>>>About the only thing they have in common with ancient Persia is geography.
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>>More or less my thoughts - but just to be accurate, wouldn't the people of today be, to a great extent, descendants of the ancient Persans? - I am not sure about this.
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>I've never heard them being called any other name than Persians or Iranians. They don't seem to be Arabic.
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>And I think every Persian government in the past was insisting on this heritage. This isn't anything new.
No, I guess the claim isn't new. But the question I pose is, how similar is the current government really to the ancient one.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)