To my parents
INTRODUCTION
I nwasthedeveloping
second millennium B.C., while the Elam nation
a civilization alongside Babylon, Indo-
European invaders gave their name to the immense
Iranian plateau where they settled. The word "Iran" was
derived from "Ayryana Vaejo," which means "the origin of
the Aryans." These people were semi-nomads whose
descendants were the Medes and the Persians. The Medes
founded the rst Iranian nation in the seventh century
B.C.; it was later destroyed by Cyrus the Great. He
established what became one of the largest empires of the
ancient world, the Persian Empire, in the sixth century
B.C. Iran was referred to as Persia — its Greek name —
until 1935 when Reza Shah, the father of the last Shah of
Iran, asked everyone to call the country Iran.
Iran was rich. Because of its wealth and its geographic
location, it invited attacks: From Alexander the Great,
from its Arab neighbors to the west, from Turkish and
Mongolian conquerors, Iran was often subject to foreign
domination. Yet the Persian language and culture
withstood these invasions. The invaders assimilated into
this strong culture, and in some ways they became
Iranians themselves.
In the twentieth century, Iran entered a new phase.
Reza Shah decided to modernize and westernize the
country, but meanwhile a fresh source of wealth was
discovered: oil. And with the oil came another invasion.
The West, particularly Great Britain, wielded a strong
in uence on the Iranian economy. During the Second
World War, the British, Soviets, and Americans asked Reza
Shah to ally himself with them against Germany. But Reza
Shah, who sympathized with the Germans, declared Iran a
neutral zone. So the Allies invaded and occupied Iran.
Reza Shah was sent into exile and was succeeded by his
son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was known simply as
the Shah.
In 1951, Mohammed Mossadeq, then prime minister of
Iran, nationalized the oil industry. In retaliation, Great
Britain organized an embargo on all exports of oil from
Iran. In 1953, the CIA, with the help of British
intelligence, organized a coup against him. Mossadeq was
overthrown and the Shah, who had earlier escaped from
the country, returned to power. The Shah stayed on the
throne until 1979, when he ed Iran to escape the Islamic
revolution.
Since then, this old and great civilization has been
discussed mostly in connection with fundamentalism,
fanaticism, and terrorism. As an Iranian who has lived
more than half of my life in Iran, I know that this image
is far from the truth. This is why writing Persepolis was so
important to me. I believe that an entire nation should
not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists. I
also don't want those Iranians who lost their lives in
prisons defending freedom, who died in the war against
Iraq, who su ered under various repressive regimes, or
who were forced to leave their families and ee their
homeland to be forgotten.
One can forgive but one should never forget.
Marjane Satrapi
Paris, September 2002
CREDITS
Translation of rst part of Persepolis: Mattias Ripa
Translation of second part of Persepolis: Blake Ferris
Supervision of translation: Marjane Satrapi and Carol Bernstein
Lettering: Celine Merrien and Eve Deluze
THANKS TO
Anjali Singh
L'Association
David B.
Jean-Christophe Menu
Emile Bravo
Christophe Blain
Guillaume Dumora
Fanny Dalle-Rive
Nicolas Leroy
Matthieu Wahiche
Charlotte Miquel
Amber Hoover
Persepolis, translation copyright © 2003 by L'Association, Paris,
France
Persepolis 2, translation copyright © 2004 by Anjali Singh
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon
Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in
Canada by Random House of Canada, Limited, Toronto.
The Complete Persepolis was originally published in the United
States in two separate volumes:
Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Satrapi, Marjane, [date]
[Persepolis, English]
The complete Persepolis / Marjane Satrapi.
p. cm.
Contains the author's Persepolis (2003) and Persepolis 2 (2004)
eISBN: 978-0-307-51802-6
1. Satrapi, Marjane, [date]—Comic books, strips, etc. I. Satrapi,
Marjane, [date]
Persepolis 2. English. II. Title.
PN6747.S245P4713 2007
955.05′42092—dc22
[B] 2007060106
www.pantheonbooks.com
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