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Sasanids
The Sasanian dynasty was the house that founded the Sasanian Empire, ruling this empire from 224 to 651 AD in Persia (modern-day Iran). It began with Ardashir I, who named the dynasty as ''Sasanian'' in honour of his grandfather (or father), Sasan, and after the name of his tribe. The Shahanshah was the sole regent, head of state and head of government of the empire. At times, power shifted de facto to other officials, namely the spahbed. Upon the empire's conquest by the Islamic caliphate in 651, members of the imperial family fled in exile to China following the death of Yazdegerd III, where they would become accepted as members of the imperial court by Emperor Gaozong of Tang. Although there would be numerous attempts to invade Islamic Persia with Chinese support, this branch of Sasanids would remain in China indefinitely. Narsieh, grandson of Yazdegerd and last recorded Sasanid in China, would adopt the surname Li (李) in reminiscence with the Chinese imperial family. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Senmurv
Simurgh (; fa, سیمرغ, also spelled ''simorgh, simorg'', ''simurg'', ''simoorg, simorq'' or ''simourv'') is a benevolent, mythical bird in Persian mythology and Persian literature, literature. It is sometimes equated with other mythological birds such as the Phoenix (mythology), phoenix ( fa, link=no, ققنوس ''quqnūs'') and the Huma bird, humā ( fa, link=no, هما). The figure can be found in all periods of Greater Iran, Iranian art and literature and is also evident in the iconography of Georgia (country), Georgia, medieval Armenia, the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, and other regions that were within the realm of Persian cultural influence. Etymology The Persian language, Persian word ''sīmurğ'' () derives from Middle Persian ''sēnmurw''Schmidt, Hanns-Peter (2002)Simorgh'. in Encyclopedia Iranica. (and earlier ''sēnmuruγ''), also attested in Pazend texts as ''sīna-mrū''. The Middle Persian word comes from Avestan "the bird Saēna", originally a ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narsieh
Narsieh ( pal, 𐭭𐭥𐭮𐭧𐭩 ''Narseh''; ) was a Persian general who fled to the Tang dynasty with his father Peroz III, son of Yazdegerd III, the last Sassanid emperor of Persia, after the Muslim conquest of Persia. He was escorted back to Persia with a Chinese army led by Pei Xingjian in 679, in order to restore him to the Sasanian throne, but the army stopped in Tokharistan. Pei Xingjian fought successfully against an invasion of Anxi led by the Western Turkic Khan Ashina Duzhi, but Pei then lost his interests in reinstalling the Persian King and left Narsieh in the Anxi Protectorate alone, although Narsieh was still able to maintain his many servants and a high quality of life. Minor Turkic chieftains in the region then pledged their loyalty to the Chinese dynasty due to the defeat of Ashina. The overall result of Pei's expedition was a success for the Tang empire. Upon returning to China, Pei was appointed the minister of rituals and Great general of the right flank g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Touraj Daryaee
Touraj Daryaee ( fa, تورج دریایی; born 1967) is an Iranian Iranologist and historian. He currently works as the Maseeh Chair in Persian Studies and Culture and the director of the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Career Daryaee completed his elementary and secondary schooling in Tehran, Iran and Athens, Greece. He then completed a PhD in history at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1999. He has taught at UCLA, and has been a senior research fellow at Oxford University and resident fellow at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. He specializes in the history and culture of Ancient Persia. He is the editor of the ''Name-ye Iran-e Bastan'', ''The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies'', ''DABIR: Digital Ar'', as well as the director of ''Sasanika Project'', a project on the history and culture of Sasanians. His most famous publications include ''Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pabag
Pabag ( pal, 𐭯𐭠𐭯𐭪𐭩, ''Pāpak/Pābag''; New Persian: ''Bābak''), was an Iranian prince who ruled Istakhr, the capital of Pars, from 205 or 206 until his death sometime between 207–210. He was the father, stepfather, grandfather, or father-in-law of Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian Empire. He was succeeded by his eldest son Shapur. Background and state of Pars Pars (also known as Persis), a region in the southwestern Iranian plateau, was the homeland of a southwestern branch of the Iranian peoples, the Persians. It also was also the birthplace of the first Iranian Empire, the Achaemenids. The region served as the center of the empire until its conquest by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great (). Since the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, Pars was ruled by local dynasts subject to the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire. These dynasts held the ancient Persian title of ''frataraka'' ("leader, governor, forerunner"), which is also attest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kar-Namag I Ardashir I Pabagan
The Kār-Nāmag ī Ardašīr ī Pāpakān ("''Book of the Deeds of Ardeshir, Son of Papak''") (New fa, کارنامهٔ اردشیر بابکان), is a short Middle Persian prose tale written in the Sassanid period (226-651). The story narrates the story of Ardashir I, the founder of the Sassanid dynasty. His own life story—his rise to the throne, battle against the Parthian king Ardawān (or Artabanus), and conquest of the empire by the scion of the House of Sāsān, as well as episodes concerning his heir Šābuhr and the latter’s son, Ohrmazd. After Ardashir was born, son of Pabag's daughter and Sāsān, he spent his childhood in the court of Artabanus IV of Parthia and then ran away with a maidservant of the King. After several wars with Artabanus, Ardashir I defeated and killed the king, and thus could found the new empire. The Karnamag is permeated with Zoroastrian doctrine. Manuscripts The sole independent manuscript of this text to have been identified so far is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander The Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II of Macedon, Philip II to the throne in 336 BC at the age of 20, and spent most of his ruling years conducting a lengthy military campaign throughout Western Asia and ancient Egypt, Egypt. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the List of largest empires, largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to northwestern Historical India, India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders. Until the age of 16, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle. In 335 BC, shortly after his assumption of kingship over Macedon, he Alexander's Balkan campaign, campaigned in the Balkans and reasserted control ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darius III
Darius III ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; c. 380 – 330 BC) was the last Achaemenid King of Kings of Persia, reigning from 336 BC to his death in 330 BC. Contrary to his predecessor Artaxerxes IV Arses, Darius was a distant member of the Achaemenid dynasty. During his early career, he was reportedly an obscure figure among his peers and first rose to prominence during the Cadusian expedition of Artaxerxes III in the 350s BC. As a reward for his bravery, he was given the Satrapy of Armenia. Around 340 BC, he was placed in charge of the royal "postal service," a high-ranking position. In 338 BC, Artaxerxes III met an abrupt end after being poisoned by the court eunuch and chiliarch (''hazahrapatish'') Bagoas, who installed his youngest son Arses on the throne. He only reigned for a few years, until Bagoas had him poisoned as well. Darius was subsequently installed on the throne and soon forced Bagoas to drink his poison after discovering that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dara II
Dara II or Darab II was the last king of the mythological Kayanian dynasty, ruling between 14 and 16 years. He is generally identified with Darius III (), the last king of the Achaemenid Empire. In Middle Persian literature and Islamic chronicles, he is generally known as "Dara", while he is known as "Darab" in the New Persian proses ''Darab-nama'' and ''Iskandar-nama''. He was the son and successor of Dara I. According to early traditions, Dara II's mother was Mahnahid, daughter of Hazarmard, while later traditions refer her to as Thamrusia, a Greek woman who was the daughter of Fastabiqun and former wife of the king of Oman. Dara II was the half-brother of Iskandar (Alexander the Great), who, after refusing to pay tribute, rebelled. During the rebellion, Dara II was assassinated by his ministers Mahyar and Janushyar (Bessus and Nabarzanes). He had three sons, Ashk, Ardashir, and a third, who name is uncertain. The Sasanian monarchs of Iran (224–651) invented a descent that trac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achaemenid Dynasty
The Achaemenid dynasty ( Old Persian: ; Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) was an ancient Persian royal dynasty that ruled the Achaemenid Empire, an Iranian empire that stretched from Egypt and Southeastern Europe in the west to the Indus Valley in the east. Origins The history of the Achaemenid dynasty is mainly known through Greek historians such as Herodotus, Ctesias, and Xenophon; the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish religious texts; and native Iranian sources. According to Herodotus, the Achaemenids were a clan from the tribe of the Pasargadae and probably settled surrounding the site of Pasargadae. They possibly ruled over other Persian tribes in the 9th century BCE. Darius the Great traced his genealogy to Achaemenes, an unknown lineage named after . However, there is no evidence for a king called Achaemenes. Dynasty Kingship was hereditary within the Achaemenid dynasty. The last element of the King of King's title was always "an Achaemenid". Succession wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion and one of the world's History of religion, oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian peoples, Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a Dualism in cosmology, dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a Monotheism, monotheistic ontology and an eschatology which predicts the ultimate conquest of evil by good. Zoroastrianism exalts an uncreated and benevolent deity of wisdom known as ''Ahura Mazda'' () as its supreme being. Historically, the unique features of Zoroastrianism, such as its monotheism, messianism, belief in Free will in theology, free will and Judgement (afterlife), judgement after death, conception of heaven, hell, Angel, angels, and Demon, demons, among other concepts, may have influenced other religious and philosophical systems, including the Abrahamic religions and Gnosticism, Southern, Eastern and Northern Buddhism, Northern Buddhism, and Ancient Greek philosoph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avesta
The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the liturgical group is the ''Yasna'', which takes its name from the Yasna ceremony, Zoroastrianism's primary act of worship, and at which the ''Yasna'' text is recited. The most important portion of the ''Yasna'' texts are the five Gathas, consisting of seventeen hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself. These hymns, together with five other short Old Avestan texts that are also part of the ''Yasna'', are in the Old (or 'Gathic') Avestan language. The remainder of the ''Yasna'''s texts are in Younger Avestan, which is not only from a later stage of the language, but also from a different geographic region. Extensions to the Yasna ceremony include the texts of the ''Vendidad'' and the ''Visperad''. The ''Visperad'' extensions consist mainly of addit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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