New Interdisciplinary Book Analyzes the Global Influence of Persian Culture

With the rise of the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE), Persian institutions of kingship became the model for legitimacy, authority, and prestige across three continents.

Despite enormous upheavals, Iranian visual and political cultures connected an ever-wider swath of Afro-Eurasia over the next two millennia, exerting influence at key historical junctures. Exploring topics as diverse as architecture, fashion, banqueting, royal and sacred cosmologies, and global trade, this book provides the first critical exploration of the role Persian cultures played in articulating how power was expressed across Afro-Eurasia between the sixth century BCE and the 19th century CE. Unique among studies of Persia and Iran, it examines the continuity, turbulence, and transformation of Perso-Iranian aristocratic cultures that connected the world from antiquity to modernity.