tribal confederation · Mesopotamia and Iran

Parsua

843 BCE – 700 BCE (approx.)

A Zagros land of many small chiefdoms first named in 843 BCE, whose name may be the earliest mention of the Persians.

Origins

Parsua (Parsuash) is first recorded in 843 BCE in the annals of Shalmaneser III of the Assyrian Empire, who in 835 BCE received tribute from 27 kings of Parsua. It lay in the central Zagros, probably near the upper Diyala and Kermanshah region.

Rule and society

Parsua was not a unified kingdom but a cluster of chiefdoms under local lords who paid horses and livestock to Assyria. The similarity of the name to Parsa, the Persians, has led many historians to connect Parsua with early Iranian groups who later settled in Fars, but whether the same people moved south, or the name simply meant 'borderland', is debated.

Decline and legacy

Tiglath-Pileser III turned Parsua into an Assyrian province in 744 BCE, and it remained in the Assyrian Empire until the rise of the Median Empire. The Persians of Fars, rulers of the later Kingdom of Anshan, may preserve its name.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (1)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Parsua. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/parsua
MLA
“Parsua.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/parsua. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Parsua.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/parsua.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Parsua’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/parsua (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻