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Empire

96. Series 5: Empires of Iran

Empire

Jack Davenport

History

4.64.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2023

⏱️ 6 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Persia was the first great superpower. The empire built by Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and the rest of the Achaemenids stretched from India in the east to the Mediterranean in the west, from Russia in the north to the Gulf of Oman in the south. It laid the foundation for empires of the future. It was destroyed by Alexander the Great, but Iran has risen many times since. In this series we'll look at the ancient Persian empire, but also their successors; the Sassanians, who fought against Rome, in a vast war that eventually led to the Rise of Islam; then the Saffavids, during whose rule Shi'ism took root in Iran; and we'll end with the Iranian Revolution and the way it laid the foundations for political islam and much of the politics that drives the Middle-east today. First episode out Tuesday. For bonus episodes, ad-free listening, reading lists, book discounts, a weekly newsletter, and a chat community. Sign up at https://empirepod.supportingcast.fm/ Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [email protected] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Jack Davenport + Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of empire, a chat community,

0:06.7

discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly

0:11.5

newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at

0:14.4

W.

0:15.1

W. Empire pod UK.com. Hello and welcome big claxen sound because we are announcing our new series on

0:35.8

Empire is well this is letting a Persian cat out of the bag and it is indeed a series which I am absolutely thrilled about

0:47.1

on Empice of Iran from the rise of Cyrus to the fall of the Shahs we are going to be looking right across the span of Persian history from the first great superpower empires through this mighty tussle between Persia and Rome, the rise

1:10.0

of Islam and the way that Persia disappears for a while only to come back massively with the

1:17.0

Abbasids, Persian culture, re-born, the whole story of how Iran becomes Shia and that sets its course against much of the

1:26.8

rest of the Islamic world. There's something quite different to the Ottomans or the

1:29.7

Moogles and then we do the fascinating story of modern Iran, how the CIA helped bring down

1:37.0

Iran's only democratic government, and finally this extraordinary story of the revolution, how the Shah fell from power and

1:47.7

the mullahs under this grim-faced Aetolocha-Chomani rose in his place.

1:54.0

Yeah, I know, I mean, so, you know, when we say the empire of Iran or the empire of Persia,

2:00.0

whichever way you want to put it, and we'll discuss both those terms as well why they are sometimes

2:05.9

loaded but very interchangeable.

2:08.9

But you know when we say that this is, when we go back toity and we say this is history's first

2:13.8

superpower. Let me tell you the Iranian Empire was the largest of all ancient

2:19.4

world empires. I mean just let that sink in and then reflect on how little we know about that.

2:25.6

70% of Eurasia was under the Iranian Empire.

2:30.6

And what we're going to try and do, as we always do on empire, is just try and draw threads

2:36.4

from ancient history to modern thinking as well. Because of course, as you don't need me to tell you,

...

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