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Resources on ancient Iranian history
Ali Yadegar
January 17, 2005
iranian.com
If there is anything positive that can come of the
Hakha fiasco, it is that Iranians need to revisit their ancient
Iranian history
so that they are not manipulated by pseudo-historical ideas. Iranians
are inheritors of one of the richest civilizations in the World.
Yet most Iranians, including myself, up to a few years ago possess
an outstandingly infinitesimal knowledge of our ancient Iranian
history.
At the same time the majority of Iranians only keep up
with the political world. No wonder why some of us might have fallen
for traps laid by pseudo-historians like Mr. Hakha amongst many
others with their mumbo-jumbo flimflam hogwash hocus-pocus pseudo-history.
Pre-Islamic Iranian history is perhaps amongst the least understood
by Iranians. Our pre-Islamic History constitutes one of the greatest
millenniums mankind has ever witnessed. Hegel in his Philosophy
of History asserts: "The principle of development begins
with the history of Persia. This therefore constitute strictly
the beginning of World-History; for the grand interest of Sprit
in History, is to attain an unlimited immanence of subjectivity-by
an absolute antithesis to attain complete harmony."
Many
of us have come across terminologies like Elamites, Mitanni, Scythians,
Achaemenids, Indo-Iranians, Medes, Cyrus the Great, Darius the
Great, Parthians, Parthian Shot, Zoroastrianism and Sassanids and
have no idea what the heck they are talking about.
The Parthians
who were an Iranian tribe regained Iran's independence from
the Greeks, and ruled from 247 B.C. to 228 A.D. A famous battle
tactic employed by them is the 'Parthian Shot', which
is mentioned many times in Western Literature. The Parthian horsemen
feigned flight, and then turned on their mounts to shoot at their
pursuing enemies (photo above).
For example did you know that historians to this date are debating
the ascension of Darius the Great to the most powerful throne of
that time? Did you know that the Parthians used a Zoroastrian calendar?
Did you know that Iranian Scythians at one time roamed the area
between Ukraine and Central Asia?
In order to understand our society
and ourselves better and indeed have clearer and more illustrious
view of the future, we are obliged to learn about our past. In
order not to fall in the traps of the Hakha-type movements we
are again obliged to learn our history; more importantly, a nation
is its history.
Luckily a great deal of work based on many historical
books, stones, engravings and artifacts have left us with a
fairly decent picture of our pre-Islamic history. Here I will outline
some essential books and Internet links on Iranian history
for
further research and study.
Some essential books on Iranian history:
 1. Iran in the Ancient East, Ernst E. Herzfeld (1. Vol)
2. Ancient Persia and Iranian Civilization; Clement
Huart (1. Vol)
3. The Heritage of Persia; Richard Frye (1. vol)
4. From Cyrus to Alexander, The History of Persian Empire;
Pierre Briant
(2. Vols)
5. Sasanian Iran; A. Christian San; (1. Vol)
6. The
Medes; Diakonov; (1. Vol)
7. The culture & social Inistitution of Ancient Iran;
Mohammad A. Dandaneav & Vladimir G. Lukonin; (1. Vol)
8. Elamites; Ezatollah Negahban (1. Vol)
9. Iranian Heritage; J. R. Arberry (1. Vol)
10. A
Survey of Persian Art: From Prehistoric Times to the Present;
E. Pope (16 Vols)
11. The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism; R. C. Zehner (1.
Vol)
12. Zoroastrians:
Their Religious Beliefs and Practices;
Mary Boyce (1. Vol)
13. The
History of the Persian Empire; A. T. Olmstead
(1. Vol)
14. Ancient Persia; Josef Wiesehofer (1. Vol)
A few amongst the many of the good resources on the internet:
1. Iranica-L
discussion group:
This is a non-political and non-religious list-serv that is free
for anyone to join and is operated by some of the greatest experts
in Iranian History. It is definitely worth taking advantage of
such rare opportunities to know our Iranian History better. The
Discussions are very organized and currently the ascension of Darius
the Great to the Achaemenid throne is the hot topic for discussion.
Here is the Description from their website:Description:
Iranica-L is a Forum Devoted to Discussing All Aspects of the
History of Iran from the Earliest Times to the Advent of Islam,
covering the Pre-Median epoch, the Median and the Achaemenid
Empires, the Period of Iran's Occupation under Alexander III
of Macedon, Diadochi, and the Seleucids, the Kingdom of Persis,
the Parthian and the Sasanian Empires, the Elamite and Characenean
Kingdoms, etc. These include such topics as the Political History,
Numismatics, Archaeology, Art, Ethnology, Religion, Epigraphy,
Philology and related issues. Discussion of current political
and religious affairs are not permitted on this List.
The above image illustrates the trilingual monument of Darius
I the Great (522-486 B.C.) at Behistun (the ancient Bagastâna, "place
of the gods"), near Hamadan, Iran, celebrating his victories
after 19 battles during 522-520 B.C. with the attendant capture
of 9 usurpers. Darius ascended the Achaemenid throne after the
death of Cambyses II (529-522 B.C.), son and successor of Cyrus
II the Great (559-529 B.C.). But he had to eliminate a number
of pretenders and rebels in "one and the same year" (in
fact 1 "year", 1 month and 12 days) at the outset of
his reign.
 2. Iranica.com: Encyclopedia
Iranica
3. Avesta.org:
Zoroastrian Archives
4. Parthia.com: All about
the Parthian empire
5. Sasanika.com: Dedicated
to the History and Culture of the Sasanian Dynasty
6. Achaemenid
Royal Inscriptions
7. CHN.ir: Iranian
Cultural Heritage News Agency
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