The Enduring Durant on Persia

A discussion on the radical, Zoroastrian, Mazdakite, Sufi, antinomian and feminist roots of Iran's current revolutionary upheavals.

The Iranian Mythological Universe 

This is the link to my new talk simulcast on my 'Persian Version' podcast and Jeff Lippman's excellent 'Garden of Doom'  podcast, on the subject of my upcoming book and documentary project,  currently in development, about the far too little discussed colonization of Europe by Northern-Iranic peoples such as the Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Roxalans, Iaziges, Aorsi, and Jasz. We discuss the migrations and settlement of large parts of Eastern, Central, and Western Europe by these ethnically, linguistically and culturally Iranian peoples during the decline and fall of the Western  Roman Empire. We also get into the influence of these Iranic settlers on the material,  literary, folkloric, artistic, cultural and genetic heritage of Medieval  Europe, including their contributions to the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table as well as to such medieval Romances as Tristan & Iseult, based on the older Parthian era Iranian story of Vis & Ramin.

Dear members, this is an interview with me that just aired on Jeff Lippman's very interesting podcast series: "The Garden of Doom." Our conversation is about a range of topics including the origin and migrations of the Indo-Iranian Aryan peoples who were originally a part of the larger Indo-European ethnolinguistic family. We discuss the development of the theology, cosmology and ethics of Iran's  Avestan, Zoroastrian, and Mithraic traditions as well as the historic influence of these concepts on the Abrahamic religions of Judaism,  Christianity and Islam. 

I'm delighted and honoured to bring you my first podcast discussion with Dr Linda Malcor, co-author of 'From Scythia to Camelot' This revolutionary book meticulously demonstrates that the core of the European stories of 'King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table', Camelot and the Holy Grail is not entirely  Gaelic, Celtic, or Ango-Saxon but North-Iranian! The scholarly yet revolutionary book argues that many of these stories were brought to Western Europe by ethnolinguistically and culturally  Iranian (i.e. Aryan), semi-nomadic chain mail armoured, equestrian peoples, such as the Sarmatians, Alans, Roxalans, Iaziges, Aorsi and others who migrated westward from their home on the Eurasian Steppes north of the Black Sea and settled much of Western Europe, including Britain during the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire. 

In previous episodes we discussed how the name Iran, not Persia is actually the historic and correct name of the Iranian nation and civilization.  However, in this episode I’ll be making the case that when it comes to referring to the Persian language, the correct word in English is in fact Persian, not Farsi. Farsi is only the correct word--when you're speaking in Persian. --A. Darius Kamali 

References: Axworthy, Michael (2008). A History of Iran. Basic Books. pp. 31–43. Hone, William (1890 (4th edit); 1820 (1st edition)). "The Apocryphal Books of the New Testament". Archive.org. Gebbie & Co., Publishers, Philadelphia. See: Retrieved 26 January 2017.  Nersessian, Vrej (2001). The Bible in the Armenian Tradition. Getty. ISBN 978-0-89236-640-8. Historia Trium Regum(History of the Three Kings) by John of Hildesheim (1364–1375)  Brock, Sebastian (1982). "Christians in the Sasanian Empire: A Case of Divided Loyalties". In Mews, Stuart (ed.). Religion and National Identity. Studies in Church History, 18. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 1–19. ISBN 978-0-631-18060-9. Ugo Monneret de Villard, Le Leggende orientali sui Magi evangelici, Citta del Vaticano, Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1952.  Hultgård, Anders (1998). "The Magi and the Star—the Persian Background in Texts and Iconography". In Schalk, Peter; Stausberg, Michael (eds.). 'Being Religious and Living through the Eyes': Studies in Religious Iconography and Iconology: A Celebratory Publication in Honour of Professor Jan Bergman. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis: Historia Religionum, 14. Uppsala, Almqvist & Wiksell International. pp. 215–25. ISBN 978-91-554-4199-9. Dietrich, "Die Weisen aus dem Morgenlande", Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, Bd. III, 1902, p. 1 14; cited in J. Duchesne-Guillemin, "Die Drei Weisen aus dem Morgenlande und die Anbetung der Zeit", Antaios, Vol. VII, 1965, pp. 234–252, 245; cited in Mary Boyce and Frantz Genet, A History of Zoroastrianism, Leiden, Brill, 1991, p. 453, n. 449.  Herzfeld, Ernst (1935). Archaeological History of Iran. Schweich Lectures of the British Academy. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 65–6. OCLC 651983281. Dr. M. Moghadam ( ), second International Congress of Mithraic Studies, 1975. Professor Parviz Varjavand ( ), Iranian archaeologist, studies on Mithraism and Iranian Archaeology.  Dr. Hashem Farhang, studies on Mithraism. Professor Gary Leupp, studies on Mithraism; D. Jason Cooper; Mithraic studies, 1996. Richard Noll, Mithraic studies, 1997. DI Behruz Vazvan ( ), studies on Christmas in the light of Mithraism and Zoroastrianism. One of the writers of the world s first Persian-Finnish-Persian Large Dictionary 1990.  Cumont, the mysteries of Mithra Nabarz, the mysteries of Mithra Foltz, Reliogions of Iran Jason Reza Jorjani, Iranian Leviathan  Ruck, Muahrooms, Myth and Mithras

As part of our introductory series for the Persian Version I felt there could hardly be a more appropriate voice to hear from regarding our topic, than that of the late great American philosopher, historian and popularizer of World History, Will Durant. The following talk was originally presented as an address before the Iran-America Society in Tehran on April 21, 1948. The great Will Durant provides a brief but insightful review of Persian cultural history and its influence on the history of human civilization.

The ancient Greeks referred to all of Iran by the name 'Persia,' after the Parsua people of the ruling central region of 'Pars' with which they were most familiar. And the European West borrowed this term from the Greeks and the name has stuck to this day. In a parallel irony, Greece is known as ‘Younan’ in Persian. This is because the part of Greece that was most thoroughly colonized by Iran’s Achaemenian Empire was called 'Ionia.' It turns out, the Iranians also used a short hand for the Greeks and referred to them all with the name of the region that they were most familiar with.

When starting a discussion on a topic, it’s imperative to define terms and agree on proper usage of names--especially proper names. And so doing a podcast like this one, presents us with a problem right from the get go. Which is the correct name? Is it Iran? Or is it Persia?