Iran
From Daily Escape
| Imperial Kingdom of Iran | |
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| Flag | Coat of arms |
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| Motto "Marā dād farmud, va Khod Dāvar Ast" (Persian) ("Justice he bids me do, as he will judge me") | |
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| Anthem Sorood-e Shahanshahi Iran | |
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| Capital (and largest city) | Tehran 35°41′N, 51°25′E |
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| Official language(s) | Persian |
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| Demonym | Iranian |
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| Government - Shahanshah - Prime Minister - Governing party | Constitutional monarchy Reza Shah II Jamshid Savadkouhi Rastakhiz |
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| Establishment - Unified by Cyrus the Great - Parthian empire - Sassanid empire - Safavid dynasty - First Constitution - Pahlavi dynasty | 559 BCE 248 BCE-224 CE 224-651 CE May 1502 1906 December 15, 1925 |
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| Area - Total - Water (%) | 1,648,195 km² 636,372 sq mi 0.7 |
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| Population - 2006 census - Density | 70,472,846 42 /km² 109 /sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) - Total - Per capita | 2006 estimate $1.974 trillion $28,018 |
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| Gini | 47.6 (high) |
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| HDI |  0.925 (high)
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| Currency | Iranian rial (ريال) (IRR)
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| Time zone - Summer (DST) | IRST (UTC +3:30) not observed (UTC +3:30) |
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| Internet TLD | .ir |
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| Calling code | +98 |
The Imperial Kingdom of Iran, formerly known internationally as Persia, is a Southwest Asian country located in the geographical territories of the Middle East and Southern Asia. It borders the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the north, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and Kurdistan and Iraq to the west. In addition, it borders the Persian Gulf (an important oil-producing area), the Gulf of Oman, and the Caspian Sea. From these extensive borders, Iran is considered a key country that provides a bridge from the Middle East to South Asia.
Iran as a land and a nation has one of the oldest histories in the world, and throughout history, Iran has been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia and its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Iran is a founding member of the UN, NAM, OIC, OPEC, and ECO, although it left NAM, OIC, and OPEC in 1983, 2000, and 2005, respectively.
Since the 1960s, Iran has experienced profound social, political, and economic change; in the process, it has gone from being one of the poorest and most backward nations in the world to a regional hegemon and rising power on the international stage. It is now a developed country, with an advanced economy, a large and growing middle-class, and general social stability.
While the majority of its population follows the Islamic faith, all religions are tolerated, and Iranians of every background take pride in their multiculturism and their shared rich cultural heritage and glorious history.
[edit] History
[edit] Early history and the Median and Achaemenian Empires (3200 BC – 330 BC)
Dozens of pre-historic sites across the Iranian plateau point to the existence of ancient cultures and urban settlements, centuries before the earliest civilizations arose in nearby Mesopotamia.
The written history of Persia (Iran) begins around 3200 BCE with the Proto-Iranian civilization, followed by the Elamites. Aryan, (Proto-Iranian) tribes arrived in the third and second millennium BCE, probably in more than one wave of emigration. The Proto-Iranians are traced to the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia, where the Proto-Iranians first emerged following the separation of Indo-Iranian tribes. Further division of Proto-Iranians into an "Eastern" and a "Western" group is attested in the form of Avestan, an Eastern Old Iranian language that was used to compose the sacred hymns and canon of Zoroastrian Avesta. And Old Persian, which appears primarily in the inscriptions, clay tablets, seals of the Achaemenid era (c. 600 BCE to 300 BCE). Examples of Old Persian have been found in present-day Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt.
Nomadic Iranian tribes settled across the Iranian plateau and by the 1st millennium BC, Medes, Persians, Bactrians and Parthians populated the western part, while Cimmerians, Sarmatians and Alans populated the steppes north of the Black Sea. The Iranian Pashtuns and Baloch began to settle on the eastern edge, on the mountainous frontier of northwestern India and in to what is now Balochistan. Others, such as the Scythian tribes spread as far west as the Balkans and as far east as Xinjiang.
The establishing of the Median dynasty (728–550 BC) culminated in the first Iranian Empire. The Medes are credited with the foundation of Iran as a nation and empire, the largest of its day, until Cyrus the Great established a unified empire of the Medes and Persians leading to the Achaemenid Empire (648–330 BC), and further unification between cultures. After Cyrus's death, his son Cambyses continued his father's work of conquest, making significant gains in Egypt. A power struggle followed Cambyses' death and, despite his tenuous connection to the royal line, Darius was declared king (ruled 522–486 BC). He was to be arguably the greatest of the ancient Persian rulers.
Under Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great, the Persian Empire eventually became the largest and most powerful empire in human history up until that point, ruling over most of the known world. Their greatest achievement was the empire itself. The Persian Empire represented the world's first global superpower, and was "a paragon of religious and cultural tolerance". The borders of the Persian empire stretched from the Indus and Oxus Rivers in the East to the Mediterranean Sea in the West, extending through Anatolia (modern day Turkey) and Egypt.
In 499 BC, Athens lent support to a revolt by one of the cities along the cost of Anatolia, Miletus, ruled by a Greek tyrant named Aristagoras, which culminated in the sacking and burning of the city of Sardis. This event escalated into what is known as the Greco-Persian Wars, during which Persia conquered Thrace, Macedonia, then most of the Greek mainland (Battle of Thermopylae), and razed Athens in 480BC. However Greek victories on land at Marathon and Platea and at sea at Salamis and Mycale forced Persia to withdraw. Fighting continued across the Eastern Mediterranean area from Cyprus to Egypt until the peace of Callias in 449 BC.
The rules and ethics emanating from Zoraster's teachings were strictly followed by the Achaemenids who introduced and adopted policies based on human rights, banning of slavery and equality. Zoroastrianism spread unimposed during the time of the Achaemenids and through contacts with the exiled Jewish people in Babylon freed by Cyrus, Zoroastrian concepts further propagated and influenced into other Abrahamic religions. The Golden Age of Athens marked by Aristotle, Plato and Socrates also came about during the Achaemenid period while their contacts with Persia and the Near East abounded. The peace, tranquility, security and prosperity that were afforded to the people of the Near East and Southeastern Europe proved to be a rare historical occurrence, an unparalleled period where commerce prospered, and the standard of living for all people of the region improved.
Alexander of Macedon - referred to as "the accursed" in the Zoroastrian Middle Persian Book of Arda Viraz - invaded Achaemenid territory in 334 BCE, conclusively defeating the last Achaemenid Emperor Darius III at the Battle of Issus in 333 BCE. In 330 BCE, Alexander occupied Persepolis (and according to legend, had it destroyed) and Pasargadae, leaving them and the rest of the Pars province in control of one of his officers before moving on northwards. In the same year, Alexander occupied in quick succession Aspardana (present day Isfahan), Ecbatana in Media (present day Hamadan), Hecatompylos in Hyrancia (present day Mazandaran), Susia in Parthia (in present day North Khorasan). He then turned southwards and occupied Prophtasia in Drangiana (present day Sistan). The next year, in 329 BCE, Alexander took the satrapy capitals at Kandahar in Arachosia, Kabura (Kabul), Bactra (Balkh) in Bactria, and finally Maracanda (Samarkand) in Sogdiana before leaving imperial territory in 328-327. In each of the former Achaemenid territories he installed his own officers as caretakers, which led to friction and ultimately to the partitioning of the former empire after Alexander's death. A reunification would not occur until 700 years later, under the Sassanids (see below). Unlike the diadochic Seleucids and the succeeding Arsacids, who used a vassalary system, the Sassanids - like the Achaemenids - had a system of governors (MP: shahrab) personally appointed by the Emperor and directed by the central government.
[edit] Third Persian Empire: Parthian Empire (248 BC – 224 AD)
Parthia was led by the Arsacid dynasty, who reunited and ruled over the Iranian plateau, after defeating the Greek Seleucid Empire, beginning in the late third century BCE, and intermittently controlled Mesopotamia between ca 150 BCE and 224 CE. These were the third native dynasty of ancient Iran (Persia) and lasted five centuries. After the conquests of Media, Assyria, Babylonia and Elam, the Parthians had to organize their empire. The former elites of these countries were Greek, and the new rulers had to adapt to their customs if they wanted their rule to last. As a result, the cities retained their ancient rights and civil administrations remained more or less undisturbed. An interesting detail is coinage: legends were written in the Greek alphabet, a practice that continued until the 2nd century AD, when local knowledge of the language was in decline and few people knew how to read or write the Greek alphabet.
Parthia was the arch-enemy of the Roman Empire in the east, limiting Rome's expansion beyond Cappadocia (central Anatolia). By using a heavily-armed and armored cataphract cavalry, and lightly armed but highly-mobile mounted archers, the Parthians "held their own against Rome for almost 300 years". Rome's acclaimed general Mark Antony led a disastrous campaign against the Parthians in 36 BCE in which he lost 32,000 men. By the time of Roman emperor Augustus, Rome and Parthia were settling some of their differences through diplomacy. By this time, Parthia had acquired an assortment of golden eagles, the cherished standards of Rome's legions, captured from Mark Antony, and Crassus, who suffered "a disastrous defeat" at Carrhae in 53 BCE.
During Parthian, and later Sassanid era, trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Indian subcontinent, and Rome, and helped to lay the foundations for the modern world. Parthian remains display classically Greek influences in some instances and retain their oriental mode in others, a clear expression of "the cultural diversity that characterized Parthian art and life". The Parthians were innovators of many architecture designs such as that of Ctesiphon, which later on "influenced European Romanesque architecture".
[edit] Fourth Persian Empire: Sassanid Empire (224 – 651 CE)
The end of the Parthian Empire came in 224 CE, when the empire was loosely organized and the last king was defeated by Ardashir I, one of the empire's vassals. Ardashir I then went on to create the Sassanid Empire. Soon he started reforming the country both economically and militarily.
The Sassanids established an empire roughly within the frontiers achieved by the Achaemenids, referring to it as Erânshahr (or Iranshahr, "Dominion of the Aryans", i.e. of Iranians), with their capital at Ctesiphon.
During their reign, Sassanid battles with the Roman Empire caused such pessimism in Rome that the historian Cassius Dio wrote:
Here was a source of great fear to us. So formidable does the Sassanid king seem to our eastern legions, that some are liable to go over to him, and others are unwilling to fight at all.
The Romans suffered repeated losses particularly by Ardashir I, Shapur I, and Shapur II.
Under the Sassanids, Persia expanded relations with China, the arts, music, and architecture greatly flourished, and centers such as the School of Nisibis and Academy of Gundishapur became world renowned centers of science and scholarship.
After roughly six hundred years of confrontation and rivalry with the Roman Empire, raids from the Arab peninsula began attacking the Sassanin and Byzantine frontiers in which a war-exhausted Persia was defeated in the Battle of al-Qâdisiyah, paving way for the Islamic conquest of Persia.
[edit] From the fall of the Sassanid Dynasty to the Safavid Empire (652–1501 CE)
After the Islamic conquest of Persia, Persia was annexed into the Arab Umayyad Caliphate. But the Islamization of Iran was to yield deep transformations within the cultural, scientific, and political structure of Iran's society: The blossoming of Persian literature, philosophy, medicine and art became major elements of the newly-forming Muslim civilization. Inheriting a heritage of thousands of years of civilization, and being at the "crossroads of the major cultural highways", contributed to Persia emerging as what culminated into the "Islamic Golden Age".
It was the Persian general Abu Moslem, who expelled the Umayyads from Damascus and helped the Abbasid caliphs to conquer Baghdad. The Abbasid caliphs frequently chose their "wazirs" (viziers) among Persians, and Persian governors acquired a certain amount of local autonomy. Thus in 822 CE, the governor of Khorasan, Tahir, proclaimed his independence and founded a new Persian dynasty of Tahirids. And by the Samanid era, Persia's efforts to regain its independence had been well solidified.
Attempts of Arabization thus never succeeded in Iran, and movements such as the Shuubiyah became catalysts for Persians to regain their independence in their relations with the Arab invaders. The cultural revival of the post-Abbasid period led to a resurfacing of Persian national identity. The resulting cultural movement reached its peak during the ninth and tenth centuries. The most notable effect of the movement was the continuation of the Persian language, the language of the Persians and the official language of Iran to the present day. Ferdowsi, Iran's greatest epic poet, is regarded today as the most important figure in maintaining the Persian language.
Before the conquest, Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts which originated in ancient Indo-Iranian roots, were considerably influenced by Zoroasters teachings. The Persians had been mainly Zoroastrian, however, there were also large and thriving Christian and Jewish communities. The newly converted Iranian Muslims projected many of their own Persian moral and ethical values that predates the advent of Islam, while recognizing Islam as their religion and the prophet's son in law, Ali, as an enduring symbol of justice.
After an interval of silence Persians remained Persians and Iran reemerged as a separate, different and distinctive element within Islam. Culturally, politically, and religiously, the Iranian contribution to this new Islamic civilization is of immense importance. The work of Iranians can be seen in every field of scientific and cultural endeavor, including Arabic poetry, to which poets of Iranian origin composing their poems in Arabic made a significant contribution. Persian Islam Islam-i Ajam was brought to new areas and new peoples: to the Turks, first in Central Asia and then in the Middle East in the country which came to be called Turkey, as well as to India and beyond. The Ottoman Turks brought a form of Iranian civilization to the walls of Vienna Iranian philosophy after the Islamic conquest, is characterized by different interactions with the Old Iranian philosophy, the Greek philosophy and with the development of Islamic philosophy. The Illumination School and the Transcendent Philosophy are regarded as two of the main philosophical traditions of that era in Persia.
The movement continued well into the eleventh century, when Mahmud-a Ghaznavi founded a vast empire, with its capital at Isfahan and Ghazna. Their successors, the Seljuks, asserted their domination from the Mediterranean Sea to Central Asia. As with their predecessors, the divan of the empire was in the hands of Persian viziers, who founded the Nizamiyya. During this period, hundreds of scholars and scientists vastly contributed to technology, science and medicine, later influencing the rise of European science during the Renaissance.
In 1218, the eastern Khwarazmid provinces of Transoxiana and Khorasan suffered a devastating invasion by Genghis Khan. During this period more than half of Persia's population were killed, turning the streets of Persian cities like Neishabur into "rivers of blood", as the severed heads of men, women, and children were "neatly stacked into carefully constructed pyramids around which the carcasses of the city's dogs and cats were placed". In a letter to King Louis IX of France, Holaku, one of the Genghis Khan's grandsons, alone took responsibility for 200,000 deaths in his raids of Persia and the Caliphate. He was followed by yet another conqueror, Tamerlane, who established his capital in Samarkand.
The waves of devastation prevented many cities such as Neishabur from reaching their pre-invasion population levels until the twentieth century, eight centuries later. But both Holaku, Timur and their successors soon came to adopt the ways and customs of that which they had conquered, choosing to surround themselves with a culture that was distinctively Persian.
[edit] The birth of modern Iran: Rise of the Safavid Empire (1501 – 1920)
Persia's first encompassing Shi'a Islamic state was established under the Safavid dynasty in 1501 by Shah Ismail I. The Safavid dynasty soon became a major political power and promoted the flow of bilateral state contacts. The Safavid peak was during the rule of "Shah Abbas The Great".[44] The Shah swiftly moved to defeat the Uzbeks, Ottomans, and Portuguese, bringing a flow of prosperity into Iranian cities.
The Safavids moved their capital from Tabriz to Qazvin and then to Isfahan where their patronage for the arts propelled Persia into one of its most aesthetically productive eras. Under their rule, the state became highly centralized, the first attempts to modernize the military were made, and even a distinct style of architecture developed.
The defeat of Shah Sultan Hossein by Afghan rebels marked the start of the downfall of the Safavid era in 1722. One year after the last Safavid monarch lost his throne in 1735, Nader Shah successfully drove out the Afghan rebels from Isfahan and established the Afsharid dynasty. He then staged an incursion into India in 1738 securing the Peacock throne, Koh-i-Noor, and Darya-ye Noor among other royal treasures. His rule did not last long however, and he was assassinated in 1747.
The Mashad based Afshar dynasty was succeeded by the Zand dynasty in 1750, founded by Karim Khan, who established his capital at Shiraz. His rule brought a period of relative peace and renewed prosperity. The Afshar dynasty lasted three generations, until Aga Muhammad Khan executed Lotf Ali Khan (assisted by the young Zand king's betrayal by his chancellor), and founded his new capital in Tehran, marking the dawn of the Qajar dynasty in 1794. His successors however gradually transformed Iran into an arena for the rising colonial powers of Imperial Russia and the British Empire, which wielded great political influence in Tehran under the subsequent Qajarid kings. Yet in spite of The Great Game, Iran managed to maintain her sovereignty and was never colonized, unlike neighboring states in the region.
Persia suffered several wars with Imperial Russia during the Qajar era, resulting in Persia losing almost half of its territories to Imperial Russia and the British Empire via the treaties of Gulistan, Turkmenchay, and Akhal. Repeated foreign intervention and a corrupt and weakened Qajar rule led to various protests, which by the end of the Qajar period resulted in Persia's constitutional revoltution establishing the nation's first parliament in 1906, within a constitutional monarchy.
[edit] The Pahlavi era (1921 – present)
With the rise of modernization and encroachment of stronger Western powers in the late nineteenth century came the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1911. Reformers hoped the constitution would strengthen Iran against Imperial Russia and Britain by centralizing and modernizing it. Ultimately the constitution became law, but its provisions were seldom followed during most of its history.
In 1921, Cossack army officer Reza Khan (known as Reza Shah after assuming the throne) staged a coup against the weakened Qajar dynasty. An autocrat and supporter of modernization, Reza Shah initiated the development of modern industry, railroads, and establishment of a national education system. Reza Shah sought to balance the influence of Russia and Britain by seeking out assistance and technology from European powers traditionally not involved in Iranian affairs, but when World War II started his closeness to Germany alarmed allied powers Russia and Britain, Germany's enemies.
In summer of 1941 Britain and the USSR invaded Iran to prevent Iran from allying with the Axis powers. The Allies occupied Iran, securing a supply line to Russia, Iran's petroleum infrastructure, and forced the Shah to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1951, a nationalist politician, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh rose to prominence in Iran and was elected Prime Minister. As Prime Minister, Mossadegh became enormously popular in Iran by nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later British Petroleum, BP) which controlled the country's oil reserves. In response, Britain embargoed Iranian oil and began plotting to depose Mossadegh. Members of the British Intelligence Service invited the United States to join them, convincing U.S. President Eisenhower that Mossadegh was reliant on the Tudeh (Communist) Party to stay in power. In 1953, President Eisenhower authorized Operation Ajax, and the CIA took the lead in overthrowing Mossadegh and supporting a U.S.-friendly monarch.
The CIA faced many setbacks, but the covert operation soon went into full swing, conducted from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran under the leadership of Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. Iranians were hired to protest Mossadegh and fight pro-Mossadegh demonstrators. Anti- and pro-monarchy protestors violently clashed in the streets, leaving almost three hundred dead. The operation was successful in triggering a coup, and within days, pro-Shah tanks stormed the capital and bombarded the Prime Minister's residence. Mossadegh surrendered, and was arrested on 19 August 1953. He was tried for treason, and sentenced to three years in prison.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi returned to power greatly strengthened and his rule became increasingly autocratic in the following years. With strong support from the U.S. and U.K., the Shah further modernized Iranian industry, but simultaneously crushed all forms of political opposition with his intelligence agency, SAVAK. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became an active critic of the Shah's White Revolution and publicly denounced the government. Khomeini, who was popular in religious circles, was arrested and imprisoned for 18 months, finally dying in prison of an unspecified illness in 1964 (it is believed that SAVAK poisoned him, though this has never been proven).
to be continued
