Iran, the “land of the Aryans,” links western Asia with southern and Central Asia, and its history has been marked by this mediating position (see Map 5.1). In the sixth century B. c.E. the vigorous Persians of southwest Iran created the largest empire the world had yet seen. Heirs to the long legacy of Mesopotamian culture, they introduced distinctly Iranian elements and developed new forms of political and economic organization in western Asia.
Relatively little written material from within the Persian Empire has survived, so we are forced to view it mostly through the eyes of the ancient Greeks—outsiders who were ignorant at best, often hostile, and interested primarily in events that affected themselves. (Iranian groups and individuals are known in the Western world by Greek approximations of their names; thus these familiar forms are used here, with the original Iranian names given in parentheses.) This Greek perspective leaves us less informed about developments in the central and eastern portions of the Persian Empire. Nevertheless, recent archaeological discoveries and close analysis of the limited written material from within the empire can supplement and correct the perspective of the Greek sources.
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Iran is bounded by the Zagros (ZUHG-roes) Mountains to the west, the Caucasus (KAW-kuh-suhs) Mountains and Caspian Sea to the northwest and north, the mountains of Afghanistan and the desert of Baluchistan (buh-loo-chi-STAN) to the east and southeast, and the Persian Gulf to the southwest. The northeast is less protected by natural boundaries, and from that direction Iran was open to attacks by the nomads of Central Asia.
MAP 5.1
The Persian Empire Between 550 and 522 b. c.e., the Persians of southwest Iran, under their first two kings,
Cyrus and Cambyses, conquered each of the major states of western Asia—Media, Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt. The third king, Darius I, extended the boundaries as far as the Indus Valley to the east and the European shore of the Black Sea to the west.
The first major setback came when the fourth king, Xerxes, failed in his invasion of Greece in 480 b. c.e. The Persian Empire was considerably larger than its predecessor, the Assyrian Empire. For their empire, the Persian rulers developed a system of provinces, governors, regular tribute, and communication by means of royal roads and couriers that allowed for efficient operations for two centuries. ,
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1000 B. C.E. 800 B. C.E.
600 B. C.E.
World History
