IOR/L/PS/20/C126/1

This file is A History of Persia by Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Molesworth Sykes (London: Macmillan and Co, Limited, 1915).

The file consists of two volumes, containing a historical narrative of Persia [Iran], dating from around 6000 BCE to the signing of the Persian Constitution of 1906 CE. It contains an overview of Persian geography, including climate, waterways, flora, fauna, and minerals, as well as discussions of the cultures, languages, religions, and governmental structures of Persia during key periods of its history.

The key historical subjects covered by this file include:

• The prehistory of Persia
• The early empires of Akkad, Assyria, Media, Lydia, and Persia
• The conflict between Persia and the Greek states
• Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia, and the succession wars that followed his death
• The rise and fall of the Seleucid Empire
• The histories of the Parthian and Sasanian Empires, including their conflicts with the Roman Empire
• The life of the Prophet Mohamed [Muḥammad], the establishment of Islam, and the Arab conquest of Persia
• The histories of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, and the role of Persia within them
• The establishment of the Seljuk empire
• The Mongol invasion of Persia and the Middle East
• The rule of Tamerlane [Timur] and his successors
• The history of the Safavid dynasty, including its rise, its conflict with European powers in the Persian Gulf, and its collapse
• The life of Nader Shah [Nādir Shāh]
• The rise of the Qajar [Qājār] dynasty
• Persian interactions with the growing Russian and British empires
• The Persian Constitutional Revolution up to the creation of the Constitution of 1906.

The file contains 261 illustrations, including ninety-three photographs, eighty-one reproductions of paintings and drawings, and eighty-seven sketches of archaeological artefacts.

The file also contains seven maps:

• ‘To Illustrate the Persian Invasions of Hellas’ (catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/C126/1, f 123)
• ‘The Empire of Alexander the Great’ (catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/C126/1, f 193);
• ‘Map of Eastern Turkey in Asia, Syria and Western Persia’ (catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/C126/1, f 376);
• ‘To Illustrate the Rise of Islam’ (catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/C126/1, f 394);
• ‘The Provinces of the Abbasid Caliphate, showing the chief high roads’ (catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/C126/1, f 434);
• ‘Central Asia’ (catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/C126/1, f 449)
• ‘Map of Persia’ (catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/C126/1, f 773).

The file contains a table of contents for volume I on folios 10-16, a table of contents for volume II on folios 384-390, a list of illustrations in volume 1 on folios 17-18, a list of illustrations in volume II on folios 391-392, and a list of maps on folios 18 and 392.