this article appeared in Bidoun magazine, Winter 2005
Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia
British Museum
8 September 2005-8 January 2006
After 26 years of living in London and feeling like the poster girl for successful integration, I recently shuddered to hear an old friend declare that she had no idea that there was such a thing as pre-Islamic Iran. I know we are all citizens of the world now and questions of national identity are so last century, but I will admit that a flash of national pride made me hold forth on the glories of ancient Persia and the empire that spanned North Africa to the Indus Valley. I railed that not to know about Persepolis and the empire that gave us a model of devolved administration, the first ever declaration of human rights, stone friezes that can be seen as a precursor to modern movies and the world’s first monotheistic religion was as huge a cultural faux pas as not being aware of the rule of ancient Rome.
Luckily for me and all those other Iranians frustrated by the West’s popular failure to acknowledge Iran’s contribution to civilisation, the British Museum will this autumn mount the most comprehensive exhibition yet on the splendours of the ancient Persian Empire. As well as drawing on the prolific collection from the Louvre and the British Museum itself, the exhibition will feature treasures that have never left Iran before, signifying a deepening of cultural ties that can only benefit both east and west.
© Kamin Mohammadi 2005