The Persian Empire

The Persian Empire

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Product Description

Beginning in the sixth century BCE, Persian kings ruled a vast, culturally diverse empire that stretched from northern Libya to central Asia. The regime and its rich multicultural traditions prospered for 250 years until its invasion, and eventual defeat, by Alexander the Great's army in 331 BCE. Yet until the British Museum's exhibition in the summer of 2005, the Persian perspective of this landmark event in world history will have been largely neglected. In one of the few accounts available, The Persian Empire provides a comprehensive and accessible portrayal of one of the world's first land-based dynastic kingdom.

In her cultural and political history of the development of this power, Lindsay Allen-whose posts in the Ancient Near East departments of the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art make her one of the leading authorities on Persia-surveys written sources, art objects, warfare, politics, archaeological sites, and daily life during Persian rule. She traces the evolution of the monarchy, showing how it fostered unprecedented international communication and cultural exchange, and describes how the Persian expedition into Greece in the early fifth century BCE became a defining moment that established a European identity apart from an Asian one. Throughout, lavish illustrations bring to life the traditions of this ancient Middle Eastern civilization and finally place Alexander's invasion within a Persian context. As the subject experiences renewed interest, The Persian Empire promises to be the definitive work on one of the most powerful dynasties in ancient history.

Product Details

Publisher	University Of Chicago Press
ISBN	0226014479
Format	Hardcover
Author	Lindsay Allen
EAN	9780226014470
Label	University Of Chicago Press
Dewey Decimal Number	935.05
Studio	University Of Chicago Press
Number Of Pages	224
Title	The Persian Empire
Publication Date	2005-12-20
Manufacturer	University Of Chicago Press

Customer Reviews

"Textbook-ish"

Review by Michael Gunther, 2007-08-10

Lindsay Allen's book offers an illustrated overview of the Persian Empire, in connection with a recent British Museum exhibit. While university-level students and professionals are sure to get a lot out of it, I'm not sure that it would be a first choice for the general reader. The author's writing style is rather academic, and she is very cautious in drawing conclusions from the available evidence. She would like to treat the numerous Greek accounts skeptically, and rely more on a Persian-centric view of events, but the ancient records are unavoidably skewed towards the Greek point of view, which kind of frustrates her program. This is all quite appropriate in a scholarly book, but seems less likely to inspire a wider audience.

There did not seem to be any explicit linkages from the book to the museum exhibit; no doubt many of the objects illustrated in the book were also exhibited, but there would be no way of knowing this just from reading the book.

Readers may also want to know that the book's focus is on the political history of the Achaemenid Dynasty, from Cyrus to Alexander. There are some references to Achaemenid art and religion, but culture is not a primary emphasis of the book. As one who is very interested in ancient Egypt, though, I did appreciate the book's inclusion of several examples that illustrate the incorporation of Egyptian themes into the art of the Persian empire following on Cambyses' conquest of Egypt in 526 BC. [erratum: on p.35, the Apis bull dedication to Cambyses is 524 BC, not 324 BC as in the text].

In summary, and despite the book's marketing, I think it will mostly appeal to students and specialists in the history of the Ancient Near East (four stars), rather than to general readers (three stars).

readable, visually pleasing, well-organized companion volume to a TV series on the Persian Empire

Review by Henry Berry, 2006-12-01

For most Westerners, the Persian Empire was an Asiatic historical area conquered by the Macedonian Alexander the Great. But in this companion to a British Museum exhibition based on unprecedented loans from the National Museum of Iran and other major museum sources of Persian antiquities, Allen presents the Persian Empire in its own right, as the Roman Empire or the British Empire are in the history books. Besides working at the British Museum, the author has also worked at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The many objects of the exhibition that are pictured are supplemented by photographs of the remains of monuments and buildings, landscape photographs, maps, and works of art to evince the high level of political and artistic accomplishments. Allen presents the Empire by a history defined mostly by the succession of rulers until the conquest combined with a cultural appreciation of the art work, architecture, religious ideas, political order, and pattern of growth and decay.

Iran

Review by Peyman ADLDOUSTI, 2006-03-10

This is a well researched book, the reserach is focused on archaeology, which is used on academic field. The main intention of this book is bring to light Achaemenid, "Hakha maneshe an" dynasty. Saddly, this dynasty is ended by Alexandar invasion of Iran.

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