Burckhardt notes the parallels between the nobility of late antique Persia and the knights of the Western middle ages: “The nobility itself, with its bluff chivalry, is quite Western. Its formal relationship to the King appears to have bene feudal; its principal obligation was assistance in war. As represented in monuments, these Persian warriors in mail and plumed helmets, with lance and sword, and with the magnificent accouterments of their steeds, are quite like the knights of our own Middle Ages. As with the knights, the soul of their activity was adventure, whether in war or love.”

Is there a genetic connection?