History UncensoredIf you want to understand world history, regional, Middle Eastern politics, and our world’s broader contest between democracy and autocracy, you have to understand Iran. It is one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations and the first ancient superpower, the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus, a state that has been repeatedly conquered by Greeks, Arabs, Mongols, yet its strong national identity rooted in Persian history has never been erased. Bianca Nobilo talks us through the history of the country that the whole world now has its eyes on, to help us understand what led the events we see unfolding today.
00:00 Introduction
01:45 Prehistory
04:28 Elam: Iran enters history
11:15 Darius and the architecture of empire – 522 BC
13:53 Alexander
15:18 The Sasinians: The second Persian Empire – 224 AD
17:22 The Arab Conquest
19:13 The Persian Revival: 9th to 11th Centuries
20:20 The age of Turks, Mongol – 11th to 15th centuries
23:41 The Savafids and the Shi’a Turn – 1501 to 1736
25:51 The Qatars and The Great Game – 1766 – 1925
27:13 The Pavlavis: 1925 – 1979
30:33 The 1979 Revolution – monarchy to theocracy
32:46 Iran since 1988 Note from Bianca: You can look more closely and read the inscription on the Cyrus cylinder here:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collect…
