Median_Empire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Medes Medes Median Empire ← 625 BC–549 BC → Seleucid Empire Greco-Bactrian Kingdom Parthian Empire 330–150 250-125 248–CE 224 CE Kushan Empire Sassanid Empire Hephthalite Empire Kabul-Shahi dynasty Median Empire, ca. 600 BC 30–275 224–651 425–557 565–670 After Islam Ecbatana Zoroastrianism Monarchy Iron Age 625 BC 549 BC Capital Religion Government Historical era - Cyaxares united Median tribes[1] - Cyrus the Great Patriarchal Caliphate Umayyad Caliphate Abbasid Caliphate Tahirid dynasty Alavid dynasty Saffarid dynasty Samanid dynasty Ziyarid dynasty Buyid dynasty Ghaznavid Empire Ghori dynasty 637–651 661–750 750–1258 821–873 864–928 861–1003 819–999 928–1043 934–1055 975–1187 1149–1212 1037–1194 1077–1231 1231-1389 1256–1353 1314–1393 1337–1357 1339–1432 1370–1506 1407–1468 1378–1508 1501–1722* 1526–1857 1722–1729 History of Greater Iran Kings of Persia Pre-modern Before Islam BCE Prehistory Proto-Elamite civilization Elamite dynasties Bactria-Margiana Complex Kingdom of Mannai Median Empire Achaemenid Empire 3200–2800 2800–550 2200–1700 10th–7th cent. 728–550 550–330 Seljuk Empire Khwarezmid dynasty Kartids dynasty Ilkhanate Muzaffarid dynasty Chupanid dynasty Jalayerid dynasty Timurid Empire Qara Qoyunlu Turcomans Aq Qoyunlu Turcomans Safavid Empire Mughal Empire Hotaki dynasty 1 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Medes Afsharid dynasty * or 1736 1736–1750 Tajik Autonomous SSR Tajik SSR Republic of Tajikistan Uzbekistan Emirate of Bukhara 1929 1929–1991 since 1991 Modern SSR = Soviet Socialist Republic Afghanistan Durrani Empire British and Russian influence Independence and civil war Mohammedzai rule Republic of Afghanistan Communist rule Recent history of Afghanistan Timeline Azerbaijan Khanates of the Caucasus Russian Rule Democratic Republic Azerbaijan SSR Republic of Azerbaijan Bahrain Portuguese rule British Treaty Kingdom of Bahrain Iran Zand dynasty Qajar dynasty Pahlavi dynasty Iranian Revolution Provisional Government Islamic Republic of Iran Iraq Ottoman Empire Hashimite monarchy Coup and Republic Republic of Iraq Tajikistan Emirate of Bukhara Bukharan / Uzbek SSR 1785–1920 1920–1929 1632–1919 1920–1958 1958–2003 since 2004 1750–1794 1781–1925 1925–1979 1979 1979 since 1979 1521–1602 1820–1971 since 1971 1722–1828 1828–1917 1918–1920 1920–1991 since 1991 1748–1823 1826–1919 1919–1929 1929–1973 1973–1978 1978–1992 since 1992 1785–1920 1924–1991 1991 since 1991 Uzbek SSR Independence Republic of Uzbekistan This article is part of the Kurdish history and Culture series Early ancestors • • • • • • Land of Karda Gutium Mitanni Mannaeans Matiene Median Ancient history • Corduene • Kayusid Medieval history • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Sharazor Shaddadid Rawadid Hasanwayhid Annazid Marwanid Hadhabani Hazaraspid Ayyubid Badlis Ardalan Badinan Soran Mukriyan Baban Modern history • • • • • • • • • Simko’s rule Kingdom of Kurdistan Republic of Ararat Republic of Mahabad KRG Iranian Kurdistan Turkish Kurdistan Kurds in Turkey Kurds in Syria Culture • Kurdish Literature • Kurdish Music • Kurdish Dance 2 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Medes thought to be of Mede origin (I.M Diakonoff, Medes) include • Farnah: Divine glory; (Avestan: khvarɘnah), • Paridaiza: Paradise, (as in Pardis ‫)سیدرپ‬ • Vazraka: Great, (as Modern Persian Bozorg ‫,)گرزب‬ • Vispa: All, (as in Avestan), • Xshayathiya (royal, royalty). • Historical sites The Medes were an ancient Iranian people[2][3][4][5][6][7] and Iranian sister nation of the Persians,[8] who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea (Μηδία, Old Persian Māda;[9][10] adjective Median, antiquated also Medean). Under Assyrian rule, the Medes were known as Mādāyu.[11] They entered this region with the first wave of Iranian tribes, in the late second millennium BC (the Bronze Age collapse).[12] By the 6th century BC, after having together with the Babylonians defeated the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Medes were able to establish their own empire,[9] which stretched from the southern shore of the Black Sea and Aran province (the modernday Republic of Azerbaijan) to north and Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and which included many tributary states, including the Persians, who eventually supplanted and absorbed the Median empire in the Achaemenid Persian Empire.[9] The Medes are credited with the foundation of the first Iranian empire, the largest of its day until Cyrus the Great established a unified Iranian empire of the Medes and Persians, often referred to as the Achaemenid Persian Empire, by defeating his overlord and grandfather, Astyages, king of Media. The modern Kurdish people consider the Medes among their ancestors.[13][14][15] Origins The Medes are presumed to have migrated from the Eurasian steppes southward to the Zagros mountains during the second millennium BC.[16] Early historical references to Medes The origin and history of the Medes is quite obscure, as we possess almost no contemporary information, and not a single monument or inscription from Media itself. The story that Ctesias gave (a king named Pharnus, said to have been crucified by the Assyrian Ninus in c. 2175 BC, followed by a list of nine later kings beginning with Arbaces, said to have destroyed Nineveh in 880s BC; preserved in Diodorus ii. 32 sqq. and copied by many later authors) has no historical value whatsoever; though some of his names may be derived from local traditions. Herodotus, i. 101, lists the names of six Median tribes: "Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a nation, and ruled over them alone. Now these are the tribes of which they consist: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi." He further notes that "the Medes had exactly the same equipment as the Persians; and indeed the dress common to both is not so much Persian as Median." (7.62) According to Herodotus, "the Medes were called anciently by all people Aryans; but when Media, the Colchian, came to them from Athens, they changed their name. Such is the account which they themselves give." -- the Medes, History of Herodotus (7.7). Medea is the daughter of the Colchian King Aeëtes in the Greek myth, Jason and the Argonauts. Josephus relates the Medes (OT Heb. Madai) to the biblical character, Madai, son of Japheth. "Now as to Javan and Madai, the Median language Strabo, in his "Geography", mentions the affinity of Mede with other Iranian languages: The name of Ariana is further extended to a part of Persia and of Media, as also to the Bactrians and Sogdians on the north; for these speak approximately the same language, with but slight variations. – Geography, 15.8 Words probably of Mede origin appear in various other Iranian dialects, including Old Persian. For example, Herodotus mentions the word Spaka (dog), still found in Iranic languages such as Talyshi. Other words also 3 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia sons of Japhet; from Madai came the Madeans, who are called Medes, by the Greeks" Antiquities of the Jews, I:6. According to the Book of Jubilees (10:35-36), Madai had married a daughter of Shem, and preferred to live among Shem’s descendants, rather than dwell in Japheth’s allotted inheritance beyond the Black Sea; so he begged his brothers-in-law, Elam, Asshur and Arphaxad, until he finally received from them the land that was named after him, Media. We can see how the Persian element gradually became dominant; princes with Persian names occasionally occur as rulers of other tribes. But the Gelae, Tapuri, Cadusii, Amardi, Utii and other tribes in northern Media and on the shores of the Caspian may not have been Persian stock. Polybius (V. 44, 9), Strabo (xi. 507, 508, 514), and Pliny (vi. 46), considered the Anariaci to be among these tribes; but this name, meaning the "non-Arians", is probably a comprehensive designation for a number of smaller indigenous tribes. Medes received tribute from the "Amadai" in connection with wars against the tribes of the Zagros. His successors undertook many expeditions against the Medes (Madai). At this early stage, the Medes were usually mentioned together with another steppe tribe, the Scythians, who seem to have been the dominant group. They were divided into many districts and towns, under petty local chieftains; from the names in the Assyrian inscriptions, it appears they had already adopted the religion of Zoroaster[17] In 715 BC and 713 BC, Sargon II of Assyria subjected them up to "the far mountain Bikni", i.e. the Elburz (Damavand) and the borders of the desert. If the account of Herodotus is to be trusted, the Median dynasty descends from Deioces (Daiukku), a Median chieftain in the Zagros, who, along with his kinsmen, was transported by Sargon to Hamath (Haniah) in Syria in 715 BC. This Daiukku seems to have originally been a governor of Mannae, subject to Sargon prior to his exile. In spite of repeated rebellions by the early chieftains against Assyrian rule, the Medes paid tribute to Assyria under Sargon’s successors, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashur-bani-pal whenever these kings marched against them. Assyrian forts located in Median territory at the time of Esarhaddon’s campaign (ca. 676) included BitParnakki, Bit-kari and Harhar (KarSharrukin). The historical record Median Empire Median Empire of Persia/Iran. Although Herodotus credits “Deioces son of Phraortes” (probably c. 715) with the creation of the Median kingdom and the founding of its capital city at Ecbatana (modern Hamadan), it was probably not before 625 BC that Cyaxares, grandson of Deioces, Costumes of ancient Mede nobility. The Medes, people of the Mada, (the Greek form Μῆδοι is Ionic for Μᾶδοι), appear in history first in 836 BC. Earliest records show that Assyrian conqueror Shalmaneser III 4 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia succeeded in uniting into a kingdom the many Iranian-speaking Median tribes.[1] According to Herodotus, the conquests of Cyaxares the Medes were preceded by a Scythian invasion and domination lasting twenty-eight years (under Madius the Scythian, 653-625 BC). The Medes tribes seem to have come into immediate conflict with a settled state to the West known as Mannae, allied with Assyria. Assyrian inscriptions state that the early Medes rulers, who had attempted rebellions against the Assyrians in the time of Esarhaddon and Ashur-bani-pal, were allied with chieftains of the Ashguza (Scythians) and other tribes - who had come from the northern shore of the Black Sea and invaded Asia Minor. The state of Mannae was finally conquered and assimilated by the Medes in the year 616 BC. In 612 BC, Cyaxares conquered Urartu, and in alliance with Nabopolassar (who created the Neo-Babylonian Empire), succeeded in destroying the Assyrian capital, Nineveh, and by 606 BC, the remaining vestiges of Assyrian control. From this point, the Medes king ruled over much of northern Mesopotamia, eastern Anatolia and Cappadocia. His power was a threat to his neighbors, and the exiled Jews expected the destruction of Babylonia by the Medes (Isaiah 13, 14m 21; Jerem. 1, 51.). When Cyaxares attacked Lydia in the Battle of Halys, the kings of Cilicia and Babylon intervened and negotiated a peace in 585 BC, whereby the Halys River was established as the Medes’ frontier with Lydia. Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon married a daughter of Cyaxares. Cyaxares’ son, Astyages (584 BCE - 550 BCE), went to war with the Babylonian king Nabonidus.[18] An equilibrium of the great powers was maintained until the rise of the Persians under Cyrus the Great. Modern research by a professor of Assyriology, Robert Rollinger, has questioned the extent of the Median empire and its sphere of influence, proposing for example that it did not control the Assyrian heartland.[19] Medes • Astyages (Old Iranian *Ršti-vêga) 589-549 BC [21] Persian rule Further information: Persian Mesopotamia Mede nobleman and Persians. In 553 BC, Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, rebelled against his grandfather, the Mede King, Astyages son of Cyaxares; he finally won a decisive victory in 550 BC resulting in Astyages’ capture by his own dissatisfied nobles, who promptly turned him over to the triumphant Cyrus. After Cyrus’s victory against Astyages, the Medes were subjected to their close kin, the Persians. In the new empire they retained a prominent position; in honor and war, they stood next to the Persians; their court ceremony was adopted by the new sovereigns, who in the summer months resided in Ecbatana; and many noble Medes were employed as officials, satraps and generals. Interestingly, at the beginning the Greek historians referred to the Achaemenid Empire as a Median empire. After the assassination of the usurper Smerdis, a Mede Fravartish (Phraortes), claiming to be a scion of Cyaxares, tried to restore the Mede kingdom, but was defeated by the Persian generals and executed in Ecbatana (Darius in the Behistun inscr.). List of Median kings • • • • Deioces 728-675 BC Phraortes 675-653 BC Madius the Scythian 653-625 BC Cyaxares (Old Iranian *Uvaxštra) 625-585 BC [1][20] 5 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Another rebellion, in 409 BC, against Darius II (Xenophon, Hellen. ~. 2, 19) was of short duration. But the non-Aryan tribes to the north, especially the Cadusii, were always troublesome; many abortive expeditions of the later kings against them are mentioned. Under Persian rule, the country was divided into two satrapies: the south, with Ecbatana and Rhagae (Rey near modern Tehran), Media proper, or Greater Media, as it is often called, formed in Darius’ organization the eleventh satrapy (Herodotus iii. 92), together with the Paricanians and Orthocorybantians; the north, the district of Matiane (see above), together with the mountainous districts of the Zagros and Assyria proper (east of the Tigris) was united with the Alarodians and Saspirians in eastern Armenia, and formed the eighteenth satrapy (Herod. iii. 94; cf. v. 49, 52, VII. 72). When the Persian empire decayed and the Cadusii and other mountainous tribes made themselves independent, eastern Armenia became a special satrapy, while Assyria seems to have been united with Media; therefore Xenophon in the Anabasis always designates Assyria by the name of "Media". Medes v. 55; Strabo xi. 253). Nevertheless, King Artabazanes was forced by Antiochus the Great in 220 BC to conclude a disadvantageous treaty (Polyb. v. 55), and in later times, the rulers became dependent in turn upon the Parthians, upon Tigranes of Armenia, and in the time of Pompey who defeated their king Darius (Appian, Mithr. 108), upon Antonius (who invaded Atropatene) and upon Augustus of Rome. In the time of Strabo (AD 17), the dynasty still existed; later, the country seems to have become a Parthian province. Atropatene is that country of western Asia which was least of all other countries influenced by Hellenism; there exists not even a single coin of its rulers. Southern Media remained a province of the Seleucid Empire for a century and a half, and Hellenism was introduced everywhere. Media was surrounded everywhere by Greek towns, in pursuance of Alexander’s plan to protect it from neighboring barbarians, according to Polybius (x. 27). Only Ecbatana retained its old character. But Rhagae became the Greek town Europus; and with it Strabo (xi. 524) names Laodicea, Apamea Heraclea or Achais. Most of them were founded by Seleucus I and his son Antiochus I. Under the Seleucids Alexander the Great occupied the satrapy of Media in the summer of 330 BC. In 328 he appointed as satrap a former general of Darius called Atropates (Atrupat), whose daughter was married to Perdiccas in 324, according to Arrian. In the partition of his empire, southern Media was given to the Macedonian Peithon; but the north, far off and of little importance to the generals squabbling over Alexander’s inheritance, was left to Atropates. While southern Media, with Ecbatana, passed to the rule of Antigonus, and afterwards (about 310 BC) to Seleucus I, Atropates maintained himself in his own satrapy and succeeded in founding an independent kingdom. Thus the partition of the country, that Persia had introduced, became lasting; the north was named Atropatene (in Pliny, Atrapatene; in Ptolemy, Tropatene), after the founder of the dynasty, a name still said to be preserved in the modern form ’Azerbaijan’. The capital of Atropatene was Gazaca in the central plain, and the castle Phraaspa, discovered on the Araz river by archaeologists in April 2005. The kings had a strong and warlike army, especially cavalry (Polyb. Under the Arsacids In 221 BC, the satrap Molon tried to make himself independent (there exist bronze coins with his name and the royal title), together with his brother Alexander, satrap of Persis, but they were defeated and killed by Antiochus the Great. In the same way, the Mede satrap Timarchus took the diadem and conquered Babylonia; on his coins he calls himself the great king Timarchus; but again the legitimate king, Demetrius I, succeeded in subduing the rebellion, and Timarchus was slain. But with Demetrius I, the dissolution of the Seleucid Empire began, brought about chiefly by the intrigues of the Romans, and shortly afterwards, in about 150, the Parthian king Mithradates I conquered Media (Justin xli. 6). From this time Media remained subject to the Arsacids or Parthians, who changed the name of Rhagae, or Europus, into Arsacia (Strabo xi. 524), and divided the country into five small provinces (Isidorus Charac.). From the Parthians, it passed in 226 to the Sassanids, together with Atropatene. 6 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Medes western half falling into the hands of a Chaldean dynasty, the eastern half into the hands of Median kings. In 539 BC, both became incorporated into the Achaemenid Empire, the western part as the megasatrapy of Assyria (AӨūra), the eastern as the satrapy of Media (Māda)." [10] Kent, Ronald Grubb (1384 AP) (in Persian). Old Persian: Grammar, Text, Glossary. translated into Persian by S. Oryan. pp. 396. ISBN 964-421-045-X. [11] Parpola, Simo. "Assyrian Identity in Ancient Times and Today" (PDF). Assyriology. Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 3. http://www.aina.org/articles/ assyrianidentity.pdf. "Ethnonyms like Arbāyu "Arab", Mādāyu "Mede", Muşurāyu "Egyptian", and Urarţāyu "Urartian" are from the late eighth century on frequently borne by fully Assyrianized, affluent individuals in high positions." [12] Daniel J Hopkins, Merriam-Webster’s Geographical Dictionary, p. 527, 1997, ISBN 0877795460 [13] Iran v.-, in Encyclopaedia Iranica. [14] Middle East Patterns: Places, People and Politics by Colbert Held, p. 117 [15] Rubin, Michael, review of Kevin McKiernan’s "Middle East Patterns: Places, People and Politics", Middle East Quarterly Summer 2007 [1] [16] M. Chahin, Before the Greeks, p. 109, James Clarke & Co., 1996, ISBN 0718829506 [17] Mary Boyce, Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism (Chicago: Univ. Of Chicago Press, 1990) [2] [18] "Media and Medes". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/ Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/ Media_and_Medes. [19] On some problems concerning the Western expansion of the Median empire" [20] Cyaxares - Britannica Online Encyclopedia [21] I.M. Diakonoff, “Media” in Cambridge History of Iran 2 Under the Sassanids The revival of Zoroastrianism, enforced everywhere by the Sassanids, completed this development. Atropatene, already center of the fire cult during Parthian times (see Takht-i-Suleiman) now became the site of one of the legendary Great Fires. Under the patronage of Kartir, the ’priest of priests’ of the early Sassanid kings, Arsacia/Rhagae advanced to become one of the two (the other being Ishtakhr, ancestral seat of the Sassanid priest-kings) centers of the Zoroastrian priesthood. See also • List of Kings of the Medes • Full list of Iranian kingdoms References and Notes [1] ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/ topic/372125/Media Encyclopædia Britannica Encyclopedia Article: Media ancient region, Iran [2] "Mede." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 January 2008 . [3] Andrew Dalby, Dictionary of Languages: the definitive reference to more than 400 languages, Columbia University Press, 2004, pg 278. [4] Gwendolyn Leick, Who’s Who in the Ancient Near East, Routledge, Published 2001. pg 192 [5] Ian Shaw, Robert Jameson, A Dictionary of Archaeology, Blackwell Publishing, 1999. [6] Sabatino Moscati, Face of the Ancient Orient, Courier Dover Publications, Published 2001. pg 67 [7] John Prevas, Xenophon’s March: Into the Lair of the Persian Lion, Da Capo Press, 2002. pg 20. [8] R. Schmitt, Achaemenid (ii. The Empire), Encyclopaedia Iranica [9] ^ Parpola, Simo. "Assyrian Identity in Ancient Times and Today" (PDF). Assyriology. Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 14. http://www.aina.org/articles/ assyrianidentity.pdf. "With the fall of Nineveh, the Empire was split in two, the 7 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Medes Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medes" Categories: Former countries in Asia, Former monarchies of Asia, States and territories established in 625 BC, 549 BC disestablishments, Medes, Achaemenid satrapies, Provinces of the Sassanid Empire, Ancient Iranian peoples This page was last modified on 22 May 2009, at 17:17 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers 8