Persians

Persians are people of Indo-European or Aryan origin that moved to the Iranian plateau from the east. The word "Persian" comes from the Persian word Parsa (its Arabic form is Fars), which referred to people from the region in the south of Iran. The majority of the Iranian people are of Persian ethnic background (over half of the population). Persians have experienced a history replete with foreign invasions, battles, and conquests, and have also contributed to the development of world science, art, and literature.

During the first millennium BCE, the Persians arrived in the southern and central area of Iran from the Caucasus region; they established themselves there by the seventh century BCE. Most likely, they had left their original lands because of overgrazing, overpopulation, and conflicts. A seventh-century BCE ruler was Hakamanish, known in Greek as Achaemenes. Hakamanish was the ancestor of Cyrus the Great (c. 585–c. 529 BCE), the founder of the Achaemenid empire. Through conquest, Cyrus the Great extended the Persian empire until it included Asia Minor and Babylonia; later he extended it east into Afghanistan and west as far as the Danube River.

Alexander of Macedon (356–323 BCE) defeated the Achaemenid empire in 330 BCE. Alexander the Great aimed to integrate the Greek and Persian cultures; to that end, in 324 BCE he ordered his officers and ten thousand soldiers to take Persian women as their brides. After the death of Alexander, the Seleucids and Parthians ruled the territory of the Persians. In 224 Ardeshir (reigned 224–241 CE) ousted the last of the Parthian kings and founded the Persian Sasanid dynasty (224–651 CE).

The Sasanid dynasty consolidated power and was able to achieve control over an area about the same size as that achieved under the Achaemenids. Culturally, they worked to remove Greek influences and to reinforce Persian ones. They established Zoroastrianism as the state religion.

Constant warfare with the Byzantines coupled with economic hardship opened the door for invasion. Eventually, fatal invasion came from the least likely place: Arabia. The Arab tribes had become united under the banner of Islam and mastered the use of light armored cavalry, a new style of warfare. In battles, they surprised the Persian heavy armed forces with their lightning-speed, hit-and-run attacks. The Arabs defeated the Persians, captured almost the entire territory of the empire, and incorporated Persia into the Islamic empire. The vast majority of Persians were gradually converted to Islam. Having no experience in running a large state, the Arabs adopted many Persian administrative and ceremonial practices. Moreover, although Arabic was the official language, Persian continued to be spoken throughout the region.

In time, several dynasties of Persian descent emerged to revitalize Persian traditions. No one dynasty was able to achieve control over the entire territory of the former Persian empires, and the rivalry among them made it easy for the Mongols to conquer them early in the thirteenth century. The Mongol invasion had a devastating effect on the Persian population and infrastructure. Eventually, an Iranian dynasty, the Safavid dynasty (1501–1722) was established; it was followed by a number of smaller dynasties until the Qajar dynasty (1794–1925) came to power. The Qajars were of Turkic origin but were culturally Persianized. Persia's last dynasty was that of the Pahlavis, Reza Shah (1878–1944) and his son, Muhammad Reza Shah (1919–1980).

The Persian empire was at its heyday during the Achaemenids. Politically, the Achaemenids organized their empire into provinces that were governed by satraps, who were appointed by the king. The satraps were given plenty of leeway in terms of governing their areas. Generally, the Persians were tolerant of the laws and customs of the people they conquered, and were in fact influenced by them. This live-and-let-live policy also fit with how the Persians perceived society, which they believed began with the family and worked upward to the nation-state. As long as the masses remained loyal, the rulers were not concerned with how the people behaved individually.

The Persian economy was sustained by agriculture, although craftsmanship and commerce were also important to its development. Under Darius the Great (550–486 BCE), the Persians gained a universal legal system upon which much of Iranian law is based. Darius the Great also incorporated gold and silver as the monetary systems of exchange.

There were generally four classes of people in ancient Persian society: priests, warriors, scribes, and an artisan-peasant class. The style recognized today as Persian, an eclectic synthesis of the styles of the peoples the Persians conquered, combined with native styles, is visible in Persepolis, which Darius the Great had made his capital. The pavilions and columned halls of Persepolis are Persian trademarks. The reliefs at Persepolis also demonstrate the Persian style with flair. Instead of telling a story, as Egyptian and Assyrian reliefs do, the Persian reliefs paint a picture of happy subjects paying tribute to their king and perhaps demonstrate the Persian policy of tolerance as revered by the masses and the artistic community.

Houman A. Sadri

Frye, Richard Nelson. (1975) The Golden Age of Persia. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Ghirshman, Roman. (1978) Iran. Middlesex, U.K.: Penguin Books.

Melville, Charles, ed. (1996) Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society. New York: St. Martin's Press.

This complete Persians contains 872 words. This article contains 906 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).