Iran
Iran, also known by its historical exonym Persia, is a civilization and country at the centre of Asia. One of the oldest human civilizations in the world, Iran has historically been one of the most culturally influential powers thanks to its central position as a crossroads between Europe, the Middle East, India, and East Asia.
It rose to become a great empire in 550 BCE under the Achaemenid Empire founded by Cyrus the Great, conquering the Neo-Babylonian Empire which preceded it to extend its territorial control all across Western Asia to the Greek colonies in Anatolia, annexing even Egypt. In the reigns of Darius I and Xerxes I, Persia attempted twice to subdue the Greek poleis led by Athens and Sparta and failed, an event which would be a watershed moment in Greek history. Ultimately, the Achaemenid themselves fell to the empire of Alexander the Great in 330 BCE and were replaced as the next rulers of Western Asia, Greece, and Egypt.
This rivalry between Persia and Europe would repeat itself throughout the next millennium in the form of Greece's successor powers, the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, while indigenous dynasties regained control of Persia. After Persia was overrun by the sudden Arab conquests in the 7th century, it was largely Islamized but managed to preserve its culture through the Arabs' adoption of much of their architecture, art, literature, and sociopolitical customs, especially during the reign of the Persianized, multi-ethnic Abbasid Caliphate. Significantly, the northern Persian mountains were the site of Alamut, the Assassins' capital when they reorganized themselves as a public state under Hassan-i Sabbāh around 1090.
Nonetheless, the Persian homeland continued to be a perpetual battleground between rising empires, and it was conquered by the Turks in the 11th century then devastated by the Mongols in the 13th century. Persia recovered under the Safavid dynasty, a rival of the Ottoman Empire. In the 20th century, Iran became an ally of the Templars and the United States, who helped the last Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty consolidate power, but this provoked a radical counter-reaction, the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which established a theocratic government, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
History[edit | edit source]
Classical Antiquity[edit | edit source]
In the 5th century BCE, the Order of the Ancients was active in the Achaemenid Empire, helping King Darius I overthrow the imposter Gaumata,[4] and then aiding his son Xerxes I's invasion of Greece in 480 BCE.[5] The Persian elite Artabanus led the conspiratorial group to assassinate Xerxes in 465 BCE, which also marked the first recorded use of the Hidden Blade.[6][7]
Xerxes was succeeded by his son, Artaxerxes I, whom the Order also tried to turn into their puppet. Artabanus sought to preemptively assassinate the young king before he could be turned, but his plot was exposed and foiled by his former ally Amorges, who had joined the Order. Adopting the new name "Darius", Artabanus became a fugitive and escaped to Greece with his family, but the Ancients pursued them and killed Darius' wife and most of his children.[8]
The Order ultimately failed to convert Artaxerxes to their cause, so they manipulated his brother Hystaspes to have him overthrown and killed,[9] then took advantage of Darius' status as a fugitive and framed him for the murder.[10] Artaxerxes survived the attempt on his life, although the assassins' poison left him blind, and he fled to Greece after faking his death.[9] He was succeeded by his son, Darius II, who similarly to his father, refused to yield to the Ancients.[11]
Around 335 BCE, the Order bequeathed a Staff of Eden to the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, allowing him to conquer Persia.[4] Although this marked the end of the Achaemenid Empire, Alexander's rule over Persia did not last long, as the restive locals assisted Iltani in poisoning the king in 323 BCE.[12][13]
Medieval period[edit | edit source]
During the 8th century CE, the Persian scholar Hammad Ar-Rawiya wrote the Mu'allaqat, a collection of pre-Islamic Arabic poems that he had memorized by heart.[14]
By the 9th century, Persia was under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Tahirids, a dynasty of Persian nobles, served as governors of the Khorasan region, which included the fortress of Alamut.[15] Initially beginning construction under the order of Wahsudan ibn Marzuban,[16] Alamut soon became a stronghold for the Hidden Ones in the Middle East, from where they expanded their influence further west towards the Levant.[17]
The fortress of Alamut was secretly constructed atop the ruins of an ancient Isu vault housing dozens of Memory Seals,[18][19] which the Hidden Ones protected from the Order of the Ancients. In the 860s, the Order launched an attack on Alamut to try and access its vault, but the assault was repelled by the Master Hidden One Basim Ibn Ishaq.[20]
By the 870s, Fuladh Al Haami had become a Mentor of the Hidden Ones operating in the Justanid region of Persia. In 879, he was set to host a council with his fellow Hidden Ones at the newly constructed Alamut Castle, inviting Rayhan and Hytham to attend, to provide a full account of Basim's betrayal during his and Hytham's mission to England.[21]
In the 10th century, a Persian poet named Ferdowsi wrote the Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), a monumental epic relating the history of Persia from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest.[14]
In 1090, Hassan-i Sabbāh reorganized the Hidden Ones into the Assassin Brotherhood at Alamut, turning the order into a public organization for the first time in history.[4] In 1162, Hassan the Younger, the leader of the Levantine Brotherhood of Assassins, sent one of his subordinates, a man who would later be popularly known by his title of Al Mualim, to establish the fortress of Masyaf in the An-Nusayriyah Mountains of Syria.[22] During his exile from Masyaf in 1227, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad fled to Alamut with his family. Living there for two decades, Altaïr discovered the Isu vault underneath the fortress and claimed six of its Memory Seals.[18][19]
In the 12th century, Attar of Nishapur, a travelling scholar and poet, returned to his native Persia to spread the knowledge he had obtained in his travels. Later, Attar fell victim to the seemingly unstoppable spread of the Mongol Empire. In April of 1221, the Mongols entered the Persian city of Nishapur and slaughtered everyone they came across.[23]
Modern period[edit | edit source]
Around 1724,[24] the British Assassin Edward Kenway traveled to Alamut during his search for Precursor sites across the globe and discovered the Isu vault underneath the fortress' ruins.[25]
In 1739, the Iranian Shah, Nāder Shāh, acquired a Piece of Eden in the shape of a diamond when he sacked the Taj Mahal. In awe of its splendor, he named it the Koh-i-Noor (Mountain of Light).[26] In 1747, he was killed by the Persian Assassin Salah Bey, but not before the Koh-i-Noor fell into the hands of Ahmad Shāh Durrānī, an Afghan chief. Salah planned to pursue Ahmad in order to claim the Koh-i-Noor for the Brotherhood. However, the diamond remained in Ahmad's possession.[27]
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979. In 1953, he allowed Abstergo Industries and the Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh to protect their oil interests. Four years later, they helped Pahlavi establish the SAVAK in order to goad his people into submission. In 1979, the Pahlavi Monarchy was overthrown during the Iranian Revolution.[28]
Gallery[edit | edit source]
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Persians aboard the Adrestia -
Icon of the crew skin -
King Xerxes I traveling with his convoy
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (first mentioned)
- Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Assassin's Creed: Initiates (mentioned in Database entry only) (as "Persia")
- Assassin's Creed: Memories (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Assassin's Creed: Rogue (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India (mentioned in Database entry only) (as "Persia")
- Assassin's Creed: Origins (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Legacy of the First Blade: Hunted (flashback only) (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Legacy of the First Blade: Bloodline (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Wrath of the Druids (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Cike Xintiao: Chang'an Wang (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Assassin's Creed: Mirage (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Valley of Memory (mentioned in Database entry only) (mentioned only, as "Persia")
- Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR (mentioned in Database entry only) (as "Persia")
- Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Daughter of No One (as "Persia")
References[edit | edit source]
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