Iran has one of the oldest histories in the world, extending more than 5000 years, and throughout history, Iran has been of
geostrategic importance because of its central location in
Eurasia and Western Asia. Iran is a founding member of the
UN,
NAM,
OIC,
OPEC, and
ECO. Iran as a major
regional power occupies an important position in the world economy due to its substantial reserves of
petroleum and
natural gas, and has considerable regional influence in Western Asia. The name Iran is a
cognate of Aryan and literally means "Land of the
Aryans." (Full article...)
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Image 1
Manuscript of Azar Bigdeli's Atashkadeh-ye Azar. Copy made in
Qajar Iran, dated 1824
Hajji Lotf-Ali Beg Azar Bigdeli, better known as Azar Bigdeli (
Persian: آذر بیگدلی; "Azar" was his pen name; 1722–1781), was an Iranian
anthologist and poet. He is principally known for his biographical anthology of some 850
Persian-writing poets, the Atashkadeh-ye Azar (
lit.'Azar's Fire Temple'), which he dedicated to Iranian ruler
Karim Khan Zand (
r. 1751–1779). Written in
Persian, the
Persian studies academic J.T.P. de Bruijn considers it "the most important Persian anthology of the eighteenth century". Azar was a leading figure of the bazgasht-e adabi (
lit.'literary return') movement, which sought to return the stylistic standards of early Persian poetry. (Full article...)
Image 2
Orodes II's portrait on the obverse of a
tetradrachm, showing him wearing a beard and a
diadem on his head,
Mithradatkert mint
Orodes II (also spelled Urud II;
Parthian: 𐭅𐭓𐭅𐭃Wērōd), was
King of Kings of the
Parthian Empire from 57 BC to 37 BC. He was a son of
Phraates III, whom he murdered in 57 BC, assisted by his elder brother
Mithridates IV. The two brothers quickly fell out and entered into a dynastic struggle, in which Orodes was triumphant.
Meanwhile, the
Roman general and
triumvirMarcus Licinius Crassus had made an attempt to extend his share of Roman territory by eastward conquest. This attempt proved disastrous, with Crassus meeting his end in 53 BC, in the
Battle of Carrhae, by Orodes' general
Surena. Orodes himself had invaded
Armenia and forced king
Artavasdes II (
r. 55–34 BC) to submit and abandon his alliance with the Romans. The victory at Carrhae secured for the Parthians the countries east of the
Euphrates. Then, the next year they invaded
Syria, but with little success. Surena, whose achievements had made him too dangerous, was killed by Orodes, and
Pacorus I, the son and heir of the king was defeated by
Cassius in 51 BC. (Full article...)
The Asiatic cheetah survives in protected areas in the eastern-central
arid region of Iran, where the human population density is very low. Between December 2011 and November 2013, 84 individuals were sighted in 14 different protected areas, and 82 individuals were identified from
camera trap photographs. In December 2017, fewer than 50 individuals were thought to be remaining in three subpopulations that are scattered over 140,000 km2 (54,000 sq mi) in Iran's central plateau. In January 2022, the
Iranian Department of Environment estimated that there were only 12 Asiatic cheetahs comprising nine males and three females left in the country. In 2023, a member of the Iranian Cheetah Society referred to 30 to 40 individuals living in Iran. (Full article...)
Nebuchadnezzar III (
Babylonian cuneiform: Nabû-kudurri-uṣur, meaning "
Nabu, watch over my heir",
Old Persian: Nabukudracara), alternatively spelled Nebuchadrezzar III and also known by his original name Nidintu-Bêl (
Old Persian: Naditabaira or Naditabira),' was a rebel
king of Babylon in late 522 BC who attempted to restore
Babylonia as an independent kingdom and end the rule of the
Persian Achaemenid Empire in
Mesopotamia. A Babylonian noble of the Zazakku family and the son of a man by the name of Mukīn-zēri or Kîn-Zêr, Nidintu-Bêl took the regnal name Nebuchadnezzar upon his accession to the Babylonian throne and claimed to be a son of
Nabonidus, Babylon's last independent king. ('Full article...)
Image 5
The Qayen earthquake, also known as the Ardekul or Qaen earthquake, struck northern
Iran's
Khorasan Province in the vicinity of
Qaen on May 10, 1997 at 07:57
UTC (12:57 local time). The largest in the area since 1990, the earthquake registered 7.3 on the
moment magnitude scale and was centered approximately 270 kilometers (170 mi) south of
Mashhad on the village of Ardekul. The third earthquake that year to cause severe damage, it devastated the Birjand–
Qayen region, killing 1,567 and injuring more than 2,300. The earthquake—which left 50,000 homeless and damaged or destroyed over 15,000 homes—was described as the deadliest of 1997 by the
United States Geological Survey. Some 155
aftershocks caused further destruction and drove away survivors. The earthquake was later discovered to have been caused by a rupture along a
fault that runs underneath the Iran–
Afghanistan border.
Damage was eventually estimated at $100 million, and many countries
responded to the emergency with donations of blankets, tents, clothing, and food. Rescue teams were also dispatched to assist local volunteers in
finding survivors trapped under the debris. The destruction around the earthquake's
epicenter was, in places, almost total; this has been attributed to poor construction practices in rural areas, and imparted momentum to a growing movement for changes in
building codes for
earthquake-safe buildings. With 1 in 3,000 deaths in Iran attributable to earthquakes, a US
geophysicist has suggested that a country-wide rebuilding program would be needed to address the ongoing public safety concerns. (Full article...)
Image 6
The Imamzadeh Chaharmenar in
Tabriz, where the Rawadid rulers are buried
Abu Mansur Wahsudan (also spelled Vahsudan;
Persian: ابو منصور وهسودان) was the penultimate
Rawadidamir (ruler) of
Azarbaijan from 1025 to 1058/59. He is considered the most prominent ruler of his dynasty. With the assistance of his
Kurdish neighbours, he initially contained the attacks of migrating
Turkmen tribes, but was eventually forced to acknowledge the authority of the
Seljuk ruler
Tughril (
r. 1037–1063) in 1054. He was succeeded by his son
Abu Nasr Mamlan II (
r. 1058/59–1070). (Full article...)
Image 7
Map showing key sites during the Persian invasions of Greece
The first
Persian invasion of
Greece, during the
Greco-Persian Wars, began in 492 BC, and ended with the decisive Athenian victory at the
Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The invasion, consisting of two distinct campaigns, was ordered by the
Persian kingDarius the Great primarily in order to punish the city-states of
Athens and
Eretria. These cities had supported the cities of
Ionia during
their revolt against Persian rule, thus incurring the wrath of Darius. Darius also saw the opportunity to extend his empire into Europe, and to secure its western frontier.
The first campaign in 492 BC, led by
Mardonius, re-subjugated
Thrace and forced
Macedon to become a fully subordinate client kingdom part of Persia, after being a vassal to Persia as early as the late 6th century BC, probably in 512 BC. However, further progress was prevented when Mardonius' fleet was wrecked in a storm off the coast of
Mount Athos. The following year, having demonstrated his intentions, Darius sent ambassadors to all parts of Greece, demanding their submission. He received it from almost all of them, except Athens and
Sparta, both of whom executed the ambassadors. With Athens still defiant, and Sparta now effectively at war with him, Darius ordered a further military campaign for the following year. (Full article...)
His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct
Western Roman Empire. His general,
Belisarius, swiftly conquered the
Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. Subsequently, Belisarius,
Narses, and other generals conquered the
Ostrogothic kingdom, restoring
Dalmatia,
Sicily,
Italy, and
Rome to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the
Ostrogoths. The
praetorian prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the
Iberian Peninsula, establishing the province of
Spania. These campaigns re-established Roman control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empire's annual revenue by over a million
solidi. During his reign, Justinian also subdued the Tzani, a people on the east coast of the
Black Sea that had never been under Roman rule before. He engaged the
Sasanian Empire in the east during
Kavad I's reign, and later again during
Khosrow I's reign; this second conflict was partially initiated due to his ambitions in the west. (Full article...)
Hormizd-Ardashir, better known by his dynastic name of Hormizd I (also spelled Hormozd I or Ohrmazd I;
Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭬𐭦𐭣), was the third
SasanianKing of Kings (shahanshah) of
Iran, who ruled from May 270 to June 271. He was the third-born son of
Shapur I (
r. 240–270), under whom he was governor-king of
Armenia, and also took part in his father's wars against the
Roman Empire. Hormizd I's brief time as ruler of Iran was largely uneventful. He built the city of Hormizd-Ardashir (present-day
Ahvaz), which remains a major city today in Iran. He promoted the
Zoroastrian priest
Kartir to the rank of chief priest (mowbed) and gave the
Manichaean prophet
Mani permission to continue his preaching.
It was under Hormizd I that the title of "King of Kings of Iran and non-Iran" became regularized in
Sasanian coinage; previously, the royal titulary had generally been "King of Kings of Iran". Hormizd I was succeeded by his eldest brother
Bahram I. (Full article...)
Image 10
An
earthquake occurred on November 27, 2005, at 13:52
IRST (10:22
UTC) on the sparsely populated
Qeshm Island off
Southern Iran, killing 13 people and devastating 13 villages. It was Iran's second major earthquake of 2005, following the one at
Zarand in February. The
epicenter was about 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) south of
Tehran, close to Iran's southern borders. Initial measurements showed that the earthquake registered about 6.0 on the
moment magnitude scale, although that was reduced to 5.8 after further analysis. More than 400 minor
aftershocks followed the main quake, 36 of which were greater than magnitude 2.5. The earthquake occurred in a remote area during the middle of the day, limiting the number of fatalities. Iranian relief efforts were effective and largely adequate, leading the country to decline offers of support from other nations and
UNICEF.
Qeshm Island is part of the Simply Folded Belt, the most seismically active part of the
Zagros fold and thrust belt. Similar to most earthquakes in the area, the 2005 event resulted from
reverse slip faulting. Since it lies in such a seismically active area, there is a high risk of destructive earthquakes in Iran; 1 in 3,000 deaths are attributable to earthquakes. One geophysicist has cited the lack of strict building codes as a serious concern. (Full article...)
...that the Iran-Pakistan barrier is currently being constructed by
Iran along its border with
Pakistan to stop illegal migration and thwart terror attacks?
...that a shrine in
Shiraz over the tomb(pictured) of the famed
Persian poetHafez was pulled down in 1899 by protesters, because it was being built by a
Zoroastrian?
...that Gholhak Garden, a British diplomatic compound in northern
Tehran, has been at the center of diplomatic controversy between
Britain and Iran?
An engineer and teacher from a poor background, ideologically shaped by thinkers such as
Navvab Safavi,
Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, and
Ahmad Fardid. After the
Iranian Revolution, Ahmadinejad joined the
Office for Strengthening Unity. Appointed a provincial governor in 1993, he was replaced along with all other provincial governors in 1997 after the election of President
Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching.
Tehran's council elected him mayor in 2003. He took a religious hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the
Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the
runoff election votes, and he became president on 3 August 2005. (Full article...)
Image 6
Anti-Iranian sentiment or Iranophobia, also called anti-Persian sentiment or Persophobia, refers to feelings and expressions of hostility, hatred, discrimination, or prejudice towards
Iranian people on the basis of an irrational disdain for their
national and cultural affiliation. The opposite phenomenon, in which one holds notable feelings of love or interest towards Iranian people for the same reasons, is known as
Iranophilia or Persophilia.
Historically, discrimination and prejudice against Iranians (and against
Persians in particular) has been a recurring theme in the
Arab world, particularly since the
Arab conquest of Iran in the 7th century. (Full article...)
Image 7
The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War (
Arabic: حرب الخليج الأولى,
romanized: Harb alkhalij al'uwlaa), was an armed conflict between
Iran and
Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the
Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for eight years, until the acceptance of
United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 by both sides. Iraq's primary rationale for the attack against Iran cited the need to prevent
Ruhollah Khomeini—who had spearheaded the
Iranian Revolution in 1979—from exporting the new Iranian ideology to Iraq. There were also fears among the Iraqi leadership of
Saddam Hussein that Iran, a theocratic state with a population predominantly composed of
Shia Muslims, would exploit
sectarian tensions in Iraq by rallying Iraq's Shia majority against the
Baʽathist government, which was officially secular and dominated by
Sunni Muslims. Iraq also wished to replace Iran as the power player in the
Persian Gulf, which was not seen as an achievable objective prior to the Islamic Revolution because of
Pahlavi Iran's economic and military superiority as well as its close relationships with the
United States and
Israel.
The Iran–Iraq War followed a long-running history of
territorial border disputes between the two states, as a result of which Iraq planned to retake the eastern bank of the
Shatt al-Arab that it had ceded to Iran in the
1975 Algiers Agreement. Iraqi support for
Arab separatists in Iran increased following the outbreak of hostilities; Saddam disputedly
may have wished to annex Iran's Arab-majority
Khuzestan province. While the Iraqi leadership had hoped to take advantage of
Iran's post-revolutionary chaos and expected a decisive victory in the face of a severely weakened Iran, the Iraqi military only made progress for three months, and by December 1980, the Iraqi invasion had stalled. The Iranian military began to gain momentum against the Iraqis and regained all lost territory by June 1982. After pushing Iraqi forces back to the pre-war border lines, Iran rejected
United Nations Security Council Resolution 514 and launched an invasion of Iraq. The subsequent Iranian offensive within Iraqi territory lasted for five years, with Iraq taking back the initiative in mid-1988 and subsequently launching a series of major counter-offensives that ultimately led to the conclusion of the war in a stalemate. (Full article...)
He assembled eight art collections—the
Khalili Collections—each considered among the most important in its field. These collections total 35,000 artworks and include the largest private collection of Islamic art and a collection of Japanese art rivalling that of the
Japanese imperial family. He has spent tens of millions of pounds on conserving, researching, and documenting the collections, publishing more than seventy volumes of catalogues and research so far. Exhibitions drawn from the collections have appeared in institutions around the world. (Full article...)
Khosrow I (also spelled Khosrau, Khusro or Chosroes;
Middle Persian: 𐭧𐭥𐭮𐭫𐭥𐭣𐭩;
New Persian: خسرو [xosˈroʊ̯]), traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan (انوشيروان [ænuːʃi:rˈvɔːn] "the Immortal Soul"), was the
SasanianKing of Kings of
Iran from 531 to 579. He was the son and successor of
Kavad I (
r. 488–496, 498/9–531).
Inheriting a reinvigorated empire at
war with the Byzantines, Khosrow I made a peace treaty with them in 532, known as the
Perpetual Peace, in which the Byzantine emperor
Justinian I paid 11,000 pounds of gold to the Sasanians. Khosrow then focused on consolidating his power, executing conspirators, including his uncle
Bawi. Dissatisfied with the actions of the Byzantine clients and vassals, the
Ghassanids, and encouraged by the
Ostrogoth envoys from
Italy, Khosrow violated the peace treaty and declared war against the Byzantines in 540. He sacked the major city of
Antioch and deported its population to Persia. In 541, he invaded
Lazica and made it an Iranian protectorate, thus initiating the
Lazic War. In 545, the two empires agreed to halt the wars in
Mesopotamia and
Syria, while it waged on in
Lazica. A truce was made in 557, and by 562 a
Fifty-Year Peace Treaty was made. (Full article...)
Ismail I (
Persian: اسماعیل یکم,
romanized: Ismāʿīl; 14 July 1487 – 23 May 1524) was the founder and first
shah of
Safavid Iran, ruling from 1501 until his death in 1524. His reign is often considered the beginning of
modern Iranian history, as well as one of the
gunpowder empires. The rule of Ismail I is one of the most vital in the
history of Iran. Before his accession in 1501, Iran, since its
conquest by the
Arabs eight-and-a-half centuries earlier, had not existed as a unified country under native
Iranian rule. Although many Iranian dynasties rose to power amidst this whole period, it was only under the
Buyids that a vast part of Iran properly returned to Iranian rule (945–1055).
We like to forget the history, Iranians don't. In 1953, The United States and Britain overthrew the parliamentary government [in Iran] and installed a brutal dictator. [...] In 1979, the population overthrew the dictator. And since then the United States has been essentially torturing Iran: First tried the military coup and then supported
Saddam Hussein during Iraq’s invasion of Iran which killed hundreds of thousands of people and after that United States started imposing harsh sanctions on Iran.
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