PERSIAN EMPIRE

 

PERSIAN EMPIRE

500 BC ambassadors from all over the enormous Persian Empire came to a meeting in Persepolis to pay tribute to the mighty Shahanshah Darius I.

333 BC Persepolis was in ruins and Alexander the Great conquered the empire.

Persia was one of the greatest earliest empires and had its peak around 500 BC.

Today, it is called Iran, since 1935. The reason for it is that Aryans who came from India and the Near East settling there in about 1500 BC. It was the Greeks writing most of the ancient history books called the country Persis and its people Persians.

The Aryans were made up by two groups. The Medes and the Persians. The Medes were first in control but in 550 BC Cyrus the Great overthrew Media. He was the founder of the Achaemenid dynasty. He conquered Lydia, Anatolia and Babylon. In 539 BC he included Syria and Palestine.

Cyrus was a great soldier and humane. He treated the people he conquered kindly. He released the Jews from captivity in Babylon and allowed them back into Jerusalem to worship in their temple.

However, his son Cambyses was right the opposite. After he conquered Egypt in 525 BC his soldiers desecrated Egyptian holy places which made the Persians very unpopular.

529 BC Darius became king. He was a very clever ruler of the huge empire which stretched from Asia Minor to Afghanistan and India. He organized it into 20 satrapies or provinces; ruled by satraps (governors) demanding each to raise an army. Darius had a permanent bodyguard of 10,000 men, The Immortals.  The land belonged to the king but was lent out to individuals and they had to provide men for the army – 21 hectares for a bowman; more for a horseman or a charioteer.

It was an efficient tax system and an excellent road and postal network made this all possible.

Darius took the official title of Shahanshah (king or kings) and moved his capital from Ecbatana to the newly built splendour of Persepolis.

Darius I, established a fast communications through the empire.  He built a Royal Road 2698km long stretched from Sardis to Susa with 111 post stations where messengers changed their horses. A courier could make the journey in one week while camel caravans took three months.

Darius commissioned an early version of the Suez Canal; a 200km canal between the Red Sea and the Nile. He also had hilltop fire-towers built to flash urgent news across the empire.

Persia got into regular conflict with the Greek city states. Darius I and his successor, Xerxes who invaded the Greek mainland, were defeated several times. The economy started to decline and the dynasty started to struggle among the later Achaemenids, continued to weakened the empire.

334 BC Alexander the Great started to invade and conquer the Persian empire. He destroyed the capital Persepolis in 333 BC. In the same year the last Achaemenid, Darius III, was murdered.

Persian Religion was called Zoroastrianism, after their prophet, Zoroaster (Zarathustra). He lived in the 6^th century BC. Zoroastrians believed in one god, Ahura Mazda. They worshipped him in fire temples. Priests were called Magi.

When the last dynasty of the Persian empire. the Sassanids, fell to the Arabs in 650 AD they were converted to Islam. One community fled to India. Their descendants, known as Parsees, still follow the religion of Zarathustra.

 

 

                                                                                                         

 

LEBANON

The country lies on the east coast of the Mediterranean. Lebanon used to be part of the Phoenician Empire. The Phoenicians arrived about 3000 BC.

They were invaded by Amorites, Hyksos, Egyptians, Achaemenians and a few others.

7th century AD the Maronites, a Christian tribe from Syria, established themselves as a community on Mount Lebanon and took refuge there for religious reason. 

At that time Arabs settled in the southern Lebanon.

400 years later these groups of Arabs merged their beliefs with the Druze faith. Druze is a close knit religious and political sect.

At the end of the 18th century the Maronites moved further into southern Lebanon which threatened the peace with the Druze.

1842 the Ottoman Turks invaded Lebanon and crushed the power of the Druze princes.

1860 The Druze ordered a massacre of Maronites. France intervened for the sake of the Maronites and forced the Ottoman Sultan to give land to the Maronites for a Christian provinces.  

After the second World War a National Pact was signed which led to equal representation of all religions. It created prosperity and Beirut, the capital, became a financial hub of the Middle East. 

However, War Lords do not like peace and prosperity and soon found a reason to stir-up trouble. 1000s of Palestinians refugees from the Arab-Israeli Wars started the new confrontations between Arabs and Maronites.

1975 a civil war broke out leading to military intervention by Syria.

1978 Israel illegally invaded Lebanon and occupied an area in southern Lebanon. They gave the reason, they were provoked by the activities of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. 

1982 Israel launched a full-scale invasion and they did not withdraw their troops till 1985. When they left the country was in ruins and it cost 1000s of lives and the conflict was left unresolved.

1987 The Syrian invaded again and marched into Beirut and most of the country. Peace attempts failed.

1989 in March the Maronite Christian General Aoun started an all-out war against Syria.

Six months later, negotiation by the Arab League reduced the Maronites political domination and achieved a fragile peace treaty.

1991 although the treaty was accepted but it didn't ease Lebanon's instability.

1992 the first general election for 20 years was boycotted by the Maronites which gave the Muslim parties control.

1993 Attacks and bombing did not end till 1995 when Israel 'agreed' to establish an 'autonomous Palestine'.