PERSIA THE EMPIRE THAT SPANNED THE WORLD
On a hill-rimmed plain in southern Iran stands a tomb of stone, looking for all the world as though a tent has been perched on a ziggurat. This striking monument was already over 1,000 years old when, in AD 640, the conquering armies of Islam first swept into Persia. Locals, keen to preserve the monument from the destructive zeal of the Muslims, informed their new masters that the tomb was that of Solomon’s mother.
The invaders, respecting the memory of a king who had been hailed in the Qur’an as a prophet, devoutly preserved it. The truth of hose tomb the monument actually was had long since been forgotten. Not even the Persians themselves had any real conception of their country’s ancient past.
Only in the west, among their former enemies, was it still remembered that the Persians had once been the rulers of the most powerful empire in the world. Those who could read the histories of the Greeks knew that in distant times one of the Persian kings had led an immense invasion force from Asia into Europe across a bridge of boats, and had almost succeeded in
