Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War: Difference between revisions

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	{{Merge\|Osprey_Publishing#General_Military\|date=November 2008}}
	{{Infobox Book \|
	\| 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. It covers the history of early ] as well as that of ] from the ] until the ]. '''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which is presented in the final chapter of the book, is the notion that the Iranians were permanently defeated and superseded by the Greeks, ] in particular, and the Romans.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>}}

	This is at odds with the observation by other writers that academic mainstream has portrayed Alexander in a less than sympathetic light recently.<ref> Betsy Carpenter (November 22 2004). "Alexander's New Look" (LexisNexis reprint), ]</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



	==Awards==
	The book has received the WAALM (World Academy of Arts Literature & Media) Gold Lioness history award for the year 2008.<ref> BBC Persian: November 05, 2008. </ref>.

	==Reception==

	The "about this book" section on its ] profile quotes sympathetic 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>. Richard Frye notes:"In this book Dr. Farrokh has given us the Persian side of the picture as opposed to the Greek side and Roman viewpoint which has long dominated our understanding of these wars. It is refreshing to see other perspectives, and Dr. Farrokh sheds light on many Persian institutions in this history, such as the Sassanian elite cavalry, the "saravan". Osprey Publishing is to be congratulated for publishing ''Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War, which presents another aspect of wars between East and West in ancient times".

	Jona Lendering of ], in a commentary published on his own website, and later republished by the ''] Classical Review'', gives a negative review of the book.<ref>, also published in ] Classical Review</ref>. A Persian-English Iranian web magazine by the name Rozhaneh has published a letter by anonymous writers responding to Lendering's review <ref>"Let’s Abandon the Distortions of Achaemenid Studies" Fall 2008</ref> under the title "Let's Abandon Distortions of Achaemenid Studies" and has responded to the points raised by Lendering.

	==External links==
	*

	==References==
	{{reflist}}

	]

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