MEDIA, the ancient name of the north-western part of Iran, the country of the Medes, corresponding to the modern provinces of Azerbaijan, Ardelan, Irak Ajemi, and parts of Kurdistan. It is separated from Armenia and the lowlands on the Tigris (As syria) by the mighty ranges of the Zagrus (mountains of Kurdis tan; in the northern parts probably called Choatras, Plin., v. 98), and in the north by the valley of the Araxes (Aras). In the east it extends towards the Caspian sea ; but the high chains of moun tains which surround the Caspian sea (the Parachoathras of the ancients and the Elbrus) separate it from the coast, and the narrow plains on the border of the sea (Gilan, the country of the Gelae and Amardi, and Mazandaran, in ancient times inhabited by the Tapuri) cannot be reckoned as part of Media proper. The greater part of Media is a mountainous plateau, about 3,000– 5,00oft. above the sea; but it contains some fertile plain,s. The climate is temperate, with cold winters, in strong contrast to the damp and unwholesome air of the shores of the Caspian, where the mountains are covered with a rich vegetation. Media contains only one river, which reaches the sea, the Sefid Rud (Amardus), which flows into the Caspian; but a great many streams are ex hausted after a short course, and in the north-west is a large lake, the lake of Urumiah or Urmia.' From the mountains in the west spring some great tributaries of the Tigris, viz. the Diyala (Gyn des) and the Kerkheh (Choaspes). Towards the south-east Media passes into the great central desert of Iran, which, eastwards of Rhagae (mod. Rai, near Teheran), in the region of the "Caspian gates," reaches to the foot of the Elbrus chain. On a tract of about 150m. the western part of Iran is connected with the east (Khorasan, Parthyaea) only by a narrow district (Choarene and Comisene), where human dwellings and small villages can exist.
The people of the Mada, Medes (the Greek form 1VIC/Sot is Ionian for Maw.) appear in history first in 836 B.C., when the
Assyrian conqueror Shalmaneser II. in his wars against the tribes of the Zagrus received the tribute of the Amadai (this form, with prosthetic a-, which occurs only here, has many analogies in the names of Iranian tribes). His successors undertook many expe ditions against the Medes (Madai). Sargon in 715 B.C. subjected them "to the far mountain Bikni"; i.e., the Elbrus (Demavend) and the borders of the desert, and received the tribute of 28, and in 713 of 46 chieftains; from their names we learn that they were an Iranian tribe and that they had already adopted the religion of Zoroaster. In spite of different attempts of some chieftains to shake off the Assyrian yoke, in connection with the northern bar barism, the Cimmerians and the Ashguza (perhaps the Scythians), who had invaded Armenia and Asia Minor, Media remained trib utary to Assyria under Sargon's successors, Sennacherib, Esar haddon and Assur-banipal.
Herodotus, i. 1o1, gives a list of six Median tribes (14vea), among them the Paraetaceni, the inhabitants of the mountainous highland of Paraetacene, the district of Isfahan, and the Magi; i.e., the Magians, the hereditary caste of the priests, who in Media took the place of the "fire-kindlers" (athravan) of the Zoroas trian religion, and who spread from Media to Persia and to the west. But the Iranian Medes were not the only inhabitants of the country. The names in the Assyrian inscriptions prove that the tribes in the Zagrus and the northern parts of Media were not Iranians nor Indo-Europeans, but an aboriginal population, like the early inhabitants of Armenia, perhaps connected with the numerous tribes of the Caucasus. We can see how the Iranian element gradually became dominant : princes with Iranian names occasionally occur as rulers of these tribes. But the Gelae, Tapuri, Cadusii, Amardi, Utii and other tribes in Northern Media and on the shores of the Caspian were not Iranians.