I need to do more reading. Your appear to be giving me history through the eyes of Europeans. For a start you keep on using the word "Indian", If your quoting original Iranian sources can you please give me the term used in Persian and if possible the accurate transliteration as of 2015.
And how west into Greece did the Achaemenids go? Into Macedonia?
What is known about the Achaemenids IS presented largely through the eyes of Europeans because the majority of written sources from that period (5th to 3rd century BC) are Greek. The surviving Old Persian records are much fewer in number and the ones that are available mainly deal with daily life in terms of trade, economics etc not political history, cultural studies etc It is from Greeks like Herodotus, Aeschylus, Xenophon, Aristotle etc that most of the written source material comes from. Although of course the Greeks were biased but not necessarily hostile. Deciphering the Achaemenids from the Persian perspective largely depends on archaeology, numismatics etc because of the lack of written material in Old Persian that is available from that time. Writing is not something that was common among the people in ancient Iran like it was in ancient Greece where many people learnt how to write and had a strong tradition of philosophy. Iranian tradition particularly Zoroastrian was more oral in that era.
It doesnt matter to me anyway whether a scholar is Western or Iranian or what their nationality is. What matters is that their works have been peer reviewed and then published by reputable publishers and journals. Western and Iranian academics, especially historians, work closely together with each other anyway and have done for decades now so there is no difference for us. Many of the works i read are written by Iranian historians such as Homa Katouzian, Parvaneh Pourshariati, Kaveh Farrokh, Touraj Darayee, Abbas Milani, Ali Ansari etc depending on the era of Iranian history in question.
In Iranian history modern Pakistan is no different from modern India both countries are seen as just "India" (Hend). Like i told you thats why the word Hendu was coined in Persian for South Asia. Its like the word for Pashtus in Persian is Afghan (probably Avghan originally) not Pashtu. Pashtons didnt actually call themselves Afghans initially. Thats what Persians and then Arabs and Turks started calling them. The peoples east of Afghanistan are Hendus (Indians) racially, not necessarily religiously. Hendi is still the word for an Indian in Persian. There are no equivalent words in Persian for different types of Indian peoples like you probably have in your own languages they are all just 'Indians' in Persian.
Macedonia and Thrace were the western limits of the Achaemenid empire, along with parts of Libya in North Africa.
Hi,
Can you give me the names of the books please, regarding Iranian history ?
And do you know how difficult it is to tag your name ?
Touraj Daryaee is a good start for Sassanid history, and so is Kaveh Farrokh. But dont read Kaveh Farrokh's book on 'Iran at War' because he is a specialist on ancient history rather than other eras and that book was quite rushed before going to the publishers. I didnt like it. Michael Axworthy also is a good historian on Iran and has about 3 books worth reading.
Mary Boyce and Jenny Rose are worth reading for a general history on Zoroastrianism to start with. Homa Katouzian also has a book on general Iranian history although his speciality is more later history, not so much ancient history. Abbas Milani and Ali Ansari are good for modern Iran.
There is also a book on just the Achaemenids published by Cambridge University Press last year which will give you a general overview of their history, i forgot the authors name. Then there are a few more specialist books on ancient Iran, one by Josef Wiesehofer and one tome edited by John Curtis (its a collection of articles by different academics) followed by the specialist series on Iranian history edited by Sarah Stewart (these are also a collection of books with articles from many different academics).
Some good books have also been published on the Safavids in the past few years after a very long time of nothing being published about that era if you are interested in them too.
