Alexander the not so Great: History through Persian eyes

[livingdead]

By Prof Ali Ansari
Institute of Iranian Studies, St Andrews University

Alexander the Great is portrayed as a legendary conqueror and military leader in Greek-influenced Western history books but his legacy looks very different from a Persian perspective.

Any visitor of the spectacular ruins of Persepolis - the site of the ceremonial capital of the ancient Persian Achaemenid empire, will be told three facts: it was built by Darius the Great, embellished by his son Xerxes, and destroyed by that man, Alexander.

That man Alexander, would be the Alexander the Great, feted in Western culture as the conqueror of the Persian Empire and one of the great military geniuses of history.

Indeed, reading some Western history books one might be forgiven for thinking that the Persians existed to be conquered by Alexander.

A more inquisitive mind might discover that the Persians had twice before been defeated by the Greeks during two ill-fated invasions, by Darius the Great in 490BC and then his son, Xerxes, in 480BC - for which Alexander's assault was a justified retaliation.


Alexander the Great razed the ancient city of Persepolis
But seen through Persian eyes, Alexander is far from "Great".

..................

BBC News - Alexander the not so Great: History through Persian eyes

 

[JanjaWeed]

It's only natural that Persians see Alexander the great in a different light than the others. Persians bore the brunt when Alexander the great conquered the empire. He didn't just stop there.. one drunken night he burned down the palace of King darius & his soldiers went on a drunken rage destroying everything that came their way, causing enormous loss to the Persian civilians.

Invading Persia was his main goal.. & at the time Persian empire was more powerful & threatened Greeks through repeated attempt to invade. Then again.. once Alexander conquered Persia, he became more Persian than Persians themselves. He embraced Persian culture & did not try to influence it with foreign culture though..

 

[JanjaWeed]

Alexander the Great is portrayed as a legendary conqueror and military leader in Greek-influenced Western history books but his legacy looks very different from a Persian perspective.

Have to disagree with the author on this part. Same western history books also portrays Cyrus the Great, founder of Achaemenid Empire as one of the greatest ever..& most rate him above Alexander the Great as the greatest military commander ever..

 

[Wright]

He never lost a battle. That says a lot about his ability.
He fought at the very front and sustained heavy injuries. Yet still managed to command an entire army.

 

[Ottoman-Turk]

who said he never lost? did you see it? did you read books from his friends saying it? did you read from quotes of people he knows? , he was king of macedon which wasnt even that big

 

[xyxmt]

Wasnt so great when he came to Indus

 

[Wright]

our punjabi brothers scared him and he went back to europe from a town named jehlum in punjab,Pakistan....leaving behind some relatives in kalash,north Pakistan.

After 8 years of fighting his men wanted to go back. And he won the battle with Porus as far as I have read. Think about it, unknown terrain, facing elephants, 8 years of continous fighting, with rusty weapons, and he won. Conquest of Tyre was probably the hardest thing he accomplished. No one had managed to breach Tyre.

who said he never lost? did you see it? did you read books from his friends saying it? did you read from quotes of people he knows? , he was king of macedon which wasnt even that big

Read history, and the amount of territory he conquered. It took Rome a century to gain what he did in 8 years.
Secondly Great commanders like Ceasar and Napoleon suffered from Alexander envy.

 

[FullMetalJacket]

He did defeat Porus, and to my knowledge Alexander thought he had conquered India. He wanted to go deeper, but his soldiers refused, they were near death, battered, demoralized, and home sick. Alexander saw this and decided to return back to Greece. Few conquerors and kings have done what Alexander did, and as you read more and more about him, you'll come to realize why he's known as Alexander the Great, it's a title he deserves.

 

[Serpentine]

Persian king,Xerexes once attacked Greece and burned down Athens (or
parts of it),and Greeks had always this grudge from Iranians in their heart.That's why Alexander invaded Persia.

btw,we should never trust history incidents that has been written only by one side,in this case,the Greeks.Sometimes they exaggerate in theor history.For example one Greek historian says Xerexes attacked Greece with more than one million men!which is impossible for a war that happened nearly 2400 years ago.

That ridiculous movie,300,is an example.I hate that movie not because it shows Persians like devil monsters and Greeks like handsome heroes,but because most of it is based on lies.Because the only source available from that war belongs to Greeks.


For further information,Persia also has a hero 'Ariobarzan' who fought Alexander army,just like Leonidas of Greek,Unfortunately he is not well known for non-Iranians so much,that's a shame for us.The similarity between him and Leonidas is very interesting.I suggest you read it,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Persian_Gate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariobarzanes_(satrap_of_Persis)

 

[Takaavar]

He never lost a battle. That says a lot about his ability.

Wrong. Particularly in Persia, they were defeated mainly becaus of their own errors.
Callisthenes says about the battle of Persian Gates, "if such resistance had happened in Gaugamela against our forces, our defeat was certain." That doesn't happened because of the error of Darius III at that battle.

 

[Wright]

That ridiculous movie,300,is an example.I hate that movie not because it shows Persians like devil monsters and Greeks like handsome heroes,but because most of it is based on lies.Because the only source available from that war belongs to Greeks.

lol yeah my Iranian friends were like WTF when we saw that.

For further information,Persia also has a hero 'Ariobarzan' who fought Alexander army,just like Leonidas of Greek,Unfortunately he is not well known for non-Iranians so much,that's a shame for us.The similarity between him and Leonidas is very interesting.I suggest you read it,

Battle of the Persian Gate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Yeah like Hannibal wll never be as well known as Julias ceasar, simply because in the end he lost and did not change the course of history. Leonidas was instrumental in stopping the invasion. The cause ultimately succeeded, whereas for the Persians it did not stop Alexander.

Persian king,Xerexes once attacked Greece and burned down Athens (or
parts of it),and Greeks had always this grudge from Iranians in their heart.That's why Alexander invaded Persia.

Darias did not stop the unranium enrichment. So Alexander had to invade.

 

[Ottoman-Turk]

is this what he conquered

what about this

gokturk empire

what about this

great seljuk empire

and this ottoman empire

or this attila the hun empire

any more turkic empires?

these ?

After 8 years of fighting his men wanted to go back. And he won the battle with Porus as far as I have read. Think about it, unknown terrain, facing elephants, 8 years of continous fighting, with rusty weapons, and he won. Conquest of Tyre was probably the hardest thing he accomplished. No one had managed to breach Tyre.



Read history, and the amount of territory he conquered. It took Rome a century to gain what he did in 8 years.
Secondly Great commanders like Ceasar and Napoleon suffered from Alexander envy.

 

[PERSIAN GOD KING]

in the Film alexander they refer to Indians as " low evil people" you should had seen my Indian friends reactions to that lol
the west downgrades anything that is not western.
I have a question, why is all their films which are about greece V Persia made in point of view of Greeks? I mean the main character is always a greek. they never made a film about Cyrus the great, he created the first superpower and was the first king to be called "the great". alexander wanted to be like him, this is knows fact that alexander the gay wanted to be like Persian kings.

The persian empire was not "defeated" by alexander army, during the battle the asshole called darius the turd or 3rd ran away and therefore his army could not do anything since without his command they could not even move. if we head a leader like cyrus at that time then alexander would had his *** handed to him on a plate. even today what we lack is a great leadership.

 

[Ottoman-Turk]

i suggest this , conquering the capital of most important empires , and the capital of christians , which was tried but never conquered before

 

[Wright]

@Ottoman- Turk: You are comparing a whole geographic people to the Greeks, and through different time periods. I could do the same and point out the Greek, Roman, Spanish, Portuguese empires which are all Greek influenced southern European people btw, and say Southern Euro's > Turkic peoples.

Let's not turn this into a pissing contest. This is about Persia and Greece.