Persia

The Persian Empire was a series of imperial dynasties centred in Persia (Iran). The first of these was established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BCE. In this section you will find podcasts articles and guides to help develop your knowledge of this ancient civilisation.

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  • Trade and pilgrimage in the Abbasid Caliphate

    Article

    The Abbasid Caliphate stretched from North Africa across to Afghanistan and the North West Frontier. Within the caliphate there were movements of people, goods and ideas. The golden period of this early Islamic caliphate was around 900 AD. As the caliphs were building a major trading empire across the Middle...

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  • HA Podcasted History: Ancient Persia

    Multipage Article

    In this series of podcasts Professor Thomas Harrison of the University of Liverpool examines the Persian Empire, life in ancient Persian society and the Greek-Persian War.

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  • Polychronicon 149: Interpreting the Persian Wars

    Article

    Truth-loving Persians do not dwell upon The trivial skirmish fought near Marathon. So begins Robert Graves' poem, The Persian Version. The conceit of the poem is to invert the standard narrative of the Persian war of the early fifth century BC - a narrative drawn from Greek sources such as...

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