Persia

3680

Persia

derwool of the goat, silk materials, and vel-
vet. There is also a considerable output oi
silver work tiles, embroidery, mosaics, and
inlaid work of ivory, mother-of-pearl, and
metal, on wood. The commerce of Persia is
extensive, considering the general absence of
railroads and the primitive means of trans-
portation. The principal exports of Persia
are petroleum, raw cotton, dried fruits, wool-
en carpets, rice, opium, gums, skins, and ce-
reals, of value in the order named.

The government of Persia is a constitution-
al monarchy. Up to 1906 the Shah was abso-
lute, controlling the lives and property of his
subjects, and the entire revenue of his king-
dom. After the revolution, which resulted
in a constitution, the Mejliss, an elective na-
tional assembly, was established. The Shah
is assisted by a cabinet consisting of the Pre-
mier, and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs,
War, Education, Finance, and Justice. The
work of the American financial adviser, A. C.
Millspaugh, who undertook the reform of
Persian finances in 1922, has brought about
a marked change in the financial situation. A
budget has been introduced, revenues have
been increased, and important steps have
been taken for revision of the tax system.
The population of Persia is estimated at 15,-
000,000 of which 2,000,000 are nomadic
tribes, and 6,000 Europeans. The chief city
is Teheran; p.350,000. The Persians proper
are Mohammedans of the Shiite sect; of these
there are about 8,000,000. The Kurds and
many of the Arab and Turki tribes are Sun-
nites; in number, about 800,000. Babiism
(see BABI), a revolt against the tyranny of
of the Koran, has made great progress. There
are also a few Parsis, or fire-worshippers, and
Armenian and Nestorian Christians. The
Persian priesthood exerts a powerful influ-
ence, and is generally opposed to the progress
of European ideas among the people. The
education of the mass of the people extends
only to the reading of the Koran, but in re-
cent years schools on European lines have
been established.

History.—-The ancestors of the Medes and
Persians at the dawji of their history inhabi-
ted, traditionally, a region known as the
Airyanem Vae"jo ('the Aryan home'), which,
doubtless, in some measure corresponded
with the province of Aria in classical maps.
The Persians proper are mentioned in the
Vannic inscriptions as occupying Media, and
ultimately the province of Persis, now Fars,
to which they gave their name.

Zoroaster persuaded his people to abandon

the worship of the powers of nature, and
also preached the immortality of the soul.
The religion thus introduced continued to be
professed until the Mohammedan conquest of
Persia. Nothing more is known until the
time of the Greek historians and the cunei-
form records of the Arsacides. Cyrus the
Great, king of Persia revolted against his
suzerain Astyages, the successor of Cyaxares,
and by his conquest of Media united the
whole Persian empire under his banner. Cy-
rus5 successor, Cambyses, conquered Egypt
in 525 B.C. When he died by his own hand
(521 B.C.), Darius, a member of the same
great Achaemenian family, succeeding to the
throne, was forced to suppress rebellions in
every part of his vast empire. The Battle of
Marathon (490 B.C.) for a time delivered
Greece from Oriental conquest. The reign of
Darius' son and successor, Xerxes L (486-
461), who subdued the Egyptian rebels in
484, was occupied chiefly by his disastrous
conflict with Greece, memorable for the over-
throw of the Persians at Salamis (Septem-
ber, 480) and Plataea (479). The reigns of
Artaxerxes i. (466-424), Xerxes H., and Dari-
us rr. (423-405) witnessed the rapid decline
of the Persian monarchy. The celebrated ex-
pedition of Cyrus the Younger (401) against
his brother Artaxerxes n., ended in Cyrus*
victory and death at Cunaxa. Crossing the
Hellespont in 334, Alexander defeated the
Persians at Issus (333) and at Gaugamela
(Oct. 331), thus overthrowing forever the
empire of the Achaemenians. Persia then be-
came part of the Macedonian empire; and
after the troubles that followed Alexander's
death in 323 B.C., eventually fell to Seleucus
Nicator (312-280), who built Scleucia,
but ultimately transferred his capital to An-
tioch in Syria. Papak, son of Sasan, founded
the Sasanian dynasty in Persis, and was suc-
ceeded by his son Ardashir. In the latter the
history of Cyrus the Great repeated itself,
Defeating the army sent against him by Ar-
tabanus, Ardashir took Ispahan and ad-
vanced to Hormuz, where (April 28, 227) he
overthrew the Parthian monarch and his em-
pire.

Istakhr (Persepolis) now became once
more the capital of the Persian empire, of
which Ardashir soon made himself sovereign.
He overran and annexed Armenia and made
Zoroastrianism, in the form which it had
then assumed, the only religion tolerated in
his dominions. Ardashir was succeeded in
340 by his son Sapor or Shapur i., one of the
greatest of the Persian monarchy and the