MEIDTERM EXAMINATION ASIAN CIVILIZATION

1. Nebuchadnezzar II - was king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, who reigned c. 605 BC 562 BC. According to the Bible, he conquered Judah and Jerusalem, and sent the Jews into exile. He is credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and also known for the destruction of the First Temple. He is featured in the Book of Daniel and is also mentioned in several other books of the Bible. The Akkadian name, Nab-kudurri-uur, means "Oh god Nabu, preserve/defend my firstborn son". Nabu is the Babylonian deity of wisdom, and son of the god Marduk. In an inscription, Nebuchadnezzar styles himself as Nabu's beloved and favourite. 2. Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids - was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but the Al Andalus region. 3. Kurdish people, or Kurds - are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They speak the Kurdish language, which is a member of the Iranian branch of Indo-European languages. 4. Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code, dating to ca. 1700 BCE (short chronology). It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code, and partial copies exist on a human-sized stone stele and various clay tablets. The Code consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (lex talionis) as graded depending on social status, of slave versus free man. 5. Mesopotamia ("land of rivers") - is a toponym for the area of the TigrisEuphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran. 6. Babylon - was an Akkadian city-state (founded in 1867 BC by an Amorite dynasty) of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers (55 mi) south of Baghdad. Babylon, along with Assyria to the north, was one of the two Akkadian nations that evolved after the collapse of the Akkadian Empire, although it was rarely ruled by native Akkadians. All that remains of the original ancient famed city of Babylon today is a mound, or tell, of broken mud-brick buildings and debris in the fertile Mesopotamian plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city itself was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. 7. Cuneiform script - is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium (the Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the three millennia the script spanned, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use also grew gradually smaller, from about 1,000 unique characters in the Early

Bronze Age to about 400 unique characters in Late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform). 8. Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literature. Scholars believe that it originated as a series of Sumerian legends and poems about the protagonist of the story, Gilgamesh king of Uruk, which were fashioned into a longer Akkadian epic much later. The most complete version existing today is preserved on 12 clay tablets from the library collection of 7th-century BC Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. The epic was originally titled He who Saw the Deep (Sha naqba muru) or Surpassing All Other Kings (Shtur eli sharr), which are the first few words of the epic in different versions. 9. Faisal II - (May 2, 1935 July 14, 1958) was the last King of Iraq. He reigned from 4 April 1939 until July 1958, when he was killed during the "14 July Revolution" together with several members of his family. Faisal's regicide marked the end of the thirty-seven year old Hashemite monarchy in Iraq, which became a republic. 10. Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (28 April 1937 30 December 2006) - was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Ba'ath Party, which espoused a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to long-term power.

II. 1. Iraq has the common epithet, the "Cradle of Civilization", as it was home to the earliest known civilization, the Sumerian civilization, which arose in the fertile Tigris-Euphrates river valley of southern Iraq in the Chalcolithic (Ubaid period). It was here in the late 4th millennium BC, that the world's first writing system and recorded history itself were born. The Sumerian civilization flourished for over 3,000 years and was succeeded by the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC. Over two centuries of Akkadian dominance was followed by a Sumerian Renaissance in the 21st century BC. An Elamite invasion in 2004 BC brought the Third Dynasty of Ur to an end. By the 18th century BC, a new civilization, Babylonia, had risen to dominance in central and southern Iraq while a contemporaneous state, Assyria, had formed in northern Iraq. 2. Army officers with ties to the Ba'ath Party overthrew Qasim in a coup in 1963. Ba'athist leaders were appointed to the cabinet and Abdul Salam Arif became president. Arif dismissed and arrested the Ba'athist leaders later that year. Saddam returned to Iraq, but was imprisoned in 1964. Just prior to his imprisonment and until 1968, Saddam held the position of Ba'ath party secretary.ian He escaped from prison in 1967 and quickly became a leading member of the party. In 1968, Saddam participated in a bloodless coup led by Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr that overthrew Abdul Rahman Arif. Al-Bakr was named president and Saddam was named his deputy, and deputy chairman of the Baathist Revolutionary Command Council. 3.Five hours after the first attacks, Iraq's state radio broadcast a voice identified as Saddam Hussein declaring that "The great duel, the mother of all battles has begun. The dawn of victory nears as this great showdown begins." Iraq responded by launching eight Al Hussein missiles into Israel the next day. These missile attacks on Israel were to continue throughout the six weeks of the war.

III. 1. Persia - The 18th largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), Iran has a population of around 78 million. It is a country of particular geostrategic significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. 2. Abadan - is a city in the Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran. It lies on Abadan Island (68 km/42 mi long, 319 km or 212 miles wide, the island is bounded in the west by the Arvand waterway and to the east by the Bahmanshir outlet of the Karun River), 53 kilometres (33 mi) from the Persian Gulf,near the Iraqi-Iran border. 3. Tehran - sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With a population of 8,429,807, it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city. 4. Shia Islam - is the second largest denomination of Islam, after Sunni Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'ites or Shias. "Shia" is the short form of the historic phrase meaning "followers of Ali", "faction of Ali", or "party of Ali". 5. Mullah - is generally used to refer to a Muslim man, educated in Islamic theology and sacred law. The title, given to some Islamic clergy, is derived from the Arabic word, meaning "vicar", "master" and "guardian". In large parts of the Muslim world, particularly Iran, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Turkey, Central Asia, Somalia and South Asia, it is the name commonly given to local Islamic clerics or mosque leaders. 6. Cyrus II of Persia - (c. 600 BC or 576 BC530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire.Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, parts of Europe and Caucasus. From the Mediterranean sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen. 7. Achaemenid Empire -(c. 550330 BCE), known as the first Persian Empire, was the successor state of the Median Empire, expanding to eventually rule over significant portions of the ancient world which at around 500 BCE stretched from the Indus Valley in the east, to Thrace and Macedon on the northeastern border of Greece.The Achaemenid Empire would eventually control Egypt, encompassing some 1,000,000 square miles (2,600,000 km2) unified by a complex network of roads and, ruled by monarchs, to become the greatest empire the world had yet seen. 8. Darius - is a male given name, etymologically it is the English transliteration of the Persian name, Dariush, its meaning is "he possesses" or "rich and kingly". 9. Seleucid Empire - was created out of the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan. 10. Parthia - is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire.The name "Parthia" is a continuation from Latin Parthia, from Old Persian Parthava, which was the Parthian language self-designator

signifying "of the Parthians" who were an Iranian people. 11. Ardeshir - is Middle Persian for "whose reign is through arda (truth)" and may refer to: Ardashir I, r. 224241, founder of the Sassanid Empire Ardashir II, r. 379383, son of Hormizd II and successor of Shapur II "the Great" Ardashir III, r. 628630, the youngest of the Sassanid kings Artaxerxes (disambiguation) (the Old Persian equivalent of "Ardeshir"), several emperors of the Achaemenid Empire Ardashir Orontid, Armenian King from the Orontid Dynasty 12. Sassanid Empire - (also spelled Sasanid Empire, Sassanian Empire, or Sasanian Empire), known to its inhabitants as rnshahr and rn in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran, was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651. The Sassanid Empire, which succeeded the Parthian Empire, was recognized as one of the two main powers in Western Asia and Europe, alongside the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire, for a period of more than 400 years. 13. Zoroastrianism (or Mazdaism)- is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra, in Avestan) and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Persia (Iran). 14. Bahai Faith - is a monotheistic religion founded by Bah'u'llh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bah's around the world in more than 200 countries and territories. 15. Ferdowsi - also Firdausi; 9401020 CE) was a highly revered Persian poet. He was the author of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran and related societies. 16. Reza Pahlavi - born October 31, 1960) is the last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran and current head of the House of Pahlavi. He is the older son of the late Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his Shahbanou Farah Pahlavi. In 1979, Reza Pahlavi left Iran at the time of the Iranian Revolution. 17. Ayatollah khomeini - was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. Following the revolution and a national referendum, Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader a position created in the constitution as the highest ranking political and religious authority of the nation until his death.

IV. 1. From the humble brick, to the windmill, Persians have mixed creativity with art and offered the world numerous contributions. What follows is a list of just a few examples of the cultural contributions of Greater Persia. (10,000 BC) - Earliest known domestication of the goat.

(6000 BC) - The modern brick. Some of the oldest bricks found to date are Persian, from c. 6000 BC. (~5000 BC) - Invention of Wine. Discovery made by University of Pennsylvania excavations at Hajji Firuz Tepe in northwestern Iran. (5000 BC) - Invention of the Tar (lute), which led to the development of the guitar. (3000 BC) - The ziggurat. The Sialk ziggurat, according to the Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran, predates that of Ur or any other of Mesopotamia's 34 ziggurats. (2500 BC) - First Banking System of the World, at the time of the Achaemenid, establishment of Governmental Banks to help farmers at the time of drought, floods, and other natural disasters in form of loans and forgiveness loans to restart their farms and husbandries. These Governmental Banks were effective in different forms until the end of Sassanian Empire before invasion of Arabs to Persia. 2. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger community of the two arising from the Ahmadiyya movement and is guided by the Khalifa (Caliph), currentlyKhalifatul Masih V, who is the spiritual leader of Ahmadis and the successor to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He is called the Khalifatul Masih(successor of the Messiah). 3. Hardliners in Iran have continued to reaffirm the death sentence. In early 2005, Khomeini's fatw was reaffirmed by Iran's current spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.Additionally, the Revolutionary Guards have declared that the death sentence on him is still valid. Iran has rejected requests to withdraw the fatw on the basis that only the person who issued it may withdraw it,and the person who issued it Ayatollah Khomeini has been dead since 1989. 4. By mid-December the shah's position had deteriorated to the point where he "wanted only to be allowed to stay in Iran." He was turned down by the opposition. In late December, "he agreed to leave the country temporarily; still he was turned down." On January 16, 1979 the Shah and the empress left Iran. Scenes of spontaneous joy followed and "within hours almost every sign of the Pahlavi dynasty" was destroyed. 5. It is believed that key concepts of Zoroastrian eschatology and demonology have had influence on the Abrahamic religions.On the other hand, Zoroastrianism itself inherited ideas from other belief systems and, like other "practiced" religions, accommodates some degree of syncretism. 6. The Bahai Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bah'u'llh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahai is around the world in more than 200 countries and territories.In the Bahai Faith, religious history is seen to have unfolded through a series of divine messengers, each of whom established a religion that was suited to the needs of the time and the capacity of the people. These messengers have included Abraham, the Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and others, and most recently the Bb and Bah'u'llh. In Bahai belief, each consecutive messenger prophesied of messengers to follow, and Bah'u'llh's life and teachings fulfilled the end-time promises of previous scriptures. Humanity is understood to be in a process of collective evolution, and the need of the present time is for the gradual establishment of peace, justice and unity on a global scale.