The Medes

The Aryans who conquered Iran eventually divided into groups, the most notable of which were the Medes (MEEDZ) along the Caspian Sea in the north and the Persians across the mountains to the south. For a long time, the Medes were the dominant group. Beginning in the 700s b. c., they

Linguistic: Relating to language.

Mercenary: A professional soldier who will fight for whoever pays him.

Middle Ages: The period from the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance, roughly a. d. 500-1500.

Migrate: To move in large numbers.

Mujahideen: Islamic "holy warriors."

Muslim: A believer in Islam.

Namesake: Someone with the same name as someone else.

Nobleman: A ruler within a kingdom who has an inherited title and lands but who is less powerful than the king or queen.

Nomads: Wandering groups of people.

Peninsula: An area of land that sticks out into a body of water.

Province: A political unit, like a state, that is part of a larger country.

Satrap: A governor in the Persian Empire.

Sect: A small group within a larger religion.

Shah: A king of Iran before 1979.

Shiite: Someone who belongs to the Shiite

Sect of Islam, which is dominant in Iran.

Soviet Union: A country that combined Russia and fourteen other nations under a Communist government from the end of World War I to the early 1990s.

Stalemate: A situation in which a conflict ends without either side being able to claim victory.

Standard: A battle flag or banner.

Symbol: Something that stands for something else.

Theme: A basic idea in a story.

Theocracy: A government controlled by religious leaders.

Tolerance: Acceptance of other people and their different ways of doing things.

Treaty: An agreement between nations.

Uniform (adj.): Having the same form.

Usurp: To seize power.

Zoroastrianism: A religion, founded in Persia, based on a belief in a continuing struggle between the good god Ahura-Mazda and the evil god Ahriman.

Threatened the Assyrians, but from 653 to 628 b. c., the Scythians controlled much of Iran.

In 625 b. c., however, a Median king named Cyaxares (kee-ax-ARE-eez) drove out the Scythians and resumed warfare against Assyria. He later joined forces with the Babylonians, and a combined force of Medes and Babylonians destroyed

Assyria in 612 b. c. After that, the Medes and Babylonians divided the Middle East between them. For a time, the Medes controlled much of Asia Minor, including Lydia.

But a new force was rising among the Medes' Persian cousins to the south, who were ruled by the Achaemenid (ah-kay-MEN-id) dynasty. In 559 b. c., a powerful Achaemenid king named Cyrus II [SIE-rus], whom history would remember as Cyrus the Great, came to the throne. Cyrus united the Persians against the Medes and after a long hard fight defeated them in 550 b. c. Thus was born the Persian Empire.