Cooper's investigative account ultimately delivers the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty through the eyes of those who were there: leading Iranian revolutionaries; President Jimmy Carter and White House officials; US Ambassador William Sullivan and his staff in the American embassy in Tehran; American families caught up in the drama; even Empress Farah herself, and the rest of the Iranian Imperial family.
Intimate and sweeping at once, The Fall of Heaven recreates in stunning detail the dramatic and final days of one of the world's most legendary ruling families, the unseating of which helped set the stage for the current state of the Middle East. In Shah of Shahs Kapuscinski brings a mythographer's perspective and a novelist's virtuosity to bear on the overthrow of the last Shah of Iran, one of the most infamous of the United States' client-dictators, who resolved to transform his country into "a second America in a generation," only to be toppled virtually overnight.
From his vantage point at the break-up of the old regime, Kapuscinski gives us a compelling history of conspiracy, repression, fanatacism, and revolution. Translated from the Polish by William R. Brand and Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand. The bestselling author of Overthrow offers a new and surprising vision for rebuilding America's strategic partnerships in the Middle East What can the United States do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East?
Stephen Kinzer offers a surprising answer in this paradigm-shifting book. Two countries in the region, he argues, are America's logical partners in the twenty-first century: Turkey and Iran. Besides proposing this new "power triangle," Kinzer also recommends that the United States reshape relations with its two traditional Middle East allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia. This book provides a penetrating, timely critique of America's approach to the world's most volatile region, and offers a startling alternative.
Kinzer is a master storyteller with an eye for grand characters and illuminating historical detail. In this book he introduces us to larger-than-life figures, like a Nebraska schoolteacher who became a martyr to democracy in Iran, a Turkish radical who transformed his country and Islam forever, and a colorful parade of princes, politicians, women of the world, spies, oppressors, liberators, and dreamers.
Kinzer's provocative new view of the Middle East is the rare book that will richly entertain while moving a vital policy debate beyond the stale alternatives of the last fifty years. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace—including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs.
His experiments spread LSD across the United States, making him a hidden godfather of the s counterculture. For years he was the chief supplier of spy tools used by CIA officers around the world. Stephen Kinzer, author of groundbreaking books about U.
He lived in a remote cabin without running water, meditated, and rose before dawn to milk his goats. During his twenty-two years at the CIA, Gottlieb worked in the deepest secrecy. Only since his death has it become possible to piece together his astonishing career at the intersection of extreme science and covert action.
Poisoner in Chief reveals him as a clandestine conjurer on an epic scale. A joint biography of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, who led the United States into an unseen war that decisively shaped today's world During the s, when the Cold War was at its peak, two immensely powerful brothers led the United States into a series of foreign adventures whose effects are still shaking the world.
In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the background of American culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world? The Brothers explores hidden forces that shape the national psyche, from religious piety to Western movies—many of which are about a noble gunman who cleans up a lawless town by killing bad guys.
This is how the Dulles brothers saw themselves, and how many Americans still see their country's role in the world. Propelled by a quintessentially American set of fears and delusions, the Dulles brothers launched violent campaigns against foreign leaders they saw as threats to the United States.
These campaigns helped push countries from Guatemala to the Congo into long spirals of violence, led the United States into the Vietnam War, and laid the foundation for decades of hostility between the United States and countries from Cuba to Iran.
The Shah's was a life filled with contradiction—as a social reformer he built schools, increased equality for women, and greatly reduced the power of the Shia clergy. He made Iran a global power, courting Western leaders from Churchill to Carter, and nationalized his country's many natural resources. But he was deeply conflicted and insecure in his powerful role. Intolerant of political dissent, he was eventually overthrown by the very people whose loyalty he so desperately sought.
This comprehensive and gripping account shows us how Iran went from politically moderate monarchy to totalitarian Islamic republic. Milani reveals the complex and sweeping road that would bring the U. As the value of oil skyrockets, global power brokers begin to take interest in the political regimes of the Middle East.
Deals are made behind closed doors. Every actor has a stake. Operation Ajax is the story of the CIA coup that removed the democratically elected Mossadegh and reinstated the monarchy.
Kinzer is a master storyteller with an eye for grand characters and illuminating historical detail. In this book he introduces us to larger-than-life figures, like a Nebraska schoolteacher who became a martyr to democracy in Iran, a Turkish radical who transformed his country and Islam forever, and a colorful parade of princes, politicians, women of the world, spies, oppressors, liberators, and dreamers.
Kinzer's provocative new view of the Middle East is the rare book that will richly entertain while moving a vital policy debate beyond the stale alternatives of the last fifty years. The surprising story of Iran's transformation from America's ally in the Middle East into one of its staunchest adversaries "An original interpretation that puts Iranian actors where they belong: at center stage.
This revolution was not, as many believe, the popular overthrow of a powerful and ruthless puppet of the United States; rather, it followed decades of corrosion of Iran's political establishment by an autocratic ruler who demanded fealty but lacked the personal strength to make hard decisions and, ultimately, lost the support of every sector of Iranian society.
Esteemed Middle East scholar Ray Takeyh provides new interpretations of many key events--including the coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq and the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini--significantly revising our understanding of America and Iran's complex and difficult history. A joint biography of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, who led the United States into an unseen war that decisively shaped today's world During the s, when the Cold War was at its peak, two immensely powerful brothers led the United States into a series of foreign adventures whose effects are still shaking the world.
In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the background of American culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world?
The Brothers explores hidden forces that shape the national psyche, from religious piety to Western movies—many of which are about a noble gunman who cleans up a lawless town by killing bad guys.
This is how the Dulles brothers saw themselves, and how many Americans still see their country's role in the world. Propelled by a quintessentially American set of fears and delusions, the Dulles brothers launched violent campaigns against foreign leaders they saw as threats to the United States. These campaigns helped push countries from Guatemala to the Congo into long spirals of violence, led the United States into the Vietnam War, and laid the foundation for decades of hostility between the United States and countries from Cuba to Iran.
The story of the Dulles brothers is the story of America. It illuminates and helps explain the modern history of the United States and the world. As the wife of an American businessman, the author spent the better part of the 's in Iran where she witnessed the boom of the Shah's development and great vision for Iran to be recognized internationally in every field; it was to be Iran's Great Civilization.
He wanted his country once again to become as powerful as the Great Persian Empire of the past. He believed that by developing industry, education, economics, and the military, his dream could come to fruition. He was also a sportsman and realized that his people needed leisure time, and so he encouraged and supported sports activities. The Iran of the 60's and 70's was a country with the most beautiful snow skiing in the world; it had a world-renowned soccer program; there were country clubs and civic parks with golf courses, tennis courts, swimming pools, and just about every activity anyone might want.
The Shah's true love, however, was horses. Perhaps as a result, he promoted and supported all types of equestrian activities. An invitation to work for the Imperial Court as his horse trainer enabled the author to see many of the royal family in informal moments; it also gave her an entree into high society, and this enabled her to observe the upper class of Iranians at play.
Many of the generals and court officials spent much time in Tehran and the coastal resorts junketing and enjoying many different sports, indulging themselves to the fullest.
This is a book of stories and anecdotes about her life there during the "Golden Years" of the reign of Mohammed Reza, Shahanshah Aryamehr. There were times of joy, fun, stress, accomplishment and sadness during her time in that beautiful Middle Eastern country. You will enjoy the ride! When the Iranian Revolution deposed the shah and replaced his puppet government with a radical Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the shift reverberated throughout the Middle East and the world, casting a long, dark shadow over United States-Iran relations that extends to the present day.
In this authoritative new history of the coup and its aftermath, noted Iran scholar Ervand Abrahamian uncovers little-known documents that challenge conventional interpretations and sheds new light on how the American role in the coup influenced diplomatic relations between the two countries, past and present. It is also important because it might be predicting the future. A moving story of the former Empress of Iran -- now in paperback. Its radicalism inspired anti-Western fanatics in many countries, most notably Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda and other terror groups found homes and bases.
These events serve as a stark warning to the United States and to any country that ever seeks to impose its will on a foreign land. Governments that sponsor coups, revolutions, or armed invasions usually act with the conviction that they will win, and often they do. Their victories, however, can come back to haunt them, sometimes in devastating and tragic ways. The violent anti-Americanism that emerged from Iran after shocked most people in the United States.
Americans had no idea of what might have set off such bitter hatred in a country where they had always imagined themselves more or less well liked.
That was because almost no one in the United States knew what the Central Intelligence Agency did there in In his time, Mohammad Mossadegh was a titanic figure. He shook an empire and changed the world. People everywhere knew his name. It was the first time the United States overthrew a foreign government. It set a pattern for years to come and shaped the way millions of people view the United States. This book tells a story that explains a great deal about the sources of violent currents now surging through the world.
More than just a remarkable adventure story, it is a sobering message from the past and an object lesson for the future. Most persistent among them is Mark J. Their work made this book possible. The CIA prepared its own internal history of the coup, but it remained secret for many years.
In , a copy was leaked to the New York Times. The reporter who obtained it, James Risen, deserves much credit for his role in bringing it to light. My research also owes much to the cooperation of librarians and archivists who freely shared their time and expertise.
Stone, and John E. They know who they are, and to them I extend deep thanks. As a result, there are many variations in the English spellings of Iranian names and other words. Englishlanguage books and articles about Mossadegh, for example, spell his name in almost a dozen different ways. I have chosen spellings that seem closest to the original pronunciation. For the sake of consistency I have standardized these spellings and changed alternate spellings that occur in quoted documents.
I have also omitted diacritical marks that are unfamiliar to English-speaking readers. At several points I have made minor adjustments in translation and punctuation. These have been made only to clarify meaning and do not in any case represent substantive changes. To avoid confusion, I have referred to it by the former name throughout. Roosevelt M ost of Tehran was asleep when an odd caravan set out through the darkness shortly before midnight on August 15, At its head was an armored car with military markings.
Behind came two jeeps and several army trucks full of soldiers. The day had been exceptionally hot, but nightfall brought some relief. A crescent moon shone above.
Nasiri was on his way to present this decree to Mossadegh and arrest him if he resisted. The American and British intelligence agents who plotted this rebellion assumed that Mossadegh would immediately call out the army to suppress it.
They had arranged for no one to be on the other end of the phone when he called. The colonel did as he was told. Despite the late hour, 1 c Neither was anyone else. Not even a servant or a doorkeeper could be found.
This might have alerted Colonel Nasiri that something was amiss, but it did not. With him rode the hopes of two elite intelligence agencies.
Colonel Nasiri would not have been foolhardy enough to attempt such a bold mission on his own. The decree he carried was of dubious legality, since in democratic Iran prime ministers could be installed or removed only with the permission of parliament.
In the United States was still new to Iran. Many Iranians thought of Americans as friends, supporters of the fragile democracy they had spent half a century trying to build.
It was Britain, not the United States, that they demonized as the colonialist oppressor that exploited them. Since the early years of the twentieth century a British company, owned mainly by the British government, had enjoyed a fantastically lucrative monopoly on the production and sale of Iranian oil.
Iranians chafed bitterly under this injustice. Prime Minister Mossadegh carried out his pledges with singleminded zeal.
That sent Iran into patriotic ecstasy and made Mossadegh a national hero. It also outraged the British, who indignantly accused Mossadegh of stealing their property.
So were anticolonial leaders across Asia and Africa. Only two options remained: leave Mossadegh in power or organize a coup to depose him. Prime Minister Churchill, a proud product of the imperial tradition, had no trouble deciding for the coup. British agents began conspiring to overthrow Mossadegh soon after he nationalized the oil company.
They were too eager and aggressive for their own good. Mossadegh learned of their plotting, and in October he ordered the British embassy shut. All British diplomats in Iran, including clandestine agents working under diplomatic cover, had to leave the country.
No one was left to stage the coup. Immediately, the British asked President Truman for help. Truman, however, sympathized viscerally with nationalist movements like the one Mossadegh led.
He had nothing but contempt for oldstyle imperialists like those who ran Anglo-Iranian. Besides, the CIA had never overthrown a government, and Truman did not wish to set the precedent.
The American attitude toward a possible coup in Iran changed radically after Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in November Woodhouse shrewdly decided not to make the traditional British argument, which was that Mossadegh must go because he had nationalized British property.
That argument did not arouse much passion in Washington. Woodhouse knew what would. In their eyes, any country not decisively allied with the United States was a potential enemy. They considered Iran especially dangerous.
Iran had immense oil wealth, a long border with the Soviet Union, an active Communist party, and a nationalist prime minister. The Dulles brothers believed there was a serious danger that it would soon fall to communism. When the British presented their proposal to overthrow Mossadegh and replace him with a reliably pro-Western prime minister, they were immediately interested.
Like other members of his famous family, Kermit Roosevelt had a penchant for direct action and was known to be decisive in times of crisis. An especially nice wife.
In fact, the last person you would expect to be up to the neck in dirty tricks. Many combined the best qualities of the thinker and the adventurer. None epitomized that combination more fully than did Kermit Roosevelt. He landed in Beirut and from there set out by car across the deserts of Syria and Iraq. As he entered Iran at a remote crossing, he could barely contain his excitement: I remembered what my father wrote of his arrival in Africa with his father, T.
My nerves tingled, my spirits soared as we moved up the mountain road. In those days US passports carried, as they do not now, some brief description of any notable features of the holder.
Scar on Right Forehead. Decades of British intrigue in Iran, coupled with more recent work by the CIA, gave him excellent assets on the ground. Among them were a handful of experienced and highly resourceful Iranian operatives who had spent years assembling a clandestine network of sympathetic politicians, military officers, clergymen, newspaper editors, and street gang leaders. The CIA was paying these operatives tens of thousands of dollars per month, and they earned every cent.
During the spring and summer of , not a day passed without at least one CIA-subsidized mullah, news commentator, or politician denouncing Prime Minister Mossadegh. The prime minister, who had great respect for the sanctity of free press, refused to suppress this campaign.
He replied that he was a passionate Republican and considered Franklin D. The plan for Operation Ajax envisioned an intense psychological campaign against Prime Minister Mossadegh, which the CIA had already launched, followed by an announcement that the Shah had dismissed him from office. Mobs and military units whose leaders were on the CIA payroll would crush any attempt by Mossadegh to resist. Mobs working for the CIA staged anti-Mossadegh protests, marching through the streets carrying portraits of the Shah and chanting royalist slogans.
Foreign agents bribed members of parliament and anyone else who might be helpful in the forthcoming coup attempt. Press attacks on Mossadegh reached new levels of virulence. Articles accused him not just of communist leanings and designs on the throne, but also of Jewish parentage and even secret sympathy for the British. The thirty-two-year-old monarch, only the second shah in the Pahlavi line, was timid and indecisive by nature, and he doggedly refused to be drawn into such an audacious plot.
It was not even clear that the Shah had the legal authority to remove him. None of this daunted Roosevelt. To carry out his coup, he needed signed decrees from the Shah dismissing Mossadegh and naming General Zahedi in his place. Roosevelt never doubted that he would ultimately obtain them.
His battle of wits with the Shah was unequal from the start. Roosevelt was clever and well trained, and behind him lay immense international power. The Shah was weak, immature, and alone. She detested Mossadegh because he was an enemy of royal power. Her attacks on his government became so bitter that the Shah had felt it best to send her out of the country.
From her golden exile in Europe, she watched events in her homeland with undiminished passion. He found her reluctant, so the next day a delegation of American and British agents came to pose the invitation in stronger terms.
The leader of the delegation, a senior British operative named Norman Darbyshire, had the foresight to bring a mink coat and a packet of cash. At first her brother refused to receive her, but after being not so subtly urged to change his mind by associates who were in touch with the CIA, he relented.
Brother and sister met late on the evening of July Their meeting was c She failed to persuade him to issue the crucial decrees, and to make matters worse, news of her presence leaked out and set off a storm of protest. Next Roosevelt turned to General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who had spent most of the s in Iran leading an elite military regiment and to whom the Shah felt deeply indebted.
It was a bizarre encounter. At first the Shah refused to say a word to his guest, indicating with gestures that he suspected hidden microphones. Then he led Schwarzkopf into a large ballroom, pulled a table into the center of the room, sat down on top of it, and invited the general to join him.
There he whispered that he had still not decided whether to sign the decrees Roosevelt wanted. He doubted that the army would obey any order he signed, and he did not want to be on the losing side in such a risky operation. One more visitor might be enough to bring the desired result, but it would have to be Roosevelt himself.
This was a dangerous proposition. If Roosevelt was seen at the palace, news of his presence in Iran might leak out and compromise the entire operation. Schwarzkopf, however, told him there was no alternative. Roosevelt expected this advice. This could only be done on a person-to-person basis. In all likelihood we would have to meet not once but several times. So the sooner we got to it, the better. Under these circumstances, c The Shah nodded in silent agreement.
Only Roosevelt, however, could close the deal. If not appropriate for a royal audience, it did seem good for these rather peculiar circumstances. I had on a dark turtleneck shirt, Oxford-gray slacks, and a pair of black-topped givehs, rope-soled cloth-covered Persian footwear somewhere between shoes and bedroom slippers. Not exactly smart but suitably unobtrusive. He thought it best not to drink, though his comrades had no such scruples.
A car was waiting. He climbed into the back seat. Nothing stirred on the streets as Roosevelt was driven toward the stately palace. As his car began to climb the hill on which the palace sits, he decided that he should duck out of sight.
Roosevelt pulled off his blanket and sat up. The man, whom he recognized immediately as the Shah, approached his car, opened the door, and slid in beside him. Discreetly, the driver withdrew into the shadows. The two men understood each other. Still, however, the Shah was hesitant to join the plot. He was no adventurer, he told Roosevelt, and could not take the chances of one. To avoid it, they had approved a plot to overthrow Mossadegh— and, incidentally, to increase the power of the Shah.
Let them meet again the following night, he suggested. Then he turned to open the car door. Before and after each session, he conferred with his Iranian operatives.
When local police became suspicious of the villa he was using, he stopped conducting business there and devised another way to hold his conferences. There he would park and begin walking until one or another of his agents, usually hyperactive and pumped on the adrenaline of the operation, picked him up in a Chrysler or a Buick. They planned their day-to-day tactics while careening through the hilly outskirts of town. Third, mobs would take control of the streets.
He agreed to sign the firmans, as the royal decrees were called, but only on condition that he be allowed to leave Tehran for some safer place immediately afterward.
Mohammad Reza Shah had never been known as a courageous man, so this latest show of prudence did not surprise Roosevelt. The two men decided that the safest place for the Shah to hide was a hunting lodge that the royal family maintained near Ramsar on the Caspian coast. There was an airstrip nearby, which the Shah found reassuring.
Before bidding the Shah farewell, Roosevelt felt it correct to thank him for his decision to cooperate, reluctant though it had been. This was a historic moment, and something beyond the ordinary was appropriate. Roosevelt came up with a wonderful way to embellish his message. If the Pahlavis and the Roosevelts working together cannot solve this little problem, then there is no hope anywhere.
I have complete faith that you will get this done. All seemed perfectly arranged. When Roosevelt returned to his villa with the good news, he and his agents celebrated with an exuberant drinking binge.
A few hours later he was awakened by the cursing of an aide. There had been a last-minute failure. When he arrived, the royal couple was gone. If the Shah was not in Tehran to sign them, they would have to be brought to wherever he was. The man best equipped to help at this moment, Roosevelt quickly realized, was Colonel Nasiri of the Imperial Guard. He was a strong royalist, could find and fly a plane, and was on intimate terms with the Shah. The arrangements were quickly made, and this time the connection worked.
Roosevelt and his comrades spent the day waiting impatiently around their pool, with no idea of what was taking Nasiri so long. When night fell, they took to smoking, playing cards, and drinking vodka with lime. It was almost midnight when they heard shouts at the gate. They ran to open it. Outside was a small throng of unshaven and very excited Iranians, most of whom they did not recognize. They pushed a packet to Roosevelt, who opened it gingerly.
After jubilantly embracing his new friends, Roosevelt considered how quickly he could now move. He was much dismayed when his agents told him there would have to be one more delay. The weekend, which Iranians observe on Thursday and Friday, was about to begin, and Iranians do not like to conduct business, much less overthrow governments, on weekends.
Roosevelt reluctantly agreed to postpone the coup until Saturday night, August Saturday was the hardest to bear because the moment of truth was so near. His Iranian agents visited him less frequently, but they were busier than ever at their subversive work, as a CIA report on the coup makes clear: At this same time the psychological campaign against Mossadegh was reaching its climax.
The controllable press was going all out against Mossadegh, while [DELETED] under station direction was printing material which the station considered to be helpful.
CIA agents gave serious attention to alarming the religious leaders at Tehran by issuing black propaganda in the name of the [Communist] Tudeh party, threatening these leaders with savage punishment if they opposed Mossadegh.
Threatening phone calls were also made to them, in the name of the Tudeh, and one of several sham bombings of the houses of these leaders was carried out. On 14 August the station cabled that upon the conclusion of TPAJAX the Zahedi government, in view of the empty treasury of the country, would be in urgent need of funds.
As Roosevelt drove back to the American embassy later that evening, his route took him past the residence of General Riahi, the military chief of staff. He enjoyed the coincidence. If his plan worked, General Riahi would be behind bars in a few hours. He believed in the primacy of royal power and loathed Mossadegh. His command of the seven-hundred-man Imperial Guard gave him control of considerable resources. On the night of August 15, however, Nasiri was not thinking clearly enough.
Unbeknownst to him, another military column was also on its way there. General Riahi had learned of the coup and sent troops to foil it. The precise identity of the informant has never been established. There may have been more than one informant. In the end, what happened was precisely what Roosevelt feared. Too many people knew about the plot for too long. A leak was all but inevitable.
In the confusing hours around midnight, Tehran was bursting with plots and counterplots. Others, not realizing that they were compromised, went ahead. One seized the telephone office at the bazaar. Another roused Foreign Minister Hussein Fatemi from bed and dragged him away barefoot and shouting. Here Mossadegh lived with his wife in a small apartment, part of a larger c The gate was closed.
Colonel Nasiri stepped out to demand entry. In his hand he held the firman dismissing Mossadegh from office. Colonel Nasiri had arrived too late. Moments after he appeared at the gate, several loyal commanders stepped from the shadows. They escorted him into a jeep and drove him to general staff headquarters. There General Riahi denounced him as a traitor, ordered him stripped of his uniform, and sent him to a cell.
The man who was to have arrested Mossadegh was now himself a prisoner. Roosevelt, who had no way of knowing that any of this was happening, was at his embassy command post, waiting for Colonel Nasiri to call. Tanks clattered by several times, but the telephone never rang. Roosevelt did not speak Persian but feared the worst when he heard the announcer use the word Mossadegh. As soon as he grasped what had happened, he roused his wife and told her it was time to run.
They quickly packed two small briefcases, grabbed what clothes they could carry in their arms, and walked briskly out toward their twin-engine Beechcraft. The Shah, a trained pilot, took the controls and set a course for Baghdad. City life quickly returned to normal.
Several conspirators were arrested and others went into hiding. A reward was offered for the capture of General Zahedi. CIA operatives made mad dashes back to the security of the American embassy or safe houses. Waller feared for the lives of his agents, and he sent Roosevelt an urgent reply. No copy of it is known to exist. Many years later, though, Waller said that it was not so categorical.
They had lost the advantage of surprise. Several of their key agents were out of action. Their anointed prime minister, General Zahedi, was in hiding. Foreign Minister Fatemi, free after several hours in rebel custody, was making fiery speeches denouncing the Shah for his collaboration with foreign agents.
Shock waves reverberated through CIA headquarters in Washington. Then suddenly, around midevening, Roosevelt cabled a most unexpected message. He had decided to stay in Tehran and improvise another stab at Mossadegh.
The CIA had sent him to overthrow the government of Iran, and he was determined not to leave until he had done it. This was the ceremonial and spiritual capital of a vast empire, built by Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes, titans whose names still echo through history. Giant statues of winged bulls guard the Gate of All Nations, through which princes from vassal states passed once each year to pay homage to their Persian masters.
Its roof was supported by thirty-six towering columns, some of which still stand. Two monumental staircases leading up to the hall are decorated with intricately detailed carvings depicting the annual ritual of obedience, which was held on the day of the vernal equinox. Today they offer a vivid picture of how completely Persian emperors once dominated the richest lands on earth. The carvings show rulers of subject states filing past their supreme leader, each bearing gifts symbolizing the wealth of his province.
Archaeologists have managed to identify most of them, and the very names of their cultures evoke the richness of antiquity. Arabs lead a camel, Assyrians a bull, Indians a donkey laden with woven baskets. All these tributes were laid before the King of Kings, a monarch whose reign spread Persian power to the edges of the known world.
European colonialists drew their national borders in the nineteenth or twentieth century, often with little regard for local history and tradition, and their leaders have had to concoct outlandish myths in order to give citizens a sense of nationhood.
Just the opposite is true of Iran. Even in modern times, which have been marked by long periods of anarchy, repression, and suffering, Iranians are passionately inspired by their heritage. Great themes run through Iranian history and shape it to this day. Another, fueled by the Shiite Muslim tradition to which most Iranians now belong, is the thirst for just leadership, of which they have enjoyed precious little.
A third, also sharpened by Shiite beliefs, is a tragic view of life rooted in a sense of martyrdom and communal pain.
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