Specifics of Iranian Civilization - Essay Example

Iranian Civilization School Iranian Civilization Cyrus (580-529BC) founded Persia and was the first Achaemenid Emperor. Cyrus laid the foundations of Persia by combining the Persians and the Medes, which were the two original Iranian Tribes. While he was undoubtedly a supreme conqueror evident from the fact that he has controlled one of the world’s biggest empires throughout the history, Cyrus is specially significant and different because he showed unprecedented tolerance towards the conquered tribes and nations. When he won over the Medes, Cyrus established his new kingdom’s government in which he incorporated the Persian and the Median nobles as civilian officials. Upon completion of the Asia Minor’s conquest, Cyrus directed his armies towards the eastern frontiers. The Median Kingdom already comprised Parthia and Hyrcania. Cyrus further conquered Arachosia, Drangiana, Bactria, and Margiana in the east. As he reached the Jaxartes after crossing the Oxus, Cyrus developed fortified towns with a view to protecting his kingdom’s farthest frontier from the nomadic tribes of the Central Asia. After having splendid victories in the east, Cyrus headed toward the west and launched an attack on Egypt and Babylon. The Jewish Community were overwhelmed with the victory of Cyrus in Babylon as they saw him as a liberator since Cyrus granted the Jews the permission to go back to the promised Land. The fact that Cyrus displayed immense respect and forbearance towards the cultural traditions and religious beliefs of other races gained him great homage and respect of all the people living in the territories and lands that he conquered and ruled over. Cyrus became the king of Anshan in 559 BCE after his father’s death. Cyrus, like his predecessors, had to recognize the Mede overlordship. He led his armies in 552 BCE against the Medes and was successful in capturing Ecbatana in 549 BCE, when he not only conquered the whole of Median Empire effectively, but also inherited Assyria. Later, Cyrus conquered Lydia and Bablylon. The reign of Cyrus spans from 29 to 31 years in total. During this time, Cyrus conquered the Median Empire, followed by the Lydian Empire, and eventually the Empire of Neo-Babylonia. Cyrus launched an expedition into central Asia. Persia was united under the control of Cyrus and he laid the foundations of the Achaemenid dynasty. King Astyages of Media launched an attack on Cyrus in 550 BC. Some men of Astyages turned against the leader during the fight, lending victory in the hands of Cyrus. Cyrus not only defeated the Medes but also conquered Lydia. Continuing his conquests, Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 BC. 200 years before the conquest of Babylon, the Prophet Isaiah mentioned Cyrus as a great ruler who would allow the Jewish people to reestablish their temple. This scroll was read to Cyrus after which, he commanded return of the captive Jewish people of Babylon to reestablish themselves in the holy city in 536 BC. Cyrus conquered many more lands from 533 BC to 529 BC. He invaded India in 533 BC and died in a battle in 529 BC while Cyrus was fighting along the Syr Darya with the Massagetae in 530 BC, thus he could not venture into Egypt. Cyrus utilized his tactical genius and his understanding of the sociopolitical equations that dominated the captured territories to combine the neighboring empires of Lydia and Neo-Babylonia with the Persian Empire (crystalinks.com, n.d.). Cyrus hailed from the Persians that were nomadic pastoral people originally in the western plateau of Iran. They referred to themselves as ‘the Parsa’ by 850 BCE whereas ‘Parsua’ was the term used to refer to their constantly shifting territory for most of the localized part surrounding Persis (crystalinks.com, n.d.). With the increase in the power of the Persians, the infrastructure was developed a lot so that it could support the increasing influence of the Persians through the creation of a city as opulent as Persepolis and the establishment of a capital named Pasargadae. Started during the rule of Darius I and finished almost a century later, Persepolis stood as an insignia of the empire serving as a center for government as well as a ceremonial centre. “It had a special set of gradually progressive stairways named "All Countries" around which carved relief decoration depicted scenes of heroism, hunting, natural themes, and presentation of the gifts to the Achaemenid kings by their subjects during the spring festival, Nowruz” (crystalinks.com, n.d.). Cyrus died in a battle with a local Iranian insurgency, before the creation of a naval force, that he had contemplated to achieve had he lived longer. Ever since Cyrus laid the foundations of the Persian Empire, the empire only had a strong land army but lacked the existence of actual naval forces. However, this goal was later achieved by Darius the Great who provided Persians with a royal navy of their own so that they could fight their enemies on this vast empire’s multiple seas, ranging from the Aegean Sea, and the Black Sea, to the Ionian Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Persian Gulf. The empire came across the Egyptian and Greek forces in the fifth century BCE, each of which had their own maritime capabilities and traditions. Darius I was the first Achaemenid king who had invested in a Persian fleet. After the death of Cyrus the Great, the rule landed in the hands of Cambyses II, the successor of Cyrus. Cambyses II conquered Cyprus as well as Egypt which extended the empire further. Cambyses II died in 522 BC. The Persian Empire reached its apogee of power after the conquest of Egypt. The span of the empire was almost 8 million km2 which comprised three whole continents including Europe, Africa, and Asia. The Persian Empire, at its greatest extent, included the modern territories of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Macedonia, Thrace, many parts of Central Asia, most of the Black Sea coastal regions, Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, northern Saudi Arabia, and ancient Egypt’s significant population centers spanning far to the west including Lybia. Western history notes Persian Empire as Greek city states’ antagonist foe during the Greco-Persian Wars, for instituting postal system and such other instituting infrastructures, for emancipating the Jewish slaves from their captivity in Babylonia, for establishing an official language for communication throughout the territories, and for establishing complex road systems. The Persian Empire consisted of a bureaucratic and centralized administration with a large professional army, and well established civil services. Later empires followed the administrative and socioeconomic model of the Persian Empire in their developments. The immediate successors of Cyrus were not as successful as Cyrus himself. Although his son, Cambyses II contributed a lot toward the expansion of the empire by conquering Egypt, yet his rule was short-lived as he died in 522 BCE in a severe self-accident while a revolt was being run by a sacerdotal clan whose power was lost as a result of the conquest of Media by Cyrus. The empire was eventually collapsed by Alexander who himself was an avid admirer of Cyrus. The Persian Empire was disintegrated around 330 BCE into Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Kingdom in addition to a range of other territories. However, the Iranian Culture of the central plateau kept thriving to the extent that the power was eventually reclaimed by the 2nd century BCE. Judeo-Christian texts mention the impact and significance of Cyrus’s Edict of Restoration and the empire played a phenomenal role in the spread of Zoroastrianism far in the east as well as in China. Even Alexander the Great respected the customs set by the Persian Empire and enforced respect for Cyrus and such other royal Persian kings. The invasion of Persia by Alexander the Great led to the creation of a lot of chaos that also became the cause of breaking down of the tomb of Cyrus the Great and many luxuries were also looted at the time. Alexander the Great was horrified to see the treatment given to the tomb and held the Magi accountable for that. The condition of Cyrus’s tomb was improved and its interior was restored upon the orders of Alexander the Great to Aristobulus. A declaration is written on an ancient clay cylinder, known as The Cyrus Cylinder, in Akkadian cuneiform script. The cylinder was discovered in Mesopotamia, in the ruins of Bablylon, in 1879 and it dates back to the 6th century BC. The Cyrus Cylinder was made and employed as a foundation deposit in 539 BC after the Persian conquest of Babylon, when Cyrus invaded the Neo-Babylonian Empire and made it a part of his Persian Empire. The Cyrus Cylinder has text on it that sets out the genealogy of Cyrus and describes Cyrus as a king from the kings’ line. The text denounces Nabonidus, the Babylonian king whom Cyrus defeated and deposed, as Nabonidus oppressed Babylonian people. The text also implicitly contrasts Nabonidus’s low-born origins with the kingly heritage of Cyrus. There was an extensive ancient Iranian heritage behind Cyrus the Great. Biblical scholars have traditionally analyzed the text on the Cyrus Cylinder as corroborative evidence of the policy of repatriation of Cyrus for the Jewish people after Babylonia had been conquered by him, since the text indicates the cult sanctuaries’ restoration and deported people’s repatriation. The Cyrus Cylinder is also significant because it is arguably the oldest known charter of universal human rights. The empire founded by Cyrus was a multi-state empire. Four capital states namely Ekbatana, Babylon, Susa, and Pasargadae governed the whole empire. The satrapy system established by the Achaemenids allowed for some level of regional autonomy. Satrapies were administrative units that were generally organized on the basis of geography. In the satrapy system, the vassal king was a satrap or a governor whose responsibility was the administration of the whole region, military recruitment was supervised by a general who was also responsible for ensuring order in the region, whereas the official records were maintained by a state secretary. The state secretary and the general were both answerable to the satrap directly and they also reported to the central government. The number of satrapies in the satrapy system was anywhere from 20 to 30 at different times (crystalink.com, n.d.). Cyrus established Pasargade in Fars as a new capital city before his death and had successfully laid a government for his Empire. He was represented in each province by a governor, who was responsible for the legislation, administration, and cultural activities in the assigned province. Cyrus also made an organized army comprising the Immortals unit. The army of Cyrus contained as many as 10,000 soldiers that were highly trained (crystalinks.com, n.d.). Cyrus used his army to advance his campaigns in the conquered lands of Asia Minor, Lydia, and Babylonia. His son, Cambyses II, used the armies after the death of Cyrus, IN Egypt against Psamtik III. Cyrus was the first to introduce a postal system and the future emperors of the Achaemenian dynasty followed Cyrus’s doctrines. Cyrus achieved this by finding out how much could an average horse travel in a day. Based on this estimation, Cyrus established a series of posting stations in which every two adjacent posting stations were apart by a day’s ride. These posting stations were spread all across the Persian Empire. Establishing the posting system enabled Cyrus to efficiently communicate with his satraps in all provinces. The language of the chancellory, as long as the government’s seat remained at Susa in Elam whether it was the rein of Cyrus or Darius, was Elamite. Elamite has been primarily attested as the language of the chancellory in the treasury tables as well as the Persepolis fortification which lay explanation of the empire’s day-to-day functioning. All characteristics of the conciliation policy reflected in the victory over Babylonia that Cyrus had followed. Rather than playing the character of a conqueror, Cyrus more led like a liberator and was endorsed as the legitimate successor to the crown. His kingdom is specially important because Cyrus was the first to formulate and declare the Charter of Human Rights and was granted the title ‘King of Babylon and King of the Land’. The cultural and regional diversity that further enriched the culture of Persia can be attributed to the strategic leadership of Cyrus as he did not force the conquered nations into a single mould, but instead allowed the institution of each kingdom to remain unchanged as it was annexed with the Persian Crown. An example of this is the fact that in 539 BCE, Cyrus allowed over 40,000 Jews to return to Palestine who had so far been in Babylon. This move was consistent with Cyrus’s policy of establishing peace and respecting the religious beliefs and customs of the conquered nations. It was as if “[a] new wind was blowing from the east, carrying away the cries and humility of defeated and murdered victims, extinguishing the fires of sacked cities, and liberating nations from slavery” (Iran Chamber Society, 2015). Cyrus’s political acumen reflected in the way he managed the newly formed empire. No empire before the Persian Empire had attempted to govern a variety of ethnic groups on equal responsibilities’ principle and on the principle of rights for all people provided that people maintained peace in their territories and paid their taxes. In addition, Cyrus consented not to interfere with the religions, trades, and local customs of the subject states, which was primarily what put the Babylonians on the side of Cyrus. However, this managerial system ultimately raised some challenges for the Persians, since maintaining order and control is fundamental to running such a large empire, that led to mobilization of troops and expenditure of resources to quell the local rebellions which in effect, weakened the king’s central power. This disorganization had by the time of rule of Darius III, led to a disunified realm. References: Crystalinks.com. (n.d.). Achaemenid Empire. Retrieved from http://www.crystalinks.com/Achaemenid_Empire.html. Iran Chamber Society. (2015). History of Iran: Cyrus the Great. Retrieved from http://www.iranchamber.com/history/cyrus/cyrus.php. Read More