Persians origin story. Appearance on the historical stage
Somewhat intolerant, but interesting enough. I, with my politically correct beliefs, may not agree, but the Persians will definitely subscribe to every word.
"...Before that, we were in the areas inhabited by the Persians. And their kindness, honesty, willingness to help you always and in everything made the journey easy and enjoyable.
Here, any problem that you had, gathered a bunch of people who stood around and watched whether this foreigner would get out of it or not.
I wouldn't be surprised if there were bets.
In Persian cities, when they found out that we were going to Ahvaz, they shook their heads and tried to dissuade us: “Why are you going there? The Arabs are there!
Persians, if politically correct, dislike Arabs.
The Arabs are very bad to the Persians.
And the reason here is not so much in the recent Iran-Iraq war.
She is much deeper.
Deeper somewhere for 1500 years.
If it is interesting - I will try to tell.
If not, then just don't read this post any further.
The Persian state for almost 15 centuries was an advanced state of its time.
With a well-functioning system of management, justice, taxation.
The country was the first to establish a religion based on monotheism (before that there was an unsuccessful attempt by Pharaoh Akhenaten in Egypt).
The country that has created masterpieces of architectural construction, urban planning, architecture.
A country that had a developed system of excellent roads, including high-mountain ones.
Country with high level development of agriculture.
A country that flourished.
And in the 7th century breaks into such a country wild tribe nomads that sweeps away, destroys and cuts out everything in its path.
It was much later that the Arabs, having adopted the culture of the conquered peoples a little, began to destroy not everything, but leave what they considered beautiful.
But at the beginning of the Arab conquest, they left a scorched land without a population.
What should have been the attitude of the Persians towards the Arabs?
Arabs are a strong nation.
Prolific and aggressive.
In almost all the places they conquered, they remained forever.
Completely assimilating the conquered population.
Completely destroying their faith, culture, ethnic features of appearance.
Practically in all places.
Except Persia.
The Persians kept their culture. current culture and the history of Iran is not Arabic.
The Persians retained their ethnogenesis. Unlike all others, they did not dissolve and did not even mix with the Arabs.
The appearance of a Persian is very different from that of an Arab.
Outwardly, the Persians are more like Europeans.
Fine and regular facial features. Lots of blondes and redheads.
They do not have Arab, but Aryan blood.
And it's noticeable.
The Persians partially retained their faith.
The Arabs never managed to completely destroy Zoroastrianism.
Nevertheless, having accepted Islam forcibly imposed on them, the Persians did not accept it in the form in which the Arabs profess it.
The Arabs are mostly Sunnis and a small number of Druze.
Persians are Shiites.
While accepting all the canons of Islam, the Persians nevertheless distance their Islam from the Arabic.
The Persians sacredly honor those who are not recognized by Sunni Arabs as the only legitimate heirs of the Prophet Muhammad destroyed by the Umayyad dynasty - Caliph Ali (killed when leaving the mosque in 661), the Prophet's grandson - Hassan (poisoned later) and Ali's youngest son - Hussein (killed in . Karbella).
Hussein is considered the greatest martyr, and until now, all Shiites, when performing prayer, touch their heads with a special stone that they put in front of them.
This pebble is made of sacred clay, which is specially brought from Karbella.
There are such stones in every hotel, in every room.
The Arabs tried to impose the Arabic language on the Persians.
Did not work out.
Omar Khayyam, the first Persian poet who wrote a poem without using a single Arabic word - national hero Persian people.
Persians are not Arabs.
And they don't want to be like them.
See the full Iran trip report here.
In the middle of the VI century BC. That is, a hitherto little-known tribe, the Persians, entered the historical arena, who, by the will of fate, soon managed to create the greatest empire at that time, a powerful state that stretched from Egypt and Libya to the borders. In their conquests, the Persians were active and insatiable, and only courage and courage during the Greco-Persian wars managed to stop their further expansion into Europe. But who were the ancient Persians, what is their history, culture? Read about all this further in our article.
Where is Persia
But first, let's answer the question of where ancient Persia is located, or rather, where it was located. The territory of Persia at the time of its highest prosperity extended from the borders of India in the East to modern Libya in North Africa and parts of mainland Greece in the West (those lands that the Persians managed to conquer from the Greeks for a short time).
This is what ancient Persia looks like on a map.
History of Persia
The origin of the Persians is associated with the warlike nomadic tribes of the Aryans, some of whom settled in the territory modern state Iran (the word "Iran" itself comes from ancient name"Ariana", which means "country of the Aryans"). Once on the fertile lands of the Iranian highlands, they switched from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary one, nevertheless, retaining their military traditions nomads, and the simplicity of morals characteristic of many nomadic tribes.
The history of ancient Persia as a great power of the past begins in the middle of the 6th century BC. e. when, under the leadership of a talented leader (later the Persian king) Cyrus II, the Persians first completely conquered Media, one of the large states of the then East. And then they began to threaten themselves, which at that time was the greatest power of antiquity.
And already in 539, near the city of Opis, on the Tiber River, a decisive battle took place between the armies of the Persians and the Babylonians, which ended in a brilliant victory for the Persians, the Babylonians were completely defeated, and Babylon itself, the greatest city of antiquity for many centuries, was part of the newly formed Persian empire. . In just a dozen years, the Persians from a seedy tribe turned into truly the rulers of the East.
Such a crushing success of the Persians, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, was facilitated, first of all, by the simplicity and modesty of the latter. And of course iron military discipline in their troops. Even having gained enormous wealth and power over many other tribes and peoples, the Persians continued to revere these virtues, simplicity and modesty most of all. Interestingly, during the coronation of the Persian kings, the future king had to put on clothes common man and eat a handful of dried figs, and drink a glass of sour milk - the food of commoners, which, as it were, symbolized his connection with the people.
But back to the history of the Persian Empire, the successors of Cyrus II, the Persian kings Cambyses and Darius, continued their active policy of conquest. Thus, under Cambyses, the Persians invaded ancient Egypt, which by that time was undergoing a political crisis. By defeating the Egyptians, the Persians turned this cradle ancient civilization, Egypt to one of its satrapies (provinces).
King Darius actively strengthened the borders of the Persian state, both in the East and in the West, under his rule, ancient Persia reached the pinnacle of its power, almost the entire civilized world of that time was under its rule. With the exception of ancient greece in the West, which did not give rest to the warlike Persian kings, and soon the Persians, under the reign of King Xerxes, the heir of Darius, tried to subdue these wayward and freedom-loving Greeks, but it was not there.
Despite the numerical superiority, military luck for the first time betrayed the Persians. In a number of battles, they suffered a series of crushing defeats from the Greeks, however, at some stage they managed to conquer a number of Greek territories and even sack Athens, but still the Greco-Persian wars ended in a crushing defeat for the Persian Empire.
From now on, no time great country entered a period of decline, the Persian kings, who grew up in luxury, increasingly forgot the former virtues of modesty and simplicity, which were so valued by their ancestors. Many conquered countries and peoples were just waiting for the moment to rise up against the hated Persians, their enslavers and conquerors. And such a moment has come - Alexander the Great, at the head of the united Greek army, has already attacked Persia himself.
It seemed that the Persian troops would wipe out this arrogant Greek (more precisely, not even quite a Greek - Macedonian) to powder, but everything turned out to be completely different, the Persians again suffer crushing defeats, one after another, a close-knit Greek phalanx, this tank of antiquity, over and over again crushes superior Persian forces. The peoples once conquered by the Persians, seeing what is happening, also rebel against their rulers, the Egyptians even meet the army of Alexander as liberators from the hated Persians. Persia turned out to be a real ear of clay with feet of clay, formidable in appearance, it was crushed thanks to the military and political genius of one Macedonian.
Sasanian state and Sasanian revival
The conquests of Alexander the Great turned out to be a disaster for the Persians, who, in order to replace their arrogant power over other peoples, had to humiliately submit to ancient enemies - the Greeks. Only in the II century BC. e. the tribes of the Parthians managed to expel the Greeks from Asia Minor, although the Parthians themselves adopted a lot of things from the Greeks. And in the year 226 of our era, some ruler of Pars with an ancient Persian name Ardashir (Artaxerxes) revolted against the ruling Parthian dynasty. The uprising was successful and ended with the restoration of the Persian power, the Sassanid state, which historians call the "second Persian empire" or the "Sasanian revival".
The Sasanian rulers sought to revive the former greatness of ancient Persia, which at that time had already become a semi-legendary power. And it was with them that new bloom Iranian, Persian culture, which everywhere displaces Greek culture. Temples are being actively built, new palaces in the Persian style, wars are being waged with neighbors, but not as successfully as in old days. The territory of the new Sasanian state is several times smaller than the size of the former Persia, it is located only on the site of modern Iran, the actual ancestral home of the Persians and also covers part of the territory of modern Iraq, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Sasanian state existed for more than four centuries, until exhausted by continuous wars, it was finally conquered by the Arabs, who carried the banner of a new religion - Islam.
culture of persia
The culture of ancient Persia is most notable for their system of government, which was admired even by the ancient Greeks. In their opinion, this form of government was the pinnacle of monarchical rule. The Persian state was divided into so-called satrapies, headed by the satrap itself, which means “guardian of order”. In fact, the satrap was a local governor-general, whose broad duties included maintaining order in the territories entrusted to him, collecting taxes, administering justice, and commanding local military garrisons.
Another important achievement of Persian civilization was the beautiful roads described by Herodotus and Xenophon. The most famous was the royal road running from Ephesus in Asia Minor to the city of Susa in the East.
The post office also functioned well in ancient Persia, which was also facilitated by good roads. Also in ancient Persia, trade was very developed, a well-thought-out tax system similar to the modern one functioned throughout the state, in which part of the taxes and taxes went to conditional local budgets, while part went to the central government. Persian kings had a monopoly on the minting of gold coins, while their satraps could also mint their own coins, but only silver or copper. The “local money” of the satraps circulated only in a certain territory, while the gold coins of the Persian kings were a universal means of payment throughout the Persian empire and even beyond.
Coins of Persia.
Writing in ancient Persia had an active development, so there were several types of it: from pictograms to the alphabet invented in its time. The official language of the Persian kingdom was Aramaic, coming from the ancient Assyrians.
The art of ancient Persia is represented by local sculpture and architecture. For example, bas-reliefs of Persian kings skillfully carved in stone have survived to this day.
Persian palaces and temples were famous for their luxurious decoration.
Here is an image of a Persian master.
Unfortunately, other forms of ancient Persian art have not come down to us.
Religion of Persia
The religion of ancient Persia is represented by a very interesting religious doctrine - Zoroastrianism, named so thanks to the founder of this religion, the sage, the prophet (and possibly the magician) Zoroaster (aka Zarathushtra). At the heart of the teachings of Zoroastrianism lies the eternal opposition of good and evil, where the good beginning is represented by the god Ahura Mazda. The wisdom and revelation of Zarathushtra are presented in the sacred book of Zoroastrianism - the Zend-Avesta. In fact, this religion of the ancient Persians has a lot in common with other monotheistic later religions, such as Christianity and Islam:
- Belief in a single God, which among the Persians was actually represented by Ahura Mazda. The antipode of God, the Devil, Satan in the Christian tradition in Zoroastrianism is represented by the demon Druj, personifying evil, lies, destruction.
- The presence of the sacred scripture, the Zend-Avesta among the Zoroastrian Persians, as the Koran among the Muslims and the Bible among the Christians.
- The presence of a prophet, Zoroaster-Zarathushtra, through whom divine wisdom is transmitted.
- The moral and ethical component of the doctrine, so Zoroastrianism preaches (however, like other religions) the renunciation of violence, theft, murder. For an unrighteous and sinful path in the future, according to Zarathustra, a person after death will end up in hell, while a person who performs good deeds after death will stay in paradise.
In a word, as we can see, the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism is strikingly different from the pagan religions of many other peoples, and is very similar in nature to the later global religions of Christianity and Islam, and by the way, it still exists today. After the fall of the Sassanid state, the final collapse of Persian culture and religion in particular occurred, since the conquering Arabs carried the banner of Islam with them. Many Persians also converted to Islam at this time and assimilated with the Arabs. But there was a part of the Persians who wanted to remain true to their ancient religion of Zoroastrianism, fleeing the religious persecution of Muslims, they fled to India, where they have preserved their religion and culture to this day. Now they are known under the name of the Parsis, on the territory of modern India and today there are many Zoroastrian temples, as well as adherents of this religion, real descendants of the ancient Persians.
Ancient Persia, video
And finally, interesting documentary about ancient Persia - "The Persian Empire - an empire of greatness and wealth."
PERSIANS, Farsians, Irani (self-designation), people, the main population of the central and eastern part of Iran (districts of Tehran, Isfahan, Hamadan). The number of 25300 thousand people. They also live in the USA (236 thousand people), Iraq (227 thousand people) and others Arab countries, Afghanistan (50 thousand people), Pakistan, Germany, Austria and Great Britain, etc. They speak Persian (Farsi) the language of the Iranian group of the Indo-European family. Writing based on the Arabic alphabet. Persians are Shia Muslims.
Ancient Iranian tribes penetrated the territory of Iran (from Central Asia or the Northern Black Sea region) at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. At the same time, the ancient Iranian religion, Zoroastrianism, was born, which was preserved by the modern ethno-confessional group of Persians - the Gebrs and by the Parsis who migrated to India. They occupied a dominant position in the states of the Achaemenids (VI-IV centuries BC) and Sassanids (III-VII centuries AD). The Arab conquest (7th century) brought Islam, the influence of the Arabic language and culture; the Muslim culture of the countries of the Near East and South Asia, in turn, absorbed many Iranian features.
In the future ethnic history Persians were attended by Arabs, Turks (under the rule of the Seljuks, XI-XII centuries, etc.), Mongols (during the reign of the Hulaguid dynasty, XIII-XIV centuries). At the beginning of the 16th century, the Persians were united under the rule of the Iranian Safavid dynasty, from the end of the 18th century - the Turkic Qajar dynasty. IN mid-nineteenth century, the formation of the Persian nation began, the assimilation by the Persians of other, primarily Iranian-speaking, peoples. In the 20th century, the processes of national consolidation of the Persians intensified. In 1979 the Islamic Republic was proclaimed.
Main traditional occupation- arable farming, including irrigated (wheat, barley, rice, tobacco, clover, millet, dzhugara, cotton, tea, sugar beet), horticulture and viticulture are common. Mainly small cattle are bred. Persians living in cities are artisans, merchants, employees. The oil industry is developed. Persians make up the bulk of the urban population. Crafts - production of carpets, woolen fabrics, printed chintz (kalamkar), metal products, inlay with mother-of-pearl, bone, metal chasing. The cities of Qom and Kashan are famous for their ceramics.
The traditional urban dwelling is adobe or brick, with flat roof reed weaving on wooden beams, turned to the street with a blank wall, wealthy Persians in the inner part of the estate have a garden with a swimming pool; divided into outer men's rooms (birun) and inner chambers (enderun) for women and children. Interior decoration- carpets, mattress, low upholstered furniture. In addition to fireplaces and stoves, the traditional way of heating is preserved - a brazier under a wide table (kursi). In the walls - niches with utensils, lamps, dishes, etc.
Rural settlements and dwellings are of several types. Villages of irregular planning consist of adobe dwellings on a frame of wooden pillars, flat roofs, with a layer of straw or reeds, no windows, light penetrates through holes in the roof or wall. Sometimes the house has a terrace (aivan). Another type of settlement is a kale (fortress) with an adobe fence and a gate. Dwellings made of adobe or adobe, with a domed roof, are located along the fence and are closely adjacent to each other. In the wooded outposts of Gilan and Mazandaran, log houses with a conical or gable roof.
The traditional urban costume for men is a white shirt and black cotton pants, over a sleeveless jacket and a caftan (kaba), white shoes with a knitted top and soles made of pressed rags. Wealthy Persians wear a cloth frock coat (serdari) with a turn-down or standing collar, folds at the waist. Rural costume - a shirt made of white fabric and blue pants, a short blue caftan and a sheepskin coat; a headdress (kulah) made of felt, oval or conical in shape, a turban, under which there is a cap (arakchin).
Women's home costume - a shirt, pants, a jacket and a short pleated skirt, on the street they wear wide black trousers with stockings sewn to them, a black veil covering the entire figure, the face is hidden with a white veil (in the Islamic Republic of Iran, all women are required to wear a veil), shoes - shoes without backs. Men often wear a European costume made from local, including camel, wool.
Food - rice, meat, vegetable marinades, flatbreads, sheep's cheese and dairy products, tea, fruit syrups.
Especially solemnly, the Persians celebrate the day of memory of the Shiite Imam Hussein (ashura, or shahsey-wahsey) - the 10th day of the lunar month of Muharram, mourning ceremonies, religious mysteries (taazie) are held on the first ten days of Muharram. From pre-Islamic holidays celebrate New Year(Nouruz) within 13 days after the spring equinox with the cultivation of ritual fires, folk festivals.
The rich Persian folklore is associated with classical Iranian poetry (rubai, gazelles, etc.); exist epic stories and legends about the hero Rustam, etc.
For an outside observer (for example, a European), Persians and Arabs are about the same thing: both are Muslims of varying degrees of swarthyness, speaking an incomprehensible language. Is this really so? Of course no. There is a huge difference between Arabs and Persians - both in language and culture, and even (to the surprise of many) in religion. How are Persians different from Arabs, and what do they have in common? Let's start in order.
Appearance on the historical stage
The Persians were the first to show themselves as active participants in international events. From the first mention in the Assyrian chronicles in 836 BC to the creation of an independent Persian state, and a little later - the Achaemenid Empire, almost 300 years passed. Actually, there was no purely national Persian state in ancient times. Being residents of one of the regions of the Median Empire, close to them in language and culture, the Persians, under the leadership of Cyrus the Great, rebelled and made a change of power, later conquering vast territories that were not part of Media. According to some historians, the Achaemenid state at its peak numbered 50 million people - about half the world's population at that time.
The Arabs, who originally lived in the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula, begin to be mentioned in historical sources around the same time as the Persians, but they do not participate in military or cultural expansion. The Arab states of South Arabia (Sabaean kingdom) and North Arabia (Palmyra, Nabatea and others) live mainly on trade. Palmyra, which decided to stand in opposition to the Roman Empire, was quite easily defeated by the proud quirites. But the situation changes radically when Muhammad is born in the trading city of Mecca.
He creates the youngest monotheistic religion, whose adherents built one of largest states of all time - Arab Caliphate. The Arabs fully or partially assimilated a large number of different peoples, mainly those that were below them in terms of socio-cultural development. The basis of assimilation was a new religion - Islam - and the Arabic language. The fact is that, according to Muslim teachings, holy book, the Koran, is only the original written in Arabic, and all translations are considered only its interpretations. This forced all Muslims to learn Arabic and often led to the loss of national identity(in particular, this happened with the ancient Libyans and Syrians, who were formerly separate peoples; now their descendants are considered Arab sub-ethnic groups).
The difference between the Persians and the Arabs is that in the 7th century AD, Persia was in decline, and the Arabs conquered it relatively easily, establishing Islam. The new religion was superimposed on an ancient rich culture, and Persia in the 8th century AD became the basis for the so-called Golden Age of Islam. During this period, science and culture were actively developing. Later, the Persians adopted Shiism, one of the branches of Islam, as the state religion, opposing themselves to the Arabs and Turks, mostly Sunnis. And today Iran - the successor of ancient Persia - remains the main stronghold of Shiism.
Today, Persians, in addition to Shiism, profess Sunnism and ancient religion- Zoroastrianism. A Zoroastrian, for example, was the famous rock singer Freddie Mercury. Arabs, being mostly Sunnis, partly adhere to Shiism (part of the population of Syria, most of the inhabitants of Iraq and Bahrain). In addition, part of the Arabs remained faithful to Christianity, once widespread in the territory later conquered by the Muslims. From a family of Christian Arabs comes the famous Latin American singer Shakira.
Comparison
As is often the case in history, religious differences were the result of political and military confrontation between different states. In religion, it is easier to consolidate dogmas that clearly delimit "us, our own" from "them, strangers." This happened in the case of Persia: Shiism has a number of serious theological differences from Sunnism. Sunnis and Shiites fought with each other no less enthusiastically than Catholics with Protestants in contemporary Europe: for example, in 1501 Persia adopted Shiism, and already in 1514 the first war with the Sunni began. Ottoman Empire, which extended its influence to most of the Arab territories.
As for the language, Persians and Arabs have nothing in common. Arabic belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasian language family, and its closest “relative” is Hebrew, the state language of Israel. The similarity is visible even to a non-specialist. For example, the well-known Arabic greeting "salam aleikum" and "shalom aleikhem" in Hebrew are clearly consonant and are translated in the same way - "peace be upon you."
It is incorrect to talk about a single Persian language, because, according to modern ideas, This language group, consisting of four related languages (however, some linguists still consider them dialects):
- Farsi, or Persian proper;
- Pashto;
- Dari (together with Pashto is one of the official languages of Afghanistan);
- Tajik.
The following fact is widely known: during the war in Afghanistan, the Soviet command often used Tajik fighters to communicate with local residents, since their language is almost identical to Tajik. Whether in this case Pashto, Dari and Tajik should be considered separate languages or only dialects is the subject of linguistic disputes. Native speakers themselves do not discuss this issue especially, understanding each other perfectly.
Table
In concentrated form, information about the difference between Persians and Arabs is presented in the table below. The definition of the number of Persians depends on who is considered Persians (this is not such a simple question as it seems at first glance).
| Persians | Arabs | |
| population | 35 million (Persians proper); a large number of closely related peoples number up to 200 million people | About 350 million. This includes all Arab subethnoi, although many of them call themselves not Arabs, but according to their country of residence - Egyptians, Palestinians, Algerians, etc. |
| Language | Persian (Western Farsi), Pashto, Dari, Tajik | Different dialects of Arabic |
| Religion | Shia Islam, some Zoroastrians | Most are Sunni Muslims, some are Shiites and Christians |
| cultural tradition | Almost three thousand years old | Proper Arabic cultural tradition associated with the formation of Islam and is usually considered from the Hijra - the date of the migration of the prophet Muhammad to Medina (622 AD) |
