Mesopotamia
میانرودانThe land between the rivers, where the Parthian and Sasanian kings ruled from Ctesiphon.
For nearly a thousand years Mesopotamia was the western heart of Iranian empires. Cyrus took Babylon in 539 BCE, and the Parthians and then the Sasanians made Ctesiphon, on the Tigris south of today's Baghdad, their capital. Its great vaulted hall, the Taq Kasra, still stands.
After the Arab conquest, Persian scholars, poets and administrators helped make Abbasid Baghdad a world capital. Today the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala draw millions of Iranian pilgrims.
Cities and towns
Baghdadبغداد
The Abbasid capital on the Tigris
Najafنجف
A shrine city and seat of learning
Karbalaکربلا
The shrine city of Imam Hossein
Basraبصره
The port of the Shatt al-Arab
Mesopotamia through time
Iranian historyElam and the first citiesعیلام
Long before the Persians, the lowlands of Khuzestan and the highlands of Fars were home to Elam, a civilisation with its own language, gods and kings, centred on the city of Susa.
- Cyrus the Great enters Babylon
- Alexander dies at Babylon
- Arab armies take Ctesiphon
- Babylon inscribed by UNESCO
Stories from hereداستانها
The Achaemenids
From Cyrus to Darius III, the first Persian empire stretched from the Aegean to the Indus and left behind Persepolis, the Cyrus Cylinder and a model of kingship the region would long remember.
Seleucids and Parthians
After Alexander, Greek kings ruled Iran for a time, until the Parthians, horsemen from the north-east, built an empire that lasted nearly five centuries and held Rome at bay.
The Sasanians
For four centuries the Sasanian kings ruled an empire of fire temples, rock reliefs and brick palaces, the last great Iranian empire before Islam.
The Arab conquest and the Persian revival
Islam reached Iran with the Arab armies of the 7th century. Persian survived, took on a new script and, under dynasties such as the Samanids, returned as one of the great literary languages of the world.
The Spring of Khosrow
The most famous carpet in Persian history survives only as a description: a garden in silk and jewels, cut to pieces as war booty.