Jason Reza Jorjani, PhD, is a philosopher and faculty member at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is author of Prometheus and Atlas.

Here he points out that the pre-Socratic, Greek philosophers came from portions of Greece that were then ruled by the Persian empire. This connection, he maintains, is not accidental – as the Persian Zoroastrian culture fostered the ideal of “truth” that was fundamental to the development of philosophy. Jorjani also points out that the Persian empire was the only one in the ancient world to outlaw slavery. In addition to exerting an enormous influence on Greeks and Egyptians, the ancient Persians also interacted extensively with and influenced the Jewish people.