Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Konjkaw (talk | contribs) at 23:12, 23 August 2011. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Median Empire or Median ConfederationMādai
728 BC–549 BC
A map of Median Empire; based on Herodotean
Capital	Ecbatana
Common languages	Median language
Religion	Old Iranian Religion (related to Mithraism, early Mazdaism or Zoroastrianism)
Government	Monarchy
King
• 625-585 BC	Cyaxares (first)
• 589-549 BC	Astyages (last)
Historical era	Golden Age
• Cyaxares united Median tribes	728 BC
• Cyrus the Great	549 BC
Preceded by Succeeded by Neo-Assyrian Empire Achaemenid Empire

History of Greater Iran
Pre-IslamicBCE / BC Prehistory Kura–Araxes culture c. 3400 – c. 2000 Helmand culture/Jiroft culture 3300-2200 Proto-Elamite civilization 3200–2800 Elamite dynasties 2800–550 Lullubi/Zamua 3100-675 Marhaši 2550-2020 Bactria–Margiana Complex 2400–1700 Gutian Dynasty 2141-2050 Avestan period c. 1500 BCE – 500 BCE Kingdom of Mannai 10th–7th century Neo-Assyrian Empire 911–609 Urartu 860–590 Median Empire 728–550 Scythian Kingdom 652–625 Achaemenid Empire 550–330 Ancient kingdom of Armenia 331 BCE – 428 CE Seleucid Empire 330–150 Caucasian Iberia c. 302 BCE – 580 CE Greco-Bactrian Kingdom 250–125 Parthian Empire 248 BCE–224 CE Caucasian Albania 2nd century BCE – 8th century CE Roman Empire 27 BCE – 330 CE CE / AD Kushan Empire 30–275 Sasanian Empire 224–651 Afrighid dynasty 305–995 Hephthalite Empire 425–557 Kabul Shahi kingdom 565–879 Dabuyid dynasty 642–760 Bagratid Armenia 880s – 1045 Alania 8th/9th century – 1238 / 9 Kingdom of Georgia 1008–1490
Islamic Rashidun Caliphate 637–651 Umayyad Caliphate 661–750 Abbasid Caliphate 750–1258 Shirvanshah 799–1607 Tahirid dynasty 821–873 Dulafid dynasty 840–897 Zaydis of Tabaristan 864–928 Saffarid dynasty 861–1003 Samanid Empire 819–999 Sajid dynasty 889/90–929 Ziyarid dynasty 928–1043 Buyid dynasty 934–1055 Sallarid dynasty 941–1062 Ghaznavid Empire 975–1187 Ghurid dynasty pre-879 – 1215 Seljuk Empire 1037–1194 Khwarazmian dynasty 1077–1231 Sultanate of Rum 1077–1307 Salghurids 1148–1282 Ilkhanate 1256–1353 Kart dynasty 1231–1389 Ottoman Empire 1299–1923 Muzaffarid dynasty 1314–1393 Chupanid dynasty 1337–1357 Jalairid Sultanate 1339–1432 Timurid Empire 1370–1507 Qara Qoyunlu Turcomans 1407–1468 Aq Qoyunlu Turcomans 1378–1508 Safavid Empire 1501–1722 Mughal Empire 1526–1857 Hotak dynasty 1722–1729 Afsharid Iran 1736–1750 Zand dynasty 1750–1794 Durrani Empire 1794–1826 Qajar Iran 1794–1925
v t e

The Medes (from Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in central Iran in an area known as Media and spoke a northwestern Iranian language referred to as the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of Iranian tribes in the late second millennium BCE (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the first millennium BCE.

In the 7th century BCE a unified Median state was formed which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. An alliance with the Babylonians helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BCE which resulted in the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal centre) beyond their original homeland (central-western Iran) and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Halys River in Anatolia. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great who established the next Iranian dynasty—the Achaemenid Empire.

A few archaeological sites (discovered in the "Median triangle" in western Iran) and textual sources (from contemporary Assyrians and also Greeks in later centuries) provide a brief documentation of the history and culture of the Median state. These architectural sources, religions temples, and literary references show the importance of Median lasting contributions (such as the Safavid-Achaemenid-Median link of the tradition of "columned audience halls") to the Iranian culture. A number words from the Median language are still in use and there are languages being geographically and comparatively traced to the northwestern Iranian language of Medlian. The Medes had an Ancient Iranian Religion (a form of pre-Zoroastrian Mazdaism or Mithra worshipping) with a priesthood named as "Magi". Later and during the reigns of last Median kings the reforms of Zarathustra spread in western Iran.

Besides Ecbatana (modern Hamedan), the other cities existing in Media were Laodicea, modern Nahavand and the mound that was the city of Rhages (also called Rey), on the outskirts of Shahr Rey, near Tehran. In later periods, Medes and especially Mede soldiers are identified and portrayed prominently in ancient Persian archaeological sites such as Persepolis, where they are shown to have a major role and presence in the military of the Persian Empire's Achaemenid dynasty.

Name

The original source for different words used to call the Median people, their language and homeland is a directly transmitted Old Iranian geographical name which is attested as the Old Persian "Māda-" (sing. masc.). The meaning of this word is not precisely established. The linguist W. Skalmowski proposes a relation with the proto-indoeuropean word "med(h)-" meaning "central, suited in the middle" by referring to Old Indic "madhya-" and Old Iranic Avestan "maidiia-" both carrying the same meaning. Old Iranic and old Indic were same languge, and that was Old Vedic Sanskrit.

They also appear in many ancient texts: According to the Histories of Herodotus "The Medes were called anciently by all people Aryans; but when Medea, the Colchian, came to them from Athens, they changed their name. Such is the account which they themselves give". He had also listed the names of six Median tribes: "Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a nation, and ruled over them alone. Now these are the tribes of which they consist: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi."

The geographical name "Media" survives in the Modern Iranian geographical name "Māhīdašt" (lit. “the Median plain,” with "Māh < Māda-") in the Kermanshah province.

Historical geography of Media

The original population area of the Median people was western Iran and named after them as "Media". At the end of the 2nd millennium BCE the Median tribes arrived in the region (one of several Iranian tribes to do so) which they later called Media. These tribes expanded their control over larger areas subsequently and over a period of several hundred years the boundaries of Media moved.

Ancient textual sources

The earlier description of the territory of Media by the Assyrians dates from the end of 9th century until the beginning of the 7th century BCE. The southern border of Media, in that period, is named as the Elamite region of Simaški in presend day Lorestan. From the west and northwest it was bounded by the Zagros mountains and from the east by Dašt-e Kavir. The region of Media was known to the Assyrians and described by them thus: "extended along the Great Khorasan Road from just east of Harhar to Alwand, and probably beyond. It was limited on the north by Mannea, on the south by Ellipi." The location of Harhar is suggested to be "the central or eastern" Mahidasht in Kermanshah province.

On the east and southeast of Media, as described by the Assyrians, another land with the name of "Patušarra" appears. This land was located near a mountain range which the Assyrians call "Bikni" and describe as "Lapis Lazuli Mountain". There are various opinion on the location of this mountain. Damavand of Tehran and Alvand of Hamadan are two proposed identifications of that location. This location is the most remote eastern area that the Assyrians knew or reached during their expansion until the beginning of 7th century BCE.

In the sources from Achaemenid Iran and specifically from the inscription of Darius I (2.76, 77-78) the capital of Media is named as "Hamgmatāna-" in Old Persian (and as Elamite "Agmadana-", Babylonian "Agamtanu-", etc.). The classical authors transmitted this as Ecbatana. This site is the modern Hamadan province.

Archaeological evidence

The Median archaeological sources are rare. The discoveries of Median sites happened only after 1960s. For sometime after 1960 the search for Median archeological sources has been for most parts focused in an area known as the “Median triangle,” defined roughly as the region bounded by Hamadān, Malāyer (in Hamdan province) and Kangāvar (in Kermanshah province). Three major sites from central western Iran in the Iron Age III period (i.e. 850-500 BCE) are

• Tepe Nush-i Jan (a primarily religious site of Median period),

The site is located 14 km west of Malāyer in Hamadan province. The excavations started in 1967 with D. Stronach as the director. The remains of four main buildings in the site have "the central temple, the western temple, the fort, and the columned hall" which according to Stronach were likely to have been built in the order named and predate the latter occupation of the first half of the 6th century BCE. According to Stronach, the central temple, with its stark design, "provides a notable, if mute, expression of religious belief and practice". A number of ceramics from the Median levels at Tepe Nush-i Jan have been found which are associated with the time (the second half of the 7th century BCE) of the Median consolidation of their power in the Hamadān areas. These findings show four different wares known as “Common ware” (buff, cream, or light red in color and with gold or silver mica temper) including jars in various size the largest of which is a form of ribbed pithoi. Smaller and more elaborate vessels were in “grey ware”, (these display smoothed and burnished surface). The “Cooking ware” and “Crumbly ware” are also recognized each in single handmade products.

• Godin Tepe (its period II: a fortified palace of a Median king or tribal chief),

The site is located 13 km east of Kangāvar city on the left bank of the river Gamas Āb". The excavations, started in 1965, were led by T. C. Young, Jr. which, according to D. Stronach, evidently shows an important Bronze Age construction that was reoccupied sometime before the beginning of the Iron III period. The excavations of Young indicate the remains of a part of a single residence of a local ruler which later became quite substantial. This is similar to those mentioned often in Assyrian sources.

• Baba Jan (probably the seat of a lesser tribal ruler of Media).

The site is located in northeastern Luristan with a distance of roughly 10 km from Nūrābād in Lurestan province. The excavations were conducted by C. Goff in 1966-69. The level II of this site probably dates to 7th century BCE.

These sources have both similarities (in cultural characteristics) and differences (due to functional differences and diversity among the Median tribes). The architecture of this archaeological findings that can probably be dated to the Median period show a link between the tradition of columned audience halls seen often in Achaemenid Iran (for example in Persepolis) and also in the Safavid Iran (for example in "the hall of forty columns" from 17th century CE) and the Median architecture.

The materials found at Tepe Nush-i Jan, Godin Tepe, and other sites located in Media together with the Assyrian reliefs show the existence of urban settlements in Media in the first half of the first millennium BCE which had functioned as centres for production of handicraft and also of an agricultural and cattle-breeding economy of a secondary type. For other historical documentation, the archaeological evidence, though rare, together with cuneiform records by Assyrian make it possible, regardless of Herodotus accounts, to establish some of the early history of Medians.

Rise to power

Pre-dynastic history

Iranian tribes were present in western and northwestern Iran at least from 12-11th century BCE. The significance of Iranian elements in these regions were established from beginning of the second half of the 8th century BCE. By this time the Iranian tribes were the majority in what later become the territory of Median kingdom and also the west of Media proper. A study of textual sources from the region show that in Neo-Assyrian period, the regions of Media and further west and northwest had a population with Iranian speaking people as majority.

In western and northwestern Iran and in areas west to these and prior to the Median rule there were previously political activities of powerful societies of Elam, Manna, Assyria and Urartu/Ararat (Armenia). There are various and up-dated opinions on the positions and activities of Iranian tribes in these societies and prior to the "major Iranian state formations" in 7th century BCE. One opinion (of Herzfeld, et al.) is that the ruling class were "Iranian migrants" but the society was "autochthonous" while another opinion (of Grantovsky, et al.) holds that both the ruling class and basic elements of the population were Iranian.

Median dynasty

The list of Median rulers and their dates compiled according to A: Herodotus who calls them "kings" and associates them to the same family and B: Babylonian Chronicle which in "Gadd's Chronicle on the Fall of Nineveh" gives its own list, ist: Deioces (reign 700-647 BCE), Phraortes (reign 647-625 BCE), Scythian (reign 624-597 BCE), Cyaxares (reign 624-585 BCE) and Astyages (reign 585-549 BCE): a total of 150 years. Not all of these dates and personalities given by Herodotus match the other near eastern sources

In Herodotus (book 1, chapters 95-130), Deioces is introduced as the founder of a centralized Median state. He had been known to Median people as "a just and incorruptible man" and when asked by Median people to solve their possible disputes he agreed and put the condition that they make him "king" and build a great city at Ecbatana as the capital of Median state. Judging from the contemporary sources of the region and disregarding the account of Herodotus puts the formation of a unified Median state during reign of Cyaxares or later.

Culture and society

In Greek references to "Median" people there is no clear distinction between the "Persians" and the "Medians"; in fact for a Greek to become "too closely associated with Iranian culture" was "to become medianized, not persianized". The Median kingdom was a short-lived Iranian state and the textual and archaeological sources of that period are rare and little could be known from the Median culture which nevertheless made a "profound, and lasting, contribu­tion to the greater world of Iranian culture".

Language

Median people spoke Median language that was an Old Iranian language. Strabo in his Geography (finished in the early 1st century AD) mentions the affinity of Mede with other Iranian languages: "The name of Ariana is further extended to a part of Persia and of Media, as also to the Bactrians and Sogdians on the north; for these speak approximately the same language, with but slight variations".

No original deciphered text is proved to have been written in Median language. It is suggested that similar to later Iranian practice of keeping archive of written documents in Achaemenid Iran, there was also a maintenance of archives by Median government in their capital Ecbatana. There are examples of "Median literature" found in later records. One is according to Herdotus that the Median king Deioces, appearing as a judge, made judgement on causes submitted in writing. There is also a report by Dinon on existence of "Median court poets". Median literature is a part of the "Old Iranian literature" (including also Saka, Old Persian, Avestan) as this Iranian affiliation of them is explicit also in ancient texts, such as Herodotus's account that many peoples including Medes were "universally called Iranian".

Words of Median origin appear in various other Iranian dialects, including Old Persian. A feature of Old Persian inscriptions is the large number of words and names from other languages and the Median language takes in this regard a special place for historical reasons. The Median words in Old Persian texts, whose Median origin can be established by "phonetic criteria", appear "more frequently among royal titles and among terms of the chancellery, military, and judicial affairs". Words of Median origin include:

• *čiθra-: "origin". The word appears in *čiθrabṛzana- (med.) "exalting his linage", *čiθramiθra- (med.) "having mithraic origin", *čiθraspāta- (med.) "having a brilliant army", etc.
• Farnah: Divine glory; (Template:Lang-ae)
• Paridaiza: Paradise, (as in Pardis پردیس)
• Spaka- : The word is Median and means "dog". Herodotus identifies "Spaka-" (Gk. "σπάχα" - female dog) as Median rather than Persian. The word is still used in modern Iranian languages including Talyshi.
• vazṛka-: "great" (as Modern Persian bozorg)
• vispa-: "all". (as in Avestan). The component appears in such words as vispafryā (Med. fem.) "dear to all", vispatarva- (med.) "vanquishing all", vispavada- (med. -op.) "leader of all", etc.
• Xshayathiya (royal, royalty): This Median word (∗xšaθra-pā-) is an example of words whose Greek form (known as romanized "satrap" from Gk. "satrápēs - σατράπης") mirrors, as opposed to the tradition, a Median rather than an Old Persian form of an Old Iranian word.
• zūra-: "evil" and zūrakara-: "evil-doer".

Religion

There are very limited sources concerning the religion of Median people. Primary sources pointing to religious affiliations of Medes and found so far include the archaeological discoveries in Tepe Nush-e Jan, personal names of Median individuals, and the Histories of Herodotus. The archaeological source gives the earliest of the temple structures in Iran and the "stepped fire altar" discovered there is linked to the common Indo-Iranian legacy of "cult of fire". Herodotus mentions Median Magi as a Median tribe providing priests for both the Medes and the Persians. They had a "priestly caste" which passed their functions from father to son. They played a significant role in the court of the Median king Astyages who had in his court certain Medians as "advisers, dream interpreters, and soothsayers". Classical historians "unanimously" regarded the Magi as priests of the Zoroastrian faith. From the personal names of Medes as recorded by Assyrians (in 8th and 9th century BCE) there are examples of use of the Indo-Iranian word arta- (lit. "truth") which is familiar from both Avestan and Old Persian and also examples of theophoric names containing Maždakku and also the name "Ahura Mazdā". Scholars disagree whether these are indications of Zoroastrian religion of Medes. Diakonoff believes that "Astyages and perhaps even Cyaxares had already embraced a religion derived from the teachings of Zoroaster" which was not identical with doctrine of Zarathustra and Mary Boyce believes that "the existence of the Magi in Media with their own traditions and forms of worship was an obstacle to Zoroastrian proselytizing there". Boyce wrote that the Zoroastrian traditions in the Median city of Ray probably goes back to 8th century BCE. It is suggested that from 8th century BCE, a form of "Mazdaism with common Indo-Iranian traditions" existed in Media and the strict reforms of Zarathustra began to spread in western Iran during the reign of the last Median kings in 6th century BCE.

It is also suggested that "Mithra" has a Median name and Medes may have practised Mithraism and had Mithra as their supreme deity.

Media in later periods

Achaemenid Persia

In 553 BC, Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, rebelled against his grandfather, the Mede King, Astyages son of Cyaxares; he finally won a decisive victory in 550 BC resulting in Astyages' capture by his own dissatisfied nobles, who promptly turned him over to the triumphant Cyrus.

After Cyrus's victory against Astyages, the Medes were subjected to their close kin, the Persians. In the new empire they retained a prominent position; in honor and war, they stood next to the Persians; their court ceremony was adopted by the new sovereigns, who in the summer months resided in Ecbatana; and many noble Medes were employed as officials, satraps and generals. Interestingly, at the beginning the Greek historians referred to the Achaemenid Empire as a Median empire.

After the assassination of the usurper Smerdis, a Mede Fravartish (Phraortes), claiming to be a scion of Cyaxares, tried to restore the Mede kingdom, but was defeated by the Persian generals and executed in Ecbatana (Darius I the Great in the Behistun inscription). Another rebellion, in 409 BC, against Darius II was of short duration. But the Iranian tribes to the north, especially the Cadusii, were always troublesome; many abortive expeditions of the later kings against them are mentioned.

Under Persian rule, the country was divided into two satrapies: the south, with Ecbatana and Rhagae (Rey near modern Tehran), Media proper, or Greater Media, as it is often called, formed in Darius I the Great's organization the eleventh satrapy, together with the Paricanians and Orthocorybantians; the north, the district of Matiane, together with the mountainous districts of the Zagros and Assyria proper (east of the Tigris) was united with the Alarodians and Saspirians in eastern Armenia, and formed the eighteenth satrapy.

When the Persian empire decayed and the Cadusii and other mountainous tribes made themselves independent, eastern Armenia became a special satrapy, while Assyria seems to have been united with Media; therefore Xenophon in the Anabasis always designates Assyria by the name of "Media".

Seleucid rule

Following Alexander's invasion of the satrapy of Media in the summer of 330 BC, he appointed as satrap a former general of Darius III the Great named Atropates (Atrupat) in 328 BC, according to Arrian. In the partition of his empire, southern Media was given to the Macedonian Peithon; but the north, far off and of little importance to the generals squabbling over Alexander's inheritance, was left to Atropates.

While southern Media, with Ecbatana, passed to the rule of Antigonus, and afterwards (about 310 BC) to Seleucus I, Atropates maintained himself in his own satrapy and succeeded in founding an independent kingdom. Thus the partition of the country, that Persia had introduced, became lasting; the north was named Atropatene (in Pliny, Atrapatene; in Ptolemy, Tropatene), after the founder of the dynasty, a name still said to be preserved in the modern form 'Azerbaijan'.

The capital of Atropatene was Gazaca in the central plain, and the castle Phraaspa, discovered on the Araz river by archaeologists in April 2005.

Atropatene is that country of western Asia which was least of all other countries influenced by Hellenism; there exists not even a single coin of its rulers. Southern Media remained a province of the Seleucid Empire for a century and a half, and Hellenism was introduced everywhere. Media was surrounded everywhere by Greek towns, in pursuance of Alexander's plan to protect it from neighboring barbarians, according to Polybius. Only Ecbatana retained its old character. But Rhagae became the Greek town Europus; and with it Strabo names Laodicea, Apamea Heraclea or Achais. Most of them were founded by Seleucus I and his son Antiochus I.

Arsacid rule

In 221 BC, the satrap Molon tried to make himself independent (there exist bronze coins with his name and the royal title), together with his brother Alexander, satrap of Persis, but they were defeated and killed by Antiochus the Great. In the same way, the Mede satrap Timarchus took the diadem and conquered Babylonia; on his coins he calls himself the great king Timarchus; but again the legitimate king, Demetrius I, succeeded in subduing the rebellion, and Timarchus was slain. But with Demetrius I, the dissolution of the Seleucid Empire began, brought about chiefly by the intrigues of the Romans, and shortly afterwards, in about 150, the Parthian king Mithradates I conquered Media.

From this time Media remained subject to the Arsacids or Parthians, who changed the name of Rhagae, or Europus, into Arsacia, and divided the country into five small provinces. From the Parthians, it passed in 226 to the Sassanids, together with Atropatene.

Kurdologists and Medes

The Russian historian and linguist Vladimir Minorsky suggested that the Medes who widely inhabited the land where currently the Kurds, are the majority in, are likely to be the forefathers of the modern Kurds, also on the basis of historical and lingustic evidence that he gathered. John Limbert also suggested that the Medes were one of the ancestors of the Kurds based on linguistic and geographical claims. He says that all Kurdish dialects have maintained the basic characteristics of Kurdish despite the wide dispersion of the tribes. This would suggest that there was an ancient and powerful language from which the dialects evolved, which can be proved to be Median. Furthermore Gernot Windfuhr (professor of Iranian Studies) identified Kurdish dialects as Parthian, albeit with a Mediansubstratum. However, David Neil MacKenzie, an authority of Kurdish language, shew that the Medes spoke a northwestern Iranian language, while the Kurdish people speak a southwestern Iranian language. Furthormore, the well-known Kurdologist Martin van Bruinessen argues against the attempt to take Medes as ancestors of the Kurds.

This conjecture is, however, challenged by modern scholars who consider central Iranian dialects, mainly those of Kashan area, and Tati as the only direct offshoots of the Median language.

See also

• Achaemenid Empire
• Madai
• Mair Rajputs
• Kurukshetra
• Persian Empire
• Greater Persia
• List of rulers of Pre-Achaemenid kingdoms of Iran
• List of kings of Persia
• Qanat water management system

Notes

1. from OED's entry: "Mede < classical Latin Mēdus (usually as plural, Mēdī) < ancient Greek (Attic and Ionic) Μῆδος (Cypriot ma-to-i Μᾶδοι, plural) < Old Persian Māda"
2. A)"..and the Medes (Iranians of what is now north-west Iran).." EIEC (1997:30). B) "Archaeological evidence for the religion of the Iranian-speaking Medes of the .." (Diakonoff 1985, p. 140). C) ".. succeeded in uniting into a kingdom the many Iranian-speaking Median tribes" ( from Encyclopedia Britannica ). D) "Proto-Iranian split into Western (Median, ancient Persian, and others) and Eastern (Scythian, Ossetic, Saka, Pamir and others)..." (Kuz'mina, Elena E. (2007), The origin of the Indo-Iranians, J. P. Mallory (ed.), BRILL, p. 303, ISBN 9789004160545) ...
3. "..a great many Old Persian lexemes...are preserved in a borrowed form in non-Persian languages – the so-called “collateral” tradition of Old Persian (within or outside the Achaemenid Empire).... not every purported Old Iranian form attested in this manner is an actual lexeme of Old Persian."

References

1. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Online Media (ancient region, Iran)
2. OED Online "entry Mede, n.".:
3. http://books.google.com/books?id=RCDsV41k8A0C&pg=PA204&dq=%22media+in+central+iran%22&hl=no#v=onepage&q=%22media%20in%20central%20iran%22&f=false
4. http://books.google.com/books?id=XNZ4KA3GNW8C&pg=PA479&dq=%22medes+of+central+iran%22&hl=no#v=onepage&q=%22medes%20of%20central%20iran%22&f=false
5. http://books.google.com/books?id=Al0jpyRDGe8C&pg=PA93&dq=Laodicea+nahavand&hl=en&ei=YF6UTdPcGsmEOtrL-KQH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Laodicea%20nahavand&f=false
6. ^ (Tavernier 2007, p. 27)
7. (Diakonoff 1985, p. 57)
8. ^ (Herodotus 7.62.1)
9. Herodotus 1.101
10. (Windfuhr 1991, p. 242)
11. (Diakonoff 1985, pp. 36–41)
12. (Levine 1974, p. 119)
13. (Levine 1974, p. 117)
14. (Levine 1974, pp. 118–119)
15. (Levine 1974, pp. 118)
16. ^ (Stronach1982, p. 288)
17. ^ (Young 1997, p. 449)
18. (Stronach 1968, p. 179)
19. ^ (Stronach 1982, p. 290)
20. (Henrickson 1988, p. ?)
21. (Dandamayev & Medvedskaya 2006, p. ?) harv error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDandamayevMedvedskaya2006 (help)
22. (Young 1997, p. 448)
23. ^ (Dandamaev et al. 2004, pp. 2–3) harv error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDandamaevLukoninKohlDadson2004 (help)
24. (Zadok 2002, p. 140)
25. (Dandamaev et al. 2004, p. 3) harv error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDandamaevLukoninKohlDadson2004 (help)
26. ^ (Diakonoff 1985, p. 112)
27. (Young 1988, p. 16) harv error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFYoung1988 (help)
28. (Young 1988, p. 19) harv error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFYoung1988 (help)
29. (Young 1988, p. 21) harv error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFYoung1988 (help)
30. (Young 1997, p. 450)
31. Geography, Strab. 15.2.8
32. (Gershevitch 1968, p. 2)
33. (Gershevitch 1968, p. 1)
34. ^ (Schmitt 2008, p. 98)
35. (Tavernier 2007, p. 619)
36. (Tavernier 2007, pp. 157–8)
37. (Tavernier 2007, p. 312)
38. (Hawkins 2010, "Greek and the Languages of Asia Minor to the Classical Period", p. 226)
39. (Tavernier 2007, p. 627)
40. (Tavernier 2007, pp. 352–3)
41. ^ (Schmitt 2008, p. 99)
42. ^ (Dandamayev & Medvedskaya 2006, Median Religion) harv error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDandamayevMedvedskaya2006 (help)
43. (Boyce & Grenet 1991, p. 81)
44. (Soudavar 2003, p. 84)
45. Briant, Pierre (2006). From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Eisenbrauns. p. 31.
46. Herodotus, The Histories, p. 93.
47. Xenophon, Hellen. 2, 19
48. Rudiger Schmitt, "Cadusii" in Encyclopedia Iranica
49. ^ The Encyclopædia Britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information, Volume 18, Edited by Hugh Crisholm, University Press, 1911, p. 21
50. Herodotus iii. 92
51. Herod. iii. 94; cf. v. 49, 52, VII. 72
52. Polybius, x. 27
53. Strabo, xi. 524
54. Justin xli. 6
55. Strabo xi. 524
56. Isidorus Charac.
57. ^ M. Gunter, Michael. Historical dictionary of the Kurds.
58. ^ Hakan Özoğlu, Kurdish notables and the Ottoman state: Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries, SUNY Press, 2004, p. 25.
59. John Limbert, "The Origins and Appearance of the Kurds in Pre-Islamic Iran", Iranian Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, Spring 1968. Excerpt: "Although some scholars have dismissed the Kurds' claim of Median descent, linguistic and geographical evidence supports these claims. All Kurdish dialects have maintained the basic characteristics of Kurdish despite the wide dispersion of the tribes. This fact suggests that there was an ancient and powerful language from which the dialects evolved, which can be proved to be Median.
60. Windfuhr, Gernot (1975), “Isoglosses: A Sketch on Persians and Parthians, Kurds and Medes”, Monumentum H.S. Nyberg II (Acta Iranica-5), Leiden: 457-471
61. G. Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol.13, pp.1-58, 2009. (p.21)

Sources

• Boyce, Mary; Grenet, Frantz (1991), Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman rule, BRILL, ISBN 9789004092716
• Dandamayev, M.; Medvedskaya, I. (2006), "Media", Encyclopaedia Iranica Online Edition
• Henrickson, R. C. (1988), "Baba Jan Teppe", Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 2, Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 9780933273672
• Tavernier, Jan (2007), Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550-330 B.C.): Linguistic Study of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts, Peeters Publishers, ISBN 9042918330
• Dandamaev, M. A.; Lukonin, V. G.; Kohl, Philip L.; Dadson, D. J. (2004), The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, p. 480, ISBN 9780521611916
• Diakonoff, I. M. (1985), "Media", The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2 (Edited by Ilya Gershevitch ed.), Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 36–148, ISBN 0521200911
• Gershevitch, I. (1968), "Old Iranian Literature", Iranian Studies, Hanbuch Der Orientalistik - Abeteilung - Der Nahe Und Der Mittlere Osten, vol. 1, 1-30: Brill, ISBN 9789004008571{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
• Levine, Louis D. (1 January 1973), "Geographical Studies in the Neo-Assyrian Zagros: I", Iran, 11: 1–27, doi:10.2307/4300482, ISSN 0578-6967, JSTOR 4300482
• Levine, Louis D. (1 January 1974), "Geographical Studies in the Neo-Assyrian Zagros-II", Iran, 12: 99–124, doi:10.2307/4300506, ISSN 0578-6967, JSTOR 4300506
• Soudavar, Abolala (2003), The aura of kings: legitimacy and divine sanction in Iranian kingship, Mazda Publishers, ISBN 9781568591094
• Young, T. Cuyler, Jr. (1988), "The early history of the Medes and the Persians and the Achaemenid empire to the death of Cambyses", in Boardman, M.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Lewis, D. M.; Ostwald. (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 4, Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–52, doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521228046.002 {{citation}}: More than one of |editor1-first= and |editor-first= specified (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Young, T. Cuyler (1997), "Medes", in Meyers, Eric M. (ed.), The Oxford encyclopedia of archaeology in the Near East, vol. 3, Oxford University Press, pp. 448–450, ISBN 9780195112177
• Zadok, Ran (2002), "The Ethno-Linguistic Character of Northwestern Iran and Kurdistan in the Neo-Assyrian Period", Iran, 40: 89–151, doi:10.2307/4300620, ISSN 0578-6967, JSTOR 4300620
• Schmitt, Rüdiger (2008), "Old Persian", in Woodard, Roger D. (ed.), The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas, Cambridge University Press, pp. 76–100, ISBN 9780521684941
• Stronach, David (1968), "Tepe Nush-i Jan: A Mound in Media", The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, 27 (3): 177–186, doi:10.2307/3258384, ISSN 0026-1521, JSTOR 3258384
• Stronach, David (1982), "Archeology ii. Median and Achaemenid", in Yarshater, E. (ed.), Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 2, Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 288–96, ISBN 9780933273672
• Windfuhr, Gernot L. (1991), "Central dialects", in Yarshater, E. (ed.), Encyclopaedia Iranica, pp. 242–51, ISBN 9780939214792

Further reading

• "Mede." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 January 2008.
• Dandamayev, M.; Medvedskaya, I. (2006), "Media", Encyclopaedia Iranica Online Edition
• Gershevitch, Ilya (1985), The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521200911
• Dandamaev, M. A.; Lukonin, V. G.; Kohl, Philip L.; Dadson, D. J. (2004), The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, p. 480, ISBN 9780521611916
• Young, T. Cuyler, Jr. (1988), "The early history of the Medes and the Persians and the Achaemenid empire to the death of Cambyses", in Boardman, M.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Lewis, D. M.; Ostwald. (eds.), Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean C. 525 to 479 B.C (Cambridge Histories Online ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–52, doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521228046.002 {{citation}}: More than one of |editor1-first= and |editor-first= specified (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links

• Article Median Empire from Iran Chamber Society.

v t e Provinces of the Achaemenid Empire (Behistun / Persepolis / Naqsh-e Rustam / Susa / Daeva inscriptions)
Akaufaka (Quhistan?) Amyrgoi Arabia Arachosia Aria Armenia Assyria Babylonia Bactria Cappadocia Caria Carmania Chorasmia Cilicia Colchis Dahae Drangiana 1st Egypt / 2nd Egypt Eber-Nari (Levant) Elam Kush (Nubia) Gandāra (Gandhara) Gedrosia Hyrcania Ionia Hindush Libya Lydia Maka Margiana Media Massagetae Parthia Persis Phoenicia Phrygia Hellespontine Phrygia Greater Phrygia Saka Samaritan Province Sattagydia Skudra (Thrace) Sogdia Yehud
See also Taxation districts of the Achaemenid Empire (according to Herodotus)

Template:Link FA

• Use dmy dates from March 2011
• Article Feedback Pilot
• Medes
• Ancient Persia
• History of Iran
• 549 BC disestablishments
• States and territories established in 625 BC
• Achaemenid satrapies
• Provinces of the Sassanid Empire
• Ancient Iranian peoples