The Persians [Paperback]

• A succinct narrative of Iranian history from the time of Cyrus the Great in 560BC to the present day.
• Traces events from the rise of the Persian empire, through competition with Rome and conquest by the Arabs, through to the re-establishment of a Persian state in the sixteenth century, and finally the Islamic Revoltuion on 1979 and the establishment of the current Islamic Republic.
• Uses the most recent scholarship to examine Iran's political, social and cultural history.
• Focuses on rulership as a central theme in Iranian identity.
• Also shows how land, language and literature relate to Iranian identity.

List of Dynistic Tables.

List of Maps.

Acknowledgments.

Dynastic Tables.

Maps.

1. Persia: Place and Idea.

2.The Achaemenians (c.550–331 BC).

3. Alexander (330–323 BC), the Selucids (312–129 BC), and the Parthians (247 BC–AD 224).

4. The Sasanians (c.224–651).

5. “Non-Iran”: Arabs, Turks, and Mongols in Iran.

6. The Safavids (1501–1722).

7. The Qajars (1796–1926).

8. Iran: 1921–2003: Pahlavi and Islamic Republican Iran.

Notes.

Further Reading.

Index.

This book is not a dry historical narrative but an excellent, rigorous, yet generally accessible overview of Persians in history based on the latest scholarship on Iranian lóâ