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Media (Medes)
Ancient country of northwestern Iran, generally corresponding to the modern regions of Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and parts of Kermanshah. Media first appears in the texts of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III (858 - 824 BC), in which peoples of the land of Mada are recorded. The inhabitants came to be known as Medes.
Media or Medes or Madai = "middle land"
1) a people descended from the son of Japheth and who inhabited the territory of Media
2) land inhabited by the descendants of Japheth; located northwest of Persia proper, south and southwest of the Caspian Sea, east of Armenia and Assyria, and west and northwest of the great salt desert of Iran. (Hebrew Dictionary)
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Buddha (560-483 B.C.)Confusius 551-479Jina 540-468Lao-Tzu, 6th CenturyMilesian Philosophers, 625-525Babylonian Captivity, 586-36Pythagoras 580-500 |
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Media: (Hebrew Madai)
We first hear of this people in the Assyrian cuneiform records, under the name of Amada, about BC 840. They appear to have been a branch of the Aryans, who came from the east bank of the Indus, and were probably the predominant race for a while in the Mesopotamian valley. They consisted for three or four centuries of a number of tribes, each ruled by its own chief, who at length were brought under the Assyrian yoke. From this subjection they achieved deliverance and formed themselves into an empire under Cyaxares (BC 633). This monarch entered into an alliance with the king of Babylon, and invaded Assyria, capturing and destroying the city of Nineveh (BC 625), thus putting an end to the Assyrian monarchy. Media now rose to a place of great power, vastly extending its boundaries. But it did not long exist as an independent kingdom. It rose with Cyaxares, its first king, and it passed away with him; for during the reign of his son and successor Astyages, the Persians waged war against the Medes and conquered them, the two nations being united under one monarch, Cyrus the Persian (BC 558). The "Cities of the Medes" are first mentioned in connection with the deportation of the Israelites on the destruction of Samaria. Soon afterwards Isaiah speaks of the part taken by the Medes in the destruction of Babylon. Daniel gives an account of the reign of Darius the Mede, who was made viceroy by Cyrus. The decree of Cyrus, Ezra informs us, was found in "the palace that is in the province of the Medes" or Ecbatana of the Greeks, which is the only Median city mentioned in Scripture.
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Capital Hamedān (Ecbatana)
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Kings
Dīūkes (Deiokes) (708 - 655 B.C.)
Farvartīsh (Phraortes) (655 - 633 B.C.)
Hovakhshatar (Cyaxares) (633 - 585 B.C.)
Āshdāhāk (Astyages) (584 - 550 B.C.)
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