All language subtitles for Art of Persia 3of3 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.

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 granted a rare

opportunity to travel
across this vast country

and discover its history
and culture for myself.

In this final episode,
I'm going back to when Persia

faced her gravest threat,

the greatest conqueror
the world has ever known -

Genghis Khan.

But from death and destruction
emerged a golden age...

..when Persia's conquerors
discovered her literature

and transformed it into
dazzling illuminations,

then used it for politics
and propaganda...

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

..including Iran's last Shah...

..with momentous consequences
for the world.

In the early years of the 13th
century, terrible rumours swirled.

A great warlord was coming.

He'd swept away the Chinese empire.

Now his eyes were set on Persia.

His army was disciplined,
ruthless and showed no mercy.

He was the Mongol warlord
Genghis Khan.

So when, in February 1221,
the great Persian city of Merv

refused to open her gates,

the Mongols attacked.

Even the mighty walls
couldn't withstand

their devastating onslaught.

On the seventh day, the city
lost the will to fight

and surrendered.

But it was too late.

The population was driven out
into the open countryside.

It took several days
to empty the city.

And then each Mongol warrior
was assigned 400 people

to put to the sword.

If eyewitness accounts are
to be believed, up to a million

men, women and children
were butchered this way.

I don't think we can overemphasise

the sheer apocalyptic feeling

of these great hordes
of Mongol warriors

bursting from the Eurasian steppes.

They came, they sapped,
they burned, they slew,

they plundered, they departed.

That says it all.

When Genghis Khan's army continued
south, they left many cities

in ruins and whole
populations massacred.

By 1258, Persia was
under Mongol rule.

The economy collapsed and the people
were enslaved or forced to flee.

Huge expanses of Persia
reverted to nomadic existence.

It seemed the previous
golden age under Islam was over.

Even Islam itself was threatened,

for these new Mongol rulers
were pagan.

Now there was a new dynasty
in charge.

They were called the Ilkhanids.

Despite the violence and ferocity
of the invasion,

all was not lost.

For the first time since
the Muslim invasion,

Iran becomes a separate entity,
political entity,

it becomes basically an entity apart
from the rest of the Muslim world.

The Mongols found that they
could not run their empire

without Persian officials.

And in 1295, the Mongol
elite goes over to...

..to Islam, and from then on,
they are more Persian

than the Persians.

So Persian, in fact, the Ilkhanids
even turned to a book written

at the beginning of
the 11th century -

the Shahnameh, the Book of Kings.

The mythical spine
of Persian identity.

What they like about the Shahnameh
is it's about heroics,

it's about heroes,

it's about fighters.

And they can identify with it.

The Shahnameh was written
by Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi

and told the story of Persia's kings
before the arrival of Islam.

Ferdowsi wrote the Shahnameh
to keep alive Persia's

pre-Islamic language and history,

but it was also a sort of
how-to - a handbook

full of stories and examples
of ancient kings,

advice on how to take control
and keep it.

The Mongol Ilkhanids were
so impressed that they decided

they wanted to adorn themselves
in some of the Shahnameh's

mythological lustre.

I've come to this extraordinary
citadel in north-west Iran

to find out how the Mongols
refashioned the Shahnameh

for themselves.

This magical place is known
as Takht-e Soleyman -

King Solomon's Throne.

And according to folklore, the
Old Testament ruler kept monsters

imprisoned in a mountain nearby

and here in the sulphurous,
fathomless waters

of this ancient crater.

What the Mongols discovered
wasn't home to Solomon at all,

but home to Zoroastrian priests.

This was one of Persia's most
important fire temples.

Built by the Sasanian dynasty,

it had survived the Islamic
conquest in the seventh century.

And the Mongols didn't destroy it.

Instead, they used it to reinforce
their authority and transformed it

into a new seat of power.

In choosing this ancient site, the
Ilkhanids were making a statement -

by reusing the stones and bricks
from the pre-Islamic buildings,

they were trying to directly link
the new Mongol dynasty

to old Persia's Sasanian kings.

And they didn't just use
bricks and mortar -

they also turned to the Shahnameh.

When archaeologists later
excavated Takht-e Soleyman,

they made a surprising discovery.

Glazed tiles inscribed with tales
from Ferdowsi's Book of Kings

that once would have adorned
the walls of this palace.

I don't think that the Shahnameh
on the walls of the Mongol palace

there is the idea
of any Mongol ruler.

It's the idea of their bureaucrats,
their viziers.

The people who say,

"Now, look, you're in
charge of Iran.

"You've got to behave like an
Iranian king, like Kay Khosrow.

"And here's the story of Kay Khosrow
all round the walls of your palace.

"And let me tell you
the story of Kay Khosrow,

"and how he did right,
and then how he did wrong.

"So, watch out.

"There's a moral here."

The Ilkhanids also commissioned
versions of the Shahnameh itself,

like this rare page from
a copy made in 1300.

And, not surprisingly,

the heroes start to look
less Persian,

more Mongol.

So we see beautiful scenes
of princes in gardens,

or riding on horseback.

They're very much Mongol faces,
wearing Mongol-style clothing.

We see garden scenes of lovers
drinking wine together

in a completely Persianate setting,

but with the distinctive images
of the Mongol appearance.

I find the Ilkhanate period
one of the most exciting

in all of Persia's history.

The Ilkhanids were so seduced
by this new-found culture,

Persia became their new home.

200 miles to the east, they built
their imperial capital here.

They called it Soltaniyeh.

At its heart stands
the second-largest mausoleum

in the Islamic world.

The peak of the dome
is 51 metres high...

..its walls seven metres thick.

As well as a projection of Persian
architectural brilliance,

this mausoleum tells us
something else -

the new ruler who ordered
its construction had converted

to the faith of the people
the Mongols had conquered -

Islam.

Sultan Oljeitu, who built
this mausoleum, had converted

to Shia Islam, and it's one
of the great what-ifs of buildings.

His plan was to house the remains of
the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law

and cousin, the martyred Imam Ali,

which would have made this mausoleum
the biggest pilgrimage site

in Shia Islam outside of Mecca.

But it never happened.

Just look at this place.
Even though it's partly hidden

behind the scaffolding,

I'm just thinking, the word Mongols,
we think of the hordes, barbarians,

and yet when you walk into
this building and you can see

this amazing exquisite calligraphy
and the ceramic work

and the geometric designs,
and this magnificent dome,

one of the biggest in the world,

one can't help think how
the Ilkhanate dynasty

may have come here as invaders,

but they'd become absorbed
by Persian culture.

Restoration here has been
going on for 50 years,

and the painstaking work
is slowly revealing

the building's former
artistic wonders.

The sultan spared no expense.

Is this gold here?
Yeah, this is gold.

You can see gold here and here.

Many of these floral motifs
were embellished with gold leaf.

So you have to be gentle,
you have to take your time?

Yeah.

Coming up here to this workshop,
I really feel like I've reached

a hand across the centuries
to 700 years ago,

watching these workmen
replicate those same skills

with the plaster work
and the painting and the tiles.

Like Mohammad said,
there's a real sense

of bringing this building
back to life.

Not all of Persia was put
to the sword by the Mongol swarm.

The city of Shiraz was spared
thanks to her quick-witted governor

called Atabak.

When the Mongols appeared
on the horizon,

he very wisely opened
the gates

and laid on a great banquet
for the Mongol general.

The clever ruse worked.

Atabak kept his job,
and under Ilkhanate rule,

Shiraz positively bloomed.

There's something weirdly
psychedelic about the way

the sunlight comes through
the windows and hits the floor

here in the Pink Mosque in Shiraz.

And if you look at the walls,
they're covered with flowers,

mainly roses.

The rose is the symbol of Shiraz,

and it was this flower
that would inspire

one of Iran's greatest poets
to put pen to paper.

He would continue the work
that Ferdowsi had started,

and usher in a golden age
of Persian poetry.

Born in 1210, he was called Saadi.

Saadi was reputedly a great
traveller - as far west as Anatolia

and as far east as India.

And his poetry is full of references
to his wanderings through countries

devastated by Mongol invasion.

Late into the night in teahouses,

he would talk to ordinary people
who'd survived -

merchants, farmers, preachers
and Sufi mystics.

And when he returned
to Shiraz around 1256,

he turned all these encounters
into poems.

IN FARSI:

The work for which Saadi is best
remembered is the Golestan -

inspired by the roses for which his
home city is famous.

The Golestan translates
as Garden Of Roses -

a compendium of history,

great tales and wise sayings.

You might recognise some of them.

But the poetry of Saadi
is more than a compendium

of wise sayings.

Like the Shahnameh,
Saadi's book is packed full of tips

on how to be a good ruler.

The building is...

According to Dr Kamali,

it was Saadi's poems that made
a deep impact on Atabak -

that very same governor who saved
Shiraz from the Mongols.

IN FARSI:

left a profound impression
on Saadi -

a belief in the very modern
concept of human rights.

These words were written

by Saadi several centuries ago.

They now hang in the entrance

of the United Nations headquarters

in New York.

"Human beings are members of a whole

"In creation of one essence and soul

"If one member is afflicted
with pain

"Other members uneasy will remain

"If you have no sympathy
for human pain

"The name of human
you cannot retain"

Saadi lies here
within this mausoleum.

Verses from his poetry
adorn the walls and his coffin.

Words of peace and humanitarianism
that resonate to this day.

It's hard to exaggerate
the importance of poetry in Iran.

Ancient poems by Ferdowsi,
Saadi and others

remain the lifeblood of
modern Iranian culture -

emblems of Iranian identity.

Shiraz is called a city of poets,

and many of the streets bear

the names of Iran's greatest.

There's Ferdowsi Street...

..Khayyam Street...

..and, as you'd expect,
Saadi Street.

And then there's one other.

Almost a century after
Saadi was born,

Shiraz fathered another great poet.

His name was Khwaja Shams al-Din
Muhammad Shirazi...

..but his nickname is Hafez.

While Saadi is remembered
for his humanism,

Hafez explored the tangled web
of human emotions,

from romantic love...

..to the love of family...

..to the love of God.

Hafez wrote about the human heart.

IN FARSI:

To Iranians, Hafez is much
more than a love poet.

His words are regarded as sacred.

Said to represent the voice
of the unseen realm,

it's believed the poems
can even predict the future.

Salaam, Mr Hafez.

Meet Mr Hafez.

His surname is no coincidence,

as he claims to be a direct
descendant of the great poet.

He tells fortunes by randomly
selecting lines from Hafez

and reading them aloud.

He's been telling fortunes
now for 70 years.

Thank you.

I've never had my
fortune told before.

But there's something slightly
moving about the things

that Mr Hafez just told me.

And he's talked about happiness
in the near future

and a boy and girl
bringing you happiness.

I have a son and a daughter.

He's also talked about success,
that something is doable.

He also said that God was pleased
with me and that there was

prosperity and blessing ahead.

Like Saadi, Hafez has also
been gifted a magnificent mausoleum.

It's hard to imagine playwrights
or poets in the West being treated

with such reverence
by every generation.

Many of the Iranians who
come to have Hafez's tomb

reach out to touch it,

and for some they might say a
prayer, as they would for a member

of the family who died,
asking for God's blessing.

But there's more just a sense
of reaching out to touch it

like a shrine,
a place of spiritual connection.

Centuries after his death,
after conquests, dynastic upheavals

and Islamic revolutions,

Hafez remains the country's
most popular poet.

Hafez unites all Iranians.

As the 14th century drew
to a close, the Mongols,

under whose rule Hafez
had spent his entire life,

returned to their
slash-and-burn style.

It seemed like history
had turned full circle.

Another great warlord was coming.

He was called Timur.

In the West, we called
him Tamburlaine,

and his eyes were set on Persia.

As he swept south
out of Central Asia,

it was said he built pillars
of human heads

from the armies he defeated.

By 1400, Persia was firmly
under the heel of a new dynasty -

the Timurids.

Fortunately for the Persians,
Timur's brutality was short-lived.

In 1405, he caught a fever and died.

And just like previous
conquering dynasties,

the Timurids soon fell under
the spell of Persian culture.

Everybody in the next generation
forwent the whole idea

of large-scale conquest.

It was Timur who went around

building pyramids
of skulls everywhere.

But the children
and the grandchildren

of the butcher become aesthetes,

they become patrons of the arts.

And the Timurid renaissance

is one of the great highlights

of Persian history.

Timur's successors adored
Persian art and literature,

and lured many artists
to their new capital city - Herat,

now in modern Afghanistan.

The royal court soon
became a new cultural centre,

and it was here that the art
of miniature painting in particular

reached new heights
of sophistication.

A tradition that lives on
in modern Iran.

This is the workshop of
Hossein Fallahi.

He's been painting miniatures
for over 60 years,

many in the Timurid style.

The work is so delicate
that his brush consists of

a single cat's hair.

The character he's painting
today is the writer

of the Shahnameh - Ferdowsi.

In the studio next door,
artists work in small teams.

They're painting stories
from the Shahnameh.

Today, they're sold
to passing tourists.

But 600 years ago, such paintings
served quite a different purpose.

Here in Tehran,

I've come to see an extremely rare
example of the kind of work

that teams of artists
under the Timurids produced

using the miniaturist style.

Six centuries old,

it's usually kept under lock and key
here at the Golestan Palace Museum.

I'm incredibly lucky
to be allowed to have a look.

A Timurid Shahnameh.

And to guide me through
its pages is Giti Norouzian,

an expert on rare manuscripts.

It's her first glimpse too.

Tell me what we're looking at.

Oh, this is a masterpiece,

and I'm so surprised.

This is one of the most
beautiful manuscripts in the world,

and the most important
one, actually.

Can I ask how it feels
handling this?

Oh, I-I am flying.

THEY LAUGH

I thought so!

The book was commissioned
by Prince Baysunghur,

who is Timur's grandson.

This is mostly Baysunghur
under this...

Under a kind of canopy. Yes.

And this is the hunting scene.

Like the Mongol rulers before them,

the Timurids gave
themselves starring roles

in their new version
of the Shahnameh.

People want to connect
to their previous history,

so they connect themselves
with previous kings,

especially the ones
that have good reputation.

So this is the way to
convince people that,

"I am the rightful king."

The prince was an enthusiastic
patron of Persian art,

and in his royal workshop,
around 40 calligraphers and artists

were devoted, quite literally,
to painting Ferdowsi's poetry.

It's considered a masterpiece
of Persian miniature painting.

This is one of the love scenes.

Yes, I can tell! Yes.

This is Rostam, one of the heroes,
very famous heroes,

and Rudaba,

a daughter of one of the kings.

And they came together.

Rostam is perhaps the greatest hero.

He lives for 800 years in the
Shahnameh, doesn't he?

Yes, this is mythical.

Who always helped the king, there's
the, you know, whole package.

Yeah.

I've got to say, one of the
things I've really noticed

looking through this with you,

there are fewer illustrations,
but each illustration is bursting

out of its page.

The trees are spilling out
of the top of the margins.

So you feel like it's concentrated,
and in each picture,

I guess we'd say
it packs a bigger punch.

While Timur's descendants
were great patrons of the arts,

they proved to be feeble rulers.

For nearly a century,

Iran was left vulnerable,

waiting for the next invader
to take his chances.

In my travels across Iran, I've come
to appreciate the resilience

of the Persian people in the face
of continual invasion

from east and west by
nomadic warriors.

Religions, kingdoms and dynasties
had risen and fallen.

Could the spirit of Persia endure
what was still to come?

At the end of the 15th century,
a band of nomadic horsemen

rose from the north west to set
Iran on a new radical course.

A militant revolutionary sect.

Their self-declared mission
was to forcibly convert all Muslims

to Shia Islam.

Their leader was called Ismail -

a warlord who was remarkable
in many ways, not least his age.

He's extremely young - 12.

I think he takes the city of Tabriz
at the age of 12.

I mean, he begins a life
of conquest pre-teenage.

I mean, it's really quite striking.

But his followers believe
him to be divine.

I mean, not just simply
divinely legitimised,

but actually part of the divine.

Ismail certainly cut a dash -

handsome, strong,
with broad shoulders,

he had a long moustache
and was skilled with a bow.

Ismail played the militant
Shia card in extreme form -

he required followers to curse
the first three caliphs

before Muhammad's cousin, Ali.

Ismail crusade not only forcibly
converted Muslims to Shi'ism,

but went to war with
the forces of Sunni Islam...

..the Ottomans.

This grand, opulent building
is called Chehel Sotoun.

It's a palace where Ismail's
military campaigns

against the Sunni Ottomans

have been memorialised
in huge frescoes.

When you pause for a moment,
there are all these incredibly

moving details.
There's an elderly man

being cradled by a younger soldier
with incredible sadness.

There's a young boy, clearly some
kind of hostage,

with his hands bound,

sitting in tears
on the back of a horse.

And then there's this man
lying prone in the foreground

next to a decapitated body.
There's a head.

And then you realise
he's lost his arm.

There's very much a real
gruesomeness,

and then people being
trampled under horses.

And... Oh, God, there's another
headless body just there.

The legends of Ismail's campaign
are very colourful.

One recounts how he ordered
two of his enemies to be roasted

on a spit as kebabs,

and then commanded
his followers to eat them

to prove their loyalty
to their new shah

and to show their hatred
of the Sunnis.

Shi'ism became Ismail's
badge of identity.

Now he decided to go
one step further.

Ismail had a concerted policy of
making Shi'ism the state religion.

It was a way of basically
distinguishing Iran

from their Ottoman rivals.

As Shi'ism took hold,

the arts and crafts
became a means of branding

this sect of Islam, on everything
from carpet design...

..to jewellery.

This beautiful ring made from gold

tells the story of Iran's conversion
to Shi'ism under Ismail.

It bears a couplet by Hafez
and reference to Imam Ali on the

last day, the Day of Judgment.

"On the day all men
are in a state of helplessness,

"I will have the protection
of Ali ibn Abi Talib."

In wearing it,

the ring declares the Shia
beliefs of its owner.

What Shi'ism did for Iran
was to fashion a national identity

which has survived
in very good health

right up to today.

And Shi'ism and Iran
are hand in glove

and have been hand in glove
for the last 500 years.

Shi'ism was now firmly established.

So was Ismail's grip on power.

He was the first in a new dynasty
of kings called the Safavids.

But while Ismail secured
the throne using cavalry and swords,

his grandson secured the country

with the very latest weaponry.

Gunpowder.

Like his artillery,
Shah Abbas would prove to be the

biggest gun in the Safavid dynasty.

I think you could call him
the ruler of one of the three

gunpowder states of
the 16th century -

the Ottomans, the Safavids
and the Mughals.

And Shah Abbas is at
the centre of them.

This is a piratical,
buccaneering personality.

He can drink anyone under the table,

he is a man of ferocious energy.

He has big ideas, big visions
of what the country can do.

A vision that would become
one of the world's

greatest architectural wonders.

Abbas decided to build from scratch.

His reign would mark the start
of a new Persian renaissance.

But he needed a new canvas
upon which to create it.

He would build it out of tiles
and bricks and mortar.

He chose Isfahan.

The Persians called this square
Naqsh-e Jahan -

Half the World,

meaning to see it
was to see half the world.

He built it on a scale
and at a size

and of a splendour

that had the Europeans who flocked
to his court stupefied.

And they went back to Europe

and they told the story
of these extraordinary palaces

with their great gardens.

And what happens?

Louis XIV builds Versailles.

The Ottomans heard about it
and they built the Topkapi Sarayi.

And the Mughal kings
heard about it

and they built their garden cities
in Agra and Lahore and Delhi.

Tiled in turquoise -
the symbol of heaven -

the jewel in Isfahan's crown
is this, the Royal Mosque.

CALL TO PRAYER

This dome is over 100 feet high,
and there's a second exterior dome

beyond that. And it's
the gap between the two

which is responsible for
all the echoes that you can hear.

Abbas instructed his architect
to construct

a dome which could be
filled with echoes.

The dome was designed
to produce seven echoes.

The muezzin stands on
seven black tiles to call

the faithful to prayer.

From the number of days in the week,

to the seven levels of paradise,

the number seven is,
of course, a holy number.

The number of God.

In rebuilding Isfahan,

Shah Abbas pulled together
the three main components

of power in Persia.

The power of Shia Islam,
represented by the mosques,

the power of the Shah himself,

residing in the Ali Qapu Palace.

And the power of the merchants,
represented by the Imperial Bazaar.

This is the Qeysarie Gate -

the entrance to Isfahan's bazaar.

The bazaar dates back
more than a thousand years,

but it was Shah Abbas who
transformed it from a local market

into a series of royal workshops.

In a matter of years,

Isfahan became
the beating economic heart

of a refashioned Persian nation.

Under Abbas, artists and craftsmen
achieved new heights of perfection,

employing skills that
can still be found in the bazaar

to this day.

So how many days will it take you to
finish a whole vase?

HE TRANSLATES

20 days?

It's so beautiful.

Today, the bazaar is
as popular as it ever was.

It remains one of the
largest bazaars in the world.

The tangle of lanes and stalls offer
a veritable feast for the senses.

Can I get one bag of the big ones,
which is how many?

HE SPEAKS FARSI

So this is 20?

OK, I'll get one.

I know that this is the bazaar,

and it may be a culture
that's 400 years old.

It's moved with the times,
and now they take debit cards only

for all the cash transactions.

Thank you very much.

I have been bazaar shopping
with my debit card.

Isfahan was a visionary city
that fascinated the Western visitors

who came here.

It stands today as an extraordinary
gallery of Islamic architecture.

In one way, it's tempting to end
the story of Persia right here,

in the golden age of
Persian arts and culture.

The apex of 2,000 years of history.

This bridge, these mosques,

palaces and bazaars project
Safavid power and prestige,

and its identification
with Shia Islam

with a magnificence
rarely surpassed.

Shah Abbas died in 1629,

but his successors proved to be

a pale imitation...

..failing to hold back yet another
threat from the north-east.

Nomadic warlords from Afghanistan.

Caught in the crossfire
was a soldier of fortune

from the city of Mashhad,

who rose through the ranks
of the Persian Army.

Nader Shah proved to be so much
more than an opportunist mercenary.

He was a military genius who not
only fought for the Safavid king,

but overthrew him and went on
to conquer Iran itself.

Meet Persia's Napoleon.

The reason why he's described,
in some ways,

as the Napoleon of Persia

is because his military conquests
are dramatic.

He comes in as a sort of
generalissimo of the sort of

Safavid counterattack,
and he's extremely successful.

And he then basically,
by hook and by crook,

essentially pushes
the Safavid pretender out.

He says, you know, "You're useless,
you keep making mistakes.

"I'm going to eventually, you know,

"I think we should have a new
dynasty and I'll be the new king."

Once Nader Shah crowned himself
king in 1736,

he set his sights
on India's Mughal Empire.

Famously, he crushed the Mughal army
near Delhi in just three hours.

And now the Persian Empire reached
its greatest territorial extent

since the days of
her pre-Islamic kings.

Nader Shah returned to Iran
with vast amounts of booty.

Here he sits on the legendary
Mughal Emperor's Peacock Throne,

encrusted with jewels, including
the fabulous Koh-i-Noor diamond,

later to be acquired by the British
and set into the Royal Crown.

In India, Nader Shah is still
very much regarded as a looter.

And I remember going to Delhi
and being taken to see the site

of the disappeared Peacock Throne.

But here in his mausoleum, his
weapons are treated with reverence.

And there's a view among historians,
not just in Iran, that Nader Shah

in his prime came tantalisingly
close to creating a unified

modern state,

one that could've rivalled Britain,
France and America's empires

and transformed the future
of the Middle East.

But that alternative future
was not to be.

This is Nader's tomb
in the city of Mashhad.

Tribute to his vaulting ambition
and extraordinary success,

the heroic horseback statue
crowns this brutalist

1950s granite mausoleum.

His death, however,
was less than heroic.

Despite the plunder he brought back
from India,

it was never enough to satisfy
Nader Shah's thirst for war.

He bled the country dry.

And it's a great pity
because a number of things

he was doing could have had
far-seeing consequences.

Iranians, in modern terms, tend to
remember all the good and glorious

things and ignore,
rather conveniently,

all the rather brutal aspects,

of which there were many,
unfortunately.

He became more and more cruel,

and in the end he was assassinated
by his own people.

It was like a firework went off
and it made a huge splash,

a huge display,

but there was no legacy,

just darkness.

After Nader Shah's
assassination in 1747,

his rival generals fought
over the spoils,

the Persian Empire slowly fell
into decline and civil war,

setting the stage for
European colonial penetration.

From being a confident culture

that somehow always got
the better of its conquerors,

Persia became a plaything
of imperial powers

like Britain and Russia.

Iran was slowly transformed
from a proud, independent nation

into a buffer state, as Britain
and Tsarist Russia battled it out

for domination.

Isfahan, Iran's once great jewelled
capital city, declined.

The bazaars and streets fell silent.

Throughout the chaos, the civil war
and intervention by imperial powers,

what survived of old Persia
was the language itself

and the literature
to which it gave birth.

These ancient words, stories
and poems became an emotional home

for Iranians, a place where
Persian culture endured.

The stories of poets and writers
like Saadi, Hafez and Ferdowsi

were kept alive in the teahouses
throughout Iran

by storytellers who brought to life
the tales of Persia's ancient past.

Sipping their tea,

smoking their pipes,

Iranians were reminded of
better times,

when Iranian kings ruled much
of the ancient world.

HE SINGS

The tradition of storytelling
remains alive to this day.

At this teahouse in Tehran,

people have come to listen
to a story from the Shahnameh.

The story of Bijan and his doomed
love affair with the daughter

of an enemy king.

It's one of many origin myths
that populate the Shahnameh.

Morality tales about characters who
are not only the cause of their own

downfall, but their kingdoms' too.

The last shah was called
Mohammad Reza Shah.

His rule eerily mirrors the fate of
many of Ferdowsi's flawed kings.

What follows is a tale of pride
and overreaching ambition.

In 1967, Mohammad Reza
crowned himself king of kings -

a statement to his subjects
that he was possessed by royal farr.

Royal farr, according to Ferdowsi,
is the divine thumbs-up

all great Persian kings
must possess.

I have this firm belief
that I have a mission to accomplish.

And I believe in God.

This is what...

This is why I say I think that
I have a divine command

of doing what I'm doing.

Mohammad Reza Shah saw himself
as the final product

of 2,500 years of unbroken
Persian monarchy.

He genuinely believes that this is
his mission - to see himself

as a new Cyrus, I suppose.

Mohammad Reza Shah wanted

the world to know about the king
who is buried here.

Way before the Mongol
and Islamic invasions,

it was Cyrus the Great who forged
the first Persian Empire

in 559 BC.

2,500 years later,
in 1971, Mohammad Reza Shah hosted

a parade to celebrate the
anniversary of the Persian Empire,

and to directly associate
his reign with Cyrus.

The event was broadcast
live around the world

and even made into a feature film.

Cyrus, the founder
of Persian culture

and the father of Iran,

the land five times
the size of Great Britain,

which this Shah rules today.

In 1971, you know, the Shah goes
in front of the tomb

of Cyrus the Great
and praises him and says, you know,

"Sleep easy, everything's
going to be OK."

It's a political mistake.

I mean, what he should really be
doing is paying more attention,

in some ways, to the narratives
of the Shahnameh.

Since it was written, Persia's
shahs had always allied themselves

with the Shahnameh.

Instead, along with a
pantomime-style parade,

Mohammad Reza Shah
hosted the biggest party

the world had ever seen.

In attendance, kings, queens,
heads of state

and even an emperor.

They drank 5,000 bottles
of champagne,

consumed a ton of caviar,

and were fed by more than 160 chefs

flown in from Paris.

It's like Oedipus
in Sophocles' play.

You feel like saying, "No, no,
don't do that. Don't do that.

"It's a bad idea."

And he still goes ahead and does it.

There were very few Persians
actually invited

to the event itself.

We know that the food
was all imported from France,

together with the porcelain.

It was actually very un-Iranian.

When they weren't being entertained
or feasting, the Shah's guests

were accommodated in luxury tents -
a reminder of the itinerant

tented court of
the Achaemenid kings.

Today, the skeleton of
the tent city still stands,

preserved by the desert climate.

Testament to the scale
of his lavish dreams.

The whole thing backfired.

Costing more than £140 million,

the event came to be seen as proof
of the excess and extravagance

of the Shah's dynasty
in its final years.

Reza had completely misunderstood
Persia's history.

In trying to impress foreign powers
with a fabricated connection

to ancient kings,

he'd ignored the powerful forces
that bonded ordinary Iranians.

Mohammad Reza Shah's twisted
projection of royal power

played right into the hands
of his arch-critic.

The Shia spiritual leader,
Ayatollah Khomeini.

CROWD CHANT

As the Shah was making these
statements about his right

to be the successor of Cyrus,

Khomeini was thundering
from Najaf about how un-Islamic

and, in many ways, un-Persian

this adoration of
the pagan past really was.

We'd never want to say that the
Persepolis celebrations of 1971

was the cause of
the Iranian revolution...

..but it didn't help the Shah.

Opposition to the Shah spread.

And in December 1978,

millions took to the streets of
Tehran demanding his abdication.

The following month,
Mohammad Reza left the country,

never to return.

His fall from grace was reminiscent
of those kings in the Shahnameh

who fell prey to pride and ambition.

Mohammad Reza Shah should
have heeded the advice

to be found in its pages.

The Shahnameh was, after all,
a handbook for kings.

In the decades that followed,
Iran's challenges multiplied.

Islamic revolution,

a bloody eight-year war with Iraq,

and economic sanctions
imposed by the West.

To this day, Iranians seek
refuge from the present

in their art, their poetry
and their literature.

Persian culture, the unifying force
that binds the people of Iran,

the culture that
has shaped our world.