Ancient and New Silk Roads: Faith & History

6- Western Orientalist historiography 7- Early sources of Iranian History: Assyrian-Babylonian Cuneiform 8- Pre-History in the Iranian plateau, and Mesopotamia Tepe Sialk Tureng Tepe Tepe Yahya

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. .......... 2- Iranian Achaemenid historiography A. Achaemenid imperial inscriptions produced on solemn occasions B. Persepolis Administrative Archives C. Imperial Aramaic 3- Problems of historiography continuity 4- Iranian posterior historiography (Iranian historiography of Islamic times) 5- Foreign historiography

Leading article first published on 25th March 2007 in the portals: Afroarticles, American Chronicle, and Buzzle More recently: https://www.academia.edu/22874256/50_Years_of_European_Manichaeism and https://www.academia.edu/22874567/50_Years_of_European_Manichaeism_by_Prof._Muhammad_Shamsaddin_Megalommatis Note on the pictorial documentation Several pictures will remind Buddhism and Buddhist Art in Central Asia and China to many viewers; this is only normal because, across Central Asia and parts of China, in the same locations, cities, towns and villages, Manichaeans, Buddhists and Nestorians lived together in either peace or persecuted by different Turkic, Mongol, Iranian, Sogdian or Chinese rulers. In addition, Central Asiatic and Chinese Manichaeans incorporated Buddha and elements of Buddhism in their religion, and by them Mani (Moni in Chinese - 摩尼) was called the Buddha of Light (光佛). Note on the musical accompaniment As the ancestors of the Modern Uighur Nation (who are all Muslims) were Manichaean in their entirety before 900-1200 years, we selected a few good examples of Uighur traditional instrumental music. Concerning Manichaeism: christinegruwez.info/en/verzamelde-teksten/artikelen/english-the-contemporary-relevance-of-manichaeism/ (with focus on the Manichaean path of initiation) Also: newadvent.org/cathen/09591a.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism fsmitha.com/h1/ch22.htm personal.umich.edu/~rdwallin/syl/GreatBooks/202.W99/Augustine/AugManich.htm Credits: I thank my good friend, Mr. Nikos Bayraktaris, who prepared this video