The Early Rulers of Persia, Part I: The Pishdadian Dynasty

It is arguable that the most famous empire based in Persia was that of the Achaemenids. This was one of the greatest empires in the ancient world, and is best known in the Western world for its wars with the Greeks during the 5th century BC and the Macedonians later. According to Persian epic tradition, there were other dynasties that preceded the Achaemenids. The archaeological record shows that prior to the rise of the Achaemenids, Persia was under the rule of the Elamites, and, later, in certain areas, under Assyrian and Median control. The Avesta (a collection of Zoroastrian sacred texts) and the Shahnameh (the national epic of Iran) however, state that this period saw native Persian rule in the form of the Pishdadian and Kayanian Dynasties.

Early Rule of Persia

The Pishdadian Dynasty is said to have produced the first kings who ruled over the land of Persia. Some of the Pishdadian kings are claimed to have even ruled for thousands of years. On the one hand, it has been suggested that given these impossibly long reigns, the historical veracity of these kings are somewhat dubious. On the other hand, it has been argued that such tales should just not be taken too literally. Instead, the reign of each king ought to be regarded as being “a sequential record of human development”, as “developments that correspond to archaeological / historical ages such as the Stone and Metal Ages” are said to have happened during their rule.

The first mortal, who was also the first Pishdadian king, for instance, is recorded to have been Kaiumers (spelled also as Kayomars and Keyumars). This name evolved from Gayomard, and Gaya Maretan (literally translated as ‘life mortal’) before it. Ferdowsi, in the Shahnameh, describes Kaiumers as such: