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Marzbān
Marzbān, or Marzpān (Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭫𐭱𐭰𐭠𐭭𐭯 transliteration: mrzwpn, derived from Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭫𐭱 ''marz'' "border, boundary" and the Middle Persian suffix: 𐭡𐭭𐭯 ''-pān'' "guardian"; Modern Persian: ''Marzbān'') were a class of margraves, warden of the marches, and by extension military commanders, in charge of border provinces of the Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD) and mostly Sasanian Empire (224–651 AD) of Iran. Etymology The Persian word ''marz'' is derived from Avestan ''marəza'' "frontier, border"; ''pān/pāvan'' is cognate with Avestan and Old Persian ''pat'' "protector". The word was borrowed from New Persian into Arabic as ''marzubān'' (plural ''marāziba''). "Al-Marzubani" () has been used as a ''Nisbat (onomastics), nisba'' (family title) for some Iranian families whose ancestor was a marzbān. The prominent Islamic scholar Abu Hanifa, whose formal name is given in Islamic sources as Nu'man ibn Thabit ibn Zuta ''i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margrave
Margrave was originally the Middle Ages, medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or a monarchy, kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain Feudalism, feudal families in the Empire and the title came to be borne by rulers of some Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire), Imperial principalities until the abolition of the Empire in 1806 (e.g., Margrave of Brandenburg, Margrave of Baden). Thereafter, those domains (originally known as ''marks'' or ''marches'', later as ''margraviates'' or ''margravates'') were absorbed into larger realms or the titleholders adopted titles indicative of full sovereignty. History Etymologically, the word "margrave" (, ) is the English and French form of the German noble title (;, meaning "march (territory), march" or "mark", that is, borderland, added to , meaning "Count"); it is related semantics, semantically to the English title "Marcher Lord". As a no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conquering the region of Parthia in Iran's northeast, then a satrapy (province) under Andragoras, who was rebelling against the Seleucid Empire. Mithridates I ( BC) greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to present-day Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han dynasty of China, became a center of trade and commerce. The Parthians largely adopted the art, architecture, religious beliefs, and regalia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed Pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spahbed
''Spāhbad'' (also spelled ''spahbod'') is a Middle Persian title meaning "army chief" used chiefly in the Sasanian Empire. Originally there was a single ''spāhbad'', called the , who functioned as the generalissimo of the Military of the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian army. From the time of Khosrow I ( 531–579) on, the office was split in four, with a ''spāhbad'' for each of the cardinal directions.Gyselen (2004) After the Muslim conquest of Persia, the ''spāhbed'' of the East managed to retain his authority over the inaccessible mountainous region of Tabaristan on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, where the title, often in its Islamic form (; in ), survived as a regnal title until the Mongol conquests of the 13th century.Bosworth (1978), pp. 207–208 An equivalent title of Persian origin, ''ispahsalar, ispahsālār or sipahsālār'', gained great currency across the Muslim world in the 10th–15th centuries. The title was also adopted by the Armenians (, ) and the Georgi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Persian
Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Persian continued to function as a prestige language. It descended from Old Persian, the language of the Achaemenid Empire and is the linguistic ancestor of Modern Persian, the official language of Iran (also known as Persia), Afghanistan ( Dari) and Tajikistan ( Tajik). Name "Middle Iranian" is the name given to the middle stage of development of the numerous Iranian languages and dialects. The middle stage of the Iranian languages begins around 450 BCE and ends around 650 CE. One of those Middle Iranian languages is Middle Persian, i.e. the middle stage of the language of the Persians, an Iranian people of Persia proper, which lies in the south-western Iran highlands on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wuzurgan
''Wuzurgān'' (, meaning "grandees" or the "great ones"), also known by its Modern Persian form of (), was the name of the high nobility and the third class-rank of the four of the Sasanian aristocracy. After the fall of the Sasanian Empire, they reappear under the Dabuyid dynasty. Etymology The word is the plural form of the word 'big, great', which is derived from the Old Persian word , which is in turn hypothesized to derive from the Proto-Indo-European word * 'to be strong, lively, awake'. History The are first mentioned in the early Sasanian period and appear in Shapur I's inscription in Hajjiabad. They played an important and prominent role in Sasanian politics, and seem to have held much influence. High-ranking members of the were present at the coronation of the Sasanian kings. Every time there was a dispute about choosing a Sasanian king, the objective of the was to elect a Sasanian king. After the death of Hormizd II in 309, the elected the latter's son Shap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden forms a conurbation with a population of around 500,000 with the neighbouring city of Mainz. This conurbation is in turn embedded in the Rhine-Main, Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region—Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after Rhine-Ruhr—which also includes the nearby cities of Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt, Offenbach am Main, and Hanau, and has a combined population exceeding 5.8 million. The city is located on the Rhine (Upper Rhine), at the foothills of the Taunus, opposite the Rhineland-Palatine capital of Mainz, and the city centre is located in the wide valley of the small Salzbach (Wiesbaden), Salzbach stream. Wiesbaden lies in the Rheingau (wine region), Rheingau wine-growing region, one of Germany's List of German wine regions, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, highest population within its city limits of any city in the European Union. The city is also one of the states of Germany, being the List of German states by area, third smallest state in the country by area. Berlin is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, and Brandenburg's capital Potsdam is nearby. The urban area of Berlin has a population of over 4.6 million and is therefore the most populous urban area in Germany. The Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, Berlin-Brandenburg capital region has around 6.2 million inhabitants and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr region, as well as the List of EU metropolitan areas by GDP, fifth-biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Asia
Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Persian suffix "-stan" (meaning ) in both respective native languages and most other languages. The region is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the southwest, European Russia to the northwest, China and Mongolia to the east, Afghanistan and Iran to the south, and Siberia to the north. Together, the five Central Asian countries have a total population of around million. In the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras ( and earlier) Central Asia was inhabited predominantly by Iranian peoples, populated by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians, Khwarezmian language, Chorasmians, and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Dahae. As the result of Turkic migration, Central Asia also became the homeland for the Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, Volga Tatars, Tatars, Turkmens, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abarshahr
Abarshahr ( Persian: اَبَرشهر) or Nishapur ( Persian: نیشاپور) was a Sasanian satrapy (province) in Late Antiquity, that lay within the kust of Khorasan. The province bordered Media in the west, Hyrcania in the north west, Margiana in the north east, and Harev in the south east. The governor of Abarshahr is attested to have held the unique title of kanarang, distinguished from the title of marzban given to governors of frontier provinces. Abarshahr came to be known as one of the nicknames of the city of Nishapur which was considered to be the capital city of the province of Abarshahr during the Sassanian period and later on. Etymology Several etymologies have been put forward as to the origin of the name of the province. During the Middle Ages, for example, Arab geographers stated that the name meant "cloud city". It has also been interpreted to mean "upper country". A more recent etymology that suggests that Abarshahr derives from ''Aparn-xšahr'', "land of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kanarang
The ''kanārang'' () was a unique title in the Sasanian military, given to the commander of the Sasanian Empire's northeasternmost frontier province, Abarshahr (encompassing the cities of Nishapur, Tus and Abiward). In Byzantine sources, it is rendered as ''chanaranges'' () and often used, for instance by Procopius, in lieu of the holder's actual name. The title was used instead of the more conventional ''marzban'', which was held by the rest of the Iranian frontier wardens. Like the other ''marzbans'', the position was hereditary. The family holding it (the ''Kanarangiyan'') is first attested in the reign of Yazdegerd I (r. 399–421), but was descended from some pre-Sasanian, most likely Parthian, dynasty. They enjoyed a high prestige and great authority in the Sasanian Empire's northeastern borderlands, as reflected in their glorified description in the ''Shahnameh'' of the great Persian poet Ferdowsi. They were among the great families that deposed the last powerful Sasanian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darius I
Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West Asia, parts of the Balkans (Skudra, Thrace–Achaemenid Macedonia, Macedonia and Paeonia (kingdom), Paeonia) and the Caucasus, most of the Black Sea's coastal regions, Central Asia, the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley, Indus Valley in the far east, and portions of North Africa and Northeast Africa including History of Persian Egypt, Egypt (), eastern ancient Libya, Libya, and coastal The Sudans, Sudan. Darius ascended the throne by overthrowing the Achaemenid monarch Bardiya (or ''Smerdis''), who he claimed was in fact an imposter named Gaumata. The new king met with rebellions throughout the empire but quelled each of them; a major event in Darius's life was his expedition to subjugate Ancient Greece, Greece and punish Classical At ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nisa, Turkmenistan
Nisa (; ; also Parthaunisa) was an ancient settlement of the Parthians, located near thBagyr neighborhoodof Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, 18 km west of the city center. Nisa is described by some as the first seat of the Arsacid Empire. It is traditionally assumed to have been founded by Arsaces I (reigned c. 250 BC–211 BC) and was reputedly the royal residence of the Parthian kings, although it has not been established that the fortress at Nisa was either a royal residence or a mausoleum. In 2007, the fortress was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. History Nisa was a major trading hub in the Parthian Empire. It was later renamed Mithradātkert () by Mithridates I of Parthia (reigned c. 171 BC–138 BC). The region was famous for the beauty, agility and strength of its horses. Nisa was totally destroyed by an earthquake during the 1st decade BC. Excavations Excavations at Nisa have revealed substantial buildings, mausoleums and shrines, many inscribed documents, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
