User Reviews

British journalist Samira Ahmed lays out the history of Persia and modern day Iran. It's a three part docu-series starting with the Elamites to the apocalypse of Genghis Khan and finally the last Shah. It's a proud unique civilization tied together by history, a book, countless wars, the cultural arts, and religions.

Coming into this, I knew the broadest strokes of Iranian history but the overall effect of this three-parter is to lay out the uniqueness of Persian civilization. It becomes obvious why Iran stands apart from the rest of the middle east. They are the only ones able to keep their language despite the numerous invasions. The Shahnameh is credited by this series as the reason. It's their cultural bible. This is very informative for this outsider and gives insights into this closed society. The presenters can be a bit sycophantic with Persian culture at times but that their field of study. I learned a lot and that's the point of this type of shows.

This series look at long history of Iran and how its culture has shaped during this period from within the invasions, forces, brutalities and selfishness of rulers and invaders.

A deserving, well-knit & well-written production, that gives you a long-sighted overview of a culture & literary/architectural tradition all too often ignored, or else inaccessible in the West. I wish a great many much more of these well--researched, comprehensive docs was released by the BBC yearly. Indeed docs of this quality on historical/cultural subjects (treated with expertise/comprehensively) are few and far between, especially when it comes to traditions outside the West - and there is both a demand, and a relevance for them.