We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 March 2021
This first chapter envelopes the topic of Iran with a global history. It is framed by Richard Strauss's symphonic poem Thus Spoke Zoroaster in order to demonstrate the book's central argument that the meaning of Iran escapes cloistered notions of 'identity' and/or ideology. The chapter shows that the area that is today’s Iran has been at the heart of civilisational and religious history since the beginning of time, alongue durée that does not make the task of understanding Iran any easier. Iran has produced and is a product of the world; few topics have zigzagged throughout global history with such a pronounced trajectory. Therefore, to understand Iran always also means to understand the past and present of global history. With close reference to philosophical concepts taken from the Avicennian tradition, this chapter sets the scene for the rest of the book, which attempts to place Iran out of our commonly known definitions of the country, its history, politics and international relations.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
