Civilization and Its Enemies:
5,000 Years of Iran’s Global Legacy
Epigraph
ز ایران و از تُرک و ز تازیان
نژادی پدید آید اندر میان
نه دهقان، نه تُرک و نه تازی بُوَد
سخن‌ها به کردارِ بازی بُوَد
همه گنج‌ها زیرِ دامن نهند
بمیرند و کوشش به دشمن دهند
به گیتی کسی را نمانَد وفا
روان و زبان‌ها شود پُر جفا
بریزند خون از پیِ خواسته
شود روزگارِ بد آراسته
زیانِ کسان از پیِ سودِ خویش
بجویند و دین اندر آرند پیش
نباشد بهار از زمستان پدید
نیارند هنگامِ رامش نَبید
(Ferdowsi, Shahnameh)
From Iran, from the Turks, and from the Arabs,
A new people shall rise among them.
Neither farmer, nor Turk, nor Arab will they be,
And their words will be like a game, empty of meaning.
They will hoard treasures beneath their skirts,
Then die, giving their strength to their enemies.
No faithfulness will remain in the world,
Souls and tongues will be filled with cruelty.
They will spill blood for the sake of wealth,
And make a dark age appear adorned.
They will seek their own profit at others’ loss,
And use religion as a cover for deceit.
No spring will be known apart from winter,
Nor will the season of joy bring wine.
Introduction
A thousand years ago, Ferdowsi warned of an age when civilizations would be broken, when people would abandon their roots, and when greed and deceit would dress themselves in the robes of religion.
His words were not merely poetry; they were the distilled wisdom of a civilization that had already endured countless assaults by forces seeking not to build, but to erase.
For over five millennia, Iran has stood at the heart of the world, not ‘the Middle East,’ a colonial misnomer, but West Asia, where the great roads of commerce, culture, and ideas converged.
From the Achaemenid Empire’s Pax Persica to the Sasanian defense of order against chaos, Iran was not merely a regional power but the very axis of civilization.
Its influence radiated outward: into Greece and Rome, into India and China, and into Europe through the preservation of knowledge, law, and philosophy.
This centrality is not a romantic exaggeration. Historians, anthropologists, and esoteric traditions alike acknowledge Iran as one of the roots of world civilization.
Zoroastrian ethics, Mithraic mysteries, and imperial traditions shaped not only the Near East but also the foundations of Europe. Elements of Europe’s aristocracy, through philosophy, science, and law bear the imprint of Iran’s ancient legacy.
Against this stood a recurring adversary: the anti-civilizational forces of the steppe and the desert. Whether Arab tribes erupting from the peninsula in the 7th century, or Turkic and Mongol hordes sweeping westward in later centuries, the pattern repeated: libraries burned, cities flattened, plural traditions erased, and an absolutist faith imposed.
The Great Wall of China was built to keep them out; Byzantium fell before them; Europe itself was nearly overrun until Vienna. Again and again, Iran bore the brunt of this struggle, serving as the shield of civilization.
Today, the same pattern repeats. Turkey, allied with extremist groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda, has unleashed destruction upon Christians, Yazidis, Armenians, Assyrians, and other minorities in Syria and Iraq.
These atrocities are not accidents of history, but the continuation of the destructive impulse Ferdowsi foresaw. At the same time, the very concept of “Turkic identity” is revealed as a modern invention, fabricated under Atatürk and projected backward as though it had always existed. It is a narrative designed to legitimize erasure and expansion.
This is not merely about the threat of pan-Turkism to Iran. It is about a larger truth: whenever Iran is attacked, whenever its roots are weakened, the whole structure of world civilization trembles.
Ferdowsi’s warning is not only Iran’s to remember, it belongs to the world.
Chapter 1:
The Meaning of Civilization
Civilization is not simply the presence of wealth, buildings, or power. It is the slow accumulation of memory, order, and refinement across generations.
A city is more than its stones; it is the crystallization of human striving of law, art, philosophy, and conscience. As Aristotle reminded us, man is not merely an animal, but a political animal, one who can flourish only within the polis, the city.
To live as a human being is to live in community, to build something enduring, to transcend the instincts of mere survival.
This is why cities matter. To walk through the old streets of Isfahan or Shiraz, to stand before Persepolis, or even to wander the medieval quarters of Swiss Cities or Florence, is to feel civilization made visible.
These stones are not dead; they carry the living memory of human spirit. They are testaments to continuity, to the refusal of chaos, to the desire that life should mean more than hunger, plunder, and death.
Against this stands another way of life: the life of the steppe and the desert. Not communities rooted in cities, but roaming tribes without permanence, whose power lies in the raid, the sudden eruption of violence, the plunder of what others have built.
For such societies, civilization is not a home but a target. From the Arab tribes that descended out of Arabia in the 7th century to the Turkic hordes that later swept from Central Asia, the pattern repeated: first the sword, then the book, then the erasure of all that came before.
Iran was the first great victim of this process. The Arab invasions of the 7th century did not merely conquer land; they uprooted an entire worldview.
Zoroastrian plurality, with its reverence for fire and water, was declared heresy. Libraries were burned, temples destroyed, and an imperial language and faith were imposed in their place.
What had been a flourishing civilization became the frontier of an alien order, forced to forget its past under the cloak of Islam.
And yet, Iran did not die. Centuries later, Ferdowsi would crystallize this resistance in poetry, safeguarding what conquerors sought to erase. His Shahnameh was not only poetry; it was resistance.
“I labored much these thirty years,
I have revived Iran with my verse.”
Where the conquerors sought to flatten identity into a single religious dogma, Ferdowsi revived the plurality of heroes, kings, myths, and morals that made Iran what it was.
Civilization, then, is not a given. It is fragile, and it must be defended. The contrast is stark: on one side, the city and its continuity; on the other, the desert and its annihilation of memory.
Iran has stood for millennia at this frontier, and what has happened to Iran has always echoed far beyond its borders.
Chapter 2:
Voices of Resistance — From Ferdowsi to Iran’s Women’s Liberation
Ferdowsi — Preserver of Civilizational Memory
Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh was not a nostalgic lament but an act of cultural resurrection after the 7th-century Arab conquest.
“I labored much these thirty years,
I have revived Iran with my verse.”
This epic preserved the spirit and plurality of Iranian civilization, the civic memory that would fuel Iran’s resistance for centuries.
Sadegh Hedayat — Satire and Spiritual Liberation
Hedayat’s civilizational critique came through satire. In Haji Agha, he declared:
“Religion is not meant to reform people, but to keep them backward… Only through spreading superstition in its name can we stop new movements.”
In Karavan-e Islam, he lampooned zealots who dreamed of conquering Paris; and in Neyrangestān, he lamented:
“These imported creeds have taken root like weeds on Iranian soil, choking the native plants of our thought.”
Mashya and Mashyana — Sacred Archetypes of the Human Pair
Zoroastrian mythology revered the primordial couple Mashya and Mashyana, not as sinners like Adam and Eve, but as the first humans, born from the cosmic tree to aid creation.
According to the Avesta, they sprang from the branches of a tree that grew from the slain primeval being, Gayōmart, becoming the ancestors of humankind.
This myth positions woman not as a source of sin, but as co-creator, a spiritual equal, foundational to Iran’s pluralistic identity.
Persepolis — Material Memory of Civic Civilization
Monuments like Persepolis do more than awe visitors; they stand as witnesses to an ancient civic order. They remind us that when civilizations are attacked, their memory must endure.
The 2016 Cyrus the Great Revolt. The gatherings at Pasargadae, where Iranians chant “We are Aryan; we worship no Arabs”, affirm this identity anew in the spirit of ancient continuity.
Reza Shah & Ardeshir Reporter — A Modern Revival Attempt
In the early 20th century, Reza Shah’s daring reforms sought to restore Iran’s civic tradition, unveiling women, curbing clerical power, and reinstating secular administration.
His vision was shaped by Ardeshir Reporter, a Parsi confidant devoted to restoring Iran’s Aryan heritage. Together, they briefly awakened hopes for a truly Iranian state unbound by 7th-century ruptures.
“Woman, Life, Freedom; Man, Homeland, Prosperity” — A 21st-Century Iranian Awakening
In 2022–23, Iranian women ignited a profound civilizational movement. The slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom; Man, Homeland, Prosperity” reverberated across the nation, affirming Iranian dignity, identity, and civic memory.
This was not a Western import or a feminist concept in the Western sense; it was a deeply Iranian phenomenon, rooted in Iran’s mythology, culture, and historical resistance to oppression.
Far more than a regional slogan, it embodied the same civic spirit celebrated by Ferdowsi in the Shahnameh: enduring, conscious, and emancipatory. Predominantly led by women but supported by men in solidarity, the movement demonstrated the unity and patriotic commitment of the Iranian people.
Its principle was simple yet profound: no authority, religious or otherwise, may dictate the lives, freedoms, or choices of Iran’s citizens.
The spark of this uprising was the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, whom Iranians everywhere recognized as a daughter of Iran.
Every Iranian felt a personal connection to her, a sense of collective empathy, as if their own daughters were in danger. Inside Iran, there was no doubt: this was the people defending their daughters, their dignity, and their civilizational heritage.
Tragically, some outside forces sought to misrepresent this pure, indigenous movement. Attempts were made to recast it as Kurdish separatism, change the slogan from Persian to Kurdish, or frame it within Western feminist paradigms.
These efforts were not only misguided but ahrimanic: destructive, confusing, and opposed to the life-affirming, civilizational essence of the uprising.
Inside Iran, the people resisted these distortions. They protected the movement from fragmentation, reaffirming that this struggle for freedom and dignity was uniquely Iranian, a continuation of millennia of resistance, cultural preservation, and defense of civilizational memory.
The diaspora’s attempts to impose revised flags, foreign agendas, or separatist symbols only highlighted the movement’s purity and the unwavering commitment of the Iranian people to their homeland.
In this light, the 2022–23 uprising stands as a modern echo of Iran’s historical resilience: led by conscience, memory, and civic spirit, asserting that Iranian civilization, with its unique values and traditions, continues to thrive against forces of oppression and misrepresentation.
From the Shahnameh to indigenous uprisings, and from Iranian myths to constitutional thinkers, Iran’s civilizational essence has never disappeared.
Each of these voices; poetic, satirical, ideological, mythic, contributes to a lineage of resistance: preserving plurality, refusing imposed uniformity, and affirming an identity that has endured across millennia.
Chapter 3:
The Iranian Heart of the Caucasus
For over five thousand years, the Caucasus region has been an integral part of Iran’s cultural and political landscape. From the Achaemenid Empire to the Sassanids, this region was continuously under Iranian influence, forming a vital part of the Iranian world in language, culture, governance, and social structures.
These ties were not temporary arrangements but the result of millennia of shared civilization.
The Safavid Era: Consolidation and Shi’a Identity
The Safavid dynasty (1501–1736) marked a pivotal moment in Iranian history. Founded by Ismail I, the Safavids established Twelver Shi’a Islam as the state religion, unifying the nation and strengthening Iran against external threats, particularly the Ottoman Empire.
This religious consolidation also sought to curb the problem of dual loyalty among soldiers and governors in frontier regions.
Yet Shi’ism in Iran was never simply an imported doctrine. It absorbed and reinterpreted older Iranian traditions, mythologies, and rituals, at times reshaping them around figures such as Imam Hussein.
Stories of his martyrdom drew on motifs already present in pre-Islamic Iranian culture, particularly the legend of Siavash and the ritual of Sog-e Siavash, “Mourning of Siavash”, in which the innocence, trial, and martyrdom of the prince are commemorated.
This ritual and its themes are attested across sources such as Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, the Avesta, and collections like the Khudāynāmeh.
In this way, Shi’ism both distinguished Iran from the Sunni world, which often regarded Shi’a as heretical, and acted as a vessel through which Iranian identity endured. What might have seemed foreign became, paradoxically, a means of preserving the essence of Iran.
For Iran’s oldest faith, Zoroastrianism, however, the Safavid turn was deeply ambivalent. Zoroastrians had always regarded Iran itself as sacred, the holy land of their ancestors and their loyalty was never in question.
Even centuries later, during the Iran–Iraq War, Zoroastrians gave their lives for Iran at a rate far exceeding their small numbers, bearing witness to this unwavering devotion. Their identity was inseparable from the soil of Iran, and they never abandoned it in spirit.
Nevertheless, Safavid policies often marginalized them, leading to waves of migration to India, not only after the 7th century Arab conquest but again under Safavid rule. These exoduses weakened Iran by depriving it of some of its most faithful children.
Under Shah Abbas I (1588–1629), the Safavids expanded their territory and consolidated control over the Caucasus. Persian language, culture, and governance were promoted throughout the region, reinforcing centuries of Iranian identity and maintaining the historical continuity that connects the Caucasus to the Iranian plateau.
The Qajar Period: Loss and Decline
The Qajar dynasty (1789–1925) presided over a period of decline for Iran. The state lost control over many historically Iranian lands in the Caucasus through the Treaties of Gulistan (1813) and Turkmenchay (1828), which ceded territories to the Russian Empire.
These treaties severed deep-rooted political and familial connections, yet the cultural and civilizational imprint of Iran remained evident in the languages, customs, and material culture of the region.
It is essential to recognize that, although political control was lost, the people of the Caucasus retained strong historical and cultural ties to Iran.
The modern name “Azerbaijan” imposed in the 20th century replaced the historically Iranian designation of Aran, a shift that obscured millennia of Iranian heritage.
Soviet Reconfiguration: Renaming Aran to Azerbaijan
In the early 20th century, following the collapse of the Russian Empire and the brief establishment of the Azerbaijan People’s Republic in 1918, the name “Azerbaijan” was adopted for the newly independent state.
This designation had previously been used exclusively for the Iranian province of Azerbaijan. The choice of name was influenced by political considerations, including the desire to unify Turkish-speaking populations across the region and to assert a distinct national identity separate from Iranian heritage.
Under Soviet rule, Joseph Stalin further solidified this rebranding by establishing the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in 1920.
The region north of the Aras River, historically known as Aran, was incorporated into this new entity. This renaming served to reinforce the Soviet Union’s territorial claims and to diminish the region’s Iranian identity.
In the aftermath of World War II, the Soviet Union’s refusal to withdraw from northern Iran, including the province of Azerbaijan, led to the establishment of the short-lived Azerbaijan People’s Government in 1945.
This move was met with resistance from Iranian nationalists and was a source of tension in U.S.-Soviet relations. President Harry S. Truman reportedly issued an ultimatum to the Soviet Union, demanding withdrawal from Iran or facing potential military consequences.
While debated, international pressure, including from the U.S., helped secure the withdrawal in 1946.
The imposition of the name “Azerbaijan” on the region north of the Aras River has been a subject of controversy, as it disregarded the area’s historical and cultural ties to Iran.
The renaming and subsequent political developments have had lasting implications on the identity and geopolitics of the region.
Contemporary Implications: Preserving Iranian Legacy
Today, the Caucasus faces new pressures, including the spread of pan-Turkic ideologies and political influence from Ankara. These developments risk diminishing recognition of the region’s deep Iranian roots.
Languages, architecture, culinary traditions, and familial networks all reflect a longstanding Iranian identity that predates modern political constructs.
For Iran, reconnecting with the Caucasus is not about territorial claims but about acknowledging and preserving a civilizational bond that has persisted for thousands of years.
Yet it is also about protecting the dignity of the people who carry this legacy. Too often, they are marginalized or humiliated under expansionist projects that seek to erase their history.
The tragedy unfolding in Armenia today is a stark reminder of how fragile cultural survival can be when political power is wielded to deny it.
Preserving Iranian identity in the Caucasus therefore means more than safeguarding memory; it means standing with communities whose integrity and heritage are threatened.
Fostering cultural, historical, and social links will ensure that the rich heritage of this region continues to inform Iran’s own identity and the broader history of civilization.
Chapter 4:
The Eternal Civilization — Iran in the Modern Age
Iran’s civilization has survived for millennia, shaped by resilience, culture, and conscience. Its influence has extended far beyond its borders, not through conquest alone, but through ideas, arts, philosophy, and civic memory.
The Iranian people, inheritors of this rich legacy, have always understood that culture and identity must be protected, not merely celebrated.
In the contemporary world, Iran’s strength cannot rely on cultural prestige alone. It must also be able to resist erasure by imperial powers.
To survive, Iran requires military capability, technological advancement, and strategic autonomy. The nation’s past has shown that civilizations are only as secure as the means they possess to defend themselves.
The Iranian people know this well: their homeland is sacred, its memory is precious, and its continuity depends on both wisdom and strength.
Recent attacks on patriotic Iranian generals and scientists, including figures such as General Bagheri, highlight the stakes of this reality.
These assaults, carried out by Israel, targeted those who dedicated their lives to defending the nation. These attacks did not target religion or religious communities, no mullahs or clerics were killed but the civic, scientific, and strategic foundations of Iranian civilization.
The Iranian people’s concern is the excessive political power of the clerical establishment, not religion itself. These attacks were judged by the Iranian population, including its Jewish community, as barbaric and unjust.
Iran’s Jewish citizens live openly and freely, with synagogues, businesses, and traditions fully respected, reflecting the pluralism of Iranian society.
Iran’s resilience is further exemplified in its unity during crises. When the nation is threatened, from external forces or internal mismanagement, Iranians gather around their homeland, their culture, and their flag.
Even in moments of domestic discontent, when citizens question governance, they understand that the preservation of Iran as a civilizational entity is paramount.
Patriotism is not blind loyalty; it is an acknowledgment that Iran’s history, memory, and ethical identity are irreplaceable.
In the eternal sweep of time, Iran has played a role in shaping human civilization, even within the apocalyptic myths and texts of Abrahamic religions.
Far from passive observers, Iranians have repeatedly appeared as moral, cultural, and civilizational agents in these narratives, emphasizing their enduring significance.
This is not mere legend: it reflects a historical truth recognized across millennia, Iran is not a transient political entity but an eternal civilization.
The Iranian nation, forged by geography, culture, and memory, has endured countless assaults. From ancient empires to modern ideological and military threats, its survival demonstrates a continuity that transcends temporary political regimes.
To honor this legacy is to recognize that protecting Iran is not merely a matter of policy but a moral and civilizational duty.
Its people, armed with conscience, knowledge, and the means of defense, stand as guardians of a civilization that has shaped the world for thousands of years and will continue to do so.
Iran is eternal. Its culture, its conscience, its people, all are intertwined in the enduring story of a civilization that refuses to be erased.
Those who do not understand this permanence may attempt to manipulate, misrepresent, or attack Iran, but they underestimate the depth, cohesion, and vitality of a nation that has persisted for millennia and will persist for millennia more.
Conclusion
Across millennia, Iran has stood as a beacon of civilization, its culture, memory, and civic spirit enduring despite invasions, misrepresentations, and internal strife.
From the verses of Ferdowsi to the voices of contemporary women, from mythic archetypes to modern thinkers, the Iranian people have consistently defended their heritage, identity, and homeland.
Today, that legacy continues: a nation aware of its past, resilient in the present, and determined to preserve its future.
The story of Iran is not merely history; it is the ongoing affirmation of a civilization that has shaped the world and will continue to shine through the ages.
Aram Ruhi Ahangarani
20 August 2025