When two tribes go to war...

Tehran University students, 1971.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/xmjn15/
tehran_university_students_iran_1971/

Persia's love affair with the Jews dates back to 593 BCE, when Nebuchadnezzar plundered Jerusalem and took the Jews as slaves to Baghdad. He attacked Jerusalem again ten years later, destroying the First Temple and completing their captivity. After spending seventy years in exile in Baghdad, Cyrus liberated them, allowing their return to their homeland. In gratitude for helping the Babylonians, Cyrus enabled the construction of their Second Temple.

Throughout the generations, as Persia was overrun by various empires, including the Abbasid Islamic Dynasty, the Jews remained part of the Persian diaspora during the glorious days of Islam. The Islamic invasion did cause some Jews and Parsees to flee their homeland to various places, including India. Nevertheless, the Persian-Jewish relationship persisted into modern times. The Islamic Empire would claim that the Jews were very content living under the Empire. However, in reality, it is anybody's guess if the present-day opinion of Muslims about Jews is anything to go by.

Iran opposed the Palestine Mandate that aimed to establish the Jewish state of Israel in 1948. Many Persian Jews migrated to the newly formed country of Israel. Interactions between Iran and Israel remained cordial, though they were mainly transactional. Iran was among the first countries in the world to recognise Israel as a sovereign nation. Israel secured oil and finances from Iran, as maintaining a friendly relationship with Iran made considerable sense. It is important to note that the Israelis' neighbours, all of whom were Arabs, were quite hostile. The Persians have always held a sense of superiority, believing themselves to be one step above the Arabs. Therefore, maintaining a good relationship with a major non-Arab, non-Sunni country was crucial.

In the early 1950s, Iranian Islamists criticised Iran's diplomatic relations with Israel and actively collected donations for the Palestinians. They were unhappy with the Shah's close connections to Israel. The Iranian defence system used Israeli arms and was involved in their wars with Iraq. Both countries were also deeply engaged in developing each other's nuclear facilities. All of this changed after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. 

Suddenly, Israel became a 'cancerous tumour' as mentioned by Ayatollah Ali Khameini in 2000 and should be wiped off the surface of the Earth, according to President Ahmadinejad in 2005. Iranian hostility towards Israel grew over the years, mainly via proxies, in Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthis. The climax of all these must surely be Hamas's kidnapping of Israelis at a music festival on October 7, 2023. Finally, a full-scale war between Iran and Israel broke out on June 13, 2025, when Israel conducted strikes against Iranian nuclear and military targets. The world is once again at risk of a nuclear meltdown.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

"Tonight we dine in Hell!"?

300 (2007)
Director, Screenplay: Zack Snyder
(Based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller)

I was drawn to this movie after listening to Empire Podcast, hosted by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. It is a riveting podcast that takes its nerdy listeners on a long journey through history. What started with the East India Company and the British Empire in India, they have covered the Ottoman Empire, the history of slavery, the Russian Empire, and now they are discussing the Persian Empire. They were discussing the Battle of Marathon and The Battle at Thermopylae, and the film '300' emerged.

King Darius I's Army was defeated at Marathon in 490 BCE. Then, the messenger ran 26 miles to bring the news to Athenians. He died doing that, but that was the birth of the marathon run.

In 480 BCE, King Xerxes I sent an entourage to the Spartan King Leonidas demanding 'earth and water' as a token of submission to the Persian King. Of course, Leonidas, in his most Spartan way, retaliates. He pushes the messengers into a bottomless pit and takes the challenge to war. Leonidas battles the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae.

Historians may disagree with what is depicted in the film as history. At the outset, the director has cleared the air that it is just a retelling of what was presented in Miller's graphic novel. It is a documentary or suggested viewing for history students.

King Xerxes

A true blue Spartan warrior would not be parading in spandex and capes but with full regalia of full body armour. I just realised that the Persians were the first to introduce trousers. They thought they were cultured as it prevented their inner thigh from chaffing as they spent long hours on horseback. For the record, the Tartars placed raw meat as saddles on their horses. By the end of the day, after a long ride, the meat is tender enough to be eaten raw. Of course, it is an urban legend made by people who have not seen a Tartar in their life. 

Besides the attire, the weapons choices were also different between the factions. The Persians used a lot of bows and arrows with long swords and rode on horseback, whilst Greeks liked to see their foes in their eyes and stab them with their short blades.

When the movie was released, the Iranians stated their objection to the depiction of their ancestors as hedonistic, grandiose, slave-owning tyrants. In their defence, King Xerxes was depicted as effeminate and promiscuous. History also tells us that Cyrus the Great freed Jewish slaves in his time. And the Spartans were high on slave ownership. The leaders asserted that the movie was just part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological war aimed at denigrating Iranian culture.

Another thing about Persian history is that what the present world knows about Persia is biased as they were written by Herodotus, who was at the receiving end of the assault. Figures could have hiked up, and the invaders could be painted as more evil than they really were. On top of that, Herodotus is said to have had many variable accounts of what transpired during the clash. Plutarch had refuted many of his writings. 

The Greco-Persian Wars have been labelled as the clash between the East and West, the good versus evil battle. In reality, nobody is good or bad. It is just geopolitics. Both sides had their superiority and defects. The Persian Empire was the earliest and most prominent Empire. The Spartans who led the land offensive at Thermopylae were stellar combatants. Hitler was so impressed by the Spartan fighting spirit that he built his military school based on the Spartan model. That must have helped the Nazis in their blitzkrieg as they marched through Poland and Belgium. Methamphetamine also must have contributed too. The war was led by Sparta, but other states would contribute manpower, too. 

This battle had a sea warfare component, too, led by Athenians. Their heavy ships caused much damage to the Persian fleet during the Battle of Salamis that followed afterwards. Intertwined in the saga are stories of betrayal by a Greek and the convoluted prophesy of the Oracle. Ephialtes, a Spartan rejected from the Army, decided to sell information on easy passageways to the Persians in exchange for a Persian uniform, wealth and pleasures of the flesh. The Oracles are apparently bribed by Greek turncoats. A kingdom will fall, they say, but which one?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Of what is expected...

Forushande (The Salesman, 2016, Persian)
Director: Asghar Farhadi

A wise man once said that we should not pass judgement when we are angry. Instead, we should suspend sentencing until we have cooled down. At the heights of emotions, our faculties are blurred, our vision is clouded, reasoning is obscured by raging hormones. Sometimes, there is pressure from without to act or set an example out of a scapegoat! And there would be a group who would insist that God's justice must be done on Earth, so as not to incur His wrath.

It is funny how the bar always changes when the affected party is our own flesh and bone. And how we ask for leniency when the offending is our kin!

Perhaps if we could be in the shoes of the other, we would realise how, sometimes, things are just not so black or white. This is exactly what advocates against capital punishments are trying to say.

In keeping with the Iranian tradition of making simple movies with profound meanings, 'The Salesman' moves slowly without much fanfare or melodrama. Emad, a secondary school teacher, and his young wife, Rana, have to move house as their apartment falls apart when a digger starts digging nearby. They move to another apartment recommended by a friend. After school, Emad and his wife act in a stage drama, Arthur Miller's classic 'The Death of a Salesman'.

One day, Rana leaves the door open thinking that it is her husband, only to be molested by an unknown person. This incident really shakes the previously harmonious matrimony. Emad cannot understand why his wife is so badly affected by the incidence. He cannot inform the police as his wife cannot fathom the idea of reliving the whole event again. Emad is also concerned what his neighbours would think of him as an incapable male of the household. He is also crossed with his friend for introducing the new apartment which was formerly occupied by a prostitute.

The perpetrator, in his hurry, had left his car keys behind. Through that and help from his student's father's help, he managed to track him down. It turns out that the molester is actually a middle-aged man, at his weakest moment, went in search of the sex worker who used to stay there thinking that she was still residing there. Panicked with the wrong identity, he scooted only causing Rana to panic and injure herself.

The dilemma that Emad has to endure is distinctly palpable, to decide between revenge, compassion and the need to mete justice as expected by social circumstance.

Just like play 'The Death of a Salesman' where the main character works till he drops dead believing in what he thinks is the right thing to do, the traditional values which our ancestors held close to their hearts may just need to be reassessed.

Nothing in this world can be so cocksure. Even when something looks so clear cut, there could still be a place for an element of doubt. We judge by our senses but how many times our senses have fooled us?

They just don't understand!

Khane-ye doust kodjast (Persian, خانه دوست کجاست, Where Is the Friend's Home?; 1987) \
Directed and written by Abbas Kiarostami

This film is the first of Kiarostami's Koker trilogy. Just like its successors, it brings to the fore the day to day living, beliefs and trappings of a typical Iranian in its poor countrysides. This time, it looks at it from the eyes of a young school boy, Ahmadpoor.

He has a big burden on his shoulders. He had brought home his friend Reza's writing book by mistake. And he is worried for his friend. His teacher had specifically told Reza that he would be expelled from school if he persistently neglects to finish his school homework. So, as a loyal friend, Ahmad feels duty-bound to pass the book to him.

The trouble is that Ahmad's overworked mother keeps asking him to mind his baby kid and do chores around the house. His pleas to his busy mother are drowned in the wailing of the crying child. So, when his mother asks him to buy bread, he makes a dash to his friend's house. Herein lies another problem. Reza lives in another area. Nobody seems to know the whereabout, like as if the adults would know about the whereabout of the kids! It is worse when he does not know his surname and his address.

After much running around meeting different characters, Ahmad returns home disappointed. So as a good friend, he does his friend's homework and passes it to him at school. And saves the day!

It is the same story over the years; the adults think that the kids are having such a cushy time and that they (the adults) had it bad, and the kids think that adults just do not understand their urgency! The adults would say, "small things excite small mind". On the children's end, those little things are the very ones that shape their world. This, my friend, is called generational gap.

History distorted with artistic licence?

The Physician (2013)


The mention of names like Bukhara, Isfahan, Rey and Samarkand may not mean much to an average Joe in the 21st century except for its turmoil and uncertainty. Less a millennium ago, however, these places were beaming with a hive of intellectual activities while the rest of its neighbours were frozen in the dark ages. These places had some of the greatest minds which engaged in the fields of sciences, medicine, philosophy, astronomy, theology, geography and much more. The zest to understand the secrets of the universe was so deeply entrenched. Even though many scholars from this region left their mark in the history of mankind, Avicenna @ Ibn Sina remains the leading figures who is said to have mastered all the knowledge that need to be known. He allegedly had memorised the Quran by the age of 10 and had been certified a physician by 16! His father had a tough time trying to find a suitable tutor because he soon out learned his masters before long.

Being a devout Muslim, he used to visit the mosque for his daily evening prayers. Complementing his daytime job of a healer in his hospital, he would write his treatises late into the night with the accompaniment of wine for inspiration. This and his undying desire to learn and question the known and unknown earned him the accusation of being a non-believer and a polytheist.

This 2013 film depicts a fictitious character, an orphan from England, Rob Cole, who travels all the way to Isfahan to learn from the master of Medicine at that time, Avicenna. Rob, who lost his mother to a disease called ‘side sickness,’ - appendicitis joined a travelling medicine man to learn his trade. Yearning to learn more, he travels to the East, masquerading as a Jew to avoid persecution. He was brought up a Christian. Travelling through the deserts, he falls for a girl who was going to be married off to a holy man.

He managed to get himself enroled in Avicenna’s academy. He even manages to teach the great master a thing or two about anatomy. Dissection and autopsy on the death are considered sacrilegious and the doctors in Isfahan were treating without the knowledge of anatomy. This, of course, is bending of the truth by the storytellers. We all know that Avicenna’s anatomy books were used later in Parisian universities.

The makers of this movie have managed to garner the wrath of Persians for distorting historical facts. In the film, this Rob fellow teaches Avicenna how to perform an appendectomy when the ruler (wrongly referred to as the Shah when the leader during Avicenna’s time was Emir). The Seljuks depicted here were actually from a different time frame. At the end of the show, it appears as if Avicenna decided to stay back in his burning library with his book to probably end his life but history tells a different story.

Despite these few shortcomings that geeks and sticklers to history are aware of, it manages to recreate and pass the message that the human civilisation had not changed much over the centuries. There will always be a group of people who would put aside their differences, like the Jews and the liberal Muslims, to explore and expand knowledge for the betterment of the human race. On the other hand, there would always be people who act as spoilsport to undermine whatever seeming beneficial endeavours that the others engaged. Like the Seljuks and even the Mamluks, they came, they saw, they destroyed institutions of knowledge, burned libraries etcetera.

Some conquerors, however, redeveloped their conquered lands afterwards. The Samarkand observatory which was destroyed by Tamerlane was, in turn, was taken by his grandson, Ulugh Beg, to dizzying heights. Ulugh is said to have made complicated astronomical calculations way before Copernicus and more accurate too. The Moguls in India are said to have burnt the largest library in the world, in Bihar, which allegedly raged for one whole month. When the flame settled, they instead reignited and embarked on a journey of academic, philosophical, theological, literary, artistic and cultural rediscovery.

The play maker's autobiography

The Sea and the Hills 

The Life of Hussain Najadi (An Autobiography; 2012)

He survived the feared Bahraini intelligence who worked under the hawkish eyes of their British colonial masters as he stirred his leftist ideas after the Algiers uprising through his rebel movement at the age of 16. The Bedouin travellers took a special liking to his as he escaped to Beirut through the mirage inducing hostile environment of the Arabic desert and its scorching heat. Somehow he even escaped the infamous Iranian SAVAK police. The storm aboard the vessel along the Mediterranean Seas did not dampen his spirits. By twist of fate he missed an ill-fated Swiss flight which crashed soon after take-off. And he averted an invitation aboard a Filipino flight which later crashed. He even survived an automobile accident on the notorious Malaysian highways. To cap it all, he even endured 8 years of imprisonment in a Bahraini prison after incurring the wrath of its royalty.

He raised the ladder of success and fell off it as quickly he climb on it again. This man's life story is a classical case of rag to riches - a son to a Persian immigrant fruit seller in the markets of Manama raising to levels where he mingled with world leaders and royalties and decided the destiny of many emerging economies and countries.

Sadly many of near misses, from which he was saved simply by 'kismet' (fate) and his mother's constant prayers, came to a tragic end in 2013, a year after this book, when he was shot in the back under mysterious circumstances in Kuala Lumpur.

Growing up in the British protectorate of Bahrain, it was a time of uprising. The colonial subjects have awoken from their slumber. They demanded self administration. Battle of Algiers set the nidus for the young to rebel. A young Hussein got himself entangled in the leftist activity. Working in a British petrol refinery, he had to abscond from his native country. Just like how his father had left Iran for better life in Bahrain with a young wife, Hussein had to run, but for his life. With plans to start life anew in Germany through a contact at his work place, he had worked out his itinerary.

A young Hussain Najadi meeting Tun Razak

He travelled through the brutal Arabian desert to reach Beirut. All through his travels, we get a feel as if there is guardian angel constantly by his side to pave his future, constantly clearing his path and meeting him with the right people.

His initial plan to travel to Germany was cut short through a chance meeting with a Persian gentleman who just happened to be walking in a park. A cursory conversation and next thing he knew, Hussain was flying to Iran. The gentleman turned out to be the Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon! Hussain was referred to the leading bank in Teheran. He started his career in banking, enjoyed the good life and started working with the Canadian embassy a researcher. His stint was cut short by SAVAK, the Iranian secret police for his earlier political work in his homeland. He dashed out before he could be apprehended. Back he came to Lebanon. Broke, he finally made it to Germany by sea.

He blended nicely into the German culture at a time as Germany was making amends and trying to make it for the lost times after the devastations of a world war. Working in Mercedes Benz factory and learning the language and with the cordial relationship with his adopted family, he felt quite at home.

The next step in his life turned to be another turning point in his career/life. He join an international company in Switzerland selling mutual funds. It was something new to the Arab world. At a time when the Middle East was plush with money from the black gold, he travelled to the Bahrain now as an employee of a multinational company. His modus operandi has always the same - when you approach someone, always see someone with a lot of clout; and remember, people always want to hear what they like to hear! He also became an international player when he revitalised an ailing Swiss company making hovercraft (hydrofoil).

With many feathers in his cap, he became a deal maker. Being charismatic and multilingual, he moved with ease in the circles of royalties and dignitaries. He even try to broker the entry of an Italian petrol giant into Middle East to break the hegemony of the Anglo-American oil cartel, The Seven Sisters.

His hydrofoil business spread to Far East and he soon relocated to Singapore. There, after selling his company for a fortune, he set a business deal in Singapore. Slowly, his services were needed in his last home country, Malaysia, where he established Arab Malaysian merchant bank and even try to get International Islamic University off the ground with funds from Middle East investors.

Going through his life story, one cannot help but to think that it is too good to be true. Everything seem to fall nicely the way he wanted to. With so many adventures, suspense, element of surprise, bosomy blondes, marriage, near misses and politics, it has all the ingredients of Hollywood blockbuster. Even after his death, his name seem to herald the death knell of a certain current politician....

I could not help but notice that by omission or commission, there seem to be a discrepancy in events surrounding his near miss mishap in the 1963 Swiss Air tragedy and Enrico Mattei's aeroplane accident. It is said that the Swiss Air incident preceded Mattei's purportedly planned assassination. In actual fact, Mattei's jet plane crashed in October 1962 whilst the Swiss accident was in September 1963!

These 10 Photos Show The World Of Difference Between Iraq's Past And Present

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/22/mosul-photos_n_5862248.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000010

This combination of two photographs shows a 1932 image of the Crooked Minaret mosque next to a Yazidi shrine in Mosul, northern Iraq, from the Library of Congress, and the same site, without the shrine, on June 8, 2009. (Library of Congress/AP)

At the beginning of June, Islamic State militants launched a lightning offensive in Iraq. Just four days into their campaign, they captured the country's second largest city, Mosul, taking over roads, banks, courts, schools and hospitals. The group issued religious decrees governing daily life according to a rigid interpretation of Islamic law. Many of the city's Shiites were persecuted or forced to flee and their iconic shrines and landmarks were destroyed.

Since its capture, Mosul has become a symbol of the hardships people face living under the Islamic Sate. The Associated Press has taken a look back at the city in a different -- more peaceful -- time. The agency collected dozens of photographs, which were housed at the Library of Congress and taken in the autumn of 1932 by staff from the American Colony Photo Department, and contrasted them with images of Mosul from today.

In the photo from 1932 above, the AP writes, "the Crooked Minaret towers over a street in central Mosul, adjacent to a Yazidi shrine. The shrine was gone long before militants overtook the city, but it reveals a time when different religious faiths could coexist here."

See the AP's photo comparisons below:

BEFORE:

Men pause on a lorry on the road to Mosul, northern Iraq, 1932. (AP Photo/American Colony Photo Department via Library of Congress)

AFTER:

In this file photo taken Monday, June 23, 2014, fighters from the Islamic State parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq. (AP Photo)

BEFORE:

A 1932 image of Lady Surrma of the Assyrian community posing for a portrait in Mosul, northern Iraq. (AP Photo/American Colony Photo Department via Library of Congress)


AFTER:

An Iraqi woman looking at a shop display in central Mosul after the Islamic State ordered clothes shop owners to cover the faces of the mannequins on Monday, July 21, 2014. (AP Photo)

BEFORE:

In this undated handout photo provided by the Library of Congress taken during the autumn of 1932, the Tigris River stretches out in the distance as seen from Mosul, northern Iraq. (AP Photo/American Colony Photo Department via Library of Congress)

AFTER:

File photo of smoke rising during airstrikes targeting Islamic State militants at the Mosul Dam on Monday, Aug. 18, 2014. (AP Photo)


BEFORE:

A 1932 image of Nebi Yunis, the tomb of the prophet Jonah, in Mosul, northern Iraq. (AP Photo/American Colony Photo Department via Library of Congress)


AFTER:

Iraqis walk in the rubble of the revered Muslim shrine after it was was destroyed on Thursday, July 24, 2014, by militants who overran the city in June and imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law. (AP Photo)


BEFORE:

In this undated handout photo provided by the Library of Congress taken during the autumn of 1932, Iraqis pause in the market in Mosul, northern Iraq. (AP Photo/American Colony Photo Department via Library of Congress)


AFTER:

Demonstrators chanting pro-Islamic State slogans as they carry the group's flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul on Monday, June 16, 2014. (AP Photo)