Birth of The Persan Empire Volume I
This volume contains a series of six lectures delivered at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the spring and summer terms 2004 organised by the London Middle East Institute at SOAS and the British Museum. As a result of the tremendous success of the first series, the Soudavar Foundation has generously agreed to support further series.
The Lecture series “The Idea of Iran: from Eurasian Steppe to Persian Empire” was prompted by a desire to explore the multifarious ideas about the notion of “Iran” beginning with the origins of Achaemenid hegemony. The first half of the title was borrowed from Gherardo Gnoli’s collection of essays entitled The Idea of Iran (Rome, 1989), in which he discussed the complex question of Iran and its national identity from a historical perspective. The title of the present volume, The Birth of the Persian Empire, broadens the approach and takes into account research undertaken during the past fifteen years. It enables scholars from different subject disciplines; archaeology, history, religion and philology, to debate various issues concerning the nature and origin of Iran as a political, religious and/or ethnic entity....
Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis
Sarah Stewart
Contents
Introduction / 1
Cyrus the Great and the Kingdom of Anshan / 7
An Archaeologist’s Approach to Avestan Geography / 29
The Achaemenids and the Avesta / 52
The Contribution of the Magi / 85
The History of the Idea of Iran / 100
Iron Age Iran and the Transition to the Achaemenid Period / 112
List of Abbreviations / 132
Bibliography / 133
Birth of The Persan Empire
Volume I
Edited by
Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis
and
Sarah Stewart
I.B.Tauris
in association with The London Middle East Institute at SOAS
and
The British Museum
Published in 2005 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
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Copyright © 2005 Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis & Sarah Stewart
The right of Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis & Sarah Stewart to be identified as
editors of this work has been asserted by the editors in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
The publication of this book was generously supported by the Soudavar
Memorial Foundation.
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ISBN 1 84511 062 5
EAN 978 1 84511 062 8
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow,
Cornwall from camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the editors
