Medes

Quick Facts: Who was Medes?

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Medes

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Ancient Iranian people who inhabited Media, known for their role in the Near East.

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Origins & Early Life

The Medes were an Iron Age Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the mountainous region of northwestern Iran and the northeastern and eastern region of Mesopotamia in the vicinity of Ecbatana (present-day Hamadan). Their consolidation in Iran is believed to have occurred during the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, all of western Iran and some other territories were under Median rule, but their precise geographic extent remains unknown. Although widely recognized as playing an important role in the history of the ancient Near East, the Medes left no written records to reconstruct their history.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Knowledge of the Medes comes only from foreign sources such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Armenians and Greeks, as well as a few Iranian archaeological sites, which are believed to have been occupied by Medes. The accounts related to the Medes reported by Herodotus convey the image of a powerful people, who would have formed an empire at the beginning of the 7th century BC that lasted until the 550s BC, played a pivotal role in the fall of the Assyrian Empire, and competed with the powerful kingdoms of Lydia and Babylonia. The state remains difficult to perceive in the documentation, which leaves many doubts about its extent. A recent reassessment of contemporary sources from the Median period has altered scholars' perceptions of the Median state, with some specialists even suggesting that there never was a powerful Median kingdom. In any case, it appears that after the fall of the last Median king against the Persian king Cyrus the Great, Media became an important province and was prized by the empires which successively dominated it (Achaemenids, Seleucids, Parthians and Sasanids).

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The original source for their name and homeland is a directly transmitted Old Iranian geographical name which is attested as the Old Persian "Māda-" (singular masculine). The meaning of this word is not precisely known. However, the linguist W. Skalmowski proposes a relation with the proto-Indo European word "med(h)-", meaning "central, suited in the middle", by referring to the Old Indic "madhya-" and Old Iranian "maidiia-" which both carry the same meaning. The Latin medium, Greek méso, Armenian mej, and English mid are similarly derived from it. Herodotus claimed that Greek legends, especially when similarities in names familiar to Greeks and used by foreign peoples were observed, could explain the origin of such an ethnonym.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Medes

True or False: “The primary knowledge regarding the Medes comes exclusively from contemporary Median written records.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): Knowledge of the Medes is derived mainly from foreign sources such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Armenians, and Greeks.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Medes