Iran has one of the oldest histories in the world, extending more than 5000 years, and throughout history, Iran has been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia and Western Asia. Iran is a founding member of the UN, NAM, OIC, OPEC, and ECO. Iran as a major regional power occupies an important position in the world economy due to its substantial reserves of petroleum and natural gas, and has considerable regional influence in Western Asia. The name Iran is a cognate of Aryan and literally means "Land of the Aryans." (Full article...)
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Silver dirham of Al-Muttaqi AH 329 (940/941 CE), with the names of Caliph al-Muttaqi and Bajkam
Abū al-Husayn Bajkam al-Mākānī (Arabic: أبو الحسين بجكم المكاني), referred to as Bajkam, Badjkam or Bachkam (from Bäčkäm, a Persian and Turkish word meaning a horse- or yak-tail), was a Turkish military commander and official of the Abbasid Caliphate. A former ghulam of the Ziyarid dynasty, Bajkam entered Abbasid service following the assassination of the Ziyarid ruler Mardavij in 935. During his five-year tenure at the Caliphate's court at Baghdad, he was granted the title of amir al-umara, consolidating his dominance over the caliphs al-Radi and al-Muttaqi and giving him absolute power over their domains. Bajkam was challenged throughout his rule by various opponents, including his predecessor as amir al-umara, Muhammad ibn Ra'iq, the Basra-based Baridis, and the Buyid dynasty of Iran, but he succeeded in retaining control until his death. He was murdered by a party of Kurds during a hunting excursion in 941, shortly after the accession of al-Muttaqi as Caliph. Bajkam was known both for his firm rule and for his patronage of Baghdad intellectuals, who respected and in some cases befriended him. His death led to a void in central power, resulting in a brief period of instability and fighting in Baghdad. (Full article...)
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Investiture scene of Berkyaruq, from the 14th-century book Jami' al-tawarikh
Rukn al-Din Abu'l-Muzaffar Berkyaruq ibn Malikshah (Persian: ابو المظفر رکن الدین برکیارق بن ملکشاه, romanized:Rukn al-Dīn Abuʿl-Moẓaffar Berkyāruq ibn Malik-Šāh; 1079/80 – 1105), better known as Berkyaruq (برکیارق), was the fifth sultan of the Seljuk Empire from 1094 to 1105.
The son and successor of Malik-Shah I (r.1072–1092), he reigned during the opening stages of the decline and fragmentation of the empire, which marked the rise of Turkomanatabegates and principalities, which would eventually stretch from Kirman to Anatolia and Syria. His reign was marked by internal strife, mainly against other Seljuk princes. By his death in 1105, his authority had largely vanished. His infant son Malik-Shah II briefly succeeded him, until he was killed by Berkyaruq's half-brother and rival Muhammad I Tapar (r.1105–1118). (Full article...)
The title is commonly seen as equivalent to that of Emperor, both titles outranking that of king in prestige, stemming from the late antiqueRoman and Eastern Roman emperors who saw the Shahanshahs of the Sasanian Empire as their equals. The last reigning monarchs to use the title of Shahanshah, those of the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran (1925–1979), also equated the title with "Emperor". The rulers of the Ethiopian Empire used the title of Nəgusä Nägäst (literally "King of Kings"), which was officially translated as "Emperor". Sultan of Sultans is the sultanic equivalent of King of Kings and similarly, Khagan can mean "Khan of Khans". Later, lesser versions Amir al-umara ("Emir of Emirs") and Beylerbey ("Bey of Beys") appeared. (Full article...)
Abū Saʿīd al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufra al-Azdī (Arabic: أَبْو سَعِيْد ٱلْمُهَلَّب ابْن أَبِي صُفْرَة ٱلْأَزْدِي; c.632– 702) was an Arab general from the Azd tribe who fought in the service of the Rashidun, Umayyad and Zubayrid caliphs between the mid-640s and his death. He served successive terms as the governor of Fars (685–686), Mosul, Arminiya and Adharbayjan (687–688) and Khurasan (698–702). Al-Muhallab's descendants, known as the Muhallabids, became a highly influential family, many of whose members held high office under various Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, or became well-known scholars.
Throughout his early military career, he participated in the Arab campaigns against the Persians in Fars, Ahwaz, Sistan and Khurasan during the successive reigns of caliphs Umar (r.634–644), Uthman (r.644–656), Ali (r.656–661) and Mu'awiya I (r.661–680). By 680, his tribe, the Azd of Oman, had become a major army faction in the Arabs' Basra garrison, the launchpad for the Persian conquest. Following the collapse of Umayyad rule in Iraq and Khurasan in 683–684, during the Second Muslim Civil War, al-Muhallab was pressed by the Basran troops to lead the campaign against the Azariqa, a Kharijite faction which had taken over Ahwaz and threatened Basra. Al-Muhallab landed them a severe blow and drove them into Fars in 685. He was rewarded with the governorship of that province by the anti-Umayyad caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr (r.683–692), whose suzerainty had been recognized in Basra in the wake of the Umayyads' ouster. Al-Muhallab later held a command role in the successful Zubayrid campaign to eliminate the Kufa-based ruler al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi in 686/87. After this victory, he was transferred to the governorship of Mosul, where he was charged with protecting Iraq from a potential invasion from Umayyad-controlled Syria. (Full article...)
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Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath (died 704), commonly known as Ibn al-Ash'athafter his grandfather, was a prominent Arab nobleman and military commander during the Umayyad Caliphate, most notable for leading a failed rebellion against the Umayyad viceroy of the east, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, in 700–703.
Ibn al-Ash'ath was a scion of a noble family of the Kinda tribe that had settled in the Arab garrison town of Kufa in Iraq. He played a minor role in the Second Fitna (680–692) and then served as governor of Rayy. After the appointment of al-Hajjaj as governor of Iraq and the eastern provinces of the Caliphate in 694, relations between al-Hajjaj and the Iraqi tribal nobility quickly became strained, as the policies of the Syria-based Umayyad regime aimed to reduce the Iraqis' privileges and status. Nevertheless, in 699, al-Hajjaj appointed Ibn al-Ash'ath as commander of a huge Iraqi army, the so-called "Peacock Army", to subdue the troublesome principality of Zabulistan, whose ruler, the Zunbil, vigorously resisted Arab expansion. In 700, al-Hajjaj's overbearing behaviour caused Ibn al-Ash'ath and the army to revolt. After patching up an agreement with the Zunbil, the army marched back to Iraq. On the way, the mutiny against al-Hajjaj developed into a full-fledged anti-Umayyad rebellion and acquired religious overtones. (Full article...)
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Azarmidokht (Middle Persian: Āzarmīgdukht) was Sasanian queen (banbishn) of Iran from 630 to 631. She was the daughter of king (shah) Khosrow II (r.590–628). She was the second Sasanian queen; her sister Boran ruled before and after her. Azarmidokht came to power in Iran after her cousin Shapur-i Shahrvaraz was deposed by the Parsig faction, led by Piruz Khosrow, who helped Azarmidokht ascend the throne. Her rule was marked by an attempt of a nobleman and commander Farrukh Hormizd to marry her and come to power. After the queen's refusal, he declared himself an anti-king. Azarmidokht had him killed as a result of a successful plot. She was, however, killed herself shortly afterwards by Rostam Farrokhzad in retaliation for his father's death. She was succeeded by Boran. (Full article...)
The Ionian Revolt, and associated revolts in Aeolis, Doris, Cyprus and Caria, were military rebellions by several Greek regions of Asia Minor against Persian rule, lasting from 499 BC to 493 BC. At the heart of the rebellion was the dissatisfaction of the Greek cities of Asia Minor with the tyrants appointed by Persia to rule them, along with the individual actions of two Milesian tyrants, Histiaeus and Aristagoras. The cities of Ionia had been conquered by Persia around 540 BC, and thereafter were ruled by native tyrants, nominated by the Persian satrap in Sardis. In 499 BC, the tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, launched a joint expedition with the Persian satrap Artaphernes to conquer Naxos, in an attempt to bolster his position. The mission was a debacle, and sensing his imminent removal as tyrant, Aristagoras chose to incite the whole of Ionia into rebellion against the Persian king Darius the Great.
In 498 BC, supported by troops from Athens and Eretria, the Ionians marched on, captured, and burnt Sardis. However, on their return journey to Ionia, they were followed by Persian troops, and decisively beaten at the Battle of Ephesus. This campaign was the only offensive action by the Ionians, who subsequently went on the defensive. The Persians responded in 497 BC with a three-pronged attack aimed at recapturing the outlying areas of the rebellion, but the spread of the revolt to Caria meant that the largest army, under Daurises, relocated there. While initially campaigning successfully in Caria, this army was annihilated in an ambush at the Battle of Pedasus. This battle had started a stalemate for the rest of 496 BC and 495 BC. (Full article...)
Phraates IV (also spelled Frahad IV; Parthian: 𐭐𐭓𐭇𐭕Frahāt) was King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 37 to 2 BC. He was the son and successor of Orodes II (r.57–37BC), and was given the throne after the death of his brother Pacorus I. Phraates IV soon murdered all his brothers, and also possibly his father. His actions alienated the Armenians and also some of his nobles, including the distinguished Monaeses, who fled to the RomantriumvirMark Antony, but shortly returned and reconciled with Phraates IV.
Phraates IV was attacked in 36 BC by Mark Antony, who marched through Armenia into Media Atropatene, and was defeated and lost the greater part of his army. Antony, believing himself betrayed by Artavasdes II, king of Armenia, invaded his kingdom in 34 BC, took him prisoner, and concluded a treaty with Artavasdes I, king of Media Atropatene. But when the war with Octavian broke out, Antony could not maintain his conquests; Phraates IV recovered Media Atropatene and made Artaxias, the son of Artavasdes II, king of Armenia. (Full article...)
...that the nearly completed Sivand Dam project in Fars Province, Iran will flood 130 archaeological sites and hasten the destruction of the ancient Persian city of Pasargadae?
...that the Iran-Pakistan barrier is currently being constructed by Iran along its border with Pakistan to stop illegal migration and thwart terror attacks?
According to articles 57 and 110 of the Iranian Constitution, the supreme leader supervises the activities of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches and delineates the general policies of the Islamic Republic. The second supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, issued decrees and made the final decisions on the economy, the environment, foreign policy, education, national planning, and other aspects of governance in Iran. Khamenei also made the final decisions on the amount of transparency in elections, and during his rule dismissed and reinstated presidential cabinet appointees. (Full article...)
Tiridates I (Parthian: 𐭕𐭉𐭓𐭉𐭃𐭕, Tīridāt; Ancient Greek: Τιριδάτης, Tiridátes) was King of Armenia beginning in 53 AD and the founder of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. His early reign was marked by a brief interruption towards the end of the year 54 and a much longer one from 58 to 63. In an agreement to resolve the Roman–Parthian conflict in and over Armenia, Tiridates I, who was one of the brothers of Vologases I of Parthia, was crowned king of Armenia by the Roman emperor Nero in 66; in the future, the king of Armenia was to be a Parthian prince, but his appointment required approval from the Romans. Even though this made Armenia a client kingdom, various contemporary Roman sources thought that Nero had de facto ceded Armenia to the Parthian Empire.
In addition to being king, Tiridates I was also a Zoroastrian priest and was accompanied by other magi on his journey to Rome in 66. In the early 20th century, Franz Cumont speculated that Tiridates was instrumental in the development of Mithraism which ultimately became the main religion of the Roman Army and spread across the whole empire. Furthermore, during his reign, he started reforming the administrative structure of Armenia, a reform which was continued by his successors, and which brought many Iranian customs and offices into it. (Full article...)
The Roman–Persian wars, also called the Roman–Iranian wars, took place between the Greco-Roman world and the Iranian world, beginning with the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire in 54BC and ending with the Byzantine and the Sasanian empires in 628 AD. While the conflict between the two civilizations did involve direct military engagements, a significant role was played by a plethora of vassal kingdoms and allied nomadic tribes, which served as buffer states or proxies for either side. Despite nearly seven centuries of hostility, the Roman–Persian wars had an entirely inconclusive outcome, as both the Byzantines and the Sasanians were attacked by the Rashidun Caliphate as part of the early Muslim conquests. The Rashidun offensives resulted in the collapse of the Sasanian Empire and largely confined the Byzantine Empire to Anatolia and southeastern Europe for the ensuing Arab–Byzantine wars.
Aside from shifts in the north, the Roman–Persian border remained largely stable for the duration of the conflict, albeit subject to an effective tug of war: towns, fortifications, and provinces were continually sacked, captured, destroyed, and traded, but neither side had the logistical strength or manpower to maintain such lengthy campaigns far from their borders, and thus neither could advance too far without risking stretching their frontiers too thin. Both sides did make conquests beyond the border, but in time, the balance was almost always restored. Although initially different in military tactics, the Romans and the Persians gradually adopted from each other, and by the second half of the 6th century, they were similar and evenly matched. (Full article...)
... that after Jamal Valizadeh was tortured in Iran, hid for six months, and escaped, he qualified to compete in the Olympics as a member of the Refugee Olympic Team?
I toiled for thirty years with devotion, to breathe life into Iranian promotion. I laid the foundation of a lofty palace, Immune to the storm and the rain's malice. Buildings of splendor may crumble and fall, By rain and the sun's relentless call.
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