Captivating History - The Afsharid and Qajar Dynasty: A Captivating Guide to Two Iranian Dynasties Who Ruled Persia from 1736 to 1925

When talking about Iran, a lot of people think of massive deserts. The climate in the Iranian Plateau, which stretches from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern-day Iraq (what was once Mesopotamia) to the Indus River located in present-day Pakistan, is mostly arid and hot. This is most notable in the central and southeastern regions in which the Kavir and Lut Deserts are located. And other regions around those deserts, as well as on the Persian Gulf coast, are also dry, hot semi-deserts. But the western and northern regions, near Mesopotamia and the Caspian Sea, are mild and fertile. Besides this dissimilarity, the Iranian Plateau is also contrasted with tall mountain ranges and high interior basins dotted between those highlands. The only two real lowlands are the Khuzestan Plain in the southwest, on the coast of the Persian Gulf and bordering with southern Mesopotamia, and the Caspian Sea coastal plain in the north. And unlike most other cradles of ancient civilizations, the Iranian Plateau lacks any real major rivers, most of them being small streams that dry out in the summer which usually drain into salt lakes. This, however, does not mean that this entire region is lifeless and covered with sand.

Topographical map of present-day Iran. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org

On the contrary, the western and northern parts of the plateau are covered with forests, chiefly consisting of oak, elm, cypress, and ash. Large areas of Iran are also populated with numerous wildlife like gazelles, wild pigs, lynx, foxes, wolves, bears, jackals, and panthers. There are several important species of birds, like pheasant, stork, partridge, falcon, and eagles, which are native to the Persian Plateau. Amidst these wild animals, there are several domesticated ones which include goats, water buffalo, cattle, mules, donkeys, and horses, as well as various poultry. Domestication didnt stop at animals; since ancient times, Persians have cultivated wheat, rice, pomegranates, dates, figs, cherries, walnuts, pistachios, mulberries, and olives. Through all of this, it becomes evident that despite the arid climate, the Iranian Plateau was and still is teeming with life. On top of all that, this region is rich with resources like copper, iron ore, lead, zinc, and sulfur, which explains why an area most of us think of as barren deserts has been settled as far as 100,000 years ago.

It is also one of the regions with the earliest signs of agriculture with the first pieces of evidence being dated to somewhere between 10,000 and 8,000 BCE. And southwestern parts of Iran were part of the so-called "Fertile Crescent" of antiquity which also covered modern-day Egypt, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and the southeastern border of Turkey. This made the Iranian Plateau one of the world stages where early civilizations were born.

By the mid-1 st millennium BCE, Median, Persian, and Parthian tribes settled in these lands. Out of these tribes, which were rather culturally similar, the Medes were the first to organize in a centralized state in the 7 th century BCE, and because of that, they are sometimes credited as the founders of the Iranian nation. But Iran didnt become a world superpower until the rise of the Persians under the now-famous Cyrus the Great. He established the first Persian Empire and the Achaemenid Dynasty around the mid-6 th century BCE, covering all the lands from Turkey and Egypt in the west to India and Afghanistan in the east. As such, the Achaemenids established the earliest traditions of the Iranian population and its culture, leaving a strong desire of all later Persian rulers to recreate their empire and feats.