Iran is among the oldest countries existing since back 7000BC was commonly known as Farris. On the Nowruz of 1935, Kind Reza Shah Pahlavi asked foreign delegates to use the term Iran. Since then, in the Western World, the use of the word “Iran” that has become more common. This also changed the usage of the terms for Iranian nationality, and the common adjective for citizens of Iran changed from “Persian” to “Iranian”. In 1959, the government of King announced that both “Persia” and “Iran” could officially be used interchangeably.
The Iranian Empire proper begins in the iron-age, following the influx of Iranian people. Iranian people gave rise to the Medes, the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian Empires of antiquity.
Once a major empire, Iran has endured invasions too, by the Greeks, Arabs, Turks and Mongols. Iran has continually reasserted its national identity throughout the centuries and has developed as a distinct political and cultural entity.
The Muslim conquest of Persia (633-654) ended the Sasanian Empire and is a turning point in Iranian history. Islamisation of Iran took place during the eighth to tenth centuries, leading to the eventual decline of Zoroastrianis in Iran as well as many of its dependencies. However, the achievements of the previous Persian civilizations were not lost, but were to a great extent absorbed by the new Islamic polity and civilization.*
Iran, with its long history of early cultures and empires, had suffered particularly hard during the late middle ages and the early modern period. Many invasions of nomadic tribes, whose leaders became rulers in this country, affected it negatively.
Iran was reunified as an independent state in 1501 by the Safavid dynasty, which set Shia Islam as the empire’s official religion, marking one of the most important turning points in the history of Islam. Functioning again as a leading world power, this time amongst the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, its arch-rival for centuries, Iran had been a monarchy ruled by an emperor almost without interruption from 1501 until the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when Iran officially became an Islamic republic on April 1, 1979.
Over the course of the first half of the 19th century, Iran lost many of its territories in the Caucasus, which had been a part of Iran for centuries, comprising modern-day Eastern Georgia, Dagestan, Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia, to its rapidly expanding and emerged neighboring rival, the Russian Empire, following the Russo-Persian Wars between1804-13 and 1816-28.
So, till today, visiting Iran, one enjoys the ruins of 7000 histories in a single visit.
You will visit:
Shiraz: Pasargadae, Persepolis, Naqsh-e-Rostam, Tomb of Hafez, Vakil Complex, Narenjestan-e-Qavam Garden, Ali Ebne Hamazeh Mosque, Shah Cheragh Shrine, Pasargadae.
Yazd: Amir Chakhmaq Square, Jame Mosque, Fahadan Quarter, Tower of Silence, Fire Temple.
Isfahan: Naqsh-e Jahan, Alighapu Palace, Imam Mosque, Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, Chehel Sotun
Palace, Vank Cathedral.
Kashan: Tabatabaei House, Brojerdi House, Fin Garden.
Tehran: Sa’d abad Palace, National Museum.
