Interesting item from the IHT ... here's the incipit:

Commenting on the distant past of one of the world's great cultures without being aware of the heritage of later centuries is a high-risk exercise. "Les Perses sassanides: Fastes d'un empire oublié (224- 642)," the alluring show of Iranian art on view at the Musée Cernuschi until Dec. 30, is not immune from the entertaining bloopers to which this can give rise.

Here, misnomers begin with the title. "The Sasanian Persians" is an unfortunate choice of words concerning a land that has called itself "Iran" (pronounced "Eran" in early times) for some 2,200 years. The real gem, though, is the subtitle "forgotten empire." Forgotten by whom?

The Sasanian past has been haunting the Iranian psyche ever since the last ruler, Yazdegerd III, was murdered in A.D. 651 or 652. Every history of Iran written in past centuries deals with it at length. Over one quarter of the 10th- century Shah-Nameh, the "Book of Kings," the most frequently copied work at Persian-speaking courts in Islamic times, sings the deeds of Sasanian emperors and allusions to these abound throughout the 1,000-year-old history of Persian literature.

In an era of globalization keen on international understanding, it might seem elementary for scholars studying the art of the Iranian past to have access to the language, Persian, in which a vast body of literature yields essential keys to its objects.

This, however, is not part of the Western academic tradition. The guest curator of the show, Françoise Demange of the Louvre, is a specialist in Ancient Greek art who does not read Persian, and most of the contributors to the exhibition book are likewise strangers to the living heritage of Iranian culture.

In keeping with time-honored Western tradition regarding pre-Islamic Iran, the objects are looked at as if they were the work of little green men just descended from outer space. Not a single Persian archaeological publication is cited. More surprisingly, Greek words are chosen when referring to objects that are named in Persian dictionaries and sung in poetry from the 11th century on.

One of the great masterpieces in the show on loan from the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington is thus referred to as a "rhyton." The silver vessel consists of a trumpet-shaped section curving abruptly to join up with the stylized head of an animal, perhaps an antelope or a bullock. Seen in profile, the vessel looks like a horn. And a drinking horn it is.

[... and the final graf]

As visitors leave the show, some may retain a hazy impression of glittering splendor. But many will feel uncertain as to precisely what they were looking at. Where Sasanian art is concerned, science still has some way to go.

The piece was written by Souren Melikian and I really want to use that 'doth protest too much' phrase, but that might seem like a Western cliche. If you don't like something being called a rhyton because there's a Persian word for it, tell us what it is. I'm 100% sure it ain't "drinking horn". Oh ... and to get all pedantic over whether we refer to something as Iranian or Sassanid doesn't quite come off well with blanket condemnation of some vague claim of "time-honoured Western tradition".

cf. the coverage by Payvand a few months ago.