Sparks Commentary: A review of “Iran: The Forgotten Glory”

“All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he [including Daniel] shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.”

– The Hebrew Bible, “The Book of Daniel,” Chapter 6, Verses 7 through 9 (as translated by the King James Version of the Bible) – a notable chapter in the Bible to mention the Persians

There are actually three pre-Islamic empires in Persia, and this film is about two of them

There are actually three pre-Islamic empires in Persia. This film is about two of them. The first episode covers the Achaemenid Empire, and the second episode covers the Sasanian Empire. Thus, they (mostly) skip over the Parthian Empire that was between these two great groups. (More about that empire later.) The first episode is roughly 53 minutes long, while the second episode is roughly 44 minutes long. Thus, this film is a little more than an hour and a half in all. It’s a reasonably good primer on the history of Ancient Persia. But its focus seems to be more archeological than historical. Its focus is on showing ancient ruins and reliefs, and what they tell us about the Ancient Persians. And I’m perfectly okay with this film being so low-budget. They make reasonably good use of maps, reconstructions, and other relevant images. They rely on two talking-head scholars, one of them speaking a language that I presume to be Farsi – the Iranian dialect of modern Persian. The other is an American guy from California, whose name suggests some Iranian ancestry of his own – something that proves to be quite helpful in this context. And the film’s credits show many Iranian names involved in the making of this film. But one feels that the viewer doesn’t get a great understanding of Persia’s military or political history, or even their cultural history. They don’t even really show where these great Persian events took place. It’s just an examination of the artifacts from the time (including their art), and what they tell us about the Ancient Persians themselves.

Darius the Great

The first episode is called “Birth of a Nation,” and is about the Achaemenid Empire

Regardless, the first episode is called “Birth of a Nation.” As mentioned above, it is about the Achaemenid Empire. This began back in 550 BC, under Cyrus the Great. To the extent that they cover political history at all, they focus mainly on three specific Persian kings. One is this same “Cyrus the Great,” who is mentioned in both the Hebrew Bible and the Muslim Quran. They give a fairly positive portrayal of this particular king. Another is Darius the Great, a king mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. This film likewise gives a positive portrayal of this king. They mention that, under Darius, Zoroastrianism actually became the state religion of the Achaemenid Empire. They also mention that Zoroastrianism had been around since long before the Achaemenid Empire. But they don’t talk about how Zoroastrianism came from their prophet Zoroaster, mentioning only that they worshipped a god named “Ahura Mazda.” This is one of the many cultural currents that is largely ignored here. They show some Zoroastrian art, and what it tells us about their religion. But that’s about it on this score. This is a shame, because Zoroastrianism was one of the largest religions of the ancient world. It has few adherents today, but it was a major force in the early Middle East. This film also makes brief note of the Medians (or “Medes”), a related culture from the time. But they omit any discussion about Persian science, or other Persian learning. They also omit mentioning that Persian was an Indo-European language. That is, Persian is more similar to Greek (or even English) than it is to nearby languages like Hebrew or Arabic. Some of its closest living relatives are in India, and include Sanskrit and Hindustani – a language famous for its Hindi and Urdu dialects. Nonetheless, the Persian Empire was a multi-ethnic empire, and included Semitic languages like Aramaic – later to be used in the Hebrew Bible. Strangely enough, though, this film doesn’t really tell a unified story, and (again) focuses mostly on showing artifacts and ruins.

Xerxes

This empire is known for its wars with the Greeks, and being destroyed by Alexander the Great

The third Persian king to be covered in this first episode is Xerxes. They give a more negative portrayal of Xerxes, saying that he departed somewhat from the more enlightened ways of Cyrus and Darius. I tend to agree with this assessment. During Xerxes’ reign, Persia had some infamous wars with the Greeks. In the West, we tend to associate these wars with the account of the Greek historian Herodotus, who is often cited as the father of history itself. His early historical records have thus influenced the Western view of these wars. Thus, some today have complained that we don’t have much information about the Persian side of the conflict. This is where this documentary can come in, because this episode provides some of the missing Persian perspective. For example, one of their Iranian commentators says that living under the Persian kings was “better” than living under the democracy of Athens. They note that Athenian democracy had a system of slavery, which taints its legacy somewhat. They further argue that the Persians freed the slaves in their empire, and instituted some amount of religious toleration in their own kingdom. I respect their opinion, and I suppose that this could be true (although I’m not sure). Either way, though, it is good to hear a Persian perspective on this ancient conflict. They also note how the Achaemenid Empire was destroyed by the invasion of Alexander the Great, and ended in 324 BC. Alexander the Great himself would then die in the following year: 323 BC, one of the most important years in ancient history for this reason. This episode then ends on a sort of cliff-hanger, where they foreshadow the next episode’s coverage of the Sasanian Empire. But, again, they have almost no discussion of the Parthian Empire. Thus, some brief comments on a few of the things that they skipped over … might be appropriate here.

Alexander the Great

The biggest omission of this film is the intervening Parthian Empire (or Arsacid Empire)

As Wikipedia puts it, the Parthian Empire (also known as the Arsacid Empire) was “a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD.[footnote] Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I,[footnote] who led the Parni tribe in conquering the region of Parthia[footnote] in Iran's northeast, then a satrapy (province) under Andragoras, who was rebelling against the Seleucid Empire. Mithridates I (r. c. 171 – 132 BC) greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to present-day Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han dynasty of China, became a center of trade and commerce.” (Source: Their page on the “Parthian Empire”) Again, they mention almost nothing about this empire here – with one exception, which will be noted shortly. Personally, I would have liked to hear a little bit more about the Parthians here. But there are at least two things that make omitting this subject understandable. One is that the documentary had such a low budget, and was trying to cover things in less than two hours. It’s hard to fit everything into such a short span of time. My other biggest reason is that the main languages of the Parthian Empire were Parthian, Greek, and Aramaic. Parthian is related to Persian, but it is not identical to Persian. Thus, Persian was not one of this empire’s official languages. Therefore, I can understand why this film did not want to classify this as a “Persian” empire. It was located in and around Persia, but it may not have been truly “Persian.” Rather, as its name indicates, it was Parthian – again, a related culture from the time. These things make this omission more understandable. Again, the second episode is instead focused on the Sasanian Empire, which is what I will be discussing next.

Parthian Temple of the Gareus

The second episode is called “Renaissance of Glory,” and is about the later Sasanian Empire

The second episode is called “Renaissance of Glory.” The Sasanian Empire covered therein actually began in AD 224, the very same year in which the Parthian Empire ended. Thus, this film had to give some brief background about the fall of the Parthian Empire, before it could discuss the beginning of the Sasanian Empire. This is about the only time in the documentary where they discuss the Parthian Empire at all – the exception alluded to above. They also recap some of their previous coverage of the Achaemenid Empire, before transitioning into their main topic of the Sasanian Empire. But the second episode has even less of a political focus than the first. They briefly mention battles with the original Roman Empire – and, later, with the Byzantine Empire, sometimes called the “Eastern Roman Empire.” They also mention how the Persians were a formidable foe for the mighty Roman and Byzantine armies. They mention that Zoroastrianism was revived as a state religion during this time. Their empire would also expand eastward, toward the borders of China. But a lot of this episode is spent showing Zoroastrian religious sites, many of which were constructed long before their period of focus. Some of the buildings were even erected before the period covered in their first episode. Thus, I was confused about why they spent so much time covering these sites in episode number two, and delving into Zoroastrian art therein. Again, their focus is mainly on archeological ruins and surviving architecture, and they don’t really attempt to tell a story here. They mention that some of the buildings were later converted into mosques during the Islamic era, but that’s about it on this score.

Horse head – Sasanian Persian art

This empire was destroyed by the Muslim conquests, causing Zoroastrianism to go underground

Regardless, the Sasanian Empire was eventually destroyed in AD 651, when the Persians were overrun during the Arab conquests (also called the early Muslim conquests). This is a campaign covered in another series called “Islam: Empire of Faith.” Thus, I will have to omit discussion of these military campaigns here. Suffice it to say here that their native Zoroastrian religion no longer had any official status. The state religion now became Islam, the religion of their Arab conquerors. Zoroastrianism was persecuted by the Muslims, and has thus become more of a minority religion since then. It might help to note some subsequent developments that this documentary omits. That is, Zoroastrianism still exists today, but most Iranians today are Muslims instead. Thus, relatively few people today would identify as Zoroastrians, even in contemporary Iran. Nonetheless, some medieval Zoroastrians were fleeing to nearby India to escape religious persecution. This is why Zoroastrian communities are also found today in certain parts of India, as well as in Iran. This documentary omits any discussion of this subject, and of other important cultural history. Thus, one can’t really learn much herein about Ancient Persian culture, except in passing comments that give context for the art and archeology that they discuss.

This topic is fascinating, but the film was ultimately something of a disappointment to me

Therefore, this documentary was ultimately something of a disappointment to me, particularly in its second and final episode. I would watch it only if you want to see some ancient ruins and surviving architecture, and skip it if you would prefer to hear a more traditional kind of history. In fairness, I’m not currently aware of any other documentaries out there about the Ancient Persians, and this one is almost impossible to get on DVD anyway. I ultimately had to watch it on YouTube, and (sadly) will have to omit any of my usual DVD links below. (Sorry about that – I’ll give YouTube links instead.) But, after watching this, I wouldn’t spend any massive amounts trying to get this DVD anyway. This program was ultimately something of a disappointment to me, which failed to offer any real insights into Persian history.

“Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God.”

– The Hebrew Bible, “The Book of Daniel,” Chapter 6, Verses 21 through 23 (as translated by the King James Version of the Bible)

Footnote to this blog post: