ABSTRACT

The Persians were one of the most highly developed civilisations of the ancient world. An Indo-European people, their influence on western European civilisations is apparent not only in regard to the linguistic affinity, but also in terms of culture, society, and even the Christian religion. The Persians were the first monarchy to create a world empire which included most territories of the known ancient world, from Egypt to India, and from southern Russia to the Indian Ocean. The fall of the first Persian empire (559-330 BC), which was ruled by the Achaemenid dynasty, was followed, after a hundredyear interlude of Hellenistic rule, by a new Persian power, the Parthians, who were based in northern Iran. In a gradual process of conquest, they recovered most of the former Achaemenid empire up to the River Euphrates. The Parthians ruled for almost 500 years (247 BC-AD 224), until they were succeeded by a new Persian dynasty, the Sasanians, which rose in Persis (modern Fars) under their king Ardashir I. Their empire fell following the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia and Iran in the mid-seventh century AD, and the subsequent coming of Islam.