”Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings” by Abolqasem Ferdowsi. Translated by Dick Davis.

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DESCRIPTION: HUGE hardcover w/dustjacket. Publisher: Viking (2006). Pages: 928. Size: 9½ x 6¼ x 2¼ inches; 3¼ pounds. Summary: Among the great works of world literature, perhaps one of the least familiar to English readers is the “Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings”, the national epic of Persia. This prodigious narrative, composed by the poet Ferdowsi between the years 980 and 1010, tells the story of pre- Islamic Iran, beginning in the mythic time of Creation and continuing forward to the Arab invasion in the seventh century.

As a window on the world, Shahnameh belongs in the company of such literary masterpieces as Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, the plays of Shakespeare, the epics of Homer’s classics whose reach and range bring whole cultures into view. In its pages are unforgettable moments of national triumph and failure, human courage and cruelty, blissful love and bitter grief.

In tracing the roots of Iran, Shahnameh initially draws on the depths of legend and then carries its story into historical times, when ancient Persia was swept into an expanding Islamic empire. Now Dick Davis, the greatest modern translator of Persian poetry, has revisited that poem, turning the finest stories of Ferdowsi’s original into an elegant combination of prose and verse. For the first time in English, in the most complete form possible, readers can experience Shahnameh in the same way that Iranian storytellers have lovingly conveyed it in Persian for the past thousand years.

CONDITION: LIKE NEW. Unread (and in that sense "new") albeit "remaindered" (marked as unsold surplus) hardcover with (faintly shelfworn) dustjacket. Viking (2006) 928 pages. Unblemished in every respect EXCEPT that there is very faint edge and corner shelfwear to dustjacket and covers (more on that hereinbelow) AND there is a black remainder mark (a longish line drawn with a black marker) on the bottom edge of the closed page edges indicating that the book is unsold surplus inventory. The "remainder mark" (black marker line) is not visible of course on individual opened pages, only to the mass of closed page edges (sometimes referred to as the "page block"). Inside the book is pristine. The pages are clean, crisp, unmarked, unmutilated, tightly bound, unambiguously unread. From the outside the dustjacket and covers do evidence very faint edge and corner shelfwear, principally in the form of very faint crinkling at the spine head and heel. And by "faint", we mean precisely that, literally. It requires that you hold the book up to a light source, tilting it this way and that so as to catch the reflected light, and scrutinize it quite intently to discern the very, very faint crinkling. Condition is entirely consistent with new (albeit "remaindered") stock from a traditional brick-and-mortar shelved bookstore environment such as Borders, Barnes & Noble, or B. Dalton for example), where otherwise "new" (albeit "remaindered"; i.e. surplus unsold) books might show faint signs of shelfwear simply as a consequence of routine handling. Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments, no excuses. HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE-FREE PACKAGING! Meticulous and accurate descriptions! Selling rare and out-of-print ancient history books on-line since 1997. We accept returns for any reason within 30 days! #455a.

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PUBLISHER REVIEWS:

REVIEW: A new translation of the late-tenth-century Persian epic follows its story of pre-Islamic Iran's mythic time of Creation through the seventh-century Arab invasion, tracing ancient Persia's incorporation into an expanding Islamic empire. 15,000 first printing.

REVIEW: Ferdowsi’s classic poem Shahnameh is part myth, part history. It begins with the legend of the birth of the Persian nation and its tumultuous history. It contains magical birds and superhuman heroes and centuries-long battles. Written over 1,000 years ago, it was meant to protect Persian collective memory amidst a turbulent sea of cultural storms.

REVIEW: The definitive translation by Dick Davis of the great national epic of Iran, now newly revised and expanded to be the most complete English-language edition, has revised and expanded his acclaimed translation of Ferdowsi's masterpiece, adding more than seventy pages of newly translated text. Davis's elegant combination of prose and verse allows the poetry of the Shahnameh to sing its own tales directly, interspersed sparingly with clearly marked explanations to ease along modern readers.

Originally composed for the Samanid princes of Khorasan in the tenth century, the Shahnameh is among the greatest works of world literature. This prodigious narrative tells the story of pre-Islamic Persia, from the mythical creation of the world and the dawn of Persian civilization through the seventh-century Arab conquest. The stories of the Shahnameh are deeply embedded in Persian culture and beyond, as attested by their appearance in such works as The Kite Runner and the love poems of Rumi and Hafez.

For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world.

REVIEW: The greatest modern translator of Persian poetry revisits the literary masterpiece that tells the story of pre-Islamic Iran, beginning in the mythic time of Creation and continuing forward to the Arab invasion in the seventh century. Illustrations throughout.

REVIEW: Dick Davis brings a unique array of gifts to the challenges of translating Hafez and his contemporaries. In his own right, he is a poet of great technical accomplishment and emotional depth. He is also the foremost English-speaking scholar of medieval Persian poetry now working in the West. Numerous honors testify to his talents. In the U.K., he received the Royal Society of Literature’s Heinemann Award for his second book of poems, Seeing the World, in 1981; his Selected Poems was chosen by both the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph as a Book of the Year in 1989; and his collection Belonging was selected as the Poetry Book of the Year by The Economist in 2003. In the U.S., A Kind of Love—the American edition of his Selected Poems—received the Ingram Merrill prize for “excellence in poetry” in 1993.

He has received awards for his scholarship from the Arts Council of Great Britain, The British Institute of Persian Studies, and the Guggenheim Foundation, and he is the recipient of grants for his translations from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Twice, in 2000 and 2001, he received the Translation Award of the International Society for Iranian Studies, and in 2001 he received an Encyclopedia Iranica award for “services to Persian poetry.” His translation of Ferdowsi’s “Shahnameh: the Persian Book of Kings” was chosen as one of the “ten best books of 2006” by the Washington Post.

Davis read English at Cambridge, lived in Iran for eight years (he met and married his Iranian wife Afkham Darbandi there), then completed a PhD in Medieval Persian Literature at the University of Manchester. He has resided for extended periods in both Greece and Italy (his translations include works from Italian), and has taught at both the University of California and at Ohio State University, where he was for nine years Professor of Persian and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages, retiring from that position in 2012. In all, he has published more than twenty books.

Among the qualities that distinguish his poetry and scholarship are exacting technical expertise and wide cultural sympathy—an ability to enter into distant cultural milieus both intellectually and emotionally. In choosing his volume of poems Belonging as a “Book of the Year” for 2006, The Economist praised it as “a profound and beautiful collection” that gave evidence of “a commitment to an ideal of civilized life shared by many cultures.” the Times Literary Supplement has called him “our finest translator of Persian poetry”.

REVIEW: Abolqasem Ferdowsi was born in Khorasan in a village near Tus in 940. His great epic, Shahnameh, was originally composed for the Samanid princes of Khorasan. Ferdowsi died around 1020 in poverty.

Dick Davis is currently professor of Persian at Ohio State University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His translations from Persian include The Lion and the Throne, Fathers and Sons, Sunset of Empire: Stories from the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, Volumes I, II, III.

Azar Nafisi is the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, an international bestseller.

REVIEW: [From the Author] The ancient legends of the Persian Book of Kings (Shahnameh) were versified by Abolqasem Ferdowsi (940-1020 AD), who was born to a family of small landowners near the city of Tus, in northeastern Iran. He dedicated thirty-three years of his life to Shahnameh and finished its second redaction one thousand and three years ago, in March 1010.

Shahnameh is of the essence of Iranian nationhood. Unlike the Egyptian, Syrian, and other North African populations of the Roman Empire that were thoroughly Arabized after their Islamic conquest in the seventh century AD, Persians were able to hold on to their language and calendar even after they converted to Islam. It has been argued that this was made possible because the Iranians' national identity was not fully invested in their pre-Islamic faith. Rather, it resided in a secular body of myth and legend that they preserved and which later would form the basis of Ferdowsi's great work.

To this day men, women, and children in Persianate societies from Asia Minor to China are able to recite lines of Shahnameh by heart. The book continues to be read in family gatherings and performed by professional reciters in the teahouses of Tajikistan, Iran, and Afghanistan.

REVIEW: Abolqasem Ferdowsi, the son of a wealthy land owner, was born in 935 in a small village named Paj near Tus in Khorasan which is situated in today's Razavi Khorasan province in Iran. He devoted more than 35 years to his great epic, the “Shāhnāmeh”. It was originally composed for presentation to the Samanid princes of Khorasan, who were the chief instigators of the revival of Iranian cultural traditions after the Arab conquest of the seventh century.

Ferdowsi started his composition of the Shahnameh in the Samanid era in 977 A.D. During Ferdowsi's lifetime the Samanid dynasty was conquered by the Ghaznavid Empire. After 30 years of hard work, he finished the book and two or three years after that, Ferdowsi went to Ghazni, the Ghaznavid capital, to present it to the king, Sultan Mahmud.

Ferdowsi is said to have died around 1020 in poverty at the age of 85, embittered by royal neglect, though fully confident of his work's ultimate success and fame, as he says in the verse: " ... I suffered during these thirty years, but I have revived the Iranians (Ajam) with the Persian language; I shall not die since I am alive again, as I have spread the seeds of this language ..."

REVIEW: A little over a thousand years ago the Persian poet Ferdowsi of Tous collected and put into heroic verse the millennium-old mythological and epic traditions of Iran. It took him thirty years to write the sixty thousand verses that comprise the Shahnameh or "The Book of Kings." This monumental work begins with legends of the birth of the Persian nationhood and ends with the Arab conquest of Iran. Written in the aftermath of that national trauma, Shahnameh was meant to harbor the Persian collective memory, language, and culture in a turbulent sea of many historical storms.

REVIEW: A little over a thousand years ago the Persian poet Ferdowsi of Tous collected and put into heroic verse the millennium-old mythological and epic traditions of Iran. It took him thirty years to write the sixty thousand verses that comprise the Shahnameh or "The Book of Kings." This monumental work begins with legends of the birth of the Persian nationhood and ends with the Arab conquest of Iran. Written in the aftermath of that national trauma, Shahnameh was meant to harbor the Persian collective memory, language, and culture in a turbulent sea of many historical storms.

REVIEW: Composed in the tenth century by the poet Firdowsi, the “Shah-nameb”, or “Book of Kings”, is Iran’s central literary work, a historical epic peopled with monarchs. Monarchs some of inspiring goodness, others of unmatched wickedness.

REVIEW: A collection of stories and myths from ancient Iran filled with kings, heroes, princesses, magical animals, and demons. Written as an epic poem by the poet Ferdowsi in the 10th century.

REVIEW: Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi, also Firdawsi or Ferdowsi, was a Persian poet and the author of Shahnameh, which is one of the world's longest epic poems created by a single poet, and the greatest epic of Persian-speaking countries.

REVIEW: Retells the ancient Iranian epic poem of the tenth century, and includes tales of the Simurgh, a giant bird who brings an orphaned king into her nest; man-eating snakes; and the great hero Rustam.

REVIEW: A little over a thousand years ago the Persian poet Ferdowsi of Tous collected and put into heroic verse the millennium-old mythological and epic traditions of Iran. It took him thirty years to write the sixty thousand verses that comprise the Shahnameh or "The Book of Kings." This monumental work begins with legends of the birth of the Persian nationhood and ends with the Arab conquest of Iran. Written in the aftermath of that national trauma, Shahnameh was meant to harbour the Persian collective memory, language, and culture in a turbulent sea of many historical storms.

CONTENTS:

-The First Kings.

-The Demon-King Zahhak.

-The Story of Feraydun and his Three Sons.

-The Story if Iraj.

-The Vengeance if Manuchehr The Tale if Sam and the Simorgh.

-The Tale of Zal and Rudabeh.

-Rostam, the Son of Zal-Dastan.

-The Beginning of the War Between Iran and Turan.

-Rostam and His Horse Rakhsh.

-Rostam and Kay Qobad.

-Kay Qobad and Afrasyab.

-Kay Kavus's War Against the Demons of Mazanderan.

-The Seven Trials of Rostam.

-The King of Hamaveran, and his Daughter Sudabeh.

-The Tale of Sohrab.

-The Legend of Seyavash.

-Forud, the Son of Seyavash.

-The Akvan Div.

-Bizhan and Manizheh.

-The Occultation of Kay Khosrow.

-Rostam and Esfandyar.

-The Death of Rostam.

-The Story of Darab and The Fuller.

-Sekandar's Conquest of Persia.

-The Reign of Sekandar.

-The Ashkanians.

-The Reign of Ardeshir.

-The Reign of Shapur, Son of Ardeshir.

-The Reign of Shapur Zu'l Aktaf.

-The Reign of Yazdegerd the Unjust.

-The Reign of Bahram Gur.

-The Story of Mazdak.

-The Reign of Kesra Nushin-Ravan.

-The Reign of Hormozd.

-The Reign of Khosrow Parviz.

-Ferdowsi's Lament for the Death of his Son.

-The Story of Khosrow and Shirin.

-The Reign of Yazdegerd.

-Glossary of Names and their Pronunciation.

PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS:

REVIEW: The Shahnameh is the great epic of ancient Persia, opening with the creation of the universe and closing with the Arab Muslim conquest of the worn-out empire in the 7th century. In its pages, the 11th-century poet Abolqasem Ferdowsi chronicles the reigns of a hundred kings, the exploits of dozens of epic heroes and the seemingly never-ending conflict between early Iran and its traditional enemy, the country here called Turan (a good-sized chunk of Central Asia). To imagine an equivalent to this violent and beautiful work, think of an amalgam of Homer's Iliad and the ferocious Old Testament book of Judges.

But even these grand comparisons don't do the poem justice. Embedded in the Shahnameh are love stories, like that of Zal and Rudabeh, that recall the heartsick yearnings of Provençal troubadours and their ladies; tragedies of mistaken identity, hubris and irreconcilable moral obligations that might have attracted Sophocles; and meditations on the brevity of life that sound like Ecclesiastes or Horace. Though ostensibly historical, the poem is also full of myth and legend, of fairies and demons, of miraculous births and enchanted arrows and terrible curses, of richly caparisoned battle-elephants and giant birds straight out of the Arabian Nights. Little wonder that artists have often taken its stories as the inspiration for those manuscript illuminations we sometimes call Persian miniatures.

All this is swell, a modern reader is likely to think, but can Americans living in the 21st century actually turn the pages of the Shahnameh with anything like enjoyment? Yes, they can, thanks to Dick Davis, our pre-eminent translator from the Persian (and not only of medieval poems, but also of Iraj Pezeshkzad's celebrated comic novel, My Uncle Napoleon). Davis's diction in this largely prose version of the Shahnameh possesses the simplicity and elevation appropriate to an epic but never sounds grandiose; its sentences are clear, serene and musical. At various heightened moments -- usually of anguish or passion -- Davis will shift into aria-like verse, and the results remind us that the scholar and translator is also a noted poet:

“Our lives pass from us like the wind, and why Should wise men grieve to know that they must die?” “The Judas blossom fades, the lovely face Of light is dimmed, and darkness takes its place.”

“The world is pleasure first, then grief, and then We leave this fleeting world of living men -- Our beds are dust, for all eternity, Why should we plant the tree we'll never see?”

Many of the episodes of the Shahnameh clearly draw from the same teeming ocean of story known to Western poets and mythmakers. Old King Feraydun divides greater Persia into three realms, one for each of his sons, and the two older brothers conspire against the youngest, with bloody centuries-long consequences. The champion Rostam boldly undertakes seven Herculean trials. Kay Kavus's entire army is scourged with blindness by the White Demon. A heroic warrior meets his own Valiant and unrecognized son on the field of battle (English majors will remember this as the subject of Matthew Arnold's poem "Sohrab and Rustum"); Kay Khosrow fasts and meditates, like Buddha, and then renounces the throne and earthly vanity to ascend into heaven. There's even an example of that misogynistic favorite about the high-ranking older woman (Potiphar's wife, for instance, or Phaedra) who lusts after a forbidden younger man, in this case her stepson: "Now when the king's wife, Sudabeh, saw Seyavash, she grew strangely pensive and her heart beat faster; she began to waste away like ice before fire, worn thin as a silken thread." But, as in Racine, Ferdowsi makes us feel the middle-aged Sudabeh's torment:

"But look at me now," she implores Seyavash. "What excuse can you have to reject my love, why do you turn away from my body and beauty? I have been your slave ever since I set eyes on you, weeping and longing for you; pain darkens all my days, I feel the sun itself is dimmed. Come, in secret, just once, make me happy again, give me back my youth for a moment."

The story of Seyavash is a study in conflicting loyalties, like so much of the Shahnameh. The blood relations between Iran and Turan are intricate, as many of the major characters can trace their lineage back to Feraydun, and even traditional enemies occasionally intermarry. In fact, the most common theme of the epic is the tension between fathers and sons, often of kings who don't want to relinquish power and younger men who want to prove they deserve it. Aging Goshtasp can't bear to give up his kingship, even to his own son. So he sends the noble young warrior on an impossible mission: to bring the proud and invincible Rostam back to the court in chains. In truth, there's no good reason for this order, as that hero has long been a loyal defender of one unworthy Iranian king after another. But Esfandyar owes obedience to his father and his sovereign, even as he recognizes the injustice, indeed the senselessness of the command. Worse yet, Rostam admires the young man and so urges every possible escape clause, even agreeing to return to the Persian court -- but not in chains, for he has pledged never to be bound. In the end, two admirable men, caught between mutually opposing vows, must reluctantly meet in armed combat to the death.

Rostam is a recurrent figure throughout the first half of the Shahnameh. He lives for 500 years, swings his mace like a Middle Eastern Thor, and is usually called upon when times grow truly desperate. When young, Rostam searched for a horse that could support his mammoth size and weight. He finally found Rakhsh, as famous in Persian lore as Pegasus in Greek mythology. What, he asks, is the cost of this formidable animal? The herdsman replies, "If you are Rostam, then mount him and defend the land of Iran. The price of this horse is Iran itself, and mounted on his back you will be the world's savior."

Rostam also shares, with Odysseus, a liking for sly humor. Once, on a secret mission to a land of sorcerers, people begin to suspect him of being Rostam because of his great strength. He innocently replies: "I don't know if I'm worthy even to be Rostam's servant. I can't do the things he does; he is a champion, a hero, a great horseman." Another time in battle, he seizes an enemy by his belt, which breaks, and the man escapes. Rostam berates himself, "Why didn't I tuck him under my arm, instead of hanging on to his belt?" The old hero finally dies in a trap constructed by his own stepbrother, but not before he uses his last ounce of strength to notch an arrow and send it through the trunk of the tree behind which the murderer thinks he is safe.

The wily Turanian King Afrasyab is nearly as long-lived as Rostam and somehow manages to escape time and again from certain death. His machinations power much of the first half of the Shahnameh. Afrasyab is nothing if not a Machiavellian realist and one of the most vivid and complex characters in the poem. As a young man, he recognizes the folly of war with Iran's Kay Qobad and so advises his shortsighted father: "War with Iran seemed like a game to you, but this has proven to be a hard game for your army to play. Consider how many golden helmets and golden shields, how many Arab horses with golden bridles, how many Indian swords with golden scabbards, and how many famous warriors Qobad has ruined. And worse than this, your name and reputation, which can never be restored, have been destroyed." He concludes by saying, "Don't think of past resentments, try to be reconciled." The lessons of history, as they say.

There's much more to the Shahnameh than I've touched on here. Because the poem's geography is largely the Eastern empire, Ferdowsi makes no mention of such famous Persian kings as Darius or Xerxes (though Alexander the Great does appear under the name Sekandar). Instead we learn about figures like Bahram Gur, who enjoyed hunting with cheetahs, once killed a rhinoceros with a dagger and eventually thwarted an invasion by the emperor of China.

For all their richness, though, long poems sometimes fall prey to a certain repetitiousness, and the wise reader will want to parcel out this one over time. Yet the epic scale of the book shouldn't overshadow its memorable smaller moments, or even some of its single sentences. One beautiful woman's mouth is described as "small, like the contracted heart of a desperate man." A seductive witch appears to Rostam, "full of tints and scents." A king's three daughters, "as lovely as the gardens of paradise, were brought before him, and he bestowed jewelry and crowns on them that were so heavy they were a torment to wear." As Ferdowsi quietly writes, "So the world went forward, and things that had been hidden were revealed." The Shahnameh eventually concludes with the death of the last king of the Sasanian dynasty and the passing of pre-Islamic Iran. Yet the poet can rightly sing:

“I shall not die, these seeds I've sown will save My name and reputation from the grave, And men of sense and wisdom will proclaim, When I have gone, my praises and my fame.”

Thanks to Davis's magnificent translation, Ferdowsi and the Shahnameh live again in English. [Washington Post].

REVIEW: The Shahnameh, also transliterated Shahnama, is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between around 977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 "distichs" or couplets, the Shahnameh is one of the world's longest epic poems.

REVIEW: This immense volume translates into clear, accessible prose the bedrock work of Iranian literature. Compiled and cast into verse by a tenth-century bard, Shahnameh contains the stories of the kings of ancient Iran before Islam overwhelmed the land in the seventh century. The first half deals primarily with mythical and semi-mythical figures, chief among them the great hero Rostam, while the latter half, beginning with the conquest of Sekandar--that is, Alexander the Great--records historical persons and events. In the concise, informative introduction, Davis calls attention to the entire book's recurrent themes of father-son conflict and contrast between kings and heroes, the latter of whom are nobler in character than the former; indeed, so noble that they invariably decline the throne when it is proffered to them. Davis encourages viewing both themes as reflections of a detached and critical attitude toward formal power and markers of a humane spirit that has allowed the epic to persist as the supreme classic of its nation. [American Library Association].

REVIEW: Composed more than a thousand years ago, this national epic of Persia tells the story of Iran from the first "lord of the world," Kayumars, through the seventh-century Arab/Islamic conquest of the Sassanid dynasty. With a foreword by Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, and illustrated with Persian lithographs, Davis's translation of this epic poem is an accessible combination of poetry and prose. [Publisher’s Weekly].

REVIEW: The Shahnameh, Book of Kings, is an epic composed by the Iranian poet Hakim Abul-Qasim Mansur (later known as Ferdowsi Tusi), and completed around 1010 AD. Ferdowsi means ‘from paradise’, and is derived from the name Ferdous. Tusi means ‘from Tus’. In the poet’s case, the name Ferdowsi Tusi became a name and a title: "The Tusi Poet from Paradise".

The epic chronicles the legends and histories of Iranian (Aryan) kings from primordial times to the Arab conquest of Iran in the 7th century AD, in three successive stages: the mythical, the heroic or legendary, and the historic.

Ferdowsi began the composition in 977 AD, when eastern Iran was under Samanid rule. The Shahnameh he produced consisted of approximately 100,000 lines as 50,000 couplets, 62 stories and 990 chapters. It is a work several times the length of Homer’s "Iliad". The Samanids had Tajik-Aryan affiliation and were sympathetic to preserving Aryan heritage.

It took Ferdowsi thirty-three years to complete his epic, by which time the rule of eastern Iran had passed to the Turkoman Ghaznavids. The Shahnameh Ferdowsi produced was written in classical Persian when the language was emerging from its Middle Persian Pahlavi roots. It was written at a time when Arabic was the favoured language of literature. As such, Ferdowsi is seen as a national Iranian hero who re-ignited pride in Iranian culture and literature, and who established the Persian language as a language of beauty and sophistication. Ferdowsi wrote: “the Persian language is revived by this work”.

The earliest and perhaps most reliable account of Ferdowsi’s life comes from Nezami-ye Aruzi, a 12th-century poet who visited Tus in 1116 or 1117 to collect information about Ferdowsi’s life. According to Nezami-ye Aruzi, Ferdowsi Tusi was born into a family of landowners near the village of Tus in the Khorasan province of north-eastern Iran. Ferdowsi and his family were called Dehqan, also spelt Dehgan or Dehgān, which is now thought to mean landed, village settlers, urban and even farmer. However, Dehgan is also a name for the Parsiban, a group of Khorasani with Tajik roots.

Ferdowsi married at the age of 28 and eight years after his marriage – in order to provide a dowry for his daughter – Ferdowsi started writing the Shahnameh, a project on which he spent some thirty-three years of his life. Ferdowsi’s text is centered on the reigns of fifty monarchs (including three women) and can be divided into a legendary and a quasi-historical section.

It begins with the reign of Kayumars at the dawn of time and concludes with the last Sasanian king, Yazdigird (reigned 632–651), who was defeated by the Arabs. These fifty “chronicles” provide a framework for the dramatic deeds and heroic actions of a range of other personages who are often aided by—or at battle with—a host of fantastic creatures and treacherous villains.

The poem draws on a wealth of sources, including local and dynastic histories, the Avesta (the sacred text of the Zoroastrian religion of ancient Iran), and myths and legends preserved in oral tradition. “Our lives pass from us like the wind, and why should wise men grieve to know that they must die? The Judas blossom fades, the lovely face of light is dimmed, and darkness takes its place.”

Over the centuries, foreign conquerors and local rulers alike were drawn to the Shahnaman for its emphasis on justice, legitimacy, and especially the concept of divine glory. Known as Khavarnah in the Avesta and as farr in modern Persian, divine glory was considered the most important attribute of kingship, for it enabled rulers to govern and command obedience.

Not surprisingly, commissioning lavishly illustrated copies of the Shahnama became almost a royal duty. By representing the kings and heroes of the epic according to the style of their own times, members of the ruling elite were able to cast themselves as the legitimate heirs of Iran’s monarchical tradition, which according to Ferdowsi dates back to the beginning of time.

While Ferdowsi was composing the Shahnameh, Khorasan came under the rule of Sultan Mahmoud, a Turkoman Sunni Muslim and consolidator of the Ghaznavid dynasty. Ferdowsi sought the patronage of the sultan and wrote verses in his praise. The sultan, on the advice from his ministers, gave Ferdowsi an amount far smaller than Ferdowsi had requested and one that Ferdowsi considered insulting.

Ferdowski had a falling out with the sultan and fled to Mazandaran seeking the protection and patronage of the court of the Sepahbad Shahreyar, who, it is said, had lineage from rulers during the Zoroastrian-Sassanian era. In Mazandaran, Ferdowsi wrote a hundred satirical verses about Sultan Mahmoud, verses purchased by his new patron and then expunged from the Shahnameh’s manuscript (to keep the peace perhaps). Nevertheless, the verses survived.

Ferdowsi returned to Tus to spend the closing years of his life forlorn. Notwithstanding the lack of royal patronage, he died proud and confident his work would make him immortal.

Ferdowsi wrote the Shahnameh in Persian at a time when modern Persian was emerging from middle Persian Pahlavi admixed with a number of Arabic words. In his writing, Ferdowsi used authentic Persian while minimizing the use of Arabic words. In doing so, he established classical Persian as the language of great beauty and sophistication, a language that would supplant Arabic as the language of court literature in all Islamic regimes in the Indo-Iranian region.

"I turn to right and left, in all the earth I see no signs of justice, sense or worth: a man does evil deeds, and all his days are filled with luck and universal praise. Another’s good in all he does – he dies a wretched, broken man whom all despise.”

The public for their part got to hear verses and legends in Chaikhanas or tea houses and at other gatherings frequented by traveling bards and storytellers – the famed Naqqal. A few erudite individuals would also recite the verses in private gatherings eliciting the approving bah-bah. Shahnameh Ferdowsi was and is also read aloud in the gymnasiums of the Mithraeum-like Zurkhanes – where pahlavans, the strong-men of Iran, train with their maces and clubs. During their meditative exercises that have spiritual overtones, a musician plays a drum while reciting Shahnameh verses that recount the heroic deeds of Rustam and other champions of Iran. The epic itself sits in a place of special reverence within the Zurkhane.

"I’ve reached the end of this great history and all the land will talk of me. I shall not die, these seeds I’ve sown will save my name and reputation from the grave. Men of sense and wisdom will proclaim when I have gone, my praises and my fame." [Welcome to Iran].

REVIEW: Written over a thousand years ago in medieval Iran, Ferdowsi's epic is as important to Persians as the “Illiad” is to Greeks and the “Ramayana” to Indians. Ferdowsi is responsible for safeguarding a collective Persian past, one before the Arab conquests of the seventh century AD, through his collection of Persian myths and legends. Despite the enduring and enormous popularity of the Shahnameh across the Persian-speaking Near East for over a Millennium, it remains relatively unknown and vastly underappreciated in the West.

REVIEW: A little over a thousand years ago a Persian poet named Ferdowsi of Tous collected and put into heroic verse the Millennium old mythological and epic traditions of Iran. It took him thirty years to write the sixty thousand verses that comprise the Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings"). This monumental tome is one of the most important literary works of Iran and like other great epics, such as Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Nibelungenlied and Ramayana, it is a record of the human imaginative consciousness. It is well known and has been adapted through out the Near East, Central Asia and India but is mostly unknown in the West.

The stories of the Shahnameh tell the long history of the Iranian people. It begins with the creation of the world and the origin myths of the arts of civilization (fire, cooking, metallurgy, social structures, etc.) and ends with the Arab conquest of Persia in the seventh century AD. A mix of myth and history, the characters of Shahnameh take the readers on heroic adventures filled with superhuman champions, magical creatures, heart-wrenching love stories, and centuries-long battles.

Ferdowsi was grieved by the fall of the Persian Empire. Shahnameh was meant to harbor the Persian collective memory, language, and culture amidst a turbulent sea of many historical storms and to preserve the nostalgia of Persia’s golden days. Heroes of Shahnameh are often torn between incompatible loyalties: moral duty against group obligations, filial piety against national honor, etc.

Some Iranian kings and heroes appear in Shahnameh as shining examples of courage and nobility. Others are portrayed as flawed human beings who lose their divine “charisma,” their loved ones, and even their own lives to pettiness and hubris. Ferdowsi stresses his belief that since the world is transient, and since everyone is merely a passerby, one is wise to avoid cruelty, lying, avarice and other evils; instead one should strive for order, justice, honor. truth and other virtues.

Shahnameh has survived as the embodiment of the pre-Islamic Persian soul, but it is much more than a national treasure. As a document of human collective consciousness, it reflects the dilemmas of the human condition as it confronts us with the timeless questions of our existence.

REVIEW: The “Shahnameh”, which literally means ‘The Book of Kings,’ is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi around 1000 AD, and it is considered to be the world’s longest epic poem written by a single poet – it contains 50,000 couplets. The epic can be roughly divided into three parts. The first part tells of the mythical creation of Persia and its earliest mythical past. The second part tells of the legendary Kings and the heroes Rostam and Sohrab. The third part blends historical fact with legend, telling of the semi-mythical adventures of actual historical Kings. The stories throng with heroes and villains, demons and dragons and deeds of derring-do, the book tells the ageless story of the struggle between good and evil.

REVIEW: “Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings” is the great epic of Persia, composed by the poet Ferdowsi between 980 and 1010. It tells the story of pre-Islamic Iran, beginning at the time of the mythic creation through the Arab invasion of the seventh century. Grieved by the fall of the Persian Empire, Ferdowsi sought to create a work that would capture the memory, culture and nostalgia of the golden days of Persia. A mix of mythology and history, packed with stories of triumph and courage, failure and cruelty, love and war, “Shahnameh” can only be compared to works such as “Gilgamesh”, the “Mahabharata”, Homer’s “Odyssey” or Dante's “Divine Comedy”.

REVIEW: A host of heroic characters and wove their adventures into a thrilling story spanning thousands of years. M sure to tighten your seat belts. This experience will take you on a journey back to the world of ancient Iranian heroes, monsters, lovers, and warriors. This is going to be one heck of a ride.

REVIEW: This best-selling book is one of the most sought after books on Shahnameh and Persian culture. It's a beautiful introduction to the cherished epic poetry of Iran. This book will delight the novice and scholar alike.

REVIEW: The “Shahnameh”, also transliterated as “Shahnama” ("The Epic of Kings"), is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between about 977 and 1010 AD, and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 "distichs" or couplets (2-line verses), the “Shahnameh” is the world's longest epic poem written by a single poet. It tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century.

Modern Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and the greater region influenced by the Persian culture (such as Georgia, Armenia, Turkey and Dagestan) celebrate this national epic. The work is of central importance in Persian culture, regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of the ethno-national cultural identity of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. It is also important to the contemporary adherents of Zoroastrianism, in that it traces the historical links between the beginnings of the religion with the death of the last Sassanid ruler of Persia during the Muslim conquest and an end to the Zoroastrian influence in Iran.

REVIEW: Composed more than a Millennium ago, the “Shahnameh” - the great royal book of the Persian court - is a pillar of Persian literature and one of the world's unchallenged masterpieces. Recounting the history of the Persian people from its mythic origins down to the Islamic conquest in the seventh century, the Shahnameh is the stirring and beautifully textured story of a proud civilization. But the Shahnameh (or, literally, the 'Book of Kings') is much more than a literary masterpiece: it is the wellspring of the modern Persian language, a touchstone for Iranian national consciousness and its illustrations, in manuscripts of different eras, are the inspiration for one of the world's greatest artistic traditions

REVIEW: The Shahnameh, an epic poem recounting the foundation of Iran across mythical, heroic, and historical ages, is the beating heart of Persian literature and culture. Composed by Abu al-Qasem Ferdowsi over a thirty-year period and completed in the year 1010, the epic has entertained generations of readers and profoundly shaped Persian culture, society, and politics. For a Millennium, Iranian and Persian-speaking people around the globe have read, memorized, discussed, performed, adapted, and loved the poem.

REVIEW: "Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings" is the timeless masterpiece by the Persian poet Ferdowsi. The epic poem, believed to have been written between 977 and 1010 AD, tells of the mythological and historical past of Persia from the creation of the world up until the Islamic conquest of Iran in the seventh century. The "Shahnameh" is a captivating story of an ancient world and details much of early Persia's history, culture, and Zoroastrian religion. The poem, consisting of over 50,000 couplets, or two-line verses, is a work of great importance in Persian culture and helped shape the development of the modern Persian language. The poem is regarded as the national epic and symbol of Iran and is celebrated in many areas that were once a part of the ancient Persian Empire, such as Afghanistan, Turkey, Armenia, and Georgia. The lyrical account of Persian history in "Shahnameh" has had a profound influence on Persian literature and the work is referenced in the timeless love poems of Rumi and Hafiz. "Shahnameh" endures as an important historical record of an ancient people and a beautiful and poetic celebration of the Persian culture.

REVIEW: An Iranian epic for the masses [CNN International].

REVIEW: A Persian Masterpiece, Still Relevant Today [The Wall Street Journal].

REVIEW: Immerse yourself in the distant past with this epic poem from the Persian tradition. Penned more than one thousand years ago by the famed poet Ferdowsi. The “Shahnameh” weaves history and myth into a lyrical, action-packed work of art that you won't be able to put down. This book is a must-read for folklore connoisseurs.

REVIEW: Brings new, vivid life to the epic tales of the ancient Persian kings [The Atlantic].

READER REVIEWS:

REVIEW: This book is about the lineage of Persian Kayanid Kings and the Persian House of Sasson. With that lineage comes an evolving philosophy of man's thought from the perspective of justice and injustice. It begins in a mythological setting and then over time evolves into a story that may have taken place in the time when Persia was great, concluding with the triumph of Islam over Persia. Through out the mythological portion of the book the author explores the concepts of what is observable reality (good, god) and contrasts that with unobservable conjecture or sorcery magic.

While the lineage progresses through many kings, it is when you read of King Ardesher that you sense you are reading ancient history rather than myth. The subtle clues would be when Ferdowsi describebes the king writing a letter in Palhavi, an ancient language. It is here that Ferdowsi begins the practice of dedicating whole chapters to one king's reign. Every king has a vizier and a champion. Through these intermediaries the thought process borne in conversation brings the king to order just or unjust deeds reveals the prevailing philosophy.

The lineage of Kayanid Kings of the House of Sasson begins with quick summaries of names from the family Kayumars beginning with Siamak who is killed by a black demon, and then Hushag's victory, where the Kayumars pursue and kill the black demon. This fast moving chronology leaves Hushag to inherit the crown, as he is the one with the royal farr and the presence of a tall cypress tree who can think with clarity, all prerequisite to inheriting the throne. The primary way in which the Persian kingdom expanded was through a sitting King doling out frontier land to his sons. In the beginning one son received Yemen, which would be today's Middle East.

Another received land in India, which would be today's Afghanistan, and Pakistan and the third Turan, which would be today's Turkmenistan. Feraydun's reign was the first to go into a bit more detail. The author does this so that he can introduce the concept of a dark magic that clouds the mind of one who feels cheated. A cheated mind draws on vengeance. The brothers that were ruling Turan and India felt they did not get the favored Persia and plotted to and did kill the son who received Yemen. King Feraydon through his champion Zal who is blessed by the Zoroastrian Angel Smiorgh avenges the evil acts of his other two sons.

The early kings of Persia had much in common with early Arab kings and hence the family tree found relatives of mixed royal blood and the two peoples were very close, while rule still came from Persia. As Persia expanded its reach into India, China, and Turkmenistan they too came under the influence of Persia's King of Kings. All gains of kingdoms came either through war, marriage or the giving of a daughter. As the family cypress tree branched the lineage of kings became difficult to track.

To garner the philosophy conveyed in this book, the reader need only to pay attention to the dialogue between warriors, or between a king and his vizier. In a reign of a king that expands or contracts finds in each battle the combatants making declarations towards the other as to why he shall prevail in the contest. For an example one of the notable champions, Rostam declares to Gorgin ...please to a keyword search for cigarroomofbooks.blog to read of my insights on the book and to share your opinion.

REVIEW: Instead of translating the poetic original, the translator, Mr. Dick Davis, wisely chose to use the storytellers' version and only sprinkling occasional poetry for emphasis and flavor. It makes for easy reading for foreigners but still conveyed the essence of Persian culture. I have always wondered why Shahnameh is considered by the Persians/Iranians as their national epic even though the mythical period took place in Central Asia and Afghanistan with no mention of the traditional Persian origin or the Achaemenids until Alexander showed up.

Mr. Dick Davis explained that the poet Ferdowsi was writing for the Samanid shah who ruled only in eastern Iran. Besides, the Samanids claimed descent from a Parthian general who started his career in Khorasan and Tranoxiana and later even briefly claiming the Sassanid throne. As the epic was an assertion of national identity, it ended at the end of the Sassanid dynasty when the Arab conquest incorporated Persia into Dal al Islam. Since this is the Book of Kings, it began with the first king. The early mythical kings were the ones who taught the people the necessary skills for the development of civilization.

Following the Zoroastrian tradition and Islamic belief, the conflict of good and evil started early and remained front and center. But right and wrong were drawn along the tribal lines as one could always justify his action by claiming the enemy was a demon. And a man's worth was measured by his strength and valor. To this day, strong men and wrestling champions are still highly esteemed in Central Asia. As the world was still small, everything to the west was Rome, everything to the east was China, everything to the south was India, and there were only demons in the north.

The quarrels of the feuding princes explained the historical hostilities between the Iranians of Persia, the Turks from Transoxania, and the Greeks of the West. Since angels and demons and magical creatures lived among men, it's not surprising that some men lived hundreds of years. That's one of the reasons why the great Rostam was able to accomplish so many fantastic heroic feats. There were even some love stories and one had hints of Rapunzel and the Firebird. While the heroic house rose in Sistan, the royal house degenerated into chaos. Right and wrong were perverted and vengeance became the main theme as China and India were drawn in.

To transition from myth to legend, Ferdowsi borrowed the ancient Akkadian story of Sargon the Great for Darab and had him rescued from the Euphrates. Of course Darab turned out to be the secret heir to the Persia royal house. After defeating the Greeks, Darab had an unacknowledged son by the daughter of the Greek king Filqus. This son just happened to be Sekandar. After abandoning the Greek princess and her son, Darab went home to civilization and had a legitimate son Dara by a proper wife.

Because Sekandar the Greek was now the first born son of Darab, his conquest of Persian, though still a disaster, was no longer shameful to the proud Persians. Thus, Persia's national pride was restored. But, strangely, the Greeks were already Christians and Sekandar's title was Caesar. After he made a pilgrimage to Abraham's house in Mecca, he visited the queen of Andalusia and the emperor of China. He then travelled the world and had many fantastic adventures reminiscent of Sinbad's voyages. Creative license indeed!

Legend finally yielded to history and five generations in the story covered five hundred years in history thus conveniently skipped over the Greek Seleucid dynasty and the Parthian Arsacid dynasty and jumped right into the Persian Sassanid dynasty. To legitimize his rule, Ardeshir claimed descent from the Achaemenids. Here, he was transformed into a descendant of the Kayanids for the same reason. This being such a long epic, some stories began to repeat themselves. As Sassanid was a Zoroastrian dynasty, astrologers predicted everyone's fate and the chief priest functioned as chief advisor.

In an increasingly centralized society where the kings held absolute power, the degree of violence and brutality also increased. However, right and wrong were still subjective. When a Persian king committed horrendous atrocities against his enemies, he was hailed as a great just king. But when he did the same to the Iranians, he was cursed as an evil unjust king. Bahram Gur became the idealized king on whom was hung the dreams and fantasies of the lost golden age. Somehow, the emperor of China had become the lord of Turan and the people of Central Asia became known as Chinese Turks.

Then Khosrow Parviz and Shirin's love story was elaborated by later poets into one of the most beautiful love stories in Persian literature. As no empire can be conquered without it being corrupt from within first, the fall of the Sassanids, in my opinion, was due more from the chaos and splintering after the death of Khosrow Parviz than from the Arabs' religious zeal. As Shahnameh keeps telling us, fortunes change as the heaven turns and nothing lasts forever in this fleeting world.

Unfortunately, by the time Ferdowsi finished his epic, the Samanids had been replaced by the Ghaznavid Turks, the bad guys in his Shahnameh. Poor Ferdowsi had to find refuge in the home of a Sassanid descendant. Fortunately, Persians/Iranians, seeking their pre-Islamic heritage, took up the tales and kept them alive. As the saying goes, "Why let the facts ruin a good fiction?" In a world of oppression, larger than life heroes and bigger than reality fantasies are what people need to brighten their dreary days and give them hope. That's why the stories of Shahnameh have become immortal.

REVIEW: Time is beneficial when reading this one. I originally started this July 2017 and am now finished December 2018. That would be a year and a half spent with this book. And it's so incredibly appropriate because this book is a chronicle of Persia's history told through the lineage of its kings.

This book begins with the Persian creation story with all of its absolute wild, unpredictable magical elements. The early stories contain magic and mythological creatures. I'm sure if you grew up with classic Western Fairy tales, there's one that will shock you: 'Western writers stole that idea from here!' Trust me, once you read it, it's unmistakable which one I'm referring to.

The bulk of this amazing book are traveling, letters, battles, marital allegiances, powerful women and the men who fail to take the solid advice of their ladies. Some of the battles are pretty exciting to read when the dust rises up and we lose sight of who's winning. Other battles and shifts of kingly power are difficult to follow because anytime you condense 1000's of years of history into 900 pages, there's going to be A LOT of names mentioned with how they all relate to each other. Don't fret though, just read on.

Dick Davis' language sings all through Persia's history. His approach to task is fantastic. He condenses each of the original books. The original length is a collection of encyclopedias of course. So he's vey systematic about what he includes and how he showcases some of the more poetic scenes. In his introduction, he admits to leaving out some offending passages that newcomers to Persian literature could be turned off by. Instead, he evens out the coverage of many kings which is a slight change from the original author, Ferdowsi's approach. He does this to give a more comprehensive coverage of the original book within a limited number of pages. Some kings still receive a whole lot more attention and this reflects the original.

What I appreciate most of all with Davis' translation is he renders this epic poem into a highly readable edition for those completely unfamiliar with Persian Literature or even the culture of this entire world and its history. It doesn't read like a beginner's book, there's still plenty of complexity to keep the most avid reader busy looking up references for a few years at least.

For those poetic scenes, often they are key moments in the story that I'm sure Persian folks know well and love. Davis kept them in poetic language with meter and rhyme. These are some of the most beautiful parts of the book and makes me want to read a poetic translation of The Shahnameh. Not only because they are emotionally driven scenes but also because Davis writes like a poet.

Here's an example from near the beginning. This brief poem describes the birth of Rostam, the greatest hero in this book. And one of the coolest characters I've read during my epics project so far.

"He'll master all the beasts of earth and air, He'll terrify the dragon in its lair; When such a voice rings out, the leopard gnaws In anguished terror its unyielding claws; Wild on the battlefield that voice will make The hardened hearts of iron warriors quake; Of cypress stature and of mammoth might, Two miles will barley show his javelin's flight."

This could be a great book if you enjoy epic long tomes filled with adventure, complex who's who, some mythological elements, history and some references to writing as it's developing throughout history with plenty of battle scenes and some romance mixed in. Keep in mind, it's 900 pages with almost constant warfare, so it's certainly not for everyone. The shifts in power and keeping track of who's who and why they have a grievance was the most grinding aspect of this read. The battles certainly were not grinding to read for some reason.

REVIEW: What Nöldeke called the iranische Nationalepos (the Iranian national epic), Ferdowsi's Shahnameh ('King-book') is the basis of Iranian identity. Based on an older prose translation of an earlier Middle Persian King-book but recomposed by Ferdowsi into verse, the Shahnameh in over 50,000 lines tells both the tale of the mythical past of Iran and its pre-Islamic history from Alexander till the fall of the Sasanian emperors, whose exploits are recast into an epic romance.

The middle section, the heroic age, contains the most celebrated part of the epic, the tale of the exploits of Rustum (the foundation, amongst many other things, for Matthew Arnold's Rustum and Sohreb: an Episode).Dick Davis' book here is the most complete one-volume translation in English.

His translation is prose; on occasion, however, he moves to a verse translation to reflect specific lyrical passages. His translation is considerably less condensed than most other English translations. I strongly urge the reader to obtain the Viking hard-back rather than the Penguin paperback. For a book of this size, the hard cover is worth looking out for.

REVIEW: This book is about a thousand years old and was written by Iran's seminal author Ferdowsi. Although he was a Muslim, his interest lies entirely in pre-Islamic Iran, which he sees as a true heroic age of marvelous deeds by wondrous men and women. As in all epics, the interest here centers around ancient military encounters, but Ferdowsi turns his semi-mythical wars into short segments of tremendous dramatic power. He almost invariably shows us how virtue in leadership is rewarded and vice in leadership brings disaster down on the heads of tyrants, so there is great moral satisfaction in following his narratives, which span centuries of Iranian mythical history.

Though I have absolutely no knowledge of the Persian language, my sense is that the translator, the Englishman Dick David, who is certainly an accomplished poet in his own right, strove to present Ferdowsi's words in the truest possible way. Be warned that this book is very long, but to my mind all the way through it was a near-blissful experience. We are blessed to possess this sublime work of art from the great Persian past, which provides us with a much-needed counterweight to the sordidness of the Iranian present.

REVIEW: This is perhaps the greatest collection of stories I have ever read! It is a true "dream book"; if you love wonder stories, myths and heroic epics this is the kind of saga you dream about. Every story is better than the one preceding it and it keeps mounting until it reaches heights of imagination and storytelling that are all but untouchable. As in Persian poetry the language is rich, layered and achingly beautiful. It is basically a long family saga but it never gets too complicated to follow. A perfect book: humanizing, imagination-expanding and a towering work of literature.

REVIEW: My literary travels around Iran continued this month with Shahnameh, and boy was it a long trip. Clocking in at 854 pages (not including glossaries and indices), it took me nearly a month to read, and not for lack of interest; the stories are, for the most part, fascinating. Originally my plan was to sample stories from Shahnameh to get an idea of Persian mythology. Shahnameh is roughly the Persian equivalent of The Odyssey or Beowulf, covering stories of Persian heroes and historical events. Unlike Western epics, however, it does not focus on one hero, but chronologically explores the reigns of Persia's kings from roughly 600 BC to the Arab invasions of the 7th Century AD. 1300 years is quite a lot to cover, even in 854 pages, and the translator, Dick Davis, still chose to leave out what I'm guessing are the really boring parts.

The translation is well-written and intriguing, but not entirely in verse (unlike the original). Davis chooses select portions to commit to poetry, using prose for the majority of the text, and this was fine with me. It made for a quicker read while dealing with the essence of the story. I loved the early stories the best, those about Sam, Zal, and Rostam, the epic heroes on par with Achilles. Rostam in particular is a legendary warrior (not a Persian king) whose trials and travails keep the Persian nation safe and secure from the various invading forces. And boy, was Persia invaded a LOT.

REVIEW: I am not so presumptuous as to review the Shahnameh. Does one review Shakespeare or Augustine? But I will comment on Dick Davis' excellent translation. Some people complain that it's written in prose; others complain that it's written in poetry. Yet the magic of this translation is the incorporation of the two. As he says in the introduction, Davis' goal is not to faithfully reproduce the tens of thousands of lines of poetry that took Ferdowsi 30 years to write. Rather, he opts for a combination of prose and poetry that emulates the way that the Shahnameh is most often performed in a style called "Naqqali". Basically, Davis is presenting the poem to us in the way that uncounted Iranians have received it for hundreds of years -- don't complain!!

REVIEW: Who am I to rate or review Abolqasem Ferdowsi's ancient and classic Shahnameh, The Persian Book of Kings? Since I only know a smattering of Persian, nor can I comment on Dick Davis' translation from the original into English, which I have heard is excellent, but cannot verify. This is a volume which I dip into and will still be doing so in the years ahead, so I will take it from my currently reading list even though I am halfway. It is fascinating and I am enjoying it but that is not the only reason to rate a book. The scope of the original Shahnameh is huge: it covers 700 years of the history of Persia from creation to the Arab conquest, written in verse, in nine volumes. If it needs rating at all, it would be presumptuous to give less than five Stars.

REVIEW: The Shâhnameh recounts the history of Iran, beginning with the creation of the world and the introduction of the arts of civilization (fire, cooking, metallurgy, law, etc.) to the Aryans and ends with the Arab conquest of Persia. The work is not precisely chronological, but there is a general movement through time. Some of the characters live for hundreds of years (as do some of the characters in the Bible), but most have normal life spans.

There are many shahs who come and go, as well as heroes and villains, who also come and go. The only lasting images are that of Greater Iran itself, and a succession of sunrises and sunsets, no two ever exactly alike, yet illustrative of the passage of time. The Shahnameh is largely his effort to preserve the memory of Iran's golden days and transmit it to a new generation so that they could learn and try to build a better world. Ferdowsi started his composition of the Shahnameh in the Samanid era in 977 A.D and completed it around 1010 A.D. during the Ghaznavid era.”

REVIEW: Well, it's been a while since I tackled this bad boy, and what a big boy it is. Picture this: you're a poet, you're Zoroastrian, it's about 1000 years after this Christ fellow (whom you don't know) got to meet his maker (curiously, himself), and you decide it would be a good idea to record the complete history of the great Persian empires whose final vestiges has been overrun by those pesky Moslems. Oh yeah, and it takes you thirty years to write it. There is a reason it is a cornerstone of Persian literature.

This is a national epic covering thousands of years of myth and history, beginning with the creation of all things, the building of various empires, rollicking adventures, the occasional romance, and a final, crumbling decline into subservience. There is so much in here you could just have it sit on your shelf and pick and choose portions to read as you please, a huge treasury of tales. Or, you could be a glutton of punishment like me and decide to read it from beginning to end. The cycles of inheritors to great kingdoms being abandoned, growing to maturity, and taking back their kingdom by strength can become repetitive if you read it this way. It probably took me three months. I'd recommend just reading sections at time so you can get a flavor of the times. It's well worth it for armchair time-travelers.

REVIEW: I really love this book. I am not Persian. I don't speak Farsi. I am just a curious reader who couldn't help but dive into legend! The original Shahnameh was composed in poetry. This translation is prose with very important or dramatic parts done in poetic rhythm. Dick Davis did this to mimic the way the stories of The Shahnameh would have been told orally. Translating it in this way just makes the stories beg to be read aloud. He has made The Shahnameh really approachable and fun to read. I would highly recommend this book for young adults and adults to read. The stories would be wonderful bedtime tales for children as well! If you love legend you must get this book.

Don't forget to read the introduction! It provides insight into Ferdowsi, Persian history, and important themes within the legends. The only downside to this edition is that the illustrations are few and only in black and white. My suggestion is to get this edition to find your favorite stories. Yes, this is a HUGE book. It was a bit intimidating to pick up. Luckily, the stories are short and there are plenty of places to put your bookmark. I often read one or two stories in a sitting and find that the timing was just right. Get this book!! :-D

REVIEW: Shahnameh is a poetic form rarely appreciated. It's an epic, it's storytelling, it's history, politics, myth, and religion. Ironically it stands as a stark counterpoint to today's poetic ethos of word economy, in which modern poets can sum up a universe in a hundred words.

Shahnameh stands, as translated here, at over 850 pages, possibly the longest poem ever created. Dick Davis' translation seems lacking in the ornamental nature of poetic language, and possibly the Persian language, but is likely true to the original's context. He does grace his prosaic pages occasionally with delightful quatrains to remind us that this is poetry, that its origins belong to the oral tradition, that it once beguiled as song.

Few will read this tome to completion, and that's a shame in a time in which we in the west need a better understanding of what was once one of the planet's most ascendant cultures, one that has influenced ours in more ways than we probably care to imagine.

REVIEW: This collection of interesting myths and history explains the Persian "thing." In other words, if you like reading stories from other cultures about how here and now became here and now, then spend some time reading this book. It is a big book full of fascinating narratives detailing the development of civilization in ancient Persia until the Arabic invasion. It is entertaining and more intellectually mature than it first appears. They may be myths, but the human condition in victory and defeat is written out in a way I have never seen before. It is a surprising book.

REVIEW: This book is an epic in every sense. While Ferdowsi may never have received just payment for this work, his name and this book have been remembered for over 1,000 years, and that is a legacy that writers can only dream of - to produce a book that stands the test of time. The stories told also provide life lessons, which can be learned from.

REVIEW: To me, it's a marvelous sense of nostalgia, because my father was reading Shahnameh with his interpretations as my bedtime stories once I was 4-5-year-old. I know many of the original lines in Persian from school and my dad's voice, and now it's interesting to read it from another perspective as an English reader. Though the translator omitted the splendid Ferdowsi's creation myth at the beginning, and many modern translators did the same, but I think he really did a great job describing the Book of Kings!

REVIEW: Davis's translation is clear, dramatic, and well condensed, with a smattering of brief summaries for the less important segments. The story is absolutely enormous -- rivaling the Bible or the Mahabharata in scale and length. And like the Bible, it is full of surprises for those expecting orthodox traditionalism. One surprise is the number of powerful women. Another is the celebration of free and rebellious love affairs. A third is the open disdain for the Arab conquerors who brought Islam. But the thing that most surprised me is how this ode to heroic kings turns into an orgy of battles for power, until the whole notion of kingship starts to seem repulsive. It's a national epic with lots for future generations to draw on.

REVIEW: This is a fabulous chronicle of thousands of years of Persian History BEFORE Islam triumphed over the last dynasty. Written entirely in verse, the magical co-operative been turned into prose for western readers but the majesty of Ferdowsi's verse never fails to entertain and inform. The most remarkable history i have ever read. Give Stars are not enough- -heaven itself has opened and spilled out this volume of jeweled words through the inspired verse of this ancient bard. Read this and your understanding of this world will expand, as well as your appreciation of this magnificent life we all share!

REVIEW: 'The Book of the Kings' is the national epic of the Persians. No other work captures so much of the history, culture, or identity of one of the greatest empires in history. This is a must-read for any student of Middle-Eastern history, of mythology, or any person who appreciates a national epic for what it is: the one work that perfectly captures who a people are in a medium no less powerful than a flag or national anthem. The English have 'Beowulf', the Italians 'La Commedia', the Romans 'Aeneid', the Greeks 'The Iliad/ The Odyssey'... 'Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings' is the one and true epic of the Persian people. It must be read by anyone who wishes to appreciate their culture.

REVIEW: The epic is greater than life - and the translator combines rare expertise with beautiful poetic language, and thus conveys some of the heroic spirit of the original. The choice to translate from the NAKL version, which is partly prose, can be debated, but it's certainly legitimate. And the result is amazing. If you're interested in myths, legends, Persian culture or even if you want to understand an important edifice in modern Iranian culture, read this book.

REVIEW: Go out and buy this book now! It is a wonderful compilation of Persian legends and the back-stabbing that princes do to those who support them "too much"! Comparable is some ways to The Golden Bough combined with Arabian Nights, the stories related in this superb book are totally unknown by Western readers, which makes them delightful, if occasionally gruesome. Davis' translation is a master work, somehow infusing prose with the kind of poetry myths require. A window into the soul of Persia, perhaps especially relevant now.

REVIEW: I love this book and it was very useful for my grad research project. The translation is perfect and the book captures the elegance and grace of Ferdowsi. It is worth reading for any person and I wish that someday, this epic poem will be made into a miniseries for TV so even more people can enjoy this story.

REVIEW: This marvelous translation of the Shahnameh has resulted in a book that is accessible and readable. Dick Davies has managed to translate key passages into rhyming poetry, but the majority is well-written prose. He has omitted some repetitious passages to keep the length reasonable (around 850 pages) and to avoid testing the endurance of the general reader. This intelligent translation has succeeded in making the 10th Century epic accessible to the modern general reader..

REVIEW: One of the most significant historical works to come out of the Middle East. Ferdowsi is a classic writer and poet of Persia. His works are still praised and followed in Iran today by the better educated among the populace.

REVIEW: The Book of King is the book that helped Iranians to get through all the invasions to their country in the past 1,000 years. It is a must to read book.

REVIEW: Great read if you have any interest in Persian culture, full of lively wonderful stories. Considered to be a Persian classic.

REVIEW: Had Freud known about the book of kings, his analysis of human psyche would have been enhance and could possibly have been different. I bought seven copies for gifts. Monumental work. Good translation.

REVIEW: Beautiful poetry and story telling transporting the reader to far away places.

REVIEW: Yes, a great epic history in easily understandable English, the translation offers a good insight into Persian culture and storytelling.

REVIEW: This is the newest translation of the famous Persian Book of Kings. Davis brings some great insight in from the original as much can be lost in translation. Love it, be aware it's very long, but a great addition to any family library or Persian buff.

REVIEW: I love the book since I was raised hearing the stories from the book. I haven't had a chance to read the entire thing cover to cover but having this book translated into international language makes the treasure everlasting.

REVIEW: I love Firdausi's Shahnameh and all the time, but my wife couldn't read Farsi, so I decided to get this book that she could enjoy the book with me. Nice book and I will recommended to any one.

REVIEW: Great book! Need to read couple times to get all the characters. Very interesting book to read about Persian kings.

REVIEW: I had been trying to buy this book for past three years. It is an expensive book to buy and to add to my library. It worth every penny because it is about Iran's heritage. The story line with would be battle of Good versus Evil or the Fellowship Series. Buy it and keep it because these are limited edition and Mage won't publish it anymore.

REVIEW: As someone who was familiar with some of the stories of Shahnameh, I found this translation to be a fascinating read. I recommend this book to those who are interested in Persian history and mythological stories. The author does some justice to the great poetry by Ferdowsi by including English poetry of the same sort of style in some parts of the book.

REVIEW: Amazing book. Easy to read and understand. The book is mostly written in prose. It’s a great book for anyone who wants to start learning about Persian culture.

REVIEW: Loved it. Can't understand a culture till you understand their mythology and the Shanameh is fundamental for understanding Persians in a way that the Wild West and pioneer spirit makes up American culture.

REVIEW: You will be enriched by your encounter with one of the great war epics of world literature, a work which occupies the same exalted status in Islamic culture that the "Iliad" and the "Aeneid" occupy in Western culture. And aren't we Americans past due in appreciating Iranian culture in particular, considering our 21st century karma has inextricably entwined the fates of our two societies? In today's world cultural literacy involves a knowledge of the literature of the world of Islam. This version of one of the seminal works of Persian literature can provide that knowledge.

REVIEW: Wikipedia says Ferdowsi wrote this between 977 and 1010. It portrays Iran from earliest time until the Islamic conquest in the seventh century. The only religion mentioned in it is Zoroastrianism. The translation/adaptation is a mix of prose and poetry, although my extracts here only quote the infrequent poetic pieces. Ferdowsi’s original consists of 50,000 couplets. As in the Bible, some people live for hundreds of years, while others age and die around them. There are fairies and demons, although in this adaptation humans are by far the main characters.

I’m not going to try to summarize the Wikipedia commentary of the Shanameh’s importance in Persian history, language and literature here; but learning about the role of the poem would be well worth while. At first the names and genealogy go by at dizzying speed, but the story settles in to a tale of three of four generations of two main families in Persia and a handful in Turan, to the northeast of modern Iran (Turkmenestan).

This is the national epic of Iran, the stories all children presumably hear from infancy. They also hear beautiful prose and poetry, and they hear about heroes who try to cauterize the last emotional wounds and stop the cycle of revenge. "False confidence leads a foolish man to slaughter. He stomps on solid ground but it turns out to be a layer of straw floating on a puddle of water."

At a deeper level, there is an epic story of dynasties and political negotiations about what kind of government will prevail. Ferdowsi is also an incredible psychologist. His kings and warriors are always in flux between their impetuous impulses and reflective wisdom. "The world is full of mysteries as it makes and breaks. Love and wisdom forsook them both, nor did one of them pause to correct his mistakes. Fish, onager, and beasts of burden in their mangers know their own, but greed so blinded father and son that they faced each other as strangers."

He portrays many of the early kings of Persia and weak or disastrous rulers, who embroiled their countries in unnecessary wars and were vindictive or unappreciative of the brave defenders. Other rulers, however, were upright and wise, and fostered art, science and justice. There is a touching story of one king at only sixty years old, worn down by his duties, climbing a mountain in winter to die, disappearing, and the heroes who accompanied him against his counsel dying in the blizzard as well.

One gets a sense of the different cultural background of simultaneous political and military leaders and dynasties that I read as a very old tradition that may be a source of the later approach to the very different scopes of political and religious rule, when compared to the modern West. Just a guess.

Women are not omitted. There is a story that is very close to the Greek "Phaedre", with disastrous results. Other women are mothers with wise advice, beautiful daughters and brides, and brave widows committing mass suicide to avoid capture as war booty. Horses are just about as important as lovers. As the supreme hero Rostam is finally returned in state to his city after a gruesome death by treachery at the end of the work, his faithful horse is treated to the same honored trip via a bejeweled platform on an elephant.

"Magnificent buildings decay by the dint of time and exposure to the elements wrecks even a house of flint. But the poetic edifice I have erected in rhyme shall endure the contagion of the rain and the sun. For three decades have I thus suffered to restore this Persian tongue and now my work is done."

REVIEW: I bought this incredible book on Amazon a few weeks ago. One must be a poet to even attempt the great Persian epic of kings, the “Shahnameh”. When I lived in Iran as a teenager in the 1970s, I would occasionally bumble into a bar or teahouse and quite often there would be a man reciting and acting out something to the rapt attention of the crowd, everyone except me that is, the long-haired faringi boy looking for kebab and chai. I had no clue what was going on but it was most certainly the "Shahnameh".

Imagine it being a common occurrence to go into a Western bar and hear a poet's heartfelt rendition of Shakespeare... and the customers listening and enjoying it. That's the kind of gravitas this book has in Persian culture and in the history of great literature. I've tried to read the Shahnameh, but I don't speak Farsi and the beautiful lyricism of the language was lost to me in translation. What this book does extremely well is to apply the grand artistry of Persian heritage to the English translation of the prose. Now, at long last, I know what I was missing... but hey, the kebabs were always delicious and the teapots never ending. ;-)

REVIEW: I bought this book mainly for my three book savvy, history and methodology loving daughters, aged 8 to 11 years old. They’ve been reading it solo or listening as I read it to them, they also take turns reading to each other and I can tell they’re definitely intrigued.

REVIEW: Once you start reading, you get so engrossed that you begin to dislodge yourself from the 21st century to the realm great Persian Kings. It makes you really ponder about the civilization that existed in that era. I really feel that the book of this magnitude and scale should receive a much wider coverage. I would also like to bring this book to the attention of both academicians and the lay persons in India. With this thought in mind, I have already donated the book to the library maintained by R K Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai, India. Zoroastrians, both in India and abroad, should quietly look back at the Old Persian Civilization and Culture and be proud of it.

REVIEW: This is such a great book. As a Shahname lover I have read many versions of this epic work and there are number of translations of Shahname out there. I would like to add that this can be a great book for children especially teenagers. It is all about ethics and daily struggles of humans, love, destiny, heroism, war, humanity, responsibility and so on through amazing stories. This is the third time I am purchasing this book as my friends saw it, loved it and kept it to themselves (consider it a great gift). I highly recommend this book actually to any one of any age.

REVIEW: In Iran, the Shahnameh is the fundamental treasury of classical Persian culture, bringing together the mythic/historical tales of the origins of a national identity. There is no single equivalent in European culture, but if one imagines that the Iliad, the tales of King Arthur and Roland had all been compiled by Shakespeare, one gets close to the importance that it holds for Persians. Ferdowsi wrote it all in verse and purposely used only Persian words and none of the many Arabic words that had entered the language with the arrival of Islam. His verses are often memorized and recited and the characters and words of the Shahnameh appear in the poetry of Hafiz, Saadi, Rumi and others. Storytellers still enact the story of Rustam and make grown men weep. Buy the book and you will gladly spend hours absorbed in tales of heroism, villainy, loyalty and tenderness, in which people weep tears of blood and love inspires superhuman feats.

REVIEW: On “Shahnameh”: a symbolic story of man's journey to find his higher self; a story of love, desire, and triumph written by the greatest story teller of all times, Ferdowsi. This is a book recommended by many enlightened souls as a guide to show us the path to salvation.

REVIEW: For hundreds of years, Shahnameh's everlasting tales have been told in songs and plays from heart to heart: the stories of Zaal's solemn wisdom, Rostam's epic heroism, Siavash's heartbreaking veracity, and Sohrab and Gordafarid's fantastical romance.

REVIEW: Simply a masterpiece! I purchased this book in reminiscing one of the greatest masterpieces of literature in the world " Shahnameh" or "the Chronicle of the King".

REVIEW: The crispness of the translation and editing resulted in something delightfully readable for a range of ages, while preserving the striking emotional impact of these tales of heroism, wisdom, joy, and loyalty as well as of tragedy, betrayal, foolishness, arrogance, and loss. While expensive compared to most books, this one is well worth it, even for those unfamiliar with the historical importance of the Shahnameh in Persian society over the past 1,000 years.

REVIEW: I am Iranian/Persian and my fiancé is Danish. We have been reading this book together and enjoying it tremendously. What a shame in Iran’s school books there is so little of this treasure of a culture and literature and then too much of religious studies instead. We both can’t wait to share and enjoy the book and beautiful stories with our future kids. Grateful for all those who made it possible and available to us.

REVIEW: If you enjoy Persian art, mythology, folklores and ancient history, this is the book for you. Don't forget about kids! If you are looking for something different for your kids, “Shahnameh” is the book to read to them. Just let their imagination run wild with the images and stories of kings, dragons, beasts and superheroes.

REVIEW: For years I wanted to see and read an English version of "Shahnameh", the kings stories. A book that while growing up touched our hearts and world, the original written by Ferdowsi in early fourteenth century, a poetic feast, fully written in Farsi, he managed not to use Arabic words, to show that "Farsi/Persian" language remains intact, even after the Islamic and Arabic language influence in the kingdom. He made an epic and heroic master peace, about good and evil, love and sacrifice. It is difficult to put the book down, it is a gift to all that the eyes must see and read everyday. A must have.

REVIEW: This English version of Iran's answer to the “Iliad”. In short, anyone who is interested in Iranian history, great storytelling, or mythology will love to have this to their collection. Definitely something to treasure!

REVIEW: If you are interested in this place and period of history, I strongly recommend this book. It would make a wonderful gift for someone special.

REVIEW: The legends of ancient Iran are fascinating. I lived in Iran as a youth, during the time of the shah. I have kept up with the country and I have a number of Iranian friends. Many given names that we see in the news today can be found in this ancient poetic compilation of the prehistory of Persia. I highly recommend this fabulous tome!

REVIEW: "Shahnameh" pays testament to traditional Persian scripture through the translation of virtuous stories that are relevant for today's generations. The translations provide the raw truth of good facing obstacles to overcome evil. Loyalty, valor, and honor are the common motifs that are demonstrated by the protagonist Persian kings in their epic journeys to fight evil. The clash of these mythological-like characters with superhuman powers can be comparable to action-packed Stan Lee Marvel movies.

REVIEW: I rarely write reviews but this book deserves one. I always wanted to learn about Ferdowsi's Persian mythos. This book is equivalent to the Greek “Iliad”. It is ambitious and truly takes you on a journey that takes across several lineages of kings. I wish there was more. The book is densely packed with great stories, so I hope we will possibly see more books of this sort.

REVIEW: The story is very engaging and easy to read. Persian was the major literary language of the Middle East and India from at least 800 AD until the 19th century. It is inexcusable that this, and other great classics of Persian and Arabic literature, have been so overlooked in the West. This book should help correct this problem. Highly recommended.

REVIEW: I recommend this book to everyone! It is an all around great production. They have helped create something that has long been overdue. This book is so well done and a great contribution to the world of Persian literature, especially for the new generation of Persians who cannot read Farsi. The text is easy to follow and reflects the original Farsi. Bravo to the author! This book should be in every home collection of Persian literature and art.

REVIEW: This book is great for all levels of interest, whether you’ve had little exposure or lots.

REVIEW: I bought this book to read to my grandchildren who, I’m sure, will be mesmerized by the stories and amazing scenes unfolding on every new page. How wonderful it would be to have epic tales as amazing as this one from all corners of our world.

REVIEW: The story is marvelous. Had never felt so much emotion as much as I got with Shahnameh

REVIEW: I love it! It’s absolutely stunning! I’ve bought it for my teenage cousins to introduce them to Persian literature and they love it! Thank you.

REVIEW: Any admirer of Iran must read the Shahnameh. Davis has done a good job at translating this epic.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

Ancient Mesopotamia: The oldest known communities in Mesopotamia are thought to date from 9,000 BC, and include the ancient city of Babylon. Several civilizations flourished in the fertile area created by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flowing south out of Turkey. These river valleys and plains of Mesopotamia are often referred to as the “fertile Crescent” by historians and archaeologists. The region lies between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which are about 250 miles apart from one another.

The ancient Sumerians and Babylonians were inhabitants of Mesopotamia. Ancient Mesopotamia included parts of what is now eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and most of Iraq. This whole area layus between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. By 4,000 BC large cities had developed within the region. Considered one of the cradles of civilization, the region is referred to frequently in The Bible. Biblical accounts even describe the region as the birthplace of Abraham. The region also produced the first written records, as well as the wheel.

The region was conquered by the Akkadians in the 24th century BC. The Akkadians ruled for about two centuries. The ancient city of Ur controlled the region for the next two centuries until about 2,000 B.C. Mesopotamia was not again united until about 1750 BC. At that point in time the Kingdom of Babylon arose and reigned supreme in the area for about one and one-half centuries. The Babylonians in turn were conquered by Hittites from Turkey in about 1595 BC. The longest control of the area was by the ancient Assyrians, who ruled the area from about 1350 through about 600 BC.

After a brief interlude of chaos, the Persians conquered the area. The Persians controlled the region for three centuries until Persia and all of its territories were conquered by Alexander the Great. This occurred in the last of the 4th century BC. However the Greeks only held the region for about one century before it again fell to the Persians. The Persians and Romans wrestled over the area for a number of centuries. Finally in the 7th century AD the area of Mesopotamia fell to the Islamic Empire [AncientGifts].

The Roots of Ancient Persia: Persis was the ancient Greek name of the approximate area of modern Fars in Central Iran. The name is derived from the Persian “pars” from the Persians who settled in the area in the 7th century BC. Prior the place was known as Anšan. “Persis” also referred to the latter Persian state of the Hellenistic and Imperial periods. Persis was the Persian homeland. It was a land predominated by river basins and plateaus which stretched forth from the Zagros Mountains.

The region consisted of river-drained plains between two ridges of the Zagros Mountains, running horizontally from east to west. The land was composed of basins and valleys. It was agriculturally fertile, sustained by a complex web of irrigation ditches. The north-western plains were characterized by more hills and valleys at a higher altitude. This region received more rain than the south-eastern counterpart. In the higher altitudes, temperate forests could be found with oaks, date palms, and pomegranates.

In this region was Pasargade (present-day ), the early capital of the Persian Kings of Kings. Equally famous was the city of Persepolis. Nearer to the salt lakes in the north lay Ansan, the ancient seat of Persian power. Ansan was the original home of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire. The Mand River separated Ansan from other cities in the east.

Persis is also the name given today to a small kingdom of the eponymous area which lasted roughly from 300 BC to 211/212 AD. Little is recorded pertaining to the early history of the Kingdom of Persis. It is only dimly lit, characterized by conjecture and contradictory hypotheses. According to the most recent analysis the kingdom appeared during the reign of the Hellenic King Seleucos. Seleucos was one of Alexander-the-Great's generals/successors. During Seleucos's reign of 305-281 BC Persis and the whole Middle East were under Seleucid control.

Seleucos apparently formed an alliance with a local Persian dynasty which grew to gain , substantial power in Persis. Persis rulers took the title of “Frataraka”, or “keeper of the fire”; This title appears to have been equivalent to a sub-satrap title. Their power in Persis was complimented by the presence of a Seleucid satrap of Persis. This balance of power led to some sort of co-existence, but the precise details relationship are not fully understood.

The four first rulers of Pesis were “Artaxares I” (“Ardaxshir” in Persian), “Oborzes” (or “Wahabarz”), “Autophradates I” (or “Vadfradad”), and “Bagadates” (or “Bagdan”). These ruler retained the title of “Frataraka” title and minted coins under that authority. It seems Persis kept fairly good relations with the Seleucids. The exception occurred during the reign of Oborzes, during the period of about 270 to 240 BCE), when according to the Greek Historian Polyaeneus the forces of Persis killed around 3,000 Greek colonists.

Evidence of turbulent reigns can be found in coin overstrikes. These indicate for instance that the rulers Autophradates I and Bagadates were not on good terms with one another. When the Seleucid Antiochos III came to power he installed a Greek by the name of Alexander alongside Alexander's brother Molon at the head of the Persis satrapy in Media. According to Polybius the 2nd century BC Hellenic/Greek Historian Polybius Alexander despised Antiochos III. Alexander helped his brother Molon along with the Upper Satrapies to revolt against Antiochos III during the period 222-220 BC.

Again according to Polybius when Alexander and Molon were defeated the two committed suicide. Antiochos III then sent Tychon who was chief secretary of his army to “take the command of the Persian gulf province”. The revolt must have been supported by the Persis Frataraka, as the Persis dynasty disappeared until the reign of “Autophradates II” (or “Vadfradad” in Persian). Onward from the reign of this ruler until that of the last ruler the Kings of Persis all bore the title “Malakh” instead of “frataraka”.

Persis kings seem to have maintained their loyalty to the Seleucids the Parthians defeated the Seleucids in 141 BCE. The Parthians then kept the Persis kingdoms as vassals, as they also later did with several little kingdoms in Mesopotamia. One of the kings of Persis was Ardashir. The son of Sassan, Ardashir revolted against the Parthian King Artabanos VI in 211/2 AD defeated him. Thus Ardashir founded the Sassanian empire. This ended the kingdom of Persis as under his rule Ardashir simply merged Persis with the defeated Parthian Empire.

Very little is known of the cultural aspects of the kingdom of Persis. They ruled from Estakhr, where Achaemenid tombs are located. The dynasty shows several indications of Hellenization on their coins and on the scarce representation they left history, alongside reminiscent pictures from Achaemenid art. Administration aspects were probably similar to those used by the early Sassanids, with a king giving orders to several kyrios (Lords). Ultimately the legacy of the kingdom of Persis became visible through Sassanid cultural elements, even though many important aspects remain unknown [Ancient History Encyclopedia].

Ancient Persia: Ancient Persia (geographically roughly equivalent to modern-day Iran) is among the oldest inhabited regions in the world. Archaeological sites in the country have established human habitation dating back 100,000 years to the Paleolithic Age. Semi-permanent settlements most likely for hunting parties were well-established before 10,000 BC. The earliest archaeological finds in the region include Neanderthal seasonal settlements and tools. These finds help trace human development in the region from the Paleolithic through the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Ages.

The city of Susa (modern-day Shushan), which would later become part of Elam and then Persia, was founded in 4395 BC, making it among the oldest in the world. Although Susa is often equated with Elam, they were different polities. Though it was contemporaneous with Elamite culture Susa was founded before even the Proto-Elamite Period, which ran from about 3200 through 2700 BC. The ancient kingdom of Elam in this area was among the most advanced of its time. Its oldest settlement is the archaeological site of Chogha Bonut. Chogha Bonut dates back to around 7200 BC before it conquered in part by the Sumerians, later completely by the Assyrians, and then by the Medes.

The Median Empire of 678 to 550 BC was followed by one of the greatest political and social entities of the ancient world, the Persian Achaemenid Empire. This empire existed from 550 through 330 BC at which point in time it was conquered by Alexander the Great. One of Alexander's successor generals founded the Seleucid Empire which controlled much of the region from 312 through 63 BC. However the Seleucids gradually lost control of the region to the Parthian Empire, which existed from 247 BC through 224 AD. The Parthians were in turn succeeded by Sassanian Empire, which controlled the region from 224 through 651 AD. The Sassanian Empire was the last of the Persian governments to hold the region before the Muslim Arab conquest of the 7th century AD.

Aryan tribes are thought to have initially migrated to the region at some point prior to the 3rd Millennium BC. Their country would later be referred to as Ariana and Iran, literally the land of the Aryans. The term 'Aryan' should be understood according to the ancient Iranian language of Avestan. The term literally meant “noble”, “civilized” or “free man” and designated a class of people. The term had nothing to do with race in general, or Caucasians specifically. The term refers to Indo-Iranians who applied the term to describe themselves in the religious works known as the Avesta. The term 'Aryan' interpreted as referencing racial Caucasians was not advanced until the 19th century.

These Aryan tribes were made up of diverse people who would become known as Alans, Bactrians, Medes, Parthians, and Persians, among others. They brought with them a polytheistic religion closely associated with the Vedic thought of the Indo-Aryans. The Indo-Ayrans were the peoples who would settle in northern India. The religion was characterized by dualism and the veneration of fire as an embodiment of the divine. This early Iranian religion held the god Ahura Mazda as the supreme being. Other deities in the pantheon included among others; Mithra (sun god/god of covenants), Hvar Khsata (sun god), and Anahita (goddess of fertility, health, water, and wisdom).

At some point between 1500 and 1000 BC the Persian visionary Zoroaster claimed divine revelation from Ahura Mazda. Also known as Zarathustra, he advocated recognizing the purpose of human life as choosing sides in an eternal struggle. The struggle was between the supreme deity of justice and order, Ahuras Mazda, and his adversary Angra Mainyu. The latter was the god of discord and strife. Human beings were defined by whose side they chose to act on. Zoroaster’s teachings formed the foundation of the religion of Zoroastrianism. This religion would later be adopted by the Persian empires and influence and shape their culture.

The Persians settled primarily across the Iranian plateau and were well-established by the 1st Millennium BC. They settled primarily across the Iranian plateau. The Medes united under a single chief named Dayukku. Dayukku was known to Greek history as Deioces. He ruled from 727 through 675 BC, and founded the Mede state in Ecbatana. Dayukku’s grandson was Cyaxares. He ruled from 625 through 585 BC and would extend Median territory into modern-day Azerbaijan. Under their king Achaemenes in the late 8th century BC the Persians consolidated their control of the central-western region of the Bakhityari Mountains. Their capital city was Anshan.

As noted above the Elamites were already established in this area at the time. They were most likely the indigenous population. The Persians under their king Thiepes settled to the east of Elam in the territory known as Persis. Thiepes was the son of Achaemenes, and he ruled from 675 through 640 BC. The territory of Persis was also known as Parsa, and is roughly contemporaneous with modern Fars. Persis which would give the tribe the name they are known by (“Persian”).

The Persians later extended their control of the region into Elamite territory. They intermarried with Elamites and eventually absorbed the culture. Sometime prior to 640 BC Thiepes divided his kingdom between his sons Cyrus I and Ararnamnes. Cyrus ruled the northern kingdom from Anshan from about 625 through 600 BC. Arianamnes ruled in the south. Under the rule of Cambyses I (who ruled from 580 through 559 BC) the two kingdoms were re-united, who ruled from Anshan.

The Medes were the dominant power in the region. The kingdom of the Persians was actually a small vassal state under the Medes. This situation would reverse after the fall of the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC. Already weakening the fall of the Assyrian Empire was hastened by the campaigns of the Medes and Babylonians. They had led a coalition against the weakening Assyrian state. The Medes at first maintained control until they were overthrown by Cyrus II. Cyrus II was also known as “Cyrus the Great” and is credited with the founding of the Achaemenid Empire. He was the son of Persian Cambyses I, and grandson of Astyages of Media who had ruled from bout 585 through 550 BC.

In about 550 BC Cyrus II overthrew his grandfather Astyages of Media and began a systematic campaign to bring other principalities under his control. He conquered the wealthy kingdom of Lydia in 546 BC, Elam (Susiana) in 540 BC, and Babylon in 539 BC. By the end of his reign, Cyrus II (“the Great”) had established an empire which stretched from the modern-day region of Syria down through Turkey and across to the borders of India. This became known as the Achaemenid Empire, named for Cyrus II’s ancestor Achaemenes.

Cyrus II is unique among ancient conquerors for his humanitarian vision and policies as well as encouraging technological innovations. Much of the land he conquered suffered from a lack of adequate water supply. Cyrus he had his engineers revive an older means of tapping underground aquifers known as a qanat. The qanat was a sloping channel dug into the earth with vertical shafts at intervals. These vertical shafts reached down to the channel. Thus through the access provided by the shafts water could be brough up to ground level from the subterranean channel, or “qanat”.

Cyrus II is often erroneously credited with inventing the qanat system. However the qanat system was actually attested to earlier by Sargon II of Assyria. Sargon ruled from 722 through 705 BC. An inscription describing his 714 BC Urartu campaign notes qanats in use around the city of Ulhu in Western Iran. The qanat system is mentioned as creating fertile fields from any river. It seems Cyrus II developed a much wider network of qanats across a much greater area. However the system was actually an earlier Persian invention.

Likewise an earlier innovation was the yakhchal. These were great domed coolers which created and preserved ice. They were in essence the first refrigerators. Cyrus encouraged the widespread us of the yakhchal. Cyrus II’s humanitarian efforts are well-known through the Cyrus Cylinder. This preserves a record of his policies and proclamation of his vision. That vision was that everyone under his reign should be free to live as they wished as long as they did so in peaceful accord with others.

One example of such humanitarianism might be the fact that after Cyrus conquered Babylon he allowed the Jews to return to Judah. Prior the Jews had been taken from their homeland by King Nebuchadnezzar who had ruled from 605 through 562 BC. This event is known to history as the “Babylonian Captivity”. Cyrus even provided the Jews with funds to rebuild their temple. Cyrus also allowed the Lydians to continue their worship of their goddess Cybele.

All Cyrus II asked in return for this magnanimosity was that citizens of his empire live peacefully with each other, serve in his armies, and pay their taxes. In order to maintain a stable environment Cyrus (“the Great”) he instituted a governmental hierarchy. Naturally Cyrus was at the top of the hierarchy. Following were the advisors who surrounded him, and who relayed his decrees to secretaries. These then passed on Cyrus's decrees to regional governors (“satraps”) in each province (“satrapy”).

The governors, known as “satraps”, only possessed authority over bureaucratic-administrative matters. A military commander in province, known as a “satrapy”, possessed oversight authority with respect to military/police matters. By dividing the responsibilities of government in each satrapy, Cyrus II lessened the chance of any official amassing enough money and power to attempt a coup.

The decrees of Cyrus the Great, as well as any other news, traveled along a network of roads linking major cities. The most famous of these would become the Royal Road running from Susa to Sardis. This was established after the rule of Cyrus by one of his successors, Darius I. Messengers would leave one city and find a watchtower and rest-station within two days. There the messenger would be given food, drink, a bed, and once refreshed, was provided with a new horse to travel on to the next station.

The Persian postal system was considered by the Greek Historian Herodotus to be a marvel of his era. The Persian system became the model for later similar postal systems. Cyrus founded a new city as capital, Pasargadae. However Cyrus moved between three other cities which also served as administrative hubs. These cities were Babylon, Ecbatana, and Susa. The Royal Road connected these cities as well as others. Thus the king was constantly informed of the affairs of state.

Cyrus was fond of gardening and made use of the qanat system to create elaborate gardens. These gardens were known as “pairi-daeza”, which eventuallyu gave rise to the English word and concept of “paradise”. Cyrus is said to have spent as much time as possible in his gardens daily while also managing the expansion of his empire.

Cyrus died in 530 BC, possibly in battle. He was succeeded by his son Cambyses II, who ruled from 530 through 522 BC. Cambyses II who extended Persian rule into Egypt. Modern scholars continue to debate the identity of Cambyses's successor, It could either of been his brother Bardiya, or a Median usurper named Gaumata. Gaumata took control of the empire in 522 BC.

According to some historical accounts it is suggested that Cambyses II assassinated his brother Bardiya. Gaumata then assumed Bardiya’s identity while Cambyses II was campaigning in Egypt. Either way a distant cousin of the brothers assassinated this ruler, whatever his true identity, 522 BC. The cousin took the regnal name of Darius I, who was also known as “Darius the Great”. Darius I ruled from 522 through 486 BC), and would extend the empire even further. Darius would also initiate some of the empire's most famous building projects. These would include the great ancient city of Persepolis, which became one of the empire's capitals.

Domestic unrest broke out during Darius's reign even though he continued Cyrus II’s policy of tolerance and humanitarian legislation. Such unrest was not uncommon as it was standard for provinces to rebel after the death of a monarch. This “tradition” stretched as far back in time to the Akkadian Empire of Sargon the Great in Mesopotamia, who had ruled from 2334 through 2279 BC.

The Ionian Greek colonies of Asia Minor were among these areas of unrest. Since their rebellious efforts were backed by Athens, Darius launched an invasion of Greece. The advance of Darius's armies was halted at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. After his death Darius (“the Great”) was succeeded by his son Xerxes I. Xerxes I ruled from 486 through 465 BC. He is most famous for raising what is believed to be the largest army in history up to that point for his unsuccessful invasion of Greece of 480 BC.

Following the failed invasion history records that Xerxes I occupied himself with building projects. Most notable among these projects were additions to the great city of Persepolis. Darius's successors likewise continued building additions to the capital city. The Achaemenid Empire would remain stable under later rulers until it was eventually conquered by Alexander the Great. This occurred during the reign of Darius III, who ruled from 336 through 330 BC.

Darius III was assassinated by his confidante and bodyguard Bessus. Bessus then proclaimed himself Artaxerxes V. However he only ruled from 330 to 329 BC as shortly after assassinating Darius III he was executed by Alexander the Great. Alexander styled himself as Darius’ successor and is often referred to as the last monarch of the Achaemenid Empire.

After Alexander’s death in 323 BC his empire was divided up amongst his generals. One of these was Seleucus I Nicator. Seleucus had taken control over Alexander's conquests in Central Asia and Mesopotamia. Expanding these territories he founded the Seleucid Empire. Ruling from 305 to 281 BC Seleucus Hellenized the region. Seleucus kept the Persian model of government and religious toleration. However he filled the top administrative positions with Greeks. Even though Greeks and Persians intermarried, the Seleucid Empire favored Greeks. Greek became the language of the court.

Seleucus began his reign putting down rebellions in some areas and conquering others. However he always maintained the Persian governmental policies which had worked so well in the region in the past. Even though this same practice was followed by Seleucus' immediate successors, regions rose in revolt. Some such as Parthia and Bactria managed to break away and gain their independence. For instance in 247 BC Arsaces I of Parthia established an independent kingdom which would become the Parthian Empire. Arsaces would rule from 247 through 217 BC.

The Seleucid king Antiochus III (“the Great”) who ruled from 223 through 187 BCE) would retake Parthia briefly in around 209 BC. However Parthia was on the rise and shook off Seleucid rule afterwards. Antiochus III was the last effective Seleucid king. However though he had reconquered and expanded the Seleucid Empire, he was defeated by Rome at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC. The consequential Treaty of Apamea forced upon him by the Romans in 188 BC resulted in significant losses. As a consequence of the treaty the empire was diminished to less than half its former size.

Shortly after this the Parthian king Phraates seized on the Seleucid defeat and expanded Parthian control into former Seleucid regions. Phraates ruled from 176 through 171 BC. His successor Mithridates I would rule from 171 through 132 BC. Mithridates consolidated these regions and expand the Parthian Empire further. Parthia continued to grow as the Seleucid Empire shrank. During this time of Seleucid decline and Parthian growth the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes focused entirely on his own self-interests. Antiochus IV ruled from 175 through 164 BC. His successors would continue the pattern.

The result was that the Seleucids were finally reduced to a small buffer kingdom in Syria after their defeat by the Roman general Pompey the Great. In contrast following the reign of Mithridates II the Parthian Empire was at its height. Mithridates II ruled from 124 through 88 BC. By the point in time that the Seleucids suffered their defeat at the hands of Pompey the Great in 63 BC, the Parthians had expanded their empire even further.

The Parthians reduced the threat of rebellion in their provinces by shrinking the size of their satrapies, which by that point in time were called “eparchies”. They allowed the kings of conquered regions to retain their positions with all rights and privileges. These client kings paid tribute to the Parthian Empire, enriching that treasury, while maintaining peace simply because it was in their own best interests. The resulting political stability allowed Parthian art and architecture to flourish while prosperous trade further enriched the empire. Both the art and the architecture reflected a seamless blend of Persian and Hellenistic cultural characteristics.

The Parthian army was the most effective fighting force of the age. This was principally due to the army's cavalry and the perfection of a technique known as the “Parthian shot”. This technique was executed by mounted archers who while feigning retreat would turn and shoot backward at advancing adversaries. This technique is the source of the English language phrase “parting shot”. This characteristic tactic of Parthian warfare as a complete surprise to their adversaries. It remained so even after opposing forces became aware of it.

Under Orodes II (who ruled from 57 through 37 BC) the Parthians easily defeated and killed the triumvir Crassus of Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. The Parthians later defeated the Roman forces of Mark Antony in 36 BC. The Parthians thus delivered two severe blows to the might, morale, and reputation Rome's military might.

Nonetheless Rome’s power continued to increase following the reorganization as an empire, founded by Octavius Augustus, who ruled from 27 BC through 14 AD. By 165 AD the Parthian Empire had been severely weakened by incessant and frequent Roman campaigns. The last Parthian king was Artabanus IV who ruled from 213 through 224 AD. Artabanus was overthrown by his vassal Ardashir I.

Ardashir I was a descendant of Darius III and a member of the royal Persian house. During his reign from 224 through 240 AD Ardashir I was chiefly concerned first, with building a stable kingdom founded on the precepts of Zoroastrianism. Second to protect that stable kingdom from Roman warfare and influence. To this end Ardashir he made his son Shapur I co-regent in 240 AD. When Ardashir I died a year later, Shapur I became “King of Kings”. Ruling from 240 through 270 AD, Shapur initiated a series of military campaigns to enlarge his territory and protect his borders.

Like his father Shapur I was a devout Zoroastrian, but adhered to a policy of religious tolerance in keeping with the practice of the Achaemenid Empire. Jews, Christians, and members of other religious faiths were free to practice their beliefs, build houses of worship, and participate in government. The religious visionary Mani who lived from 216 through 274 AD was founder of Manichaeism and was a guest at Shapur I’s court. Shapur I [rpved himself quite capable as an administrator. He ran his new empire efficiently from the capital at Ctesiphon, which had earlier been the seat of the Parthian Empire.

Shapur also commissioned numerous building projects. He initiated the architectural innovation of the domed entrance and the minaret. He revived the use of the qanat which the Parthians had neglected. He also revived the yakhchal (refrigerator) as well as wind-towers. The wind towers were also known as wind “catchers”. These were originally an Egyptian invention and were used for ventilating and cooling buildings.

It may also have been Shapur who commissioned the impressive Taq Kasra arch. This arch is still standing at Ctesiphon, although some scholars credit this to the later monarch Kosrau I. Shapur perceived that his Zoroastrian vision cast him and the Sassanians as the forces of light. They believed themselves to be serving the great god Ahura Mazda. They preceived themselves as opposing the forces of darkness and disorder, which were epitomized by Rome.

Shapur I’s campaigns against Rome were almost universally successful. Shapour even succeeded in capturing the Roman emperor Valerian, who had ruled Rome from 253 through 260 AD. Shapur forced Valerian into a role as Shapur's personal servant, using him as a footstool when mounting his horse. Shapur saw himself as a warrior king and lived up to that vision. He took full advantage of Rome’s weakness during the Crisis of the Third Century (which lasted from 235 through 284 AD) to enlarge the Sassanian Empire.

Shapur I lay the foundation for the Sassanian Empire which his successors would build upon. The greatest of Shapur's successors was Kosrau I. Kosrau I, also known as Anushirvan the Just, ruled from 531-579 AD. Kosrau I reformed the tax laws so they were more equitable. He divided the empire into four sections. The defense of each section was the responsibility of its own general. This permitted quick response to both external or internal threats. Thus Kosrau managed to tightly secure the Sassanian borders.

Kosrau also elevated the importance of education. He founded the Academy of Gondishapur. The Academy was the leading university and medical center of its day. Scholars from India, China, Greece, and elsewhere composed its faculty. Kosrau I continued the policies of religious tolerance and inclusion, as well as the ancient Persian antipathy towards slavery. Prisoners of war taken by the Roman Empire became slaves. Prisoners of war taken by the Sassanian Empire became paid servants. It was was also illegal to beat or in any way injure a servant, no matter one’s social class. Thus the life of a 'slave' within the Sassanian Empire was far superior to the lives of slaves elsewhere in the ancient world.

The Sassanian Empire is considered the height of Persian rule and culture in antiquity. It is perceived to have built upon the best tenets of the Achaemenid Empire, not only incorporating these characteristics, but improving upon them. As was the case with most (if not all) other ancient empires, the Sassanians declined the result of weak rulers who made poor choices. Contributing factors also included the corruption of the clergy and the onslaught of the Bubonic Plague in 627 and 628 AD.

Unable to recover from these handicaps, particularly decimation by the plague, the Sassanians were unable to muster the strength (or population necessary) to resist conquest by the Muslim Arabs in the 7th century AD. Even so Persian technological, architectural, and religious innovations would come to shape the culture of the conquerors and their religion. The high civilization of ancient Persia continues today with direct, unbroken ties to its past through the Iranian culture.

Although modern-day Iran corresponds to the heartland of ancient Persia, The Islamic Republic of Iran is a multi-cultural entity. To say one is Iranian is to state one’s nationality. In contrast to say one is Persian is to define one’s ethnicity. These are not synonyms. Iran’s multi-cultural heritage directly descends from the paradigm of the great Persian empires of the past. These were characterized by many different ethnicities living within within those empires. That past is reflected in the diverse and welcoming character of Iranian society in the present day [Ancient History Encyclopedia].

The Achaemenid Empire of Persia: East of the Zagros Mountains a high plateau stretches off towards India. While Egypt was rising up against the Hyksos, a wave of pastoral tribes from north of the Caspian Sea was drifting down into this area and across into India. By the time the Assyrians had built their new empire, a second wave had covered the whole stretch between the Zagros and the Hindu Kush. Some tribes settled, others retained their semi-nomadic lifestyle. These were the Iranian peoples.

Like all nomadic peoples lacking police and law courts, a code of honor was central to the Iranian tribes. Their religious beliefs differed from those of farming people. Whereas the farmers of Egypt and Mesopotamia had converted nature gods into city guardians, the Iranians had begun distilling them into a few universal principles. Zoroaster who lived sometime around 1000 BC drove this process. For Zoroaster the only god was the creator, Ahura Mazda, bringer of asha. Asha was light, order, truth. Asha was the law or logic by which the world was structured. Even those who were not practicing Zoroastrians grew up shaped by a culture that valued simple ethical ideas such as telling the truth.

In some areas, one tribe would manage to gather a collection of other tribes under its leadership. The Medes were one such. They built a capital at Ecbatana (literally translated as ‘meeting place’). Ecbatana was situated in the eastern Zagros, from where the Medes extended their power. In 612 BC Cyaxares, King of the Medes, stormed Nineveh with the Chaldeans. Thereafter Cyaxares pushed into the north-west. In 585 BC the Medes were fighting the Lydians on the Halys river when a solar eclipse frightened both sides into making peace. Soon thereafter Cyaxares died leaving an empire of sorts to his son Astyages, who ruled from 585 to 550 BC.

One of the regions whose tribes paid tribute to the Medes was Persia. Persia was situated south-east of Ecbatana, beyond Elam. There were around 10 or 15 tribes in Persia, of which one was the Pasargadae. The leader of the Pasargadae always came from the Achaemenid clan. In 559 BCE a new leader was chosen, Cyrus II, who became known as “Cyrus the Great’.Some historical accounts record that Cyrus was the grandson of Astyages on his mother’s side. However his biological descendance from the Mede ruler did not preclude Cyrus from wanting to shake off the Median yoke.

By 552 BC Cyrus had formed the Persian tribes into a federation and begun a series of uprisings. When the inevitable showdown with his grandfather Astyages came in 550 BC history records that the Medes mutinied and joined Cyrus to march on Ecbatana. Cyrus took the title ‘Shah (or King) of Persia’ and built a capital on the site of his victory. Cyrus named his city “Pasargadae”, after his tribe. Winning the Medes over had landed Cyrus with a vague, sprawling empire of countless different peoples. This presented Cyrus with challenges arising from cultural diversity, suspicion, and outright hostility.

Lydia and Chaldean Babylon had agreements with the Medes. Neither felt comfortable about a Persian takeover led by Cyrus. Lydia was won because Cyrus did not play by the rules. After an indecisive battle near the Halys river one autumn, King Croesus (who ruled from about 560 to 546 BC) returned to Sardis. King Croesus did so with the customary expectation that fighting would resume in the spring. But Cyrus followed him home and captured Sardis itself, Lydia’s capital and richest of the Ionian cities.

A century earlier, Lydia had minted the ancient world's first coins, making Ionia a hub of commerce. Now all this fell to Cyrus. As for Croesus himself it seems against all precedent Cyrus may have spared his life. Cyrus developed a reputation for sparing conquered rulers enabling him to seek their advice on how best to govern their lands. How much of this reputation was warranted is hard to know. However it is known that prior to Cyrus no one would have followed such a route with respect to the leader of a vanquished foe. In the ancient world this would have been construed as a sign of weakness.

Cyrus by contrast saw cooperation as a strength. This was particularly so when it came to securing his main goal, the conquest of Babylon. Rather than trying to take the world’s greatest city by force, Cyrus fought a propaganda campaign to exploit the unpopularity of its king, Nabonidus. Babylon’s traditions would be safer with Cyrus was the message propagandized. The gates of Babylon were opened and palm fronds were laid before him as he entered the city.

Once in Babylon, Cyrus performed the religious ceremonies Nabonidus had neglected. Cyrus returned confiscated icons to their temples around the country. These acts enabled Cyrus to legitimize his rule over in Babylon. Religious leaders proclaimed that Cyrus's rule was clearly sanctioned by the Babylonian gods. Cyrus established that his empire would be based, in effect, on a kind of contract between himself and the various peoples in his care. They would pay their tribute. In return Cyrus would ensure all were free to worship their own gods and live according to their customs.

The exiled Jews were allowed to go home and given money towards the building of a new temple in Jerusalem. This earned Cyrus a glowing write-up in the Old Testament as well as providing him with a useful buffer state against Egypt. Cyrus’s multiculturalism made an enduring imperial peace a real possibility at last and defined the way later empires sought to achieve stable rule. It was obvious to Cyrus that this was the only way he could hope to hold on to his conquests. But his was a vision only someone from outside the civilizations of the river valleys, with their intense attachments to local gods, could have conceived.

Cyrus’s son and successor Cambyses II ruled from 529 through 522 BC. Cambyses added Egypt to the Persian Empire. However a revolt broke out at home. It was apparently led by a Median priest posing as Cambyses’s brother, whom Cambyses had secretly murdered. Cambyses hurried back home but died on the way. He left one of his generals, a distant relative, to step in. His name was Darius. Darius I eventually became known in history as “Darius the Great”. His first act of of business was to kill the Median priest pretending to the throne. However even with that accomplished Darius was faced with uprisings were by then breaking out all over. Darius thus found himself having to re-establish Cyrus’s conquests.

The army and the noble clans of Persia had grown rich from imperial rule. With their support Darius regained control of the Empire and extended it into the Indus Valley. The Indus proved to be a prize worth several times more in tribute than had been Babylon. Darius realized that if the empire were to work, it needed efficient organization. He divided the empire into 20 satrapies, or provinces. Each satrapy paid a fixed rate of tribute to Persia. Each satrapy was run by a centrally appointed satrap, or governor, often related to Darius.

To prevent a satrap from building an independent power base, Darius appointed a separate military commander answerable only to him. Imperial spies known as the ‘king’s ears’ kept tabs on both the military commanders and the satraps. They reported back to Darius through the postal service. The postal service connected the empire with a network of roads along. Couriers could change horses at stations spaced a day’s travel apart.

Darius took much of this structure from the Assyrians, simply applying it on a larger scale. However Darius's system of tribute was something new. Previously tribute had been essentially protection money paid to avoid trouble. However Darius treated it instead as a tax. He used the tribute income to build a navy. He embarked on massive public-spending programs, pumping money into irrigation works, mineral exploration, roads, and a canal between the Nile and the Red Sea.

Darius also established a common currency. This made working far from home much easier. Darius also brought together teams of craftsmen from all over the Empire to build, an imperial capital at Persepolis. This was done under the direction of Persian architects. Here Darius could keep his gold and silver in a giant vault, which soon proved to be too small to hold all of Darius's wealth. Persepolis also showed off the multi-ethnic scope of his empire.

Persepolis became a display case for the artistic styles of just about every culture within the empire, held in an overarching frame of Persian design. The city was a visualization of Cyrus’s idea of empire. However Darius never acknowledged the preceding achievements of Cyrus which provided a foundation for Darius. Darius seems to have had “a chip on his shoulder” about not belonging to Cyrus’s branch of the Achaemenid clan.

As he outstripped Cyrus’s achievements, Darius began to present himself in an ever more exalted manner. Darius dropped the title Shah in favor of the grander title Shahanshah (‘King of Kings’). Like Persepolis, however, all of Darius's achievements followed directly from Cyrus’s vision. Cyrus had played the part of Babylon’s king when he entered the city. However Darius's concept of empire demanded a ruler who stood above all kings linked to the interests of any one community. It required a “king of kings”.

Darius’s later rule saw trouble in the Mediterranean. In 499 BC there was a Greek revolt in Ionia. After eventually quashing it, Darius’s fleet sailed to punish Athens for backing the rebels. However Darius's naval forces encountered a surprise defeat. If the Persian empire was not to appear dangerously weak militarily, the Greeks would have to be taught a lesson. But when Darius raised taxes to fund a military rearmament drive, he provoked unrest in more important areas such as Egypt.

It fell to Darius’s son Xerxes Ito restore order in Egypt and take up the Greek issue. Xerxes ruled from 486 through 465 BC. Xerxes carried himself even more loftily still than Darius. With both Darius and Cyrus as precedents, Xerxes had had even more to prove. But Xerxes lacked the cultural sensitivity both Darius and Cyrus had displayed. When tax increases produced riots in Babylon in 482 BC, Xerxes sacked the city, destroyed the temple, and melted down the solid gold statue of Marduk.

The statue was reportedly solid gold, three times the size of a man. With the melting of Marduk, so vanished Babylon’s greatness. Marduk’s gold funded Xerxes efforts to begin the process of assembling forces to crush the Greeks. However in 480 BC Xerxes was prematurely forced into battle. Xerxes suffered a worse military humiliation than his father. Thereafter history suggests that Xerxes largely withdrew into the cocoon embodied by the luxury of his court and harem.

When Cyrus entered Babylon he had mimicked the behavior of a Mesopotamian king for public consumption. But by the time of Zerxes the private lives of Persian rulers had actually taken Mesopotamian form. Shut up in opulent isolation, the later Achaemenid rulers played out an increasingly gaudy pantomime of harem intrigue and palace assassination.

Ancient Iranian Cities: Even local archaeologists with the benefit of air-conditioned cars and paved roads think twice about crossing eastern Iran's rugged terrain. "It's a tough place," says Mehdi Mortazavi from the University of Sistan-Baluchistan in the far eastern end of Iran, near the Afghan border. At the center of this region is the Dasht-e Lut, Persian for the "Empty Desert.” This treacherous landscape, 300 miles long and 200 miles wide, is covered with sinkholes, steep ravines, and sand dunes. Some of the sand dunes top 1,000 feet (300 meters) in height. It also has the hottest average surface temperature of any place on Earth. The forbidding territory in and around this desert seems like the last place to seek clues to the emergence of the first cities and states 5,000 years ago.

Yet archaeologists are finding an impressive array of ancient settlements on the edges of the Dasht-e Lut. These ancient settlements date back to the period when urban civilization was emerging in Egypt, Iraq, and the Indus River Valley in Pakistan and India. In the 1960s and 1970s archaeologists found the great centers of Shahr-i-Sokhta and Shahdad on the desert's fringes and another, Tepe Yahya, far to the south. More recent surveys, excavations, and remote sensing work reveal that all of eastern Iran, from near the Persian Gulf in the south to the northern edge of the Iranian plateau, was peppered with hundreds and possibly thousands of small to large settlements. Detailed laboratory analyses of artifacts and human remains from these sites are providing an intimate look at the lives of an enterprising people who helped create the world's first global trade network.

Far from living in a cultural backwater, eastern Iranians from this period built large cities with palaces, used one of the first writing systems, and created sophisticated metal, pottery, and textile industries. They also appear to have shared both administrative and religious ideas as they did business with distant lands. "They connected the great corridors between Mesopotamia and the east," says Maurizio Tosi, a University of Bologna archaeologist who did pioneering work at Shahr-i-Sokhta. "They were the world in between."

By 2000 B.C. these settlements were abandoned. The reasons for this remain unclear and are the source of much scholarly controversy. However history is clear, urban life didn't return to eastern Iran for more than 1,500 years. The very existence of this civilization was long forgotten. Recovering its past has not been easy. Parts of the area are close to the Afghan border, long rife with armed smugglers. Revolution and politics have frequently interrupted excavations. And the immensity of the region and its harsh climate make it one of the most challenging places in the world to conduct archaeology.

The enigmatic explorer Sir Aurel Stein was famous for his archaeological work surveying large swaths of Central Asia and the Middle East. Stein slipped into Persia at the end of 1915 and found the first hints of eastern Iran's lost cities. Stein traversed what he described as "a big stretch of gravel and sandy desert" and encountered "the usual...robber bands from across the Afghan border, without any exciting incident." What did excite Stein was the discovery of what he called "the most surprising prehistoric site" on the eastern edge of the Dasht-e Lut. Locals called it Shahr-i-Sokhta ("Burnt City") because of signs of ancient destruction.

It wasn't until a half-century later that Tosi and his team hacked their way through the thick salt crust and discovered a metropolis rivaling those of the first great urban centers in Mesopotamia and the Indus. Radiocarbon data showed that about the time the first substantial cities in Mesopotamia were being built around 3200 BC the site of Dasht-e Lut was founded, It flourished for more than a thousand years. During its heyday in the middle of the third Millennium BC the city covered more than 150 hectares. It may have been home to more than 20,000 people. It's population was likely equivalent to the large cities of Umma in Mesopotamia and Mohenjo-Daro on the Indus River. A vast shallow lake and wells likely provided the necessary water, allowing for cultivated fields and grazing for animals.

Built of mudbrick the city boasted a large palace. There were separate neighborhoods for pottery-making, metalworking, and other industrial activities. There were also distinct areas for the production of local goods. Most residents lived in modest one-room houses. However there were some were larger compounds with six to eight rooms. Bags of goods and storerooms were often "locked" with stamp seals, a procedure also common in Mesopotamia in the era.

Shahr-i-Sokhta boomed as the demand for precious goods among elites in the region and elsewhere grew. Though situated in inhospitable terrain, the city was close to tin, copper, and turquoise mines. It also laid on the route bringing lapis lazuli from Afghanistan to the west. Craftsmen worked shells from the Persian Gulf, carnelian from India, and local metals such as tin and copper. Some they made into finished products, and others were exported in unfinished form. Lapis blocks brought from the Hindu Kush mountains, for example, were cut into smaller chunks and sent on to Mesopotamia and as far west as Syria.

Unworked blocks of lapis weighing more than 100 pounds in total were unearthed in the ruined palace of Ebla, close to the Mediterranean Sea. Archaeologist Massimo Vidale of the University of Padua says that the elites in eastern Iranian cities like Shahr-i-Sokhta were not simply slaves to Mesopotamian markets. They apparently kept the best-quality lapis for themselves, and sent west what they did not want. Lapis beads found in the royal tombs of Ur, for example, are intricately carved, but of generally low-quality stone compared to those of Shahr-i-Sokhta.

Pottery was produced on a massive scale. Nearly 100 kilns were clustered in one part of town and the craftspeople also had a thriving textile industry. Hundreds of wooden spindle whorls and combs were uncovered, as were well-preserved textile fragments made of goat hair and wool that show a wide variation in their weave. According to Irene Good, a specialist in ancient textiles at Oxford University, this group of textile fragments constitutes one of the most important in the world. Their great antiquity provides unparalleled insight into an early stages of the evolution of wool production. Textiles were big business in the third Millennium B.C., according to Mesopotamian texts. However heretofore actual textiles from this era had never before been found.

A metal flag found was found at Shahdad. Shahdad was one of eastern Iran's early urban sites and dates to around 2400 BC. The flag depicts a man and woman facing each other, one of the recurrent themes in the region's art at this time. A plain ceramic jar also found at Shahdad, contains residue of a white cosmetic. The complex formula analyzed is evidence for an extensive knowledge of chemistry among the city's ancient inhabitants. The artifacts also show the breadth of Shahr-i-Sokhta's connections. Some excavated red-and-black ceramics share traits with those found in the hills and steppes of distant Turkmenistan to the north. Other ceramic wares are similar to pots made in Pakistan to the east, which at that time was home to the Indus civilization.

Tosi's team found a clay tablet written in a script called Proto-Elamite. The Proto-Elamite script emerged at the end of the fourth Millennium BC. Its emergence was just after the advent of the first known writing system, cuneiform, which evolved in Mesopotamia. Other such tablets and sealings with Proto-Elamite signs have also been found in eastern Iran, such as at Tepe Yahya. This script was used for only a few centuries starting around 3200 BC. Indications are that it may have emerged in Susa, just east of Mesopotamia. However by the middle of the third Millennium BC it was no longer in use. Most of the eastern Iranian tablets record simple transactions involving sheep, goats, and grain. It seems likely the records could have been used to keep track of goods in large households.

While Tosi's team was digging at Shahr-i-Sokhta, Iranian archaeologist Ali Hakemi was working at another site, Shahdad. Shahdad is on the western side of the Dasht-e Lut. This settlement emerged as early as the fifth Millennium BC on a delta at the edge of the desert. By the early third Millennium BC Shahdad began to grow quickly as international trade with Mesopotamia expanded. Tomb excavations revealed spectacular artifacts amid stone blocks once painted in vibrant colors. These include several extraordinary, nearly life-size clay statues placed with the dead. The city's artisans worked lapis lazuli, silver, lead, turquoise, and other materials imported from as far away as eastern Afghanistan. They also worked shells from the distant Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.

Evidence shows that ancient Shahdad also possessed a large metalworking industry at this time. During a recent survey archaeologists found a vast hill covered with slag from smelting copper. The hill covered an area nearly 300 feet by 300 feet. Vidale says that analysis of the copper ore suggests that the smiths were savvy enough to add a small amount of arsenic in the later stages of the process to strengthen the final product – the first step to producing bronze.

Shahdad's metalworkers also created such remarkable artifacts as a metal flag dating to about 2400 BC. Mounted on a copper pole topped with a bird, perhaps an eagle, the squared flag depicts two figures facing one another on a rich background of animals, plants, and goddesses. The flag has no parallels and its use is unknown.

Vidale also found evidence of a sweet-smelling nature. During a spring 2009 visit to Shahdad, he discovered a small stone container lying on the ground. The vessel appears to date to the late fourth Millennium BC. It was fashioned from chlorite, a dark soft stone favored by ancient artisans in southeast Iran. Using X-ray diffraction at an Iranian lab it was discovered to possess lead carbonate sealed in the bottom of the jar. Lead carbonate was used as a white cosmetic. Analysis also identified fatty material that likely was added as a binder. Also present were traces of coumarin, a fragrant chemical compound found in plants and used in some perfumes. Further analysis showed small traces of copper, possibly the result of a user dipping a small metal applicator into the container.

Other sites in eastern Iran are only now being investigated. Recently Iranian archaeologists Hassan Fazeli Nashli and Hassain Ali Kavosh from the University of Tehran have been digging in a small settlement a few miles east of Shahdad called Tepe Graziani. The site is named for the Italian archaeologist who first surveyed the site. They are trying to understand the role of the city's outer settlements by examining this ancient mound. The mound measures 30 feet high, 525 feet wide, and 720 feet long. Excavators have uncovered a wealth of artifacts including a variety of small sculptures depicting crude human figures, humped bulls, and a Bactrian camel dating to approximately 2900 B.C. A bronze mirror, fishhooks, daggers, and pins are among the metal finds. There are also wooden combs that survived in the arid climate. "The site is small but very rich," says Fazeli. The archaeologists theorize that the site may have been a prosperous suburban production center for Shahdad.

Sites such as Shahdad and Shahr-i-Sokhta and their suburbs were not simply islands of settlements in what otherwise was empty desert. Fazeli adds that some 900 Bronze Age sites have been found on the Sistan plain, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mortazavi has been examining the area around the Bampur Valley, in Iran's extreme southeast. This area was a corridor between the Iranian plateau and the Indus Valley. It also served as a corridor between Shahr-i-Sokhta to the north and the Persian Gulf to the south. A 2006 survey along the Damin River identified 19 Bronze Age sites in an area of less than 20 square miles.

The Damin River periodically vanishes. Contemporary farmers then depend on underground channels called qanats to transport water. As is the case with contemporary farmers, ancient eastern Iranians were very savvy in marshaling their few water resources. They lacked the large rivers or Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. Using satellite remote sensing data, Vidale has found remains of what might be ancient canals or qanats around Shahdad. This in part suggests how it may have been possible for the ancient inhabitants to support themselves in this harsh climate 5,000 years ago, as they still do today.

The large eastern Iranian settlement of Tepe Yahya produced clear evidence for the manufacture of a type of black stone jar for export that has been found as far away as Mesopotamia. Archaeologists also hope to soon continue work that began a decade ago at Konar Sandal, 55 miles north of Yahya. This site is situated near the modern city of Jiroft, in southeastern Iran. France-based archaeologist Yusef Madjizadeh has spent six seasons working at the site. The site has revealed a large city centered on a high citadel with massive walls beside the Halil River. That city and neighboring settlements like Yahya produced artfully carved dark stone vessels that have been found in Mesopotamian temples. Vidale notes that Indus weights, seals, and etched carnelian beads found at Konar Sandal demonstrate connections with that civilization as well.

Many of these settlements were abandoned in the latter half of the third Millennium BC. By 2000 BC the vibrant urban life of eastern Iran faded away into history. Barbara Helwig of Berlin's German Archaeological Institute suspects a radical shift in trade patterns precipitated the decline. Instead of moving in caravans across the deserts and plateau of Iran, Indus traders began sailing directly to Arabia and then on to Mesopotamia. At the same time to the north the growing power of the Oxus civilization in today's Turkmenistan may have further weakened the role of cities such as Shahdad.

Others archaeologists and historians blame climate change. The lagoons, marshes, and streams may have dried up. Even even small shifts in rainfall can have a dramatic effect on water sources in the area. Here there is no Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, or Indus to provide agricultural Bounty through a drought. Even the most sophisticated water systems may have failed during a prolonged dry spell. It is also possible that an international economic downturn may have played a role. The destruction of the Mesopotamian city of Ur around 2000 BC was well as the later decline of Indus metropolises such as Mohenjo-Daro might have spelled doom for a trading people. The market for precious goods such as lapis collapsed.

There is no clear evidence of widespread warfare, though Shahr-i-Sokhta appears to have been destroyed by fire several times. But a combination of drought, changes in trade routes, and economic trouble might have led people to abandon their cities. There is evidence that the populations returned to a simpler existence of herding and small-scale farming. Not until the Persian Empire rose 1,500 years later did people again live in any large numbers in eastern Iran. Not until modern times did cities once again emerge in the region. This also means that countless ancient sites are still awaiting exploration on the plains, in the deserts, and among the area's rocky valleys [Ancient History Encyclopedia].

The Ancient City of Susa: Susa was one of the oldest cities in the world. Part of the site is still inhabited as Shush, Khuzestan Province, Iran. Excavations have uncovered evidence of continual habitation dating back to 4395 BC. However the vidence establishes that this early community grew from an even older one dating back to around 7000 BC. Susa was one of the principal cities of the Elamite, Achaemenid Persian, and Parthian empires.

Susa was originally known to the Elamites as 'Susan’ or 'Susun’. The Greek name for the city was Sousa and the Hebrew, Shushan. It is mentioned in the Bible in the books of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and most notably the Book of Esther. There it was described as the home of both Nehemiah and Daniel. The contemporary city of Shush presently occupies most of the ancient city’s location. However an archaeological site of largely unexcavated tells is nearby. The temple/palace area and graves were excavated in the 19th and 20th centuries, but further excavation is required.

According to UNESCO, “the excavated architectural monuments include administrative, residential, and palatial structures”. The site contains several layers of urban settlement dating from the 5th Millennium BC through the 13th century AD. The old city was situated between the modern rivers Karkheh and Dez. These rivers were described as the Choaspes and Eulaeus. The two rivers were mentioned in the Biblical Book of Daniel 8:2, where Daniel received his vision. The rivers bring mud down from the Zagros Mountains making the area one of the most fertile in the region.

Susa began as a small village in the Neolithic Age around 7000 BC and had developed into an urban center by around 4200 BC. At some point in its development the people created a monumental platform which served as the base for a temple. The temple was most likely dedicated to the god Inshushinak, patron deity of Susa. Inshushinak was the god of darkness and the afterlife. So it is no surprise that graves were dug around the platform and offerings made to both the god and the deceased. In the form of ceramic vessels over 2,000 offerings have been excavated from this area alone.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in addition to ceramics the cemetery contained some fifty-five hammered copper “axes”. They are similar in shape to stone examples that have been widely found at contemporary sites and were probably used as hoes. These objects contain greater quantities of copper than do finds from any other site of the same period. Unquestionably they represent considerable wealth.

Ceramics, agriculture, and metallurgy seem to have been the primary focus of employment in the city in these early stages. Images from the period also show women at work in textiles. As Susa grew the smaller villages surrounding it were abandoned. The so-called “Proto-Elamite Period” which had existed from about 3200 through 2700 BC transition to the “Old Elamite Period”. The Old Elamite Period ran from about 2700 through 1600 BC. During this period ceramics became more refined and trade was established firmly with other nations.

The Elamites had been living in their own small cities to the east of the Gulf. They had resided there almost as long as Sumerians had occupied the Mesopotamian plain. Like that of most ancient people their ultimate origin is unknown. However Elamite cities grew up not only just south of the Caspian Sea, but also along the southern border of the large scale desert plateau that lay east of the Zagros Mountains.

Susa was the political center of Elam early in the 4th Millennium BC. There remain a fortress, still extant, which dates back to this period. In addition there are ruins of buildings from the Persian, Macedonian, Syrian-Greek, and Parthian eras. Together they make the site of Susa of particular historical importance. Susa provides significant evidence of the evolution of cultures in the region over a vast period of time. Susa was accorded status as a site of Outstanding Universal Value by UNESCO in 2015. From about 2700 BC the Elamites were led by kings. The twinned cities of Susa and Awan served as the center of the Elamite civilization. Awan was located north of Susa and was initially the more important of the two cities as a political and religious center. In 2700 BC the first recorded war in the history of the world occurred. King Enembaragesi of the Sumerian city of Kish defeated the Elamites of Awan Susa in battle and briefly established Sumerian culture in the region. Sargon of Akkad (who ruled from 2334 through 2279 BC) subsequently absorbed the region into his Akkadian Empire. Eventually however the kings of Awan were able to negotiate their autonomy with Sargon’s grandson Naram-Sin (who ruled from 2261 through 2224). This reflected the waning power of the Akkadian Empire.

Despite the decline of the Akkadian Empire Susa would not retain its independence for long. Susa was taken by Shulgi of Ur (who ruled from 2029 through 1982 BC) as part of his expansionist policy. Shulgi again introduced Sumerian culture to the city as cultural diffusion was a central platform of his administration. However the Elamites and nomadic Amorites of the region resisted the Sumerian efforts. Whenever on occasion their strength allowed they threatened Ur. The finally succeeded in throwing off Sumerian domination during the latter part of the reign of Ibbi-Sin (who ruled from 1963 through 1940 BC. With that event the Third Dynasty of Ur fell to the Elamites.

Between the reigns Shulgi and Ibbi-Sin Ur experienced a continual decline of power and prestige. Ur was taken by Hammurabi of Babylon (who ruled from 1792 to 1750 BC) when he conquered the whole of Mesopotamia. Susa was amongst the Elamite cities sacked by the Babylonian king around 1764 BC. The sacking of the Elamite cities was in retaliation for Elamite aggression. The city was burned and the statues of the goddesses and their priestesses carried back to Babylon. According to one prominent historian, “this was a polite and sacred version of carrying off your enemy’s wives and ravishing them”. As Babylonian power declined following Hammurabi’s death in 1750 BC Awan and Susa became stronger. By around 1500 BC Awan-Susa became powerful enough to conquer the southern city of Anshan. The monarchs of the period would sign their names, “King of Anshan and Susa” in a show of unity and strength of the region. Scholars identify this event as the beginning of the Middle Elamite Period. This period ran from around 1600 through 1100 BC. During the Middle Elamite Period Elam in general and Susa in particular were their peak.

At this time Susa became capital of the region of Susiana. This area corresponds to the modern-day Khuzestan Province of Iran. Elamite script replaced Akkadian in official documents. The kings of Susa grew more and more powerful until by about 1200 BC they were in complete control of their region. At his point in time the Kings of Susa began their own policy of expansion and conquest, as well as completing grand building projects. The most famous of these projects was the city of Dur-Untash and its temple complex. These were built by the Elamite king Untash-Napirisha who ruled from sbout 1275 through 1240 BC.

For reasons not known to history Untash-Napirisha located his great religious complex 19 miles (31 kilometers) south-east of Susa and surrounded it with a new city. The most impressive aspect of the complex would include the massive ziggurat at its center. The ziggurat was surrounded by an inner enclosure with numerous temples. Inside a second enclosure more secular buildings were located. The ziggurat was devoted to both Napirisha, the great god of Elam, and Inshushinak, the patron deity of Susa.

The construction was truly monumental. It contained millions of bricks. A substantial portion of these were baked at great expense of fuel. The inner core of sun-dried brick was encased in a 2-meter-thick layer of baked brick. Every tenth layer of the outer casing had a row of bricks inscribed with a dedication from Untash-Napirisha to Inshushinak. Because of the solidity of its construction it is the best-preserved ziggurat in the Near East.

Most likely Untash-Napirisha created Dur-Untash simply because Susa at this time had become so well-developed that there was not space for such a monumental complex. Nonetheless after his death the aristocrats of Susa stopped construction at Dur-Untash and religious rites resumed centered at Susa. The Metropolitan Museum of Art notes that copper discs have been found at Susa. It is believed that they were probably worn by priests during certain ceremonies and were ultimately buried with their owners. Like the copper “axes” described earlier, these copper discs attest to the wealth of the city.

During the Middle Elamite Period Susa prospered and flourished not only as the capital but as a center of commerce and a religious site. The best artisans of the region were employed in creating grand structures and monuments. In fact the best translation of the name of these artisans is “specialists”. These specialists had studied extensively and gained their skills under the tutelage of a master. The kings of this period added to the city’s splendor. However probably none had increased the city's splendor as much as during the Shutrukid Dynasty which reigned from about 1210 through 1100 BC. The best known of these kings to history is Shutruk Nakhunte, who ruled from about 1185 through 1150 BC. It was Shutruk Nakhunte who invaded Mesopotamia, defeated the Kassites, and established the Elamite Empire. However he is most famous for his sack of the cities of Sippar and Babylon in about 1150 BC. At the conclusion of that sacking the Elamites reclaimed and carried back to Susa both the statue of the god Marduk, as well as the stele of the Code of Hammurabi. The Elamite Empire would last throughout the Skutrukid Dynasty. However it steadily lost power. It eventually vanished into obscurity during the early part of the Neo-Elamite Period, which ran from about 1100 through 540 BC.

Little is known of the early Neo-Elamite Period as many of the records have either been lost or remain unexcavated. Evidence points to early clashes with the Neo-Assyrian Empire which existed from 912 through 612 BC. Evidence also suggests alliances with various other powers, but details are scarce. However Assyrian documents record Susa’s support of the Chaldean rebel Merodach-Baladan against the Assyrian king Sargon II, who ruled from 722 through 705 BC. Those documents also attest to repeated clashes between Susa and Sargon's son Sennacherib, who ruled from 705 through 681 BC.

Sennacherib’s son, Esharaddon ruled from 681 through 669 BC. Esharaddon conquered Elam and took Susa, but did not damage the city. Good relations were established between Susa and the Assyrians afterwards. However the relationships deteriorated under the reign of Esharaddon’s son Ashurbanipal, who ruled from 668 through 627 BC. The deterioration of the relations can be attributed to the fact that the Elamites had rebelled and attacked Assyrian cities. Ashurbanipal crushed the uprising and sacked Susa, destroying the city. The sacking of Susa was to avenge the perceived wrongs the people of Mesopotamia had suffered at the hands of the Elamites. Susa was was rebuilt and inhabited sometime after Ashurbanipal’s attack. The Neo-Assyrian Empire fell to a coalition led by Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC. Susa fell under the control of the Medes until Elam was taken by the Achaemenid Empire of Cyrus the Great in 540 BC. Cyrus the Great ruled from 559 to 530 BC. His conquests effectively ended Elamite history. However Susa continued as an important urban center. Under the Achaemenid Empire Susa flourished as the Persian kings devoted as much time and effort to beautifying the city as the former Elamite kings had.

Susa in fact became the capital of the Persian Empire under Cyrus's successor Cambyses II (who died 522 BC). Susa was then rebuilt and expanded by the Persian King Darius the Great (who ruled from 522 to 486 BC). Susa proved to be the favorite of all of Darius's residences. Darius the Great built his monumental palace there which was added on to by his successor Xerxes I, who ruled from 486 through 465 BC. There were other capitals in Persia including Pasargadae, Persepolis, and Ecbatana. However it is clear that Susa was the best known and most often mentioned in history. Owing to its location Persepolis was unknown to the Greek historians until it was destroyed by Alexander the Great (who ruled the Macedonian from 336 to 323 BC). The city continued to flourish until it was sacked by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. Even then Alexander did not destroy the city. Susa became the site of the so-called Susa Weddings of 324 BC. There Alexander married over 10,000 Macedonians and Persians in an effort to unite the two cultures. After Alexander’s death in 323 BC the region went to his general Seleucus, who ruled from 321 through 315 BC. Seleucus founded the Seleucid Empire and renamed the city Seleucia on the Eulaeus. Greek architecture and styling began to appear beside the older works of the Elamites and the Persians. Susa remained an important center of commerce, as well as the capital, during this period. The city would continue to thrive under the later Parthian Empire which existed from 247 BC through 224 AD.

Under the Parthians Susa was one of the two capital cities, the other being Ctesiphon. As Ctesiphon was repeatedly taken by Rome during the Parthian-Roman conflicts, kingship was transferred to Susa. Susa was out of reach of Rome as it was further to the east and more easily defensible.

The Parthian Empire was toppled by Ardashir I, who was also known as Ardashir the Unifier. Ardashir ruled from 224 through 241 AD and founded the Sasanian Empire. The Sasanian Empire would last from Ardashir's founding in 224 AD through until 651 AD. During this time Susa declined in prestige. It became a focal point for the Christian community of the region who antagonized the Sasanians through their alignment with Rome. Susa eventually drew Christians from the surrounding areas until it was sacked by the Sasanian king Shapur II. Shapur II who ruled from 309 through 379 AD dispersed Susa's population.

However Susa again revived and again achieved prosperity until it was sacked and destroyed by invading Muslim armies in 638 AD. The Arab forces are said to have found a silver sarcophagus during the invasion which was believed to house the body of the prophet Daniel from the Bible. The tomb of Daniel can still be visited in modern-day Shush. Susa yet again recovered from destruction at the hands of the Muslim armies and remained a significant commercial and religious center. However Susa was again destroyed by invading Mongols in 1218 AD.

Susa's destruction was utter, and the city never regained its prominence. Susa lay in ruin and its buildings were harvested by the local population for stone. Although some buildings were still periodically inhabited by nomads, the city was largely abandoned until the 19th century. It was then that European and American museums and cultural institutions sent teams to the regions of ancient Mesopotamia and Persia. This was in an effort to corroborate biblical narratives through archaeological evidence.

The first archaeological efforts at Susa were undertaken in 1854. The first serious and systematic excavation took place in 1884. This effort was led by the French archaeologist Jacques de Morgan. The excavation team was under constant threat by the local population. The team was forced to devote significant time and resources toward building a castle for protection and as a base of operations. Although they were excavating and working to preserve the site of ancient Susa, the team also used material from the site to construct the building now known as Shush Castle. Also known as the Archaeologist’s Castle, the construction is dated to about 1885. Excavations at the site continued into the 20th century. However turmoil in the region has repeatedly interrupted the work there. Today Susa is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. Susa is also potentially among the largest of the world's archaeological sites as although it has been excavated and researched for over 150 years, a significant portion of the ancient site remains buried. Urban expansion of Shush together with hydraulic works implemented upstream on the two nearby rivers, has threatened the site. However conservation and preservation efforts continue. The ruins of the once great city of Susa continue to draw visitors from around the world as an archaeological park [Ancient History Encyclopedia].

Ancient Persian Culture: Ancient Persian culture flourished between the reign of Cyrus II. Cyrus II was known as “Cyrus the Great”, and ruled from about 550 through 530 BC. Cyrus was founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire which in one form or another lasted until the fall of the Sassanian Empire in 651 AD. However the foundations of Persian culture were already long before the 6th century BC reign of Cyrus the Great. Cultural elements can be traced backward prior to the 3rd Millennium BC when Aryan (Indo-Iranian) tribes migrated to the region. The region thus became known as “Ariana” or Iran – the “land of the Aryans”. The Persians were only one of the tribes who settled in the territory of Persis (also known as “Parsa”, modern-day Fars).

Initially, the Persians were subject to another Aryan tribe, the Medes. The Medes assisted in toppling the Assyrian Empire of Mesopotamia in 612 BC, extending their geographical dominated and forming their own empire. The Medes were overthrown by their vassal Cyrus the Great in around 550 BC. Thereafter with the rise of the Achaemenid Empire Persian culture began to blossom and fully mature. It should be noted, however, that many of the cultural advancements Cyrus II is routinely given credit for were actually developed centuries and even millennia prior by earlier Persians and Medes. This includes such innovations as the “qanat” system of irrigation, the “yakhchal”, and the Persian forms of military organization). Cyrus the Great's contribution was in recognizing worthwhile concepts and adapting them on a large scale. This character would be mirrored by many of his successors. This Persian culture came to influence the ancient Greeks and many other civilizations. The effects of Persian influence continue to resonate around the world in the present era.

Cyrus the Great's vision of an all-inclusive empire embraced the concept of permitting its citizens to live and worship as they pleased. The only stipulation was that they pay their taxes and cause no problems for their neighbors or the king. This concept provided the basis for one of the most vital and influential cultures of the ancient world. Much has been made of the Greek influence on the Persians during the period after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire and until the conquest by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. However long before and long after Alexander and the succeeding Hellenistic Seleucid Empire of 312 to 63 BC, Persian culture influenced the Greeks as well as many other ancient civilizations.

Persian Religion: The Aryan tribes who settled in the Iranian Plateau and environs brought with them a polytheistic religion whose supreme being was Ahura Mazda, the “Lord of Wisdom”. Ahura Mazda was accompanied by many other lesser gods and spirits under his dominion. Among these the most popular were “Mithra” (the god of covenants and the rising sun); “Anahita” (the goddess of fertility, health, water, and wisdom; “Atar” (the god of fire); and “Hvar Khsata” (the god of the full sun). These forces of good stood in opposition to the evil spirit of chaos. Ahura Mazda, source of all good, was both invoked and worshiped through a ritual known as the “yazna”. This ritual took the form of a meal to which the deity was invited). At the yazna a drink called hauma was prepared from the juices of a plant and consumed. The identify of the particular plant has never been confirmed, but it did have the effect of altering the participants’ minds and allowing an apprehension of the divine. Fire kindled at the yazna was both a sacred element in itself as well as a manifestation of the divine presence in the form of Atar, god of fire.

At some point between 1500 and 1000 BC the Persian prophet Zoroaster claimed to receive a revelation from Ahura Mazda. Also known as “Zarathustra” he preached a new religion known as Zoroastrianism. This developed the concepts of the earlier religion into a monotheistic framework. Zoroaster recognized Ahura Mazda as the supreme being. However the religion posited that Mazda was the only god. No other gods were required. Furthermore it was posited that Mazda was engaged in an eternal struggle with Angra Mainyu. Also known as Ahriman, this was the eternal spirit of evil. The religion held that the purpose of human life was to choose which deity one would follow. This choice would inform and direct all of one’s actions as well as one’s final destination. One who chose Ahura Mazda would live a life devoted to Asha, or “truth and order”. They would adhere to the practices of Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds. One who chose Angra Mainyu would live a life attached to Druj, or “lies and chaos”. Their lives would be characterized by self-indulgence, faithlessness, and cruelty.

After death Zoroastrianism taught that all souls would cross the Chinvat Bridge. Those who had been righteous would go to the House of Song, or paradise. On the other hand those who had followed Angra Mainyu’s path were dropped into the House of Lies. This was a vision of hell in which one was condemned to feel eternally alone, no matter how many other souls were near. Those individuals would also suffer various torments. At some point in the future the religion held that a messiah would come. He was known as the “Saoshyant”, or “One Who Brings Benefit”. At that point linear time would end in an event known as “Frashokereti”. Thereupon all would be reunited with Ahura Mazda in paradise, even those who had been led astray by evil.

Zoroasterism retained the ritual of the yazna and the concept of fire as a divine element. However the two had morphed into a manifestation of Ahura Mazda instead of Atar. Scholars continue to debate the precise nature of Zoroastrianism. The Zoroastrian scripture (the “Avesta”) strongly suggests it is a monotheistic religion whose dualistic characteristics were exaggerated later in a movement known as Zorvanism. This movement was popular during the Sassanian Empire, which existed from 224 through 615 AD). Zoroastrianism lent many important elements characteristic of the faith to later religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These elements included a focus on a single, uncreated, supreme being. Also the importance of human free will and choice in living a good life. Significant elements also included judgment after death, the coming of a messiah, and final account at the end of time, These elements were not only adopted within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, they also influenced many other religions as well.

Persian Social Hierarchy and Women: It is unclear how much Zoroastrianism influenced Cyrus the Great. Indeed it many not have been any influence at all since. The famous inscriptions mentioning Ahura Mazda could as easily be referencing the old religion as the new. The same could be said for later Achaemenid rulers in different eras, although it seems fairly certain that Darius I “the Great” (ruling from 522 to 486 BC) and Xerxes I (ruling from 486 to 465 BC) were Zoroastrians. Irrespective of these issues the social hierarchy of Persian culture was informed by the religious belief positing the king at the apex and all others following subordinate. After all the king was considered to have been divinely appointed.

Even if he was the first son of a previous king, which he often was not, the king’s fundamental legitimacy was not due to that paternity or even to his belonging to the ruling dynasty: it came directly from God, His Grace or Divine Effulgence. This was known as “Farrah” in Middle Persian, and “farr” in New Persian. Thus the Persian kings did not draw their legitimacy from an aristocratic and/or priestly class. Rather it was bestowed directly from God. The king possessing the farr or divine grace granted to him by God. A king (or “Shah”) was supported only as long as he possessed that “farr”. When a king was deposed it was thought he had lost the favor of God. As long as he ruled, however, he was at least in theory supported by the social hierarchy.

The social hierarchy ran, top to bottom, from: the king and the royal family; the priests (or “magi”); nobles (aristocrats and “satraps”); then military commanders and subordinate elite forces (such as the Persian “Immortals”); then merchants followed by artisans and craftspeople; and then finally by peasants and at the lowest level, slaves. Within each class, there were also hierarchies. After the king came the king’s mother and then the queen, or the mother of the king’s chosen successor. These were followed by the king’s sons, then daughters. After those followed the King's brothers and sisters, with other relatives bringing up the rear. In the priestly class, there was a high priest and then lesser priests. The same paradigm applied all the way down to slaves, as there were some slaves who supervised others.

Men and women often worked the same jobs. Women were highly respected. Early evidence of this is seen in the goddess Anahita. Anahita not only presided over fertility and health but water and wisdom as well. In such an arid land water was the vital life-giving element. Wisdom encompassed the ability to discern rightly in determining life's choices. Specifics on women’s roles, jobs, and general treatment come from the Persians themselves. This information is through the so-called Fortification and Treasury Texts found at Persepolis. Persepolis was the capital of the empire commissioned by Darius I, “the Great”. There is contained lists of rations, payments, and job titles amongst other information.

Women served as supervisors. Especially skilled and powerful women held the title of “Arashshara”, or “great chief”). Female artisans and craftspeople often supervised shops creating goods not only for daily use but for trade. They were paid the same as their male counterparts. This is evidenced by accounting statements showing the same rations of grain and wine for female and male workers. Pregnant women and those who had recently given birth received higher pay. If a woman gave birth to a son she was rewarded with extra rations for a month. The attending hysician received the same reward, However this is the only discrepancy in pay known to exist between the sexes. Women could own land, conduct business, and there is even evidence that women served in the military.

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ABOUT US: Prior to our retirement we used to travel to Eastern Europe and Central Asia several times a year seeking antique gemstones and jewelry from the globe’s most prolific gemstone producing and cutting centers. Most of the items we offer came from acquisitions we made in Eastern Europe, India, and from the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean/Near East) during these years from various institutions and dealers. Much of what we generate on Etsy, Amazon and Ebay goes to support worthy institutions in Europe and Asia connected with Anthropology and Archaeology. Though we have a collection of ancient coins numbering in the tens of thousands, our primary interests are ancient/antique jewelry and gemstones, a reflection of our academic backgrounds.

Though perhaps difficult to find in the USA, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia antique gemstones are commonly dismounted from old, broken settings – the gold reused – the gemstones recut and reset. Before these gorgeous antique gemstones are recut, we try to acquire the best of them in their original, antique, hand-finished state – most of them originally crafted a century or more ago. We believe that the work created by these long-gone master artisans is worth protecting and preserving rather than destroying this heritage of antique gemstones by recutting the original work out of existence. That by preserving their work, in a sense, we are preserving their lives and the legacy they left for modern times. Far better to appreciate their craft than to destroy it with modern cutting.

Not everyone agrees – fully 95% or more of the antique gemstones which come into these marketplaces are recut, and the heritage of the past lost. But if you agree with us that the past is worth protecting, and that past lives and the produce of those lives still matters today, consider buying an antique, hand cut, natural gemstone rather than one of the mass-produced machine cut (often synthetic or “lab produced”) gemstones which dominate the market today. We can set most any antique gemstone you purchase from us in your choice of styles and metals ranging from rings to pendants to earrings and bracelets; in sterling silver, 14kt solid gold, and 14kt gold fill. We would be happy to provide you with a certificate/guarantee of authenticity for any item you purchase from us. I will always respond to every inquiry whether via email or eBay message, so please feel free to write.