May 30, 2008

The Other Iran; The Rise and Fall of the Public University; 'Empire of Liberty'

By EVAN R. GOLDSTEIN

Within 100 years of Muhammad's death in 632, his followers had managed to conquer a vast swath of territory that stretched from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean — including the Iranian plateau, previously ruled by the Persian Sassanid dynasty. For the next millennium, Persia would remain under the control of foreign monarchs.

In his new book, A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind (Basic Books), Michael Axworthy shows how many aspects of Persia's "unrivaled" intellectual