Hellenistic rulers gave way to Parthian kings in the 2nd century BC and the region was ruled by the Arsacid dynasty whose homeland, around Nisa, was the northern region of the Iranian world.
The Parthian Empire witnessed growing connectivity between east and west and increasing traffic along the silk routes. Their control of this trade led to conflict with the Romans who reached east to grasp some of the resulting spoils. It was also a time of religious transition that not only witnessed the rise of Buddhism, but also a thriving Zoroastrian religion that intersected with Judaism and developing Christianity. In the biblical story of the birth of Christ, who were the three kings — the Magi with their gifts for Jesus — but Persian priests from Iran coming to the side of child messiah, astronomers following the comet.
The last great ancient kingdom of the Iranians was the Sasanian empire based around a dynasty that rose out of the final years of the Arsacid rule in the 3rd century AD. The Sasanians ruled a massive geopolitical entity from AD. They were builders of cities and frontiers across the empire including the enormous Gorgan wall. This frontier wall stretched km from the Caspian Sea to the mountains in Turkmenistan and was built in the 5th century AD to protect the Iranian agricultural heartland from northern invaders like the Huns.
The wall is a fired-brick engineering marvel with a complex network of water canals running the whole length. It once stood across the plain with more than 30 forts manned by tens of thousands of soldiers. The Sasanians were the final pre-Islamic dynasty of Iran. The Seleucids focused their interest on the west and extended their power to the Mediterranean, with capitals at Antioch in Syria and Seleuceia on the Tigris River. The Arsacids were the leaders of the Parthians, an Iranian people who followed a pastoral way of life southeast of the Caspian Sea.
It is the least known of the major Iranian dynasties despite being a formidable enemy of the Romans. The Silk Roads across Central Asia to China, which first become active during the Parthian period, gave rise to an exchange of cultural influences between the two ends of Asia. The Sasanids, a family of Zoroastrian priestly origins in Fars, overthrew the Parthians and established Zoroastrianism as the official and exclusive Iranian religion.
Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and Manichaeans, a sect begun by the prophet Mani in the third century CE, were sometimes persecuted and sometimes tolerated. The hierarchical Zoroastrian church and its leader the shah confronted on the west a similarly organized Christian church led by the emperors of the late Roman or Byzantine empire established by Constantine in The rival empires fought off and on for three centuries.
Meanwhile, new peoples entered Iranian territory from Central Asia. Some spoke Iranian languages e. Buddhism was the dominant religion, although Manichean and Christian missionaries had spread from Iran deep into Central Asia.
The eastern border of the Sasanid empire fluctuated. The numerous small principalities beyond the border are poorly known. Unsupported Browser Detected. The Sassanids came into power in A. In , the kings, or shahs, of the Safavid Empire began their reign. In the late 18th century, foreign powers, including Russia and Britain, took control of parts of Persia. In , a Persian army officer named Reza Khan took control and sought to end outside influence. In , he renamed the country Iran.
His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, became shah in In , many Iranians who felt Pahlavi was corrupt forced him to flee, ending the reign of the shahs in Iran. Since then, religious leaders have ruled the country. The first was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, whose ten years in power were marked by a long war with Iraq and tensions with the United States and many other nations. Khomeini died in , but much of those tensions still exist today. All rights reserved. Personality Quizzes. Funny Fill-In.
Amazing Animals. Weird But True! Party Animals. Try This! Explore More.
0コメント