Last of the Sassanids

[kataphraktoi]

http://www.iranian.com/History/2000/August/China/index.html

[Azi Tohak]

Am I immature for giggling when I saw the authors name?

Does this smack of arrogance, pride, racism?


Well, this much I can say. I just wanted to give a description of what happened in the past. Back then, China and Persia were the dominant civilizations on earth. Children should know about this and be proud

Does this guy even know of Rome, or its off-shoot?

Anyway, thanks for the link, that was interesting. I would like to know more about the battle of the Talas. "Moslems spanking Chinese" doesn't quite cut it for info.

Azi

[Don Corleone]

Oh come on Azi, all that shows is that provincialism shows up everywhere. Hell, we don't even learn about the 400 years of European history between the sack of Rome and the founding of the Holy Roman Empire, mainly because the dominant religion in Europe at the time was Arian Christian (3 Gods) versus Roman Christianity (the Trinity). How much do we learn about Persia or Ancient China, or India or the Kingdoms of Siam, Indonesia or Mali for that matter?

Your own cultural identity strongly tinges the view way you view history and which portions of it you give attention to.

[Steppe Merc]

I thought it was interesting, mainly because of my interest in the Sassanians. And the Sassanians were a huge cultural and commerce center. They were just as important as Rome in their own area of influence. But they left less of a mark today, because of the Arab invasions, which while they adapted some military and cultural aspects, destroyed a lot of the history of the Sassanians.

[nokhor]

i find the sassanids to be the most fascinating of the persian empires. and the battle of talas is seen as establishing the limit of the eastward expansion of islam by force [arabs vs chinese], much in the same way as the battle of tours in the west [arabs vs franks].

[Kraxis]

Don while what you say is true, when you get to the point that you can argue about the 'greatest' cultures then you are also required to know something about others. And in this case it is painfully obvious since the Sassanids were at war with Rome and Byzantium quite a few times, each suffering defeats that would have shattered lesser states. The simple fact that neither side gained an obvious advantage would indicate that they were at least equals.

[Watchman]

Actually it mostly suggests they warred over a sufficiently steep ecological divide to make permanent progress in either direction virtually impossible. Sort of like the northern border of both.