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• Monday, January 12, 2009 12:32 PM

  @Majorajam

  I was making the point that Persia has been an adversary, and a military threat, real or mythological, since probably Jason and the Argonauts. I was also making the point that they are the root culture for a lot of Western, Central, and South Asia, so they are not seen through the current looking glass of the Israel-centric Middle East by a very large number of people, with whom they share culture, language, and history. So yes, I was making a larger point.

  The Greeks demonized them (see Thermopylae) the Romans were far worse, Persian influence on Christianity was the subject of some of the crusades, including the one fought in France against the Cathars, and an earlier one against the Bogomils. The term Manichaean, e.g., as heru-ur will probably obligingly point out, is a misnomer for what it means, given the real religion of Mani. Cyrus the Great as an example is not a good reflector of mood of anyone towards the Persians, he was exceptional (The Jews called him a messiah, for instance). Try Darius for a better image. Much less tolerant and more threatening. Or try the attitudes towards the Magi. I made a side point about Muslims and people of Asia Minor in that people go on and on about the anti-semitic tendencies of the Western and Mediterranean Europeans (not without reason) while eating their hot buttered croissants.

  I wasn't sure what to make of your comment at all, and still am not. I thought you were implying that the Moguls resented the Persians, which I found to be a strange thing to say. If, though, you were saying that the Moguls brought Persian influence to South Asia, Persian influence on Hindustan wasn't begun with the Moguls by any stretch of the imagination.

  So now I'm wondering what you were saying?

  —ondelette Read ondelette's other letters
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