamia.

  Taq-e Bostan is an ancient historical and archaeological site near the city of Kermanshah in western Iran. The most important properties in the complex are two porticos and several exceptional bas-reliefs dating back to the reigns of the Sasanian monarchs Ardashir II, Shapur III, and Khosrow II Parvez. (Vadim Kulikov/Dreamstime.com)

  The oldest relief at Taq-e Bostan depicts the investiture of the Sasanian monarch Ardashir II (r. 379–383 CE). Carved into a rectangular rock frame, the bas-relief shows the Persian king receiving the diadem of kingship and sovereignty from the hands of a crowned figure identified previously as the great god Ohrmazd (Ahura Mazda) and more recently as Ardashir’s predecessor, Shapur II. Behind Ardashir II stands the sun god, Mithra, the guarantor of covenants and oaths. Mithra, who wears a crown festooned by rays of sun, holds a bundle of sacred twigs known as barsom and stands on a large lotus flower. Ardashir II and Ohrmazd/Shapur II stand on the body of a defeated foe, perhaps a Roman emperor.

  Next to the bas-relief of the investi
ture of Ardashir II are two grottoes. On the back wall of the first and smaller grotto stand the sculptures of Shapur III (r. 383–388 CE), the immediate successor to Ardashir II, next to his father, Shapur II (r. 309–379 CE). The hands of both monarchs rest on the pommel of a large sword. This is clearly not an investiture scene because no diadem of kingship is exchanged between the two monarchs. In sharp contrast to the majority of other Sasanian reliefs, there is no disagreement on the identity of the two monarchs standing shoulder to shoulder because a Middle Persian inscription identifies them as Shapur II and Shapur III.

  Next comes the larger arched grotto. The back wall of this grotto is divided into upper and lower panels. The upper panel depicts the investiture of Khosrow II Parvez, who ruled from 590 to 628 CE. The Sasanian monarch stands in the middle flanked on the right by the great god Ohrmazd (Ahura Mazda), who is handing the Persian king the diadem of power. To the left of the king stands Anahid (Anahita), the goddess of waters and the patron deity of the Sasanian royal family. In the lower panel stands the statue of the Sasanian monarch Khosrow II mounted on his horse, Shabdez (Shabdiz). Both the horse and his rider are dressed in full battle armor from head to foot. The face of the Persian monarch is completely covered and therefore invisible. On the interior left wall of the grotto appears a highly detailed carved relief of a royal boar hunt. The king is portrayed twice as he stands in a large boat targeting wild boars with his bow and arrow, while elephant riders drive the animals from the surrounding marshes toward the monarch. As the king discharges his arrows at the boars, female musicians in smaller boats play music. On the interior right wall is another detailed relief depicting the king three times: first, arriving on his horse in the hunting ground; second, as he rides and hunts deer in a forest; and third, as he departs the scene after the end of the hunt. As in the boar hunt, here too musicians are depicted playing their instruments. Outside the grotto and in the middle of the arch, the Sasanian royal crescent is shown flanked by two winged angels who hold the diadem of power. The two pilasters on either side of the arch are marked by a tree of life.