Introduction | |
Land Of Contrasts | |
Introduction to things general and specific | p. 1 |
The geographical background of history | p. 7 |
People change and people remain | p. 10 |
Iranian Traditions | |
The Aryan background | p. 17 |
Zoroaster and his message | p. 28 |
Sagas of the East | p. 35 |
Iran and Turan | p. 42 |
Social structure | p. 53 |
Iran and the west | |
The heritage of the ages | p. 62 |
Upstart dynasts | p. 75 |
The rise of Persis | p. 85 |
The crisis of empire | p. 94 |
The one world of the Achamenids. The court and bureaucracy | p. 102 |
Economic life | p. 119 |
Religion under the later Achamenids | p. 124 |
The fall of the Achamenids | p. 129 |
L'Iran Exterieur | |
Alexander the Great and his legacy | p. 143 |
Seleucid centralism | p. 149 |
The Hellenistic heritage | p. 161 |
The extended cultural area | p. 173 |
The Graeco-Bactrians | p. 182 |
Gandhara and Western influences | p. 189 |
The Adaptable Arsacids | |
A forgotten dynasty | p. 199 |
Origins | p. 201 |
The road westwards | p. 205 |
Parthia and Rome | p. 208 |
The Government and bureaucracy of the empire | p. 212 |
Literature and culture | p. 218 |
Foundations of Zoroastrianism | p. 220 |
The Kushans and the East | p. 223 |
The traditions of Persis | p. 226 |
Heirs of the Achaemenids | |
Ardashir and the cycle of history | p. 236 |
The imperialism of Shapur | p. 241 |
Heresies and the church | p. 248 |
The glory that was Iran | p. 254 |
The Persian Conquest of Islam | |
Disintegration of the old order | p. 268 |
Islam versus Iran | p. 274 |
Central Asian particularism | p. 279 |
Orthodoxy in Fars | p. 283 |
The new Persian renaissance | p. 286 |
Maps | p. 293 |
Notes to Maps | p. 296 |
Appendices | p. 298 |
Bibliography | p. 301 |
Index | p. 311 |
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