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Shadows in the Desert: Persia at War is a 2007 book by historian and linguist Kaveh Farrokh and one of the definitive works in the field of Iranian history. It covers the history of early Iranian peoples as well as that of Iran from the Median Empire until the Islamic conquest of Persia.

Purpose

The purpose of the book, according to Farrokh, is to remind people in the west, where Iran is seen as part of the "Axis of Evil", of its unacknowledged and unknown cultural diversity. He also states:

In the West, we suffer from what I call "The Alexander Mystique". We still believe that the Persians were permanently defeated and superseded by the Greeks and Romans. This misconception is being exasperated by the slow replacement of Persian language and Iranian studies with Arabic at the university level. It’s happening here in a subtle way while in Iran there have been ideologues and theocrats who have been actively disparaging pre-Islamic Iran since the 1970s. Still, there is a growing interest within Iran, especially among the youth, in Iran’s ancient heritage.

Contents

It is the first user-friendly textbook that outlines the three major empires of Persia before Islam. The book also contains a very large number of high-quality and rare photographs. In contrast to the few textbooks of ancient Persia published in the west, which focus almost exclusively on historical events, Shadows in he Desert tabulates, for the first time, the range of contributions made by the Iranian peoples in the fields of human rights, arts, architecture, technology, learning, administration, mythology, theology, heavy cavalry (and the associated Pahlavi culture of chivalry), communications, and commerce.

Neutrality

Original Greco-Roman, Arabo-Islamic, Armenian, and Chinese, along with others, sources are consulted in conjunction with Iranian ones to provide the reader with a non-partisan and apolitical view into Iran’s pre-Islamic past. Despite his Iranian background, the author is able to provide a neutral view of Persia’s history, one that includes the weaknesses of Persia before the arrival of Islam. Mention is made for example, of the inequitable distribution of wealth seen between the nobility and the Magi on the one hand versus the peasant and ordinary populations on the other – and the historical consequences of these social dynamics.

New research

The author also presents important research findings that have, until now, been confined to a limited number of scholars. These include:

1. Discoveries made in the origins of the original proto Indo-Europeans and their relationship to the invention of farming in what is now northern Iraq, northwest Iran, and eastern Anatolia. Authors cited by Farrokh include Colin Renfrew, Thomas V. Gamkrelidze, and V.V. Ivanov.
2. The invention of horseback riding in the Ukraine, the relationship of this to the rise of the Kurgans or the “Aryans” of history. Farrokh cites the research of D.W. Anthony, D. Telegin, and D. Brown and their research into Ukraine’s heritage of horseback riding.
3. The research of Italian researcher Nik Spatari, whose works remain confined to Italian scholarship. Spatari has tabulated the impact of the architecture of pre-Islamic Persia upon Greece and Rome. Farrokh has cited Spatari’s findings for the first time in English-language publications.

"The Alexander Mystique"

"The Alexander Mystique", which is presented in the final chapter of the book, is the notion that the Iranians were permanently defeated and superseded by the Greeks, Alexander the Great in particular, and the Romans. This has led to the ignorance in much of western academia as to how and why the post-Alexandrian Seleucids were overthrown by the second empire of Persia, the Parthians. Even less acknowledged, as a consequence of the Alexander Mystique, are the military defeats suffered by Roman armies under the leadership of historical figures such as Mark Antony, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Valerian, and Julian the Apostate.

According to the publisher

According to the publisher:

The ruins of Persepolis evoke the best-known events of ancient Persia's history: Alexander the Great's defeat of Darius III, his conquest of the Achaemenid empire, and the burning of the great palace complex at Persepolis. However, most of the history of ancient Persia remains as mysterious today as it was to contemporary Western scholars. Compared to the world-famous Alexander, the many wars won by the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanian empires, and their revolutionary military technology, have been almost forgotten in the sands of the East. In its day, Persia was a superpower to rival Greece and Rome, and conflict between them spanned over a millennium. Through these wars, and trade, these foes learnt from each other, not only adopting elements of military technology, but influences in the arts, architecture, religion, technology and learning. In this beautifully illustrated book, Dr Kaveh Farrokh narrates the history of Persia from before the first empires, through their wars with East and West to the fall of the Sassanians. He also delves into the forgotten cultural heritage of the Persians, spread across the world through war and conquest, which, even after the fall of the Sassanians, continued to impact upon the Western world.

Structure

Shadows in the Desert: Persia at War is divided into three parts, each of which contain several sections.

• Foreword: The Mighty Persian Warriors by Richard Nelson Frye
• Introduction: Persia or Iran?
• Chronology
• Part 1: The Achaemenids
  • 1 Before the Achaemenids
  • 2 Cyrus the Great and the early Achaemenids
  • 3 Darius the Great
  • 4 Xerxes and Limits of Empire
  • 5 The Achaemenid Empire from Artaxerxes I to the rise of Macedon
  • 6 Darius III and the fall of the Empire
• Part 2: The Parthians
  • 7 The Seleucids and the rise of the Parthians
  • 8 Parthia challenges Rome
  • 9 Parthia from Mark Antony to the Alan invasions
  • 10 Emperor Trajan's bid to destroy Parthia
  • 11 The decline and fall of Parthia
• Part 3: The Sassanians
  • 12 The rise of the Sassanian Dynasty
  • 13 Shapur II: a new revival of Sassanian Persia
  • 14 The tumultuous Fifth Century
  • 15 The Kavad era
  • 16 Khosrow I, renaissance and revival
  • 17 The final glory and the decline of the Empire
  • 18 Downfall of the Sassanians and the Islamic conquests
  • 19 The legacy of Persia after the Islamic conquests
• Endnotes
• Select bibliography
• Index

Recognition

Farrokh’s book has received much attention in western media and academic circles. In contrast to previous books on pre-Islamic Persia, Shadows in the Desert has been very well-received by readers in the west. Major western newspaper outlets, including The Daily Mail (London, England). Farrokh has been interviewed on a number of important American media outlets such as "The Leonard Lopate Show", "We Talk Back", "The Tommy Schnurmacher Show",

Reviews

Benedict Brogan

Benedict Brogan of the Daily Mail noted on August the 1st 2007 that:

Most accounts of the development of Ancient Persia are taken from Roman and Byzantine sources. The strengths of Kaveh Farrokh’s Shadows in the Desert Ancient Persia at War (hb 2007) is that he draws heavily on Persian sources. A useful study that puts into context some of the attitudes and their world view of the contemporary Iranian regime.

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones of the Department of Classics at the University of Edinburgh states:

This beautifully illustrated book will no doubt serve as a useful companion for all those interested in the military history of the pre-Islamic Middle East. However, Kaveh Farrokh’s informative study is more than a standard guide to military matters: he locates his study of the military strength and effectiveness of the Persian empire within a broader picture of the political history of ancient Iran, and provides an impressively coherent commentary on the sweep of Persian civilization. Useful maps, photography, and color plates make this a handsome and desirable volume; it will be of interest to students and scholars alike.

Nikoloz Kacharava

Professor Nikoloz Kacharava (MD, PhD) of the University of Georgia in Tbilisi has stated:

Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War is perhaps one of the finest books that has been produced from western publishing houses, in this case Osprey Publishing. Not only does the book provide the history of ancient Iran from an Iranian perspective for the first time (at least to the European), it is also remarkably well-balanced. The author, Dr. Kaveh Farrokh, is well-versed in Greco-Roman, Chinese, Japanese, Armenian, and Islamo-Arabian primary historical sources. This allows the author to provide the saga of ancient Persia in all her glory, in victory or in defeat.

Farrokh begins the discussion by clarifying the question of “Persia or Iran?” In summary, Farrokh shows the reader that “Iranian” is not limited to a single “race”, religion or language, but is itself an ancient mosaic that has become one of the most enduring cultural legacies of mankind, a legacy indebted to Cyrus the Great.

The text book outlines the history of origins of the Aryans, the Medes, Achaemenids, Parthians, Sassanians, the fall of Iran to the Arabs, and ends with Iran's contributions to world civilization. Iranian contributions to world civilization are constantly emphasized at the end of each section. We in Europe (and indeed all of humanity) as well as the Islamo-Arabs, owe much of our heritage to the Iranians – there is much we assume to be “European”, when in fact their origins are further to the east. The very communications that we depend on such as highways and postal systems have been correctly traced to the times of Darius the Great by Farrokh. The Medo-Persian Achaemenids and later Parthians and Sassanians also gave us much in the way of banking-commerce, shipping, music, theology, engineering, math-science-learning-literature and a variety of achievements in other domains.

For the first time, we see a clearly written history book that outlines the relationship between these Iranian achievements to the wars that took place between the Greco-Roman world and ancient Persia. What is important in this text is that (unlike the majority of past Iranian and western books) - this book draws on excellent research that has received little mention; not to mention previously un-translated Greco-Roman historical sources.

This book features many rare photos, newly drawn maps (i.e the route of the Aryans), maps (200 plus), including a recently discovered Iranian winged-lion of pure gold in the Republic of Georgia.

I was also very pleased to see that the foreword of this book has been written by none other than scholar extraordinaire of ancient Iran: Professor Richard Nelson Frye.

Farrokh’s book is highly recommended to the reader who is looking for a balanced history of Iran and her relation to world civilization.

Patrick Hunt

Professor Patrick Hunt of the Department of Classics at Stanford University observes that:

Kaveh Farrokh’s Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War (Osprey, 2007) is a book for all who have ever been curious about the “other” view on Persia, not from the Western standpoint rooted in Greece, but from the traditions of the Persians themselves... Meticulously researched and documented, Farrokh’s study is right to ask why the West blindly maintains a legacy of silence on historic Persia; why the Romans and Byzantines were mostly unsuccessful against Parthian and Sassanid forces, and why the ‘Alexander Mystique’ has dominated Western approaches to Persia by demeaning Oriental greatness. While ‘orientalizing’ has long been accepted in Classical art, the only criticism one might tender is the marshaling of so much overwhelming influence from Persia as Farrokh suggests. But maybe time will prove him right if this book brings deeper scrutiny to Persia as is so greatly needed.

Richard Nelson Frye

Richard Nelson Frye has stated:

In this book Dr. Kaveh Farrokh has given us the Persian side of the picture as opposed to the Greek and Roman viewpoint which has long dominated our understanding of these wars. It is refreshing to see the other perspective, and Dr. Farrokh sheds light on many Persian institutions in this history, such as the Sassanian elite cavalry, the "Savaran". Osprey Publishing is to be congratulated for publishing Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War, which presents another aspect of the wars between East and West in ancient times.

External links

• Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War at Amazon.com
• Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War at Osprey Publishing

References

1. Amapedia
2. Shadows in the Desert: Persia at War at Barnes & Nobles
3. "The Leonard Lopate Show" of New York Public Radio, WYNC FM 93.9, August 20, 2007
4. "We Talk Back" of Louisiana and Mississippi, KMLB-AM 1440, August 11, 2007
5. "The Tommy Schnurmacher Show" in Montreal, Canada, CJAD AM 800, August 6, 2007
6. Benedict Brogan's blog
7. ^ Random House Academic Resources
8. Farrokh, Kaveh. Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War. Osprey Publishing, 2007. Foreword page 7.