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| {{Infobox Book | | |||
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| | image = ] | |||
| | image _caption = Book cover | |||
| | author = ] | |||
| | cover_artist = | |||
| | country = ] | |||
| | language = ] | |||
| | genre = ] | |||
| | publisher = ] | |||
| | release_date = April 24, 2007 | |||
| | media_type = Print (]) | |||
| | pages = 320 | |||
| | isbn = 1846031087 | |||
| }} | |||
| '''''Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War''''' is a 2007 book on ] by historian and linguist ]. It covers the history of early ] as well as that of ] from the ] until the ]. | |||
| ==Purpose== | |||
| The purpose of the book, according to Farrokh, is to remind people in ], where ] is seen as part of the "]", of its unacknowledged and unknown cultural diversity. He also states: | |||
| {{cquote|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 We still believe that the Persians were permanently defeated and superseded by the Greeks and Romans.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.<ref></ref>}} | |||
| ==Contents== | |||
| It covers the three major empires of Persia before ]. 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 ], ]s, ], ], ], ], ], ], ] (and the associated Pahlavi culture of ]), ]s, and ]. | |||
| The author attempts to provide a neutral view of Persia’s history,{{dubious}} 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 ] 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.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} These include: | |||
| #Discoveries made in the ] and their relationship to the invention of farming in what is now northern ], northwest ], and eastern ]. Authors cited by Farrokh include ], ], and ]. | |||
| #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 ], ], and ] and their research into Ukraine’s heritage of horseback riding. | |||
| #The research of ] researcher ], whose works remain confined to Italian scholarship. Spatari has tabulated the impact of the architecture of pre-Islamic Persia upon ] and ]. 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, ] in particular, and the Romans. This has led to the ignorance in much of western academia as to how and why the post-Alexandrian ] 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 ], ], ], and ]. | |||
| ==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 ]'' | |||
| *Introduction: Persia or Iran? | |||
| *Chronology | |||
| *Part 1: The ] | |||
| **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 ]ns | |||
| **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 ] | |||
| **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 and reception== | |||
| The book seems to have been well received by scholars.<ref></ref> Farrokh’s book has received much attention in western media and academic circles.<ref name="Brogan"></ref><ref name="link1"></ref><ref name="Farrokh2">Farrokh, Kaveh. ''Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War''. Osprey Publishing, 2007. Foreword page 7.</ref> Farrokh has been interviewed on a number of media outlets such as '']''<ref>''The Leonard Lopate Show'' of New York Public Radio, WYNC FM 93.9, August 20, 2007</ref>, ''We Talk Back''<ref>''We Talk Back'' of Louisiana and Mississippi, KMLB-AM 1440, August 11, 2007</ref>, and ''The Tommy Schnurmacher Show''.<ref>''The Tommy Schnurmacher Show'' in Montreal, Canada, CJAD AM 800, August 6, 2007</ref> | |||
| The book has also received favorable reviews by notable scholars such as Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones<ref name="link1"/> of the Department of Classics at the ], professor Nikoloz Kacharava (MD, PhD) of the ], professor ]<ref name="link1"/> of the Department of Classics at ], and ]<ref>Farrokh, Kaveh. ''Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War''. Osprey Publishing, 2007. Foreword page 7</ref>. | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{reflist}} | |||
| ] | |||
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