Table of Contents

  • COMMAGENE

    Michael Weiskopf

    the portion of southwestern Asia Minor bordered on the east by the Euphrates river, on the west by the Taurus mountains, and on the south by the plains of northern Syria. It was part of the Achaemenid empire and successor kingdoms and did not achieve status as an independent kingdom until the mid-2nd century BCE.

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  • COMMERCE

    Multiple Authors

     within Persia and between Persia and other regions.

  • COMMERCE i. In the prehistoric period

    Oscar White Muscarella

    In this early period “commerce” is best defined as the movement or exchange of material or goods between cultures within the present boundaries of Persia and those in other regions.

  • COMMERCE ii. In the Achaemenid period

    Muhammad A. Dandamayev

    The longest of many caravan routes was the Royal Road, which stretched for nearly 2,400 km from Sardis in Asia Minor through Mesopotamia and down the Tigris to Susa; stations with service facilities were located every 25-30 km along its length.

  • COMMERCE iii. In the Parthian and Sasanian periods

    Richard N. Frye

    There are few contemporary sources on commerce in the Parthian period, and no archeological site on the Persian plateau has yielded finds that shed light on the subject.

  • COMMERCE iv. Before the Mongol Conquest

    Bertold Spuler

    There were no centers of trade of supraregional importance in either Persia or Central Asia during the Middle Ages. In the Islamic world Baghdad, the seat of the caliphate, was the primary center for the exchange of goods, which arrived overland or by sea through the port of Baṣra at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

  • COMMERCE vi. In the Safavid and Qajar periods

    Willem Floor

    The Dutch and English East Indies companies were the first well-capitalized trading partners established in Persia, initially providing a much-needed source of cash for the shahs. In return the companies demanded and obtained treaties (in 1617 and 1623) granting them freedom of trade.

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  • COMMERCE vii. In the Pahlavi and post-Pahlavi periods

    Vahid Nowshirvani

    A prominent feature of Persian export trade was the steady rise in both the value and volume of oil shipments through almost the entire Pahlavi period until the Revolution, when this trend was reversed. Because of the large increase in price in 1352 Š./1973 the value of Persian oil exports climbed substantially more than the volume in the 1970s. Other exports fared less well.

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  • COMMUNICATIONS in Persia

    Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi and ʿAlī Mohammadi

    the growth of post, telegraph, and telephone service in Persia was closely linked with the growth of railway and highway networks and other modern transportation systems; it was thus a central element in the development of a modern infrastructure in Persia.

  • COMMUNISM

    Multiple Authors

    Communism i. In Persia to 1941, ii. In Persia from 1941 to 1953, iii. In Persia after 1953, iv. In Afghanistan, v. In Tajikistan (see Supplement).