Medes

The Medes (/miːdz/, Old Persian Māda-, Ancient Greek: Μῆδοι, Hebrew: מָדַי) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in an area known as Media (Northwestern Iran) and who spoke the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of migrating Iranic Aryan tribes into Ancient Iran from the late 2nd millennium BCE (circa 1000 BC) (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE (circa 900 BC).

This period of migration coincided with a power vacuum in the Near East, with the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC) which had dominated northwestern Iran and eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus going into a comparative decline, allowing new peoples to pass through and settle. In addition, Elam, the dominant power in Ancient Iran was suffering a period of severe weakness, as was Babylonia to the west.

From the 10th to late 7th centuries BCE, the western parts of Media fell under the domination of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire based in northern Mesopotamia, but which stretched from Cyprus to Ancient Iran, and from the Caucasus to Egypt and Arabia. Assyrian kings such as Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal and Ashur-etil-ilani imposed Vassal Treaties upon the Median rulers, and also protected them from predatory raids by marauding Scythian and Cimmerian hordes.

Medes (disambiguation)

Medes can refer to the Medes, an ancient Iranian people. It can also refer to:

People

Places

Other

See also

Medgyesegyháza

Medgyesegyháza (Slovak: Medeš) is a town in Békés County, in the Southern Great Plain region of south-east Hungary.

Geography

It covers an area of 64.32 km² and has a population of 3891 people (2008).

Sister cities

Medgyesegyháza is twinned with:

Kolárovo, Slovakia

See also

Coordinates: 46°30′N 21°02′E / 46.50°N 21.03°E / 46.50; 21.03