Persian Empire

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Persian Empire
کشور شاهنشاهی ایران (Persian)
Kešvar-è Šâhanšâhi-ye Irân[a]
727 BC–1979 AD
Flag of
Flag of Pahlavi period (1964–1979)
Sovereign coat of arms of Pahlavi period (1932–1979) of
Sovereign coat of arms of Pahlavi period (1932–1979)
Anthem: (1925–1933)
سلامتی دولت علیّه ایران
Salâmati-ye Dowlat-è Âlliye-ye Irân
("Salute of the Sublime State of Iran")

(1933–1979)
سرود شاهنشاهی ایران
Sorud-è Šâhanšâhi-ye Irân
("Imperial Anthem of Iran")
Persian Empire in Achaemenid period (widest borders)
Persian Empire in Achaemenid period (widest borders)
Map of the Pahlavi Iran period
Map of the Pahlavi Iran period
StatusEmpire
CapitalTehran (1925–1979)
Common languages
  • Persian (official)[b]
  • Arabic (official, court, lingua franca[8])[c]
  • Middle Persian (official[9])[d]
  • Greek (official[10])[e]
  • Parthian (official, court, literature[11][12])[f]
  • Old Persian (official)[g]
  • Aramaic (official, lingua franca[13])[h]
  • Akkadian (literary language in Babylonia[14])[i]
  • Elamite[15][j]
  • Median[k]
  • Azerbaijani[l]
GovernmentMonarchy
History 
• Established
727 BC
• Disestablished
1979 AD
Area
500 BC[16][17]5,500,000 km2 (2,100,000 sq mi)
1 AD[16][17]2,800,000 km2 (1,100,000 sq mi)
550 AD[16][17]3,500,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi)
1925 AD1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi)
Population
• 500 BC[18]
17–35 million

The Persian Empire, or Iranian Empire (Persian: شاهنشاهی ایران, romanized: Šâhanšâhi-ye Irân), refers to the dynastic-states of Persian origin that ruled Iran from the Medes to the Pahlavi period. "Persia" was the term used by outsiders; its people called the country "Iran".

Extent[change | change source]

  • Medes* (c. 727 BC–c. 549 BC) – Of Median origin.
  • Achaemenid Empire (550 BC–330 BC) – Of Persian origin.
  • Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD) – Of Parthian origin.
  • Sasanian Empire (224–651) – Of Persian origin.
  • Tahirids* (821–873) – The dynasty was of Persian origin,[19] but they are culturally Arabized and nominally part of Abbasids.
  • Saffarids (861–1003) – Of Persian origin.[20][21][22][23]
  • Samanids* (819–999) – Of Iranian origin.[24]
  • Buyids (934–1062) – Of Daylamite origin.[25]
  • Safavids* (1501–1722/1736) – The dynasty was partly or wholly of Kurdish origin.[26][27][28]
  • Zands (1751–1794) – The dynasty was founded by Karim Khan Zand, member of the Zand tribe, a branch of Lurs.[29][30][31][32][33]
  • Pahlavis (1925–1979) – Reza Shah, the founder of the dynasty, was of Mazanderani[34] and Georgian descent.

References[change | change source]

  1. Roemer 1986, p. 331.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Matthee 2008b.
  3. Ferrier 1989, p. 9.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Perry 2006.
  5. Cyril 2003, p. 392.
  6. Arnold 1939, pp. 514–515.
  7. Ruda 2006, p. 76.
  8. Davaran 2010, p. 156.
  9. Daryaee 2008, pp. 99–100.
  10. Green 1992, p. 45.
  11. Skjærvø 2006, pp. 348–366.
  12. Canepa 2018, p. 6.
  13. Wiesehöfer 2001, p. 119.
  14. Kittel et al. 2007, p. 1194–1195.
  15. Windfuhr 2006, p. 386–390.
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 Turchin, Adams & Hall 2006.
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 Taagepera 1979.
  18. Morris & Scheidel 2009, p. 77.
  19. Frye 1975b, p. 90.
  20. Bjork 2010.
  21. Aldosari, Ali (2007). Middle East, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. p. 472, "There were many local Persian dynasties, including the Tahirids, the Saffarids (...)"
  22. Daftary, Farhad (2012). Historical Dictionary of the Ismailis. p. 51, "The Saffarids, the first Persian dynasty, to challenge the Abbasids (...)"
  23. Meisami, Julie Scott; Starkey, Paul (ed.) (1998). Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. Vol. 2. p. 674, "Saffarids: A Persian dynasty (...)"
  24. Frye 1975a, p. 160.
  25. Nagel 1990, p. 578–586.
  26. Matthee 2005, p. 17; Matthee 2008.
  27. Amoretti & Matthee 2009.
  28. Savory 2008, p. 8.
  29. Tucker 2020.
  30. Perry 2011, p. 561–564.
  31. Yarshater 2004, p. 234–238.
  32. Perry 2000.
  33. Perry 2002.
  34. Aghaie 2011, p. 49: "(...) Reza Shah [...] He was from a Mazandarani family (...)"
    Amanat 2017, p. 473: "(...) Reza Shah, himself a Mazandarani (...)"

Sources[change | change source]

  • Wiesehöfer, Josef (2001). Ancient Persia. Translated by Azodi, Azizeh. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-86064-675-1.
  • Green, Tamara M. (1992). The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-09513-7.
  • Daryaee, Touraj (2008). Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. I.B.Tauris. pp. 99–100. ISBN 978-0857716668.
  • Skjærvø, Prods Oktor (2006). "IRAN vi. IRANIAN LANGUAGES AND SCRIPTS (2) Documentation". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. XIII. Fasc. 4. pp. 348–366.
  • Canepa, Matthew (2018). The Iranian Expanse: Transforming Royal Identity Through Architecture, Landscape, and the Built Environment, 550 BCE–642. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520379206.
  • Ruda, Jurdi Abisaab. (2006). Iran and Pre-Independence Lebanon" in Houchang Esfandiar Chehabi, Distant Relations: Iran and Lebanon in the Last 500 Years. IB Tauris. p. 76.
  • Matthee, Rudi (2008b). "SAFAVID DYNASTY". Encyclopædia Iranica.
  • Arnold, J. Toynbee (1939). A Study of History. Vol. V. Oxford University Press. pp. 514–515.
  • Perry, John R (2006). "Turkic-Iranian contacts". Encyclopædia Iranica.
  • Cyril, Glassé, ed. (2003). The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 392. ISBN 0-7591-0190-6.
  • Ferrier, Ronald W (1989). The Arts of Persia. Yale University Press. p. 9.
  • Davaran, Fereshteh (2010). Continuity in Iranian Identity: Resilience of a Cultural Heritage. Routledge. ISBN 978-1138780149.
  • Roemer, H. R (1986). "The Safavid Period". The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 6: The Timurid and Safavid Periods. Cambridge University Press. p. 331. ISBN 0-521-20094-6. Depressing though the condition in the country may have been at the time of the fall of Safavids, they cannot be allowed to overshadow the achievements of the dynasty, which was in many respects to prove essential factors in the development of Persia in modern times. These include the maintenance of Persian as the official language (...)
  • Kittel, Harald; Frank, Armin Paul; House, Juliane; Greiner, Norbert; Schultze, Brigitte; Koller, Werner (2007). Traduction: encyclopédie internationale de la recherche sur la traduction. Walter de Gruyter. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1194–1195. ISBN 978-3-11-017145-7.
  • Bjork, Robert E., ed. (2010). "Saffarid dynasty". The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198662624. One of the first indigenous Persian dynasties to emerge after the Arab Islamic invasions.
  • Frye, Richard N., ed. (1975a). "The Sāmānids". The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge University Press. p. 160. ISBN 0-521-20093-8. The memory of the Sāmānids, not only as the last Iranian dynasty in Central Asia, but that dynasty which unified the area under one rule and which saved the legacy of ancient Iran from extinction, lasted long in Central Asia (...)
  • Frye, Richard N., ed. (1975b). "The Ṭāhirids and Ṣaffārids". The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge University Press. p. 90. ISBN 0-521-20093-8. The Tāhirids were culturally highly Arabicized, but they were nevertheless Persians.
  • Nagel, Tilman (1990). "BUYIDS". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. IV. Fasc. 6. pp. 578–586. BUYIDS [...] dynasty of Daylamite origin ruling over the south and western part of Iran and over Iraq (...)
  • Amoretti, Biancamaria Scarcia; Matthee, Rudi (2009). "Ṣafavid Dynasty". In Esposito, John L. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford University Press. Of Kurdish ancestry, the Ṣafavids started as a Sunnī mystical order (...)
  • Matthee, Rudi (2005). The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History, 1500-1900. Princeton Universty Press. pp. 18. The Safavids, as Iranians of Kurdish ancestry and of nontribal background (...)
  • Matthee, Rudi (2008). "SAFAVID DYNASTY". Encyclopædia Iranica. As Persians of Kurdish ancestry and of a non-tribal background, the Safavids (...)
  • Savory, Roger (2008). "EBN BAZZĀZ". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. VIII. Fasc. 1. p. 8. This official version contains textual changes designed to obscure the Kurdish origins of the Safavid family and to vindicate their claim to descent from the Imams.
  • Tucker, Ermest (2020). "Karīm Khān Zand". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Brill. The Zands were a branch of the Laks, a subgroup of the northern Lurs, who spoke Luri, a Western Iranian language.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  • Perry, John R. (2011). "KARIM KHAN ZAND". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. XV. Fasc. 6. pp. 561–564. The Zand were a pastoral tribe of the Lak branch of the northern Lors (...)
  • Perry, John R. (2000). "ZAND DYNASTY". Encyclopædia Iranica. The founder of the dynasty was Moḥammad Karim Khan b. Ināq Khan (...) of the Bagala branch of the Zand, a pastoral tribe of the Lak branch of Lors (...)
  • Windfuhr, Gernot (2006). "Iran vii. Non-Iranian Languages (3) Elamite". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. XIII. Fasc. 4. pp. 386–390.
  • Yarshater, Ehsan (2004). "IRAN ii. IRANIAN HISTORY (2) Islamic period (page 4)". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. XIII. Fasc. 3. pp. 234–238. The Zand were a Lor tribe that lived in the vicinity of Malāyer in western Persia.
  • Perry, J.R (2002). "Zand". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (ed.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition. Brill. The Zand belonged to the Lakk group of Lurs (...){{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  • Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D (2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires". Journal of World-Systems Research. 12 (2): 223.
  • Taagepera, Rein (1979). "Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D". Social Science History. 3 (3/4): 121. doi:10.1017/S014555320002294X. S2CID 147379141.
  • Morris, Ian; Scheidel, Walter (2009). The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium. Oxford University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-19-975834-0.
  • Aghaie, Kamran Scot (2011). The Martyrs of Karbala: Shi'i Symbols and Rituals in Modern Iran. University of Washington Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-295-80078-3. (...) Reza Shah [...] He was from a Mazandarani family (...)
  • Amanat, Abbas (2017). Iran: A Modern History. Yale University Press. pp. 473. ISBN 978-0-300-23146-5. (...) Reza Shah, himself a Mazandarani (...)

Notes[change | change source]

  1. Official name of State from 1925 to 1979
  2. Safavid period
    1) official[1]
    2) coinage[2][3]
    3) civil administration[4]
    4) court (since Isfahan became capital)[5]
    5) literary[2][6][4]
    6) theological discourse[2]
    7) diplomatic correspondence
    8) historiography
    9) court-based religious posts[7]
    Zand period
    1) official
    Pahlavi period
    1) official
  3. in Buyid period
  4. in Sasanian period
  5. in Parthian period
  6. in Parthian period
  7. in Achaemenid period
  8. in Achaemenid period
  9. in Achaemenid period
  10. in Achaemenid period
  11. in Median period
  12. Safavid period
    1) court
    2) religious dignitaries
    4) military
    5) poetry