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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.
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 functioned again as a leading world power, especially in rivalry with the Ottoman Empire. In the 19th century, Iran lost significant territories in the Caucasus to the Russian Empire following the Russo-Persian Wars. [20] Iran remained a monarchy until the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when it officially became an Islamic republic on 1 April 1979.
Based on their shared language, the people of Iran generally identify them as Persians. [94]: 3–4 This leads many scholars to believe that the term "Iranian" is more encompassing and inclusive of these various ethnic groups (Iranic people, and ethnic groups in Iran). [95]
Native Iranian rule was revived with the establishment of the Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD). The Parthians were succeeded by the Sasanian Empire (224 AD –651 AD), which ruled Iran until the Muslim conquest. Medieval Iran was alternated between being ruled by large foreign empires and being divided into several smaller kingdoms.
A positive value represents more people entering Iran than leaving the country. Despite stagnation in the economy, Iran's Human Development Index rating (including life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living) improved significantly in the years after the revolution, climbing from 0.569 in 1980 to 0.759 in 2007/8. [11]
The 18th largest country in the world, Iran is approximately the size of the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Germany combined and has a population of over 82 million people. Iran borders Armenia, Azerbaijan, to the north-west, Russia and Kazakhstan through the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the north-east, Afghanistan and Pakistan ...
The Ilkhanid realm was officially known as the Land of Iran or simply Iran. [ 11 ] [ 12 ] It was established after Hülegü , the son of Tolui and grandson of Genghis Khan , inherited the West Asian and Central Asian part of the Mongol Empire after his brother Möngke Khan died in 1259.