Salmiya

I have reported on my five visits of Esfahan in Central Iran many times. The city is famous for being one of the most beautiful in the world. Its final grandeur arose in the early 17th century when the Safavid Shahs’ architecture culminated in magnificence which has not been seen before. It is not so well-known that Esfahan was colonized already during the Achaemenid reign by Jews. When Cyrus the Great freed them from Babylonian captivity in 539 BCE, some of the exiled went to the Northeast until they settled at the Zayandeh-Rud, where they founded Yahudiyah, now Jubareh, the Jewish Quarter. I have posted previously some astonishing discoveries I had made when strolling along the tree-lined alley in the old city of Esfahan last November. The more than 2000 years old Jewish cemetery in Pir Bakran and its still active synagogue are other amazing examples of the important contribution Jews played in Iranian history. After the fall of the Achaemenian Empire upon Alexander’s conquest, th...

In previous postings I have outlined that the real origin of the three current monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (another one is Manichaeism of antiquity, which has vanished), most probably lies in Zoroastrian Persia of the 6th and 5th century BCE. Eurocentric humanists have always looked at the Greek achievements during that time with great admiration. It was a time of tremendous development of Science, Philosophy, and Art. In the East, Siddharta Gautama Buddha (ca. 563-483 BCE) abandoned his earthly body and entered Parinirvana, and Confucius taught his philosophy in China. However, it was the dynasty of the Achaemenids who, during these years, erected their true World Empire. While seated mainly in the province of Fars in southern Iran, they tried to secure the periphery of the then known world by relative tolerance in religious matters and several military campaigns towards Egypt, Greece, the Scythians, and India. Their main capital was Pārsa, and the Helle...