Gyllenhaal's appearance and especially his haircut for the role of the Prince were ridiculed by several sources, but Ghazzal Dabiri, a lecturer and coordinator of Iranian studies at Columbia University, said it was historically accurate, positively comparing the portrayal of Persians in the film to those of "300" and adding: "An Iranian warrior-prince would have had those kinds of muscles! They did train in martial arts from very young ages. Some accounts say as soon as they were old enough to be taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and so on, martial arts ... was part of their curriculum."