The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History By Touraj Daryaee, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. 398 pages.)

Abstract

Narrating the history of a nation from approximately 1,000,000 BCE to 2009

CE in 389 pages is a daunting and noteworthy task undertaken by the scholars

who have contributed to The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History. This collection

of sixteen short essays by distinguished anthropologists, archaeologists,

historians, and philologists of the Iranian world divides Iranian history into

three general periods: ancient, medieval, and modern. Chapters 1 to 7 address

the ancient Iranian dynasties, chapters 8 to 13 talk about medieval Iran, and

the last three focus on modern Iran. In the words of editor Touraj Daryaee,

each chapter has been written in a way to provide “comprehensive information

for students at the university level and for the uneducated layperson” (p. ii).

Therefore, the book is intended to be more of an introduction rather than a

reference book for scholarly research ...