Customer Reviews

Ancient Persia

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Wiesehofer has written a good overview of Persian history from the founding of the Achaemenid empire until the Arab conquest. Despite the great timespan of his work he is able to provide many interesting details and insights. He accomplishes this by avoiding a strict chronological approach. Sections are devoted to the various empires such as the Parthians, and, within these sections, chapters deal with subjects such as religion or classes in society. I especially appreciated the chapters on sources which explicitly describe our sources for the various eras. Because of Wiesehofer's approach this book is not at all a popular history. I would not recommend it to someone who does not already have a familiarity with the history of Persia. At times the book can be quite technical and assumes a fair knowledge on the part of the reader. However, if you have a familiarity with ancient Persia and wish to learn more about it, I heartily recommend this book.

This book by J.Wiesehoefer, who is an expert especially on achaemenid and parthian history, tries to look at Persia in a different way than many earlier scholars did. He does this by questioning the information the Greek and Roman historians give about Ancient Iran - how realistic is the picture these sources draw? Where the Persians really nothing more but enemies? Were they really as decadent and despotic as most ancient authors indicate? This book is full of usefull information - go get it.

This is not a history of Ancient Persia but rather a set of essays on just a few topics: "The Testimonies" (i.e. the historical sources); "The King and his Subjects"; and "Everyday Life".
Basically, apart from the Bisutun relief (text available at http://www.avesta.org/op.htm) and the Persepolis Texts (R. T. Hallock, Chicago 1969), nearly all the sources are Greek or Latin upon which the author relies despite the contrary assertion given by the publisher on the flyleaf. It's not the ancient Greek and Roman writers that the author attempts to discredit but rather the modern writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Better to read "The Persian Empire" by J. M. Cook or "A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire" by Muhammad A. Dandamaev.

"Ancient Persia" is a didactic account of military and political history of ancient Persia from the Achaemenid period up to the Sassanid defeat by the Califfs. The intention of the Author is to approach this often ignored period of ancient history through new or not well known documents, since a great defect of early Persian historiography depends on the almost exclusive use of Greek and Roman documents that depict Achaemenids, Partians and Sassanids as "barbarians" (not the Selgiuchids which were practily Greek!). Unfortunately most of the documents we have on this period are actually Greek or Roman, while the scanty remaining material is archeological. So despite the intentions, this book does not add much to what already found in literature and this is a pity since the Author comes from the best archeological study group on ancient Persia that started with Carsten Niebuhr, passing through Erns Herzfeld to the present days.
History books for lay-persons require a distinctive narrative capacity. The reader often has a birdview culture of the topic but lacks precise references and approaches the text with curiosity and great expectations. Unfortunately, Wiesehofer's "Ancient Persia" is not an engrossing read eventhough it is not difficult or excessively scholastic. The Authors nominates Herodotus, Xenophon, Themistocles, Strabo, Ammiano Marcellinus and others but never explains either who they are or in what period and why they wrote. To fully appreciate the book, the reader must have these references clear and already know at least this part of the story.
The various chapters are a little sketchy and as noted by another reviewer read like essays. This makes me think that maybe they started out as lessons for students or transcriptions of debated issues in an history class.
What makes history live are episodes and anedocts and these are completely lacking in the book, so even if at the end we get a good historical perspective of the topic, little remains in the long run if not reinforced by more information.
However, this is a good reference book to have in case of an introduction to the topic because it does carry a great deal of information. The maps are explicative and the genealogies useful. The bibliography is ample.

Let me start off, for anyone interested purely in Political history and a narrative of history of Ancient Iran, this is not the book your looking for.

What the book does is Give Ancient Iran(Persia) a voice through native sources as much as possible.
It utilizes a method to describe Ancient Iran's administrative, cultural, social and religious history.
Josef Weisenhofer first narrates and then comments on Primary sources, in chapters called Testimonies.
In testimonies, he gives more weight to sources closer to the Administration and everyday society.

He has done a Terrific job, It's a must for enthusiasts and students of Ancient Persia or Iran and world history in general.

This book is different than other books because Wiesehofer is not just discussing Achaemenids peroid. The author integrates other Iran's historical point.

A well researched book however the author seems to be confused with Zoraoastrainism and suffice to say that he refers in many places to Zoroastrian 'gods' while the religion is montheistic believing in Ahuramazda or the Wise Lord.

The story the book tells is interesting but the Author, in my opinion is, sadly politically motivated. For example he Claims, (and masks his opinion as historical fact) that Cyrus the Great was a vicious king, as violent and ruthless as all the kings of his time and that his legacy of the first Bill of Rights, is nothing but propaganda. That should raise red flags everywhere.