Excerpt from Persian Art
The History of Art in Persia dates from the remote ages of the "Four ancient monarchies," of which Persia is the only one now existing., The long duration of Persia as a separate and generally independent kingdom has been less owing to its power of resisting attacks from without than to the faculty always shown of absorbing its temporary conquerors.
Thus the conquests of Alexander in ancient times, and those of Moguls, Arabs, and Affghans more recently, have each left Persia comparatively unchanged.
A large proportion of the inhabitants at the present day, especially in the north and north-west, are of Turkish (Turkistan) origin, and still preserve the language and to some extent the features of their ancestors, while at the same time they are nationally as thoroughly Persian as the rest of the community. One great cause of this in more modem times is doubtless what may be called the sectarian nature of the national creed; the Shiah, as oppossed to the Sunni, form of Mahommedanism. This sectarianism has no doubt had a great effect in keeping alive the feeling of nationality with which the country has always been impressed, and in preventing union with the native mussulman states.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Persian Art (Classic Reprint)