ABOUT US
BOOKS
SUBJECTS
SERIES
PUBLISH WITH US
CONTACT
LOGIN
PROFILE
ORDERS
LOGOUT
0
vikramjain@sanctumbooks.com
×
x
x
LOGIN
PROFILE
ORDERS
LOGOUT
x
ABOUT US
BOOKS
SUBJECTS
SERIES
PUBLISH WITH US
CONTACT
Home:
Subjects:
History, Culture & Politics
Religion & Philosophy
Middle Eastern Studies
Zoroastrianism
x
Front Cover
Back Cover
Myth and History in Ancient Persia: The Achaemenids in the Iranian Tradition
Author:
Reza Shaghaghi Zarghamee
ISBN:
9789395474627
Binding:
Hardcover
Year:
2026
Pages:
376 with 22 black & white illustrations
Size:
16 x 24 x 3 cm
Weight:
710 grams
Price:
INR
2595
2336.00
eBook available at:
Amazon.in:
https://tinyurl.com/y9pv7kjp
Google Books:
https://tinyurl.com/5787w68f
Kobo:
https://tinyurl.com/48a75cvv
About the Book
Traces ancient Iranian mythical-legendary traditions within classical sources on Median and Persian royalty.
• Combines leading research in different interdisciplinary areas, including classics, Iranology, oral traditions, comparative mythology, and religious studies (focusing on Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, and other Old Iranian religions).• Expands on previous scholarship and utilizes overlooked Iranian evidence.• Provocatively rereads the accounts of key events in Median and Achaemenid history, including passages that are of tremendous interest outside the field of Iranian studies.• Overturns longstanding perceptions regarding the methods and overall reliability of classical authors.• Presents findings that may serve as a foundation to future narrative works on Achaemenid history, as well as to the concept of cultural production in the Achaemenid period.This book fills an important gap in Achaemenid studies by using traditional Iranian narratives, such as those found in the famous
Shahnameh
, or ‘Book of Kings’, of Ferdowsi, to analyse the Greco-Roman accounts of Median and Persian royalty. The study shows that the classical authors derived their accounts from Iranian traditions, grounded in age-old myths and legends. This analysis serves many purposes. It refines the extent to which the classical sources may be used in historical reconstructions and sheds new light on the literary methods of authors, such as Herodotus, Ctesias, and Xenophon. Finally, the book offers insights into one of the thorniest enigmas in Iranian historiography, the apparent disappearance of Illustrious rulers like Cyrus II, Darius I, and Xerxes I from native historical traditions. Standing at the crossroads of Iranian studies and Classics, this book is an indispensable source for scholars of ancient Iran, Greek historiography, and the
Shahnameh
.
About the Author
Reza Shaghaghi Zarghamee
Dr Reza Shaghaghi Zarghamee is a Post-doctoral Fellow in Ancient History at the University of St. Andrews, where he received his PhD from the School of Classics in 2022. His area of specialisation is the history of pre-Islamic and, more specifically, Achaemenid Iran. He is the author of
Discovering Cyrus: The Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World
(Mage: 2013), a biographical account of Cyrus the Great, and various shorter publications on ancient Iranian history and myth, as well as Greek accounts of ancient Persia. In addition to his work as a historian, Mr Zarghamee is a practising attorney.
Editorial Reviews
“This book by Reza Zarghamee,
Myth and History in Ancient Persia
, is yet another radiant entry in
Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia
. What is particularly admirable about the book is its almost uncanny precision and clarity in dealing with the complex diversity of primary sources centering on the self-presentation of the imperial civilization of ancient Medes and Persians.”
—Olga M. Davidson, Boston University
Customer Reviews
Books of related interest
Exile and the Nation: The Parsi Community of India...
Under Osman’s Tree: The Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and...
The Book of Monasteries
Artificially Intelligent: The Very Human Story of ...
Reading across Borders: Afghans, Iranians, and Lit...
The Discourses: Reflections on History, Sufism, Th...
Lineages of the Global City: Occult Modernism and ...
Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of World Histor...
Shelter for the Night: On Afghanistan, Language, a...
The Divine Names: A Mystical Theology of the Names...
The Breakup of India and Palestine: The Causes and...
From Ravidas and Nanak to Waris Shah: Texts, Langu...
Emotion, Mission, Architecture: Building Hospitals...
The Essence of Reality: A Defense of Philosophical...
Under Osman’s Tree: The Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and...
Negotiating Historical Change Hindu Style
The Center of the World: A Global History of the P...
Religion, Orientalism and Modernity: Mahdi Movemen...
The Rules of Logic
Kings and Dervishes: Sufi World Renunciation and t...
The House of the Satrap: The Making of the Ancient...
Parting Gifts of Empire: Palestine and India at th...
Turning Wind into Power Effects of Stakeholder Net...
The Role of the Petrine Ministry in the Ecumenical...
Clearing a Space: Reflections on India, Literature...
The Philosopher Responds: An Intellectual Corresp...
Civilisation, Education and School in Ancient and ...
Towards a Relevant Christology in India Today: An ...
Old Stacks, New Leaves: The Arts of the Book in So...
Against Heritage: The Reinvention of Traditional F...
A Two-Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian Poet...
The Rise of a Multipolar World: Papers presented a...
Determinants, Consequences and Perspectives of Lan...
Medieval Worlds: Origins, Nature, Debates, and Exc...
The Retrospective Raj: Medicine, Literature and Hi...
Release from Life – Release in Life: Indian Perspe...
The Supreme Refuge, Volume 2: History, Myths, Wors...
The Ethics of Oneness: Emerson, Whitman, and the B...
Ancient India: Insights into Social & Economic...
"The Ethos of Britain": Delderfieldʼs Sw...
Religion, Society and Economics: Eastern and Weste...
Self-Transcendence and Prosociality
Globalisation and the Changing Face of Port Infras...
Bedouin Poets of the Nafūd Desert
Confronting Fear in Faith: A Psycho-Pastoral Appro...
Sacred Matters, Stately Concerns: Faith and Politi...
The Indian Renouncer and Postmodern Poison: A Cros...
Literarische Selbstverortung als historische Handl...
Origin and Growth of Satī in Early Medieval India:...
Everyday Islamic Law and the Making of Modern Sout...
Un-Disciplining Literature: Literature, Law, and C...
Meditation, Vol. I: History And Present Time
Fictionalising Trauma: The Aesthetics of Marguerit...
Killing in the Name of the State: State-Sponsored ...
South Asian Technospaces
Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal: François Bern...
Lived Religion, Representation, and Sikh Identity
Die Rani von Jhansi – Rebellin wider Willen: Biogr...
Colonial Indology: Sociopolitics of the Ancient In...
The Literary Thing: History, Poetry and the Making...
The Road to Empire: The Political Education of Kha...
Cartografia religiosa- Religiose Kartographie- Car...
Renunciation and the Making of Social Worlds
The Purāṇic Condition: Textual Identity, Transform...
Pakistan and the New Nuclear Taboo: Regional Deter...
The Lion's Roar: Actualizing Buddhism in Daily...
Earthquake Disaster Management: Focussing on the E...
Visions of Empire and Other Imaginings: Cinema, Ir...
Democracy’s Second Act: Why Politics Needs the Pub...
Anti-Christian Violence in India
Media, Knowledge, and Contemporary India
Research as Praxis: Democratizing Education Episte...
Outsiders and Insiders: Perspectives of Third Worl...
Sinister Yogis
Between Life and Death: Governing Populations in t...
Motilal Tejawat: Life and Work
Indian Poetics (Kavya Śastra) and Narratology Towa...
Parasites, Worms, and the Human Body in Religion a...
Economic Dimensions of Buddhism in Early India: Fr...
Ireland: Looking East
Insecurities of Expulsion: Afro-Asian Entanglement...
The Divine Body in History: A comparative study of...
Muslim Cultures of the Indian Ocean: Diversity and...
Locating Hybridity: Creole, Identities and Body Po...
Female Militants in South Asia: Fighters and Facil...
A Story of Ambivalent Modernization in Bangladesh ...
The Spirit Lives: A Personal Journey from Loss to ...
Across the Color Line: Indians, Blacks, and Landsc...
Global South Rising?: BRICS and the Reconfiguratio...
India in the World since 1947: National and Transn...
Martin Luther on Social and Political Issues: - Hi...
The Failure of Islamic Modernism?: Syed Ameer Ali&...
Sojourners, Sultans, and Slaves: America and the I...
The Rule of Four: Four Essays on the Principle of ...
Rule-extension Strategies in Ancient India: Ritual...
A Post-Liberal Peace: How Emergent Powers Are Resh...
Turning Points in the Philosophy of Language and L...
Images of India in British Fiction: Anglo-India vs...
J.S. Mill’s Encounter with India
After Belsen: Christian Encounters with Holocaust ...
Sacred Sovereignty: Kingship, Heritage, and Politi...
Iran to India: The Shansabānīs of Afghanistan, c. ...
Federalism and Second Chambers: Regional Represent...
The Audacious Raconteur: Sovereignty and Storytell...
South Asian Technospaces - Hardcover
Indian Agents: Rulers of the Reserves
The Discovery of Insulin: Special Centenary Editio...
The Requirements of the Sufi Path: A Defense of th...
Bishop Stephen Neill: From Edinburgh to South Indi...
Education and Training in a Globalized World Socie...
God’s Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, an...
The Global Vision: Karl Jaspers
Word, Chant, and Song: Spiritual Transformation in...
The Guardian of the Hills: Devata Culture and Livi...
Education, Labour & Science: Perspectives for ...
Religious Journeys in India: Pilgrims, Tourists, a...
Women, Wealth and the State in Early Colonial Indi...
Sufism and Power in the Ottoman Empire: The Writin...
The Yoga of Nonseparation: Addressing Yoga’s Deepe...
An Environmental History of Postcolonial North Ind...
Pilgrims and Travellers in Search of the Holy
Remembering Empire: Power, Memory, & Place in ...
Songs of Home & Loss: Reconstructions of a Tam...
Youth Violence and Pastoral Care: Pastoral Respons...
Decolonization and the Struggle for National Liber...
Panini's Grammatical Architecture: Economy, Ru...
City of Lyrics: Ordinary Poets and Islamicate Popu...
Asians ahead after the first round?: Indo-British ...
The Concept of Man in the Advaita Vedanta of Sanka...
A Physician on the Nile: A Description of Egypt an...
Clearing a Space: Reflections on India, Literature...
US Hegemony Global Ambitions and Decline- Emergenc...
Literary Orientalism, Postcolonialism, and Univers...
Islamic Law on Trial: Contesting Colonial Power in...
The Japanese Image of India: From the Heavenly Wor...
The Physics of Capitalism: How a New Political Eco...
Against Heritage: The Reinvention of Traditional F...
Studies in Logic: A Dialogue between the East and ...
Independent Kashmir: An Incomplete Aspiration
Machiavelli on War
L’idee separatiste dans la presse anglo-musulmane ...
The Greater Second World War: Global Perspectives
The Socialist Opposition in Nehruvian India 1947–1...
The Supreme Refuge, Volume 2: History, Myths, Wors...
The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali
Behind Kṛṣṇa’s Smile: The Lord’s Hint of Laughter ...
God’s Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, an...
The Rise of the Modern West: Europe, 1600-1799
Comparative Constitutional Traditions
Ethnic Identity and Christianity: A Socio-Historic...
D. T. Suzuki on the Unconscious in Zen Art, Medita...
Wonder in South Asia: Histories, Aesthetics, Ethic...
Fictions of 1947: Representations of Indian Decolo...
Haram in the Harem: Domestic Narratives in India a...
Contemporary Global Governance: Multipolarity vs N...
Ethnicity and Tribal Theology: Problems and Prospe...
The Political Economy of Education in South Asia: ...
Strategic Dynamics and Nuclear Weapons Proliferati...
In Deadly Embrace: Arabic Hunting Poems
Serendipitous Translations: A Sourcebook on Sri La...
Warriors after War: Indian and Pakistani Retired M...
The Rise of the Modern West: Europe, 1400-1599
The Politics of Muslim Identities in Asia
Respectability on the Line: Gender, Race, and Labo...
The Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Str...
Research as Praxis: Democratizing Education Episte...
Life at a Distance: Medicine and Nationalism in In...
The Other Jesus: Christology in Asian Perspective
License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passp...
Brotherhood of the Cross and Star: A New Religious...
Taking Territory: The Persistence of Conquest Sinc...
Yoga and Phenomenology on Consciousness
A Two-Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian Poet...
Nationhood and Identity in Indian Adaptations of S...
ADD REVIEW
Review Title
Review
Reviewer Name
Email