Cultures > Persians

Persians

Background

The ancient nomadic Iranian people were thought to have originally arrived in the region around 1000 BCE however were soon subjugated by neighboring Assyria between 911 and 609 BCE. As Assyrian influence fell across the centuries there rose a new empire called the Median Empire around 700 BCE. The Persian people were eventually subjugated into the new Median empire.

The Persians by 850 BCE began calling themselves Parsua, and Persian is actually the Greek interpretation of this word. The Persians capital city was known as Pasargadae and the civilization was initially known as Persis. Their territory consisted of the Tigris River on the west to the Persian Gulf to the south. The Medes and Persians combined were later instrumental in the conflict between Babylonia and Assyria along with the Scythians and many other ethnic groups. It was in the wake of the collapse of Assyria the Achaemenid Empire was born.

Persian Nobility - History of Costume (1880)

What made early Persians so successful was their development of ancient underground water irrigation channels that ran from the mountains in the north to the Persian Gulf. Water was essential for the survival of People and the development of civilization and the Iranian Plateau is a seemingly barren wasteland. Yet these engineering feats allowed them to master their environment and build a thriving civilization.

The Achaemenid Empire is named after the first great Persian king named Achaemenes who may or may not have been a real person. Regardless his descendants went on to form the largest empire either the ancient or modern world has ever seen.

Warning: include(/home/humanityhistory/public_html/addons/domains/persianempire.org/cultures/cultures-links.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/humanityhistory/public_html/addons/domains/persianempire.org/cultures/persians.php on line 30

Warning: include(): Failed opening '/home/humanityhistory/public_html/addons/domains/persianempire.org/cultures/cultures-links.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php73/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/humanityhistory/public_html/addons/domains/persianempire.org/cultures/persians.php on line 30