1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
3.
Provinces of Iran
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Iran is subdivided into thirty one provinces, each governed from a local center, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital of that province. The provincial authority is headed by a Governor-General, who is appointed by the Minister of the Interior subject to approval of the cabinet, from 1960 to 1981 the governorates were raised to provincial status one by one
4.
Fars Province
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Fars Province also known as Pars or Persia in historical context, is one of the thirty-one provinces of Iran and known as the cultural capital of Iran. It is in the south of the country, in Irans Region 2 and it has an area of 122,400 km². In 2011, this province had a population of 4.6 million people, of which 67. 6% were registered as urban dwellers,32. 1% villagers, and 0. 3% nomad tribes. The etymology of the word Persian, found in many ancient names associated with Iran, is derived from the importance of this region. Fars Province is the homeland of the Persian people. The word Fârs is derived from
5.
Counties of Iran
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The counties of Iran, also called shahrestan, are administrative divisions of larger provinces. The word shahrestan comes from the Persian words shahr and stān, county, therefore, is a near equivalent of shahrestan. Iranian counties are divided into one or more bakhsh, or districts, a typical county includes both cities and rural agglomerations, which are groupings of adjacent villages. One city within the county serves as the capital of that county, in 2005, Iran had 324 shahrestans. To better understand these subdivisions, the table is useful. Assume that province P is divided into two counties, A and B, county A has 3 districts, Central, X, and Y. The Central district is the district that contains City M, the capital of the county, each district contains one or more cities and/or one or more RAs. The minimal county consists of one city as the only district, named Central. The county B in the table is of such type
6.
Firuzabad County
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Firuzabad County is a county in Fars Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Firuzabad, at the 2006 census, the countys population was 111,973, in 24,894 families. The county is subdivided into two districts, the Central District and Meymand District, the county has two cities, Firuzabad and Meymand
7.
Iran Standard Time
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Iran Standard Time or Iran Time is the time zone used in Iran. Iran uses a UTC offset UTC+03,30, IRST is defined by the 52.5 degrees east meridian, the same meridian which defines the Iranian calendar and is the official meridian of Iran. Between 2005 and 2008, by decree of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and it was reintroduced from 21 March 2008. Iran is unusual in that the dates of DST transitions arent based on a such as the third Monday in September. So in most countries, DST transitions occur on the same every year
8.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
9.
Iran Daylight Time
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Iran Standard Time or Iran Time is the time zone used in Iran. Iran uses a UTC offset UTC+03,30, IRST is defined by the 52.5 degrees east meridian, the same meridian which defines the Iranian calendar and is the official meridian of Iran. Between 2005 and 2008, by decree of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and it was reintroduced from 21 March 2008. Iran is unusual in that the dates of DST transitions arent based on a such as the third Monday in September. So in most countries, DST transitions occur on the same every year
10.
Persian language
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Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
11.
Romanization
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Romanization, in linguistics, is the conversion of writing from a different writing system to the Roman script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, for representing the spoken word, There are many consistent or standardized romanization systems. They can be classified by their characteristics, source, or donor language – A system may be tailored to romanize text from a particular language, or a series of languages, or for any language in a particular writing system. A language-specific system typically preserves language features like pronunciation, while the one may be better for cataloguing international texts. Target, or receiver language – Most systems are intended for an audience that speaks or reads a particular language and this affects the ease of creation, digital storage and transmission, reproduction, and reading of the romanized text. Reversibility – Whether or not the original can be restored from the converted text, some reversible systems allow for an irreversible simplified version. Most romanizations are intended to enable the reader who is unfamiliar with the original script to pronounce the source language reasonably accurately. Such romanizations follow the principle of phonemic transcription and attempt to render the significant sounds of the original as faithfully as possible in the target language, the popular Hepburn romanization of Japanese is an example of a transcriptive romanization designed for English speakers. The International Phonetic Alphabet is the most common system of phonetic transcription, for most language pairs, building a usable romanization involves tradeoffs between the two extremes. In modern times the chain of transcription is usually spoken foreign language, written language, written native language. Reducing the number of processes, i. e. removing one or both steps of writing, usually leads to more accurate oral articulations. In general, outside a limited audience of scholars romanizations tend to lean more towards transcription, Romanization standards include the following, Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, Adopted by the International Convention of Orientalist Scholars in Rome. It is the basis for the very influential Hans Wehr dictionary, qalam, A system that focuses upon preserving the spelling, rather than the pronunciation, and uses mixed case ISO 233-2, Simplified transliteration. Buckwalter transliteration, Developed at Xerox by Tim Buckwalter, doesnt require unusual diacritics ALA-LC Arabic chat alphabet There are romanization systems for both Modern and Ancient Greek. ALA-LC Beta Code Greeklish ISO843 The Hebrew alphabet is romanized using several standards, ANSI Z39.25 UNGEGN ISO259, ALA-LC The Brahmic family of abugidas is used for languages of the Indian subcontinent and south-east Asia. There is a tradition in the west to study Sanskrit. Various transliteration conventions have been used for Indic scripts since the time of Sir William Jones, ISO15919, A standard transliteration convention was codified in the ISO15919 standard. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants, see also Transliteration of Indic scripts, how to use ISO15919
12.
Shiraz
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Shiraz is the sixth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province. At the 2011 census, the population of the city was 1,700,665, Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the Roodkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river. It has a climate and has been a regional trade center for over a thousand years. Shiraz is one of the oldest cities of ancient Persia, the earliest reference to the city, as Tiraziš, is on Elamite clay tablets dated to 2000 BC. In the 13th century, Shiraz became a center of the arts and letters, due to the encouragement of its ruler. It was the capital of Persia during the Zand dynasty from 1750 until 1800, two famous poets of Iran, Hafez and Saadi, are from Shiraz, whose tombs are on the north side of the current city boundaries. Shiraz is known as the city of poets, literature, wine and it is also considered by many Iranians to be the city of gardens, due to the many gardens and fruit trees that can be seen in the city, for example Eram Garden. Shiraz has had major Jewish and Christian communities, the crafts of Shiraz consist of inlaid mosaic work of triangular design, silver-ware, pile carpet-weaving and weaving of kilim, called gilim and jajim in the villages and among the tribes. In Shiraz industries such as cement production, sugar, fertilizers, textile products, wood products, metalwork, Shirāz also has a major oil refinery and is also a major center for Irans electronic industries, 53% of Irans electronic investment has been centered in Shiraz. Shiraz is home to Irans first solar power plant, recently the citys first wind turbine has been installed above Babakoohi mountain near the city. The earliest reference to the city is on Elamite clay tablets dated to 2000 BCE, found in June 1970, the tablets written in ancient Elamite name a city called Tiraziš. Phonetically, this is interpreted as /tiračis/ or /ćiračis/ and this name became Old Persian /širājiš/, through regular sound change comes the modern Persian name Shirāz. The name Shiraz also appears on clay sealings found at a 2nd-century CE Sassanid ruin, by some of the native writers, the name Shiraz has derived from a son of Tahmuras, the third Shāh of the world according to Ferdowsis Shāhnāma. Shiraz is most likely more than 4,000 years old, the name Shiraz is mentioned in cuneiform inscriptions from around 2000 BC found in southwestern corner of the city. According to some Iranian mythological traditions, it was erected by Tahmuras Diveband. The oldest sample of wine in the world, dating to approximately 7,000 years ago, was discovered on clay jars recovered outside of Shiraz, in the Achaemenian era, Shiraz was on the way from Susa to Persepolis and Pasargadae. In Ferdowsis Shāhnāma it has said that Artabanus V, the Parthian Emperor of Iran. Ghasre Abu-Nasr which is originally from Parthian era is situated in this area, during the Sassanid era, Shiraz was in between the way which was connecting Bishapur and Gur to Istakhr
13.
Achaemenid Empire
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The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
14.
Alexander the Great
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Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He was born in Pella in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of twenty and he was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of historys most successful military commanders. During his youth, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16, after Philips assassination in 336 BC, he succeeded his father to the throne and inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. Alexander was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his fathers Panhellenic project to lead the Greeks in the conquest of Persia, in 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Empire and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Following the conquest of Anatolia, Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of battles, most notably the battles of Issus. He subsequently overthrew Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety, at that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. He sought to reach the ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea and invaded India in 326 BC and he eventually turned back at the demand of his homesick troops. Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, the city that he planned to establish as his capital, without executing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in the establishment of several states ruled by the Diadochi, Alexanders surviving generals, Alexanders legacy includes the cultural diffusion which his conquests engendered, such as Greco-Buddhism. He founded some twenty cities that bore his name, most notably Alexandria in Egypt, Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mold of Achilles, and he features prominently in the history and mythic traditions of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. He became the measure against which military leaders compared themselves, and he is often ranked among the most influential people in human history. He was the son of the king of Macedon, Philip II, and his wife, Olympias. Although Philip had seven or eight wives, Olympias was his wife for some time. Several legends surround Alexanders birth and childhood, sometime after the wedding, Philip is said to have seen himself, in a dream, securing his wifes womb with a seal engraved with a lions image. Plutarch offered a variety of interpretations of dreams, that Olympias was pregnant before her marriage, indicated by the sealing of her womb. On the day Alexander was born, Philip was preparing a siege on the city of Potidea on the peninsula of Chalcidice. That same day, Philip received news that his general Parmenion had defeated the combined Illyrian and Paeonian armies, and it was also said that on this day, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, burnt down. This led Hegesias of Magnesia to say that it had burnt down because Artemis was away, such legends may have emerged when Alexander was king, and possibly at his own instigation, to show that he was superhuman and destined for greatness from conception
15.
Ardashir I
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Ardashir I or Ardeshir I, also known as Ardashir the Unifier, was the founder of the Sasanian Empire. After defeating the last Parthian shahnshah Artabanus V on the Hormozdgān plain in 224, he overthrew the Parthian dynasty, afterwards, Ardashir called himself shahanshah and began conquering the land that he called Iran. There are various reports about Ardashirs lineage and ancestry. According to Al-Tabaris report, Ardashir was son of Papak, son of Sasan, according to Al-Tabaris report, Ardashir was born in the outskirts of Istakhr, Pars. Al-Tabari adds that Ardashir was sent to the lord of Fort Darabgard when he was seven years old, after the lords death, Ardashir succeeded him and became the commander of Fort Darabgard. Al-Tabari continues that afterward, Papak overthrew the local Persian shah named Gochihr and appointed his son, Shapur, according to Al-Tabaris report, Shapur and his father, Papak, suddenly died and Ardashir became the ruler of Pars. It is probable that the role that is stated about Ardashir in leading the rebellion against the central government is the product of the later historical studies. Papak had probably united most of Pars under his rule by then, Ardashir had an outstanding role in developing the royal ideology. He tried to show himself as a worshiper of Mazda related to god, on the other hand, some historians believe that the first Sasanian shahanshahs were familiar with the Achaemenids and their succeeding shahanshahs deliberately turned to the Kayanians. They knowingly ignored the Achaemenids in order to attribute their past to the Kayanians, in order to remark his victories, Ardashir carved petroglyphs in Firuzabad, Naqsh-e Rajab and Naqsh-e Rustam. It can be deduced from the picture that Ardashir assumed or wished for others to assume that his rule over the land that was called Iran in the inscriptions was designated by the lord. The word Iran was previously used in Avesta and as the name of the land of the Aryans. In Ardashirs period, the title Iran was chosen for the region under the Sasanian rule, what is clear is that the concept of Iran previously had a religious application and then ended up creating its political face and the concept of a geographical collection of lands. Ardashir, which was pronounced /ærtæxʃæɵræ/, has one of old. It is read and pronounced as Artaxérxēs, Αρταξέρξης in Greek, /ærtæxʃtær/, /ærtæxʃir/ in Middle Persian, Artašēs, Արտաշէս in Armenian, literally, Ardashir means the one whose reign is based on honesty and justice. The first part of Artakhshir is adapted from the concept of justice known as Ṛta or Asha. Three of Achaemenid kings of kings and four of the local Shahs of Pars - known as Frataraka - were named Ardashir, examples of text remnants related to Ardashir I include his short inscription in Nagsh-e Rajab and also Shapur Is inscription at the Kaba-ye Zartosht. Reports are texts that are written in languages and periods
16.
Sasanian Empire
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The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories
17.
Buyid dynasty
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The Buyid dynasty or the Buyids, also known as Buwaihids, Bowayhids, Buyahids, or Buyyids, was an Iranian Shia dynasty of Daylamite origin. As Daylamite Iranians the Buyids consciously revived symbols and practices of Persias Sassānid dynasty, in fact, beginning with Adud al-Dawla they used the ancient Sassānid title Shāhanshāh, literally king of kings. At its greatest extent, the Buyid dynasty encompassed most of todays Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Syria, along parts of Oman. The word Būya is a Middle Persian name ending in the diminutive ـویه, the Buyids were descendants of Panah-Khusrau, a Zoroastrian from Daylam. He had a son named Buya, who was a fisherman from Lahijan, Buya later had three sons named Ahmad, Ali, and Hasan, who would later carve the Buyid kingdom together. Most historians agree that the Buyids were Daylamites, the Buyids claimed royal lineage from Bahram V, 15th king of the Sasanian Empire. Ali was later joined by his two brothers, Hasan ibn Buya and Ahmad ibn Buya. In 932, Ali was given Karaj as his fief, however, Alis independent actions made Mardavij plan to have him killed, but fortunately for Ali, he was informed of Mardavijs plan by the latters own vizier. The Buyids brother, with 400 of their Daylamite supporters, then fled to Fars, however, the Buyids and the Abbasid general Yaqut shortly came into a struggle for the control of Fars, which the Buyids eventually emerged victorious in. This victory opened the way for the conquest of the capital of Fars, Ali also made an alliance with the landowners of Fars, which included the Fasanjas family, which would later produce many prominent statesmen for the Buyids. Furthermore, Ali also to enlist more soldiers, which included the Turks, Ali then sent his brother Ahmad on an expedition to Kirman, but was forced to withdraw from them after opposition from the Baloch people and the Qafs. In addition to the territories the Buyids had conquered, Kirman was conquered in 967, Oman, the Jazira, Tabaristan. After this, however, the Buyids went into a decline, with pieces of the confederation gradually breaking off. When he made the death of his public, he was given the title of Samsam al-Dawla. However, Aduds other son, Shirdil Abul-Fawaris, challenged the authority of Samsam al-Dawla, meanwhile, a Marwanid chieftain named Badh, seized Diyabakr and forced Samsam al-Dawla to recognize him as the vassal ruler of the region. During the same period, Samsam al-Dawla also managed to seize Basra and Khuzistan, during the mid-11th century, the Buyid amirates gradually fell to the Ghaznavid and Seljuq Turks. In 1029, Majd al-Dawla, who was facing an uprising by his Dailami troops in Ray, when Sultan Mahmud arrived, he deposed Majd al-Dawla, replaced him with a Ghaznavid governor and ended the Buyid dynasty in Ray. In 1055, Tughrul conquered Baghdad, the seat of the caliphate, like the Buyids, the Seljuqs kept the Abbasid caliphate as the titular ruler
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Qajar dynasty
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The Qajar dynasty was an Iranian royal dynasty of Turkic origin, specifically from the Qajar tribe, which ruled Persia from 1785 to 1925. The state ruled by the dynasty was known as the Sublime State of Iran. The Qajar family took control of Iran in 1794, deposing Lotf Ali Khan, the last of the Zand dynasty. In the Caucasus, the Qajar dynasty permanently lost many of Irans integral areas to the Russians over the course of the 19th century, comprising modern-day Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. The Qajar rulers were members of the Karagöz or Black-Eye sect of the Qajars, Qajars first settled during the Mongol period in the vicinity of Armenia and were among the seven Qizilbash tribes that supported the Safavids. The Safavids left Arran to local Turkic khans, and, in 1554 Ganja was governed by Shahverdi Soltan Ziyadoglu Qajar, Qajars filled a number of diplomatic missions and governorships in the 16–17th centuries for the Safavids. The Qajars were resettled by Shah Abbas I throughout Iran, the great number of them also settled in Astarabad near the south-eastern corner of the Caspian Sea, and it would be this branch of Qajars that would rise to power. The immediate ancestor of the Qajar dynasty, Shah Qoli Khan of the Quvanlu of Ganja and his son, Fath Ali Khan was a renowned military commander during the rule of the Safavid shahs Sultan Husayn and Tahmasp II. He was killed on the orders of Shah Nader Shah in 1726, Fath Ali Khans son Mohammad Hasan Khan Qajar was the father of Mohammad Khan Qajar and Hossein Qoli Khan, father of Baba Khan, the future Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. Mohammad Hasan Khan was killed on the orders of Karim Khan of the Zand dynasty, like virtually every dynasty that ruled Persia since the 11th century, the Qajars came to power with the backing of Turkic tribal forces, while using educated Persians in their bureaucracy. In 1779 following the death of Karim Khan of the Zand dynasty, Mohammad Khan Qajar, Mohammad Khan was known as one of the cruelest kings, even by the standards of 18th century Iran. In his quest for power, he razed cities, massacred entire populations, the Qajar armies at that time were mostly composed of Turkomans and Georgian slaves. By 1794, Mohammad Khan had eliminated all his rivals, including Lotf Ali Khan and he reestablished Persian control over the territories in the entire Caucasus. Agha Mohammad established his capital at Tehran, a village near the ruins of the ancient city of Rayy, in 1796, he was formally crowned as shah. In 1797, Mohammad Khan Qajar was assassinated in Shusha, the capital of Karabakh Khanate, between 1747 and 1795, Erekle was, therefore, by the turn of events in Iran following the ongoing turmoil there, able to maintain Georgias autonomy through the Zand period. In 1783, Heraclius placed his kingdom under the protection of the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Georgievsk. In the last few decades of the 18th century, Georgia had become an important element in Russo-Iranian relations than some provinces in northern mainland Persia. On top of that, having another port on the Georgian coast of the Black Sea would be ideal, the consequences of these events came a few years later, when a new Iranian dynasty under the Qajars, emerged victorious in the protracted power struggle in Persia
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Persian people
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The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group that make up over half the population of Iran. They share a cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the ancient Iranian population who entered modern-day Iran by the early 10th century BC. The English term Persian derives from Latin Persia, itself deriving from Greek Persís, in the Bible, it is referred to as Parás —sometimes Paras uMadai —within the books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemya. Although Persis was originally one of the provinces of ancient Iran, varieties of this term were adopted through Greek sources, thus, in the Western world, the term Persian came to refer to all inhabitants of the country. 10th-century Iraqi historian Al-Masudi refers to Pahlavi, Dari and Azari as dialects of the Persian language, in 1333, medieval Moroccan traveler and scholar Ibn Battuta, referred to the people of Kabul as a specific sub-tribe of Persians. Lady Mary Sheil, in her observation of Iran during the Qajar era, describes Persians, Kurds and Leks to identify themselves as descendants of the ancient Persians. On March 21,1935, the king of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking the international community to use the term Iran. However, the term Persian is still used to designate the predominant population of the Iranian peoples living in the Iranian cultural continent. The earliest known written record attributed to the Persians is from the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, the inscription mentions Parsua as a tribal chiefdom in modern-day western Iran. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the Iranian population that, in the early 10th century BC. They were initially dominated by the Assyrians for much of the first three centuries after arriving in the region, however, they played a role in the downfall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes, another branch of population, founded the unified empire of Media as the regions dominant cultural and political power in c.625 BC. Meanwhile, the Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids formed a state to the central Median power. In c.552 BC, the Achaemenids began a revolution which led to the conquest of the empire by Cyrus II in c.550 BC. They spread their influence to the rest of what is called the Iranian Plateau, at its greatest extent, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from parts of Eastern Europe in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenids developed the infrastructure to support their growing influence, including the creation of Pasargadae and its legacy and impact on the kingdom of Macedon was also notably huge, even for centuries after the withdrawal of the Persians from Europe following the Greco-Persian Wars. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, until the Parthian era, the Iranian identity had an ethnic, linguistic, and religious value, however, it did not yet have a political import
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Mithra
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Mithra is the Zoroastrian angelic Divinity of Covenant and Oath. In addition to being the Divinity of Contracts, Mithra is also a figure, an all-seeing Protector of Truth, and the Guardian of Cattle. The Romans attributed their Mithraic mysteries to Persian sources relating to Mithra, since the early 1970s the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities, and the mysteries are now considered a distinct Roman product formed, at most, by Roman perceptions of Zoroastrian ideas. Together with the Vedic common noun mitra, the Avestan common noun miθra derives from proto-Indo-Iranian *mitra, from the root mi- to bind, thus, etymologically mitra/miθra means that which causes binding, preserved in the Avestan word for Covenant, Contract, Oath. In Middle Iranian languages, miθra became mihr, from which New Persian مهر mihr, Wanetsi and Wazirwola mērə/myer, as a member of the Iranian ahuric triad, a feature that only Ahura Mazda and Ahura Berezaiti also have, Mithra is an exalted figure. Together with Rashnu Justice and Sraosha Obedience, Mithra is one of the three judges at the Chinvat Bridge, the Bridge of Separation that all Souls must cross, unlike Sraosha, Mithra is not however a Psychopomp, a guide of souls to the place of the dead. Should the Good Thoughts, Words and Deeds outweigh the Bad, as the Divinity of Contract, Mithra is undeceivable, infallible, eternally watchful, and never-resting. Mithra is additionally the protector of cattle, and his epithet is of Wide Pastures. He is Guardian of the waters and ensures that those pastures receive enough of it, the lack of Mithras presence in the texts was once a cause of some consternation amongst Iranists. An often repeated speculation of the first half of the 20th century was that the lack of any mention of Mithra in these texts implied that Zoroaster had rejected Mithra and this ex silentio speculation is no longer followed. The Avestan Hymn to Mithra is the longest, and one of the best preserved, Mithra is described in the Zoroastrian Avesta scriptures as Mithra of Wide Pastures, of the Thousand Ears, and of the Myriad Eyes, the Lofty, and the Everlasting. We sacrifice to Mithra, The Lord of all countries, Whom Ahura Mazda created the most glorious, Of the Supernatural Yazads. So may there come to us for Aid, Both Mithra and Ahura, Mithra is invoked in the inscriptions of two Achaemenid emperors. Boyce suggests that the reason for this was that Artaxerxes had chosen Anahita, Mithra is invoked again in the single known inscription of Artaxerxes III, A3Pa, found at Persepolis. In that inscription, that emperor too appeals to Ahuramazda and the God Mithra preserve me, my country, in the Zoroastrian calendar, the sixteenth day of the month and the seventh month of the year are dedicated to, and under the protection of, Mithra. The day on which the day-name and month-name dedications intersect is dedicated to the divinity of that day/month, in the case of Mithra, this was Jashan-e Mihragan, or just Mihragan in short. In Zoroastrian scripture, Mithra is distinct from the divinity of the Sun, however, in Zoroastrian tradition, Mithra evolved from being an all-seeing figure into a divinity co-identified with the Sun itself, effectively taking over Hvare. khshaetas role. How or when or why this occurred is uncertain, but it is attributed to conflation with Babylonian Shamash and/or Greek Apollo
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Great Mosque of Samarra
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The Great Mosque of Samarra is a ninth-century mosque located in Samarra, Iraq. The mosque was commissioned in 848 and completed in 851 by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil who reigned from 847 until 861. The Great Mosque of Samarra was, for a time, the largest mosque in the world, its minaret, the Malwiya Tower, is a spiralling cone 52 metres high and 33 metres wide with a spiral ramp. The reign of al-Mutawakkil had an effect on the appearance of the city, for he seems to have been a lover of architecture. In a list of his projects which appears in several different versions. The new Congregational Mosque, with its spiral minaret, built between 849 and 851, formed part of an extension of the city to the east, the mosque had 17 aisles, and its walls were panelled with mosaics of dark blue glass. It was part of an extension of Samarra eastwards, the art and architecture of the mosque were influential, stucco carvings within the mosque in floral and geometric designs represent early Islamic decoration. Additionally, the mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, Egypt was based on the Samarra mosque in many regards, the mosque itself was destroyed in 1278 after Hulagu Khans invasion of Iraq. Only the outer wall and its minaret remain, Great mosque, Samarra, was built during the caliphate of al-Mutawakkil. It is the largest mosque in the world, built entirely of brick within a wall flanked with towers, it has a 55 m high minaret with a spiral ramp that recalls the ziggurats of Mesopotamia. The Malwiya Minaret is part of the Great Mosque of Samarra, the minaret was originally connected to the mosque by a bridge. The minaret or tower was constructed in 848 –852 of sandstone,52 metres high and 33 metres wide at the base, the spiral contains stairs reaching to the top. The word malwiya translates as twisted or snail shell, the Malwiya was used for the call to prayer, its height made it practical for such use. It is visible from a distance in the area around Samarra. The minarets spiral shape inspired Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Philip Johnsons design for the 1976 Chapel of Thanksgiving at Thanks-Giving Square in Dallas, Texas, in 2005 the top of the Malwiya minaret was damaged by a bomb. I. R. I. S
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Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
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Istakhr
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Istakhr was an ancient city located in southern Iran, in Fars province, five kilometers north of Persepolis. It was a city under the Sasanian Empire and briefly served as its capital from 224 to 226 CE. Istakhr first appears in history as an Achaemenid city, the city temporarily became the capital of the Sasanian Empire during the reign of Ardashir I before the capital was moved to Ctesiphon, in Mesopotamia. During the Sasanian period the royal treasury of the empire, known as ganj ī šāhīgān, is said to have been in Istakhr. In 915–916, al-Masudi himself saw in a house at Istakhr owned by a Persian noble, in 659 CE, caliph Ali sent Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan to suppress a Persian rebellion in Istakhr. Ziyad succeeded at this and stayed on as governor, through the Jade Gate to Rome, A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, First to Second Centuries CE. Bivar, A. D. H. Boyce, Mary
24.
'Adud al-Dawla
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He is widely regarded as the greatest monarch of the dynasty, and by the end of his reign was the most powerful ruler in the Middle East. In 974 Adud al-Dawla was sent by his father to save his cousin Izz al-Dawla from a rebellion, after defeating the rebel forces, he claimed the emirate of Iraq for himself, and forced his cousin to abdicate. His father, however, became angered by this decision and restored Izz al-Dawla, after the death of Adud al-Dawlas father, his cousin rebelled against him, but was defeated. Adud al-Dawla became afterwards the sole ruler of the Buyid dynasty, when Adud al-Dawla became emir of Iraq, the capital city, Baghdad, was suffering from violence and instability owing to sectarian conflict. In order to bring peace and stability to the city, he ordered the banning of public demonstrations, at the same time, he patronized a number of Shia scholars such as al-Mufid, and sponsored the renovation of a number of important Shia shrines. In addition, Adud al-Dawla is credited with sponsoring and patronizing other scientific projects during his time, an observatory was built by his orders in Isfahan where Azophi worked. Al-Muqaddasi also reports that he ordered the construction of a dam between Shiraz and Estakhr in 960. The dam irrigated some 300 villages in Fars province and became known as Band-e Amir, among his other major constructions was the digging of the Haffar channel, that joined the Karun river to the Shatt al-Arab river. The port of Khorramshahr was built on the Haffar, at its point with the Shatt al-Arab. Fanna Khusraw was born in Isfahan on September 24,936, he was the son of Rukn al-Dawla, in 948, Fanna Khusraw was chosen by his uncle Imad al-Dawla as his successor because he had no heir. Imad al-Dawla died in December 949, and thus Fanna Khusraw became the new ruler of Fars, however, this appointment was not accepted by a group of Daylamite officers, who shortly rebelled against Fanna Khusraw. Rukn al-Dawla quickly left for southern Iran to save his son, together they defeated the rebels and put Fanna Khusraw on the throne in Shiraz. Fanna Khusraw then requested the title of Taj al-Dawla from the Abbasid caliph, however, to Muizz al-Dawla, the title of Taj implied that Fanna Khusraw was the superior ruler of the Buyid Empire, provoking a reaction from him, and making him decline Fanna Khusraws request. A more suitable title was instead chosen, Adud al-Dawla was only thirteen when he was crowned as the ruler of Fars, and was educated there by his tutor Abu l-Fadl ibn al-Amid. In 955, a Daylamite military officer named Muhammad ibn Makan seized Isfahan from Rukn al-Dawla, Adud al-Dawla then marched towards the city and recaptured it from Muhammad ibn Makan. Another Daylamite military officer named Ruzbahan also shortly rebelled against Muizz al-Dawla, Abu l-Fadl ibn al-Amid, however, managed to suppress the rebellion. In 966, Adud al-Dawla and Muizz al-Dawla made a campaign to impose Buyid rule in Oman, Muizz al-Dawla died in 967, and was succeeded by his eldest son Izz al-Dawla as emir of Iraq. The same year, Adud al-Dawla aided the Ziyarid Bisutun in securing the Ziyarid throne from his brother Qabus, Adud al-Dawla and Bisutun then made an alliance, and Bisutun married a daughter of Adud al-Dawla, while he married a daughter of Bisutun
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Umayyad Caliphate
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The Umayyad Caliphate, also spelled Omayyad, was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. This caliphate was centred on the Umayyad dynasty, hailing from Mecca, Syria remained the Umayyads main power base thereafter, and Damascus was their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, incorporating the Caucasus, Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula into the Muslim world. At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km2 and 62 million people, the Umayyad Caliphate was secular by nature. At the time, the Umayyad taxation and administrative practice were perceived as unjust by some Muslims, Muhammad had stated explicitly during his lifetime that Abrahamic religious groups, should be allowed to practice their own religion, provided that they paid the jizya taxation. The welfare state of both the Muslim and the poor started by Umar ibn al Khattab had also continued, financed by the zakat tax levied only on Muslims. Muawiyas wife Maysum was also a Christian, the relations between the Muslims and the Christians in the state were stable in this time. Prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served in Byzantine governments, the employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious assimilation that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, as in Syria. This policy also boosted Muawiyas popularity and solidified Syria as his power base, the rivalries between the Arab tribes had caused unrest in the provinces outside Syria, most notably in the Second Muslim Civil War of AD 680–692 and the Berber Revolt of 740–743. During the Second Civil War, leadership of the Umayyad clan shifted from the Sufyanid branch of the family to the Marwanid branch. A branch of the family fled across North Africa to Al-Andalus, where they established the Caliphate of Córdoba, according to tradition, the Umayyad family and Muhammad both descended from a common ancestor, Abd Manaf ibn Qusai, and they originally came from the city of Mecca. Muhammad descended from Abd Manāf via his son Hashim, while the Umayyads descended from Abd Manaf via a different son, Abd-Shams, the two families are therefore considered to be different clans of the same tribe. However Muslim Shia historians suspect that Umayya was a son of Abd Shams so he was not a blood relative of Abd Manaf ibn Qusai. Umayya was later discarded from the noble family, Sunni historians disagree with this and view Shia claims as nothing more than outright polemics due to their hostility to the Umayyad family in general. While the Umayyads and the Hashimites may have had bitterness between the two clans before Muhammad, the rivalry turned into a case of tribal animosity after the Battle of Badr. The battle saw three top leaders of the Umayyad clan killed by Hashimites in a three-on-three melee and this fueled the opposition of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, the grandson of Umayya, to Muhammad and to Islam. Abu Sufyan sought to exterminate the adherents of the new religion by waging another battle with Muslims based in Medina only a year after the Battle of Badr and he did this to avenge the defeat at Badr. The Battle of Uhud is generally believed by scholars to be the first defeat for the Muslims, as they had incurred greater losses than the Meccans
26.
Pahlavi scripts
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Pahlavi or Pahlevi denotes a particular and exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages. The essential characteristics of Pahlavi are the use of a specific Aramaic-derived script, the Pahlavi script, Pahlavi compositions have been found for the dialects/ethnolects of Parthia, Persis, Sogdiana, Scythia, and Khotan. Independent of the variant for which the Pahlavi system was used, Pahlavi is then an admixture of written Imperial Aramaic, from which Pahlavi derives its script, logograms, and some of its vocabulary. Spoken Middle Iranian, from which Pahlavi derives its terminations, symbol rules, Pahlavi may thus be defined as a system of writing applied to a specific language group, but with critical features alien to that language group. It has the characteristics of a language, but is not one. It is a written system, but much Pahlavi literature remains essentially an oral literature committed to writing. If this etymology is correct, Parthav presumably became pahlaw through a semivowel glide rt change to l, the term has been traced back further to Avestan pərəthu- broad, also evident in Sanskrit pŗthvi- earth and parthivi of the earth. Common to all Indo-Iranian languages is a connotation of mighty, the earliest attested use of Pahlavi dates to the reign of Arsaces I of Parthia in early Parthian coins with Pahlavi scripts. There are also several Pahlavi texts written during the reign of Mithridates I, such fragments, as also the rock inscriptions of Sassanid kings, which are datable to the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, do not, however, qualify as a significant literary corpus. It is in an archaic script than Book Pahlavi. After the Muslim conquest of Persia, the Pahlavi script was replaced by the Arabic script, except in Zoroastrian sacred literature, the replacement of the Pahlavi script with the Arabic script in order to write the Persian language was done by the Tahirids in 9th century Khurasan. In the present-day, Pahlavi is frequently identified with the dialect of south-west Iran, formerly and properly called Pārsi. This practice can be dated to the immediately following the Islamic conquest. Tables showing the letters and their names or pronunciations are available on line, the Pahlavi script is one of the two essential characteristics of the Pahlavi system. Its origin and development occurred independently of the various Middle Iranian languages for which it was used, the Pahlavi script is derived from the Aramaic script as it was used under the Achaemenids, with modifications to support the phonology of the Iranian languages. It is essentially a typical abjad, where, in general, only vowels are marked with matres lectionis. In addition to this, during much of its later history, similarly, certain words continued to be spelt with postvocalic ⟨s⟩ and ⟨t⟩ even after the consonants had been debuccalized to ⟨h⟩ in the living language. The Pahlavi script consisted of two widely used forms, Inscriptional Pahlavi and Book Pahlavi, a third form, Psalter Pahlavi, is not widely attested
27.
Qal'eh Dokhtar
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Qaleh Dokhtar, Ghale Dokhtar, Dezh Dokhtar, is a castle made by Ardashir I, in present day Fars, Iran, in 209 AD. It is located on a slope near the Firouzabad-Kavar road. The name of the castle implies it was dedicated to the Goddess Anahita, after capturing Isfahan and Kerman from the Parthians, Ardashir built the city of Gur near the castle in Pirouzabad, making it his capital. After defeating Ardavan V, the Parthian king in a battle in 224 AD. Ardashirs grandfather was a prominent priest of the Goddess Anahita at the temple of Darabgird. The castle is built on a bluff which overlooks the river. The entrance to the castle is through a tall gateway within a large, inside, a broad stairway leads up to a rectangular hall, with blind niches on either side and two large buttresses at the east end. These supported stairways go up to the level, with another large rectangular room,14 x 23 m, with an iwan at the east end. It was presumably roofed by an arched vault, beyond this there are steps to a third level and a large rectangular room with ¼ circle squinches at each corner supporting a domed roof. This was buttressed by very thick walls on all sides, presumably to ensure its stability, the fortified palace contains many of the recurring features of Sasanian palace and civic architecture, long halls, arches, domes, recessed windows, and stairways. The 1, 800-year-old castle has lost some four meters of its height over the last century and experts warn if urgent measures are not taken to enforce it. List of Iranian castles Iranian architecture Sassanid History of Persian domes Photo, Maiden Castle - Firouzabad - Iran
28.
Palace of Ardeshir
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The Palace of Ardashir Pāpakan, also known as the Atash-kadeh آتشکده, is a castle located on the slopes of the mountain on which Dezh Dokhtar is situated. Built in AD224 by King Ardashir I of the Sassanian Empire, it is located two kilometers north of the ancient city of Gor, i. e. the old city of Piruz-Apad in Pars, in ancient Persia. The structure contains three domes, among other features, making it larger and more magnificent than its predecessor. However, it seems that the compound was designed to display the royalty image of Ardashir I, rather than being a fortified structure for defense purposes. That is why perhaps it would be best to refer to the structure as a rather than a castle, even though it has huge walls on the perimeters. From the architectural design, it seems the palace was more of a place of gathering where guests would be introduced to the imperial throne. The palace was next to a picturesque pond that was fed by a natural spring, perhaps in connection with the Persian goddess of water and growth. The spring is thought to have fed a royal garden, in the way that Cyrus had his garden built at Pasargadae. The pond was tiled on its sides, surrounded by pavement for guests of the court to enjoy the evenings by. The structure is 104 m by 55 m, the iwan is 18 m high, although it has partially collapsed. The structure was built of rocks and mortar with plasterwork on the insides. The style of the design is comparable to that of Tachar palace at Persepolis. Jane Dieulafoy visited the site with her husband, Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy, robert Byron was there in February 1934, and wrote about his visit in The Road to Oxiana. Byron considered the Palace to include the prototype of the squinch, in his view, buildings such as St. Peters Basilica and the Taj Mahal would not have existed without the squinch and the pendentive. Iran has tentatively listed the Palace of Ardashir and other sites in, Anahita List of Iranian castles History of Persian domes Firuzabad -- A Sassanian Palace or Fire Temple
29.
Bishapur
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Bishapur was an ancient city in Iran on the ancient road between Persis and Elam. The road linked the Sassanid capitals Estakhr and Ctesiphon and it is located south of modern Faliyan in the Kazerun County of Pars Province, Iran. Bishapur was built near a crossing and at the same site there is also a fort with rock-cut reservoirs. The name Bishapur derives from Bay-Šāpūr, which means Lord Shapur, in his native province of Fars, he built a new capital that would measure up to his ambitions, Bishapur, Shapurs City. Outside the city, Shapur decorated the sides of the Bishapur River gorge with huge historical reliefs commemorating his triple triumph over Rome. One of these reliefs, in a shape, has rows of registers with files of soldiers and horses. The city, as the dam bridge in Shushtar, was built by Roman soldiers who had been captured after Valerians defeat in 260. However, it was not a new settlement, archaeologists have found remains from the Parthian. The city remained important until the Arabian invasions and the rise of Islam in the quarter of the 7th century. There were still living there in the 10th century. The main part of the excavations took place in the royal sector, a fire altar, sometimes interpreted as a shrine to Anahita, was erected near the palace. In the center there is a space with eight large square exedrae decorated with 64 alcoves. The French excavators believed it had covered with a dome roof. To the west lies a courtyard decorated with mosaics, to the east and its walls must have been covered with small stucco ornaments, rows of medallions, bands of foliage, and topped with merlons inherited from Achaemenid architecture. All these decorative techniques were used after the Islamic conquest of Iran. The floor was paved with marble slabs, with a mosaic border. Along the walls runs a band featuring a series of heads and masks, in a frontal or profile view. At the top of each there was a picture of women naked under their transparent veils, courtesans, musicians, dancers, women twisting garlands
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Round city of Baghdad
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The round city of Baghdad is the original core of Baghdad, built by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur in AD 762–767 as the official residence of the Abbasid court. Its official name in Abbasid times was The City of Peace, the famous library known as the House of Wisdom was located within its grounds. On 30 July 762, the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the round city, Mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic empire under the Abbasids. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying, This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, the site of Babylon, which had been deserted since the 2nd century, lies some 90 km to the south. The city was designed as a circle about 1 km in diameter, the original design shows a ring of residential and commercial structures along the inside of the city walls, but the final construction added another ring, inside the first. In the center of the city lay the mosque, as well as headquarters for guards, the purpose or use of the remaining space in the center is unknown. The circular design of the city was a reflection of the traditional Persian Sasanian urban design. The ancient Sasanian city of Gur/Firouzabad is nearly identical in its circular design, radiating avenues. Al Mansur was caliph when The Round City was created, the city of Baghdad was round. It was built this way because circles are important symbols to Muslims, the city had very large walls that were very high and very thick. The roundness points to the fact that it was based on Persian precedents such as Firouzabad in Persia, the two designers who were hired by al-Mansur to plan the citys design were Naubakht, a former Persian Zoroastrian. Al-Mansurs Round City of Baghdad in archnet website Baghdad in islamic art website
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
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Iranian architecture
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Iranian architecture or Persian architecture is the architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Its history dates back to at least 5,000 BCE with characteristic examples distributed over a vast area from Turkey and Iraq to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and from the Caucasus to Zanzibar. Persian buildings vary from peasant huts to tea houses and garden, in addition to historic gates, palaces, and mosques, the rapid growth of cities such as the capital, Tehran has brought about a wave of demolition and new construction. Iranian architecture displays great variety, both structural and aesthetic, from a variety of traditions and experience, without sudden innovations, and despite the repeated trauma of invasions and cultural shocks, it has achieved an individuality distinct from that of other Muslim countries. Traditionally, the guiding formative motif of Iranian architecture has been its cosmic symbolism by which man is brought into communication and participation with the powers of heaven. This theme has not only given unity and continuity to the architecture of Persia, according to Persian historian and archaeologist Arthur Pope, the supreme Iranian art, in the proper meaning of the word, has always been its architecture. The supremacy of architecture applies to both pre- and post-Islamic periods, traditional Persian architecture has maintained a continuity that, although temporarily distracted by internal political conflicts or foreign invasion, nonetheless has achieved an unmistakable style. In this architecture, there are no buildings, even garden pavilions have nobility and dignity. In expressiveness and communicativity, most Persian buildings are lucid - even eloquent, the combination of intensity and simplicity of form provides immediacy, while ornament and, often, subtle proportions reward sustained observation. g. g. Anahita Temple, Khorheh, Parthian era e. g. Hatra, the compounds at Nysa, Sassanid era e. g. Ghaleh Dokhtar. Chehelsotoon, Ali Qapu, Agha Bozorg Mosque, Kashan, Shah Mosque, available building materials dictate major forms in traditional Iranian architecture. This technique, used in Iran from ancient times, has never completely abandoned. The abundance of heavy plastic earth, in conjunction with a lime mortar, also facilitated the development. Certain design elements of Persian architecture have persisted throughout the history of Iran, the most striking are a marked feeling for scale and a discerning use of simple and massive forms. The consistency of decorative preferences, the high-arched portal set within a recess, columns with bracket capitals, through the ages these elements have recurred in completely different types of buildings, constructed for various programs and under the patronage of a long succession of rulers. Similarly, the dome on four arches, so characteristic of Sassanid times, is a still to be found in many cemeteries, the pre-Islamic styles draw on 3000 to 4000 years of architectural development from various civilizations of the Iranian plateau. Iran is recognized by UNESCO as being one of the cradles of civilization, each of the periods of Elamites, Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids were creators of great architecture that, over the ages, spread far and wide far to other cultures. Although Iran has suffered its share of destruction, including Alexander The Greats decision to burn Persepolis, the Achaemenids built on a grand scale
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Achaemenid architecture
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Achaemenid architecture is academically classified under Parsian Architecture in terms of its style and design. With the advent of the second Persian Empire, the Sassanid dynasty, revived Achaemenid tradition by construction of dedicated to fire. Persepolis, would take 100 years to complete and would finally be ransacked, despite having ruled over much of the ancient world, Cyrus the Great would design a tomb that depicts extreme simplicity and modesty when compared to those of other ancient kings and rulers. After his death, Cyrus the Greats remains were interred in his city of Pasargadae. The roof of the edifice and indeed the structure, is an elongated limestone pediment, the inside of the edifice is occupied by a small chamber a few feet in width and height, and around ten feet deep. It was inside this chamber where the bed and coffin of Cyrus the Great would have been situated, the edifice has a pediment roof possessing the same length and width dimensions as the edifice itself. Around the tomb were a series of columns, the structure which they supported is no longer present. There was originally a golden coffin inside the mausoleum, resting on a table with golden supports, the magi were a group of on-site Zoroastrian observers, located in their separate but attached structure possibly a caravanserai, paid and cared for by the Achaemenid state. The magi were placed in charge of maintenance and also prevention of theft, when Alexander reached the tomb, he was horrified by the manner in which the tomb was treated, and questioned the Magi and put them to court. Regardless, Alexander the Great ordered Aristobulus of Cassandreia to improve the tombs condition, the tomb was originally ornamented with an inscription that, according to Strabo, stated, O man. I am Cyrus the Great, who gave the Persians an empire and was the king of Asia, grudge me not therefore this monument. The edifice has survived the test of time for some 2,500 years, the Persians renamed the tomb, and presented it to the invading army as the tomb of King Solomons mother. It is likely that the inscription was lost at this time, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last official monarch of Persia, during his 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire paid significant homage to the Achaemenid kings and specially Cyrus the Great. Just as Alexander the Great before him, the Shah of Iran wanted to appeal to Cyruss legacy to legitimize his own rule by extension, Shah of Iran however was generally interested in protection of imperial historical artifacts. There are allegations of the tomb being in danger of damage from the construction of the Sivand Dam on river Polvar and water related damage, united Nations recognizes the tomb of Cyrus the Great and Pasargadae as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Persepolis is the Latinized version of the Old Persian name, Parsa literally meaning the city of Persians, another spectacular achievement of the Achaemenids, Persepolis became one of the four capitals of the empire. Initiated by Darius the Great around 518 B. C. E, persepoliss prestige and grand riches were well known in the ancient world, and it was best described by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus as the richest city under the sun. Today the archaeological remnants of this opulent city are about 70 kilometers northeast of the modern Iranian city of Shiraz, in the Pars province
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Pre-Parsian style
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The Pre-Parsian style is a sub-style of architecture when categorizing the history of Persian/Iranian architectural development. This style of architecture flourished in the Iranian Plateau until the eighth century B. C. E. during the era of the Median Empire and it is often classified as a subcategory of Parsian Architecture. The oldest remains of the landmarks in this style are the Teppe Zagheh. Other extant examples of style are Chogha zanbil, Sialk, Shahr-i Sokhta. Elamite and proto-Elamite buildings among others, are covered within this stylistic subcategory as well
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Parthian style
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The Parthian style is a style of historical Iranian architecture. This style of architecture includes designs from the Seleucid, Parthian, examples of this style are Ghaleh Dokhtar, the royal compounds at Nysa, Anahita Temple, Khorheh, Hatra, the Ctesiphon vault of Kasra, Bishapur, and the Palace of Ardashir in Ardeshir Khwarreh. Hellenistic architecture Ancient Greek architecture Pīrniyā, Muammah Karīm, kawami, T. Keall, E. J. Huff, D. et al. New York, Routledge & Kegan Paul
Iran
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