What is Persia known for?
Persia is the old Western name for Iran, taken from Persis (modern Fars), the home province of its first great dynasty. Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire around 550 BCE, and at its height it ran from Egypt and the Aegean to the Indus valley.
Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BCE. Later Iranian dynasties, the Parthians and then the Sasanians, ruled until the Arab conquest of the seventh century CE.
Persia matters on this site for its religion, Zoroastrianism, with its sacred texts the Avesta and Vendidad, its world-ages and its war between good and evil spirits. Cyrus also appears in the Hebrew Bible as the king who let exiles return to Jerusalem.
Land of Zoroaster, the Avesta and the Vendidad, and of Cyrus the Great, who appears in the Bible.
Mentioned on these pages
- FileBook of Giants
- FileThe Prince of Persia
- ChapterOne History 8: The reset
- ChapterOne History 9: The division
- PassageNations divided among the sons of God (Deuteronomy 32:8–9)
- PassageThe prince of Persia (Daniel 10:5–6, 13)
- PersonAlexander the Great
- PersonCyrus the Great
- PersonEphrem the Syrian
- PersonHerodotus
- PersonProcopius of Caesarea
- PlaceAksum
- PlaceAncient Israel
- PlaceTurfan
Linked people and places
Sources
- WikipediaA free online encyclopedia written and edited by volunteers. It is a good starting point and usually lists its own sources, but anyone can change it, so we treat it as a guide to better sources, not the final word.Wikipedia, 'Achaemenid Empire'Reference
- WikipediaWikipedia, 'Iran (Persia) name'Reference
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