Origin

Persia

Persia (modern Iran) has one of the oldest continuous military traditions in the world. The Persian Immortals used spears, bows, and wicker shields. Later Persian and Safavid forces adopted curved shamshir sabers, compound bows, and eventually gunpowder weapons from both East and West.

Persian Arms & Weapons

Overview

Persian military power spanned three major imperial periods — Achaemenid (550–330 BCE), Parthian (247 BCE–224 CE), and Sassanid (224–651 CE) — before the Islamic conquest, and continued through the Safavid, Qajar, and Pahlavi dynasties into the modern era. Each period produced distinctive weapon traditions that influenced neighbors from Greece to India to Central Asia.

Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE)

The Immortals

The Achaemenid elite infantry — the Ten Thousand Immortals — were the royal guard and the strike force of the Persian army. They carried:

Spara (wicker shield) — Large wicker and leather shields set in a wall
Takabara (short spear/javelin)
Akinakes (short sword) — A short straight sword used as a sidearm
Composite bow — The decisive Persian ranged weapon; Persian infantry were primarily archers

Scythed Chariot

The Achaemenids deployed war chariots with scythes mounted on the wheel hubs, designed to scatter infantry formations. They were spectacularly effective psychologically but could be defeated by disciplined infantry who opened lanes to let the chariots through.

Parthian and Sassanid Empires

Cataphract Cavalry

Both Parthian and Sassanid armies relied heavily on cataphracts — heavily armored cavalry where both horse and rider wore iron lamellar or mail armor. These heavily armed shock cavalry were the forerunner of the European medieval knight.

Parthian Shot

Parthian horse archers were famous for the Parthian shot — firing the composite bow backward while in a feigned retreat, a tactic that destroyed Roman armies at Carrhae (53 BCE).

Sassanid Arms

Sassanid cavalry carried:

Kontos — A heavy lance 3.5–4.5 meters long, couched under the arm
Shamshir (early form) — A curved saber
Composite bow — Still the dominant Persian ranged weapon

The Shamshir

The Persian shamshir — a deeply curved single-edged saber with a near-circular arc — became the definitive blade of the Islamic world. The curve is so pronounced that the shamshir is primarily a cutting and drawing weapon; it has almost no point for thrusting. The shamshir influenced the Turkish kilij, Indian talwar, and Mamluk sabers.

This article is a stub.

Improve this article

Battles & Operations

Battle of Thermopylae (August or September 480 BC)

The Battle of Thermopylae was fought in late summer 480 BC in the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae in central Greece, where a Greek force of about 7,000 under the Spartan king Leonidas held back the invading army of the Persian king Xerxes for three days. When a local man showed the Persians a mountain path around the pass, Leonidas sent most of the Greeks away and stayed with his 300 Spartans, the Thespians and the Thebans. They were killed almost to a man, and their last stand became the Western world's most famous example of courage against hopeless odds.