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  • Home
  • Dedication
  • Contact
  • Who is great
  • O You Great Kings
  • Ancient Iran gave world
  • Gundishapur university
  • Karnamag Ardeshir Papekan
  • Women's place in society
  • Khwarizmi,Naseredin Tusi
  • Jesus and Magi/ wise men
  • Persia and the Bible
  • Achaemenid Persia Bible
  • Fall of Nineveh. Bible
  • Persia 11-600 B.C. Bible
  • Persia 21-1400 BC Bible.
  • Christmas, birth of Mitra
  • Ctesiphon
  • Sassanian art, Taj Mahal
  • Forgotten heroes of Iran
  • Persian-Greek war, cause
  • The days of annihilation
  • Letter Rustam Farrukhzad
  • Pirs of Yazd
  • Days of resurrection
  • Prophet Zoroaster,Hafez
  • Ateshkadeh, prayers
  • Hakhamanishian monuments
  • Sassanian monuments
  • Cathedrals and Churches
  • Festivals of ancient Iran
  • Hakhamanishian gold
  • Sassanian artefacts
  • Carpet museum.Tehran
  • Traditional music
  • Dakhmeh
  • Jashn-e-Nowrouz
  • More
    • Home
    • Dedication
    • Contact
    • Who is great
    • O You Great Kings
    • Ancient Iran gave world
    • Gundishapur university
    • Karnamag Ardeshir Papekan
    • Women's place in society
    • Khwarizmi,Naseredin Tusi
    • Jesus and Magi/ wise men
    • Persia and the Bible
    • Achaemenid Persia Bible
    • Fall of Nineveh. Bible
    • Persia 11-600 B.C. Bible
    • Persia 21-1400 BC Bible.
    • Christmas, birth of Mitra
    • Ctesiphon
    • Sassanian art, Taj Mahal
    • Forgotten heroes of Iran
    • Persian-Greek war, cause
    • The days of annihilation
    • Letter Rustam Farrukhzad
    • Pirs of Yazd
    • Days of resurrection
    • Prophet Zoroaster,Hafez
    • Ateshkadeh, prayers
    • Hakhamanishian monuments
    • Sassanian monuments
    • Cathedrals and Churches
    • Festivals of ancient Iran
    • Hakhamanishian gold
    • Sassanian artefacts
    • Carpet museum.Tehran
    • Traditional music
    • Dakhmeh
    • Jashn-e-Nowrouz

Phone

Ahura Mazda

Ahura MazdaAhura MazdaAhura Mazda
  • Home
  • Dedication
  • Contact
  • Who is great
  • O You Great Kings
  • Ancient Iran gave world
  • Gundishapur university
  • Karnamag Ardeshir Papekan
  • Women's place in society
  • Khwarizmi,Naseredin Tusi
  • Jesus and Magi/ wise men
  • Persia and the Bible
  • Achaemenid Persia Bible
  • Fall of Nineveh. Bible
  • Persia 11-600 B.C. Bible
  • Persia 21-1400 BC Bible.
  • Christmas, birth of Mitra
  • Ctesiphon
  • Sassanian art, Taj Mahal
  • Forgotten heroes of Iran
  • Persian-Greek war, cause
  • The days of annihilation
  • Letter Rustam Farrukhzad
  • Pirs of Yazd
  • Days of resurrection
  • Prophet Zoroaster,Hafez
  • Ateshkadeh, prayers
  • Hakhamanishian monuments
  • Sassanian monuments
  • Cathedrals and Churches
  • Festivals of ancient Iran
  • Hakhamanishian gold
  • Sassanian artefacts
  • Carpet museum.Tehran
  • Traditional music
  • Dakhmeh
  • Jashn-e-Nowrouz

What is the contribution of ancient Iran to today's world?

The Hakhamanishian/Achaemenids, millennia ahead of their age and time.


More than two millennia ago, the Hakhamanishian kings gave the world Human rights, Women's rights, workmen's rights, liberty to all and equality of all religions, a benchmark not achievable even today. What is even more remarkable, astonishing is that these standards, which we struggle to achieve even today were conceived so far ahead of their time. This was a time when men and women from conquered lands were ordinarily enslaved and women were considered a mere commodity. 

They also gave us the festivals that we celebrate in a different guise, form, semblance as Christmas, Thanksgiving and St.Valentine's day.


Rulers oft' dispossessed others, lives, livelihood, possessions, freedom,

Cyrus, Darius, Ardeshir granted all equality, justice, liberty, freedom.


The world has witnessed many empires, established by one nation to colonize others, wherein their natural and human resources were drained for the use of the colonizer. Any benefit accruing to the ruled nation was minimal or unintended. 

But 2,500 years ago an empire was established by the Hakhamanishian, 

/Achaemenids, which was unique, remarkable in so many aspects. 

The Old testament of the Holy Bible mentions, that Cyrus was the king, who abolished slavery, liberated the Jews and permitted them to return to Jerusalem to build their second temple. People of all faiths were permitted to worship their own Gods. Temples to the Egyptian, Jewish and Babylonian Gods were also constructed. 

The declaration of human rights of the United Nations is based on those given by Emperor Cyrus 2,500 years ago. He abolished slavery 2,300 years before Europe and America did.

The Qanat water management system created by digging underground channels from far off springs to towns originated in the time of Cyrus. It is an astonishing, astounding marvel of engineering, how people working with basic tools could establish a gradient of a few degrees for water to flow up to 45 km, as we see at Gonabad in Khorasan. This technology was replicated by Persian engineers at the Kharga oasis in the deserts of Egypt.

The Darius canal was a precursor to the modern Suez canal. It's main function was to promote, facilitate and ease trade between Persia and Egypt.

Darius had a dam built on the river Indus to prevent the annual famines in his sixteenth province/satrapy, the Sind. 

Sepandarmazgan, the festival dedicated to the Spenta Armaiti was woman’s day, the day of love, the precursor of St.Valentine's day. It was celebrated on the 5th day of the month of Esfand/Spandarmad, 23rd February to praise, applaud and honour the chaste and loving wife. Women were allowed to sit on a throne and gifts were presented to them. The  Spenta Armaiti  is also the guardian and preserver of the Earth and creation. Thus emphasis was placed on being considerate, thoughtful, grateful for the bounties of nature. 

Women were granted pay, equal to men and maternity benefits. On the festival of Mardgiran, they could choose their own husband. They selected their own professions. There were women Generals, admirals and Mobeds/ clergy.

The first workmen’s compensation was started for those injured during labour. Workers would be granted their salary for the rest of their lives if unable to work.

The first royal road of 2,600 km was constructed to join Susa in the south of Iran to Sardis on the Mediterranean coast in modern Turkey.

‘Chapar Khane’ is a Persian term for the first postal service system used during in the Achaemenid Empire on the royal road. It was created by Cyrus the Great and later developed further by Darius the Great as a method of communication throughout the Persian lands. 

The system comprised of a series of stations along the 2,600 m highway throughout the empire, where the ‘Chapars’ would ride horseback, delivering messages from one part of the kingdom to another within a week.

As the empire expanded, men from newly taken over areas were absorbed in the army. Those who desired a civilian life were resettled mainly in Khuzestan. 

2,500 years before the Geneva convention, the Persians had their own set of humane, clement, charitable laws for the treatment of prisoners of war. No massacres were ever perpetuated. Captured Roman prisoners of war settled in the villages called dahat-e-Rumye and this policy was carried on by Sassanian kings as well. They had their own places of worship and clergy. They were allowed to construct their town similar to the ones they originated from. When one Roman complained, there was a mulberry tree outside his home in Antioch, Shah Anushirwan asked a tree to be planted in front of his new home, bigger than the one he had. 

At least two of the great Persian poets of later centuries, Omar Khayyam and Hafez-e-Shirazi professed their faith in the Pir-e-Mogon/ Prophet of the Magi 

i.e Zoroaster.

In 400 B.C, the ancient Persians created the world’s first ever refrigerator. Persian word for fridge is Yakhchal, the ice pit, which is how today's fridge started out. The original structure had a domed shape somewhat like a small mountain, and it was used to store mainly ice and food items. Water was left out to freeze in the cold desert nights and collected before dawn and placed in the Yakhchal.

Passing warm-air over water to be cooled was an ancient attempt at air conditioning. The Badgirs/ wind catchers are seen in Yazd and even Dubai today.

The most popular string instrument of the middle east and Africa, 'oud' was developed in Iran. The earliest version of the modern day guitar exists in the form of the tar or lut – a wooden instrument on which strings were plucked to produce music. The popular sarod of the Indian subcontinent developed from the Rabab. The harp was called a chang and another version is the ghanoon. The traditional kamanche is the forerunner of the violin. It had three, then four strings and rests on the ground while being played.

We see all these at the museum of musical instruments in Tehran.

The Sassanians made unique contributions in the field of world architecture. Ardeshir-e-Papakan is credited with the innovation of both the minaret and a squinch, a small arch placed between adjacent walls of a rectangular or square room to permit placement of a dome on it. All the beautiful, elegant domed buildings of the world, from the Taj Mahal to St.Mark's cathedral in Venice owe their presence, existence to this development. 

The design of the Taq-e-Kasra, palace of Khosrow is said to be one for eternity. Sassanian floral inscriptions developed at Ctesiphon and Kermanshah are seen at the Taj Mahal, built by Persian architects a millennium later. 

The same floral patterns are replicated in the alluring, graceful, complex designs of  Persian carpets seen at the carpets museum in Tehran. The carpets museum also has a copy of the first Hakhamanishian carpet called the Pazyryk, which dates back 2,500 years. The motifs are similar to those from Takht-e-Jamshid.

The first arch of the world dates back to the 13th century B.C. It is seen at the Haft Tappeh area near Shush/ Susa.

The entire system of medical training prevalent in the world today was first devised, conceived by Sassanian Emperor Ardeshir-e-Papekan and implemented, established by his eminent son, Shapur the great at the Farhangestan/ medical university of Gundishapur. Shahbanu Azadokht, his queen was greatly involved in it's functioning. Here physicians in training worked as apprentices to a group of senior doctors. In the 6th century, Gundishapur  university developed, progressed under patronage of Khosrow Anushirwan to attain the highest standard in the world. It welcomed scientific minds from Rome, India and China, granting refuge specifically to those persecuted in the Byzantine lands by Justinian.

The motif, theme, emblem of the moon and star, which has such widespread popularity, acclaim, adulation, adoration was first seen in the crowns of the Sassanian kings.

What is the relevance, pertinence, significance of all these facts?

In a world, bursting with intolerance, hatred and fanaticism, where large nations are fragmenting into smaller nonviable, feeble, untenable units, there is a message of the Great kings of our past. If a ruler is perceived to be benevolent, liberal, tolerant, just, fair and above all humane, it is possible for 40 million subjects of 24 nations to live together peacefully and prosper. This is the only way, our desecrated, damaged, mutilated, vandalized, defiled world can survive. 

Kings, Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes rise above narrow confines of nationality, faith, ethnicity and belong to the whole of humanity.  


Social fabric of ancient Persia

Treasury's considerable reserves belonged the nation,

Emperor, family, court had a specified remuneration.


Gates opened cities, rulers discontented, disappointed,

Erstwhile ruler, Persian Satrap nominated, appointed.


Submitting combatants were never massacred, killed,

Given employment if trained, menial labour unskilled.

 

Or be absorbed, amalgamated, Emperor's army serve,

Besides old comrades, their  personal weapons serve.


All men's work, toil was rewarded by payment, wage,

No slaves, bondsmen existed in Persian empire's age.


Capital, talent, expertise from empire attracted, drew,

Egyptian architects, plans for Takht-e-Jamshid drew.


Injured workmen had no unease, apprehension, fears,

Looked after, compensated for the rest of their years.


On Mardgiran, girls, worthy, befitting groom chose,

Girls profession, vocation, army, navy, clergy chose.


How did forty million people of twenty four nationalities coexist peacefully? Subject nations of emperor Darius and Shah Ardeshir.

    Why is Cyrus called great?  

    Slavery was not abolished by the Europeans in the 19th century but by Emperor Cyrus in 539 B.C when he conquered  Babylon and freed the Jews, allowing them to go back to Jerusalem and start to build their temple with funds from the Persian royal treasury 

    Manshoor-e-Kurush/Cyrus cylinder. first declaration of human rights of the world. 539 B.C, 18 CENTURIES BEFORE THE MAGNA CARTA. British museum.London

    Emperor Cyrus declares rights of all human beings. The first four articles of United nations charter of human rights are based on this.

    huquq-e-bashar. ATASH BAHRAM. yazd. declaration of human rights by emperor cyrus

    Kurush nameh

    The Emperor Cyrus grants liberty to all people and the right to worship their own God.

    SLAVERY WAS ABOLISHED BY THE EMPEROR CYRUS IN THE 6TH CENTURY b.c, 2,300 years before europe and america did. From Pir-e-CHAK CHAK ateshkadeh.YAZD.

    Qanat of King Cyrus/Water channeL built to connect an underground spring to Gonabad town is 45 km long still irrigates the saffron fields.

      Emperor Darius. Old Berlin posthouse/Altes Postfuhramt. 1873. He started world's 1st postal service on his 2600 km great road from Susa to Sardis

        King Darius says," I am a Persian. Setting out from Persia, I conquered Egypt. I ordered this canal dug from the river Nile, which flows into the sea that begins in Persia." The canal flows through the Wadi Tumilat, joining the easternmost branch of the Nile through lake Timsah to the Red sea. 

        chalouf stele documents the construction of the first suez canal by Emperor darius. HIS SIGNATURE IN CUNEIFORM IS SEEN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE STELE. the louvre museum.

        Emperor darius as an Egyptian pharaoh, his Darius canal, praying to Amun-ra at hibis temple, Kharga oasis fed by a Persian qanat

          Persepolis fortification tablets document allowances of the king, court workers. all labour was paid, There were no slaves.

            The World's first arch dates back to the 14th century B.C near the museum of Haft Tappeh near Susa. It predates the Roman arch by 14 centuries.

              Bam, largest mud fortress of the world had poor people safe inside it, both Jewish and Zoroastrian places of worship, ateshkadeh, yakhchal.

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              Shapur defeated the roman army of 70,000 and took them, their emperor Valerian captive. palace of Shapur, mosaic iwan mosaics. Tehran,Louvre.

                Shapur greatness, compassion, humanity, not military success

                The captured  Roman Emperor Valerian lived with Shapur in his palace, had a chapel to pray in, built by his own artisans,  while Roman soldiers lived in Dahat-e-Rumiya/ villages of the Romans.

                MOSAIC of jesuS the messiah BUILT BY ROMAN ARTISANS IN THE CHAPEL FOR VALERIAN IN SHAPUR'S PALACE IN BISHAPUR. MUZAY BASTAN. MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES. TEHRAN

                Karun dam-irrigation system built by roman engineer Bezanus for Shapur. He was freed to return to Rome. Khuzestan owes it's bread to this even today.

                  The first airconditioning

                  People of Yazd lived underground to escape the oppressive heat. The houses had Badgirs/ wind catchers, through which the hot air would pass through a pool of water and then entered to cool the house.

                  Badgirs of pir-e-heresht near yazd

                  Taq-e-Boston. Kermanshah, a monument to nobility, fraternity

                  THE IMAGE DESCRIBES ARDESHIR THE SECOND RECEIVING THE DIADEM OF KINGSHIP FROM AHURAMAZDA, WHILE THE GOD MITHRA STANDS WITNESS. THE ROMAN EMPEROR JULIAN LIES DEAD UNDERFOOT. THERE IS A GREAT INACCURACY, ERROR HERE. JULIAN WAS KILLED BY SHAPUR II ON THE 26TH OF JUNE 363 A.D NEAR SAMARRA AFTER HIS FAILED ATTACK ON CTESIPHON.

                   KING NARSE HORMIZD WAS JUST BUT DESTINY PERMITTED HIM TO RULE FOR ONLY NINE YEARS. MOBED SHAHRU WAS DESPONDENT ABOUT THE SUCCESSION. HIS JOY WAS BOUNDLESS WHEN HE WAS INFORMED A LADY IN THE SHABESTAN WAS CARRYING THE KING'S CHILD. THE TAJ-I-KIANI HUNG ABOVE HER BED AS THE MOBED WAITED ANXIOUSLY FOR SHAPUR II TO BE BORN, ONLY KING FOR WHOSE BIRTH, A CROWN WAITED. HE RULED JUDICIOUSLY  FOR 70 YEARS

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                  AFTER RULING 70 YEARS, SHAPUR THE SECOND (RIGHT) FELT LIFE EBBING AWAY. HE ASKED HIS BELOVED BROTHER ARDESHIR TO REMAIN REGENT TILL HIS SON, SHAPUR III  (LEFT) CAME OF AGE. THE LOYAL, VIRTUOUS, RIGHTEOUS ARDESHIR CARRIED OUT HIS BROTHER'S WISHES  FOR 11 YEARS AND THEN STEPPER ASIDE WITHOUT ANY REGRET, RESERVATIONS OR SECOND THOUGHTS.

                  Moon,star motiff 1.Khosrow Parwiz, Goddess Anahita. 2.Azarmidokht.630 A.D. 3.Porandokht 631.A.D. 4.Yazdgerd III.651 5.Bahram Chobin.590. 6.Khosrow I.

                    Museum of traditional ancient musical instruments. Oud,Lut,Tar.Tehran


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