| |
|
Iran, an Ancient Land of War
by Wesley Kawato
Iran, once known as Persia, is a land that rarely has known peace. Sometimes Persia has been the conqueror, other times the conquered.
The gradual union of two races, the Persians and the Medes, formed the Persian people. Unfortunately for the Persians, they didn't produce any major historians to record their accomplishments until the 600s AD. Their written history goes back 2,500 years, but hostile foreigners wrote much of it until that time. During Greece's classical era, Greek historians wrote extensively about Persian history, but these accounts were probably biased and unreliable, because the Greeks and Persians were enemies.
Persia as a World Power
Unlike Babylon and Assyria, the Persian Empire respected cultural and religious diversity. As indicated in the Bible, it was Cyrus the Great who allowed the Jewish captives in Babylon to return to the Promised Land.
In those early days there was a godly witness within Persia. The prophet Daniel served in the bureaucracy of the Persian Empire. Daniel and others like him won respect for the God of All Peoples, but there were no self-reproducing groups of believers among these Gentiles to show for it.
Persia Eclipsed by the Greeks and Romans
With the death of Alexander the Great in 312 B.C., the Macedonian Empire was split into four kingdoms, each ruled by one of Alexander's generals. New wars broke out as the generals squabbled over border territories. Other wars were the result of independence movements.
Persia was one of the first provinces to break free of Greek control. What followed was a series of weak and not-so-weak kingdoms in Persia. In A.D.208 the Sassanian Empire overthrew the weak Parthian Kingdom. During the Sassanian Empire, many Persians became Nestorian Christians. This lasted until Christianity became accepted by the Roman government, at which time many Christians were martyred in Persia.
Sassania was Rome's most dangerous enemy. The two nations fought frequent border wars, even after the Roman Empire split into eastern and western halves. The constant need to defend the Sassanian frontier stopped Rome's expansion in Europe. Frequent wars weakened Sassania and the Eastern Roman Empire, making them both vulnerable to conquerors.
Persia Conquered by Arabs, Mongols, and Turks
By A.D.1256 Hulagu Khan, the Mongolian grandson of Genghis, subdued all of Persia. After the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Tamarlane and his Turkic hordes attacked and conquered Persia in A.D.1393, but then quickly collapsed. Out of the ruins of this calamity came the Safavid Empire. This was Persia's golden age. The Safavid kings encouraged the flowering of Persian culture. The Safavid Kingdom was strong culturally, but weak politically and militarily.
European Colonialism
Western ideas, such as democracy, began taking root in Persia during the period of European domination. In 1908, a revolution turned Persia into a constitutional monarchy, with an elected parliament. Shortly after that, the country was renamed Iran. But democracy failed to take hold in Iran. In 1925, an army officer named Reza Shah seized power and began westernizing Iran at an even faster pace. His reforms would create the tensions that would lead to a new revolution 50 years later.
During World War II, Britain and the Soviet Union became alarmed by Reza Shah's pro-German sympathies. The allies considered Iran to be part of a vital supply route into the Soviet Union, and they could not afford to give this up to a pro-German regime. In 1941, Britain and the Soviets jointly occupied Iran once again, forcing the Shah to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad.
Iran After WWII
The pent-up anger exploded in 1979, and the monarchy gave way to an Islamic government. The Ayatollah Khomeini , a Muslim cleric exiled by Shah Mohammad, returned to become Iran's new ruler, and Islamic law became the new order.
But the revolution didn't bring peace, only more war. Iran's efforts to export the Islamic Revolution frightened neighboring Iraq. Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 and the fighting didn't end until 1988. During that time half a million Iranians died from bullets or poison gas. Both sides engaged in trench warfare. More than one military expert has characterized the Iran-Iraq War as being "World War I fought with World War III weapons."
Iran Today
This desire for change might leave them open to the claims of the gospel if they have a chance to hear it. Traditionally the frequent wars and revolutions in Iran have made it difficult and dangerous for Christian missionaries to work there. According to the statistics published in Operation World, only one in 300 Iranians is a Christian today. Others believe that more people have become believers since the 1979 Revolution than ever before. Only God knows for sure.
We do know that much work still needs to be done both among the Persian majority and among Iran's various minority groups. The Kurds, six million strong, live in the mountains of Northwest Iran. There are few if any Christians among them. Work among the Kurds has been made dangerous by the presence of rival guerilla movements that are seeking to liberate the Kurdish minority in neighboring Iraq. Such groups often use northwestern Iran as a staging area for their attacks. Iran's Arab minority is also difficult to reach for the Lord. They live in the oil-rich southwest provinces that border Iraq. The Baloch peoples of Iran's southeast, and all of the nomadic peoples remain unreached. The Jews, the Zoroastrians, and the Baha'is are also unreached. There is much to pray about this month!
Prayer Points
|