Prominent Iranian scholar Mohammad Baqaii has recently completed the Persian translation of “The Persian Wars by Herodotus”, which has been authored by the U.S. scholar Spencer Di Scala.

Di Scala, who is a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Boston, has spent 12 years writing the book, which censures Herodotus’ “The Histories”.

The Persian version of the book will be released next week.

“The Histories” is a record of Herodotus’ inquiries into the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars that occurred in 490 and 480-479 BC.

“Since a major part of the book (‘The Histories’) is dedicated to the Greco-Persian Wars, it has constantly been criticized by Iranian historians and scholars over time,” Baqaii told the Mehr News Agency on Wednesday.

“Prominent figures like Hassan Khan Pirnia, Ahmad Kasravi, and Seyyed Hassan Taqizadeh have also authored criticisms of it and have rejected Herodotus’ views in the book,” he added.

“In his book, Di Scala confirms the views of the above-mentioned Iranian scholars by providing new evidence and reasoning, and also argues that all Herodotus’ remarks on Darius the Great and Xerxes I are blatant lies and completely tendentious,” Baqaii explained.

“According to Di Scala, Herodotus should not be considered as ‘father of history’, but he should be regarded as the father of liars,” he noted.

The Persian version of “The Persian Wars by Herodotus”, which consists of 9 chapters, has been printed by the Yadavaran Publishing Company.

Baqaii received the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Pakistan National Medal of Honor) in 2006 for the extensive studies he has carried out on the Pakistani poet Muhammad Iqbal (1873-1938).