Early times
Iranian power in the world system arose somewhat later than ours. Although they were around in west Asia for sometime since 1000 BCE, they were not exactly a mighty force.
… [I] hold that a branch of these steppe kuru-s re-emerged with another allied clan the kamboja much later on the Iranians side to form the elite of the hAkamAnashIya dynasty. - MT
Hākamanshiya empire
Although they were around in west Asia for sometime since 1000 BCE, they were not exactly a mighty force. But in the steppe-borderland there were still mighty clans of the Indo-Iranian continuum which had played a major role in the rise of Aryan power in India. Among them were the Kuru and Kamboja and it was perhaps in a confederation of such tribes that the Hākamanshiya arose. Their king the great Kurush (Cyrus), named after Kuru, established a great world empire stretching from the eastern reaches of Soghdiana to the western end of Asia Minor sometime between 600-530 BCE. He conquered in succession his Iranian cousins the Medians, the Lydians, who were relatives of the Hittites, and the Babylonians and their vassals, besieging and taking fortified strongholds one after the other like no one had ever before done in West Asia. Finally, while fighting the Śaka-Hindu alliance that was arrayed against him with their elephant force during his invasion of Śakastana, a Hindu spearman stabbed Kurush in the liver resulting in his death. …
His son was Kambūjiya (Cambyses) named after the old Kamboja mentioned in our national epic. He led a great force for the conquest of Egypt, which was one of the last major powers left in the region that plainly refused to acknowledge the might of the Iranians. … The Iranians then quickly took the fort and captured the pharaoh Psamtik. His life was initially spared but as he tried to revolt and regain his kingdom Kambūjiya killed him and even carved a seal depicting him spearing the pharaoh."
[MT]
Parthian empire
- The Seleucids were finally driven off the Iranian plateau by the Ashkanis (Parthians). They later even captured Bactria from Kushana-s.
Sassanian empire
- Via Q20: From the 220s to 651, Iran was ruled by the Sasanian family. Its founder was Ardashir, a governor of Fars in south-western Iran, who rebelled and overthrew the incumbent Iranian king. … More than a century before the Roman empire became officially Christian, the Sasanian empire was Zoroastrian.
Geopolitics
- Via Q20: “As time went on, the contest worsened and spread southward into Arabia and Ethiopia, with Iran and the Romans contesting control of the India trade that passed through the Red Sea. Unable to break the Persian monopoly, Justinian and his Byzantine successors tried to dominate the overland silk trade from China. This had disastrous consequences when the Turks, perhaps with Roman backing, aimed to disrupt the Persian system by flooding Iranian markets with endless rolls of cheap silk that rival Chinese dynasties had provided them as tribute.”
- “A sort of ancient Great Game took shape, with the principal victim being Armenia—an ancient kingdom, ethnically and culturally Iranian but with a growing Christian elite that exhibited Roman sympathies. The two powers refused to respect Armenia’s autonomy, and eventually settled on partitioning it between them. In practically every major conflict thereafter, Armenia served either as battleground or invasion route (roughly akin to Poland and Belgium in more recent times).”
- “And the 540s saw the outbreak of the worst pandemic in recorded history, one that seems to have been caused by the same bacterium responsible for the Black Death. Both Justinian and Khusro survived the plague after contracting it personally. But both their empires were weakened by the pandemic. These factors likely left them more vulnerable to the Arabs, whose lands seem to have been untouched by the plague.”
The fall
- Via Q20: “The enormous war, fought from 602 to 628, was widely believed to be ushering in the end of the world. An impressive number of Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian apocalyptic prophecies survive from that period. The conflict was portrayed by both sides as a cosmic struggle between Christianity and Zoroastrianism, the outcome of which would bring on the last age before the coming of their respective saviours.”
- Via Q20: “By the mid-620s, the Persian king Khusro II had conquered most of the Eastern Roman Empire. A final push toward Constantinople was planned. The armies of Iran and her nomadic allies of the steppe were to descend upon the capital, blockade it by land and sea, and receive the emperor’s surrender. The nobles and retired worthies of the Roman Senate had earlier sent a grovelling letter to the Persian government, urging Khusro to impose a client king over them and spare what was left of the empire. But Khusro ignored it.”
- “Shāh Koshrau-II led a brilliant campaign against the Abrahamistic alliance of the Byzantine Christians and the Khazar Turks, winning a string of victories against them. He even managed to get the heathen powers of the Slavs and the Avar Khaghanate over to his side against the Abrahamistic alliance and by 622 CE the it looked as though the Iranian empire was poised at a high-point, recovering the old Hākamanashiya glory. The śula +++(“true cross”)+++ of the preta was brought down in Jerusalem and even Egypt was reconquered by the Iranians. But the empire had serious cracks within. Thus, when the Abrahamistic alliance launched its holy war demolishing key Zoroastrian temples +++(eg. Azerbaijan fire temple)+++ and the epidemic of the third Abrahamism erupted from within it crumbled and Iranian civilization itself became extinct – for what do a band of Parsis matter when your land is gone?” [MT]
- “For his part, Muhammad cheered on the Roman side, and looked forward to their eventual victory (Qur’an 30: 1–5).”
Restoration attempts
mardavij
there was an iranian prince named mardavij (r. 930-935) – sought to re-establish a native iranian zoroastrian empire akin to the sasanians. he, expanding his domains from tabarestan, conquered large area including many abbasid domains in iran; declared himself king of iran, and even made isfahan his capital. he had planned to conquer baghdad and overthrow the caliphate; crown himself in the ancient persian capital of ctesiphon. he was killed by his turkish slaves.
Lessons
- Via Q20: Fragility of political systems and human institutions - “In the early 620s, a Sasanian nobleman would have had every justification for great pride and confidence in his state. He would have expected the present order to go on forever, without being able to foresee that, in less than a generation, the entire Sasanian empire would be gone.”