Iran in World History The New Oxford World History Iran in World History Richard Foltz 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2016 All rights reserved. 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DS272.F65 2015 955—dc23 2015006891 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Front cover: Rostam, the hero of Ferdowsi’s tenth-century epic poem the Book of Kings, fights the White Demon, depicted in glazed tiles above the entryway to the Karim Khan Zand citadel, eighteenth century, Shiraz. Photo by Manya Saadi-nejad Frontispiece: Vakil bazaar, Shiraz. Photo by author To Manya Contents Editors’ Preface .......................................................... ix Preface ....................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1 A Convergence of Land and Language (3500–550 bce) ...................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2 Iran and the Greeks (550–247 bce) ....................... 15 CHAPTER 3 Parthians, Sasanians, and Sogdians (247 bce–651 ce) .................................................. 29 CHAPTER 4 The Iranization of Islam (651–1027) ..................... 45 CHAPTER 5 The Turks: Empire-Builders and Champions of Persian Culture (1027–1722) ............................. 60 CHAPTER 6 Under Europe’s Shadow (1722–1925) ................... 80 CHAPTER 7 Modernization and Dictatorship: The Pahlavi Years (1925–1979) ................................................ 96 CHAPTER 8 The Islamic Republic of Iran (1979–present) .......110 Chronology ............................................................. 125 Notes .......................................................................127 Further Reading .......................................................131 Websites ...................................................................135 Acknowledgments ....................................................137 Index ........................................................................143 Editors’ Preface his book is part of the New Oxford World History, an inno- vative series that offers readers an informed, lively, and up-to- Tdate history of the world and its people that represents a signifi cant change from the “old” world history. Only a few years ago, world history generally amounted to a history of the West—Europe and the United States—with small amounts of information from the rest of the world. Some versions of the “old” world history drew attention to every part of the world except Europe and the United States. Readers of that kind of world history could get the impression that somehow the rest of the world was made up of exotic people who had strange customs and spoke difficult languages. Still another kind of “old” world history pre- sented the story of areas or peoples of the world by focusing primarily on the achievements of great civilizations. One learned of great build- ings, influential world religions, and mighty rulers but little of ordi- nary people or more general economic and social patterns. Interactions among the world’s peoples were often told from only one perspective. This series tells world history differently. First, it is comprehensive, covering all countries and regions of the world and investigating the total human experience—even those of so-called peoples without his- tories living far from the great civilizations. “New” world historians thus share in common an interest in all of human history, even going back millions of years before there were written human records. A few “new” world histories even extend their focus to the entire universe, a “big history” perspective that dramatically shifts the beginning of the story back to the big bang. Some see the “new” global framework of world history today as viewing the world from the vantage point of the Moon, as one scholar put it. We agree. But we also want to take a closeup view, analyzing and reconstructing the significant experiences of all of humanity. This is not to say that everything that has happened everywhere and in all time periods can be recovered or is worth knowing, but that there is much to be gained by considering both the separate and interrelated stories of different societies and cultures. Making these connections is still another crucial ingredient of the “new” world history. It emphasizes connectedness and interactions of all kinds—cultural, economic, polit- ical, religious, and social—involving peoples, places, and processes. It makes comparisons and finds similarities. Emphasizing both the com- parisons and interactions is critical to developing a global framework that can deepen and broaden historical understanding, whether the focus is on a specific country or region or on the whole world. The rise of the new world history as a discipline comes at an oppor- tune time. The interest in world history in schools and among the gen- eral public is vast. We travel to one another’s nations, converse and work with people around the world, and are changed by global events. War and peace affect populations worldwide as do economic conditions and the state of our environment, communications, and health and medicine. The New Oxford World History presents local histories in a global context and gives an overview of world events seen through the eyes of ordinary people. This combination of the local and the global further defines the new world history. Understanding the workings of global and local conditions in the past gives us tools for examining our own world and for envisioning the interconnected future that is in the making. Bonnie G. Smith Anand Yang x Editors’ Preface Preface ran has been at the nexus of world history for the past three thousand years. Situated at the crossroads between East and West, Iran has Ibeen marked by its encounters with other civilizations and has influ- enced them with its own. Indeed, traces of Iranian culture can be seen throughout the world, from the very notion of Paradise (Avestan pairi daeza, “walled garden”) to Persian carpets, which are a nearly univer- sal marker of status and beauty. Iran—which Westerners called Persia until 1935—played a pivotal role in the early self-conceptualization of the West, projected as the essentialized “Other” by which ancient Greece defined itself. Somewhat ironically, many of the major scholarly figures in medi- eval times who transmitted this same classical “Western” culture back to Europe were Iranians—although they are often mistakenly referred to as Arabs, since they usually wrote in Arabic, which was the scholarly language of the time. The pre-Islamic Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism provided many of the basic notions now found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Today, Iran is best known for its stubborn refusal to submit to Western hegemony; as a result, the country continues to be cast into the role of the Other, in opposition to which Westerners define and pro- mote their own values. What Westerners often fail to appreciate, how- ever, is that in the Asian sphere—where most of the world’s population lives—Iran is often viewed in far more positive terms. Indeed, Iran is seen by many Asians as the very fountainhead of civilization, quite similar to how Westerners perceive ancient Greece and Rome. Persian literature, in particular, has deeply marked Turkey, Central Asia, and India; strong influences can be seen as well in areas such as architecture, administration, music, food, and religion. The Muslims of Asia, who represent three-quarters of all Muslims in the world, received Islam through a thickly Persian filter. A lesser-known fact is that the same is true for Asian Christianity, and even Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism. When assessing the role of Iran in world history, therefore, it is important to recognize that the reach of Iranian civilization extends far beyond the borders of the present-day Islamic Republic—even beyond those of the earlier Iranian empires (Achaemenid, Parthian, Sasanian, Safavid), which