All language subtitles for Art of Persia 2of3 1080p BBC

This is a land known by two names.

The first is Persia.

TRADITIONAL MIDDLE EASTERN SINGING

Ancient.

Mysterious.

A place of adventure...

..of mighty temples and palaces
built by powerful kings.

A land of unimaginable beauty.

The other is Iran.

Isolated.

Proud.

Defiant...

..especially of
foreign interference.

But behind these names

lies the extraordinary story

of a complex history and culture.

The Persians can seem like
a mystery at the edge

of the Western imagination,

in the Old Testament or battling
Alexander and the Romans

in classical history,

but the ripples of
Persia's art and language

have travel outward,
throughout the world,

transforming culture
across Europe and Asia.

If you think you know the
Persians, think again.

Since Iran became an Islamic
republic in 1979,

Western documentary teams
are seldom given access.

But I'm a British journalist
and I've been given

a rare opportunity to travel across
this vast country

and discover its art
and literature for myself.

In this episode, I'm going back
to when the Arabs conquered Persia,

a conquest that was more
than a confrontation

between two mighty armies.

It was a clash between
two powerful civilisations.

The Arabs brought with them
a new culture, new language,

and a new religion.

But, despite subjugation,

the Persians fought back.

This is the remarkable story
of why Iran isn't Arab

and how it has proudly held on
to its Persian identity

and language to this day.

At the beginning of
the 7th century,

far away in the Arabian Peninsula,

a trader named Muhammad was said

to have received a series
of revelations from God.

They formed the basis of the Koran

and a small but radical movement

rose to change the world.

Islam was born.

Soon, all of Arabia united
under Muslim rule.

Through conquest and conversion,

so began the battle to forge
a new Islamic empire.

First, the Arab armies took
the Levant and Egypt.

Then they set their sights
on Persia.

The King of Persia at the time
was just a boy.

He was called Yazdegerd.

It was a ten-year-old who led
the Persian army into battle

against the Arab armies of Islam.

The Persians fought bravely,

but, in the end,
they were annihilated.

Yazdegerd, and what was left
of his army, fled east

over the Zagros Mountains.

But this formidable barrier
proved no defence.

By the year 637 AD,

the Arabs were at the gates
of Persia's capital city, Istakhr.

But Yazdegerd
and his family escaped.

This is the village of Chak Chak,
hidden in the mountains

of Iran's southern desert.

According to legend, it was across
this unforgiving landscape

the royal family fled with
the Arab armies in hot pursuit,

a legend that's connected to one of

Iran's most sacred religious sites,

a Zoroastrian fire temple...

..the religion of Persia
before Islam.

It's tradition that as soon
as they catch sight of the temple,

pilgrims are supposed to complete
the rest of their journey on foot.

The temple doors bear the reliefs
of Persia's ancient kings.

Pilgrims flock here
from all over the world,

but it's also a place where ordinary
Iranians come to touch their past.

This is an actual fire pot and...

Farinaz is a practising Zoroastrian

and my guide to the connection
between this sacred place

and the tragic fate
of the Persian royal family.

Can you tell me why this site

is so sacred to Zoroastrians?

But one of the Persian
princesses did escape.

The legend goes

that when she prayed
to the Zoroastrian god,

the mountain miraculously opened up

and hid her from the Arab soldiers.

The waters of this spring are
said to be tears of grief

in memory of the princess and
the end of the Persian Empire

and its religion.

These three bull or ox heads
with the tiny calves

underneath are made of brass and
once formed the head of a mace

kept by a Zoroastrian priest.

You can see where
the staff would have joined

and it has a real weight to it.

And they had a dual purpose,
objects like these.

They were used
in religious ceremonies, but also

in defence to ward off looters
and invaders from the fire temples.

And this particular mace head has
been dated to the 7th century,

so it's tempting to
imagine it used in anger

against the invading Arab Muslims

who came to fight
the Persian armies

and to extinguish the flames
at the Zoroastrian temples.

For the Persians,
the Islamic conquest came

as an overwhelming shock.

It must have felt their entire
culture would be swallowed up,

including the religion
that Islam replaced.

So what was
the Zoroastrian religion

and who was the god they worshipped?

In central Iran,
at a fire temple in Yazd,

this flame, it is said, was
first lit before Islam arrived.

It's been burning for 1,500 years.

The fire represents
the Zoroastrian god, Ahura Mazda...

..the god worshipped by
King Yazdegerd and his ancestors.

Zoroastrianism is the great
forgotten world faith.

It's a great shame because
Zoroastrianism has embedded

in it very basic principles
of good thoughts, good works,

good deeds under the head
of one supreme god,

Ahura Mazda, which
means "the wise lord".

And he gives this principle of Atar,

which means truth and from truth

then you get order and harmony.

The faithful were commanded to pray
in the direction of the light.

The only light the ancients
controlled was fire,

so they created temples to keep the
flame burning for eternity.

The Iranians and their rulers
had always been Zoroastrian.

Figures such as the winged god
Ahura Mazda had been worshipped

since the earliest of times,

putting the Zoroastrian religion

at the heart of Persian identity.

After the rise of Islam, many
Zoroastrians fled to India.

But there are still around
25,000 followers in Iran today.

I've come to a village just outside
Yazd, which is the birthplace,

it's said, of Zoroastrianism.

THEY CHANT AND SING

Zoroastrians believe they
will remain together

both in life and in death.

This is called a tower of silence

and it looms over the city
of Yazd below.

A reminder to the ancient Persians
that all life's journeys

will end here.

Traditionally, Zoroastrians did not
want to pollute the Earth

by burying their dead or the air
by cremating them,

so they brought them up here

and it really does feel
closer to the heavens.

The bodies were left to rot,
to be picked apart

by desert vultures,

the bones bleached by the sun.

Some believe Yazd is where
Zoroastrianism was born

and, looking down on
this beautiful desert city,

I feel I finally understand
the remarkable resilience

of the Persian people
who knew invasion could come

from any direction.

The spirit of the Zoroastrian
religion runs right through

Persia's pre-Islamic history

because of the special
powers the god Ahura Mazda

bestowed on her kings.

This place is called Naqsh-e Rostam.

It's home to a series of
extraordinary rock carvings,

memorials to Iran's
pre-Islamic kings.

Every year, Iranians flock here

to connect with their
lost civilisation

and to marvel at
the pride and strength

of their ancient rulers.

The figure on the right
of this carving

was called Ardashir I

and he came to the throne
in the year 224 AD.

Ardashir was descended from
a Zoroastrian priest called Sasan.

He was the first in
a dynasty of Persian kings

called the Sasanians.

It was Ardashir who made
Zoroastrianism

the official religion of Persia

and he's shown on this rock carving

seated there on horseback,

receiving the diadem of
kingship from God himself,

Ahura Mazda.

We see the king approach the god
and the god gives him a ring,

so the giving of
this ring is really

the investing of the king
with this divine essence,

this charisma,

this light, which then sort
of envelops the king

for the rest of his reign.

And, interestingly, this kind
of...this light, which we kind of,

I suppose, describe as a halo,
we see then transferred

into Christian art,
into Buddhist art

and even into Muslim art as well,

so this idea goes very, very deep
into these religions.

To many Iranians, this is one
of the most precious carvings

in the country.

They're drawn to it because
the mysterious symbols and cryptic

runes represent the birth
of the Persian nation.

Written in three languages,

the first known inscription of
the country he ruled,

it says,

"Worshipper of Ahura Mazda,

"this is Ardashir,

"King of Kings of Iran."

But even a great king like Ardashir
cannot live forever.

In his last days,
Ardashir made a prophecy.

The dynasty would last
500 years, he said,

but the last Sasanians would
fall from the true faith.

Echoing the sense of fatalism
that runs right

through the Zoroastrian religion,

this is what Ardashir said.

"Whatever I have bound,
they will release.

"The faith that I have
purified will cease.

"My testament will be as naught

"and all our sovereignty
will crumble and fall."

This is such a haunting,
forlorn place.

It's hard to believe this
lonely column, once crowned

by a fantastical carved beast,

and this section of
wall are all that remain

of Ardashir's capital city, Istakhr.

The conquering Arab armies would
raze it to the ground.

Its magnificence now lies
hidden under these fields.

Ardashir's prophecy proved
eerily correct.

By the year 651,

the last Sasanian king,
Yazdegerd, was dead.

The conquest was complete.

Now the Persians were under
Arab Muslim rule.

This is the Jameh Mosque
in the centre of Yazd.

It's one of the oldest
mosques in Iran.

The modern Iranian state requires

women to wear a chador
to come inside.

On the brick ceiling behind me,

the patterns spell out

more than 100 different
names of God.

Beyond the craftsmanship
and exquisite tile work,

the mosque is emblematic of what
happened to the Zoroastrian religion

after Islam arrived.

A major fire temple once stood here.

But, when Islam reached Yazd,

its days were numbered.

The Persians and their religion,
it seemed, were crushed.

The conquest was quite quick.

It was over in a decade,

but you have to imagine
that the Persian Army

was quite exhausted by that time.

There was also quite a bit
of unrest from within.

Conversion is a fairly
incremental thing.

It happens in cities first,

then it grows into
the into the rural areas,

but some parts of the Caspian
don't convert at all

for many, many centuries.
They were very hard to get to...

..and you find rebellions.

I mean, you find
Zoroastrian-inspired rebellions.

Like their religion, the remnants

of the Persian army
went underground,

but it transformed
into something new and powerful

that would endure for centuries.

And if you explore the winding
passageways of Yazd's old city,

you can find a living connection

to the ancient Persian
resistance movement

that grew after the Arabs invaded.

This is a zurkhaneh

which means "house of strength".

UPLIFTING SINGING

They can be found
all over modern Iran.

The roots of zurkhaneh stretch
back to when Persian men

were forbidden to train openly

by their Arab conquerors.

They met in secret instead,

preparing for the day
they might be called again to fight.

The symbolic movements represent
the battlefield,

exercises that mimic
the bow and arrow,

shields, clubs and wrestling.

What began as secret training
for the defenders of ancient Persia

over time grew into a brotherhood

helping men of every generation

to become heroes
of their local communities.

APPLAUSE

The movements are accompanied
by epic songs and poems

that date back
to pre-Islamic Iran.

MAN SINGS

Words of wisdom from ancient poets

that strengthen the souls of
men and boys alike.

The fusion of these exercises
and these stories

is symbolic of a struggle
that went far beyond

armed resistance against the Arabs.

They reveal an ancient determination

to protect Persian culture,

history, and language.

In 750 AD, a century
after the Arab invasion,

a dynasty called the
Abbasids rose to power.

They held the title Caliph,

Islam's supreme religious
and political leaders.

A new Caliphate called
for a new capital city,

and the Abbasids
set their eyes on Baghdad,

now in Iraq, but then

close to the heartlands of Persia.

The process of Islamisation...

..was quite quick.

The process of Arabisation...

..never worked.

And the reason why
Arabisation never worked...

..is because of the power
of Persian culture.

This coin is called a dirham.

It contains everything
we need to know about the resilience

of Persian culture in
the face of the Arab invasion.

For centuries, Persian money,

coins like these,

were the most powerful
currency in the ancient world.

The dirham was the US dollar
or the euro of its day,

and the Arab invaders tried
introducing their own currency,

but nobody trusted it,
and, of course, like today,

confidence is central
to the economy.

Without it,
the trade would collapse.

So, the Arab rulers had
no choice but to continue

minting Persian coins.

The designs on the coin depict
Persia's pre-Islamic kings.

One side bears the king

and, on the other,
a Zoroastrian fire altar.

The only change the new
Abbasid rulers later made

was to add the name of
the local Arab governor.

And that sanctifies the coin,

Arabises the coin,

legitimises the coin,

and everybody was happy.

This was the dollar of antiquity.

It went everywhere.

They were minted in their
millions every year.

The Persian dirham
was the beating heart

of the Islamic world's economy.

But Persian influence
didn't stop here.

The bodyguards of
the Abbasid rulers,

wore Persian clothes, too...

..called jamah.

I'm going to take this one as well.

Thank you.

You know, I was always told
that the word "pyjamas" comes

from India and it came back
with the British Raj,

but, in fact, the word "jamah"

there's something familiar
about that, isn't there?

And the word "jamah" in the Persian
language means "clothing"

and the word "pa" means "leg."

Pa-jamah - leg-clothing.

By the middle of the 9th century,

Persian words, ideas, and practices

were wrapping themselves
around the Caliphate like ivy.

These ceramic bowls
tell the same story.

In the early years,
Islam forbid imagery

allowing only religious
and heavenly symbols,

like birds,

to be painted on everyday
wear like this.

But, soon, favourite tales
and characters began to appear.

Here's the story of a Sasanian king

and his doomed love affair

with an Armenian princess.

Stories re-emerging like ghosts

from Iran's pre-Islamic past.

As well as conversion to Islam,

Persians were obliged to speak
the language

it brought with it...

..Arabic,

but that didn't stop them
making it their own.

Persian as a language re-emerges,

almost empowered, if you can put
it by this, by the Arabic alphabet.

THEY GREET EACH OTHER IN ARABIC

Basically, through the medium
of the Arabic alphabet,

New Persian, as we know it,
emerges that becomes, really,

the lingua franca of
Eastern Islamic world.

It's a very, very powerful force.

After the arrival of Islam
in the 7th century,

Persians adapted
the Arabic alphabet,

adding four letters to give the
32 of the modern Persian alphabet,

and, in classes like this,

modern Iranians
are seeking to connect

to the long tradition
of matching form

to the content of the words,

through the art of
beautiful writing.

By elevating the simple written word
into something beautiful,

calligraphy has become
a highly prized skill

and master calligraphers
continue the work of

preserving the Persian language.

Professor, I have to ask,

would you give that a grade,
that piece of work?

Excellent. Fair. Firm but fair.

From calligraphy...

..to coins...

..to ceramics.

In the battle between two cultures,

the Persians were making
an extraordinary comeback.

I think that in these early
years or early decades,

early centuries of Islam,

actually, the Arabs become
conquered by Persia,

in many respects.

The tables are turned
and they become Persianised

by the much stronger
culture of the Persians.

They celebrate the Persian New Year.

They wear Persian costume.

They have the veiling of women.

They have the curtain that
is drawn in front of the ruler.

All sorts of things that come
from the Persian tradition.

The new Arab rulers also adopted
the Persian civil service,

which was centuries old

and a well-oiled machine.

They even kept on
the Persian civil servants,

including the most powerful
position of all,

the chief minister,
known as the vizier.

The most significant viziers
were from the Barmakid family,

and they had been for generations

top officials under the Sasanians,

and they simply became
the top family

for a full century

under the Abbasids.

So, the making
of the Arab state

as an empire

happens as a result
of the astonishing comeback

of the Persians.

At the beginning
of the 9th century,

the ruling Caliph, Harun al-Rashid,

started to grow suspicious of
his Barmakid vizier.

He was called Ja'far Barmaki.

You might recognise the names
of Harun and Ja'far.

They're the real people made
famous as characters in

Tales From 1,001 Nights,

the story of Aladdin.

Harun's vizier
had become too powerful, too grand.

Harun jailed his entire family,

dispossessed them of their lands,

and had Ja'far beheaded.

Ja'far Barmaki
was anything but evil,

and, yet, he's being remembered
in the West as the archetypal,

wicked, grand vizier
in the Disney version.

The vizier has made it all the way
from the Abbasid Caliphate

into modern culture,

always portrayed as wicked,
underhand, and greedy

with a devilish moustache.

But Harun didn't abolish the office.

He appointed another vizier,

also Iranian,

a former slave
who would know his place.

Harun underestimated
the crucial role Ja'far played...

..and, as soon as he was dead,

the empire started to crumble.

This was the beginning of the end

of Arab rule in Persia

as competing warlords
fought for dominance.

In 809 AD, Harun led an army

to crush a rebellion in
the deserts of the north-east,

but he became ill and died

just outside a little town
called Tus.

In 935 AD,

a century after
the Abbasids lost power in Persia,

a man named Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi
was born in the same town of Tus

where Harun had died.

Ferdowsi was a writer

and, in the battle
to preserve Persian culture,

it was Ferdowsi who would prove

to be the most
powerful warrior of all.

The town of Tus that Ferdowsi knew

has long since vanished,

but, in Iran's desert regions,

there are a handful of villages

and little towns that, remarkably,

have survived the ravages of time,

like this one.

Oh, this so beautiful.

This crumbling and deserted town
in central Iran is Kharanaq.

It was first settled
4,000 years ago.

The buildings aren't that old,
but it's said some do date back

to the time of Ferdowsi,

preserved for a millennium
in the dry desert air.

Coming to Kharanaq
is like stepping back in time

and exploring
these labyrinthine streets

and mud-built buildings
is beginning

to give me a real sense
of the ancient Persia

once familiar to Ferdowsi.

Ferdowsi was from
that useful dehqan class,

the gentry and middling bureaucrats
who oversaw the collecting of tax

and administered
the country at a local level.

As a young man, Ferdowsi
would have wandered streets

and passageways like these...

..gathering both taxes and
stories, myths, legends

about pre-Islamic Persia...

..even though this was a region
where Islam and the Arabs

still echoed powerfully.

In Ferdowsi's time,
doorways like this

would have been very familiar

with a separate door-knocker
for a man and a woman

so that the person inside would know
the gender of who had come.

So, this is the male knocker...

HEAVY KNOCKING

..and this is the female locker.

LIGHT, TINNY KNOCKING

Here's a rare image of Ferdowsi

greeting a fellow poet.

Like many Iranians,
Ferdowsi was torn in two.

While he was a good Muslim,

he rejected the Arabs
and their culture.

I think Ferdowsi was a patriot.

I think you shouldn't speak in terms
of the nation-state at this time,

but he had what you might call
national sentiment.

Ferdowsi wasn't alone.

Following the collapse
of Abbasid rule in Persia,

another new dynasty
rose to dominance.

They were Persian, not Arab.

They were the Samanids
and they were on a mission.

There was a project known

as the first Persian princedom,

kingdom, if you like,

after the Islamic conquest of Iran.

They very much modelled themselves
on the pre-Islamic kings,

and, therefore, it makes sense
that they wanted

to promote that image.

They promoted that image
by commissioning Ferdowsi

to turn his collection of stories
about Persia's ancient kings

into a book.

It was called The Shahnameh.

I think he wrote that book
as a way of rescuing

the past from what he saw
as an over-Arabised present,

and he was afraid that Persian
would just get lost,

would be drowned.

So, Ferdowsi wrote the Shahnameh

not in Arabic but in Persian

to preserve, like a time capsule,

as much as he could
of his country's story

before the arrival of Islam.

The characters are part-mythical
and part-historical,

and the book tells of their
heroic deeds

against divine and human forces.

This is a tract which gives
a heart back to an Iranian people

who had been oppressed
by an Arab invader.

He is consistent throughout it,
that he is a good Muslim,

but he is anti-Arab and he is...

..I suppose we can call him
an Iranian nationalist.

The prototype, I suppose,
of a kind of Iranian nationalism

you find in Shahnameh.

It took a long time.

Anything between 30 to 34 years.

There were many legends around how
much he was going to be paid,

whether it was a gold coin
for every line,

which I think would have
bankrupted the treasury,

if that was true.

In the end, Ferdowsi
wrote 60,000 lines.

He was going to be rich...

..or so he thought.

By the time Ferdowsi
was finished writing,

over three decades later,

so was the Persian dynasty
that had commissioned him.

Now Iran was under the heel
of yet another new ruler,

and this painting shows Ferdowsi
praising the new Sultan,

having presented him
with the Shahnameh.

The new king, Sultan Mahmud,
is a completely different man.

He doesn't even
necessarily speak Persian,

so, Ferdowsi brings
the book to the court

and the king is less than impressed.

Ferdowsi hoped that when he finished
it, Father Christmas would give him

a life's pension
and make it all worthwhile.

And Father Christmas, in his case,

had short arms and deep pockets

and didn't pay up.

This is all that remains
of the town Ferdowsi called home...

..a section of the old wall
that once defended Tus.

The story goes that the Sultan
was eventually persuaded

the Shahnameh was
a truly monumental work.

So, he made good and sent Ferdowsi

a generous sum of money in gold.

Tragically, according to this story,
as the sack of gold coins

was being carried in through
one of the city gates,

Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi was leaving
through another,

carried in his coffin.

Ferdowsi, it seemed, had died
a bitterly disappointed man,

but he would have
been astonished to learn

that, 1,000 years later,

his life's work would
still be read all over Iran.

In Tehran, statues...

..squares...

..even subway stations
are named after him.

It's not just Ferdowsi's name
that's famous.

The stories of his characters
are so popular

they're even
the subject of street art.

Among the princesses,
kings and heroes,

is my favourite...

..Rostam.

Rostam is the biggest figure
in the Shahnameh in every sense.

He's a knight
the size of eight men.

He lives for hundreds of years.

He rips up tree trunks.

He rescues his kings,
maidens, and kills demons.

He's like a cross between Hercules,
Hector and the Incredible Hulk,

the ultimate Iranian superhero.

Handed down from
one generation to the next,

many characters
like Rostam are so popular

they've become household names,

bonding Iranian parents
and children with a sense

of pride and adventure
in who they are.

I've been invited
by the Farzanehs to dinner,

to hear about their evangelical zeal

for Iran's favourite story book.

So, you've got these great
pictures from the Shahnameh.

Can you tell me who is this?

I love his weapons.

Do you have a favourite
weapon of Rostam's?

What's really amazing is
this feeling of walking into a home

which is full of the love
of the Shahnameh

and the children
really know their stories.

They're passionate about it
and you can tell

both Mum and Dad just have
brought them up surrounded

by this sense of excitement
and adventure and music

and poetry, all together.

Yes?

Yes, you agree?

Yes. Yes.

The Farzanehs have made it
their life's mission to preach

the Shahnameh
to the next generation.

The stew looks amazing!

Bon appetit!

So, tell me, how would you describe

what you do with the Shahnameh
and in your work?

the Shahnameh remains alive

in the hearts of Iranians,
young and old.

SHE READS IN PERSIAN

Packed full of heroic adventures
and supernatural tales,

it's perfect for bedtime reading.

I've returned to
the little town of Tus

on Iran's far north eastern
border...

..the place of Ferdowsi's birth,
death and burial.

He lies here,

in this magnificent
marble-clad mausoleum

fit for a king.

He's the champion who made a stand
against the Arab invaders

and, every year, thousands of
visitors come to pay their respects

to Iran's national hero.

The words inscribed
on his tomb read,

"Here lies the master of
Persian storytellers

"who remains in the hearts of
the people of this country

"for eternity."

It was Ferdowsi who revived
and preserved the idea of Iran

in the Book of Kings,

with its potent mix of history
and mythology.

He's the small-town boy
who wrote Iran's national epic.

Ferdowsi died in the year 1020,

but the struggle to preserve

Persia's language and identity

was far from over.

I'm travelling next to Nishapur.

It was home to another writer,

a man who would continue the work
that Ferdowsi started.

Almost nothing remains
of the old city of Nishapur,

but, if you look carefully,
there are clues to what made it

one of the ancient world's
greatest cities.

Everywhere I look,
I see the colour turquoise...

..the colour of heaven.

Turquoise stone has been mined
nearby for a staggering 7,000 years.

In the tangle of alleyways
and lanes, the sound of grinding

and polishing fills the air...

..as stonecutters
painstakingly separate

the turquoise from the rock.

TOOLS WHIR AND BUZZ

It's amazing.

Hundreds of pieces.

How long does it take
from sorting these pieces

to making a whole bracelet
like that?

Merchants who passed
through Nishapur

would buy stones and
ceramic objects,

like this beautiful,
turquoise, glazed jug.

It dates to the 11th century

when Nishapur's
most famous son lived,

Omar Khayyam.

This is his tomb.

In tribute to Khayyam's
life and work,

the mausoleum is tiled
in the turquoise stone

that made the city famous.

This 1930s mausoleum looks
just like a spaceship.

And I love it.

It's perfect because here
in Iran, Omar Khayyam is best known

as a mathematician
and an astronomer.

His work on algebra has influenced
European thinkers

of the Enlightenment.

He's said to be the first person
to prove the Earth spun on its axis,

and, thanks to his observations,

he came up with a calendar with
eight leap years in every 33,

more accurate
than the Gregorian calendar.

But, in the West, he's best known
as a poet.

Above me, the turquoise tiles
are inscribed with Omar Khayyam's

most famous poems.

Like the Shahnameh,
it was Khayyam's poetry

that helped keep the flame
of Persian literature burning.

The poem is from
The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam.

Rubaiyat means
"four line rhyming poetry"

and it was made famous in the West
during the 19th century

by the translations of the English
poet Edward Fitzgerald.

The message of Khayyam's
is very much carpe diem,

live, for, tomorrow, you may die.

And this is really something

that the Victorians
found refreshing.

It became a book that,
during the World War I,

officers certainly had
a little copy of this

in their rucksack
because you may die

but this is destiny.

This is what has been pre-ordained.

This sense of fatalism
might sound familiar.

It echoes the tragic prophecy

of King Ardashir and the belief

in destiny that lies at the heart

of the Zoroastrian religion.

And that's not surprising,

given Omar Khayyam's
father was a Zoroastrian

and the city once a major centre
of the old religion.

"With them, the seed of
wisdom did I sow,

"and with my own hand

"laboured it to grow.

"And this was all
the harvest that I reaped.

"I came like water

"and, like wind, I go."

Fatalistic lines like these

were forbidden under Islam,

but, fortunately for Omar Khayyam,

he had the protection of the most
powerful man in Persia,

the greatest vizier of them all.

I'm travelling next to
the fabled city of Isfahan,

where an extraordinary example
of this man's talent and power

can still be seen.

At the time of
its construction in 1086,

this was the largest dome
in the world.

It was built here in Isfahan

by Nizam al-Mulk...

..patron of Omar Khayyam

and vizier to the latest
conqueror of Persia,

the Seljuk Sultan.

Nizam al-Mulk wasn't just
a great builder, he was also

a very talented administrator.

These days, we would probably
call him a technocrat.

Indeed, the very word
administrator or even vizier

totally undersells him.

Nizam al-Mulk ran the Seljuk empire.

Like all the other
great Persian viziers,

his aim was to impress on his
less sophisticated new rulers

the superiority
of Persian civilisation

and political wisdom.

Nizam al-Mulk ran the Seljuk empire

as if he was guided
by the spirit of Ferdowsi.

But he went one step further.

He wrote a handbook.

Nizam al-Mulk
is an astonishing figure.

This was a man who wrote THE...

..definitive mirror for princes,

the manual for statecraft,

how a ruler should behave

and how a ruler
should do everything.

How often he should go hunting,

who he should sleep with,

which slaves he can trust

and which he can't trust,

how he should go about
raising an army.

He's borrowing a lot from
pre-Islamic motifs,

ideas, Zoroastrianism.

I mean, he brings it all
in to, basically,

show the Seljuk Sultan, you know,
this is how to govern.

This is how to do it.

This is how you administer.

"Your Highness" we can imagine him
saying, "There is no need to train

"your people in the arts
of good government.

"I have well-trained administrators
ready to do it all,

"ready to collect your taxes
in silver dirhams

"from all your many subjects.

"Here, Your Highness, is a
book of advice

"and instructions in the art
of good government.

"You'll find it indispensable."

In writing the book, Nizam al-Mulk
overstepped the mark.

Like the vizier Ja'far
in the Aladdin story,

Nizam al-Mulk's
employer grew resentful

of the enormous powers he wielded.

They decided,
"This old man will not die.

"He's a nuisance
and we have to snuff him out",

and his murder in 1092

triggers a series of murders
right across the stage.

And, within a year, the entire
eastern Islamic world looks

like Hamlet in Act V, Scene V,

you know, nothing but corpses
on the stage.

Despite his violent end,
Nizam al-Mulk is remembered today

as Iran's own Machiavelli,

the brilliant master of statecraft.

At this intersection in Isfahan,
Nizam al-Mulk presides proud

and resolute over the modern
city, holding,

I would guess, a copy of his
book of government.

The plaque pays tribute
to his vision and his wisdom

in ensuring that Persian
influence would remain

at the heart of government,
whoever was in charge.

Since the invasion of the Arabs,

the Persians had been fighting
for the survival of their culture.

500 years later, the Persians
had made an incredible comeback.

Their culture and language
had endured.

And, thanks to powerful viziers
like Nizam al-Mulk,

the system of government
had remained Iranian.

The shelf on which great Persian
literature would be stored

was also beginning to fill.

There was the work of Omar Khayyam

and, beside it,
Ferdowsi's Shahnameh.

Next time...

..I'm going back to the centuries
when the savagery

of the Mongol invasions threatened
to erase Persia altogether.

But from the ashes of conquest

emerged Persia's golden age,

when craftsmen carved the message
of Shi'a Islam in stone,

brick and tile,

and when the influence
of the Shahnameh takes off...

This is the way to convince people
that I am the rightful king!

..becoming the essential
calling card of conquerors,

all seeking to prove
their Persian authenticity,

right up to Iran's last Shah...

He genuinely believes
that this is his mission

to see himself as a new Cyrus.

..with momentous
consequences for the world.

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