Nasser Pourpirar ( fa, ناصر پورپیرار; born ''Nasser Banakonandeh'', Persian: ; pen name: Naria, Persian: ; 1940 or 1941 in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
– 27 August 2015 in Tehran) was a famous
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian writer and
historical revisionist
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...
.
He was known for his controversial theories questioning the academically recognized historiography of Iran from
Achaemenid
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...
s to the beginning of the
Safavid
Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...
period.
[
]
Early life
Pourpirar was born in 1940 or 1941 in Tehran, Iran. Pourpirar was closely involved with the Tudeh Party of Iran
The Tudeh Party of Iran ( fa-at, حزب تودۀ ایران, Ḥezb-e Tūde-ye Īrān, lit=Party of the Masses of Iran) is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mirza Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in i ...
, a major Iranian political party with Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
or left tendencies. After the 1979 Revolution
The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...
and after he embezzled the party's money then he joined the revolutionaries. On August 27, 2015 he died of Parkinson's disease at the age of 75.
Pourpirar's claims
Pouripirar claimed that Purim
Purim (; , ; see Name below) is a Jewish holiday which commemorates the saving of the Jews, Jewish people from Haman, an official of the Achaemenid Empire who was planning to have all of Persia's Jewish subjects killed, as recounted in the Boo ...
(recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther
The Book of Esther ( he, מְגִלַּת אֶסְתֵּר, Megillat Esther), also known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the wikt:מגילה, Megillah"), is a book in the third section (, "Writings") of the Judaism, Jewish ''Tanak ...
) was a genocide against indigenous civilised Iranians committed by the Achaemenid Shah Darius I
Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his ...
and his Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
allies. He claims that "after the great genocide committed by Jews in Purim, the land of Iran was completely wiped out of human beings until the beginning of Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
."
He considered the Behistun Inscription as a symbol of this genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
. He claimed that construction of Persepolis
, native_name_lang =
, alternate_name =
, image = Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.jpg
, image_size =
, alt =
, caption = Ruins of the Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.
, map =
, map_type ...
was never finished and that the Achaemenid dynasty was a group of ancient barbarian Slavic invaders that ended with Darius the Great after they returned to their homeland in the Eurasian steppe
The Eurasian Steppe, also simply called the Great Steppe or the steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Transnistri ...
s. The rest of the Achaemenid, Parthian, Sassanid, Tahirid, Ghaznavid, Seljuqid and Samanid dynasties according to Pourpirar were fabricated by historians of mostly Jewish background as part of a Jewish conspiracy
Belief in an international Jewish conspiracy or world Jewish conspiracy has been described as "the most widespread and durable conspiracy theory of the twentieth century" and "one of the most widespread and long-running conspiracy theories". Alt ...
.Mazdak
Mazdak ( fa, مزدک, Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭦𐭣𐭪, also Mazdak the Younger; died c. 524 or 528) was a Zoroastrian ''mobad'' (priest), Iranian reformer, prophet and religious reformer who gained influence during the reign of the Sasanian empe ...
, Mani
Mani may refer to:
Geography
* Maní, Casanare, a town and municipality in Casanare Department, Colombia
* Mani, Chad, a town and sub-prefecture in Chad
* Mani, Evros, a village in northeastern Greece
* Mani, Karnataka, a village in Dakshi ...
, Zoroaster
Zoroaster,; fa, زرتشت, Zartosht, label=New Persian, Modern Persian; ku, زەردەشت, Zerdeşt also known as Zarathustra,, . Also known as Zarathushtra Spitama, or Ashu Zarathushtra is regarded as the spiritual founder of Zoroastria ...
, Babak, Abu Muslim
, image = Abu Muslim chastises a man for telling tales, Folio from the Ethics of Nasir (Akhlaq-e Nasiri) by Nasir al-Din Tusi (fol. 248r).jpg
, caption = "Abu Muslim chastises a man for telling tales," Folio from the '' ...
, and Salman the Persian
Salman the Persian or Salmān al-Fārsī ( ar, سَلْمَان ٱلْفَارِسِيّ), born Rūzbeh Khoshnūdān ( fa, ), was a Persian companion (Sahaba) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was raised as a Zoroastrian in Sasanian Persia, t ...
were invented by modern Jewish historians.
Regarding the reliability of Iranian dynasties he wrote: "So everyone should know that the builders of the false historical and social lies of the last two thousand years between Purim till the Safavids were the Jews. They wanted to hide their genocide and thus used lies by fabricating history."
Bibliography
A list of books written by Pourpirar expounding his view may be found in ''Karang Books'', which is the publishing house he owns.
* ''The people will be victorious''
* ''A thousand events will happen''
* ''Foetus''
* ''Colors Harmony'', (eight volumes) with Feryal Dehdashti Shahrokh.
* ''Perhaps these five days''
* ''Deliberation on structure of the Iranian history ''
** ''Twelve centuries of Silence: Achaemenids''
** ''Twelve centuries of Silence: Parthians''
** ''Twelve centuries of Silence: Sassanids Part I''
** ''Twelve centuries of Silence: Sassanids Part II''
** ''Twelve centuries of Silence: Sassanids Part III''
** ''A bridge to the past: Part I''
** ''A bridge to the past: Part II''
** ''A bridge to the past: Part III''
* ''Address to the third congress of Tudeh party of Iran'' (seven volumes)
Responses
The following books responded to Pourpirar's claims:
* ''The glorious Millenaries'' ( fa, هزارههای پرشکوه, italic=yes, r=Hezarehaye Por Shokooh), by Dariush Ahmadi.
* ''Twelve centuries of splendor'' ( fa, دوازده قرن شکوه, italic=yes), by Amir Limayi and Dariush Ahmadi
* ''Cyrus and Babylon'' ( fa, کورش و بابِل, italic=yes), by Houshang Sadeghi
* ''The Veracity of ancient Persian and Arya'' ( fa, اعتبار باستانشناختی آریا و پارس, italic=yes, by Mohammad Taqi 'Ataii and Ali Akbar Vahdati.
Opponents responses
Azargoshnasb, Response to Anti-Iranians
References
External links
Official weblog of Pourpirar
Link to photo
* ''The Glorious Millenaries'': a website with collection of articles in response to Pourpirar