Bistun Inscription; First Memoir of Iran’s Kings

Iranian professor of ancient languages and culture said that Bistun Inscription narrates the story of Darius coronation and his kingdom. The Inscription is noteworthy and it is indeed considered as the first memoirs of ancient Iran’s kings.

IBNA: Iranian professor of ancient languages and culture Mahmoud Jafari said: “Before Darius the Great’s Bistun Inscription, several other famous inscriptions were left from the ancient era. Writing inscriptions was one of the methods of reporting the events and the biographies of the ancient era’s kings and dignitaries. Before Iran, the method was also prevalent in Mesopotamia.”

“Iranians gradually started to follow the method, and created their own style. The Cyrus Cylinder was the Achaemenid era’s noted inscription however Darius the Great’s Inscription was the first one in the ancient era holding memories.”, he added.

The Bistun Inscription includes three versions of the same text, written in three different cuneiform script languages: Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian (a later form of Akkadian).

Authored by Darius the Great sometime between his coronation as king of the Persian Empire in the summer of 522 BC and his death in autumn of 486 BC, the inscription begins with a brief autobiography of Darius, including his ancestry and lineage. Later in the inscription, Darius provides a lengthy sequence of events following the deaths of Cyrus the Great and Cambyses II in which he fought nineteen battles in a period of one year (ending in December 521 BC) to put down multiple rebellions throughout the Persian Empire. The inscription states in detail that the rebellions, which had resulted from the deaths of Cyrus the Great and his son Cambyses II, were orchestrated by several impostors and their co-conspirators in various cities throughout the empire, each of whom falsely proclaimed kinghood during the upheaval following Cyrus's death.

Jafari then talked about the inscriptions of the Sasanian Empire and said that significant inscriptions are related to the era which match the style of the Achaemenid era. The most famous one is Shapour's inscription in the Zoroaster's chief temple. The building is located in Fars and the researchers believe that religious and political documents were kept in it. In the inscription, Shapour describes his battles with the Romans and his victories. Shapour's Inscription presents geographical data.