The Persians

1. The Persians Section 3

2. Persia – 539 B.C. – 350 B.C • Conquered the Chaldeans in 539 B.C. • Descended from Aryans • Present day Iran • Persians are Iranians of today • Peaceful; large farms owned by nobles and worked by laborers

3. Plateau of Iran

4. Geography • Plateau of Iran covers ¾ of the country • Gets only a few inches of rain per year • Zagros Mountains – from NW Iran to Persian Gulf (150 miles wide)

6. Elburz Mountains: along southern shore of Caspian Sea • Crops must be irrigated • Depended on water from mountain streams and melting snow

7. Elburz Mountains

11. Zagros Mountains

14. Developed irrigation system 2500 years ago – underground canals called qanats to carry water to fields (30 –100 feet below surface)

18. Army and Empire • 600 B.C. Medes conquered Persians • Cyrus the Great organized LARGE army

19. Cyrus the Great • Overthrew Medes • Immortals: led the battles; best fighters; replaced dead, sick, or injured soldiers so number never dropped below 10,000

20. Allowed Hebrews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple • Allowed conquered people to keep language, religion, laws • Treated conquered people fairly

21. Why did Persians allow conquered people to keep culture? Believed loyalty could be won more easily with fairness than with fear and force!

22. Darius • Strong king • Built grand palace-fortress-treasury in Persepolis

23. Government Officials • Divided conquered land into 20 provinces or satraps • Spoke Aramaic – used by M.E. merchants • Each province had a governor, secretary, and general • Collected taxes, settled disputes, protected people

24. Inspectors (“Eyes and Ears of the King”) – checked on ability of people to pay taxes and checked on rumors of rebellion • Judges – made sure laws of the king were carried out

25. Family Life • Men were head of house • Women and children had very few rights • Poor women had more freedom but had to work harder

26. Rich women remained mostly in the palace away from men • Rich women were carried in a litter – carriage without wheels that was carried by servants

29. Zoroastrianism • Worshipped many gods at first • Zoroaster – 628 B.C. spoke of struggle between good and evil

30. Ahura Mazda • Good • Keeping work • Giving to poor • Working land • Obeying laws

31. Ahriman • Evil • Being lazy • Proud • greedy

32. People must choose between good and evil!

33. Trade • Did not encourage trade • Why???? • Believed it made people lie, cheat, and be greedy • Did encourage trade among conquered people

34. Contributions • Susa became capital • Built Royal road – 1600 miles • Opened caravan route to China which brought silk to west • Borrowed idea of coins from conquered kingdom of Lydia; used coins throughout empire

35. The Silk Road

36. Fall of Empire • 486 B.C. – some satrapies began to revolt • Persia fought a series of wars with Greek city-states • 330 B.C. Persia fell to …. Alexander the Great

37. Azidi Tower Tehran

39. Meidan-e Eman Isfahan The largest square in the world

40. Mountain north of Tehran

41. Above Tehran

42. Bridge in Isfahan

45. Bridge – Isfahan Built in 1602