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Achaemenids

(Encyclopedia)Achaemenids ăkˌəmĕnˈĭdz [key], dynasty of ancient Persia. They were descended presumably from one Achaemenes, a minor ruler in a mountainous district of SW Iran. His successors, when Elam declin...

Persia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Persian Empire (c.500 b.c.) Persia pûrˈzhə, –shə, old alternate name for the Asian country Iran. The article Iran contains a description of the geography and economy of the modern countr...

Kharga

(Encyclopedia)Kharga äl khärˈēnjä [key], large oasis (1986 pop. 38,544), S central Egypt, in the Libyan (Western) Desert. Populated chiefly by Arab Bedouins and Arab-speaking Berbers, the irrigated oasis produ...

Ismail, shah of Persia

(Encyclopedia)Ismail ĭsmäēlˈ [key], 1486–1524, shah of Persia (1502–24), founder of the Safavid dynasty. He restored Persia to the position of a sovereign state for the first time since the Arab invasion of...

Muhammad Ali, shah of Persia

(Encyclopedia)Muhammad Ali, 1872–1925, shah of Persia (1906–9), son of Muzaffar ad-Din Shah, of the Qajar dynasty. Muhammad Ali, who was an opponent of constitutional government, began to rule at a critical per...

Mithra

(Encyclopedia)Mithra mĭthˈrə [key], ancient god of Persia and India (where he was called Mitra). Until the 6th cent. b.c., Mithra was apparently a minor figure in the Zoroastrian system. Under the Achaemenids, M...

Cyrus the Great

(Encyclopedia)Cyrus the Great sīˈrəs [key], d. 529 b.c., king of Persia, founder of the greatness of the Achaemenids and of the Persian Empire. According to Herodotus, he was the son of an Iranian noble, the eld...

Darius I

(Encyclopedia)Darius I (Darius the Great) dərīˈəs [key], d. 486 b.c., king of ancient Persia (521–486 b.c.), called also Dariavaush and Darius Hystaspis (after his father, Hystaspes or Vishtaspa). A distant c...

Zoroastrianism

(Encyclopedia)Zoroastrianism zôˌrōăsˈtrēənĭzəm, religion founded by Zoroaster, but with many later accretions. The religion's priests, successors to the pre-Zoroastrian Magi, acquired great power by thei...

Persian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Persian art and architecture, works of art and structures produced in the region of Asia traditionally known as Persia and now called Iran. Bounded by fierce mountains and deserts, the high plateau of...

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