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This 301-page hardcover was published in 1963 by The World Publishing Company (stated 1st edition). This book is an ex-library volume, containing typical library marks and stamps. Otherwise, the deckle edged pages appear read very little, if at all, and are like new. The dustcover is nice and is covered by a mylar protector. The hardcover appears to be in good condition, with minor shelving wear along edges and corners. The binding is solid. Overall, a nice looking, sturdy volume.
482 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1960
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January 3, 2020
The people who would become the Indo-Iranians had originally been one of the Indo-European tribes which arose in the steppe region between the Black and Caspian seas around 4500 BC. They might have been the ones who first tamed the horse and created the chariot, although the wheel seems to have come from elsewhere. Even if they were not the inventors, the Indo-Europeans put the pieces together and became mounted warriors who swept out in all directions, spreading throughout Europe to the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and Asia as far as China. An excellent account of this period is David Anthony’s The Horse, the Wheel, and Language, published in 2007.
The Indo-Iranians left their ancestral homelands in two waves, one coming over the Caucasus mountains into northern India around 1500 BC, and the other moving through Anatolia and Mesopotamia to reach the Iranian plateau by 800 BC. Over time Persian languages, influence, civilization, and occasional rule spread far beyond the boundaries of present day Iran, east into India, west into Mesopotamia, and north as far as Kazakhstan.
Civilization itself was already ancient in Mesopotamia when the first Persians arrived, having arisen about 4000 BC with the development of writing, which improved record keeping and increased the span of control of rulers. Towns became cities and cities expanded to become empires.
One of the most commonly cited lines from Will Durant’s Story of Civilization is from volume 3, Caesar and Christ: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within.” That phrase kept coming to mind while reading the history of this region. For three thousand years empires rose and fell between the Tigris and the Euphrates, sometimes expanding into Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, and Iran, and sometimes collapsing back into city states. During this period western Iran was as one of the factions, and for a time the Elamites, a non-Persian people from southwestern Iran, managed to conquer and rule the region.
The Assyrians had also been players in the games of thrones, and had twice risen to command empires in the region. Around 1000 BC they rose again, and created the first great modern empire, conquering Iran, Mesopotamia, much of Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. They ruled brutally and efficiently, and during this time made the transition from writing in cuneiform on clay tablets to Aramaic on papyrus, further increasing their ability to communicate with and rule vast territories.
In 609 BC the Assyrians, weakened by invasion and internal revolt, were overthrown by the Medes, who ruled until 549 BC, when they were overthrown by the Persians, who ruled until Alexander the Great defeated them in 331 BC. After his death his empire was divided up by his generals, the Diadochi, and one of them, Seleucus, after twenty years of consolidating his rule controlled an empire stretching from central Anatolia to Persia, Afghanistan, and the Indian Ocean.
Over time the Seleucid empire shrank as it was unable to defend its frontiers and what little remained was absorbed into the Roman province of Syria by Pompey in 63 BC. One of its main opponents had been the Parthians, who conquered all of its eastern territories, including Persia, and ruled from 247 BC to 224 AD, when they were overthrow by the Sasanids, another Persian empire, who ruled until 651 AD, when the armies of Islam conquered them. Between 651 and 1100 AD six different Islamic dynasties ruled bloodily and with varying degrees of competence.
So, between 1000 BC and 650 AD the Persians had been ruled first by the Assyrians, then the Medes, then formed their own empire which lasted for about 200 years, and then were ruled by the Greeks, then the Parthians, then formed a second Persian empire, the Sasanids, and then finally by the Arab dynasties. It is rather amazing that anything identifiably Persian remained of their culture, but somehow they managed to maintain a national identity and emerged into modern times as a strong and cohesive nation.
This book was written by Richard Frye, Harvard professor of Iranian. Published in 1963, it misses later archaeological discoveries and the advances in interpreting them, so it is more of a general historical survey than a modern archaeological and cultural study. It is written in an academic style, with page-long paragraphs that are sometimes hard to follow. The first part, which covers the early centuries before the written record appears, relies heavily on philology to derive the presumed names of places and people from Indo-European and its daughter languages. The author tries to cover all contingencies, citing alternative interpretations and the work of other scholars, and the result is page after page of reconstructed words mainly of interest to linguists and researchers.
Once the narrative moves into recorded history the pace picks up and becomes more interesting, examining art and literature as well as the stories of kings, wars, and diplomacy. Frye has a good eye for important events, and an ability to place them into proper perspective. His research allows the reader to understand the interplay of people and events, to get a feel for how great empires rise, rule, decline and fall. As this book shows, they rise and they fall over and over again, surely a cautionary tale for our own times.
The Indo-Iranians left their ancestral homelands in two waves, one coming over the Caucasus mountains into northern India around 1500 BC, and the other moving through Anatolia and Mesopotamia to reach the Iranian plateau by 800 BC. Over time Persian languages, influence, civilization, and occasional rule spread far beyond the boundaries of present day Iran, east into India, west into Mesopotamia, and north as far as Kazakhstan.
Civilization itself was already ancient in Mesopotamia when the first Persians arrived, having arisen about 4000 BC with the development of writing, which improved record keeping and increased the span of control of rulers. Towns became cities and cities expanded to become empires.
One of the most commonly cited lines from Will Durant’s Story of Civilization is from volume 3, Caesar and Christ: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within.” That phrase kept coming to mind while reading the history of this region. For three thousand years empires rose and fell between the Tigris and the Euphrates, sometimes expanding into Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, and Iran, and sometimes collapsing back into city states. During this period western Iran was as one of the factions, and for a time the Elamites, a non-Persian people from southwestern Iran, managed to conquer and rule the region.
The Assyrians had also been players in the games of thrones, and had twice risen to command empires in the region. Around 1000 BC they rose again, and created the first great modern empire, conquering Iran, Mesopotamia, much of Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. They ruled brutally and efficiently, and during this time made the transition from writing in cuneiform on clay tablets to Aramaic on papyrus, further increasing their ability to communicate with and rule vast territories.
In 609 BC the Assyrians, weakened by invasion and internal revolt, were overthrown by the Medes, who ruled until 549 BC, when they were overthrown by the Persians, who ruled until Alexander the Great defeated them in 331 BC. After his death his empire was divided up by his generals, the Diadochi, and one of them, Seleucus, after twenty years of consolidating his rule controlled an empire stretching from central Anatolia to Persia, Afghanistan, and the Indian Ocean.
Over time the Seleucid empire shrank as it was unable to defend its frontiers and what little remained was absorbed into the Roman province of Syria by Pompey in 63 BC. One of its main opponents had been the Parthians, who conquered all of its eastern territories, including Persia, and ruled from 247 BC to 224 AD, when they were overthrow by the Sasanids, another Persian empire, who ruled until 651 AD, when the armies of Islam conquered them. Between 651 and 1100 AD six different Islamic dynasties ruled bloodily and with varying degrees of competence.
So, between 1000 BC and 650 AD the Persians had been ruled first by the Assyrians, then the Medes, then formed their own empire which lasted for about 200 years, and then were ruled by the Greeks, then the Parthians, then formed a second Persian empire, the Sasanids, and then finally by the Arab dynasties. It is rather amazing that anything identifiably Persian remained of their culture, but somehow they managed to maintain a national identity and emerged into modern times as a strong and cohesive nation.
This book was written by Richard Frye, Harvard professor of Iranian. Published in 1963, it misses later archaeological discoveries and the advances in interpreting them, so it is more of a general historical survey than a modern archaeological and cultural study. It is written in an academic style, with page-long paragraphs that are sometimes hard to follow. The first part, which covers the early centuries before the written record appears, relies heavily on philology to derive the presumed names of places and people from Indo-European and its daughter languages. The author tries to cover all contingencies, citing alternative interpretations and the work of other scholars, and the result is page after page of reconstructed words mainly of interest to linguists and researchers.
Once the narrative moves into recorded history the pace picks up and becomes more interesting, examining art and literature as well as the stories of kings, wars, and diplomacy. Frye has a good eye for important events, and an ability to place them into proper perspective. His research allows the reader to understand the interplay of people and events, to get a feel for how great empires rise, rule, decline and fall. As this book shows, they rise and they fall over and over again, surely a cautionary tale for our own times.
March 12, 2019
This is all over the map, literally. I was surprised by all the high ratings. I'm most definitely not an expert (not even a smidgen) on the topic, but I can't believe I was as lost as I was, and no one else was. Part of the problem was he veers off topic. To make an analogy, it's like he was writing a book about Israel and followed Jews everywhere they went. 1) not all Jews live in Israel and 2) Israel is not all Jews. So it doesn't tell you much about Israel to follow Jews everywhere on earth. Yet, he follows Iranian peoples everywhere and then, to make it worse, veers off to talk about other people they bump into. Now, I may have lost track since I found myself skimming at some point...
I bought this book after borrowing the "sequel" from my significant other's father. So I'm giving the second book a go but I'm not getting a good feeling so far.
I bought this book after borrowing the "sequel" from my significant other's father. So I'm giving the second book a go but I'm not getting a good feeling so far.
July 27, 2020
فصلهای کتاب
دیباچه
فصل اول: سرزمین ایران و مناظر جالب آن
کلیات و جزئیات جغرافیایی
زمینه جغرافیایی تاریخ
مردم تغییر میکنند اما بر جای میمانند
فصل دوم: سنتهای ایرانیان
گذشته آریاییها
زرتشت و پیام او
داستانهای حماسی مشرق
فصل سوم: ایران و سرزمینهای مغرب آن
میراث قرنها
دودمانهای نوخاسته
پیشرفت کار پارسها
روی نمودن دوران فترت در شاهنشاهی
شاهنشاهی یکپارچه هخامنشیان دربار و دیوان
اوضاع اقتصادی
دین در پایان روزگار هخامنشیان
برافتادن دودمان هخامنشی
فصل چهارم: سرزمینهای پیرامون مرزهای ایران
اسکندر و میراث او
تمرکز سلوکیان
میراث هلنی
گسترش فرهنگ هلنی در سرزمینهای دیگر
دولت یونانی باختر
گندهاره و نفوذ مغرب
فصل پنجم: اشکانیان
دودمان فراموش شده
تبار پارتیان
راه به سوی مغرب
پارت و روم
دستگاه حکومت و دیوان شاهنشاهی
ادبیات و فرهنگ
پایه دین زرتشت
کوشانیان و مشرق
سنتهای فارس
فصل ششم: جانشینان هخامنشیان
اردشیر و دوران تاریخی
امپریالیسم شاپور
جنبشهای کفرآمیز و دستگاه روحانی
روزگار سربلندی ایران
فصل هفتم: افتادن ایران بدست مسلمانان
از هم پاشیدگی نظم کهن
جنگ اسلام با ایران
خصوصیات آسیای میانه
آئین زرتشت در فارس
آغاز زندگی نوین ایران
حواشی
شرحی دربارهٔ نقشهها
ضمیمهها
کتابشناسی
فهرست اعلام
دیباچه
فصل اول: سرزمین ایران و مناظر جالب آن
کلیات و جزئیات جغرافیایی
زمینه جغرافیایی تاریخ
مردم تغییر میکنند اما بر جای میمانند
فصل دوم: سنتهای ایرانیان
گذشته آریاییها
زرتشت و پیام او
داستانهای حماسی مشرق
فصل سوم: ایران و سرزمینهای مغرب آن
میراث قرنها
دودمانهای نوخاسته
پیشرفت کار پارسها
روی نمودن دوران فترت در شاهنشاهی
شاهنشاهی یکپارچه هخامنشیان دربار و دیوان
اوضاع اقتصادی
دین در پایان روزگار هخامنشیان
برافتادن دودمان هخامنشی
فصل چهارم: سرزمینهای پیرامون مرزهای ایران
اسکندر و میراث او
تمرکز سلوکیان
میراث هلنی
گسترش فرهنگ هلنی در سرزمینهای دیگر
دولت یونانی باختر
گندهاره و نفوذ مغرب
فصل پنجم: اشکانیان
دودمان فراموش شده
تبار پارتیان
راه به سوی مغرب
پارت و روم
دستگاه حکومت و دیوان شاهنشاهی
ادبیات و فرهنگ
پایه دین زرتشت
کوشانیان و مشرق
سنتهای فارس
فصل ششم: جانشینان هخامنشیان
اردشیر و دوران تاریخی
امپریالیسم شاپور
جنبشهای کفرآمیز و دستگاه روحانی
روزگار سربلندی ایران
فصل هفتم: افتادن ایران بدست مسلمانان
از هم پاشیدگی نظم کهن
جنگ اسلام با ایران
خصوصیات آسیای میانه
آئین زرتشت در فارس
آغاز زندگی نوین ایران
حواشی
شرحی دربارهٔ نقشهها
ضمیمهها
کتابشناسی
فهرست اعلام
March 6, 2014
Dense. Wordy. Expected a bit more knowledge from the reader than I possess.
March 17, 2021
این کتاب یه دسته بندی عالی زمانی داره و واقعا عالی جلو رفته. حتما پیشنهاد میشه بخونین
May 9, 2024
Академическая ретроспектива территории, которую принято сегодня назвать Ираном или Персией. Хотч автор удалил внимание и всем народам или племенам, которые или когда-то говорили на языке персидского происхождения или имел минимальное пересечение с территориями нынешнего государства Иран. В общем, для общего понимания, что такое Персия - это лучшая книга для начала.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews