‘Aptin Khanbaghi has written an important and fascinating book… The Fire, the Star and the Cross makes a very significant and original contribution to our knowledge and understanding of
Iranian history and civilization during an era when the foundations were laid for the emerging modern Iranian state.’
BERT G. FRAGNER, Director of the Institute of Iranian Studies,
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
The first comprehensive discussion of the cultural achievements of non-Muslim cultures in Iran
Contemporary political events have generated a strong interest in minorities in the Middle East. Although today the region is mostly identified with Islam, it has been home to many other great cultures, and the civilisation of the Islamic world is itself indebted to the various peoples that the Arabs subdued in the 7th and 8th centuries. Far from fading away after the Arab conquest, the inhabitants of the Iranian plateau and of Mesopotamia were central players in the lives of their regions.
However, the magnitude of their contribution to the emergence ol the early Islamic world has hitherto been neglected. In this fascinating and groundbreaking study, Khanbaghi offers a comprehensive discussion of those groups that resisted assimilation to the new Islamic order yet continued to participate actively in the socio-political life of their homeland. He concentrates on Iran, which due to its complex religious history offers unique opportunities for the study of non-Muslim communities, specifically of Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians.
Aptin Khanbaghi is a scholar of Iranian history, based at the Margaret Beaufort Institute, University of Cambridge.
PUBLICATION: 23RD FEBRUARY 2006
PRICE: £45.00 HARDBACK
INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF IRANIAN
STUDIES VOL. 5
PAGES: 288
ISBN: 1 84511 056 0
For more information Contact:
Hannah Ross, Publicity Officer Tel: +44 (0)20 7243 1225
publicity@ibtauris.com www.ibtauris.com
PRESS RELEASE
The Fire, The Star
and The Cross
Minority Religions in
Medieval and
Early Modern Iran
