CHAPTER V_How to Study Architecture

PERSIAN CIVILISATION

The name Iran, by which the Persians still call their country, preserves

the origin of their race. They were Aryans, as distinguished from the

Semitic peoples; a branch of the race which migrated from the country

now called Southern Russia and Turkestan into the rich lands of the

South. One branch pushed on to the Ganges and became identified with

India; the other settled about the Indus, whence they gradually pushed

their way westward. This branch comprised many tribes which in time

developed into peoples.

The most powerful of these at the period when the Aryans first came into

conflict with the Semitic race, was the Medes, who occupied the northern

part of the west side of what is now Persia, while the Persians, who

rose to supremacy later, occupied the southern part. This western

division of the country, separated by a desert from the eastern,

entirely differs in character from Mesopotamia.

For a distance of 50 miles from the Persian Gulf it is flat, swampy, and

unhealthful. Then it rises to a system of mountain ranges that average

five thousand feet in height, broken up with valleys, lakes, and

countless streams. It was a country admirably adapted to rear a hardy

and industrious race of men and fine breeds of cattle and horses. The

Aryans seem to have always been cattle breeders, from which fact is

supposed to be derived the reverence of the cow, which still exists in

India. They were also great lovers of the horse and it was not until

after 1700 B.C. when advanced posts of the Aryan migration came in touch

with the Semitic nations of the West, that the horse made its appearance

in Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece. But, while the bas-reliefs of the

Egyptians after this date show the horse used only in chariots, its

general use among the Persians was for riding purposes. So the love of

the modern Aryan races for the horse and horse exercise is an inherited

instinct that knits them like their language to their earliest

ancestors.

Of the Assyrian Kings, Shalmaneser II was the first to come in conflict

with the Medes, and from this date (836 B.C.), the Medes are frequently

mentioned in Assyrian records as paying tribute. Finally, in 626 B.C.,

the fortunes of war began to be reversed. The Median King, Cyaxares, as

we have seen in a previous chapter, formed an alliance with Nabopolassar

that resulted in the ousting of the Assyrian domination from Babylon and

the establishment of the New Babylonian Empire. The Medes followed this

up by a vigorous campaign against Assyria which resulted, in 606 B.C. in

the taking and destruction of Nineveh. New capitals were built at Susa

and Ecbatana and the sway of the Medes extended over Northern

Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Cappadocia.

Then in 550 B.C. the Median supremacy ceased. Cyrus, King of Persia, of

the clan Achæmenian, rebelled against his suzerain, Astyages, the son of

Cyaxares, conquered him in battle and became the founder of the Persian

Empire. He captured Babylon in 538 B.C. and gradually extended his sway

from the Indus River to the Ægean Sea and the borders of Egypt. In his

homeland of Persia he founded the city of Pasargadae, the modern

Murghab, where he built himself a palace and a tomb. For it was here

that his Persians, urged on by their women-folk, had struck the final

blow that conquered the Medes. Accordingly, each king of the Achæmenian

dynasty was here, in the temple of the warrior goddess, invested with

the garb of Cyrus and partook of a meal of figs, terebinth, and sour

milk; and, whenever he visited the city, gave a gold piece to every

woman.

Darius I, fourth of the Achæmenian dynasty, founded Persepolis, about

forty miles northeast of the modern Shiraz, commenced building the

famous palace and constructed for himself a tomb. Xerxes I added a

palace and a tomb of his own, while tombs also were built by Artaxerxes

III and Darius II. But, while Persepolis remained the favourite resort

of the Persian Kings, it was too remote a spot to be the seat of

government, which continued to be divided between Babylon, Susa, and

Ecbatana.

Meanwhile, under Xerxes I the Persian power came into conflict with the

Hellenic and was worsted in the battles of Platæa and Thermopylæ and the

sea-fight at Salamis. Henceforth the advance of the Persian Empire was

checked; dissensions began to weaken it; the central authority relapsed

into feebleness, with lurid intervals of cruelty, until finally it

succumbed to the rising tide of Macedonian conquest. In 331 B.C.

Alexander the Great crushed the army of Darius III near Arbela; took in

turn the cities of Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana and stripped them of

their treasure, finally capturing Persepolis, and setting fire to it.

This act of vandalism has been variously explained. One story, which

forms the subject of Dryden’s “Ode to Saint Cecilia’s Day,” had it that

the wanton act was instigated by the courtezan, Thais. Another story is

that it was an act of revenge for the destruction of Greek temples by

Xerxes I; while still another relates that in this destruction of the

very heart of Iran, Alexander wished to impress the Oriental imagination

with the absoluteness of his supremacy.

After being subject to the rule of the successors of Alexander and to

the domination of the later Parthian Empire, Persia once more became an

empire under the Sassanian Dynasty, Ctesiphon being one of its chief

cities. In the seventh century A.D. it was conquered by the Saracens and

entered into the Mohammedan civilisation, which we shall discuss in a

later chapter.

* * * * *

The rapid rise of the Persian power was due to the hardiness of this

mountain race and its highly organised preparation for war. Every

Persian able to bear arms was bound to serve the King: the great

landowners on horseback, the commonalty on foot. The army, therefore,

unlike those of the Oriental nations it encountered, was composed of

cavalry as well as infantry; and, while the latter, armed with bows,

kept the enemy at a distance and harassed them with storms of arrows,

the cavalry, operating on their flanks and rear, completed the rout. It

was only when the power had become unwieldy by its very vastness, that

this method of warfare proved useless against the Greek hoplites and the

massed formation of the Macedonian phalanx.

In its beginning the Persian system was a beneficent feudalism. The

nobles, excused from personal cultivation of the soil, were pledged to

appear at Court as frequently as possible. Their children were brought

up in company with the princes “at the Gate of the King,” instructed in

riding, hunting, and the use of weapons, educated to the service of the

State and a knowledge of the law, as well as to the commandments of

religion. Under Darius, who completed the vast structure of empire which

Cyrus had founded, the organisation of government and society was on

broad and free lines; an empire established in righteousness, following

the precepts of Zoroaster.

It is concluded from various testimony that this great prophet of the

Aryan peoples lived about 1000 B.C. He taught that in this world there

is a continual conflict between the Powers of Good--Light, Creative

Strength, Life, and Truth--and the Powers of Evil--Darkness,

Destruction, Death, and Deceit. At the head of the Good Powers is the

Great Wisdom Ahuramazda, whose helpers are the six powers of Good

Thought, Right Order, Excellent Kingdom, Holy Character, Health, and

Immortality. At the head of the Evil, Ahriman. Midway between these

Powers is Man, who has to make his choice on which side he will take his

stand. He is called to serve the Powers of Good; to speak the truth and

fight a lie; to obey the command of law and true order; to tend his

cattle and fields; to practise the Good and True in thought, word, and

deed, and to keep from pollution the elements of the earth, water, and

particularly fire. For Zoroaster preserved the old Aryan belief in the

element of fire. Altars were erected upon the hills, tended by

fire-kindlers, who were the ministers of the true religion and the

intermediaries between God and man.

Moreover, Zoroastrianism was a proselytising religion. Ahuramazda, whom

king and people alike acknowledged, had given them dominion “over the

earth afar, over many peoples and tongues.” Yet, while they felt it to

be their destiny to rule the whole world, the Persians believed that it

was the will of Ahuramazda that they must govern it aright. Hence they

treated the conquered with clemency and employed their leaders as

administrators and generals. Cyrus, for example, permitted the Jews to

return to Jerusalem and restored to them the temple vessels of gold and

silver which had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar.

Thus, the religion of Iran had to do with practical life, this world and

the joy thereof, and moral conduct; and as long as it retained its

character of plain living and high thinking--of which the simple

coronation ritual of the kings was symbolical--the Empire continued

strong. Luxury, however, gradually crept in; the Persian Kings vied with

the Kings they had conquered in magnificence of living and slowly but

surely the strength of the Empire was sapped.

Cruelty also became part of the Persian religion, as indicated by

remains of human sacrifices taken from ash-heaps that stood beside

Zoroastrian altars. This also caused a degeneration to devil-worship,

which in some localities survives to-day.