Editing Arthur de Gobineau (section)

===Time in Persia===
In 1855, Gobineau left Paris to become the first secretary at the French legation in [[Tehran]], Persia (modern Iran). He was promoted to ''chargé d'affaires'' the following year.{{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=323}} The histories of Persia and Greece had played prominent roles in the ''Essai'' and Gobineau wanted to see both places for himself.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=182}} His mission was to keep Persia out of the Russian sphere of influence, but he cynically wrote: "If the Persians ... unite with the western powers, they will march against the Russians in the morning, be defeated by them at noon and become their allies by evening".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=182}} Gobineau's time was not taxed by his diplomatic duties, and he spent time studying ancient [[cuneiform]] texts and learning [[Persian language|Persian]]. He came to speak a "kitchen Persian" that allowed him to talk to Persians somewhat. (He was never fluent in Persian as he said he was.){{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=323}} Despite having some love for the Persians, Gobineau was shocked they lacked his racial prejudices and were willing to accept blacks as equals. He criticized Persian society for being too "democratic".

Gobineau saw Persia as a land without a future destined to be conquered by the West sooner or later. For him this was a tragedy for the West. He believed Western men would all too easily be seduced by the beautiful Persian women causing more miscegenation to further "corrupt" the West.{{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=323}} However, he was obsessed with ancient Persia, seeing in [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid Persia]] a great and glorious Aryan civilization, now sadly gone. This was to preoccupy him for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=324}} Gobineau loved to visit the ruins of the Achaemenid period as his mind was fundamentally backward looking, preferring to contemplate past glories rather than what he saw as a dismal present and even bleaker future.{{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=324}}

His time in Persia inspired two books: ''Mémoire sur l'état social de la Perse actuelle'' (1858) ("Memoire on the Social State of Today's Persia") and ''Trois ans en Asie'' (1859) ("Three Years in Asia").{{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=324}}

Gobineau was less than complimentary about modern Persia. He wrote to Prokesch-Osten that there was no "Persian race" as modern Persians were "a breed mixed from God knows what!". He loved ancient Persia as the great Aryan civilization par excellence, however, noting that Iran means "the land of the Aryans" in Persian.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=183}} Gobineau was less Eurocentric than one might expect in his writings on Persia, believing the origins of European civilization could be traced to Persia. He criticized western scholars for their "collective vanity" in being unable to admit to the West's "huge" debt to Persia.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=183}}