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Commonly known as Persia in the Western world, the history of Iran has been intertwined with the history of a larger historical region, comprising the area from Anatolia and Egypt in the west to the Ancient India and Syr Darya in the east, and from the Caucasus and Eurasian Steppe in the north to the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman in the south.

Naghsh-e-Rostam, North West Of Perspolis-Shrizad-Iran

 


 

The southwestern part of the Iranian plateau participated in the wider Ancient Near East with Elam, from the Early Bronze Age. The Persian Empire (Persia) proper begins in the Iron Age, following the influx of Iranian peoples. Iranian people gave rise to the Median, as the Persian people gave rise to the Achaemenid, the Parthians, and the Sassanid dynasties during the classical antiquity. Once a major empire of superpower proportions, Iran has endured invasions by Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols. Iran has continually reasserted its national identity throughout the centuries and has developed as a distinct political and cultural entity.

Pasargad - The Great Cyrus Tomb, Photo : Alireza Javaheri

 


 

Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BCE. The Medes unified Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BCE. The Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE) was the first of the Persian empires to rule from the Balkans to North Africa and also Central Asia from their capital in Persis (Persepolis). They were succeeded by the Seleucid Empire, Parthian and Sassanid who governed Iran for almost 1,000 years.

Perspolis Photograph by Simon Norfolk

 


 

The Islamic conquest of Persia (633–656) ended the Sassanid Empire and was a turning point in Iranian history. Islamization in Iran took place during 8th to 10th centuries and led to the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion. However, the achievements of the previous Persian civilizations were not lost, but were to a great extent absorbed by the new Islamic polity and civilization. After centuries of foreign occupation and short-lived native dynasties, Iran was once again reunified as an independent state in 1501 by the Safavid dynasty which established Shi’a Islam as the state religion of their kingdom, marking one of the most important turning points in the history of Islam. Iran had been a monarchy ruled by a shah, or an emperor, almost without interruption from 1501 until the 1979 Iranian revolution, when Iran officially became an Islamic Republic on 1 April 1979.

Cheshm-e-Ali, Shahr-e-Rey -Iran