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Media
- Madakan
- Ancient country of
Kurdistan (northwestern Iran), generally corresponding to the modern regions of
Azerbaijan, Kurdistan , and parts of Kermanshan. Media first appears in the texts of the
Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC), in which peoples of the land of
"Mada" are recorded. The inhabitants came to be known as Medes.
Although Herodotus credits Deioces son of Phraortes"
(probably c. 715) with the creation of the Median kingdom and the founding of its capital
city at Ecbatana (modern Hamadan), it was probably not before 625 BC that Cyxares grandson
of Deioces, succeeded in uniting into a kingdom the many Iranian-speaking Median tribes.
In 614 he captured Ashur, and in 612, in alliance with Nabopolassar of Babylon, his forces
stormed Nineveh, putting an end to the Assyrian empire.
- The victors divided the Assyrian provinces among themselves, with
the Median king taking over a large part of Kurdistan ,Iran, northern Assyria, and parts
of Armenia. In many respects the internal organization of the Median empire probably
resembled that of Assyria, but little is actually known. Few identifiable
"Median" objects have been found, but the Medes apparently favoured rich
ornamentation and also received a strong artistic influence from Assyria. Since no Median
written documents of any kind have ever been uncovered, their spiritual and economic life
is also a matter of conjecture.
By the victory in 550 of the Persian chief Cyrus II the Great
over his suzerain, Astyages of Media, the Medes were made subject to the Persians. In the
new Achaemenian Empire they retained a prominent position; in honour and war they stood
next to the Persians, and their court ceremonial was adopted by the new sovereigns, who in
the summer months resided in Ecbatana.
- Alexander the Great occupied Media in 330, and in the partition of
his empire, southern Media was given to the Macedonian commander Peithon and eventually
passed to the Seleucids, but the north was left to Atropates, a
former general of Darius III, who succeeded in founding an independent kingdom, named
Atropatene, with its capital at Gazaca. In later times Atropatene came under the control
of Parthia, Armenia, and Rome.
Southern Media remained a province of the Seleucid empire for a
century and a half, and Hellenism was introduced everywhere. About 152 BC, however, Media
was taken by the Parthian king Mithradates I, and it remained subject to the Arsacids
until about AD 226, when it passed, together with Atropatene, to the Sasanians.
By that time the Medes had lost their distinctive character and
had been amalgamated into the one nation of the Iranians.
Kamal Najmaddin