Land of the Aryans: The Persian Culture Essay

Iran is formerly known as Persia until 1935. It is a country in profound Eurasia located in the northeastern shore of the Iranian Gulf. Iran is the cognate of the surname Aryan, which means Land of the Aryans. Iran is home to one of the worlds oldest continual major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC. The Culture of Iran is a mix of ancient pre-Islamic socialisation and Islamic culture.Iranian culture in any probability originated in Central Asia and is strongly suggested as the predecessor of Iranian culture ca. 2000 BC. Iranian culture has long been a predominant culture of the nerve center East and Central Asia, with Persian considered the speech of intellectuals during much of the 2nd millennium, and the language of religion and the populace before that. Persian Philosophy to Major Religions The Iranian plateau has contributed ideas and techniques for sixty known centuries which have helped to continue and civilize homosexualkin d.Writing, numbers, the humanistic discipline of agriculture and of working metals, the sciences of astronomy and mathematics, and the beginnings of religious and philosophical thinking these all come from the Near East, and the fountain head of much of Near east culture was on the Iranian plateau (Nasr & Razavi, 1999, p. 3). The three Wise hands from the East whom at the birth of Jesus brought gold, frankincense and myrrh were probably Zoroastrian priests from Persia.Their gifts symbolized essential beliefs which wee contributed by Zoroastrianism to Christianity, such as the concepts of the plague One as a positive force the notion of the angels, of the ultimately judgment, or paradise, of the resurrection of the dead and of the ultimate victory of good all over black (Pope, Ackerman & Schroeder, 1945, p. 2). There are also two different influential religions that came step up of Persia. One is Mithraism, which unsuccessfully competed with Christianity for the first thre e centuries of our era.And the other is Manichaeism of which St. Augustine was a rooter before he converted to Christianity (Pope, Ackerman & Schroeder, 1945, p. 2). Moreover, according to Pope, Ackerman & Schroeder (1945) Buddhism was also partially influenced by Persian philosophy when Buddha passed through the Far East on its bang of enlightenment. (p. 2) No important religion would now be what it is were the Persian contributions to be taken from it (Nasr & Razavi, 1999, p. ). Persian Pottery Early ancient calico pottery, which had begun in Western Asia by 4000 B. C. , was mans first manuscript for the blueprints, utilizable though they be as ornament, were much more than that to those who do and utilize the vessels. Persian potteries were the expressions and evidences of fears and hopes, symbols for evoking supernatural forces to aid in the constantly anxious fight back of living (Pope, Ackerman & Schroeder, 1945, p. 7).All of the images in Persian pots symbolize the har monious relationships of man to nature and the divine aid of a god watching over and guiding them. Metal Arts Western civilizations considered pottery, ceramics or paintings as major work of art. But for Persian and Middle Eastern civilizations, it is the metal full treatment that is considered as the prime of the art works. Bronze is considered as a virtually important medium on metal arts, even comparable to bullion and gold in terms of its take to be, because it is far more durable than the tell metals.The artistic talents of the smiths were preserved and learned for thousand of years for the Persian, and adds to the artistic value of the metal arts (Ghirshman, 1962, p. 12). Simplicity and strength were the artistic ideals. Tradition prescribe symbolic shapes like the bulls head ewer and other animals to present the vitality of these animals such as lions and birds, believing that it will be passed on the metal arts (Ghirshman, 1962, p. 14) All sorts of handsome objects wer e fashioned by the Seljuq metal workers.A mirror back illustrates the famous and much love story of Bahram Gur and his sweetheart Azada, whom in a rage he was unlucky to slay. Pictorially it is unimpressive as a work of decoration and judged by the modeling of its animals it is superb (Pope, Ackerman & Schroeder, 1945, p. 64). The active figures in the center evenly and ingeniously fill the space between the cusped arches of the framing zone which, with the interpose spaces, almost forms a reciprocal. Within this are falcons, foxes, and peacocks that repay careful examination.Carpets fit to Pope (1931), it is by her carpets that the art of Persia has been most widely known (p120). Their fame has been overseas in the world these many centuries. The most priced Persian carpets are those made for the kings and princes of the Persian society. They are usually made from fabrics and other raw materials in particular and exclusively for the royaltys use (Pope, 1931, p. 121). They also commission the best painters and architects in town to make a unique and personalized design.The lustrous and sophisticated Persian color sense finds its perfect embodiment in the carpets. Their size permits of a far greater variety of colors than is remove in the smaller, lighter textiles or than is possible in a painted page. There is practically no limit to the range of colors the Persian dyers could command, and yet with all this wealth available, the rug designers chose a relatively bound number twelve to fourteen tones is the average for the great sixteenth cytosine carpets (Pope, 1931, p. 23). The Death of the Persian Culture The decline of the Persian art started in the rise of Europe. Because of various social problems such as societal depression, poverty, Afghanistani invasion and governmental incompetence are fatal to the preservation and victimisation of the Persian culture. Yet, even if the Persian culture is considered stagnant nowadays, but the Iranian movies and contemporary music and literature, the influence and appreciation of humankind on Persian culture can no longer be disregarded.