I Don't Have Enough FAITH to Be an ATHEIST What No One Ever Told You About the History of Iran with Bill Federer
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Mar 6, 2026 Bill Federer, historian and author behind the American Minute, gives a brisk tour of Iran’s past from ancient Persia to modern tensions. He sketches Persia’s clashes with Greece and Rome, the rise of Islam and the Golden Age, the Sunni–Shia split, Safavid and Ottoman rivalries, oil geopolitics, and the 20th century coups and reforms. Fast-paced and wide-ranging history across millennia.
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Byzantine Persian War Opened Door For Islam
- After prolonged Rome–Persia conflict, both empires weakened, creating a power vacuum that helped Islam expand in the 600s.
- Federer traces how destroyed churches and exhausted empires made rapid Muslim conquests of formerly Christian regions possible.
Ghazali Ended The Islamic Golden Age Momentum
- The Islamic Golden Age saw major advances by Persian and Muslim scholars studying Greek classics, but Al-Ghazali later discouraged Greek study, halting that intellectual momentum.
- Federer frames this shift as a turning point that curtailed an emerging Renaissance in the Muslim world.
Origin Story Of The Word Assassin
- Federer recounts Marco Polo visiting the castle of the Hashashin and explains how the sect used hashish and promises of paradise to motivate assassins.
- He notes this is the origin of the English word 'assassin' as tied to that sect's tactics.
