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The Persian Empire – Iran (Page III)
Conquerors from the middle ages
One of the greatest catastrophes in the history of mankind occurred around the year 1220 1 when Gangis Khan destroyed many libraries and hospitals and killed millions of the population of Persia. The Mongols accompanying Gangis Khan continued on to destroy Baghdad thus ending the Abbasid Caliphate. Marco Polo indicated in his writings about the savagery performed by the Mongols and lamented about the once beautiful Persia.
The descendents of the Mongol invaders, who stayed in Persia, ultimately became “Persianized” and had accepted Islam as did other invaders such as the Turkish including the Arabs who first came. The Mongol empire opened the roads to far-away trading into China and India.
Around 1274 Science, in the astronomical sense, was greatly uplifted by the development of mathematical calculations by Nasir Al-Din Tusi, the Astronomer and Philosopher who built the first Maraghah Observatory. He showed that the Earth revolved around the Sun and told of its shape and size. This was some 200 years before Copernicus who was considered the founder of modern astronomy and the one who had the idea of a solar centered universe.
Persians continued pioneering in the optics field as pertains to refraction and reflection even up into the 1400’s when a mathematician invented the first calculating machine and contributed to astronomical activities.
In the 1500’s Persia became much more united after several centuries of rule by foreigners despite the fragmenting of much of the Persian Empire. This unity was largely due to declaring Shi’ism as the State religion. This was a way to become more autonomous from the rest of the Islamic World, they would no longer be part of the Sunni Ottomans. Due to respect of the Persians, they were depended upon to supply poetry and literature to the Mughals in India and the Ottomans in Anatolia. Persian continued to be the language of the courts which they preferred. This continued until the British colonized India. An education was then considered more complete when one could research Persian source material.
After the various rulers and Dynasties finally capitulated to their successor’s whims, the European and Russian influence caused Persia to lose much of her Central Asian and Afghanistan holdings. By 1906, corruption and mismanagement of the Qajar Ministries led to a constitutional revolution and establishment of the first Parliament (Majlis). Although the Persian North was controlled by Russia and the South and East were controlled by Britain, Persia fell economically and politically into chaos after the end of World War I.
Onset of the Shah system
By 1921, change was needed and the popular world-wide method was by means of a coup. Reza Khan, an officer in the Army decided to become the Shah in 1925 1. Thus became the Pahlavi Dynasty. He removed the Parliament (Maglis) and modernized the country, public education, modern universities and schools for women as well as abolishing the veil yet he did not permit free speech. These innovations were designed to break the power of the clergy over the education system. Of further control, and reaching back into ancient history, he demanded that Persia shall now be referred to as Iran.
World War II changed many things in Iran. In 1941, the Shah abdicated and placed his Son to be Shah. The Soviet Union needed a Trans Iranian railroad to supply war time materials, so Iran was invaded and occupied by the Allies during the war since Iran didn’t wish to support them. At the end of the war, the Soviet Union pulled out of Iran. Britain was enjoying the control of Iran’s oil up until 1951 when the Majlis (Parliament), under Dr. Mossadeq, now prime minister after the exit of the Shah, passed a law to Nationalize the oil industry from Britain’s control. Of course the British didn’t like that so they took their case to the International court, but they lost. So they then imposed a trade embargo on Iran and then Iran’s economy collapsed.
Continued on page four
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