About IRAN:
A brief history
Iran is home to one of the oldest continuous major civilizations in the world, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 7000 BC. The first Iranian dynasty formed during the Elamite kingdom in 2800 BC. The Iranian Medes unified Iran into an empire in 625 BC. They were succeeded by three Iranian Empires, the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids, which governed Iran for more than 1000 years. Iranian post-Islamic dynasties and empires expanded the Persian language and culture throughout the Iranian plateau.
Early Iranian dynasties which re-asserted Iranian independence included the Tahirids, Saffarids, Samanids and Buyids.
The blossoming of Persian literature, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, mathematics and art became major elements of Muslim civilization and started with the Saffarids and Samanids. Iran was once again reunified as an independent state in 1501 by the Safavid dynasty.
“Persia’s Constitutional Revolution” established the nation’s first parliament in 1906, within a constitutional monarchy.
Etymology
The country has always been known to its own people as Iran; however, to the outside world, the official name of Iran from the 6th century BC until 1935 was Persia or similar foreign language translations (La Perse, Persien, Perzie, etc.).
In 1935, Reza Shah asked the international community to call the country by the name “Iran”. A few years later, some Persian scholars protested to the government that changing the name had separated the country from its past, so in 1949 Mohammad Reza Shah announced that both terms could officially be used interchangeably. Now both terms are common, but “Iran” is used mostly in the modern political context and “Persia” in a cultural and historical context.
Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the official name of the country has been the “Islamic Republic of Iran”.
Geography
Iran borders with Azerbaijan and Armenia to the north-west; the Caspian Sea to the north; Turkmenistan to the north-east; Pakistan and Afghanistan to the east; Turkey and Iraq (to the west; and finally the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the south.With an area of 1,648,195 square kilometer, Iran is the 18th largest country and has a population of 70 million people (2006).
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Language, Literature and Science
Currently, the official language of the country according to constitution is Farsi (Persian). Although there are several regional languages such as Azeri , Kurdish, Arabic. Persian is a tongue belonging to the Aryan or Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The oldest records in Old Persian date back to the Achaemenid Empire.
The Persian language was highly Arabized and written in a modified Arabic script. This caused a movement supporting the revival of Persian. An important event of this revival was the writing of the Shahname by Ferdowsi (Persian: Epic of Kings), Iran’s national epic, which is said to have been written entirely in native Persian. This gave rise to a strong reassertion of Iranian national identity, and is in part credited for the continued existence of Persian as a separate language.
This language has served Persian science and literature as a base for their masterworks. Some of these people are among the most famous characters in the world of literature, science, philosophy, mathematics, and medicine.
Persia, has introduced Rumi (known as Mowlana in Persian), Hafiz, Saadi, Khayyam, and Avicenna. In recent years, Iran has introduced several famous scientists and human rights activists, from which Mrs. Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Peace Nobel Prize in 2003 for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women’s, children’s, and refugee rights in I.R. Iran.
For more information:
On Art, Culture and History: www.iranchamber.com
Also on Culture: www.cultureofiran.com
Also on Art: www.artofiran.org
On Tourism and Touring in Iran: www.itto.org