A panoramic history of the Iranian people rediscovers their
original sources of moral and political strength while
dissecting the causes of their cultural decline. Saney, an
Iranian-born academic and lawyer with several titles under his
belt, provides a sweeping history of Iran as a “tool to describe
the cultural scene.” The first seven of 10 chapters exhaustively
describe the arc of Iran’s development, from the rise of the
Persian Empire and its ultimate decline through a dizzying
succession of dynastic rulers. Not content to merely offer an
empirical catalogue of events, Saney mines Iranian history for
clues about its essential character, detailing the many
accomplishments and contributions proffered to the world. Once a
crucible of creative achievement in the region—the Athens of the
Middle East—Iran was a center of innovation in architecture,
music, literature and science. So what happened? Saney attaches
Iran’s general descent to a gradual surrender of its own unique
culture after languishing under a tra