133 



PERSIA. 



PERSIA. 



131 



ud Syria was reduced (351) by Oehus in person, who destroyed Sidon, 

 and advancing into Egypt, expelled the King Nectanebus, and reunited 

 that country to the Persian empire (350). Ochus was poisoned by 

 a eunuch named Bagoas, in B.C. 338. Bagoas now placed Arses, the 

 only surviving son of Darius, on the throne, but murdered him two 

 years afterwards, when the male line of the royal family being extinct, 

 he invested Darius III., Codomannus (a great-grandson of Darius 

 Nothus), with the vacant dignity. This prince commenced his reign 

 (336-30) by ridding himself of the traitor Bagoas : but the invasion 

 of his dominions by Alexander the Great, in 334, left him little 

 opportunity for the exercise of sovereignty. By three great battles 

 (Granicus, 334 ; Issns, 333 ; and Arbela, 331) the Persian empire was 

 utterly overthrown; and the unfortunate Darius, flying from the arms 

 of Alexander, was murdered (330) by his own servants, while the 

 whole extent of bis dominions from the Hellespont to the Indus fell 

 under the sway of the Macedonian conqueror. 



On the death of Alexander (323) and the dismemberment of his 

 vast territories by his generals, Persia fell to the lot of the founder 

 of the Syrian dynasty of the Seleucidx, Seleucus Nicator (312-280), 

 and remained in subjection during his reign and that of his son 

 Antiochus Soter (280-61). But in the reign of Antiochus Theos 

 (261-48), a germ of independence reappeared in the foundation of the 

 Parthian kingdom in the country of Hyrcania (Mazanderan) by Arsaces, 

 the first of the house of the Arsacida 1 , of which 30 monarch? reigned 

 in succession, each bearing the title of Arsaces, in addition to his 

 individual name. One of these princes, Mithridates, or Pacorus I. 

 (174-136), extended the Parthian power to the Euphrates and the 

 Indus, and in 138 took prisoner Demetrius II. of Syria, who had 

 invaded his territories. The sway of Orodes I. (54-37), who had 

 dethroned and put to death his brother Mithridates III., was dis- 

 tinguished by the first war with Rome, ami the defeat and slaughter 

 of Crassui with his legions on the plain of C'arrhac (53). On invading 

 Syria and Asia Minor however, the Parthians were repulsed by 

 Ventiditu (38) ; but this defeat was avenged by Phraates IV. (B.C. 37, to 

 A.D. 4) on Hark Antony, who only escaped from Parthia (B.C. 36) with 

 the loss of the greater part of his army. Some years later however 

 Phraates opened diplomatic relations with Home, and even sent his 

 sons to be educated at the court of Augustus. The death of Phraates 

 was followed by anarchy and dissension, and by wars with the Romans, 

 at the clone of one of which ( A.D. 65), Tiridates, brother of Vologpses I., 

 king of Parthia, accepted the Armenian kingdom as a fief of the 

 Roman empire. Ctenphon, the capital of the Parthian empire, wag 

 taken and sacked by the emperor Septimiu* Severus in 198 ; and 

 then contest*, though they occasioned no loss of territory, greatly 

 weakened the declining monarchy. Artaxerxes, or Ardaahlr, surnamed 

 Babegan, a native of Fan, or Persia proper, overthrew the Parthian 

 monarchy, and established the dynasty of the Sasanid*>. 



The reign of Artuerxes, or Ardaxhtr Babegan, after he attained 

 undivided power (220-42), was occupied, excepting a short war with 

 the Roman.', in regulating his new dominions, and re-establishing in 

 all its ancient splendour the Magian faith. His son Shahpoor, or 

 Sapor I. (242-78), conquered Armenia, and by his victory, in 260, over 

 the emperor Valerian (who was taken prisoner, with his army, and 

 (Hort in captivity), taught the Romans to respect and fear the arms of 

 Pernia. Syria, Cilicia, and Cappadocia were laid waste with ruthlee* 

 severity ; Antioch was taken and plundered, but the latter part of his 

 reign was lena fortunate: Odenathus, prince of Palmyra, and his 

 celebrated wife Zraobia, defied his arms, and Aurelian re-established 

 the Roman frontier in the Kast . 



War with the Romans however continued, and Names (294-301), 

 vindicated for a time the renown of the Persian arms by a signal 

 victory (296) over Ualerius ; but in the next campaign the Persian 

 forces wet* surprised and destroyed by the Romans, and by the peace 

 cepchided in 297, Nance ceded Armenia and five provinces east of the 

 Tigris. Daring the reign of Bhahpoor or Sapor the Great the long 

 war (837-63) was contested with the whole force of the two empires, 

 aid with varied success. In the battle of Kingara (248) Shahpoor 

 triumphed over the emperor Conetantius ; and the invasion of Persia 

 by his succe.eor Julian, which threatened the dismemberment of the 

 kingdom, was frustrated by the death of that prince and the cowardice 

 of his sncc-ssor, who purchased a safe retreat by the peace of Dura 

 (863), which imtuiul Armenia and all the cessions made by N arses. 

 The wisdom of Shahpoor in government was equal to his valour in 

 war ; and the kingdom continued in peace and prosperity throughout 

 the reigns of the three next monarch*. The reign of Isdigertes 

 (Yenlejerd) in 401-21 was disturbed by religious dissensions; the 

 Magi murmur- d at the toleration and favour shown by the king to 

 the Christian*, and hit friendship for the Qreek emperor Arcadius ; 

 bat the persecution of the Christians with which his son Bahram V. 

 commenced his reign, led to a short and indecisive war with the 

 Romins. The subsequent sway of this prince was glorious and 

 popular; after repulxing with great loss an invasion of the Turks of 

 Trans-Oxiana, he extended his realm to the frontiers of India ; and 

 his extraordinary personal prowess has preserved his memory to the 

 present, day in Persia as a favourite hero of romance. He perished 

 accidentally in hunting. After a century of mingled prosperity, wars, 



Naaherwan (SS1-79), raised the 



the illustrious Kborm 

 empire to iU highest pinnacle of grandeur and prosperity. 



He carried his arms to the Mediterranean, the Euxine, the Sutlej.and the 

 Jaxartes. Trans-Oxiana, the Punjab, aud great part of Arabia obej-ed 

 his mandates. Persia was divided into four great viceroyalties, aud 

 the excellence of the internal administration, in which the king wai 

 aided by his celebrated minister Buzurg-Mihir, has earned for him the 

 proud appellation of 'Just.' His son Hormuz (579-90), after losing 

 all the conquests of his father, forfeited his throne and life in a 

 popular revolt Khosru-Perwiz, son of Hormuz (590-628), attacked 

 the Roman empire (602), and in 16 years restored the Persian empire 

 to the limits under Xerxes, by the conquest of Syria, Asia Minor, and 

 Egypt : but these successes were transient, and Khosru, after having 

 been in turn driven from his palaces by the victories of HeracliiH, 

 was murdered by his own son Shiruyeh, or Siroes. A period of con- 

 fusion followed till the accession of Yezdejerd III., in the same year 

 (632) in which Persia was attacked by the Arabs, then commencing 

 the career of Mohammedan conquest. The fate of the kingdom, 

 weakened by internal dissensions, was decided by the battles of 

 Cadesia (636) and of Nehavend (641), the last of which, though the 

 king survived in the condition of a fugitive 10 years longer, subverted 

 at once the Sassanian power and the independence of the country. 



The Persians imbibed the religion, and literature of tho Arabs ; but 

 the country for two centuries was only a province in the empire of 

 the Kalifs. With the decay of the power of the kalifa the spirit of 

 independence revived, and the re-establishment of the kingdom may 

 be dated from the foundation of the Soft'arian dynasty by Yakub Ibn 

 Lais, who about 868 threw off his allegiance to the kalif, and fixed at 

 Shiraz the capital of a dominion including nearly all Persin. This 

 dynasty lasted from 8&i to 900 ; and was succeeded by the Tartar 

 Samanides dynasty (900 to 936) ; and a native dynasty (936 to 1028). 

 The Seljookian Turks, among whom were the distinguished kings 

 Togrul-Beg and Alp-Arsdan, ruled Persia from 1028 till 1194, when tho 

 Kharismians held the reins of power for a short time. The famous 

 mogul Gengis Khan established a new dynasty, which ruled Persia till 

 13s] , in which year the Tartars under Tamerlane conquered thecountry, 

 and established a rule which lasted, with few interruptions, till 1502. 



Ismael Shah, the founder of the Sen, Sooffee, or Seffavean dynasty, 

 was remotely descended from the Kalif AH, the cousin and son-in-law 

 of Mohammed. He was a Turkoman, but he belonged to a different 

 religious sect from the Turks usually so called, and hence partly tho 

 national hostility which has subsisted between the Sheah and Sooni, or 

 Persian and Turkish Mohammedans. This dynasty lasted from 1502 

 till 1736; it included the distinguished name of Abbas the Great, 

 under whom the Persian empire regained much of its former extent 

 and splendour. 



After totally expelling the Uzbeks from Khorassan, in the first part 

 of his reign, he turned his arms against the Turks, over whom he 

 gained repeated victories from 1603 to 1618, in which year a peace 

 was concluded, restoring to Persia all her former possessions. In order 

 to promote manufactures, he invited Armenian artificers to settle at 

 Julfa, and formed an alliance with the English, by whose aid he 

 expelled the Portuguese from Ormuz ; he removed the capital from 

 Kaawin to Ispahan, and greatly improved the internal communications 

 of the kingdom. 



The Befi dynasty was put an end to by Nadir Shah in 1736. This 

 extraordinary man raised Persia, for a short time, to a higher degree 

 of power than she had possessed since the rule of the Sassanian kings. 

 He conquered Caudahar and Afghanistan ; and in invading India, in 

 1739, took Delhi, and carried off a booty estimated at 32,000,0001., 

 reducing the next year the Uzbeks of Khiva and Bokhara, long the 

 enemies of Persia. A second war with the Porte (1743-6) terminated 

 favourably to Persia ; but tho barbarities and avarice of Nadir exas- 

 perated his subjects, and he was murdered in his tent, 1747. His 

 death was the signal for a scene of anarchy and confusion ; the Uzbek 

 states threw off the yoke, and Afghanistan becam an independent 

 and powerful kingdom under Ahmed Dooranee, while the crown of 

 Persia was contested by various competitors, and the kingdom torn 

 by civil war, till a chief named Ken-em Khan, of the Zend family, 

 succeeded, in 1759, in possessing himself of supreme power, which h 

 held till bis death, in 1779, under the title of Wakeel, or administrator ; 

 he refused the iuxignia of royalty. But fresh troubles broke out at his 

 death six chiefs, between 1779 and 1789, ascended or claimed tho 

 throne, while Russia took Georgia under her protection in 1 783. Tho 

 candidates for royalty were at length reduced to Lutf Ali Khan Zend 

 and Aga- Mohatnuv d Khan Kajar; the former, a brave but cruel 

 prince, bore the title of king from 1789 to 1795, when he was taken 

 and put to death by his rival, who thus became sole monarch, and 

 the founder of the Kajar or reigning dynasty. Ho fixed his capital 

 at Teheran. His first act was to attack the revolted Georgians, whom 

 he overthrew in the field, and subjected their capital Tetiis to ruth- 

 less pillage and massacre ; but his severity provoked his own attendants 

 to assassinate him, and he was succeeded by his nephew, Shah Futtah 

 Ali (1797-1834). This reign was marked by two disastrous wars with 

 Russia, the first of which (1804-13) ended in the cession of most of 

 the Caspian provinces by the peace of Uoolistau ; the second (1826-8), 

 in the cession of Erivan and the country to the Araxea, by the treaty 

 of Turkmanchai. He however reconquered Khorassan from the 

 Afghans and Uzbeks, and broke the power of the chiefs of tribes by 

 appointing his own numerous sons to nearly all the governments 



