The Glittering World of Sasanian Iran

[Sean Manning]

Sean, we don't even have a few Persian 'lighthouse works' which could have given a glimpse of a genuine Persian high culture in the arts in the way of the Greeks, Chinese or even the Indians. There can only be one reason: ...

I believe that is what they call an argument from incredulity ("X, and I can't imagine any alternative to X, therefore X"). However, I just suggested another way in which an ancient literature could die with few traces, and gave some examples when we can be very confident that this happened. The hypothesis that Mesopotamian literature appears to trickle out because it switched from cuneiform on archaeologically-visible clay to Aramaic on archaeologically-invisible organic media is pretty common (Nicholas Ostler follows it in his survey of world language history). Are you saying that you can’t imagine elite Greeks ignoring (or at least not citing) literature in other languages?

the ancient Persians, as in fact the whole Ancient Near East, never make the decisive step from the Mythos to the Logos and the rise of all the scientific disciplines which accompanied it. It simply did not happen in the Ancient Near East and that's why this region fell behind in the world order compared to the younger high civilizations. In fact, I found most world historians agree on this point. Babylonian astronomy/science was superseded by the Greeks in the last centuries BC and as a tradition long discontinued even before the Muslim period.

Those are some sweeping statements, and I'm not sure I understand them. I can't speak to Iran, but in what sense is Babylonian astronomy or Egyptian surgery not an example of logos? In what period do you think that Iran "fell behind in the world order" and what does that mean?

I don`t have an opinion on the scientific achievements of Sassanid Iran. I'm just very sceptical about general statements about lost literary traditions which didn't have much contect with surviving ones. Its hard enough to speak with confidence about the Presocratic philosophers or Hellenistic historians, and we know quite a lot about both …