Many people have asked about a Bibliography for the podcast. I did include some bibliography in the earlier episodes, but I thought this might be useful as a list. I will slowly add items to it as we go ahead with the episodes.

General

These are some of the titles which cover the whole of Iranian history. They are the books I think are both scholarly sound and at the same time accessible.

The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History, edited by Touraj Daryaee, OUP, 2012: this is a very good collection of essays by some of the leading scholars of Iranian history, covering anything from the Paleolithic to the Islamic Republic.

Josef Wiesehofer, Ancient Persia, IB Tauris, 2001: a great introduction to the history of Iran before AD 700, written by one of my favourite historians.

Michael Axworthy, A History of Iran: Empire of Mind, Basic Books, 2010: an interesting, culturally oriented book.

M. A. Homayoun Katouzian, the Persians: Ancient, Medieval and Modern Iran, Yale UP, 2010, the name says it all, doesn’t it? A grand attempt at theorizing the whole of Iranian history.

Elam and Ancient Iran

These are the books on which much of the narrative of the early episodes has been built. I love them all!

D. T. Potts, The Archaeology of Elam, CUP, 1999: very interesting read. Much more of history than archaeology, despite the fact that Dan Potts himself is one of the greatest archaeologists of ancient Iran. A gripping narrative, if there ever was one.

D. T. Potts (ed.), the Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran, OUP, 2013: a collection of great articles covering anything from the paleolithic to early Islam, and including a contribution by myself.

J. Alvarez-Mon and Mark B. Garrison (eds.), Elam and Persia, Eisenbrauns, 2011: a collection of interesting articles by some of the leading historians and archaeologists of Elam, focusing on the transition from the Elamite to the Persian period.

Marc van de Mieroop, a History of the Ancient Near East, 2nd ed., Blackwell, 2006: a short, accessible introduction, although it might not appeal to those who need more detail!

Amelie Kuhrt, the Ancient Near East, 3000-330 BCE, Routledge, 1997: a much more complete narrative of the ancient Near East up to the coming of Alexander. A great work.

Indo-Europeans, Indo-Iranians, and Ariians!

JP Mallory, In Search of Indo-Europeans, Thames & Hudson, 1991: A convenient summary of almost all opinions regarding the matter of IE theories (philological and archaeological)…

Elena E. Kuzmina, the Prehistory of the Silk Road, UP Press, 2007: Despite a misleading title, a great summary of the Indo-Iranian migration and spread issues.

Benjamin Fortson, Indo-European Language and Culture, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009 (2nd ed.): a nice introduction to the languages, and what we know of them as far as culture is involved.

Reza Zia-Ebrahimi, “Self-Orientalization and Dislocation: The Uses and Abuses of the “Aryan” Discourse in Iran“ Iranian Studies 44/4, 2001: 445-472: a by-now quite famous argument by a close friend…

Medians (or Not?)

Helm, Peyton R. “Herodotus'” Mêdikos Logos” and Median History.” Iran (1981): 85-90.

Jursa, Michael. “Observations on the Problem of the Median ‘Empire’on the Basis of Babylonian Sources.” in Continuity of Empire. Assyria, Media and Persia, Padova (2003): 169-179.

Lanfranchi, Giovanni B., Michael Roaf, and Robert Rollinger, eds. Continuity of Empire: Assyria, Media, Persia. Vol. 5. Padova: Sargon editrice e libreria, 2003. (the book that tries to dispel the myth of a Herodotian Median Empire).

Rollinger, Robert. “The Median “Empire”, the End of Urartu and Cyrus’ the Great Campaign in 547 BC (Nabonidus Chronicle II 16).” AncientEast and West 7 (2008): 51-65.

Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Heleen. “Was there ever a Median Empire.” Achaemenid History 3 (1988): 197-212.

Cyrus and the Early Achaemenids

Beaulieu, Paul-Alain, and Paul-Alain Beaulieu. The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon, 556-539 BC. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989.

Lewy, Julius. “The Late Assyro-Babylonian Cult of the Moon and its Culmination at the Time of Nabonidus.” Hebrew Union College Annual (1945): 405-489.

Mallowan, Max. “Cyrus the Great (558-529 BC).” Iran (1972): 1-17.

Potts, Daniel T. “Cyrus the Great and the Kingdom of Anshan.” Birth of the Persian Empire 1 (2005): 7-28.

Vanderhooft, David Stephen. The Neo-Babylonian Empire and Babylon in the latter prophets. Vol. 59. Atlanta: Scholars press, 1999.

Woolley, Leonard and Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan. Ur Excavations, Volumes Vol. IX. The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods. London: British Museum, 1962.