Under a section called “Art in America” regarding Eastern pottery in The Met Museum published in a 1909 edition of The Burlington Magazine, Garrett Pier writes:

“Among the many countries embraced under the above heading, Persia would naturally come first, since her productions, in almost every branch of decorative art, have ever been superior to those of the countries that surround her. With the single exception of the Greek, no race of ancient times has so vividly stamped the individuality of its taste upon more recent epochs than has the Persian. A genius for decorative art and a gift of colour, seemingly inherent in the race, have been fostered by a continuous national existence, for the Persian…”

Additionally, Agnes Haigh writes in the same 1909 publication that medieval Iranian ceramic art “was a native, not imported, growth and was developed from traditions of an art which, before the time of the Achaemenian dynasty [550-330 BCE], had assimilated many of the elements of the ‘Mycenaean’ art which lingered on in a modified form in the islands and coast-land of Asia Minor. The knowledge of this art was introduced into Damascus and Rhodes at the beginning of the sixteenth century, at the time of their conquest by the Ottoman Turks, whose only culture was that which they had learnt from the Persianized Seljuks.”

[pic ceramopolis @ V&A Museum UK: Kashan, Iran, 13th century… for educational purposes only]

 

“…a year ago last April Nancy and I were in Tehran…the shah set out to lift his people literally to the level of the people of America. When he was crowned, he said he did not want to be the ruler of his people if his people were poor. He set out to reform land holding. He gave to the peasants farm lands, beginning with his own personal, vast land holdings. He then, and perhaps this explains some of the hatred for him, gave to them the land holdings that were held by the Moslem priests—and these were even more extensive than his own. He freed women who had been bound by the ancient traditions of their religion. When we were there, young women looking for all the world like American coeds were studying to be doctors, lawyers, teachers and so forth in the universities.... It is true that he raised the price of oil, but this was at the suggestion of our own government, which knew it was the only way he could purchase the arms we were providing so that he could be a stumbling block to the southern push of the Soviet Union. In one of the moments of emergency in the Middle East when our Seventh Fleet was out of oil, he provided the fuel for the entire fleet at no charge to the United States. He forbade the Soviet Union to fly their military planes over Iran at the time of the Middle East crisis. Possibly he moved too fast, and yet when we saw the great apartment buildings and the low-cost housing for the poor that were being built, saw the streets where camels once were the beast of burden filled with trucks and automobiles, we were convinced that he was sincere in his effort to improve life for his people. Incidentally, though a Moslem himself, he opened Iran up to freedom of worship and gave full rights to the various minorities—Christians and Jews—living in that country…. I’m sure the shah made mistakes, as any ruler will but I don’t believe that his regime could match this present revolutionary government for its bloodthirsty brutality.”

~ excerpt from a letter by President Ronald Reagan written after November 4, 1979, retrieved from Campaign 1980 Box 923 Dictation…this is in contrast to the ceaseless falsehoods about the secular, nationalist Pahlavi kings 1925-1979 that is still spewing out of unethical mainstream institutions and publications mostly managed and written by Globalists (Leftists & Neocons) in charge of the media and education… in the same letter President Reagan notes how he is censored by the media on his views about the Shah…

[pic source iroon @Darius Kadivar: The Reagans visit the ruins of Persepolis in 1978…Persepolis was the spiritual center of the first world empire--Achaemenid Persian Empire 550-330 BCE…for educational purposes only]

In a 2004 interview published by “Austrian Studies Newsletter,” historian Christopher Friedrichs stated that Persia “had a significant autonomous civilization” between mid-15^th c. and mid-18^th c. pre-industrial era…

Further, in order to pursue Mongolian studies, Friedrichs was advised that one should learn Persian, Russian, and Chinese since major sources on Mongolian history were written in those languages…

[pic source pinterest: Mongolian conqueror Genghis Khan and three sons from a 14^th c. Persian manuscript… for educational purposes only]