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September 28, 2005

Selective History

It is interesting that the hype in the last few weeks about the cultural matters in Iran (Sivand Dam and the Exhibition in the British Museum) was all about the Achaemenid Empire (the one called the Peraian Empire by the Greeks). A few years ago, the now infamous "Mummified Queen" forgery was also an Achaemenid thing.

Seems like everyone is just interested in the Achaemenids. No one minds the defaming and abuses that is bestowed upon other eras of the Iranian history. Let's say, no one caught on the fact that in the USA Television Network's TV movie on Attila a few years back, the scene were the "Parthian" king wants to join the armies of Attila is quite stupid and historically impossible (Attila lived in the 5th century AD, the Parthians were removed from the Iranian throne in 226 AD!). No one seems to have cared about a similar incident in the BBC's "I, Claudius" series where Livia walks in and tells Augustus that the "Parthians" are requesting a statue of the Augustus to worship! Apart from the fact that Parthians had defeated the Romans a few years ago and killed their general Crassus in a famous battle, they were also a gigantic empire who was Rome's strongest and largest enemy. The whole scene was absurd, but no one wrote extensive articles about it then.

No one also seems to mind much about gross inaccuracies that are the norm in history textbooks in the colleges, particularly the ones about the Roman-Sasanian relations. Again, the Sasanians seem not to matter at all and no one gets offended about them. They are not the "Persian Empire". Many of my fellow Iranians might, however, be offended if I suggest that Eurocentrism is so strongly engrained in their subconscious that even their sensitivities towards their heritage is Eurocentric. People get offended over matters concerning the Persian Empire mainly because that is what the Western world has concentrated upon. I doubt if many Iranians know much about the Parthians and Sasanians at all!

P.S.: I am very busy: the classes are starting, I am TA-ing, I have to teach at Santa Monica College as well, my friends are back and we are catching up, and to top it all off, I dislocated my shoulder this past weekend and am basically living on painkillers now!!

Posted by Khodadad at September 28, 2005 12:46 AM

Comments

Posted by: Amir at September 28, 2005 01:04 PM