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| {{Merge|Osprey_Publishing#General_Military|date=November 2008}} | |||
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| {{Infobox Book | | |||
| <!-- End of AfD message, feel free to edit beyond this point --> | |||
| | name = Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War | |||
| | image = ] | |||
| | image _caption = Book cover | |||
| | author = Kaveh Farrokh | |||
| | 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 of the | |||
| ] ''General Military'' series, dealing with the ], written by '''Kaveh Farrokh''' (b. 1962). It covers the history of early ] as well as that of ] from the ] until the ]. | |||
| Farrokh has a Ph.D. in psychology, obtained in September 2001 from the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at the ],<ref></ref> where he specialized in the cognitive and linguistic processes of ] speakers.<ref>Kaveh Farrokh, 1988. Patterns of adjustment of international students to the University of British Columbia. MA Thesis, 1988, University of British Columbia. ISBN 0315470690</ref><ref>Kaveh Farrokh, 2001. The relationships among cognitive processes, language experience and errors in Farsi speaking ESL adults. PhD Thesis, University of British Columbia. ISBN 0612714594</ref> | |||
| ''Shadows in the Desert'' is his second publication with Osprey, after ''Sassanian Elite Cavalry AD 224-642'' (2005). | |||
| ==Contents== | |||
| ''Shadows in the Desert'' covers the three major empires of ] (], ], ]). It tabulates a range of aspects of the pre-Islamic Iranian Culture, in the fields of ]s, and ], ], ], ], religion (] and ]), warfare (] and the associated Pahlavi culture of ]), ]s, ] and ].{{Dubious|date=November 2008}} | |||
| The author attempts to provide a neutral view of Persia’s history,{{Dubious|date=November 2008}} 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. | |||
| Farrokh makes reference to the research of ] artist ], whose works had remained largely 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. | |||
| ===Prehistory=== | |||
| Farrokh also extends his discussion to his views on the ] and their "relationship to the ]" in upper ]. For this purpose, Farrokh conflates the ] of ] with the ] of ] and ], besides discussing the ] in the ]. | |||
| ==="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, he suggests, 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 he believes, as a consequence of the Alexander Mystique, are the military defeats suffered by Roman armies under the leadership of historical figures such as ], ], ], and ]. | |||
| {{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>quoted after </ref>}} | |||
| ==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 | |||
| ==Reception== | |||
| The book was recommended to the ''World Affairs International Society of Stanford University'' by ].<ref>]</ref> | |||
| Reviews quoted by ] included favorable comments by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones of the Department of Classics at the ] and by ] of the Department of Classics at ].<ref name="link1"></ref> | |||
| The forward was written by ].<ref>Farrokh, Kaveh. ''Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War''. Osprey Publishing, 2007. Foreword page 7</ref> | |||
| However, Jona Lendering of ], in a review his own personal website, which has been republished by the ''] Classical Review'', gives a negative account of the book.<ref>, also published in ] Classical Review</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> | |||
| Farrokh has been interviewed on ]'s Persian service about the legacy of the ] founder ].<ref></ref> ] has also interviewed him on the topic of technology in ancient Persia for the series ] which aired in 2006.<ref></ref> | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{reflist}} | |||
| ] | |||
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