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Shadows in the Desert: Persia at War is a 2007 book by historian and linguist Kaveh Farrokh and one of the definitive works in the field of Iranian history. It covers the history of early Iranian peoples as well as that of Iran from the Median Empire until the Islamic conquest of Persia.

Purpose

The purpose of the book, according to Farrokh, is to remind people in the west, where Iran is seen as part of the "Axis of Evil", of its unacknowledged and unknown cultural diversity. He also states:

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 We still believe that the Persians were permanently defeated and superseded by the Greeks and Romans.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.

Contents

The text outlines Persia’s contributions to world civilization in areas such as mythology, technology, sciences, literature, militaria, the arts, music, architecture, and garments, as well as giving a detailed description of Iran's ancient history. The book also includes many pictures of artifacts, maps, and soldiers, many of which are rare.

According to the publisher:

The ruins of Persepolis evoke the best-known events of ancient Persia's history: Alexander the Great's defeat of Darius III, his conquest of the Achaemenid empire, and the burning of the great palace complex at Persepolis. However, most of the history of ancient Persia remains as mysterious today as it was to contemporary Western scholars. Compared to the world-famous Alexander, the many wars won by the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanian empires, and their revolutionary military technology, have been almost forgotten in the sands of the East. In its day, Persia was a superpower to rival Greece and Rome, and conflict between them spanned over a millennium. Through these wars, and trade, these foes learnt from each other, not only adopting elements of military technology, but influences in the arts, architecture, religion, technology and learning. In this beautifully illustrated book, Dr Kaveh Farrokh narrates the history of Persia from before the first empires, through their wars with East and West to the fall of the Sassanians. He also delves into the forgotten cultural heritage of the Persians, spread across the world through war and conquest, which, even after the fall of the Sassanians, continued to impact upon the Western world.

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 Richard Nelson Frye
• Introduction: Persia or Iran?
• Chronology
• Part 1: The Achaemenids
  • 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 Parthians
  • 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 Sassanians
  • 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

Reviews

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones of the Department of Classics at the University of Edinburgh states:

This beautifully illustrated book will no doubt serve as a useful companion for all those interested in the military history of the pre-Islamic Middle East. However, Kaveh Farrokh’s informative study is more than a standard guide to military matters: he locates his study of the military strength and effectiveness of the Persian empire within a broader picture of the political history of ancient Iran, and provides an impressively coherent commentary on the sweep of Persian civilization. Useful maps, photography, and color plates make this a handsome and desirable volume; it will be of interest to students and scholars alike.

External links

• Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War at Amazon.com
• Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War at Osprey Publishing

References

1. Amapedia
2. Shadows in the Desert: Persia at War at Barnes & Nobles
3. Random House Academic Resources