Irianian immigrant

[walrus]

We have recently hired a bunch of people on my shift one is a guy from Iran who I've been talking to. We have been discussing Muslim relations with the west and the dude is very calm speaking about it. He finally told me that while in Iran he converted to Christianity. Word got out and he had to run. He was trying to get to turkey or the Turkish embassy I'm not sure what he said do to his accent but he was caught by the Iranian police put on trial for converting to Christianity sentenced to being whipped 150 times with some kind of metal wire whip and put in jail for three months. He told me many converts are killed, not just Christian converts but anyone who leaves Islam. I guess his brother was a prominent professor so he was able to get out but now his whole family is here in the us. He told me the shahs son lives here in the us (I didn't know) and there is a move in Iran for regime change and he, the shahs son is who they want back. I found this a very fascinating story I'm looking further to nurture my relationship with my new buddy puya

[walrus]

He worked many years in Iran as HVAC but of corse can't use Iranian references in the us and he has no plumbing license so it leaves him is a bad position I really feel for the dude

[vidgil]

Tell him he's a liar, that Islam is the religion of peace and would have no problem with people leaving the religion.

[walrus]

He's bringing me a book and a DVDs on the history of Iran. Now he is telling me Iranians are responsible for the biggest empire in history, this goes back of course. Not the Ottoman Empire which I thought was the biggest Arabic empire he named something else. Well I love talking history and learning new things so I'm glad we hired this guy

[X]

He probably means the Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great. One of the most impressive civilisations in human history ..... originally formed through military conquest, with the elite 10,000 Immortals. Later a centre of learning and culture and the main rival of the burgeoning Greek civilisation which was the cornerstone of western civilisation as we know it. the Persian Empire was, at the time, the largest empire in history though that was geographically surpassed later by the Mongols.

The Persians (or Iranians as they are now known) aren't Arabic! Nor were the Ottomans!

See what you can learn from this guy, ancient history is pretty fascinating. Good luck.

[walrus]

He probably means the Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great. One of the most impressive civilisations in human history ..... originally formed through military conquest, with the elite 10,000 Immortals. Later a centre of learning and culture and the main rival of the burgeoning Greek civilisation which was the cornerstone of western civilisation as we know it. the Persian Empire was, at the time, the largest empire in history though that was geographically surpassed later by the Mongols.

The Persians (or Iranians as they are now known) aren't Arabic! Nor were the Ottomans!

See what you can learn from this guy, ancient history is pretty fascinating. Good luck.

Ok I know the Persian empire. Only from studying in school didn't read any further. I have read a couple books on the Ottoman Empire. So at the time of the Cyrus was Iran a named country or was it the center of the empire? So the Persians became Iran or Iran was the start of the empire. Sorry I can google this stuff just curious

[walrus]

He probably means the Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great. One of the most impressive civilisations in human history ..... originally formed through military conquest, with the elite 10,000 Immortals. Later a centre of learning and culture and the main rival of the burgeoning Greek civilisation which was the cornerstone of western civilisation as we know it. the Persian Empire was, at the time, the largest empire in history though that was geographically surpassed later by the Mongols.

The Persians (or Iranians as they are now known) aren't Arabic! Nor were the Ottomans!

See what you can learn from this guy, ancient history is pretty fascinating. Good luck.

Ah and see at X when he told me it was the largest empire I brought out ghengis khan saying they had the largest empire but he said his (the Persians) was the largest of the two of his he said the largest in history

[X]

Nah, Iran didn't exist. I think the Persian Empire was founded something like 500BC. It didn't become Muslim until 1000 years later. The Persians (who are a people) are different from Iran (which is a country)

I'm pretty sure the Mongol Empire was quite a bit larger, though. It's all semantics though, as the guy is going to be proud of his history ..... and they do have a great history!

you should definitely read up on it, Cyrus was a hugely impressive figure and the cultural legacy of his Empire lasted for thousands of years.

[walrus]

Well to converse with myself it is of debate which was bigger. The Persians had about 44 million people which was about half the world at the time. Ended by Alexander the Great. I guess my new Iranian friend didn't know how to translate whatever the Iranian name for Persian empire is to English

[X]

True ..... though you could also argue that Alexander didn't really end the Empire. Many great cultures assimilate invaders and survive for a very long time, albeit not geopolitically.

Alexander ended up being mightily distrusted and disliked by Macedonians for 'being more Persian than Greek', as did many of his generals.

China survived multiple conquests etc by assimilating invaders very successfully?

[brocktonblockbust]

Hakhamanish Takht e Jamshid

[walrus]

True ..... though you could also argue that Alexander didn't really end the Empire. Many great cultures assimilate invaders and survive for a very long time, albeit not geopolitically.

Alexander ended up being mightily distrusted and disliked by Macedonians for 'being more Persian than Greek', as did many of his generals.

China survived multiple conquests etc by assimilating invaders very successfully?

The same could be said of Ireland to an extent