A tour of Iran

The holy Bible, especially the Old Testament abounds with references to the Persians and Achemenid Kings like Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great. Even the New Testament refers to the Wise Men of the East, which many believe was a reference to Median priests known as the Magi. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Parthians ruled to the east of the Roman Empire, covering besides Iran, what is modern-day Iraq and Syria.
Some of the most significant events of the Bible, especially of the Old Testament, took place in the Persian bastions of Babylon, Susa, Ecbatana and Toyserkan. The author Dr Ravi Khetrapal (pictured) feels these momentous events were all positively influenced and some were a direct consequence of the formation and expansion of the Persian Empire.
Khetrapal’s attempt in this work is to connect the scattered and fragmented dots of history and weave together the tales of the great Persian Kings based on prophesies of the Biblical prophets and cuneiform inscriptions of the Achemenid era.
Persian historical documents were written from the time Cyrus the Great entered Babylon and issued what is universally hailed as the first Bill of Human Rights on a clay cylinder. His successors like Darius the Great and Xerxes the Great also documented several achievements and royal edicts. However, with conquests, burning and pillage by invaders like Alexander of Macedonia much has been destroyed except what remains by way of etchings on mountain cliffs and some stone tablets at Persepolis and in museums across the world.

Author Dr Ravi Khetrapal

The book takes readers on a virtual tour from Babylon (modern Iraq), Ecbatana (modern Hamadan) all the way to the shrine of the three kings at the Cologne Cathedral where the relics of the three Magi are said to be preserved.
We are as amazed as the author is regarding prophesies of the prophet Isaiah, who actually names Cyrus, 180 years before his birth and how Isaiah’s prophesy fulfils itself with such remarkable accuracy. The visions of Daniel included a New Empire with its capital at Susa, the wars of the Persians with the Greeks, the coming of Alexander and the Romans, centuries in advance. Some of the events which he saw in his visions have still not ensued. All this makes fascinating reading.
Unfortunately, the author’s writing style seems rather heavy for the average reader, especially for one not acquainted with Persian or Hebrew history, religion and culture.
Throughout the book, the narration seems like a Power Point presentation in printed form. Even the flow is not quite streamlined or seamless. Nonetheless it is a fairly good attempt at marrying Hebrew scriptures with Persian cuneiform inscriptions to map the journey of what the author calls "Ahura Mazda’s Children,” starting approximately five centuries before the birth of Christ to five centuries after the birth of Christ.
Printed on art paper, the book is replete with rare and picturesque images. In fact, virtually every page of text is matched with photographs of historical sites, images of the kings, rare paintings and monuments of history. It is a collector’s delight, except for the single major flaw of very poor binding in the copy given for review. Ironically, Khetrapal has put the pieces of history together. However, the book itself has fallen apart in our hands after just one reading.
NOSHIR H. DADRAWALA