Review Article Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Investigating the Causes of Political Crises in the Achaemenid Kingdom from Consolidating Power to the Deterioration and Destruction Shoja Ahmadvand1 and Abdolreza Alishahi2* 1Associate Professor of Political Science, Allameh Tabatabai *Corresponding author: University Alishahi A, PhD student of Political Science, Allameh Tabataba’ University, Tehran, Iran. Tel: 00989124493054; E-mail: [email protected] 2PhD student of Political Science, Allameh Tabatabai University Submitted: 29 Oct 2019; Accepted: 11 Nov 2019; Published: 30 Nov 2019 Abstract The Achaemenids are one of the most powerful and lasting dynasties in ancient Persia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The territory of this dynasty was very wide, extending from the Sind Valley in India to the Nile in Egypt and the Benghazi area in Libya today and from the Danube River in Europe to Central Asia. In this vast state, many tribes lived in their own customs, and maintained their own state and ethnic culture. In fact, the country's most important characteristic was respect for individual and ethnic freedom and the respect for law and order, and the encouragement of indigenous arts and culture as well as the promotion of commerce and art. This authoritative and widespread government process continued to evolve to a point where the dynasty led to the collapse of this powerful dynasty. In this paper, the authors' efforts are about providing a consistent answer to the question what is the most important reason for the collapse and annihilation of the Achaemenid kingdom? The hypothesis that authors will experiment with the methodology of historical sociology and the use of written and librarian resources will be based on the principle that the causes of tyranny, injustice, racial and religious discrimination, the change of military status and the Achaemenid Kings' nationalist veins were confronted with widespread protests and revolts. The findings of the paper, based on the theory of political instability, David Saunders, confirm that the change in the political regime includes changes in norms and laws, the occurrence of successful coups and the change of military status on the one hand and the challenge to the political regime and government including riots and political rallies, unsuccessful coups and deaths from political violence led to the collapse and decline of the Achaemenid government. Keywords: Achaemenid, Consolidation of Power, Legal Separation, On the other hand, one of the most important results of political Political Instability, David Saunders stability can be found in the concept of legitimacy. In other words, governments that somehow succeed in creating legitimacy will also Introduction have good gains in stabilizing the political system. Thus, in the The concept of political stability is one of the most important and political term, the legitimacy and political stability is unique being fundamental terms and concepts of political science, and especially in which the leaders and rulers of society can come to power with political thought [1]. the public beliefs or the majority of society people at a given time and place which result of this belief is in the right to command for In general, the concept of stability and instability is identified with leaders and the duty to command members of society with citizens. four characteristics. The first characteristic, value and normative, The root of today's use of the legitimacy word goes back to the and the second characteristic, is relative. The third characteristic is middle Ages. Before that time, however, the word righteousness was the degree of affinity and distance from some characteristics and meant to be true in the writings of philosophers and thinkers. The the fourth feature is timing. In its operational definition, some mean essence of legitimacy at that time has been around removing chaos the order in the course of political interactions, some in the sense and establishing order and stability [3]. Therefore, the legitimacy and of political institutionalization, some predictable political behavior, political stability in the theologians' discourse was placed in a state some of the other continuity and continuity of the political system, of sanctity and a connection to the divine domain. While legitimacy and some in the sense of the absence of violence, some in the in contemporary times, especially in Western political literature, sense of The existence of a regime of law, a group means a lack of indicates the satisfaction of citizens with the authority of government structural and other changes in the sense of a combination of previous and, in other words, the acceptance of government with citizens [4]. topics have received a special attention. In general, the definition of stability, while not having conflicts with transformation, must also One of the dynasties of powerful governments that reigned in the entail the survival of the system [2]. history of Iran was the Achaemenids. The dynasty was named as the J Huma Soci Scie, 2019 www.opastonline.com Volume 2 | Issue 2 | 1 of 8 world's largest empire in terms of the world's population, in which this method to understand the readers' minds and to better understand more than 49 million people from the 112 million world population the causes of political instability in the Achaemenid kings. lived in this empire. In the era of the Achaemenid kings, about thirty different nations were under the banner of this empire [5]. Previous Works The way of governing this dynasty has been such that religious and 1. Shoja Ahmadv and, Mohammad Ismail Nozari, and Nima racial tolerance and religiousness are its hallmarks. For this reason, Jebrayeli, in a paper entitled Understanding the Evolution of the a very important part of the forces under the reign of this dynasty Myth of the Farah Izadi from the Sassanid Era to the Islamic Era, first was informed with the satisfaction of the Achaemenid kings [6]. raise the issue that the Farah Izadi myth is one of the most important pillars of ancient Iranian political thought and thought and one of the Another approach to political stability and the growing development main components of the concept of the ideal king. This myth had the of power among the Achaemenid kings has been the concept of legitimacy of political functions, gradually undergoing a semantic Farrah Izadi, which is somewhat derived from the religious shackles evolution. The main question of the present study is what was the of Ahura Mazda. In fact, the concept of Farrah Izadi was a concept mechanism of this semantic evolution and content transformation? that established the legitimacy of the Iranian kings. Farah Izadi, as In this paper, this issue is examined through an analytical-conceptual a concept that considered the kings as representatives of God in approach based on empirical and empathetic understanding of the the earth, allowed them to rule. Therefore, the central state of the historical evidence under the conceptual sociological approach. discourse of the kingdom in ancient Persia is the presence of the king At the same time, the conceptual framework of Austin's theory of as the representative of the gods on earth and the organizing people's speech action and the sociology of meaningful action is based on lives based on the wishes of the gods, so the king is the ruler of the Peter Winch's views on data collection and library methods. As a laws of the gods on earth. In this discourse, the kingdom finds the result, the Farah myth, within the framework of the Sassanid Era divine origin through the religious worldview to guide the affairs cultural rules, possessed cosmological, mythology contents, and of the world. In the texts of the Achaemenid kings, they attribute social meanings with a collapse of Sasanian to revitalize its political victories and great deeds to Ahoura Mazda. The King is the epitome functions, while losing many of its social functions and consequently of Ahura Mazda and the gods and their behavior is the shadow of not deep social understanding has undergone various changes in the exemplary sacred and generally pious human being, the sacred terms of form and content. caliph on earth. As stated in the Pahlavi treatise on the Matikan Yosht 2. Shoja Ahmadvand and Hossein Amanloo in an article titled Fryan, the King is the closest to Ahura Nazda and Amshaspandan "Recognition of the Discourse of the Shah's Identity in Ancient [7]. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the Achaemenid government Persia ", tried to recognize King's identity in the political thought was the first example of a centralized empire that did not compete of ancient Iran using the method of discourse analysis. The authors before and even 200 years after its founding. Hence, it is important initially argue that the foundation of ancient Iranian political thought to know why this government that has remained stable for more is based on the principle of the heavenly order and the political than two centuries and it has once been extinct. Another interesting model of the political system, which is based on the idea of the point is the importance of this study for the development of national affairs of the people on the basis of the ideal of ideal king as the studies on good governance. It may be possible to obtain a historical agent of the implementation of ideal intentions. Then the authors basis for assessing the validity and selection of good governance continue to believe that the Shah, in ancient Persia, executes the by studying its favorable structural and behavioral dimensions and most perfect people and the representative of the gods on earth, characteristics in the cultural, political, and economic area of society, heavenly laws. This paper addresses the question of how the ideals especially in the Kamyai and Firuzi periods.