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Feb 25 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Don't just compare #Cyrus the Great (کوروش بزرگ
; 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁) to rulers before him

This is not a convenient fact, so it's is ignored by modern authors: Compare him to what came after:

Romans had no issues destroying what there was in Britain, Germany...: old beliefs...

⤵️ Pasargadae
See e.g., Boudican revolt.

Centuries later authors had to invent the magical world of "western civilization" by connecting Greece to Rome, Rome to various parts of the world. Now it's basically skin color & religion that connect such widely different cultures in

⤵️ https://andrewmtanner.medium.com/the-sick-myth-of-western-ci
Hungary to Scotland, But can't let Turkey into EU cause they're not Christian & white enough!

Arabs had no issues force converting Egyptians, Central Asians... to Islam, and forcing people to speak Arabic in various places. They didn't need to write a cylinder to pretend!

⤵️ Arabs besieging the city of Samarkand, captured in 722 CE. PModern statue of Devashtich in Penjikent, Tajikistan
Mongols had NO issues destroying everything and murdering everyone, No issues I assure you.

White people had No issues murdering, raping, robbing land, force converting indigenous people all over the world, among other atrocities.

England had no issues destroying

⤵️
cultures & places in name of "civilizing" societies.

Cyrus & the Persians Respected other cultures, other religions. Cyrus Respected other people. He had no reason to "pretend"

This is not Convenient for writers today, so they have to go to great lengths to Rewrite "history". Not saying this is depiction of Cyrus, but it is from Pasarg

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More from @On_Persia

Ancient Iran Profile picture
Feb 25
The Cyrus Cylinder vs. the Magna Carta

Or how history is rewritten. A few points. This is not a "nationalist" or reactionary post. I want to rationally point to double standards in the "west"

⤵️🧵 From Persians, by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, 2022
Much has been written about both of these documents. The analogy is not perfect, no analogy and no analogical reasoning is.

But one cannot help recognize a very different modern take on these two documents.

1) Magna Carta is called "The Foundation of Freedom"

⤵️
"The Birth of Liberty" etc., even a New Yorker article points out these are purely modern and positive spins on this document:

newyorker.com/magazine/2015/…

"Magna Carta’s importance has often been overstated, and its meaning distorted."

"Magna Carta is very old, but even...

⤵️
Read 32 tweets
Ancient Iran Profile picture
Feb 23
Reconstruction of Commemorative Columns of Ardashir I & Shapur I, Bishapur, #Iran

One column has an inscription...

⤵️
Columns in original excavation report, the capital

⤵️ Also see: https://whc.unesco.org/en/documents/166053 https
Inscription: 16 lines in Sasanian Pahlavi and 12 lines in Arsacid Pahlavi by Apasay, a native of Harrān (in Syria) who was Shapur's secretary

In MP & Persia. Basically says: Apasay who had raised this monument of his own money offered it to the sovereign who, satisfied...

⤵️
Read 4 tweets
Ancient Iran Profile picture
Feb 23
Iranian quadriform/quatrefoil motif, now known as Royal Standard or Derafsh Kaviani (درفش کاویانی)

I've written about it before, but wanted to talk about a few points, focusing on excavated & reliable examples

⤵️ Modern recreation with imagined details of the motif as a st
1) Symbol in various forms existed before Achaemenids among other cultures & in Iran. I provided examples before.

2) I've hypothesize it's a form of cross or sun wheel

Achaemenid examples: A) Pazyryk carpet;

B) Carved lid & carpet design, Persepolis (6 C BCE - ~ 330 BCE)

⤵️ I've talked about Pazyryk carpet before: various design elem
Given its religious significance; appearance together with swastikas; and later the usual cross symbol on other ossuaries in Sogdiana...

3) We can trace the symbol/ motif from Achaemenid period, through...

Photos: Seal impressions from excavated seals, Achaemenid Gordion

⤵️
Read 19 tweets
Ancient Iran Profile picture
Feb 22
Rarely seen mosaics from Bishapur, Iran. From original excavation reports of 1930s and 1950s (Ghirshman)

I don't believe these have been published since. I also understand some were damaged and lost

⤵️
If we look at this one for example, the current item kept @MuseeLouvre online and at the museum as I recall only has the left part intact:

collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/…

⤵️
Similarly, there were 4-5 of these series of heads at the site, only one of which is better known

see e.g., collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/…

⤵️
Read 4 tweets
Ancient Iran Profile picture
Jan 21
Iranian Architecture: Windows in ancient Iran

By all accounts, glass was not used in windows. Light was also brought into spaces by means of central courtyards & other open spaces

For example see recreation of open space & arch from Sasanian Kish, Iraq

⤵️🧵
Domes appear to also have had an opening at times to allow more light in. The placement of small holes, slits, windows etc. have continued in Iranian architecture of bazaars, baths, other spaces

For example see placement of high windows in palace of Ardashir

⤵️
I will focus on #Sasanian era to compare various types of architecture. But this design for windows has continued in Near East for millennia

Here for example from Babylonian Tel Asmar, both a window grille and small window

⤵️
Read 19 tweets
Ancient Iran Profile picture
Jan 21
Elephant goad, Sarikhani Collection

War elephants were an important part of the army in Achaemenid and Sasanian eras, though they were also used by other armies in Asia

⤵️
No proper provenance for Sarikhani example, but there are also excavated examples of goads, like these from Taxila

⤵️
There are depictions of both elephants & elephants with riders from various periods

For example here 1: Indo-Scythian, al Sabah Collection

2: @britishmuseum

We can see the goads in these depictions too

⤵️
Read 7 tweets

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