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The exonym Persia was the official name of Iran in the Western world before March 1935, but the Iranian peoples inside their country since the time of Zoroaster (probably circa 1000 BC), or even before, have called their country Arya, Iran, Iranshahr, Iranzamin (Land of Iran), Aryānām (the equivalent of Iran in the proto-Iranian language) or ...
Iran, [a] [b] officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) [c] and also known as Persia, [d] is a country in West Asia.It borders Turkey to the northwest and Iraq to the west, Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Caspian Sea, and Turkmenistan to the north, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the southeast, the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south.
Iran suffered invasions by nomadic tribes during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period, negatively impacting the region. [17] Iran was reunified as an independent state in 1501 by the Safavid dynasty, which established Shia Islam as the empire's official religion, [18] marking a significant turning point in the history of Islam. [19]
In 1959, the government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Reza Shah's son, announced that both "Persia" and "Iran" could officially be used interchangeably. [91] Nowadays, the term "Persians" mainly refers to those whose mother tongue is Persian (Farsi) and those who identify as Persian. [92] However, Iran is a mosaic of ethnic and linguistic groups. [92]
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."
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, officially called the Supreme Leadership Authority in Iran, is a post established by Article 5 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran in accordance with the concept of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist. [20] This post is a life tenure post. [21]
The Persians (/ ˈ p ɜːr ʒ ən z / PUR-zhənz or / ˈ p ɜːr ʃ ən z / PUR-shənz) are a Western Iranian ethnic group who comprise the majority of the population of Iran. [4] They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language [6] [7] [8] as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian.
The word ērān is first attested in the inscriptions that accompany the investiture relief of Ardashir I (r. 224–242) at Naqsh-e Rustam. [1] In this bilingual inscription, the king calls himself "Ardashir, king of kings of the Aryans" (Middle Persian: ardašīr šāhān šāh ī ērān; Parthian: ardašīr šāhān šāh ī aryān). [1]