Meden

De Meden (in het Oudperzische Māda-; Oudgrieks: Μᾶδοι Madoi) waren een Iraans volk^[1]. Ze bewoonden een gebied in het tegenwoordige Iran. Volgens de historische geschiedschrijver Herodotus (438 v.Chr - 424 v.Chr.) zou er sprake zijn geweest van een Medisch rijk met als hoofdstad Ecbatana, het huidige Hamadan. Koning Deioces zou de verschillende stammen verenigd hebben in een rijk dat onder Cyaxares zijn grootste macht zou hebben gehad.^[2] Tegenwoordig wordt het bestaan van een verenigd groot Medisch rijk echter ook betwijfeld, omdat archeologische aanwijzingen ontbreken en omdat het verhaal van Herodotus niet overeenkomt met Assyrische en Nieuw-Babylonische bronnen. Historici denken dat er wel een rijk heeft bestaan, maar wellicht niet zo groot als voorheen wel beschreven.^[3]^[4]

Indo-Europeanen vestigden zich in het latere Medië (in het Zagrosgebergte en de ten oosten daarvan gelegen delen van het Iraans Plateau, ten noordwesten van Persis) rond het eind van het 2e millennium v.Chr.

Enkele archeologische vindplaatsen (ontdekt in de zogenaamde "Medische driehoek") en tekstuele bronnen (van Assyriërs, Babyloniërs, Grieken en de Bijbel (Daniël 6:16)) geven een idee van de geschiedenis en cultuur van de Meden. Erg veel is er echter nog niet bekend, er zijn nog geen grote opgravingen van Medische steden geweest, de Assyrische bronnen zijn sporadisch en de Griekse stammen van geruime tijd later. Deze architectonische, religieuze tempels en literaire referenties tonen het belang van durende Medische bijdragen aan de Iraanse cultuur, zoals het Safavidische-Achaemenidische-Medische verband van de traditie van "audiëntiezalen met pilaren". Een aantal woorden in de Medische taal worden nog steeds gebruikt en er zijn talen die geografisch en vergelijkbaar terug te voeren zijn op de taal van de Meden.

↑ E. E. Kuzʹmina, J. P. Mallory (2007). The origin of the Indo-Iranians. Brill, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISBN 978-90-474-2071-2.
↑ Edward S. Ellis, Charles F. Horne, The World's Famous Events, Francis R. Niglutsch, New York, 1913, p. 258 e.v.
↑ In recent years, a number of scholars have cast considerable doubt on the historicity of a Median empire as presented in Classical sources, particularly Herodotus. They have emphasized the absence of any archaeological evidence for the Herodotean account of Media, and a perceived lack of consistency between this account and contemporary treatments of the Medes in Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian documentary sources. A conference held in Padua in 2001 provided the opportunity for a comprehensive review of the sources on which modern reconstructions of the Median kingdom have been based. In their summing up of the proceedings, the editors (Lanfranchi et al., 2003: 397—406) noted that recent re-examinations of the sources relating to Media have led to a radical reduction of the extent of the 'Median empire' before it was incorporated into the Persian empire. But they observed that opinions still vary between two extremes — a 'maximalist' and a 'minimalist' view. The former 'might extend Median power from the west of the former kingdom of Urartu to the borders of Fars and from the western outliers of the Zagros mountains on the plains of eastern Assyria to the fringes of the central Iranian desert beyond Rayy', while the latter 'would abandon the whole of the north, east and central western Iran to bands of nomads roaming freely over an extensive territory, and consider Median influence to be negligible'. The 'truth', the editors say, may well lie between these extremes. Bryce (2009)
↑ While elements of Herodotus' story agree with the bits of information we have on the Medes from Assyrian and Babylonian sources, the whole is a fictional account. No Median empire ever existed. Why was it concocted then? Herodotus imagined there had been a sequence of world empires in Asia before the Persian one that the Greeks confronted. He knew about Assyria and Persia, but in between them was a void. This he filled with the Medes, and thereby he created a phantom empire whose image is still widely accepted today. Mieroop (2015)

[1] E. E. Kuzʹmina, J. P. Mallory (2007). The origin of the Indo-Iranians. Brill, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISBN 978-90-474-2071-2.

[2] Edward S. Ellis, Charles F. Horne, The World's Famous Events, Francis R. Niglutsch, New York, 1913, p. 258 e.v.

[3] In recent years, a number of scholars have cast considerable doubt on the historicity of a Median empire as presented in Classical sources, particularly Herodotus. They have emphasized the absence of any archaeological evidence for the Herodotean account of Media, and a perceived lack of consistency between this account and contemporary treatments of the Medes in Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian documentary sources. A conference held in Padua in 2001 provided the opportunity for a comprehensive review of the sources on which modern reconstructions of the Median kingdom have been based. In their summing up of the proceedings, the editors (Lanfranchi et al., 2003: 397—406) noted that recent re-examinations of the sources relating to Media have led to a radical reduction of the extent of the 'Median empire' before it was incorporated into the Persian empire. But they observed that opinions still vary between two extremes — a 'maximalist' and a 'minimalist' view. The former 'might extend Median power from the west of the former kingdom of Urartu to the borders of Fars and from the western outliers of the Zagros mountains on the plains of eastern Assyria to the fringes of the central Iranian desert beyond Rayy', while the latter 'would abandon the whole of the north, east and central western Iran to bands of nomads roaming freely over an extensive territory, and consider Median influence to be negligible'. The 'truth', the editors say, may well lie between these extremes. Bryce (2009)

[4] While elements of Herodotus' story agree with the bits of information we have on the Medes from Assyrian and Babylonian sources, the whole is a fictional account. No Median empire ever existed. Why was it concocted then? Herodotus imagined there had been a sequence of world empires in Asia before the Persian one that the Greeks confronted. He knew about Assyria and Persia, but in between them was a void. This he filled with the Medes, and thereby he created a phantom empire whose image is still widely accepted today. Mieroop (2015)

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