King Solomon of Israel was probably viewed as some-
thing of an upstart at that time. Israel had been a backwater
dominated by the Sumerian culture. Israel had a social orga-
nization similar to that of southern Mesopotamia. Women
were severely limited in what they could do and were proba-
bly excluded from most religious rituals. Although Solomon’s
kingdom had a strong military force, merchants tended to
dominate social life. Government offi cials seem to have been
preoccupied by tasks intended to smooth trade within Israel
and with other nations. Th e many wives of Solomon were
part of the eff ort to gain protection for Israeli traders; the
wives tended to be political brides, the marriages intended
to cement goodwill between Israel and the kings and queens
who were their parents. Th is was a common practice among
Near Eastern rulers of the time. Among Israel’s commoners
polygamy tended to be reserved for political leaders and the
rich. Enslaved women were oft en kept as concubines.NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Th e culture of the Near East suff ered a signifi cant upheaval
with the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire of 934–612 b.c.e. in
northern Mesopotamia. Assyria of the Old Assyrian Period
(ca. 1813–ca. 1365 b.c.e.) had been primarily a trading em-
pire with customs derived from Sumer, but the new empire
was a military state in which warriors were the elite of soci-
ety. Women were reduced to the status of nonhumans. Th ey
were forced to wear garments that covered them entirely, not
for the sake of modesty but to symbolize their utter lack of
worth. Further, the garments made clear that the women be-
longed to certain men, who were the only ones allowed to see
them without their coverings. Female babies were oft en killed
at birth because only male babies were valued. A woman’s du-
ties consisted of bearing male babies to supply the army and
obeying her husband, father, or brothers in all matters. Th e
Neo-Assyrian social practices toward women infl uenced all
of the Near East and much of central Asia, even pervading
some Hindu sects in India. Th e Neo-Assyrians created such
loathing among their subject peoples that aft er their over-
throw they were hunted down and killed for another 10 years,
until they were exterminated, but the status of women in the
Near East never recovered from their suppression under the
Neo-Assyrian regime.PERSIA
During the reign of Cyrus the Great from 559 to 529 b.c.e.,
Persia (modern-day Iran) conquered much of the Near East.
Th e Persian government typically allowed conquered peoples
to continue to live their lives as they had before, provided they
paid their taxes and supplied soldiers for the Persian army.
Th us, even at this late date, Sumerian customs continued to
be practiced in much of the Near East. Most of what is known
about Persian social customs comes from Greek writers, who
tended to be ver y biased in t heir accounts because Greece and
Persia were bitter enemies. From these Greek authors comes
the image of the decadent oriental potentate, based on theirdepictions of Persian courts as places of idle luxury and lazy
nobility. One Greek historian who provided an alternative
view was Herodotus, in the 400s b.c.e. According to him, the
Persians were courageous fi ghters and intelligent statesmen.
Th e Persian monarch kept himself remote from his sub-
jects, surrounding himself with impressive buildings and
elaborate rituals intended to awe outsiders. He employed many
artists and craft speople who decorated his public works. Th e
Persian social order is not clear to modern historians, but it
seems that aft er the king came nobles, who were born to their
high status. Aft er them came governors of conquered territo-
ries and then offi cials who ran the day-to-day operations of
the government. Among the latter were probably the generals
of Persia’s large armies. Persian rulers were much occupied
with enhancing communications and trade within their em-
pire, which suggests that merchants were important members
of society. Th ere were many slaves, mostly prisoners of war.
Greeks already had settled in parts of the Near East near
the Mediterranean Sea, and they had made themselves nui-
sances to the Persians, sparking wars that made Persians and
Greeks long-term enemies. From 336 to 323 b.c.e. the Mace-
donian king Alexander the Great conquered and occupied
most of the Near East, bringing Greek culture all the way
into India. Out of Alexander’s conquests arose the Seleucid
Kingdom (ca. 311–ca. 140 b.c.e.). Although they were Greek
in outlook, the Seleucid monarchs imitated the trappings of
a Persian court.PARTHIANS
Th e Parthian Empire began in about 250 b.c.e. in north-
eastern Iran, and under Mithridates I (r. 174–136 b.c.e.) the
Parthians supplanted the Seleucids through most of Mesopo-
tamia. Although the Parthians had migrated into Iran from
central Asia and had used Iran as their base for conquering
much of the Near East, they made their capital city of Ctesi-
phon in Mesopotamia, near modern-day Baghdad, and they
ruled their empire as if it were a Mesopotamian one. Th e fi rst
Parthian dynasty, the Arsacids, ruled from about 250 b.c.e.
u nt i l t he y were over t h row n i n 2 2 6 c. e. by p e ople f rom we s ter n
Iran. Th e newcomers founded the Sassanid Dynasty, which
lasted until an invasion by Arabs in the 600s c.e. Although it
is sometimes confusingly called the Persian Empire, the Sas-
sanid Dynasty had little in common with the original Persian
Empire. Like the Arsacids, the Sassanids ruled as a Mesopo-
tamian culture from Ctesiphon.
Th e offi cial language of the Parthians was Greek. Th ey
derived their laws and social customs from the Near Eastern
peoples they conquered, and little is known of their native
customs, which had been replaced by those of Mesopota-
mia. Women had few rights, children were expected to fol-
low the professions of their parents, and local cultures were
compelled to provide the Parthian military with troops. Th e
preoccupation of Parthian monarchs was war, and they oft en
fought Greeks and Romans in the west and nomads from cen-
tral Asia in the east. Despite the emphasis on military con-1022 social organization: The Middle East0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1022 1022 10/10/07 2:30:47 PM