“Iranians have long been proud of their ancient history and culture,” Iranian journalist and Middle East analyst Saeid Jafari has written. The Achaemenid empire’s (559-330 BCE) founder, Cyrus the Great, looms particularly large in Iranian memory as a proud symbol of enlightened, tolerant rule, notwithstanding the scorn of modern Iran’s theocratic masters. “Cyrus’s reign [559-529 […]