We are familiar with a large number of elements of Persian culture, often not knowing that they are Persian. Although its civilization is not so old as those of Egypt or Babylon, Persia entered history over a thousand years before Islam did. Its first inhabitants were called the Medes (Mada), who were mentioned many times in the Bible, as well as the Arya, whose name is found in the etymology of Aryan and Iran.
Ancient Persia was at the crossroads of civilizations in Eurasia. It had commercial, cultural and diplomatic ties with Mesopotamia, India, and more distantly with China. The language spoken in Iran today is called Farsi, which literally means Persian. Old Persian language is related to Sanskrit. Initially, it didn’t have its own alphabet and used cuneiform, Sanskrit, and Phoenician scripts. In the 3rd century BC, the Avestan alphabet appeared, and its cursive script would inspire the Arabic alphabet much later on
The first great dynasty were the Achaemenids. Their capital was the famous Persepolis, the remains of which are still standing. The other big cities were Suse, Sardes, Ecbatane. Kings relied on governors called satraps, while priests were called magi, from which the word magic derives. Persian art has left very beautiful testimonies, with frescoes made of turquoise blue ceramics, and statues of winged geniuses, lions, bulls and eagles in a distinctive style. The phoenix, the legendary bird that can rise from its ashes, originated in Persian mythology.
The original religion of Persia was refered to as Mazdaism. It was a dualism between two gods Ahura Mazda and Ahriman. The first one was the god of goodness and light and the second one of evil and darkness. Alongside were a number of secondary deities and demons (the devas), including Mithras, a benevolent god borrowed from India and later adopted by the Romans. The great sacred text was the Avesta, which was inspired by older Indian texts like the Rig Veda. Ahura Mazda was represented by the sacred fire, symbol of purity, which burned permanently inside the temples. The Persian New Year, Nowruz, survived Islam and is still celebrated in Iran, as well as among Kurds.
History has remembered the names of many Persian kings: Cyrus, who conquered Babylon and ended the captivity of the Hebrews; Cambyses, who submitted Egypt, and had a paved royal road of built over 2500 kilometres; Darius and Xerxes who colonized all of Asia Minor, and confronted the Greeks during the Persian Wars. Defeated at the battle of Marathon, the Greeks eventually pushed back invasion thanks to their fleet at the battle of Salamis. The playwright Aeschylus wrote a play called "the Persians", which imagined how they viewed the Greeks.
Persia was the unifying element of the rival Greek cities for two centuries, during which it ruled most of Anatolia. The revenge of the Greeks would be taken by Alexander the Great, whose armies conquered at all of Persia, and built an empire extending to the borders of India. It fell quickly apart, but introduced a synthesis between Greek culture and Eastern cultures. The Hellenizing dynasties of the Ptolemaeids and Seleucids came out of it, and would last for several more centuries.
Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, had a pivotal role. At the age of 30, he reported mystical revelations from Ahura Mazda. He founded a new religion, actually based on former Mazdaism, prohibiting the worship of secondary deities, the use of alcohol and the sacrifice of animals. The life of Zoroaster, a figure of wisdom, fascinated many ancient authors such as Plato, Plutarch, or Plinius. Well beyond that, his spirit would inspire freemasonry and the philosophy of Nietzsche. Zoroastrianism would be the religion of Persia until the advent of Islam, and still has followers, such as the Parsis of India. It seems that it has never ceased to exist undercover in Iran until today.
Persian civilization would however experience a long eclipse of several centuries. The empire was divided, in favor of the Romans for its western part, and the rest falls into the hands of the Parthians, horsemen from Central Asia. It regained new momentum under the Sassanid dynasty, who were contemporaries and rivals of the Byzantines. They inaugurated the famous Silk Road, and developed the art of fabrics and carpets. Earthenware and paper were borrowed from China, and the tradition of miniatures and illuminated manuscripts began to develop, also reflecting a Chinese influence. It emulated imitations as far away as Byzantium and medieval Europe. Chess comes from Persia, and derives from the word "shah" (king); just like tavli, known in the West as backgammon or trictrac.
In the 3rd century, prophet Mani created a new religious doctrine: manichaeism. It was an ascetic philosophy inspired by Mazdaism, separating the world and man into two opposite domains of good and evil. Its literary production was elaborate, borrowing elements from both Christianity and Buddhism. Mani was one of the first painters of Persian miniatures himself. Protected by King Shapur, his doctrine would spread as far as Tang China where he was considered an incarnation of the Buddha. It had a number of followers in the Roman Empire, and Christians borrowed the tradition of the halo around holy figures from manichaeist iconography.
Not only Persian culture is much older than Islam, but it inspired much of Islamic civilization further on, as it was much more elaborate than that of the Bedouins of Arabia. Arabs and later Turks adopted the arts of carpets and mosaics, their court ritual, and the bases of their musical and poetic tradition. Persia would retain its character even after converting to Islam, in particular by maintaining its language. Countless Persian words have made it to Europe and beyond : azure, bazaar, caravan, dervish, divan, jasmine, kebab, kiosk, musk, pasha, pilaf, saffron, sandal, seraglio, sofa, sultan, taffeta, talc, tambourine, turban, vizier, to name a few.
In the 11th century, Firdowsi wrote he Book of the Kings (Shahnameh), a mythical survey of the history of Persia since the creation of the world. The art of miniature would always be maintained despite the Islamic ban on images. Chromatic continuity can be found between the mosques of Iran and the blue mosaics of the Achaemenid period. Some observers considered the adoption of Shia Islam (generalized by the Safavid dynasty in the 16th century) as a will to separate from Arab culture, which is still perceived in Iran today as foreign.
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