Sander's Reflexions

I know Persia as a very religious country. I’m not just referring this age with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Persia has a long religious history. Zoroastrianism originated in Persia and was the dominant religion in the early history of the Persian Empire from the 5th century BCE till the 7th century CE. The Persian Empire reached from the Mediterranean to the borders of India. It included the area that is nowadays known as Iraq. This area was the origin of Manichaeism (Saint Augustine was a Manichaean before becoming a Christian) and Mandaeism. Christians and Jews have lived there (and still do). From the 7th century on the Islam was the dominant religion. So when I went to an exposition on 30 centuries of Persian art and culture I expected quite some objects with religious imprint.

This exhibition of Persian art and culture was in the Hermitage Amsterdam, a small branch of the famous Russian museum. I had a look at the 200 objects that were displayed. After the first round through the museum I thought something was missing, so I made a second round. I was not mistaken. There were only 2 objects which related to the religious history of Persia, two calligraphies of a text from the Koran. No other objects referred to religion. There were even a dozen objects from around the 12th century with animals on it. Something that would not have been done by Islamic artists.

So, either religion has not been that important in Persia after all, or.. our Russian friends with their communistic background have removed or disregarded all religious objects.. Are the communists still manipulating history in their aim to eliminate religion?