Iran's Regional Relations

A History from Antiquity to the Islamic Republic

Seyed Mohammad Houshisadat

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000178821
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Religion antique

Focusing on the interplay between domestic-level changes and region-wide interaction, this book provides a comprehensive analytical and theoretical survey of Iranian foreign relations in the Middle East from Antiquity until the Islamic Republic. It charts developments from the earliest regimes in Persia, including the Median kingdom and the Sassanid Empire, through rule by, amongst others, Abbasids, Mongols, Safavids and Qajars, up to the modern states of the Shah and the Islamic Republic. Throughout the author reflects on the enduring factors which have shaped Iran's relations with the rest of the region, factors such as geography, culture, the belief systems of policy makers, the structures of decision-making and government, and sub-regional systems. Overall, the book provides a deep analysis of Iranian foreign relations in the Middle East over 4, 700 years.

1 Ancient Iran’s Relations in the Middle East (2700 BC–660 AD)

Introduction

Not until 2400 BC, when Sargon of Akkad (2284–2334 BC) subjugated the Amorites in the west, Assyrians in the north, Elamites in the east and Sumerians in the south, could anyone indeed lay claim to the title of the monarch (Friedman, 2006: 25). Thereafter, the ancient Middle East was a flow of kingdoms and empires, including Akkad, Sumer, Babylon, Hittite, Assyria, Lydia, the Seleucid, the ancient Egyptians as well as the Persian dynasties of Elam, Media, Achaemenid, Arsacid and Sassanid.

Assyria exercised its hegemony over the Middle Eastern multipolar system during ancient civilizations. The regional system during Achaemenid Persia was mostly marked by hegemony, while since the rule of the Western Seleucid, lack of independence and integrity is the main characteristic of Persia. Byzantine-Iranian relations were overshadowed by competition during the rule of Parthia and Sassanid in the Iranian plateau.

The Elamite (2700–549 BC)

The Early Bronze Age in the Middle East (3300–1200 BC) witnessed major developments in Persia. A community of nomads and sedentary farmers came in southern Persia during the Proto-Elamite period (the era between 3300 and 2700 BC and before the first Elamite period). Another society moved southward from the Caucasus into the area between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, in what the Greeks later called Mesopotamia. This society occupied parts of western Persia as well. Southwestern Persia has been among the most central areas for the study of the mechanisms leading to the emergence of primary states in the world (Curtis and Hooglund, 2008: 6).

The Pre-Iranian Elamite was the earliest aboriginal inhabitants in what are today the Iranian provinces of Fārs, Khuzestān, Ilam as well as parts of southern Iraq, between the Bronze Age and the early Islamic era. In classical literature, Elam was known as Susiana, which is a name derived from its capital Susa (in Persian: Šuš). The Proto-Elamite city of Susa was built around 4000 BC in the watershed of the river Karun. In the Old Elamite period (2700–1600 BC), the so-called Middle Bronze Age, and from the second millennium BC, this empire was centered in Susa in the Khuzestān lowlands. It was the first kingdom in Iran (Daniel, 2001: 25–26) and its period extended from 2700 BC to the beginning of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 539 BC (Potts, 2012: 39), with two more periods of Middle Elamite period (1600–1100 BC) and Neo-Elamite period (1100–540 BC). It also reached its apogee during the period 1210–-1100 BC, approximately contemporary with the Sumerians (4500–1900 BC) in southern Mesopotamia, (modern-day southern Iraq,) and was closely tied culturally to Mesopotamia. For instance, Elamites adopted the Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform script (Burney, 1977: 150).

Mesopotamia was described by a plurality of city-states, and a Sumerian monarch who was assisted by a council of elders ruled this area. The period around 2350 BC witnessed the emergence of the first unitary but multinational empire in the world under Sargon of Akkad and the extension of his conquests from Babylonia to Anatolia and Syria in the north and Iran in the east (Diakonoff, 1985: 8). Classical Sumer terminated with the rise of the Akkadian Empire from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-third centuries BC when the Sumerian city-states were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian/Babylonian population. That converted Elam into the rival of the Akkadians and Babylonians as well as Assyrians in the Middle East. After the creation in Mesopotamia of the first centralized despotic monarchy by the dynasty of Akkad, Elam became the target of Akkadian military campaigns aimed at subjecting the kingdom. Therefore, Sargon campaigned against Elam in the second year of his reign and took possession of this monarchy. During the reign of Old Akkadian king Naram-Sin (2254–2218 BC), he concluded a peace treaty with an unnamed Elamite ruler, known as the earliest and the oldest written document of diplomatic agreement in world history that was written in cuneiform script (Diakonoff, 1985: 8). This was a period of strong cultural and religious influence of Mesopotamia on Elam. The political, cultural and religious hegemony established in Elam by the Akkadian rulers between 2300 and 2200 BC did not last long.

Sargon’s grandson, Shar-kali-sharri, defeated Elam in battle, a clear indication that the political and military fortunes of Elam and Akkad were changing during the late Akkadian period (Potts, 2012: 40–41). The Akkadian kingdom finally collapsed by the Gutian dynasty of Sumer (2154–2112 BC), a people from the region located in the northwestern Zāgros Mountains of western Iran (perhaps in Kurdestān or Azarbaijān). After 2200 BC, there began an invasion of the tribes from northwestern Persia into Mesopotamia, and Elam seized the opportunity to create an empire. After that, the power vacuum created by the collapse of the Akkadian Empire benefited an independent Elam (Potts, 2012: 41). However, it was under intermittent raids from the Sumerians and also Gutians from northwestern Iran, alternating with periods of peace and diplomatic approaches. The Elamite family was of a patriarchal type, and the system described above of inheritance of the crown (Diakonoff, 1985: 13).

Prior to the Aryan arrival, the consolidation of the Elamite confederation through the integration of the various tribes in the Iranian plateau could have been made crucial, as a response to the expansionist policy and military campaigns of Mesopotamian centralized states with a bureaucratic elite dependent on the king, especially those conducted later by Assyria and Ur monarchies (Shahbazi, 2012: 122). However, this kingdom was unable to embark on Assyrian-style imperial growth (Wohlforth et al., 2007: 162) and influenced by the Mesopotamian culture (Alizadeh, 2010: 373). The Elamites ultimately attacked and destroyed Ur, the Sumero-Akkadian capital, in 1750 BC, and later invaded Babylonia, but Elam did not occupy Mesopotamia for a long period. The last period in Sumerian history, known as the Third Dynasty of the city of Ur or the Ur III Period (2047–1750 BC), was undoubtedly the most centralized and powerful state the world had yet seen, based on a Patrimonial State. This period is known as the “Sumerian Renaissance” because of its advanced culture, civilized human life and polity (Potts, 2012: 42).

The Kassite Babylonian king conquered Elam and Susa in the second half of the fourteenth century BC; but soon after this raid, the Elamite kingdom was restored and even enlarged and was known as the Middle Elamite Kingdom. The Elamite’s vast territory reached from northern Babylonia and the borders of Assyria into the highlands of Iran in the direction of modern Kirmānshāh and even further during the twelfth century BC. However, it suffered a defeat from Babylon in about 1110 BC. After that, a new dark age began in the history of Elam, but not leading to the complete decline of this kingdom.

Semitic-speaking Assyria, with its militaristic and imperial approach as well as high national unity, was at the center of the international system that would make them the largest empire to date in the world (Wohlforth et al., 2007: 161). During the short-lived Neo-Elamite period II (770–646 BC), until the middle of the seventh century BC, Elam figured as an ally of Babylonia, the richest state in the Near East, against Assyria and that was a constant policy of the kings to counteract the power of Assyrians. The allied Elamite and Babylonian troops were ultimately defeated by the Assyrian forces in central Babylonia in 693 BC. The Neo-Elamite II period witnessed the migration of Indo-Iranian (Aryan) speaking and horse-riding peoples into the Iranian plateau. The first historical references of the Medes date to 835 BC. The Assyrians conquered these newly arrived Iranians and regarded as vassals of this empire until the late seventh century (Diakonoff, 1985: 19–21).

Assyria became the first empire to exercise hegemony over the Old World system with more than 600 vassal kings (Friedman, 2006: 27; 46) and held the upper hand in the border zones. Contrary to the agricultural economy of Mesopotamia, the Elamite economy was based greatly on trade and mining. This kingdom exported raw materials such as iron, tin and copper. They were crucial for the powerful empires of Babylon and Assyria, whose war machines had an insatiable need for iron. Mesopotamia was dependent upon their resource-rich neighbors and the conflict between the regional actors was the catalyst for economic expansion in other areas (Chavalas, 2005: 39). So, the highlands of northwestern Iran were a prime source of supply for both and regularly invaded the Elamite monarchy since the late ninth up to the sixth century BC (Thornton, 2010: 31–32). Furthermore, Elam buffered the Persian tribes from Assyria and Babylonia, which permitted gradual domestic unity and consolidation (Shahbazi, 2012: 123). However, the opposing coalitions and neighboring states made side deals with Assyria (Wohlforth et al., 2007: 162), which manifested a period of Elamite and Assyrian interaction that began with the Elamo-Assyrian peace treaty of 674 BC lasting until 653 BC (Alvarez-Mon, 2013: 472). This process represents a vast regional trading network between Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau (Daniel, 2001: 26). For the foreign policy of Assyria, essentially aimed at the acquisition of valuable goods and within this empire, vassal rulers were bound to Assyrians through treaties (Cotterell, 2017: 86; 127).

The Assyrian Empire had been the dominant force in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia Minor as well as the Caucasus for much of the period between the first half of the fourteenth century BC up to the death of Ashurbanipal (668–627 BC) in 627 BC, which descended into a series of civil wars spreading to Babylonia. The middle of the seventh century BC was disastrous for Elam and a critical period in the history of the ancient Middle East. Assurbanipal campaigned against the Elamites in 653–652, 648, 646–645, 642 and 639 BC, mainly because they regularly provided assistance and shelter to the Babylonian and other enemies of Assyria. The campaigns were marked by more forceful and direct Assyrian involvement in Elamite affairs. In fact, Assyria’s involvement in Elamite dynastic succession and Assyrian aggression against Elam were the reality of the ancient Middle East, often because the latter supported Babylonian insurgents against Assyrian rule in southern Mesopotamia. This interference led to a rapid succession of kings and instability in Elam (Waters, 2014: 23–24). This conflict achieved one climax in the Battle of Til Tuba in 653 BC when the military of Assurbanipal defeated the Elamites’ army. Thereafter, Elam became an Assyrian province and its client state. The main attempt was made to put an end to the domination of Assyria in the Middle East. In 652 BC, Shamash-shum-ukin, brother of Ashurbanipal and vassal king of Babylonia, rebelled with the object of conquering Assyria and stood at the head of the anti-Assyrian alliance. Finally, the rebel brother deposed Ashurbanipal and became head of both empires, but with Babylon instead of Nineveh as the center. After the death of Assurbanipal, a civil war broke out in Assyria, while at the same time Neo-Babylonian Empire was reinforced in the region and captured the Elamite Capital Susa in 596–595 BC.

The Median Kingdom (678–549 BC)

The collapse of Babylonia’s ally Elam by Assurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king, left a power vacuum in the Iranian plateau and removed a buffer between this empire and the rapidly growing power of the Median monarchy (Burney, 1977: 191). The process of what can be called the Persian national consolidation and state formation was accelerated because the Medes came into contact with the aggressive and expansionist Assyrian Empire. In addition, Elam, the dominant power in Persia, was suffering a period of severe weakness, as was Babylonia to the west. Constant Assyrian campaigns in the Central Zagros and domination of Media since 744 until 674 BC seem to have contributed to the coalescence of Median tribes into a confederacy. Assyria’s interactions with Media began with Tiglath-pileser III’s establishment of the provinces of Parsua and Bit-Hamban in 744 BC. The beginning of the seventh century BC was the time when the consolidation of the Assyrian position in Media reached its peak. The Median tribes had no defense against Assyria and scores of separate rulers dominated the territory of Media. Other regional vassal monarchies, such as Babylonia, Egypt and Lydia, had to pay tribute to Assyria.

Rasus I (735–714 BC) merged the Persian tribes into a coherent political and military force along the frontier into an anti-Assyrian alliance, mostly with the Elamites, then Babylonia and also Urartu as the point of entry to the region (Daniel, 2001: 36). In fact, ancient civilizations were familiar with the concept of state in association with the notions of territory and boundary, while they were later a product of the Peace Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 (Mojtahed-Zadeh, 2006: 273). Following the last recorded Assyro-Median War in 658 BC, a unified Median power was formed and became independent (Abdi, 2012: 33). The second purpose of this alliance was to assure the security of the primary east-west trade route passing from Iran. This coalition threatened the Assyrian regional hegemony and led to conflict and pressure applied against the Medes (Sicker, 2000: 63–64).

The Medes eventually allied with the Babylonians, the great rival of Assyrians in Mesopotamia, to make war on the mighty Assyrian Empire, defeating the Egyptian-Assyrian coalition in Syria and then captured the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in 612 BC. The Battle of Nineveh led to the destruction of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The struggle for control of the Fertile Crescent had been decided in favor of Babylonia. As a result, Babylon became the imperial center of Mesopotamia for the first time, leading to the Neo-Babylonian Empire (Beaulien, 2005: 48). Upon the downfall of the Assyria and Semitic rule in the Middle East, the unity of the region was destroyed until the Persians reunited the areas of the previous Assyrian Empire. It was not until the Arabs under the banners of Islam that the Persian lost their hegemony (Fisher, 1969: 13). Egypt was forced to remain behind its traditional boundaries in Africa, and Assyria disappeared entirely from the world stage. Soon relations between the former allies Babylonia and Media began to deteriorate, mainly in Palestine. At about the same time, while the Babylonians annexed the Levant to their empire and arrived at the gates of Egypt, the Persian Medes advanced in Anatolia and the north of the Middle East overran what was left of Urartu and collided with the Lydians (Wohlforth et al., 2007: 162). Relations between Medi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Dynasties, States and Governments
• Preface
• Note on Transliteration and Dates
• Prologue
• 1 Ancient Iran’s Relations in the Middle East (2700 BC–660 AD)
• 2 Medieval Iran’s Relations in the Middle East (661–1501)
• 3 Modern Iran’s Relations in the Middle East (1501–1979)
• 4 Post-Revolutionary Iran’s Relations in the Middle East (1979–present)
• Epilogue
• Chronology
• Index