sentences:  holds that both the ruling class and basic elements of the population were Iranian.From the 10th to the late 7th centuries BC, the western parts of Media fell under the domination of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire based in northern Mesopotamia, which stretched from Cyprus in the west, to parts of western Iran in the east, and Egypt and the north of the Arabian Peninsula.Assyrian kings such as Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal and Ashur-etil-ilani imposed "Vassal Treaties" upon the Median rulers, and also protected them from predatory raids by marauding Scythians and Cimmerians.