Where in the world is Turkmenistan....

After checking my blog stats the other day, I have discovered there are a lot of people all over the world with a lot of free time on their hands (thanks Coronavirus).  It is nice to see that I have quite a few international readers so I decided to give a few shout outs and learn a few new things myself.

Turkmenistan made it pretty close to the top viewers last week so thanks for that and look at all these amazing facts about Turkmenistan (a sovereign country) I found out.  This would be a great place to visit but apparently, it is very difficult to obtain a Visa to be allowed in.  I guess that is why Turkmenistan is one of the least visited places in the world.

Factoids:
~The capital and largest city is Ashgabat which translates to city of love/devotion.

~Turkmenistan comes from the Persian (Farsi) language and means land of the Turkmen.

~Turkmen is the language of the majority with Russian and Uzbek spoken as well.

~It is bordered on the northwest by Kazakhstan, to the north and east by Uzbekistan, to the southeast by Afghanistan, to the south and southwest by Iran, and the Caspian Sea to the west.

~More than 70% of Turkmenistan is covered by the Karakum Desert (black sand).

~Turkmenistan gained independence from the Soviet Union in October 1991.

~Until 2006, Turkmenistan was ruled by president/dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov (first president).

~Nivazov passed a few questionable laws during his time as president including no spandex, no gold teeth, no opera, no lip syncing at concerts, young men were banned from having long hair or beards, no dogs in the capital, and banning smoking in public places.  He also changed the names of the days of the week to match the names of his family members.

~The next president was Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow (formally a dentist) changed back some of those wacky laws and made a few of his own such as no black cars allowed, favoring white cars instead because white brings good luck.

~Speaking of white, Turkmenistan holds the Guinness World Record for most buildings made of white marble (543).

~Turkmenistan also holds the Guinness World Record for the largest indoor Ferris Wheel and most public pools in one place.

~Turkmenistan is home to Akhal-Teke breed which is one of the purest breeds in the world with a price tag of up to $3,000,000!  The Akhal-Teke horses are a national emblem of  Turkmenistan.

~The final factoid is the Gates to Hell as the locals call the Darvaza Gas Craters.  This is a deep crater fill with huge deposits of natural gas and oil.  In 1971, Soviet engineers lit the crater to burn off the excess gas.  They believed the process would take a few weeks to burn off; however, it is still burning today.

Thanks again to the readers in Turkmenistan!

The Persian Empire

Now that we are back on track with our homeschool, our Mystery of History Volume 3 studies have brought us to the Persian Empire (Achaemenid Empire).  In this instance, the word empire refers to various dynasties that ruled Persia.  This empire lasted 200 years.  This is going to be brief because there is NO way I could go over everything from The Persian Empire.  It is just too great of a topic and dates back to The Bible.

from crystal links

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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