Synopsis These pages illustrate some of the many ways in which Persian culture has influenced Persia's neighbors, and become a legacy to the whole world. As inevitably happens with rich legacies not secured by an attested will, this matter of cultural inheritance is apt to be hotly disputed; interested parties may make claims that take a deal of substantiating.  It is the arduous task of the editor of such a volume as this to enlist the support of a team of writers sufficiently enthusiastic to accept the largely gratuitous labor of crystallizing deep study and wide reading into an all too constricting compass, yet discreet enough the see life steadily and see it whole.