مقالات رزومه میلاد حیدری

Achaemenids founded an integrated civilization including Babylon, Assyria, Elam, Lydia, Media, Egypt, Greeks of Asia Minor and some parts of India during the sixth to fourth century BC.  The founder of the Achaemenid civilization, Cyrus II, came to power in 559 BC. During 559 to 539 BC, by conquering Ecbatana, Sardis, Babylon and coasts of Asia Minor, Cyrus became the heir of great civilizations of West Asia. Ancestry of Persian Cyrus II, has been one of the most controversial issues of the Achaemenid civilization in the last decades, which brought about different and sometimes opposite ideas. Roots of this challenge would be found in the fundamental written sources related to this period, because in addition to deficiency and limitation, which are characteristics of classical texts of the ancient period, narratives have other problems such as contradiction and paradox; so that, at least, three general different contents would be seen in narratives on this issue. Some narratives consider Cyrus as a Median-Persian. Others believe that his father was a bandit and his mother was a goatherd. Archeological sources call him “Cyrus, King of Anshan”. One of the most important sources about Cyrus II’s ancestry is Herodotus Halicarnassus’s narrative in his first book called Clio, in which he is considered as Persian-Median. This research aims to study and analyze Herodotus’s narrative about the Persian-Median ancestry of Cyrus II. The research method was library descriptive-analytic, using archeological and literary evidence.

The Persian Empire was founded after the conquest of Cyrus II (559-529B.C). Cyrus II, the founder of Persian Empire, came to power in 559 BC. During 559 to 539 BC, by conquering Ecbatana, Sardis, Babylon and coasts of Asia Minor, Cyrus was able to be the heir of great civilizations such as Assyrian Empire, Elam, Median Kingdom, Lydia and Babylonia. However, there is little or no clear information about the early stages of his life and his coming to power. As sources tell of the early stages of his life, different images emerge. One of these sources that is of great importance is the narrative of Ctesias. Ctesias describes Cyrus as the son of a bandit and a maid of the tribe of Mard, who revolts against them by passing through the stages of power in the Median Valley, transferring power to his family. This image of Cyrus is in contrast to the image presented by other literary and material sources of the Near East and classical Greek texts. In those narratives, Cyrus' place is considered to be the continuation of a royal family. This article aims to analyze the different aspects of narrative of Ctesias and to study why this narrative and the various elements within it have been formed. In this regard, this research will address this issue in a descriptive-analytical and library method, by studying literary and material data of the Achaemenid period.

The book “Iranian Thought History: Thought, Culture and Religion of Iranians in Ancient Times”, written by “Azarmidokht Farhikhte Vala”, has been published by Nāmeh-ye Ferdosi publication. This book is one of a few ones that has aimed to write the history of thoughts in ancient Iran. Relying on “the most exact data from literary sources”, the author has tried to compile the scattered data and reports related to Iranian culture, thoughts, and worldview in the ancient period. This paper aims to review and study of the book in terms of content, structure, and methodology in order to find out how successful the author was to benefit the sources. The research method is descriptive-analytical with a critical approach, considering essential guidelines to prepare critical papers for Pažuhešnāme-ye Enteqadi-ye Motun va Barnāmeha-ye olum-e Ensāni “Critical Studies in Texts and Programs of Human Sciences”.

Cyrus the Great has been always considered as the founder of Achaemenid Empire. Whereas there is no significant source in his homeland about him and the researches about his life and death can be only found in foreign sources. The most important sources which provide a clear picture of his life, are the Greek historians’ works and their posterities’ in the next periods. However, these sources have been wrapped in a halo of myths and consequently have problems and ambiguities. Cyrus’s death is also a complicated issue in Achaemenid period and in addition to above mentioned problems, there is a contradiction in the sources. From various reports, two general contents can be resulted. One is death in the final conflict and the second is natural death. The fundamental question of this research is how to analyze the contradictions of the texts about Cyrus II’s death. Accordingly, in this research, it is aimed to study the sources with a critical approach by analyzing each narration in context of time, place and discourse. The findings of this study show that the various narrations about Cyrus’s death are just reports among the other reports that had different elements and origins for each of them. Also by critical analysis of each narration, it tries to assess the credential characteristics of each report. The research method is descriptive-analytical in library style.