Ashurbanipal: The Righteous Suffering - Part I / Ασσουρμπανιπάλ Πάσχων – Α' (1987)

History of Achaemenid Iran 1A, Course I - Achaemenid beginnings 1A

Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

Tuesday, 27 December 2022

Outline

Introduction; Iranian Achaemenid historiography; Problems of historiography continuity; Iranian posterior historiography; foreign historiography; Western Orientalist historiography; early sources of Iranian History; Prehistory in the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia

1- Introduction

Welcome to the 40-hour seminar on Achaemenid Iran!

It is my intention to deliver a rather unconventional academic presentation of the topic, mostly implementing a correct and impartial conceptual approach to the earliest stage of Iranian History. Every subject, in and by itself, offers to every researcher the correct means of the pertinent approach to it; due to this fact, the personal background, viewpoints and thoughts or eventually the misperceptions and the preconceived ideas of an explorer should not be allowed to affect his judgment.

If before 200 years, the early Iranologists had the possible excuse of studying a topic on the basis of external and posterior historical sources, this was simply due to the fact that the Old Achaemenid cuneiform writing had not yet been deciphered. Still, even those explorers failed to avoid a very serious mistake, namely that of taking the external and posterior historical sources at face value. We cannot afford to blindly accept a secondary historical source without first examining intentions, motives, scopes and aims of it.

As the seminar covers only the History of the Achaemenid dynasty, I don't intend to add an introductory course about the History of the Iranian Studies and the re-discovery of Iran by Western explorers of the colonial powers. However, I will provide a brief outline of the topic; this is essential because mainstream Orientalists have reached their limits and cannot provide us with a real insight, eliminating the numerous and enduring myths, fallacies, and deliberately naïve approaches to Achaemenid Iran.

In fact, most of the specialists of Ancient Iran never went beyond the limitations set by the delusional Ancient 'Greek' (in reality: Ionian and Attic) literature about the Medes and the Persians (i.e. the Iranians), because they never offered themselves the task to explain the reasons for the aberration that the Ancient Ionian and Attic authors created in their minds and wrote in their texts about Iran. This was utterly puerile and ludicrous.

And this brings us to the other major innovation that I intend to offer during this seminar, namely the proper, comprehensive contextualization of the research topic, i.e. the History of Achaemenid Iran. To give some examples in this regard, I would mention

a - the tremendous, multilayered and multifaceted impact of the Mesopotamian World, Civilization and Heritage on the formation of the Achaemenid Empire of Iran, and more specifically, the determinant role played by the Sargonid Empire of Assyria on the emergence of the first Empire on the Iranian plateau;

b - the ferocious opposition of the Mithraic Magi to the Zoroastrian Achaemenid court; 

c - the involvement of the Anatolian Magi in the misperception of Iran by the Ancient Greeks; and

d- the utilization of the Ancient Greek cities by the Anti-Iranian side of the Egyptian priesthoods, princes and administrators.  

To therefore introduce the proper contextualization, I will expand on the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Sargonid times, not only to state the first mentions of the Medes and the Persians in History, but also to show the importance attributed by the Neo-Assyrian Emperors to the Zagros Mountains and the Iranian plateau, as well as the numerous peoples, settled or nomadic, who inhabited that region. 

There is an enormous lacuna in the Orientalist disciplines; there are no interdisciplinary studies in Assyriology and Iranology. This plays a key role in the misperception of the ancient oriental civilizations and in the mistaken evaluation (or rather under-estimation) of the momentous impact that they had on the formation of the World History. There are no isolated cultures and independent civilizations as dogmatic and ignorant Western archaeologists pretend.

Only if one studies and evaluates correctly the colossal impact of the Ancient Mesopotamian world on Iran, can one truly understand the Achaemenid Empire in its real dimensions.

2- Iranian Achaemenid historiography

A. Achaemenid imperial inscriptions produced on solemn occasions

Usually multilingual texts written by the imperial scribes of the emperors Cyrus the Great, Darius I the Great, Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I, Darius II, Artaxerxes II, and Artaxerxes III, as well as of the ancestral rulers Ariaramnes and Arsames.

Languages and writing systems:

- Old Achaemenid Iranian (cuneiform-alphabetic; the official imperial language)

- Babylonian (cuneiform-syllabic; to offer a testimony of historical continuity and legitimacy, following the Conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great, who presented himself as king of Babylon)

- Elamite (cuneiform-logo-syllabic; to portray the Persians in particular as the heirs of the ancient land of Anshan and Sushan that the Assyrians and the Babylonians named 'Elam' and the indigenous population called 'Haltamti' / The first Achaemenid to present himself as 'king of Anshan' is Cyrus the Great and the reference is found in his Cylinder unearthed in Babylon.)

and

- Egyptian Hieroglyphic (if the inscription or the monument was produced in Egypt, since the Achaemenids were also pharaohs of Egypt, starting with Kabujiya/Cambyses)

Imperial inscriptions are found in: Babylon (Cyrus Cylinder), Pasargad, Behistun, Hamadan, Ganj-e Nameh, Persepolis, Naqsh-e Rustam, Susa, Suez (Egypt), Gherla (Romania), Van (Turkey), and on various items

B. Persepolis Administrative Archives

This consists in an enormous documentation that has not yet been fully studied; it is not written in Old Achaemenid as one could expect but mainly in Elamite cuneiform. It consists of two groups, namely

- the Persepolis Fortification Archive, and

- the Persepolis Treasury Archive.

The Persepolis Fortification Archive was unearthed in the fortification area, i.e. the northeastern confines of the enormous platform of the Achaemenid capital Parsa (Persepolis), in the 1930s. It comprises of more than 30000 tablets (fragmentary or entire) that were written in the period 509-494 BCE (at the time of Darius I). The tablets were written in Susa and other parts of Fars and the territory of the ancient kingdom of Elam that vanished in the middle of the 7th c. (more than 130 years before these texts were written). Around 50 texts had Aramaic glosses. More than 2000 tablets have been published and translated. These texts are records of transactions, distribution of food, provisioning of workers, transportation of commodities, etc.;  few tablets were written in other languages, namely Old Iranian (1), Babylonian (1), Phrygian (1) and Greek (1).

The Persepolis Treasury Archive was found in the northeastern room of the Treasury of Xerxes. It contains more than 750 tablets and fragments (in Elamite) and more than 100 have been published. They all date back in period 492-458 BCE. These tablets are either letters or memoranda dispatched by imperial officials to the head of the Treasury; they concern the payment of workmen, the issue of silver, and other administrative procedures.  Only one tablet was written in Babylonian.

The entire documentation offers valuable information as regards the function of various imperial services, namely the couriers, the satraps, the imperial messengers, the imperial storehouse, etc. The archives shed light on the origin of the imperial administrators, as ca. 1900 personal names have been recorded: 10% were Elamites (who had apparently survived for long far from their country after the destruction of Susa by Assurbanipal (640 BCE), fewer were Babylonians, and the outright majority consisted of Iranians (Persians, Medes, Bactrians, Sakas, Arians, etc.).

C. Imperial Aramaic

The diffusion of the use of Aramaic started already in the Neo-Assyrian times and during the 7th c. BCE; the creation of the 'Royal Road', the systematization of the transportation, the improvement of communications, and the formation of the network of land-, sea- and desert routes that we now call 'Silk-, Spice- and Perfume- Road' during the Achaemenid times helped further expand the use of Aramaic. The linguistic assimilation of the Babylonians, the Jews and the Phoenicians with the Aramaeans only strengthened the diffusion of the Aramaic, which became the second international language ('lingua franca') in the History of the Mankind (after the Akkadian / Assyrian-Babylonian). Gradually, Aramaic became an official Achaemenid language after the Old Achaemenid Iranian.

Except the Aramaic texts attested in the Persepolis Administrative Archives, thousands of Aramaic texts of the Achaemenid times shed light onto the society, the economy, the administration, the military organization, the trade, the religions, the cults, the culture and the spirituality attested in various provinces of the Iranian Empire. At this point, only indicatively, I mention few significant groups of texts:

- the Elephantine papyri and ostraca (except Aramaic, they were written in Hieratic and Demotic Egyptian, Coptic, Alexandrian Koine, and Latin) – 5th and 4th c. BCE,

- the Hermopolis Aramaic papyri,                              

- the Padua Aramaic papyri, and

- the Khalili Collection of Aramaic Documents from Bactria (48 texts written on leather, papyrus, stone or clay, dating from the period 353-324 BCE, and mainly from the reign of Artaxerxes III whereas the most recent dates from the reign of Alexander the Great).

Here I have to add that the widespread use of Imperial Aramaic and its use as a second official language for Achaemenid Iran brought an end to the use of the Elamite (in the middle of the 5th c.) and, after the end of the Achaemenid dynasty and the split of the state of Alexander the Great, contributed to the formation of two writing systems, namely Parthian and Pahlavi which were in use during the Arsacid and the Sassanid times. Imperial Aramaic helped establish many other writing systems, but this goes beyond the limits of the present seminar.

3- Problems of historiography continuity

There are no historical references to the Achaemenid dynasty made at the time of the Arsacids (Ashkanian: 250 BCE-224 CE) and the Sassanids 224-651 CE); this situation is due to many factors:

- the prevalence of another Iranian nation of probably Turanian origin, namely the Parthians and the Arsacid dynasty,

- the rise of the anti-Achaemenid, anti-Zoroastrian Magi who tried to impose Mithraism throughout Iran during the Arsacid times,

- the formation of an oral epic tradition and the establishment of a legendary historiography about the pre-Arsacid past during the Sassanid times, and

- the scarcity of written sources and the terrible destructions that occurred in Iran during the Late Antiquity, the Islamic era, and the Modern times (early Islamic conquests, divisions of the Abbasid times, Mongol invasions, Safavid-Ottoman wars, Western colonial looting, etc.).

This situation raised Western academic questions of Iranian identity, continuity, and historicity. But this attempt is futile. Iranian historiography of Islamic times shows that these questions were fully misplaced.

4- Iranian posterior historiography (Iranian historiography of Islamic times)

With Tabari (839-923) and his voluminous History of Prophets and Kings we realize that there were, in spite of the destructions caused because of the Islamic conquests, historical documents on which he was based to expand about the Sassanid dynasty; actually one out of the 40 volumes of the most recent translation of Tabari to English (published by the State University of New York Press from 1985 through 2007) is dedicated to the History of Sassanid Iran (vol. 5). And the previous volume (vol. 4) covers the History of Achaemenid and Arsacid Iran, Alexander the Great, Nabonid Babylonia, Assyria and Ancient Israel and Judah.  

Other important Iranian historians of the Islamic times, like Abu'l-Fadl Bayhaqi (995-1077), Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247-1318) who wrote the truly first World History, Alaeddin Aṭa Malik Juvaynī (1226-1283), and Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi (ca. 1370-1454), did not expand much on pre-Islamic periods as the focus of their writing was on contemporaneous developments.

However, the aforementioned historians and all the authors, who are classified in this category, represent only one dimension of Iranian historiography of Islamic times. A totally different approach and literature have been illustrated by Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (Book of Kings). Abu 'l Qasem Ferdowsi (940-1025) was not the first to compose an epic in order to standardize in mythical terms and legendary concepts the pre-Islamic Iranian past; but he was the most successful and the most illustrious. That is why many other epic poets followed his example, notably the Azeri Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209) and the Turkic Indian Amir Khusraw (1253-1325).

Within the context of this poetical historiography, historical emperors of pre-Islamic Iran appear as legendary figures only to be then viewed as materialization of divine patterns. The origin of this transcendental historiography seems to be retraced in the Sassanid times, but all the major themes are clearly of Zoroastrian identity and can therefore be attributed to the Achaemenid world perception and world conceptualization.

It is essential at this point to state that, until the imposition of modern Western colonial academic and educational standards in Iran, Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and the corpus of Iranian legendary historiography was the backbone of the Iranian cultural, intellectual and educational identity.

It is a matter of academic debate whether an original text named Khwaday-Namag, written during the Sassanid times, and now lost, is at the very origin of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and of the Iranian legendary historiography. The 19th c. German Orientalist Theodor Nöldeke is credited with this theory that has not yet been proved.

All the same, the spiritual standards of this approach are detected in the Achaemenid times.

5- Foreign historiography

Ancient Greek (in reality, Ionian and Attic), Ancient Hebrew and Latin sources of Achaemenid History exist, but first they are external, second they appear to be posterior in their largest part, and third they often bear witness to astounding inaccuracies, fables, untrustworthy data, misplaced focus, excessive verbosity without real substance, and -above all- an enormous and irreconcilable misunderstanding of the Iranian Achaemenid reality, values, world view, mindset, and behavior.

The Ancient Hebrew sources shed light on issues that were apparently critical to the tiny and unimportant, Jewish minority of the Achaemenid Empire; however, these Biblical narratives concern facts that were absolutely insignificant to the imperial authorities of Parsa. One critical issue is concealed by modern scholars though; although all the nations of the Empire were regularly mentioned in the Achaemenid inscriptions and depicted on bas reliefs, the Jews were not. This undeniable fact irrevocably conditions the supposed 'importance' of Biblical texts like Ezra, Esther, Nehemiah, etc. All the same, these foreign historical sources are important for the Jews.

The Ionian and Attic accounts of events that were composed by the Carian renegade Herodotus, the Dorian Ctesias, and the Athenian Xenophon present an even more serious problem. They happened to be for many centuries (16th – 19th c.) the bulk of the historical documentation that Western European academics had access to as regards Achaemenid Iran. This situation produced grave biases among Western academics, because they took all these sources at face value since they had no access to original documentation. The grave trouble persisted even after the decipherment of the Old Achaemenid cuneiform writing and the archaeological excavations that brought to daylight original Iranian imperial documentation.

Only recently, at the end of the 20th c., leading Iranologists like Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg started criticizing the absolutely delusional History of Achaemenid Iran that modern Western scholars were producing without even understanding it by foolishly accepting Ancient Ionian myths, lies and propaganda against the Iranian Empire at face value. This grave problem had also two other parameters:

- first, there was an enormous gap of civilization and a tremendous cultural difference between the Iranian imperial world view, the spiritual valorization of the human being, and the Zoroastrian monotheism from one side and the chaotic, disorderly and profane elements of the western periphery of the Empire. The so-called Greek tribes in Western Anatolia and in the South Balkans were not only multi-divided and plunged in permanent conflict; they were also extremely verbose on common issues, they desecrated the divine world with their nonsensical myths and puerile narratives, and they defiled human spirituality with their love stories about their pseudo-gods. But, very arbitrarily and quite disastrously, the so-called Ancient Greek civilization had been erroneously taken as 'classics' by modern Europeans at a time they had no access to Ancient Oriental sources.

- second, the vertical differentiation between Imperial Iran as the blessed land of divine mission and the disunited and peripheral lands of conflict, discord and strife that were inhabited by the Greek tribes was reflected on the respective, impressively different types of historiography; to the Iranians, few words written by anonymous scribes were enough to describe the groundbreaking deeds of divinely appointed rulers. But for the Greeks, the useless rumors, the capricious hearsay, the intentional lie, the nefarious expression of their complex of inferiority, the vicious slander, and the deliberate ignominy 'had' to be recorded and written down.

The fact that Herodotus' and Xenophon's long narratives have long been taken as the basic source of information about Achaemenid Iran demonstrates how disoriented and misplaced modern Western scholarship is. But by preferring to rely mainly on the Ancient Greek lengthy and false narratives, and not on the succinct, true and chaste Old Achaemenid Iranian inscriptions, they totally misrepresent Ancient Iranian History, preposterously extrapolating later and corrupt standards to earlier and superior civilizations.

And whereas Ancient Roman authors, who wrote in Latin (Pliny the Elder, Seneca the Younger, etc.), and Jewish or Christian historians, who wrote in Alexandrine Koine, like Flavius Josephus and Eusebius of Caesarea Maritima, reproduced the style of lengthy narratives that turns History to mere gossip, the great Babylonian scholar Berossus was very reluctant to add personal comments to his original sources or to allow subjective considerations and thoughts to contaminate his text.

In any case, the vast issue of the multilayered damages caused by the untrustworthy Ancient Greek historiography to modern Western academics' perception and interpretation of Achaemenid Iran is a topic that deserves an entirely independent seminar.

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To watch the video (with more than 110 pictures and maps), click the links below:

HISTORY OF ACHAEMENID IRAN - Achaemenid beginnings 1Α

By Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

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History of Achaemenid Iran 1A, Course I, Achaemenid beginnings 1A

1- Introduction Welcome to the 40-hour seminar on Achaemenid Iran! It is my intention to deliver a rather unconventional academic presentati

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History of Achaemenid Iran 1A, Course I, Achaemenid beginnings 1A

1- Introduction Welcome to the 40-hour seminar on Achaemenid Iran! It is my intention to deliver a rather unconventional academic presentati

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History of Achaemenid Iran 1A, Course I, Achaemenid beginnings 1A

1- Introduction Welcome to the 40-hour seminar on Achaemenid Iran! It is my intention to deliver a rather unconventional academic presentati

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History of Achaemenid Iran 1A, Course I, Achaemenid beginnings 1A

1- Introduction Welcome to the 40-hour seminar on Achaemenid Iran! It is my intention to deliver a rather unconventional academic presentati

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To listen to the audio, clink the links below:

HISTORY OF ACHAEMENID IRAN - Achaemenid beginnings 1 (a+b)

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History of Achaemenid Iran 1A, Course I, Achaemenid beginnings 1A | The Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis’s Podcast

1- Introduction Welcome to the 40-hour seminar on Achaemenid Iran! 2- Iranian Achaemenid historiography A. Achaemenid imperial inscriptions

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History of Achaemenid Iran 1A, Course I, Achaemenid beginnings 1A

Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis Tuesday, 27 December 2022 Outline Introduction; Iranian Achaemenid historiography; Problems of histor

academia.edu

History of Achaemenid Iran 1A, Course I - Achaemenid beginnings 1A

Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis Tuesday, 27 December 2022 1- Introduction 2- Iranian Achaemenid historiography A. Achaemenid imperial

Iran, Achaemenid ornamental Lapis lazuli plate with a winged bull

Scythian mummy tomb (Fifth Pazyryk Kurgan), Pazyryk culture 3rd C. BCE. More pictures on my blog, link at bottom.

"The pair were buried alongside nine horses, a huge cache of cannabis and a stash of priceless treasures - including the world's oldest carpet and an ornate carriage.

The man had curly hair and was aged between 55 and 60 when he died, whilst the woman was about ten years younger.

It is believed he was a chieftain or king of the Pazyryk civilisation, which lived in Kazakhstan, Siberia and Mongolia from the 6th to 3rd centuries BC."

...

"The attractive log cabin was a prefabricated construction by the prehistoric Pazyryk culture to house an elite tomb - in which was buried a mummified curly-haired potentate and his younger wife or concubine.

The mound in the Altai Mountains was originally 42 metres in diameter, and this tattooed couple went to the next life alongside nine geldings, saddled and harnessed.

The house itself, recently reconstructed, was not built as a dwelling but nevertheless is seen by archeologists as showing the style of domestic architecture more than two millennia ago.

This structure was the outer of two wooden houses in the large burial mound in the valley of the River Bolshoy Ulagan at an altitude of around 1,600 metres above sea level.

The core of the mound including the ice-preserved bodies of the elite couple had been excavated by Soviet archeologists in 1949, and many of the finds are on on display in the world famous State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

As we have previously written, the pair - who owned perhaps the world’s oldest carpets - are currently undergoing an ultra modern medical scan to establish the cause of death, and reconstruct the appearance of the ancient pair, and to study the techniques of mummification in more detail.

Yet in 1949 this fascinating house was left in the permafrost ground - and only retrieved now from the so-called Fifth Pazyryk Barrow, to the excitement of archeologists.

Head of the excavation Dr Nikita Konstantinov from Gorno-Altaisk State University, was full of admiration about the skills of the ancient craftsmen.

‘We took out the log house and reassembled it right next to the mound,’ he said.

‘We made kind of express reconstruction, which made it possible to study the log house in detail.

‘Notches were made on each of its logs - building marks…’.

This was like IKEA instructions today for building their products, telling modern day excavation volunteers how to correctly construct the prehistoric building kit.

The result is seen in the pictures shown here.

‘This log house was first built somewhere away from the mound, then it was dismantled, brought and reassembled in the pit,’ said Dr Konstantinov.

‘Today we build in similar way, using Roman numerals, as a rule.

‘In those times they simply made different numbers of notches.’

The archeological team followed the code left by the ancient craftsmen and reassembled the house without problems.

‘The Pazyryks knitted the corners of the building in a masterly way and chopped the attachment points of these logs.

‘They fitted very cleanly….

‘When we built the log house and began to measure the height, it turned out that the height difference in the angles is only one centimetre.’

In modern constructions, a difference of 7 cm is allowed which showed how skilful were the ancient craftsmen.

He said: ‘This is a funerary structure, but we can say with a high degree of probability that the log cabin was created in the image and likeness of the houses in which the Pazyryks lived."

-taken from siberiantimes and thesun

paganimagevault.blogspot.com

Scythian mummy tomb (Fifth Pazyryk Kurgan), Pazyryk culture 4th-3rd C. BCE

Ταυροθυσίες και Μιθραϊκά Μυστήρια στην Κορυφή του Ολύμπου – Η Απόλυτη Επιβολή του Περσικού Πνεύματος ανάμεσα στους Έλληνες & το Τέλος της Αρχαίας Ελλάδας

Taurobolia and Mithraic Mysteries atop Mount Olympus - The Absolute Imposition of the Iranian Genius among the Greeks & the End of Ancient Greece

ΑΝΑΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΣΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ ΑΝΕΝΕΡΓΟ ΜΠΛΟΓΚ “ΟΙ ΡΩΜΙΟΙ ΤΗΣ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΗΣ”

Το κείμενο του κ. Νίκου Μπαϋρακτάρη είχε αρχικά δημοσιευθεί την 6η Μαΐου 2019. Ο κ. Μπαϋρακτάρης παρουσιάζει στοιχεία από μία ενότητα σεμιναρίου, το οποίο οργάνωσα τον Δεκέμβριο του 2018 στην Μόσχα με θέμα την επερχόμενη παγκόσμια επιβολή της Κίνας ως δυνατή μόνον αν η Κίνα και η σημερινή πολιτισμική ακτινοβολία της βασισθούν στην (αποσιωπημένη στην Δύση) ιστορική συνέχεια της διάδοσης αρχαίων ανατολικών πολιτισμών και επιβολής του αρχαίου ανατολικού αυτοκρατορικού πνεύματος στην Ελλάδα, την Ρώμη και την Δυτική Ευρώπη κατά την Ύστερη Αρχαιότητα, και αν το Πεκίνο δεόντως, συστηματικώς και ποικιλοτρόπως προπαγανδίσει διάπλατα την αποκρυμμένη ιστορική αυτή διαδικασία, σε συνέργεια με το αναζωπυρωμένο κίνημα του Αφροκεντρισμού και με στόχο την ολοσχερή εξαφάνιση του αισχρού και ρατσιστικού αφηγήματος του δήθεν 'κλασικού ελληνορωμαϊκού πολιτισμού'.

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http://greeksoftheorient.wordpress.com/2019/05/06/ταυροθυσίες-και-μιθραϊκά-μυστήρια-στ/ ===================

Οι Ρωμιοί της Ανατολής – Greeks of the Orient

Ρωμιοσύνη, Ρωμανία, Ανατολική Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία

Ένας καλός φίλος από την Κοζάνη πρόσεξε πρόσφατο κείμενό μου σχετικά με την κατακλυσμική διάδοση του Μιθραϊσμού, του Ισιδισμού και πολλών άλλων ανατολικών, αραμαϊκών, καππαδοκικών, φοινικικών, αιγυπτιακών και περσικών θρησκειών, κοσμογονιών, μυστικισμών, λατρειών, κοσμολογιών και θεουργιών στην Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία και γενικώτερα σε όλη την Ευρώπη και με ρώτησε σχετικά με την διάδοση κι επιβολή του Μιθραϊσμού στην Αρχαία Ελλάδα.

Αυτό είναι ένα απαγορευμένο θέμα που το ρατσιστικό, φασιστικό, σιωνιστικό και ψευτο-μασωνικό καθεστώς Αθηνών έχει επιμελώς εξοβελίσει από τα πανεπιστήμια, τα σχολεία, τους ανερμάτιστους και ψευδοπροπαγανδιστικούς εκδοτικούς οίκους, τα κατευθυνόμενα ΜΜΕ της τύφλωσης και της παραπληροφόρησης και γενικώτερα ολόκληρη την θεόστραβη και συρόμενη προς όλεθρο ελληνική κοινωνία.

Όμως υπάρχουν άπειρες μαρτυρίες σχετικά σε αρχαία ελληνικά και λατινικά κείμενα – αναφορικά με την επιβολή του Περσικού Πνεύματος στην Αρχαία Ελλάδα. Μάλιστα επειδή οι αρχαίοι Έλληνες ήταν γεωγραφικά εγγύτερα στην Ανατολή, την Συρο-Παλαιστίνη, την Φοινίκη, την Μεσοποταμία, την Αίγυπτο και το Ιράν, επηρεάσθηκαν πρώτοι κι επηρεάσθηκαν περισσότερο.

Το περιστατικό που θα παρουσιάσω εδώ είναι ένα ανάμεσα σε πάρα πολλά. Και υπάρχουν και ακόμη περισσότερα που αποδεικνύουν την επιβολή του Αιγυπτιακού Πνεύματος στην Ελλάδα. Αλλά σε αυτά θα αναφερθώ σε προσεχή κείμενά μου. Το αφετηριακό κείμενο είναι αυτό:

Οι Ατελείωτες Επελάσεις του Μίθρα προς την Δύση κι ο Πολιτισμικός Εξιρανισμός Ελλήνων, Ρωμαίων κι Ευρωπαίων

https://greeksoftheorient.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/οι-ατελείωτες-επελάσεις-του-μίθρα-προ/

(πλέον: https://www.academia.edu/58627059/Οι_Ατελείωτες_Επελάσεις_του_Μίθρα_προς_την_Δύση_κι_ο_Πολιτισμικός_Εξιρανισμός_Ελλήνων_Ρωμαίων_κι_Ευρωπαίων)

Ο ίδιος ο Πλούταρχος, ιερέας του Μαντείου των Δελφών, αναφέρει το περιστατικό – κι αυτό συμβαίνει επειδή οι αρχαίοι Έλληνες – που είναι φυλετικά και πολιτισμικά άσχετοι από το ψευτο-μασωνικό παρασκεύασμα των Νεοελλήνων – δεν ήταν ούτε ρατσιστές, ούτε φασίστες, ούτε κομμουνιστές, ούτε εθνικομπολσεβίκοι.

Αντίθετα, και μάλιστα ιδιαίτερα, ο Πλούταρχος είχε ηθική υπόσταση και θεωρούσε αρετή το να ομολογεί την αλήθεια – χωρίς την παραμικρή συμφεροντολογία. Τα σατανικά ψέμματα των σημερινών αμόρφωτων ψευτο-καθηγητών και λοιπών προπαγανδιστών, σαν τους Ρένο Αποστολίδη, Πλεύρη, Κιτσίκη και Μπεξή, μόνον σκοτάδι και θάνατο φέρνουν.

Στον Βίο του Πομπήιου (106-48 π.Χ.), ο Πλούταρχος αναφέρεται σε πολλά γεγονότα της ζωής του Ρωμαίου στρατιωτικού και πολιτικού ηγέτη που βρήκε άδοξο θάνατο στην Αίγυπτο. Ένα από αυτά τα γεγονότα ήταν η καταστολή της πειρατείας στην Μεσόγειο. Οι πειρατές ήταν Έλληνες, Ρωμαίοι κι άλλοι λεγεωνάριοι που είχαν εγκαταλείψει τις τάξεις του ρωμαϊκού στρατού και στόλου και είχαν συμπήξει συμμαχία με το ελληνικώτατο Βασίλειο του Πόντου με το οποίο η Ρώμη (ακόμη Δημοκρατία κι όχι Αυτοκρατορία) είχε συνάψει πολλούς πολέμους.

Οι πειρατές είχαν ενισχυθεί από τον πιστό στον Μίθρα (κι όχι στον Δία) βασιλιά του Πόντου Μιθριδάτη ΣΤ’ διότι του χρησίμευαν για να προξενήσουν στους Ρωμαίους ένα πόλεμο φθοράς. Το πόσο σημαντικό γεγονός ήταν ο πόλεμος κατά των πειρατών στην περίοδο στην περίοδο 78-63 π.Χ. και γενικώτερα στην διάρκεια των μιθριδατικών πολέμων μπορείτε εύκολα να αντιληφθείτε αν προσέξετε πόση έκταση δίνει το λήμμα της αγγλικής Wikipedia σχετικά με τον Πομπήιο στο θέμα του πολέμου κατά της πειρατείας (ο σύνδεσμος στο τέλος).

Τι λέει λοιπόν ο Πλούταρχος ότι έκαναν αυτοί οι Έλληνες, Ρωμαίοι και Μικρασιάτες πειρατές;

Σημειώνει ότι ανάμεσα σε πολλά άλλα που έκαναν σαν καταστροφές ή σαν εκφράσεις περίεργης συμπεριφοράς, οι πειρατές έκαναν θυσίες κι επιτελούσαν μιθραϊκά μυστήρια στην κορυφή του Ολύμπου.

Φυσικά, ο Πλούταρχος ως Ρωμαίος αξιωματούχος δεν θα μπορούσε παρά να δει αρνητικά το φαινόμενο της πειρατείας και της συμμαχίας των πειρατών με τους εχθρούς της Ρώμης Πόντιους Έλληνες του Μιθριδάτη ΣΤ’. Αλλά η περιγραφή είναι συναρπαστική:

ξένας δὲ θυσίας ἔθυον αὐτοὶ τὰς ἐν Ὀλύμπῳ, καὶ τελετάς τινας ἀπορρήτους ἐτέλουν, ὧν ἡτοῦ Μίθρου καὶ μέχρι δεῦρο διασώζεται καταδειχθεῖσα πρῶτον ὑπ’ ἐκείνων.

Σε αγγλική μετάφραση για όσους έχουν δυσκολία με τα αρχαία ελληνικά:

They themselves offered strange sacrifices upon Mount Olympus, and performed certain secret rites or religious mysteries, among which those of Mithras have been preserved to our own time having received their previous institution from them.

Προσέξτε πόσες πληροφορίες παρέχονται σε ένα τόσο σύντομο κείμενο:

Α) Οι θυσίες ήταν παράξενες κι αλλότριες επειδή τα μιθραϊκά μυστήρια δεν είχαν ακόμη κατακλύσει την Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία κι όλη την Ευρώπη στο πρώτο μισό του πρώτου προχριστιανικού αιώνα στο οποίο ο Πλούταρχος (45-120), γράφοντας 150 χρόνια αργότερα, αναφέρεται.

Β) Εννοείται ότι οι θυσίες μιθραϊστών στον Όλυμπο ήταν ταυροθυσίες, επειδή αυτό ήταν βασικό στοιχείο του Μιθραϊσμού, της Μιθραϊκής Κοσμογονίας και των Μιθραϊκών Μυστηρίων.

Γ) Αυτές οι ταυροθυσίες και οι μυστικές τελετουργίες που οι πειρατές επιτελούσαν στην κορυφή του Ολύμπου σημαίνει ότι ο τόπος ήταν για τους πειρατές αυτούς ιερός και αυτοί έδιναν απολύτως μιθραϊκή περσική κι όχι πλέον αρχαία ελληνική δωδεκαθεϊστική διάσταση στην ιερότητα του τόπου. Με άλλα λόγια, η αρχαία ελληνική θρησκεία είχε εκμηδενιστεί ανάμεσα στους ίδιους τους αρχαίους Έλληνες που είχαν προσηλυτιστεί στον Μιθραϊσμό 60-70 χρόνια μετά την ρωμαϊκή κατάληψη της Κορίνθου.

Δ) Οι μιθραϊκές θυσίες, λατρείες και μυστικές τελετουργίες, τονίζει ο Πλούταρχος, διασώζονταν μέχρι τις μέρες του, 150 χρόνια μετά την πρώτη λατρεία Ελλήνων Μιθραϊστών στον Όλυμπο, και είχαν διαδοθεί. Δηλαδή κανένα δεν είχαν ενοχλήσει ο πολιτισμικός εκπερσισμός των Ελλήνων και τα Μιθραϊκά Μυστήρια που οι πειρατές είχαν εισαγάγει στον Όλυμπο, τον ιερώτερο χώρο της Αρχαίας Ελλάδας, έτσι σβύννοντας μια για πάντα την παραδοσιακή αρχαιοελληνική θρησκεία.

Στην συνέχεια, θα βρείτε ένα μεγαλύτερο απόσπασμα από το ίδιο κείμενο, για να δείτε το όλο πλαίσιο μέσα στο οποίο αναφέρεται το συγκεκριμένο επεισόδιο (σε αρχαία ελληνικά και αγγλικά) και πολλούς συνδέσμους αναφορικά με τον Πλούταρχο, τον Βίο του Πομπήιου, τον Πομπήιο, και φυσικά τον Μίθρα, τον Μιθραϊσμό και την κατακλυσμική πολιτισμική επιβολή του Περσικού Πνεύματος πάνω σε Έλληνες, Ρωμαίους και λοιπούς Ευρωπαίους.

Αρχαία Ελλάδα δεν υπήρχε πολύ πριν επιβληθεί η Χριστιανωσύνη στην Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία.

Στο θέμα του πολιτισμικού εκπερσισμού των Αρχαίων Ελλήνων και της διάδοσης του Μιθραϊσμού στην Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία και την Ευρώπη γενικώτερα θα επανέλθω.

==================================

Λούκιος Μέστριος Πλούταρχος (Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus)

Βίοι Παράλληλοι/Πομπήιος

Αρχαίο Ελληνικό Κείμενο

[24] Ἡ γὰρ πειρατικὴ δύναμις ὡρμήθη μὲν ἐκ Κιλικίας τὸ πρῶτον, ἀρχὴν παράβολον λαβοῦσα καὶ λανθάνουσαν, φρόνημα δὲ καὶ τόλμαν ἔσχεν ἐν τῷ Μιθριδατικῷ πολέμῳ, χρήσασα ταῖς βασιλικαῖς ὑπηρεσίαις ἑαυτήν. εἶτα Ῥωμαίων ἐν τοῖς ἐμφυλίοις πολέμοις περὶ θύρας τῆς Ῥώμης συμπεσόντων, ἔρημος οὖσα φρουρᾶς ἡ θάλασσα κατὰ μικρὸν αὐτοὺς ἐφείλκετο καὶ προῆγεν, οὐκέτι τοῖς πλέουσι μόνον ἐπιτιθεμένους, ἀλλὰ καὶ νήσους καὶ πόλεις παραλίους ἐκκόπτοντας. ἤδη δὲ καὶ χρήμασι δυνατοὶ καὶ γένεσι λαμπροὶ καὶ τὸ φρονεῖν ἀξιούμενοι διαφέρειν ἄνδρες ἐνέβαινον εἰς τὰ λῃστρικὰ καὶ μετεῖχον, ὡς καὶ δόξαν τινὰ καὶ φιλοτιμίαν τοῦ ἔργου φέροντος.

ἦν δὲ καὶ ναύσταθμα πολλαχόθι πειρατικὰ καὶ φρυκτώρια τετειχισμένα, καὶ στόλοι προσέπιπτον οὐ πληρωμάτων μόνον εὐανδρίαις οὐδὲ τέχναις κυβερνητῶν οὐδὲ τάχεσι νεῶν καὶ κουφότησιν ἐξησκημένοι πρὸς τὸ οἰκεῖον ἔργον, ἀλλὰ τοῦ φοβεροῦ μᾶλλον αὐτῶν τὸ ἐπίφθονον ἐλύπει καὶ ὑπερήφανον, στυλίσι χρυσαῖς καὶ παραπετάσμασιν ἁλουργοῖς καὶ πλάταις ἐπαργύροις, ὥσπερ ἐντρυφώντων τῷ κακουργεῖν καὶ καλλωπιζομένων. αὐλοὶ δὲ καὶ ψαλμοὶ καὶ μέθαι παρὰ πᾶσαν ἀκτὴν καὶ σωμάτων ἡγεμονικῶν ἁρπαγαὶ καὶ πόλεων αἰχμαλώτων ἀπολυτρώσεις ὄνειδος ἦσαν τῆς Ῥωμαίων ἡγεμονίας.

ἐγένοντο δ’ οὖν αἱ μὲν λῃστρίδες νῆες ὑπὲρ χιλίας, αἱ δὲ ἁλοῦσαι πόλεις ὑπ’ αὐτῶν τετρακόσιαι. τῶν δὲ ἀσύλων καὶ ἀβάτων πρότερον ἱερῶν ἐξέκοψαν ἐπιόντες τὸ Κλάριον, τὸ Διδυμαῖον, τὸ Σαμοθρᾴκιον, τὸν ἐν Ἑρμιόνῃ τῆς Χθονίας νεὼν καὶ τὸν ἐν Ἐπιδαύρῳ τοῦ Ἀσκληπιοῦ καὶ τὸν Ἰσθμοῖ καὶ Ταινάρῳ καὶ Καλαυρίᾳ τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος, τοῦ δὲ Ἀπόλλωνος τὸν ἐν Ἀκτίῳ καὶ Λευκάδι, τῆς δὲ Ἥρας τὸν ἐν Σάμῳ, τὸν ἐν Ἄργει, τὸν ἐπὶ Λακινίῳ. ξένας δὲ θυσίας ἔθυον αὐτοὶ τὰς ἐν Ὀλύμπῳ, καὶ τελετάς τινας ἀπορρήτους ἐτέλουν, ὧν ἡ τοῦ Μίθρου καὶ μέχρι δεῦρο διασώζεται καταδειχθεῖσα πρῶτον ὑπ’ ἐκείνων.

Πλεῖστα δὲ Ῥωμαίοις ἐνυβρίσαντες, ἔτι καὶ τὰς ὁδοὺς αὐτῶν ἀναβαίνοντες ἀπὸ θαλάσσης ἐληΐζοντο καὶ τὰς ἐγγὺς ἐπαύλεις ἐξέκοπτον. ἥρπασαν δέ ποτε καὶ στρατηγοὺς δύο Σεξτίλιον καὶ Βελλῖνον ἐν ταῖς περιπορφύροις, καὶ τοὺς ὑπηρέτας ἅμα καὶ ῥαβδοφόρους ᾤχοντο σὺν αὐτοῖς ἐκείνοις ἔχοντες. ἥλω δὲ καὶ θυγάτηρ Ἀντωνίου, θριαμβικοῦ ἀνδρός, εἰς ἀγρὸν βαδίζουσα, καὶ πολλῶν χρημάτων ἀπελυτρώθη. ἐκεῖνο δὲ ἦν ὑβριστικώτατον. ὁπότε γάρ τις ἑαλωκὼς ἀναβοήσειε Ῥωμαῖος εἶναι καὶ τοὔνομα φράσειεν, ἐκπεπλῆχθαι προσποιούμενοι καὶ δεδιέναι τούς τε μηροὺς ἐπαίοντο καὶ προσέπιπτον αὐτῷ, συγγνώμην ἔχειν ἀντιβολοῦντες·

https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/Βίοι_Παράλληλοι/Πομπήιος

Αγγλική Μετάφραση

The power of the pirates first commenced in Cilicia, having in truth but a precarious and obscure beginning, but gained life and boldness afterwards in the wars of Mithridates, where they hired themselves out and took employment in the king’s service. Afterwards, whilst the Romans were embroiled in their civil wars, being engaged against one another even before the very gates of Rome, the seas lay waste and unguarded, and by degrees enticed and drew them on not only to seize upon and spoil the merchants and ships upon the seas, but also to lay waste the islands and seaport towns. So that now there embarked with these pirates men of wealth and noble birth and superior abilities, as if it had been a natural occupation to gain distinction in.

They had divers arsenals, or piratic harbours, as likewise watch-towers and beacons, all along the sea-coast; and fleets were here received that were well manned with the finest mariners, and well served with the expertest pilots, and composed of swift-sailing and light-built vessels adapted for their special purpose. Nor was it merely their being thus formidable that excited indignation; they were even more odious for their ostentation than they were feared for their force. Their ships had gilded masts at their stems; the sails woven of purple, and the oars plated with silver, as if their delight were to glory in their iniquity. There was nothing but music and dancing, banqueting and revels, all along the shore. Officers in command were taken prisoners, and cities put under contribution, to the reproach and dishonour of the Roman supremacy.

There were of these corsairs above one thousand sail, and they had taken no less than four hundred cities, committing sacrilege upon the temples of the gods, and enriching themselves with the spoils of many never violated before, such as were those of Claros, Didyma, and Samothrace; and the temple of the Earth in Hermione, and that of Aesculapius in Epidaurus, those of Neptune at the Isthmus, at Taenarus, and at Calauria; those of Apollo at Actium and Leucas, and those of Juno in Samos, at Argos, and at Lacinium. They themselves offered strange sacrifices upon Mount Olympus, and performed certain secret rites or religious mysteries, among which those of Mithras have been preserved to our own time having received their previous institution from them.

But besides these insolencies by sea, they were also injurious to the Romans by land; for they would often go inland up the roads, plundering and destroying their villages and country-houses. Once they seized upon two Roman praetors, Sextilius and Bellinus, in their purple-edged robes, and carried them off together with their officers and lictors. The daughter also of Antonius. a man that had had the honour of a triumph, taking a journey into the country, was seized, and redeemed upon payment of a large ransom. But it was most abusive of all that, when any of the captives declared himself to be a Roman, and told his name, they affected to be surprised, and feigning fear, smote their thighs and fell down at his feet humbly beseeching him to be gracious and forgive them.

Vita Pompei (Life of Pompey) c.24, 5, 632CD.

Plutarch’s Lives (1683) “by several hands”, edited by John Dryden

http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/pompey.html

Περισσότερα για τον Πλούταρχο, τους Βίους Παράλληλους, και τον Πομπήιο:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompey#Campaign_against_the_pirates

https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Πομπήιος

https:// https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_Lives

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarch

https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Βίοι_Παράλληλοι

https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Πλούταρχος

—————————————–

Περισσότερα για τον Μίθρα, τον Μιθραϊσμό, την διάδοση του Μιθραϊσμού στην Ευρώπη και σε όλη την Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία, τα Μιθραϊκά Μυστήρια, τις σχέσεις και την ομοιότητα Μιθραϊσμού και Χριστιανωσύνης, και τα Μιθραία και γενικώτερα τα Μιθραϊκά Μνημεία σε όλο τον κόσμο:

http://www.mithraeum.eu/

http://www.mithraeum.eu/link.php

http://www.mithraeum.eu/monumentae.php?tid=1 (πολλές σελίδες)

http://www.mithraeum.eu/monumentae.php (πολλές σελίδες)

http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithras/display.php?page=Mithras_and_Jesus

http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithras/display.php?page=main

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/mithraism

Mithras in India and Iran

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt1.htm

The arrival of Mithras in Europe

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt2.htm

The Followers of Mithras

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt3.htm

The Figures round the Bull-Slayer

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt4.htm

The Legend of Mithras

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt5.htm

The God of Infinite Time

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt6.htm

Initiation into the Mysteries

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt7.htm

The Seven Grades of Initiation

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt8.htm

Women and the Mithraic Cult

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt9.htm

Offerings and Artists: Mithras in Art

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt10.htm

The Fall of Mithras

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt11.htm

Γενικά:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism

https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Μίθρας

https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Μιθραϊσμός

Kees Scherer - Temple of Nefertari at Abu Simbel, Egypt, 1965-1968

Breakfast at Punta Tragara Hotel. Capri. Italy.

Your summer in Italy.

A rediscovered mosaic from 2nd Century AD found in the ancient city of Cilician Aphrodisias, known today as Tisan, in the Silifke district of Mersin, Turkiye.

Ausflüge in Ägypten mit deutschsprachigem Reiseleiter

Ausflüge in Ägypten mit deutschsprachigem Reiseleiter

Wenn du Ägypten besuchst, sind Ausflüge mit einem deutschsprachigen Reiseleiter eine hervorragende Möglichkeit, das Land zu entdecken. Ein solcher Guide hilft dir, die faszinierende Geschichte und Kultur Ägyptens besser zu verstehen. Egal, ob du die Pyramiden von Gizeh, das Tal der Könige oder die beeindruckenden Tempel in Luxor besuchst, du erhältst spannende Informationen direkt in deiner Sprache. So kannst du dich ganz auf die Erlebnisse konzentrieren und die Schönheit dieses einzigartigen Landes genießen.

Ausflüge in Ägypten mit deutschsprachigem Reiseleiter

Cosmas Megalommatis, World Politics in the 5th century: the Perso-Roman relations

Κοσμάς Μεγαλομμάτης, World Politics τον 5ο αιώνα: οι περσορωμαϊκές σχέσεις – περιοδικό Διαβάζω, 180, 9 Δεκεμβρίου 1987, σελ. 107-110

Cosmas Megalommatis, World Politics in the 5th century: the Perso-Roman relations – Diavazo magazine, 180, December 9, 1987, pp. 107-110

Кузьма Мегаломматис, Мировая политика в V веке: персидско-римские отношения – журнал Диавазо, 180, 9 декабря 1987 г., стр. 107-110.

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Κοσμάς Μεγαλομμάτης, World Politics στον πέμπτο αιώνα

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Κοσμάς Μεγαλομμάτης, World Politics τον 5ο αιώνα - Download as a PDF or view online for free

Iran–Turan, Manichaeism & Islam during the Migration Period and the Early Caliphates

By Prof. Muhammet Şemsettin Gözübüyükoğlu (Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis)

Pre-publication of chapter XVI of my forthcoming book “Turkey is Iran and Iran is Turkey – 2500 Years of indivisible Turanian – Iranian Civilization distorted and estranged by Anglo-French Orientalists”; chapters XIV, XV and XVI belong to Part Five (Fallacies about Sassanid History, History of Religions, and the History of Migrations). The book is made of 12 parts and 33 chapters.

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Hsiung-nu soldier from Saksanokhur, Tajikistan

However, soon afterwards, Europe faced two major threats that lasted many centuries: the Islamic armies and the Manichaean subversion. Despite their ferocity and their conquests, at a certain point the Islamic armies were stopped either in Western or in Eastern Europe. But the Manichaean tidal wave that hit Europe back was disproportional and beyond any expectation. Starting from the Eastern Roman Empire and the entire Caucasus region and as early as the 7th c. CE, the Paulicians triggered an enormous religious, social and imperial destabilization across vast lands. The famous Eastern Roman Akritai, i.e. the imperial Eastern Roman guards and frontal forces against the Islamic Caliphate, were – all – Paulicians, having rejected the Christian Orthodox Constantinopolitan theology. Digenes Akritas, the Eastern Roman Empire's greatest hero and Modern Greeks' most revered and foremost legendary figure was a Paulician, not an Orthodox.

Constantinopolitan patriarchs, emperors and theologians persistently described the Paulicians as Manichaeans; they used the same term also for the Iconoclasts. This does not mean that these religious, spiritual and esoteric systems of faith were 'Manichaean' stricto sensu, but they were definitely formed under determinant Manichaean impact. The same concerns the Bogomiles across the Balkans, Central and Western Europe, starting in the 10th c., the Cathars across Western Europe from the 12th c. onwards, and also many other religious, spiritual and esoteric systems that derived from the aforementioned.

The Muslim friends, partners and associates of the Paulicians were also groups formed under strong Manichaean impact and historically viewed as such; known as Babakiyah or Khurramites or Khorram-dinan, the 8th c. religious group setup by Sunpadh and led in the 9th c. by Babak Khurramdin made an alliance with the Eastern Roman Emperor Theophilos (829-842), an outstanding Iconoclast, and not only repeatedly revolted against the Abbasid Caliphate but also fought along with the Eastern Roman army in 837 in the Anti-Taurus Mountains to recapture Melitene (Malatya), and on many other occasions. The Khurramite commander Nasir and 14000 Iranian Khurramite rebels had no problem in being baptized Iconoclast Christians and taking Greek names (Nasir became then known as Theophobos), which shows the Manichaean origins and affinities of the Iconoclasts and the Khurramites. 

The state of the Paulicians

The massacre of the Paulicians

Kale-ye Babak, the impregnable castle of the Babakiyah (or Khurramites) near Kaleybar – East Azerbaijan, Iran

Afshin brings Babak as captive in Samarra. from a manuscript miniature of the Safavid times

Babak Khorramdin statue from Babek city in Nakhchivan province of Azerbaijan

Within the context of early Islamic caliphates, the Manicheans prospered, definitely marked by their superiority in terms of spirituality, letters, sciences, philosophy and cosmology. It was relatively easy for them to reinterpret the Quran as a Manichaean scripture; it was totally impossible for the uneducated and naïve early Muslims to oppose Manicheans in open debate or to outfox Manichaean interpretative schemes. Among the leading Muslim erudite polymaths, mystics, poets and translators of the early period of Islamic Civilization (7th – 8th c.), many defended all major pillars of the Manichaean doctrine and even the dualist dogma; Ibn al Muqaffa is an example. The illustrious translator of the Middle Persian literary masterpiece Kalila wa Dimna into Arabic was a crypto-Manichaean Muslim, and surely he was not the only. Ibn al Muqaffa was executed as per the order of Caliph al-Mansur (754-775), but the first persecution of the Manicheans started only under the Caliph al-Mahdi (775-785); however, this was the time many groups and movements or Manichean origin started openly challenging Islam and the Caliphate in every sense. However, it is noteworthy that the greatest Caliph of all times, Harun al Rashid (786-809), had a very tolerant and friendly stance toward Manicheans of all types.

Abu’l Abbas al-Saffah proclaimed as the first Abbasid Caliph: the Abbasid dynasty opened the door for a cataclysmic Iranian cultural, intellectual, academic, scientific and spiritual impact on the Muslim world.

However, it is only as late as the time of Caliph al-Muqtadir (908-932) that the Manicheans, persecuted in the Caliphate, left Mesopotamia in big numbers, making of Afrasiab (Samarqand) and Central Asia the center of their faith, life and activities. This was not a coincidence; many Turanians had already been long date enthusiastic Manichean converts and adepts, whereas several Manichaean monuments unearthed in Central Asia date back to the 4th c. At the time of al-Mansur, the Uyghur Khaqan (: Emperor) Boku Tekin accepted Manichaeism as official state religion in 763; the Uyghur Khaqanate stretched from the Tian Shan mountains and the Lake Balkhash (today's Kazakhstan) to the Pacific. For more than one century, Manichaeism was the state religion across the entire Northeastern Asia.

During the same time, Manichaeism was diffused in Tibet and China. Similarly with what occurred in the Islamic Caliphate, Manicheans in Tibet and China had it easy to reinterpret Buddhism in Manichaean terms. As a matter of fact, Chinese Buddhism is full of Manichaean impregnations. For this reason, several anti-Buddhist Chinese emperors (like Wuzong of Tang in the period 843-845) confused the Manicheans with the Buddhists and persecuted them too. However, Manichaeism was for many centuries a fundamental component and a critical parameter of all social, spiritual, intellectual and religious developments in China. And this was due to the incessant interaction of Turanians and Iranians across Asia. About:

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Byzantine Iconoclasm - Wikipedia

During the Sassanid and early Islamic periods, the central provinces of Iran had to embrace many Turanian newcomers. This was one of the numerous Turanian waves that the Iranian plateau and its periphery had to welcome across the millennia. A vast and critical topic of the World History that was excessively distorted and systematically misrepresented across various disciplines of the Humanities is the chapter of the major Eurasiatic Migrations. Various distorting lenses have been used in this regard. It is surely beyond the scope of the present chapter to outline this subject, but I must at least mention it with respect to the persistent Orientalist efforts to divide and dissociate Iranian from Turanian nations across several millennia.

If one accepts naively the 'official' dogma of Western colonial historiography, one imagines that all the world's major civilizations (Sumerians, Elamites, Akkadians-Assyrians/Babylonians, Egyptians, Cushites-Sudanese, Hittites, Hurrians, Urartu, Phoenicians, Iranians, Greeks, Romans, Dravidians, Chinese, etc.) were automatically popped up and instantly formed by settled populations. Modern historians, who compose this sort of nonsensical narratives, are monstrous gangsters intending to desecrate human civilization and to extinguish human spirituality. All civilizations were started by nomads, and there was always a time when all indigenous nations (each of them in its own turn) were migrants.

But modern Western historians intentionally and criminally misrepresent the major Eurasiatic Migrations in a most systematic and most sophisticated manner, by only introducing - partly and partially - aspects of this overwhelming and continual phenomenon, like spices on gourmet dishes. I do not imply that the Eurasiatic Migrations were the only to have happened or to have mattered; there were also important migrations in Africa, the Pacific, and the continent of the Aztecs, the Mayas and the Incas. However, I limit the topic to the migrations that are relevant to the History of Iran and Turan. So, those who study Ancient Roman History are customarily told that, 'although everything was fine and civilized Romans prospered in peace', suddenly some iniquitous barbarians arrived to invade Roman lands and to embarrass the civilized settled populations altogether; this type of bogus-historical presentations is a Crime against the Mankind, because it distorts the foremost reality of human history, namely that we have all been migrants.

There is no worst bigotry worldwide than that of settled populations.

Yet, every manual of history would be easily rectified, if few extra chapters were added, at the beginning and during the course of the narration, to offer an outline of parallel developments occurred in the wider and irrevocbly indivisible Eurasia.

The discriminatory, truly racist, manner by which the civilized migrants are presented in various manuals of (Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Cushitic, Anatolian, Roman, Greek, European, Russian, Iranian, Dravidian, and Chinese) History helps only reinstate the vicious and immoral axiom that 'History is written by the victors'. Every historian, who does not consciously write in an objective manner to reveal the truth and to reject the paranoia of the aforementioned adage, is an enemy of the Mankind.   

Beyond the aforementioned points, many historians today will try to find an excuse, saying that, by writing about let's say the so-called 'barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire', they intentionally reflect the Roman viewpoint, because they rely on Roman historical sources. This could eventually be accepted, if stated in 1820, when the modern science of history had not advanced much, and only few archaeological excavations had taken place. But if this is seriously expressed as an apology today, it constitutes an outrage. The least one can say to these forgers is that they must first obtain an interdisciplinary degree, before publishing their nonsensical manual, or – alternatively - study several paperbacks on the History of the Migrant Nations (in this case: Huns, Vandals, Goths, etc.).  

An even greater mistake that modern historians make is that they present the continual phenomenon of Eurasiatic migrations in a most fragmentary manner; this creates, by means of Nazi propaganda, the wrong idea and the distorted impression that all of a sudden, every now and then, new migrants appear in the horizon, coming out of the vast Asiatic 'nowhere'. This is an aberration and a fallacy. The absurd factoid, which is deceitfully called "Invasions of the Roman Empire" and is peremptorily dated between 100 CE and 500 CE, is merely an academic fabrication. Why?

First, there were incessant migrations before and after the said period.

Second, the aforementioned factoid is a fallacy due to the fact that, during the same period, other migrations took also place, but the specialists in Roman History do not mention (or even do not know) them; however, these migrations (that they fail to even name) constitute intertwined phenomena with those that they present in their manuals, and consequently their presentation is a conscious and plain distortion.

Third, the events are always portrayed as a menace of barbarism, as breach of Roman legitimacy, and as violation of a hypothetical right of the Roman Empire to exist. This is an outrage; the Roman Empire was not a sacrosanct institution. In many aspects, its lawless formation, barbaric expansion, and bloody wars constitute some of the World History's bleakest pages. But criminal colonial historians never discussed 'unpleasant' topics with the correct terminology; they did not write for instance about the barbarian Roman demolition of Carthage, the monstrous Roman sack of Corinth, the savage Roman invasion of Seleucid Syria or the lawless Roman annexation of Egypt.

This is the disgusting bias of the Western colonial historiographers: when a negative development takes place against Rome, it is 'bad'; and quite contrarily, when an undesirable occurrence happens to others, it is 'good'. And in order to represent this vicious bias as 'historical truth', they mobilize a great intellectual effort, involving many methods. In this regard, the Eurasiatic migrations are absurdly fractured into many parts, and many of these parts are deliberately concealed, when focus is made on only one of them. The pseudo-academic methods involved to disguise and conceal the topic are numerous.

First, some migrations are not presented as such, but named after the migrant nations; examples: Scythians, Sarmatians, Celts. And yet, these nations are basically known due to their migrations across vast lands.

Second, other migrations are not mentioned as such, but called after the name of the location where excavations brought to light the material remains of a migrant nation's civilization; example: Andronovo culture, Afanasievo culture, etc.

Third, several migrant nations of different origin are regrouped after the geography where they spread; this is totally paranoid, because no one can possibly 'regroup' the Vandals, who crossed Central and Western Europe, reached North Africa, settled in Hippo Regius and Carthage, and then attacked Greece, Sicily, Rome, Sardinia, Corsica and the Iberian coastlands, with the Huns, who crossed Siberia, Russia, and Ukraine, settled in Eastern Europe and attacked the Balkans, Italy and Gaul.

Fourth, several migrant nations are dissociated from one another migrant nation of the same ethnic origin (example: Huns and Turkic nations), whereas in cases of severe distortion, different names of the same nation, attested in diverse historical sources, are tentatively presented as names of two different nations (example: Huns and Hsiung nu whose name is erroneously spelled Xiongnu).

Fifth, several parts of migrant nations are arbitrarily dissociated from their ethnic counterparts and presented separately as settled nations (example: White Huns or Hephthalites).

Sixth, the ethnic origin of several migrant nations is confusingly presented (example: the Bulgars, who were a Turkic nation, are often included in Europe's 'Migration Period' and categorized along with Slavs, whereas they should have been mentioned in the 'Turkic migrations'!).

To the aforementioned inaccuracies, distortions and prejudices, a plethora of false maps is added to comfortably reduce the size of kingdoms, empires and nations whose existence did not happen to please the discriminatory minds of the perverse Anglo-French and American colonial historians.

The end result of this systematization of Western colonial falsehood is that great and highly civilized conquerors and emperors like Attila, Genghis Khan, Hulagu Khan, Kublai Khan, Timur Lenk and others appear as mysterious meteorites, who came from "nowhere", as barbarian invaders, and a "scourges of God", whereas in reality they all (and many others) were far more educated, more cultured, more competent and more heroic than any Greek, Macedonian, Roman or European king or general. To the aforementioned historical reality additional, deceitful tactics and insidious procedures have been added by the criminal, racist, Western European and North American 'historians': they definitely proved to be able to write 100000 words to deplore the destructions supposedly caused to the Human Civilization by Attila, Genghis Khan, Hulagu Khan, and others, but when they happen to write about the fact that Alexander the Great burned Persepolis, they remain malignantly and partially silent, abstaining from any due criticism. 

King Attila with the Turul bird in his shield (Chronicon Pictum, 1358)

It would be far easier for all to tell the truth: 'Asia is Turan' for most of its territory. And the moral lesson must be drawn: the existence of a 'state' is not a reason for anyone not to invade its lands. States are not sacrosanct; and in any case, the territory occupied by the nation that setup the local state, in all cases of historical states, was also invaded by the ancestors of that nation in the first place.

The biased Western colonial historians carry out all these distortions as tasks in order to promote the lawless interests of their own disreputable states; for this reason they always concealed the following unwavering reality: throughout World History, various fundamental concepts like 'land', 'state', 'nation', 'sacred place', etc. have had different connotations among nations of nomadic migrants and nations of settled populations.

Furthermore, several fundamental concepts, which are valid among settled nations, have no validity at all among nomads and migrant nations, and vice versa. In addition, some basic concepts that exist among nomads and migrant nations start being altered and becoming different if and when these nations happen to settle somewhere 'permanently'. The concept of 'universe' and the deriving imperative of 'universalism' are fundamental notions of nomads and migrant nations; notably, the Akkadians (early Assyrians – Babylonians), who first produced significant literary narratives to detail the concept, were also a migrant nation that had settled only few centuries before writing down in cuneiform texts their world views.

The History of Eurasiatic Migrations, in and by itself, highlights the extensive presence of Turanians in Iran since times immemorial. Thanks to the Turanians of the Achaemenid Empire, the Turkic nations of Central Asia, China and Siberia came to get detailed descriptions of faraway regions and lands, such as Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine, the Caucasus Mountains, the Anatolian plateau, the plains of Ukraine and Central Europe, the Balkan Peninsula, and Egypt. Consequently, further the interaction between Iran and Rome progressed, more details about the western confines of Europe reached the Turanian nomads who were moving around Lake Balkhash (Kazakhstan), Yenisey River and Baikal Lake (Siberia), Orkhon River (Mongolia), the Tarim Basin (China), the Oymyakon River (Yakutia, Eastern Siberia) and other circumferences. The incessant waves of migrations to the West and to the South were not blind and desperate movements of uninformed barbarians, who ran like crazy on their horses; only the distorted publications of Western colonial historians contain similar, nonsensical conclusions.

The pattern of the Turanian military horsemen and skillful soldiers is absolutely prominent and protruding in the History of the Early Caliphates; but it is merely the continuation of a millennia long tradition. This consists in a very embarrassing fact for all the Western Orientalists specializing in Early Islamic History, and more particularly with focus on the 8th c. CE, the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate, and the rise of Abbasid Baghdad. They therefore constantly come up with incredible assumptions, farfetched arguments, nonsensical explanations, and sly innuendos to explain how and why so many Turanian soldiers and military heads appear in the Islamic Caliphate. In fact, without Turanian military skills, the Umayyad dynasty of Damascus may have not been overthrown.

It is well known that the early Islamic armies advanced up to Merv in today's Turkmenistan (651) and they stopped there. For the next hundred years, the only Islamic advance in Asia was effectuated only in today's Baluchistan province of Pakistan; only at the end of the 7th c. and the beginning of the 8th c., the Islamic armies reached the Indus Delta and Gujarat. But how the Islamic Caliphate started being flooded with Turanian soldiers as early as the last decades of the Umayyad rule, if there had not already been massive Turanian populations in the Sassanid Empire of Iran? If the Turanian nations were confined 'somewhere in Eastern Siberia and Mongolia' (as per the distortions of colonial Orientalists), why did they appear to be so deeply involved in battles and developments that took place in Mesopotamia and Syria during the first half of the 8th c.? The answer to this question is very simple: there were always massive Turanian populations in the Pre-Islamic Iranian empires.

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Iran–Turan, Manichaeism & Islam during the Migration Period and the Early Caliphates

By Prof. Muhammet Şemsettin Gözübüyükoğlu (Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis) Pre-publication of chapter XVI of my forthcoming book “Turkey i

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Iran–Turan, Manichaeism & Islam during the Migration Period and the Early Caliphates

Pre-publication of chapter XVI of my forthcoming book “Turkey is Iran and Iran is Turkey – 2500 Years of indivisible Turanian – Iranian Civi