Persians

Lore & Background

The Persians are first attested in Assyrian sources from the third millennium BC as 'Parahše', meaning 'Land of the horses', designating a region belonging to the Sumerians. The name was adopted by a nomadic ancient Iranian people who migrated to the west and southwest of Lake Urmia, eventually becoming known as 'the Persians'. The ninth-century BC Neo-Assyrian inscription of the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III gives the region and people as Parsua and Parsumaš in the Zagros Mountains, considered the earliest attestation to the ancient Persian people. The ancient Persians played a major role in the downfall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Under the Achaemenid dynasty, they revolted against the Median monarchy in 552 BC, leading to Cyrus the Great's victory in 550 BC. The Persians spread their influence across the Iranian Plateau, assimilating with indigenous groups including the Elamites and Mannaeans.

Reader's Guide

The Persians' significance lies in their establishment of some of the world's most powerful empires, notably the Achaemenid Empire, which at its greatest extent stretched from parts of Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen. They developed infrastructure such as the cities of Pasargadae and Persepolis. Their legacy includes reciprocal cultural exchange with Greek city states and a huge impact on the kingdom of Macedon. Persian colonists settled in Asia Minor during the Achaemenid era, founding centers of Persian worship that persisted into the second century AD. After the Macedonian conquests, Persian colonists in Cappadocia and Asia Minor were cut off from Iran proper but continued their Iranian faith. The Samanid, Saffarid, and Ghurid dynasties ruled Greater Iran from outside modern Iran's borders, with the Samanids and Saffarids contributing significantly to the restoration of Persian language and identity after the Arab conquest, including patronage of the Shahnameh. Persian literature remains one of the world's most prominent literary traditions, and Persianate societies developed among Turkic peoples across Central Asia and South Asia.

Did You Know?

• The term 'Persian' derives from Latin Persia, itself from Greek Persís, a Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa.
• In the Bible, the name is given as Pārās in the books of Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemya.
• The Samanid Empire, founded by Saman Khuda from Balkh, ruled much of Greater Iran from Bukhara (present-day Uzbekistan).
• On 21 March 1935, Reza Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty issued a decree asking the international community to use the term Iran instead of Persia.