The original Persian state that started its rise to become the first world superpower was founded by tribes that migrated from the Central Asian steppes, probably pushed south by exhausted pasturelands, overpopulation, or more aggressive neighbors. They established themselves in Parsa, a land between the Zagros Mountains to the west and deserts to the east, called Persis by the ancient Greeks. Cyrus’s forebears sprang from these tribes and from the Medes, another Indo- European tribe of nomadic horsemen who had migrated into the Iranian Plateau. Among the most notable was Hakhamanish, a seventh century bc king, who was known as Achaemenes to the Greeks and whose name has been used to denote the fi rst Persian dynasty. These Aryans, or Iranians in their native language, created fortifi ed sett lements and relied on cavalry raids in their warfare. Repeated incursions by the bellicose Assyrian Empire encouraged the tribal chiefs to unite, and more formal Median and Persian states began to emerge as vassals of the Assyrians. The Medes, possessing more fertile and productive land, expanded quickly and under King Cyaxares (r. 625–585 bc) developed perhaps the fi rst Middle Eastern army divided into units with distinct bodies of spearmen, archers, and cavalry rather than groups of infantry and mounted warriors led by tribal chiefs. The Medes allied with the Babylonians to overthrow the Assyrians and then expanded Cyaxares’ domains to the Mediterranean coast and extended military operations, if not control, almost as far as the Indus River in the east (Source: Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces).
Safavid Empire and the Role of Turkmens in Its Formation under Shah Islmail
