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Median DynastyMādai
around 678 BC–around 549 BC
A map of the Median Empire at its greatest extent (6th century BC), according to Herodotus
Capital	Ecbatana
Common languages	Median
Religion	Ancient Iranian religion (related to Mithraism, early Zoroastrianism)
King
Historical era	Iron Age
• Established	around 678 BC
• Conquered by Cyrus the Great	around 549 BC
Area
585 BC	2,800,000 km (1,100,000 sq mi)
Preceded by Succeeded by Neo-Assyrian Empire Urartu Achaemenid Empire

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Prehistoric periodBCE / BC Baradostian culture c. 36,000–18,000 Zarzian culture c. 20,000–10,000 Shulaveri–Shomu culture c. 6000–5000 Zayandeh River Culture c. 6th millennium Dalma culture c. 5th millennium
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The Medes (/miːdz/, Old Persian Māda-, Template:Lang-grc, Template:Lang-he-n Madai) were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Late 9th to early 7th centuries BC, the region of Media was bounded by the Zagros Mountains to its west, to its south by the Garrin Mountain in Lorestan Province, to its northwest by the Qaflankuh Mountains in Zanjan Province, and to its east by the Dasht-e Kavir desert. Its neighbors were the kingdoms of Gizilbunda and Mannea in the northwest, and Ellipi and Elam in the south.

In the 8th century BC, Media's tribes came together to form the Median Kingdom, which became a Neo-Assyrian vassal. Between 616 and 609 BC, King Cyaxares (624–585 BC) allied with King Nabopolassar of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and destroyed the Neo-Assyrian Empire, after which the Median Empire stretched across the Iranian Plateau as far as Anatolia. Its precise geographical extent remains unknown.

A few archaeological sites (discovered in the "Median triangle" in western Iran) and textual sources (from contemporary Assyrians and also ancient Greeks in later centuries) provide a brief documentation of the history and culture of the Median state. Apart from a few personal names, the language of the Medes is unknown. The Medes had an ancient Iranian religion (a form of pre-Zoroastrian Mazdaism or Mithra worshipping) with a priesthood named as "Magi". Later, during the reigns of the last Median kings, the reforms of Zoroaster spread into western Iran.

Tribes

According to the Histories of Herodotus, there were 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 six Median tribes resided in Media proper, the triangular area between Rhagae, Aspadana and Ecbatana. In present-day Iran, that is the area between Tehran, Isfahan and Hamadan, respectively. Of the Median tribes, the Magi resided in Rhagae, modern Tehran. They were of a sacred caste which ministered to the spiritual needs of the Medes. The Paretaceni tribe resided in and around Aspadana, modern Isfahan, the Arizanti lived in and around Kashan (Isfahan Province), and the Busae tribe lived in and around the future Median capital of Ecbatana, near modern Hamadan. The Struchates and the Budii lived in villages in the Median triangle.

Etymology

The original source for their name and homeland is a directly transmitted Old Iranian geographical name which is attested as the Old Persian "Māda-" (singular masculine). The meaning of this word is not precisely known. However, the linguist W. Skalmowski proposes a relation with the proto-Indo European word "med(h)-", meaning "central, suited in the middle", by referring to the Old Indic "madhya-" and Old Iranian "maidiia-" which both carry the same meaning. The Latin medium, Greek méso and German mittel are similarly derived from it.

Greek scholars during antiquity would base ethnological conclusions on Greek legends and the similarity of names. According to the Histories of Herodotus (440 BC):

The Medes were formerly called by everyone Arians, but when the Colchian woman Medea came from Athens to the Arians, they changed their name, like the Persians . This is the Medes' own account of themselves.

Mythology

In the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts, Medea is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis and a paternal granddaughter of the sun-god Helios. Following her failed marriage to Jason while in Corinth, for one of several reasons depending on the version, she marries King Aegeus of Athens and bears a son Medus. After failing to make Aegeus kill his older son Theseus, she and her son fled to Aria, where the Medes take their name from her, according to several Greek and later Roman accounts, including in Pausanias' Description of Greece (1st-century AD). According to other versions, such as in Strabo's Geographica (1st-century AD) and Justin's Epitoma Historiarum Philippicarum (2nd or 3rd century AD), she returned home to conquer neighboring lands with her husband Jason, one of which was named after her; while another version related by Diodorus Siculus in Bibliotheca Historica (1st-century BC) states that after being exiled she married an Asian king and bore Medus, who was greatly admired for his courage, after whom they took their name.

Archaeology

The discoveries of Median sites in Iran happened only after the 1960s. For 1960 the search for Median archeological sources has mostly focused in an area known as the "Median triangle", defined roughly as the region bounded by Hamadān and Malāyer (in Hamadan Province) and Kangāvar (in Kermanshah Province). Three major sites from central western Iran in the Iron Age III period (i.e. 850–500 BC) 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 David Stronach as the director. The remains of four main buildings in the site are "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 BC. 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 a period (the second half of the 7th century BC) of power consolidation in the Hamadān areas. These findings show four different wares known as "common ware" (buff, cream, or light red in colour 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 David 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 part of a single residence of a local ruler which later became quite substantial. This is similar to those mentioned often in Assyrian sources.

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

The site is located in northeastern Lorestan with a distance of roughly 10 km from Nūrābād in Lorestan province. The excavations were conducted by C. Goff in 1966–69. The second level of this site probably dates to the 7th century BC.

These sources have both similarities (in cultural characteristics) and differences (due to functional differences and diversity among the Median tribes). The architecture of these archaeological findings, which can probably be dated to the Median period, show a link between the tradition of columned audience halls often seen in the Achaemenid Empire (for example in Persepolis) and Safavid Iran (for example in Chehel Sotoun from the 17th century AD) and what is seen in 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 1st millennium BC which had functioned as centres for the production of handicrafts 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.

Geography

An early description of Media from the end of the 9th century BC to the beginning of the 7th century BC comes from the Assyrians. The southern border of Media, in that period, is named as the Elamite region of Simaški in present-day Lorestan Province. To the west and northwest, Media was bounded by the Zagros Mountains and from the east by the Dasht-e Kavir desert. This region of Media was ruled by the Assyrians and for them the region fell "along the Great Khorasan Road from just east of Harhar to Alwand, and probably beyond." The location of Harhar is suggested to be "the central or eastern" Mahidasht District in Kermanshah Province.

Its borders were limited in the north by the non-Iranian states of Gizilbunda and Mannea, and to its south by Ellipi and Elam. Gizilbunda was located in the Qaflankuh Mountains, and Ellipi was located in the south of modern Lorestan 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 differing opinions on the location of this mountain. Mount Damavand of Tehran and Alvand of Hamadan are two proposed sites. This location is the most remote eastern area that the Assyrians knew of or reached during their expansion until the beginning of the 7th century BC.

In Achaemenid sources, specifically from the Behistun Inscription (2.76, 77–78), the capital of Media is Ecbatana, called "Hamgmatāna-" in Old Persian (Elamite:Agmadana-; Babylonian: Agamtanu-) corresponding to modern-day Hamadan.

The other cities existing in Media were Laodicea (modern Nahavand) and the mound that was the largest city of the Medes, Rhages (present-day Rey). The fourth city of Media was Apamea, near Ecbatana, whose precise location is now unknown. In later periods, Medes and especially Mede soldiers are identified and portrayed prominently in ancient archaeological sites such as Persepolis, where they are shown to have a major role and presence in the military of the Achaemenid Empire.

History

Prehistory

At the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Iranian tribes emerged in the region of northwest Iran. These tribes expanded their control over larger areas. Subsequently, the boundaries of Media changed over a period of several hundred years. Iranian tribes were present in western and northwestern Iran from at least the 12th or 11th centuries BC. But the significance of Iranian elements in these regions were established from the beginning of the second half of the 8th century BC. By this time the Iranian tribes were the majority in what later become the territory of the Median Kingdom and also the west of Media proper. A study of textual sources from the region shows that in the Neo-Assyrian period, the regions of Media, and further to the west and the northwest, had a population with Iranian speaking people as the majority.

This period of migration coincided with a power vacuum in the Near East with the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC), which had dominated northwestern Iran and eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus, going into a comparative decline. This allowed new peoples to pass through and settle. In addition Elam, the dominant power in Iran, was suffering a period of severe weakness, as was Babylonia to the west.

In western and northwestern Iran and in areas further west prior to Median rule, there is evidence of the earlier political activity of the powerful societies of Elam, Mannaea, Assyria and Urartu . 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 the late 7th century BC. One opinion (of Herzfeld, et al.) is that the ruling class were "Iranian migrants" but the society was "autonomous" while another opinion (of Grantovsky, et al.) holds that both the ruling class and basic elements of the population were Iranian.

Rise and fall

From the 10th to the late 7th centuries BC, the western parts of Media fell under the domination of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire based in northern Mesopotamia, which stretched from Cyprus in the west, to parts of western Iran in the east, and Egypt and the north of the Arabian Peninsula. Assyrian kings such as Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal and Ashur-etil-ilani imposed Vassal Treaties upon the Median rulers, and also protected them from predatory raids by marauding Scythians and Cimmerians.

During the reign of Sinsharishkun (622–612 BC), the Assyrian empire, which had been in a state of constant civil war since 626 BC, began to unravel. Subject peoples, such as the Medes, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Scythians, Cimmerians, Lydians and Arameans quietly ceased to pay tribute to Assyria.

Neo-Assyrian dominance over the Medians came to an end during the reign of Median King Cyaxares, who, in alliance with King Nabopolassar of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, attacked and destroyed the strife-riven empire between 616 and 609 BC. The newfound alliance helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BC, which resulted in the eventual collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by 609 BC. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median Kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal capital) beyond their original homeland and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Kızılırmak River in Anatolia. After the fall of Assyria between 616 BC and 609 BC, a unified Median state was formed, which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and ancient Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East.

Cyaxares was succeeded by his son King Astyages. In 553 BC, his maternal grandson Cyrus the Great, the King of Anshan/Persia, a Median vassal, revolted against Astyages. In 550 BC, Cyrus finally won a decisive victory 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 honour 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.

Median dynasty

The list of Median rulers and their period of reign is compiled according to two sources. Firstly, Herodotus who calls them "kings" and associates them with the same family. Secondly, the Babylonian Chronicle which in "Gadd's Chronicle on the Fall of Nineveh" gives its own list. A combined list stretching over 150 years is thus:

• Deioces (700–647 BC)
• Phraortes (647–625 BC)
• Scythian rule (624–597 BC)
• Cyaxares (624–585 BC)
• Astyages (585–549 BC)

However, 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 centralised Median state. He had been known to the Median people as "a just and incorruptible man" and when asked by the Median people to solve their possible disputes he agreed and put forward the condition that they make him "king" and build a great city at Ecbatana as the capital of the 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 the reign of Cyaxares or later.

Culture and society

Greek references to "Median" people make 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 the Median language, which was an Old Iranian language. Strabo's Geographica (finished in the early first century) mentions the affinity of Median 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, but with slight variations".

No original deciphered text has been proven to have been written in the Median language. It is suggested that similar to the later Iranian practice of keeping archives of written documents in Achaemenid Iran, there was also a maintenance of archives by the Median government in their capital Ecbatana. There are examples of "Median literature" found in later records. One is according to Herodotus that the Median king Deioces, appearing as a judge, made judgement on causes submitted in writing. There is also a report by Dinon on the existence of "Median court poets". Median literature is 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
• 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, also suggested as a source to the Russian word for dog sobaka.
• vazṛka-: "great" (as Western 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- (Median-Old Persian) "leader of all", etc.
• xšayaθiya- (king)
• xšaθra- (realm; kingship): This Median word (attested in *xšaθra-pā- and continued by Middle Persian šahr "land, country; city") is an example of words whose Greek form (known as romanized "satrap" from Gk. σατράπης satrápēs) mirrors, as opposed to the tradition, a Median rather than an Old Persian form (also attested, as xšaça- and xšaçapāvā) 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 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 Iranian legacy of the "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 centuries BC) there are examples of the 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 amongst the Medes. Diakonoff believes that "Astyages and perhaps even Cyaxares had already embraced a religion derived from the teachings of Zoroaster" 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 the 8th century BC. It is suggested that from the 8th century BC, a form of "Mazdaism with common 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 the 6th century BC.

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

Kurds and Medes

Russian historian and linguist Vladimir Minorsky suggested that the Medes, who widely inhabited the land where currently the Kurds form a majority, might have been forefathers of the modern Kurds. He also states that the Medes who invaded the region in the eighth century BC, linguistically resembled the Kurds. This view was accepted by many Kurdish nationalists in the twentieth century. However, Martin van Bruinessen, a Dutch scholar, argues against the attempt to take the Medes as ancestors of the Kurds.

"Though some Kurdish intellectuals claim that their people are descended from the Medes, there is no evidence to permit such a connection across the considerable gap in time between the political dominance of the Medes and the first attestation of the Kurds" - van Bruinessen

Contemporary linguistic evidence has challenged the previously suggested view that the Kurds are descendants of the Medes. Gernot Windfuhr, professor of Iranian Studies, identified the Kurdish languages as Parthian, albeit with a Median substratum. David Neil MacKenzie, an authority on the Kurdish language, said Kurdish was closer to Persian and questioned the "traditional" view holding that Kurdish, because of its differences from Persian, should be regarded a Northwestern Iranian language. Garnik Asatrian stated that "The Central Iranian dialects, and primarily those of the Kashan area in the first place, as well as the Azari dialects (otherwise called Southern Tati) are probably the only Iranian dialects, which can pretend to be the direct offshoots of Median... In general, the relationship between Kurdish and Median is not closer than the affinities between the latter and other North Western dialects – Baluchi, Talishi, South Caspian, Zaza, Gurani, etc."

Historians/scholars words/claims on Medes/Kurds connection

1- "There is no doubt that the term Mar (Medians) refers to the Kurds" Russian Orientalist best known for his contributions to the study of Kurdish and Persian history, geography, literature, and culture, Vladimir Fedorovich Minorsky (1877–1966). His book “L’origine des Kurdes”, Travaux du XX-ene Congres des Orientalistes, Bruxelles 1938, pp. 143-52.)

2- “Postea vero Sarraceni amiserunt dominium Egipti et Medi, qui Cordins vulgariter dicembantur; regni Egipti dominium occupaverunt.”

“i.e. Afterwards Arabs lost the domination of Egypt and Medes who were called Kurds controlled Egypt.”

Armenian historian Hayton of Corycus (also Hethum, Het'um, and variants) (c. 1240 – c. 1310/1320). His book “La Flor des Estoires d’Orient” Chapter 52.

“The same writer seems to imply in several passages that Media was the proper home of the Kurds.” His collected work “Becueil des Hislorieas des Croisades, Documents Arméniens” vol. ii, pp. 225, 343–4. (ibid., pp. 127, 267).

3- “Kurds and Baloch/Baluch descend from Mede People.” Baloch/Baluch historian Salih, Akhund (1659 A.D.) His book “Kurd gāl nāmak” ( Koord-gal-namak )

( کورد گال نامك ؛ تصنيف ، اخوند صالح )

4- ”Medes lived and expanded in the western part of Zagros mountain. This region is modern Kurdistan and Luristan.” Israel Smith Clare (1847-1924) His book “Ancient History”.

5- "The Medes were the ancestors of Xenophon's Carduchi and the modern Kurds.” Mack Chahin, A former lecturer on the Ancient History of the Near East at the University of Bristol. His book “Before The Greeks” Page: 109. The Butterworth Press, Cambridge.

6- “The empire of the Medes, one of the reputed ancestors of the Kurdish people, was the only great national state that may be said to have been established by the Kurds.” History professor, Wadie Elias Jwaideh (1916 - 2001). His book “The Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development”. Page: XV. Syracuse University Press. First edition, 2006.

7- “Great mass of the Kurds are descended from the Medes though some are the successors of Mantieni, Kadusii, and Kassaei or Saqae.” Konrad Mannert 1756-1834. Prussian historian and geographer.

8- “Kurds along with other Aryan immigrants were able to establish their own empire – the Median Empire –which rules vast areas of the Middle East Between 612 and 519 BC. Since then the Kurds and Kurdistan remained relatively independent ...” Associate Professor at the School of Information Science and Policy of the State University of New York at Albany. Lokman I. Meho. Source “Kurdish Culture and Society: An Annotated Bibliography” (Page: 11) Lokman I. Meho and Kelly L. Maglaughlin.

9- Language like the language of the Medes, Kurdish is of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages... William Lester Eagleton Jr. (1926 – 2011). The United States Foreign Service Officer and diplomat . His book “The Kurdish Republic of 1946.” Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963.

10- The majority of those who now speak Kurdish most likely were formerly speakers of Median dialects.” Gernot Windfuhr (1938- ). A retired professor from the University of Michigan, Iranian. Source: “Isoglosses: A Sketch on Persians and Parthians, Kurds and Medes”, Monumentum H.S. Nyberg II (Acta Iranica-5), Leiden: 457–471.

11- "The Kurds are physically perhaps the finest specimens of the human race in the Middle East, and they resemble Afghans in character and to some extent in physiognomy. They are the direct descendants of the Medes." Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson (1884–1940). British Deputy and acting Civil Commissioner in Baghdad from 1915-24. His book "Mesopotamia, 1917-1920: A Clash of Loyalties; a Personal and Historical Record" Page: 127.

See also

• Greater Iran
• Iranian Plateau
• Linear Elamite – a script possibly used to write Median language
• List of monarchs of Persia
• List of rulers of the pre-Achaemenid kingdoms of Iran
• Madai
• Qanat – water management system

Notes

1. According to the OED entry "Mede", the word is from Classical Latin Mēdus (usually as plural, Mēdī) from ancient Greek (Attic and Ionic) Μῆδος Mê̄dos [mɛ̂ːdos] (Cypriot Μᾶδοι Mâdœ [mâdoi̯], plural) from Old Persian Māda.
2. A) "Archaeological evidence for the religion of the Iranian-speaking Medes of the ..." (Diakonoff 1985, p. 140). B) "...and the Medes (Iranians of what is now north-west Iran)..." EIEC (1997:30). C) "... succeeded in uniting into a kingdom the many Median tribes" (from Encyclopædia Britannica). D) "Proto-Iranian split into Western (Median, 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 978-90-04-16054-5)
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

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4. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Media (ancient region, Iran)
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6. Herodotus 1.101
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14. Thomson, James Oliver (1948). History of Ancient Geography. Biblo & Tannen Publishers. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-8196-0143-8.
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31. (Levine 1974, p. 117)
32. (Levine 1974, pp. 118–119)
33. (Levine 1974, p. 118)
34. Ayatollahi, Habibollah (2003). The Book of Iran: The History of Iranian Art. Alhoda UK. ISBN 978-964-94491-4-2., page 93
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36. ^ (Dandamaev et al. 2004, pp. 2–3)
37. (Zadok 2002, p. 140)
38. (Dandamaev et al. 2004, p. 3)
39. Georges Roux, Ancient Iraq, 1992
40. Encyclopaedia Britannica "The last great Assyrian ruler was Ashurbanipal, but his last years and the period following his death, in 627 BCE, are obscure. The state was finally destroyed by a Chaldean-Median coalition in 612–609 bce."
41. Briant, Pierre (2006). From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Eisenbrauns. p. 31.
42. Herodotus, The Histories, p. 93.
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53. (Tavernier 2007, pp. 157–8)
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58. (YarShater 2007, "Encyclopaedia Iranica", p. 96)
59. (Tavernier 2007, p. 627)
60. (Tavernier 2007, pp. 352–3)
61. ^ (Schmitt 2008, p. 99)
62. ^ (Dandamayev & Medvedskaya 2006, Median Religion)
63. (Boyce & Grenet 1991, p. 81)
64. (Soudavar 2003, p. 84)
65. Hakan Özoğlu, Kurdish notables and the Ottoman state: Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries, SUNY Press, 2004, p. 25.
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68. Windfuhr, Gernot (1975), "Isoglosses: A Sketch on Persians and Parthians, Kurds and Medes", Monumentum H.S. Nyberg II (Acta Iranica-5), Leiden: 457–471
69. Paul, Ludwig. "KURDISH LANGUAGE i. HISTORY OF THE KURDISH LANGUAGE". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
70. 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 978-90-04-09271-6
• Bryce, Trevor (2009), The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia. From the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire, Taylor & Francis
• Dandamaev, M. A.; Lukonin, V. G.; Kohl, P. L.; Dadson, D. J. (2004), The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-61191-6
• Dandamayev, M.; Medvedskaya, I. (2006), "Media", Encyclopaedia Iranica Online Edition, archived from the original on 30 August 2017
• Diakonoff, I. M. (1985), "Media", in Ilya Gershevitch (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 36–148, ISBN 978-0-521-20091-2
• Gershevitch, I. (1968), "Old Iranian Literature", Iranian Studies, Hanbuch Der Orientalistik – Abeteilung – Der Nahe Und Der Mittlere Osten, vol. 1, Brill, pp. 1–30, ISBN 978-90-04-00857-1
• Henrickson, R. C. (1988), "Baba Jan Teppe", Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 2, Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 978-0-933273-67-2
• 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
• 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 978-0-521-68494-1
• Soudavar, Abolala (2003), The aura of kings: legitimacy and divine sanction in Iranian kingship, Mazda Publishers, ISBN 978-1-56859-109-4
• 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.), Encyclopædia Iranica, vol. 2, Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 288–296, ISBN 978-0-933273-67-2
• 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 978-90-429-1833-7
• Van De Mieroop, Marc (2015), A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000-323 BC, Wiley Blackwell
• Windfuhr, Gernot L. (1991), "Central dialects", in Yarshater, E. (ed.), Encyclopædia Iranica, pp. 242–251, ISBN 978-0-939214-79-2
• 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, John; Hammond, N. G. L.; Lewis, D. M.; Ostwald, M. (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 4, Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–52, doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521228046.002, ISBN 9781139054317{{citation}}: 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 978-0-19-511217-7
• 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

Further reading

• "Mede." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 January 2008.
• Gershevitch, Ilya (1985), The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-20091-2

External links

• Median Empire at Iran Chamber Society website.

v t e Ancient Mesopotamia
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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)

• Medes
• Historical Iranian peoples
• States and territories established in the 7th century BC
• States and territories disestablished in the 6th century BC
• 7th century BC in Iran
• Ancient Near East
• Iranian empires
• Former empires in Asia
• Ancient Armenia
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• 1st-millennium BC establishments in Iran
• 549 BC
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