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The
Parthians
In the first half of the third century B.C. a confederation of nomadic
tribes called the Dahae lived in the northern plains of Hyrcania (Gorgan).
One of these tribes, an Iranian people called the Parni, separated from
the confederation under the leadership of two brothers, Arsaces and
Tiridates, and set out for the valley of Tejend (Ochus). Diodotus, the
Satrap of Bactria, blocked their path, and they were forced to head for
Hyrcania - Parthia. The Satrap of this province, Andragora, was killed in
a resulting war. Arsaces and Tiridates are considered the founders of the
Parthian (or Arsacid) dynasty. The <<Arsacid Era>>, which
began on April 1, 247 B.C., was apparently calculated from the coronation
of the first of the Parthian kings.
The Parthians took advantage of the weakness of the Seleucids and
gradually conquered the latter's territories as far as the Euphrates
River. The Parthian Empire was made up of the following regions: Hyrcania,
the capital of which was Zadrakarta; Astavene, whose capital was Asaak
mear present - day Quchan; Parthyene whose capital was Mithradakert near
today's Eshq Abad, the Nisa of the Islamic period;
Apavarcticene, or the Abivard of the Islamic period; Margiane, the Marv of
the Islamic period; Aria, the Islamic period's Harat; Anauoa, along with
the cities of Farah, Bust and Neh; Darangiane; Sakestan or Parctacene;
Arachosia or the later Qandahar; Rhaga or Rey; Choarene or Khwar; Comisene,
or the Qumes of the Islamic period, in which was located the city of
Hecatompylis; Seleucia, located on the Tigris River, along with Ctesiphon,
the later capital of the Parthians; Dura - Europus, on the Euphrates; al -
Hazr or Hatra; Artemita; eastern, western and upper Media; Tapuria and
Traziana; the country of the Mardians in the Alborz Mountains; and the
southern and eastern shores of the Caspian Sea. Vassal states of the
Parthians included the following: the kingdom of Mesene, located south of
Babylonia and also known as Characene; the kingdom of the region of Elam,
known as Elymais, which included Khuzestan and a portion of Lorestan, and
the capital of which was near Izeh or Malmir; the kingdoms located in the
provinces of Pars and Kerman; the kingdom of Osroene in northwestern
Mesopotamia, whose capital was Edessa; the kingdom of Adiabene, or ancient
Assyria, whose capital was Arbela on the Zab River; the kingdom of
Gordyene of Cordyene,or the land of the Kardush, in south Armenia; the
kingdom of Azarbaijan (Atropatene); the kingdom of Armenia; and the Indo -
Parthian dynasty, which was located in the Indus valley and among the
important cities of which was Taxila. The important centers of Parthian
government during various periods were the cities of Dara, in the region
of Abivard; Nisaye of Parthaunisa, where the first Parthian kings were
buried; Hecatompylos, in Qumes between \~Damqan~\~Shahrud~.
The Sassanids (226 - 651 A.D.)
Ardashir I, the first of the Sassanids, was the son of Babak, the king of
Estakhr. In the year 208 A.D. Ardashir succeeded his father and went on to
occupy all of Persis (Fars) and Carnania (Kerman), afterwards taking
Susiana (or Elymais), Mesene (or Characene) and Isfahan. In the year 224 a
battle took place at Hormozdgan between Ardashir and Artabanus V, the
Parthian King. As a result Artabanus was killed and Ardashir hence forth
considered himself the legitimate heir to the Parthian Empire and the king
of kings of Iran. According to Noldeke's calculation Ardashir was
officially coronated in the year 226. In the following year he occupied
Ecbatana (Hamedan), Atropatene (Azarbaijan), Hyrcania (Gorgan), Abrashahr
(Khorasan) and
Margiana (Marv), and extended his territories to the neighborhood of Balkh
and Khwarazm. In addition the kings of Kushanshahr and Turan (in present -
day Baluchestan) acknowledged his sovereignty. Thus it was
that the Sassanid Empire, which was to last more than 400 years, took its
initial form. According to the trilingual inscription of Shapur I at the
Kabah of Zoroaster (Kaba - i Zartusht), which has been called by European
scholars res gelase divi saporis (The Book of Deeds of the Emperor Shapur),
Shapur's territories consisted of the following: Persis, Susiana, Mesene,
Asuristan (Iraq), Adiabene (northern Mesopotamia: the present - day region
of Erbil), Arabia, Armenia, Atropatene, Iberia (Georgia), Makhelomia,
Albania, Balasagan (Barasajan, in the north of Iranian Azarbaijan),
Patishkhwargar (the mountainous region of Mazandaran), Media (the Jebal of
the Arab geographers), Hyrcania, Margiana, Harat, Abrashahr, Carmania,
Sistan, Turan, Makuran (Makran), Paratan, Hind (the Indus River delta),
Kushanshahr (as far as
Peshavar and Tashkand), Soghd (as far as Kashghar) and Mazun (the region
of Oman). It is possible that the inclusion of some of these areas,
especially Kushanshahr and Soghd, as being among Shahpur's territories is
an exaggeration.
During the reign of Chosroes I Anusharvan, Sassanid territory was extended
to the shores of the Black Sea, that is, Lazika (present - day Lazestan,
the capital of which is Kutais). In addition the city of Antioch and
southern Arabia (the Yemen) were taken by the Sassanids and the region of
Bactria as far as the southern part of the Oxus River was also annexed to
their empire. The conquests of Chosroes II Aparvez (590 - 628) in Syria
and Asia Minor were of a temporary nature.
The Rise of Islam
Muhammad ibn Abdallah(PBUH), the prophet of Islam, was born in
approximately 570 A.D. in the city of Mecca. Around the age of 40 he
received the command from God to call men to the religion of Divine Unity
and the precepts of Islam. After thirteen years of carrying out this
mission the Prophet was forced by the stubborn opposition of the
inhabitants of Mecca to emigrate to the city of Medina. The year of the
emigration (in Arabic, hijra), 622 A.D., was afterwards designated as the
first year of the Muslim era (year one of the hijra of Hegirah, 1A.H.). In
the city of Medina the Prophet founded the first independent Muslim
community and the first Muslim government, and during a period of ten
years he was able to bring the entire Arabian peninsula under centralized
control. The Prophet's successors, with their unparalleled competence and
skill, were able to bring all of western Asia, and a large section of
central Asia, North Africa, and a large part of Spain under Muslim
domination.
In the first decades of the seventh century A.D. the Sassanid Empire had
been severely weakened as the result of internal divisions and several
long wars against the Byzantine Empire. The feeble, irresolute and
skeptical Iranian forces were no match for the united and determined
armies of Islam, firm in the new faith. In 12 A.H./633 A.D. Khalid ibn
Walid, the Muslim general, was able to conquer the city of Hira with ease,
a city which until this conquest had been the center of the Arab
government ruling under Sassanid control. With the defeat of the Iranian
army at Qadesiyya in 14/635 the way was completely opened for the Arab
forces, and in the year 16/637, or according to some sources in 19/640,
the city of Madaen or Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanid Empire, was
taken. In the year 17/638 or 19/640 Khuzestan was conquered, and after the
Iranian defeat at the battle of Nahavand in 21/642 the cities of Dinavar,
Hamedan and Isfahan fell into muslim hands. Qazvin, Zanjan and Qumes were
conquered in the year 22/643. By 25/646 Azarbaijan and Armenia and by
29/650 Fars were completely conquered. In 29/650 Tabarestan was invaded
for the first time, by Said ibn As, the Arab general. Khorasan, Sistan and
Kerman fell into Muslim hands in the year 31/651, and in the same year
Yazdagird III, the last of the Sassanid kings, was killed by a miller in
Marv on his way to Transoxania to seek help from the kings of Soghd,
Torkestan and China. Thus the Sassanid Empire, which had lasted morethan
four centuries, came to an end. During the caliphate of Ali ibn Abi Talib
and part way into the Umayyad period the forward march of the Muslim
armies was delayed because of internal divisions within the Islamic
community, but from the time of the caliph Walid ibn Abd al - Malik
(86/705 - 96/715) the Muslims once again continued their advance to the
east and to the west. In the year 90/709 Bokhara was conquered and from
the years 90/709 to 93/712 Soghd, Samarqand and Khwarazm were taken by the
Muslims. Tabarestan was finally conquered completely in 141/758-9 and
Gilan and Deylamestan in 201/816-7.
When the caliph al - Mamun appointed Tahir ibn Husayn to rule over the
eastern regions of Iran, the first domestically autonomous government
within Iran during this period came into begin. During these 200 years
the Iranians embraced the religion of Islam, and Arabic became their
religions and afterwards their scientific language. Although Iranian
traditions and customs continued to survive among the village lords or
dihqans, gradually these lost their vitality and power of resistance in
the face of the new culture and civilization, which came to be known as
the Islamic. However, ethnic sentiments and the desire for independence
and freedom did not disappear from among the Iranian people. In contrast
to other countries conquered by the Muslim
armies, such as Syria, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa, which lost all
of their ethnic characteristics, even their language, and became
<<Arab>>, the Iranians, with all of their belief in and
revence for the religion of Islam and with all of their sacrifices made in
the way of exalting it, did not remain at ease under Arab rule and took
advantage of every opportunity to further their own independence and
freedom. For example, they accepted the call of the Abbasids to overthrow
the Umayyad caliphate and supported Abu Muslim of Khorasan , who was
himself an Iranian; they penetrated into the political, administrative and
military organization of the Abbasid caliphate; and they supported over al
- Amin, who was supported by the Arabs and the Arab nobility, and
overthrew al - Amin's caliphate. Finally, after two centuries of effort,
having taken advantage of the particular conditions of the areas far from
the center of government of the Arab caliphate, the Iranians were
able to establish independent and semi - independent governments such as
those of the Tahirids, the Saffarids, the Samanids, the Buyids and the
Ziyarids. While accepting the spiritual and titular leadership of the
Muslim caliphate they achieved political, economic and military
independence. But at the same time they played a central role in
establishing the grand and magnificent civilization of Islam, a role which
more than all else took the form of the cooperation of great Iranian
intellectual figures in all the areas of religion, philosophy, science and
politics.
Source:
Historical Atlas of Iran, University of Tehran,
Institute of Geography
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