The history of this volume and the one that will follow shortly, Volume XVIII on Islamic period, stretches back across three decades. In 1970, shortly after the death of Arthur Upham Pope, Jay Gluck began to gather articles for three more volumes of Survey of Persian Art to be published in honor and memory of his mentor and friend the Iranian art historian, Arthur Pope.
Gluck had planned one volume on the art of ancient Iran. By the middle of 1970s Gluck, assisted by his wife Sumi, had gathered a substantial number of articles and proceeded with editing and hoping to publish the three volumes in the late 1970s. Then suddenly he fell ill and his symptoms turned out to be the distant drums of the debilitating Parkinsons disease. His deteriorating health then delayed the completion and publication of these volumes for another twenty five years.
In 1996 the publisher invited Professor Abbas Daneshvari to undertake the difficult task of editing and updating this volume and prepare it for publication. However, most of the contributions had become obsolete and were no longer relevant. Moreover, a large number of the authors had passed away making updates and revisions difficult, if not impossible. The editor, therefore excised a number of articles from the collection but invited other scholars to contribute new articles. However, in accordance to Mr. Gluck’s wish, most of the articles of the ancient Iran were preserved. Some have been updated and others have been revised by the editors.