Young conquerors

[saif]

On my point of view AlexanderGÇÖs age was one of the main reasons to consider him great even to himself to consider himself son of god and / or god.I am 25 and I always thought that If I got the chance earlier I could achieve much more in many fields like science and sports, well I off course can achieve now but what I meant is I and many people can achieve a lot if they got the chance earlier it gives more self confidence and grow your talent faster.
(I am still trying to get my Golf swing right for almost a month of training)And to be a Conqueror or a leader of an army at an age of 16 and a destroyer of an empire at 26 is a great achievement and a rare talent to command and rule.It is interesting to know how much someone at my age or younger did achieve in history.
For example I read about a young conqueror called Muhammad bin Qasim who was a general and conquered northern India when he was only 17.
Another example the Caliph Harun al-rashid (Aaron the Upright) whoGÇÖs at the age of 16 was a leader of the army send to conquer Constantinople and ended up with a peace treaty with the Empress.
(You can find an English biography about them in Wikipedia.)Regards.
saif

[Cyrus]

Alexander conquered Persia as the same age as Darius the Great conquered Macedonia, the interesting thing about Darius the Great is that his father and grandfather served in his army and he and his successors could keep the empire for about 250 years!
What about Shah Ismail (founder of Safavid Empire):"His father as a soldier died in a battle against the Sunnis when Ismail was only a year old. It sounds unbelievable but he was only 12 when he established a base of power in northwestern Iran, in 1501 he took the city of Tabriz and proclaimed himself shah of Iran. In a succession of swift conquests when he was 14 years old he brought all of modern Iran and portions of present-day Iraq under his rule. Ismail moved against the Sunni Uzbek tribes in what is now Uzbekistan. By skillful use of ambush Ismail was able to defeat a 30,000 man Uzbek force with only 15,000 Iranians in a battle near the city of Marv. Muhammad Shaybani, leader of the Uzbeks, was killed trying to escape after the battle."

[Halil]

This is interesting. Who looked after Ismail between the ages of one and 12? And did he lead his troops into battle at that age or did he direct them from a strategic location where he could see how the battle was developing?Halil

[jona]

"Alexander conquered Persia as the same age as Darius the Great conquered Macedonia"If Herodotus is correct, Darius was about twenty in the year of Cyrus's death, 530. If this is correct indeed, Darius was born in 550. His commander Megabazus conquered Thrace in 513. On a generous interpretation of this evidence, Darius was 37 when he gained influence in Macedonia.The Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions do not contradict this; in fact, Macedonia is not mentioned as part of the Achaemenid Empire before 492 (Naqsg-e Rustam Upper Inscription).However, perhaps there is evidence that Darius was born in, say 545; perhaps Herodotus is simply wrong. That would not surprise me at all.Jona

[Halil]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SafavidFor those interested in discussing this topic, there is a discussion board located at the above link where you can post opinions about Shah Ismail, his empire, policies and achievements.Cheers
Halil

[jona]

"the interesting thing about Darius the Great is that his father and grandfather served in his army and he and his successors could keep the empire for about 250 years!"Even better: it survived. The empire of Seleucus is essentially nothing but a continuation of the Persian empire with a different dynasty. If you read the Astronomical Diaries -which are, admittedly, quite boring- you will see that there is a lot of continuity.Jona

[saif]

History is a very wide and huge subject and when I was at school from grade 3 to grade 12 I never heard of lots of kingdoms and empires who had achieved a lot in many fields like art, science, math...Etc
The Safavid Empire is one of them, I just knew about it (the history education system we have is not that good)
The Safavid Empire seemed to be a very powerful state since it stood against the Ottoman who was very powerful at the time of Salim I and his son Suleiman alqanooni (Solomon the magnificent) and to stand against such strong empire means that the Safavid were as strong.

[Cyrus]

"Who looked after Ismail between the ages of one and 12?"Until 6 years old, he was in the prison with his Greek mother, Martha and two elder brothers (Ali and Ibrahim), Martha and Ali were killed, Ibrahim and Islamil fled to the Gilan but Ibrahim was also killed and Ismail was grown up in Gilan between a guerrilla group."And did he lead his troops into battle at that age or did he direct them from a strategic location where he could see how the battle was developing?"He certainly led his troops, he was wounded many times in the battles and even once captured!

[ancientlibrary]

"If you read the Astronomical DiariesGÇöwhich
are, admittedly, quite boringGÇöyou will see that
there is a lot of continuity.".
I'll bet the weather reporting on Iraq TV hasn't
changed much either.

[yiannis]

It wasn't possible at that time for Generals/kings to observe the battle from a certain location and direct the movements of their troops. Once the battle had started, they had no opportunity to affect it's cource, since communications weren't advanced.
So if a general chose to sit on a hil and observe the battle that was all that he would do: observe.
Alexander of course (as was the tradition in the Greek world) would be at the heat of the battle, encouraging and leading his men!

[jona]

In fact it did. The AD give indications for the water level in the Euphrates, and it appears that the climate was (in Alexander's days) more humid than today, and a bit colder. This corroborates what we know from other evidence: that the reign of Alexander coincided with an abrupt climatic change.J

[ancientlibrary]

Ha. Touch+¬. Maybe we should try to come up
with some reasons. Do all-night drinking parties
release fluorocarbons?

[marcus]

"Do all night drinking parties release fluorocarbons?"Excellent! LOLMarcus

[beausefaless]

Yes I believe they do! There's nothing more pollutant than wine-farts. I mean really think about it, why was it so easy to burn Persepolis, plenty of toxic fumes and torches; Hence we have human flamethrowers, the secret ingredience for "Greek Fire!"Andrew