Download or read book The Decline of Iranshahr written by Peter Christensen and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-12-18 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of the Middle East is traditionally structured around the rise and fall of dynasties and states. The widely perceived view is that after the glories of an earlier golden age the region went into a steady and prolonged decline: populations decreased, ancient cities decayed and nomadism spread at the expense of civilized culture. In this pioneering text Peter Christensen challenges this story of decline. Long out of print but now reissued with a new introduction by the author, this important work is both a foundational text in the environmental history of the Middle East and a pioneering reassessment of traditional ideas about the historical processes of Iran and the Middle East region.