Fertile Crescent
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Jalal al-Din Rumi
The latest news is that Beyoncé named one of her new babies after a Persian poet. Everyone is abuzz with discussions of who this man was and what exactly this means. Although the poetry was written in the 13th century, it has gathered popularity in the west beginning in the early 21st century. So who was Jalal al-Din Rumi? Jalal al-Din Rumi was born September 30, 1207 in the city of Balkh, which is is in present day Afghanistan. He lived with his family on this far eastern edge of the Persian Empire, and was raised in the tradition of his family as an Islamic jurist. His father Baha ud-Din…
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Jinn
Tales of the mystical creatures appear in early Arabian and later Islamic mythology. An individual member of the jinn is known as a jinni, djinni, or genie. Throughout the Quran and other Islamic texts they are mentioned frequently. The Quran says that the jinn were created from a smokeless and “scorching fire”, but are also physical in nature, being able to interact in a tactile manner with people and objects and likewise be acted upon. The earliest evidence of the word, can be found in Persian, for the singular Jinni is the Avestic “Jaini”, a wicked (female) spirit. Jaini were among various creatures believe among pre-Zoroastrian peoples of Persia. The…
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The Vanishing Persian Army of Cambyses
When your dad is Cyrus the Great, you have a lot to live up to. He began the Achaemenid Empire and reigned over the territory from Asia Minor to India. Unfortunately, Cyrus met his match in a warrior queen named Tomyris and went to his long home. (More on her in this post: http://www.historynaked.com/tomyris-the-woman-who-brought-down-cyrus-the-great/ ) This left his son Cambyses in charge. There had been a bit of trouble when he was overseeing things for his father in Babylon. No one is quite sure, but the Chronicle of Nabonidus indicates there was an issue during the very important New Year’s Akitu festival. Possibly with Cambyses being armed during the ceremony,…
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The Hasanlu Lovers
Their remains were found by a team from the University of Pennsylvania led by Robert Dyson at the Teppe Hasanlu archaeological site, located in the Solduz Valley in the West Azerbaijan Province of Iran, in 1972. It was the site of the Teppe Hasanlu citadel. Around 800 B.C. when the pair was alive the area had been burned out from a military attack. People fighting from both sides were killed in the fire, which apparently spread quite unexpectedly and quickly through the town. The skeletons were found in a plaster grain bin, probably hiding from soldiers, and they almost certainly died from asphyxiated quickly due to the fire. The “head…
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Timurlane
After the death of Genghis Khan, the Mongol Empire had fragmented into separate khanates as his descendants squabbled amongst themselves. The empire he built was too big for any of them to rule, so it was split into pieces and divided between them. The northwestern portion was called Golden Horde, and by 1336 the majority of it was ruled by Sultan Mohammed Oz Beg. His domain ran from Moscow to the Aral Sea and his capital was Sarai. Also in 1336, a son was born to a Turco-Mongol tribal leader of the Barlas in Transoxiana. Transoxiana is located at the edge of the mountains just south of the beautiful city…
