Behistun Inscription in the context of "Old Persian"

Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as ariya (Iranian). Old Persian is close to both Avestan and Vedic Sanskrit, and all three languages are highly inflected.

Old Persian appears primarily in the inscriptions, clay tablets and seals of the Achaemenid era (c. 600 BCE to 300 BCE). Examples of Old Persian have been found in what is now Iran, Romania (Gherla), Armenia, Bahrain, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt, with the most important attestation by far being the contents of the Behistun Inscription (dated to 522 BCE).

Around 535 BCE, the Persian king Cyrus the Great initiated a protracted campaign to absorb parts of India into his nascent Achaemenid Empire. In this initial incursion, the Persian army annexed a large region to the west of the Indus River, consolidating the early eastern borders of their new realm. With a brief pause after Cyrus' death around 530 BCE, the campaign continued under Darius the Great, who began to re-conquer former provinces and further expand the Achaemenid Empire's political boundaries. Around 518 BCE, the Persian army pushed further into India to initiate a second period of conquest by annexing regions up to the Jhelum River in what is today known as Punjab. At peak, the Persians managed to take control of most of modern-day Pakistan and incorporate it into their territory.

The first secure epigraphic evidence through the Behistun Inscription gives a date before or around 518 BCE. Persian penetration into the Indian subcontinent occurred in multiple stages, beginning from the northern parts of the Indus River and moving southward. As mentioned in several Achaemenid-era inscriptions, the Indus Valley was formally incorporated into the Persian realm through provincial divisions: Gandāra, Hindush, and Sattagydia.

Bactria (/ˈbæktriə/; Bactrian: βαχλο, Bakhlo), or Bactriana, was an ancient Iranian civilization in Central Asia, located in the area south of the Oxus River (modern Amu Darya) and north of the Hindu Kush mountains, within modern-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Bactria was strategically located south of Sogdia and west of the Pamir Mountains. These mountain ranges acted as "walls" protecting Bactria from three sides, with the Pamir mountains to the north and the Hindu Kush to the south forming a junction, and the Karakoram range towards the east.

Called "beautiful Bactria, crowned with flags" by the Avesta, the region is considered, in the Zoroastrian faith, to be one of the "sixteen perfect Iranian lands" that the supreme deity, Ahura Mazda, had created. It was once a small and independent kingdom struggling to survive against nomadic Turanians. One of the early centres of Zoroastrianism, and capital of the legendary Kayanian dynasty, Bactria is mentioned in the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great as one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire; it was a special satrapy, ruled by a crown prince or an intended heir. Bactria was the centre of Iranian resistance against the Greek Macedonian invaders after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire in the 4th century BC, but eventually fell to Alexander the Great.

Ahura Mazda (/əˌhʊərə ˈmæzdə/ ə-HOOR-ə MAZ-də), also known as Ormazd and Horomazes, is the principal God and sky deity in Zoroastrianism. He is the first and most frequently invoked spirit in the Yasna. The literal meanings of the words Ahura and Mazda are "lord" and "wisdom", respectively.

The first notable invocation of Ahura Mazda occurred during the Achaemenid period (c. 550–330 BC) with the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great. Until the reign of Artaxerxes II (c. 405/404–358 BC), Ahura Mazda was worshipped and invoked alone in all extant royal inscriptions. With Artaxerxes II, Ahura Mazda was gathered into a triad of deities with Mithra and Anahita. In the Achaemenid period, the only known representation of Ahura Mazda at the royal court was an empty chariot drawn by white horses, which was used to invite Ahura Mazda to accompany the Persian army into battle.

The history of Armenia covers the topics related to the history of the Republic of Armenia, as well as the Armenian people, the Armenian language, and the regions of Eurasia historically and geographically considered Armenian.

Armenia is located between Eastern Anatolia and the Armenian highlands, surrounding the Biblical mountains of Ararat. The endonym of the Armenians is hay, and the old Armenian name for the country is Hayk' (Armenian: Հայք, which also means "Armenians" in Classical Armenian), later Hayastan (Armenian: Հայաստան). Armenians traditionally associate this name with the legendary progenitor of the Armenian people, Hayk. The names Armenia and Armenian are exonyms, first attested in the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great. The early Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi derived the name Armenia from Aramaneak, the eldest son of the legendary Hayk. Various theories exist about the origin of the endonym and exonyms of Armenia and Armenians (see Name of Armenia).

Gandāra, or Gadāra in Achaemenid inscriptions (Old Persian cuneiform: 𐎥𐎭𐎠𐎼, Gadāra, also transliterated as Gaⁿdāra since the nasal "n" before consonants was omitted in the Old Persian script, and simplified as Gandāra or sometimes Gandara) was one of the easternmost provinces of the Achaemenid Empire in South Asia, following the Achaemenid invasion of the Indus Valley. It appears in various Achaemenid inscriptions such as the Behistun Inscription, or the DNa inscription of Darius the Great.

The province was also referred to as Para-uparisaina (Ancient Greek: Παροπαμισάδαι, Paropamisádai; Latin: Paropamisadae) in the Babylonian and Elamite versions of the Behistun inscription. The extent of the province was apparently wider than the actual geographical region of Gandhara.

Sogdia (/ˈsɒɡdiə/) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya rivers, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Empire, and listed on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great. Sogdiana was first conquered by Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, and then was annexed by the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great in 328 BC. It would continue to change hands under the Seleucid Empire, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, the Kushan Empire, the Sasanian Empire, the Hephthalite Empire, the Western Turkic Khaganate, and the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana.

The Sogdian city-states, although never politically united, were centered on the city of Samarkand. Sogdian, an Eastern Iranian language, is no longer spoken. However, a descendant of one of its dialects, Yaghnobi, is still spoken by the Yaghnobis of Tajikistan. It was widely spoken in Central Asia as a lingua franca and served as one of the First Turkic Khaganate's court languages for writing documents.