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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.
Since the Safavid era, Mamâlek-e Mahruse-ye Irân (Guarded Domains of Iran) was the common and official name of Iran. [21] [22] The idea of the Guarded Domains illustrated a feeling of territorial and political uniformity in a society where the Persian language, culture, monarchy, and Shia Islam became integral elements of the developing national identity. [23]
With a population of around 9.8 million in the city as of 2025, [8] and 16.8 million in the metropolitan area, Tehran is the most populous city in Iran and Western Asia, [9] the second-largest metropolitan area in the Middle East after Cairo, and the 24th most populous metropolitan area in the world.
The first Shia theocracy in the 20th century was established in Iran following the Iranian Revolution that led to the fall of the Shah of Iran.The constitutional name of Iran was established as the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ايران transliteration: Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān).
Iran's population is about 83,500,000; [3] and is the 18th largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 square kilometres (636,372 sq mi). Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC.
In a sense, Iranian Islam is a second advent of Islam itself, a new Islam sometimes referred to as Islam-i Ajam. It was this Persian Islam, rather than the original Arab Islam, that 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, and India.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is an Islamic theocracy headed by a Supreme Leader. Its constitution was approved in 1979 and amended in 1989. Jaafari school of thought is the official religion. Theocratic bodies supervise the government which has an elected president and elected governmental bodies at the national, provincial and local levels.
In 1979, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown by an Islamic Revolution in Iran, replacing its millennia-old monarchy with a theocratic republic. Shortly after, the leader of the Revolution, a senior Islamic jurist named Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, also transliterated Khumaynî, successfully supported referendums to declare Iran an Islamic Republic in March 1979, and to approve a ...