Persian Empire

Extent of the first Persian Empire, the Achaemenid Empire.
Extent of the second Persian Empire, the Parthian Empire.
Extent of the third Persian Empire, the Sasanian Empire at 621.
The maximum extent of the Afsharid Empire under Nader Shah.

The Persian Empire is any of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia (Iran). The first of these was established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BCE with the conquest of Media, Lydia and Babylonia. Several later dynasties "claimed to be heirs of the Achaemenids".[1]

Persian dynastic history was interrupted by the Muslim conquest of Persia in 651 and later by the Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia.

The main religion of ancient Persia was Zoroastrianism, but after the seventh century, this was replaced by Islam.

In the modern era, a series of Islamic dynasties ruled Persia independently of the universal caliphate. Since 1979 Persia (Iran) has been an Islamic republic.

List of dynasties described as a Persian Empire

Muslim conquest of Persia (633–654)

Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia (1218–1221) - Established the Ilkhanate (1256–1335)

Look up Persian Empire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

See also

References

  1. ↑ History of the World in 1,000 Objects (DK Publishing, 2014), p. 71.
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