Wow. Just read your contributions to Talk: Sassanid Empire. Very impressive mastery of sources and argument. Nice to see that some scholars of this period are not apologists for a certain religion, and that vast "blank periods" in the records signify some kind of biblio-catastrophe for a previously literate urban civilisation. All we get over here in the UK is the BBC telling us how the Muslims invented sunshine... and don't expect them to make a distinction between pre-Islamic cultures in the Middle-East.
I've often wondered whether a lot of "Islamic" art and culture wasn't pre-existing, especially as regards Persian precursor cultures, or arose in spite rather than because of the religion. We (correctly) don't credit Christianity with driving 17th century advances in Europe, after all. But my speciality is all in the modern era, I'm afraid.
Your notes have helped my own lamentable ignorance of this period considerably. Thank you.
- Alistair
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buddy, world needs people like you
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...And who might you be? --The Persian Cataphract 15:42, 28 August 2007 (UTC)