The Persian Version

The ancient Greeks referred to all of Iran by the name 'Persia,' after the Parsua people of the ruling central region of 'Pars' with which they were most familiar. And the European West borrowed this term from the Greeks and the name has stuck to this day.

In a parallel irony, Greece is known as ‘Younan’ in Persian.

This is because the part of Greece that was most thoroughly colonized by Iran’s Achaemenian Empire was called 'Ionia.'

It turns out, the Iranians also used a short hand for the Greeks and referred to them all with the name of the region that they were most familiar with.

When starting a discussion on a topic, it’s imperative to define terms and agree on proper usage of names--especially proper names.

And so doing a podcast like this one, presents us with a problem right from the get go.

Which is the correct name?

Is it Iran?

Or is it Persia?

One must not think and speak of Persian/Iranian civilization as something restricted to the political boundaries of the Iranian nation state.

Culturally and historically, Iran-- or as the Sassanian Persians referred to it 'Eran Shahr'(the Aryan Realm)

is more a culture than it is a geographically restricted political entity. Like those other major civilizations of the ancient and classical world, Greece and Rome; Iranian/Persian influence stretches across large parts of the globe—both geographically and temporally. Aryanem Vaeja has encompassed and touched vast geographic regions. And it has both left its’ signature and, in turn, been influenced by the disparate cultures and regions with which it’s come into contact.

Zoroastrianism is a dualist faith that originated in Persia, and over  the years it has influenced a number of other faiths. Even though we may  not recognize it today, it has been an influence on a number of  world religions, especially on Christianity and Islam. Zoroastrianism is a belief system that stresses how we as human beings were meant to strive for our full potential. A primary tenet of the faith is that righteous and upstanding people will participate in the rewards of  paradise, while the evil-doers will undergo punishments in hell.

Politics begins with the way we use words, George Orwell reminded us. At  a precarious moment for relations between Muslims and their ‘others’ it  is important to recall that Allah is not the name of the Muslim god;  that God, Allah and Yahweh are different words for the same deity.

Link to origibal published essay. 

https://bit.ly/3gHfrcP

Open Democracy

Iraq and Syria: of memory and maps

https://bit.ly/36LuygR 

The interests of outsiders, not those of the battered, bloodied and belittled peoples of Iraq and Syria, drive this brutal political theatre.

Darius A. Kamali                             

12 May 2018

The Persian Version 

by Robert Graves (1895-1985)

Robert Graves, a veteran of the First World War, wrote this poem during the the Second World War. The Persian version of the battle of Marathon is a counterattack on the Greek version of the story. The Battle of was fought in 490 BC. Presenting the history from the point of view of Persians, Robert Graves claims that the Persians had the more salutary demonstration in the battle.

The speaker in the poem accepts that the weather was adverse and attempts were ill starred, and  the defense was strong. Despite these adversities, the outnumbered Persian expeditionary landing force had given the better performance on the battlefield. And that the story the Greeks have passed down is more in line with their theatrical tradition and less in line with history.

The Greeks may have written the history in their own favor; but through Graves’ piece, the Persians give their view on the matter.