Curated category
Former monarchies of Iran
- Seleucid EmpireIn 312 BC, Seleucus I Nicator established his base in Babylon after receiving the Mesopotamian regions of Babylonia and Assyria from a regent named Perdiccas.
- Parthian EmpireIn 247 BC, a man named Arsaces I led the Parni tribe to seize control of Parthia, a northeastern province then ruled by a rebel satrap called Andragoras.
- Sasanian EmpireIn 224 AD, Ardashir I defeated Artabanus IV at the Battle of Hormozdgan to end four centuries of Parthian rule. The victor crowned himself shahanshah, or…
- Afsharid IranIn November 1688, a boy named Nadr Qoli was born into a winter camp in the mountains north of Mashad. His family belonged to the Qereqlu branch of the Afshar…
- Achaemenid EmpireIn 550 BC, Cyrus the Great defeated the Median king Astyages and captured Ecbatana. This single event marked the birth of an empire that would stretch from…
- GhaznavidsIn 961, the death of Abd al-Malik I triggered a succession crisis within the Samanid Empire. Two military families emerged from Turkic slave-guards to…
- Safavid IranThe story begins in the mountainous region of Ardabil, about 40 miles inland from the Caspian Sea. Here lived Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili, a revered Sufi…