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| from crystal links |
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| from wiki |
Persia was created by Cyrus II aka Cyrus the Great. Cyrus was later defeated by Medes. A few other rulers of the early Persian Empire include Cambyses II or Kambiz II (son of Cyrus the Great), Darius the Great, Xerxes, and even Alexander the Great ruled The Persian Empire during the Hellenistic period.
There were a lot of battles and a lot of conquering this land and that land, and this continued for a very long time. Again, too numerous to name all of the goings on during this time.
There were also a lot of battles due to religion. The Islamic conquest of Persia led to the decline of the Zoroastrian religion. Islam has been the official religion of Iran since then except for a minor hiccup during a short duration after the Mongol raid. Today, Iran is known as a mostly Shi'a country thanks to the Safavid dynasty which made Shi'a Islam the official state religion. According to the CIA World Fact Book: Islam is the religion of 98% of Iranians with approximately 89% being Shi'a and 9% being Sunni.
So what is the difference between Shi'a and Sunni? Here is a brief definition. Shi'a Muslims believe that their leaders have a direct lineage of the Prophet Mohammed and the Sunni Muslims believe that the first four caliphs took Mohammed's place as leaders of the Muslims. Just to confuse your more Shi'a Muslims believe (Mahdi) the "Rightfully Guided One" has yet to come to earth and the Sunni Muslims believe that Mahdi is already on earth but just waiting for the right time to reappear.
There is also another religion that was founded in Persia in the 19th century (1863) which is Baha'i. According to the Baha'i census from June 2010, there are approximately 30,000 practicing Baha'i in Iran today. The main idea behind this faith is unity and working together for the benefit of humanity. I really like this idea.
As you can see, there is a lot to be learned about the Persian Empire past and present, and it would take too long to try and cover all of it.
Now to the fun stuff. I think writing in Persian is very artistic. Not to brag but I learned the Persian alphabet and quite a bit more back in my college days and somehow at my old age, I still have a really good grasp of it today. I also learned the Arabic alphabet as these are very similar. My kids gave it a try and found it fun and artistic but also very difficult. For example, in Persian (Farsi) you capitalize the last letter of the word and not the first. Isn't that interesting? And in case you did not know, Persian and Arabic are written right to left and not left to right. Below are a few words that my girls learned how to write.
We also watched an old black and white video of a Persian movie on YouTube and while this was not from the Persian Empire, obviously, I just wanted to expose the girls to what the language sounds like. This clip is hilarious! In English, this is called Samad Agha Goes to School. It is about a very innocent village man named Samad. I am so happy that I am able to understand the majority of what is going on because this is some really funny stuff! It is bedtime and Samad Agha is studying but for some reason, he has to yell as loud as he can that he is studying. His mother wakes up and basically tells him to shut up and that no one cares that he is studying or not, and she tells him if he is going to make this much noise studying, he should not study. Samad Agha takes this to mean that his own mother does not want him to study. He is so loud that he wakes up the police chief who tells an officer to go to Samad's school the next day and mark all of his work wrong. I think a lot gets lost in translation but believe me, this is classic!
More fun stuff. We are going to make Lentils and rice.
Lentil Rice 
Lentil rice is one of my most favorite rice dishes ever! It is easy to make and also it is a great source of protein for vegetarians! The ingredients are:
2 cups of Basmati Rice
1.5 cups of lentils
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
And some….Salt, pepper, turmeric, raisins and dates
Directions
1. cook the lentils separately so that they are soft but not crushed!
2. brown mined onion and garlic with salt, pepper and turmeric and add the already cooked lentils to it and stir it for five minutes! put it aside.
3. Bring rice and water into a boil in a separate saucepan. When the rice loses half its water add the mixture (as seen in the picture) to the rice, slowly stir it and let it cook on slow till the water is entirely gone and rice is completely cooked. Sprinkle some raisins and dates on top of the rice when the water is almost gone!
Today, we know The Persian Empire as The Islamic Republic of Iran. I am pretty sure that the majority of people have heard about Iran in some way or another.
Links for more information:
Wiki
Rulers and Dynasties
Fact monster: Ancient Kings, Persia
This has been a really fun study. I think with most anything that we study, teaching smaller amounts of information is better than trying to lay it all out at once. We will definitely revisit the Persian Empire at a later date but we have a good start for now.
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