History

Cyrus Takes Babylon: The Verse Account

The question what Nabonidus was doing in TemÃ- will probably remain unsolved for ever. From the following text, we may deduce that during his life time, there were strong rumors that the king suffered from a mental illness and proposed a religious reform (preferring the Moon god Sin to all other gods). These rumors were used by the author of theVer...

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Iran Chamber Society: When Persia became Iran

In 1935 the Iranian government requested those countries which it had diplomatic relations with, to call Persia "Iran," which is the name of the country in Persian. The suggestion for the change is said to have come from the Iranian ambassador to Germany, who came under the influence of the Nazis. At the time Germany was in the grip of racial fever...

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WWW-VL History Index - Iran

List of research tools about the study of Iran...

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Persian Empire, Persepolis

The early history of man in Iran goes back well beyond the Neolithic period, it begins to get more interesting around 6000 BC, when people began to domesticate animals and plant wheat and barley. The number of settled communities increased, particularly in the eastern Zagros mountains, and handmade painted pottery appears. Throughout the prehistori...

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The Achaemenid Empire, 550 - 420 B.C.

The Persian Empire grew in the vacuum left by Assyria's destruction of the Kingdom of Elam. Prince Teispes captured Anshan, once a stonghold of the Elamites and began to call himself "King of the City of Anshan". His father, Achaemenes 681 BC, a warrior chief, is apparently responsible for training and organising the early Persian army and it is hi...

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Ancient Persia Religion

The Persians, like other Indo-European groups such as the Medes and Scythians were originally polytheists. They worshipped numerous gods associated with natural phenomena such as the moon and the sun, fire, wind and water. Their religious practices included, animal sacrifice, a reverence for fire and the drinking of a natural intoxicant made from t...

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Flags of Persia and Iran

Flags of glorious Ancient Iranian Empires(Pre-Islamic period)...

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Cyrus Takes Babylon: Daniel and Prayer of Nabonidus

The final redaction of the biblical book of Daniel (called after a Jewish sage at the court of Belshazzar, i.e. Nabonidus' crown prince Bêlsharusur) took place in the second century BCE, but it contains some older elements. Probably, no less than four authors have contributed to the text. The resulting text can not be taken as history. Too many el...

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Achaemenians Hakhamanesh Persian History

The 6th century BC was witness to the establishment of these Persians in the present-day region of Fars. Fars (or Persis to the Greeks) was a recognizable district of the Assyrian Empire like the neighboring but greater Media. Persian rulers, claiming descent from one Achaemenes (or Hakhamanesh), took over the rule of Media from Astyages in the mid...

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Ancient Persia History

The early history of man in Iran goes back well beyond the Neolithic period, it begins to get more interesting around 6000 BC, when people began to domesticate animals and plant wheat and barley. The number of settled communities increased, particularly in the eastern Zagros mountains, and handmade painted pottery appears. Throughout the prehistori...

Read More