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Islamic Republic of Iran جمهوری اسلامی ایران (Persian) Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Irân
Flag Emblem
Motto: استقلال، آزادی، جمهوری اسلامی Esteqlâl, Âzâdi, Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi "Independence, freedom, the Islamic Republic" (de facto)[1]
Anthem: سرود ملی جمهوری اسلامی ایران Sorud-e Melli-ye Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Irân "National Anthem of the Islamic Republic of Iran"
Iran on the globe Map of Iran
Capital and largest city	Tehran 35°41′N 51°25′E / 35.683°N 51.417°E / 35.683; 51.417
Official languages	Persian
Recognised regional languages	List of languages:[4] Predominantly Persian 18% Azerbaijani and other Turkic languages (incl. Qashqai, Turkmen)[2] 10% Kurdish 7% Gilaki and Mazanderani 6% Luri 2% Balochi 2% Arabic 2% other[3] (incl. Armenian, Assyrian, Georgian, Laki, Semnani, Talysh, Tati)
National language	Persian
Ethnic groups (2003 estimate)[5]	All Predominantly Persians Azeris Kurds Mazanderanis Lurs Gilaks Arabs Armenians Turkmens Baloch Talysh Tat
Demonym(s)	Iranian
Government	Unitary presidential theocratic Islamic republic
• Supreme Leader	Ali Khamenei
• President	Ebrahim Raisi
• Vice President	Mohammad Mokhber
• Speaker of the Parliament	Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf
• Chief Justice	Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i
• Secretary of the Guardian Council	Ahmad Jannati
Legislature	Islamic Consultative Assembly
Establishment history
• Elamite Empire	c. 3200 BC
• Median Empire	c. 678 BC
• Achaemenid Empire	550 BC
• Parthian Empire	247 BC
• Sasanian Empire	224 AD
• Iranian Intermezzo	821
• Safavid Empire	1501
• Afsharid Empire	1736
• Zand Kingdom	1751
• Qajar Empire	1796
• Pahlavi Iran	15 December 1925
• Iranian Revolution	11 February 1979
• Current Constitution	3 December 1979
• Latest amendment	28 July 1989
Area
• Total	1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi) (17th)
• Water (%)	1.63 (as of 2015)[6]
Population
• 2024 estimate	89,705,600[7] (17th)
• Density	55/km2 (142.4/sq mi) (132nd)
GDP (PPP)	2024 estimate
• Total	$1.855 trillion[8] (19th)
• Per capita	$21,220[8] (78th)
GDP (nominal)	2024 estimate
• Total	$464,181 billion[8] (34th)
• Per capita	$5,310[8] (113th)
Gini (2019)	40.9[9] medium
HDI (2022)	0.780[10] high (78th)
Currency	Iranian rial (ریال) (IRR)
Time zone	UTC+3:30 (IRST)
Date format	yyyy/mm/dd (SH)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+98
ISO 3166 code	IR
Internet TLD	.ir ایران.

Iran,^[a] officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI),^[b] also known by its Western-given name Persia,^[c] is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Iraq to the west and Turkey to the northwest, 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. With a mostly Persian-ethnic population of almost 90 million in an area of 1,648,195 km² (636,372 sq mi), Iran ranks 17th globally in both geographic size and population. It is the sixth-largest country entirely in Asia, the second-largest in West Asia, and one of the world's most mountainous countries. Officially an Islamic republic, Iran has a Muslim-majority population. The country is divided into five regions with 31 provinces. The nation's capital and most populous city is Tehran, with around 16 million people in its metropolitan area. Other major cities include Mashhad, Isfahan, Karaj, and Shiraz.

Iran is one of the world's oldest civilizations, beginning with the Elamites in the fourth millennium BC. It was first unified as a state by the Medes in the seventh century BC and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire, one of the largest and most powerful empires in ancient history. Alexander the Great conquered the empire in the fourth century BC, subsequently dividing Iran into several Hellenistic states. An Iranian rebellion established the Parthian Empire in the third century BC, which was succeeded in the third century AD by the Sasanian Empire. Muslims conquered the region in the seventh century AD, leading to Iran's Islamization. Iran became a major centre of Islamic culture and learning, and its culture, language, and customs spread across the Muslim world. A series of native Iranian Muslim dynasties ruled the country until the Seljuk and the Mongol conquests of the 11th to 14th centuries. In the 16th century, the native Safavids re-established a unified Iranian state with Twelver Shia Islam as the official religion, marking the beginning of modern Iranian history.

During the Afsharid Empire in the 18th century, Iran was a leading world power, though by the 19th century, it had lost significant territory through a series of conflicts with the Russian Empire. The early 20th century saw the Persian Constitutional Revolution and the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty. Attempts by Mohammad Mosaddegh to nationalize the country's vast fossil fuel supply led to an Anglo-American coup in 1953. After the Iranian Revolution, the monarchy was overthrown in 1979 and the Islamic Republic of Iran was established by The Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who became the country's first supreme leader. The forces of Saddam Hussein invaded the Iranian province of Khuzestan in 1980, initiating the Iran-Iraq War, which by the end of it in 1988, became the longest conventional war of the 20th century. Iran is officially governed as an Islamic Republic with a presidential system, albeit with ultimate authority vested in a supreme leader (rahbar), currently Ali Khamenei since Khomeini's death in 1989. The Iranian government has attracted criticism for its constraints and violations of human rights.

Iran is a major regional and middle power, due to its large reserves of fossil fuels, including the world's second largest natural gas supply, third largest proven oil reserves, its geopolitically significant location, its military capabilities, its regional influence, and its role as the world's focal point of Shia Islam. The Iranian economy is the world's 19th-largest by PPP. It possesses the world's 14th strongest military. Iran is an active and founding member of the United Nations, the NAM, the ECO, the OIC and the OPEC. It is a full member of both the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS. Owing it to its long history and rich cultural legacy, Iran is home to 27 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the 10th highest number in the world, and ranks 5th globally in the number of inscriptions of Intangible Cultural Heritage, or human treasures. Iran was the world's third fastest-growing tourism destination in 2019.^[12]

Etymology

The term Iran ("the land of the Aryans") derives from Middle Persian Ērān, first attested in a third-century inscription at Naqsh-e Rostam, with the accompanying Parthian inscription using Aryān, in reference to the Iranians.^[14] The terms Ērān and Aryān are oblique plural forms of gentilic nouns ēr- (Middle Persian) and ary- (Parthian), both deriving from Proto-Iranian language *arya- (meaning "Aryan", i.e. "of the Iranians"),^[14][15] recognised as a derivative of Proto-Indo-European language *ar-yo-, meaning "one who assembles (skilfully)".^[16] According to Iranian mythology, the name comes from Iraj, a legendary king.^[17]

Historically, Iran has been referred to as "Persia" by the West, due to the writings of Greek historians who referred to all of Iran as "Persís" (Ancient Greek: Περσίς), meaning "the land of the Persians".^{[18][19][20][21]} "Persia" is the Fars province in southwest Iran, the country's 4th largest province, also known as "Pârs".^[22][23] The Persian word "Fârs" (فارس), derived from the earlier form "Pârs" (پارس), which is in turn derived from Pârsâ (Old Persian: 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿). Due to the Fars' historical importance,^[24][25] the term "Persia" originated from this province by the Greeks in around 550 BC,^[26] and Westerners started to refer the entire country as "Persia",^[27][28] until 1935, when Reza Pahlavi requested the international community to refer to the country by its native and original name, Iran.^[29][30] While the Iranians had been calling their nation Iran since at least 1000 BC and possibly earlier, this name change was made so that the Western World would begin to refer to the country by the same name as its people.^[22] Today, both Iran and "Persia" are used in cultural contexts, while Iran remains mandatory in official state contexts.^{[31][32][33][34][35][36]}

The Persian pronunciation of Iran is [ʔiːˈɾɒːn]. Common Commonwealth English pronunciations of Iran are listed in the Oxford English Dictionary as /ɪˈrɑːn/ and /ɪˈræn/,^[37] while American English dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster's provide pronunciations which map to /ɪˈrɑːn, -ˈræn, aɪˈræn/,^[38] or likewise in Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary as /ɪˈræn, ɪˈrɑːn, aɪˈræn/. The Cambridge Dictionary lists /ɪˈrɑːn/ as the British pronunciation and /ɪˈræn/ as the American pronunciation. The pronunciation guide from Voice of America also provides /ɪˈrɑːn/.^[39] The American English pronunciation /aɪˈræn/ may be heard in U.S. media.

History

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Prehistory

The earliest attested archaeological artifacts in Iran confirm human presence since the Lower Palaeolithic.^[41] Iran's Neanderthal artifacts have been found mainly in the Zagros region, at sites such as Warwasi and Yafteh.^[42][43][44] From the tenth to the seventh millennium BC, early agricultural communities began to flourish in and around the Zagros region, including Chogha Golan,^[45][46] Chogha Bonut,^[47][48] and Chogha Mish.^{[49][50][51][52]} The occupation of grouped hamlets in the area of Susa ranges from 4395 to 3490 BC.^[53] There are dozens of prehistoric sites across the Iranian Plateau, pointing to the existence of ancient cultures and urban settlements in the fourth millennium BC.^[52][54][55]

During the Bronze Age, the territory was home to several Iranian civilizations,^[56][57] including Elam, Jiroft, and Zayanderud. Elam, the most prominent of these, developed in the southwest alongside those in Mesopotamia, and continued its existence until the emergence of the Iranian empires. The advent of writing in Elam was parallelled to Sumer; the Elamite cuneiform developed beginning in the third millennium BC.^[58] Diverse artifacts from The Bronze Age, huge structures from the Iron Age and various sites dating back to the Sassanid, Parthian and Islamic eras indicated suitable conditions for human civilization over the past 8,000 years in Piranshahr.^[59][60]

From the 34th to the 20th century BC, northwestern Iran was part of the Kura-Araxes culture, which stretched into the neighbouring Caucasus and Anatolia.

Ancient Iran

By the second millennium BC, the ancient Iranian peoples arrived in Iran from the Eurasian Steppe,^[61] rivalling the native settlers of the plateau.^[62][63] As the Iranians dispersed into the wider area of Greater Iran and beyond, the plateau was dominated by Median, Persian, and Parthian tribes. The Ancient Iranian history began with the Elamite Empire in the fourth millennium BC, in the far west and southwest of Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province. In the Old Elamite period (Middle Bronze Age), Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Elam was part of the early urbanization of the Near East during the Chalcolithic period.

From the late tenth to the late seventh century BC, the Iranian peoples, together with the pre-Iranian kingdoms, fell under the domination of the Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia.^[64][65] Under king Cyaxares, the Medes and Persians entered into an alliance with Babylonian ruler Nabopolassar, as well as the fellow Iranian Scythians and Cimmerians, and together they attacked the Assyrians. Civil war ravaged the Assyrian Empire between 616 and 605 BC, freeing their respective peoples from three centuries of Assyrian rule.^[64]

The frequent interference of the Assyrians in Zagros led to the process of unifying the Median tribes by Deioces in 728 BC, the foundation of the Median Empire and their capital Ecbatana, unifying Iran as a nation and state for the first time in 625 BC.^[66] By 612 BC, the Medes overthrow the declining Assyrian Empire in alliance with the Babylonians.^[67] This marked the end of the Kingdom of Urartu, which was subsequently conquered and dissolved.^[68][69]

In 550 BC, Cyrus the Great defeated the last Median king, Astyages during the Medo-Persian conflict, conquering Median territories and establishing the Achaemenid Empire by unifying other city-states. Later conquests under Cyrus and his successors expanded the empire to include Lydia, Babylon, Egypt, parts of the Balkans and Eastern Europe, as well as lands to the west of the Indus and Oxus rivers. In 539 BC Persian forces defeated the Babylonian army at Opis, marking the end of around four centuries of Mesopotamian domination of the region by conquering the Neo-Babylonian Empire.^[70][71]

In 518 BC, Persepolis was founded by Darius the Great as the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire which, at its greatest extent, was the largest empire the world had yet seen,^[71] and it ruled over 44% of the world's population.^[72] The Achaemenid Empire has been recognized for its imposition of a successful model of centralized bureaucratic administration, its multicultural policy, building complex infrastructure such as road systems and an organized postal system, the use of official languages across its territories, and the development of civil services, including its possession of a large, professional army. Its advancements inspired the implementation of similar styles of governance by later empires.^[73] In 334 BC, Alexander the Great defeated the last Achaemenid king, Darius III, at the Battle of Issus, and burned down Persepolis. Following the premature death of Alexander in 323 BC, Iran fell under the control of the Seleucid Empire, and divided into several Hellenistic states.

Iran remained under the Seleucid occupation until 250–247 BC, when the native Parthians, led by Arsaces I, liberated the region of Parthia in northeast Iran, and rebelled against the Seleucids, founding the Parthian Empire. Parthians rose to become the main power in Iran, and the century-long geopolitical arch-rivalry between the Romans and the Parthians began, culminating in the Roman–Parthian Wars. Mithridates I greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to present-day Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han dynasty of China, became a center of trade and commerce. As the Parthians expanded westward, they came into conflict with the Kingdom of Armenia, and eventually the late Roman Republic. The Romans and Parthians competed with each other to establish the kings of Armenia as their subordinate clients.

After nearly five centuries of Parthian rule, frequent civil wars between Parthian contenders to the throne proved more dangerous to the Empire's stability than foreign invasion. Parthian power evaporated when Ardashir I, the Persian ruler of Istakhr, killed the last Parthian ruler, Artabanus IV, and founded the Sasanian Empire in 224 AD. Sassanids and their neighbouring arch-rival, the Roman-Byzantines, were the world's two dominant powers for over four centuries.^[74][75] The Sasanians established an empire within the frontiers achieved by the Achaemenids, with their capital at Ctesiphon. Late antiquity is considered one of Iran's most influential periods, as under the Sasanians,^[76] their influence reached ancient Rome (and through that as far as Western Europe),^[77][78] Africa,^[79] China, and India,^[80] and played a prominent role in the formation of the mediaeval art of both Europe and Asia.^[74][75] The period of Sasanian rule was a high point in Iranian history, characterized by a complex and centralized government bureaucracy, and revitalized Zoroastrianism as a legitimizing and unifying force of their rule.^[81]

Mediaeval period and Iranian Intermezzo

Following the early Muslim conquests in the region, the influence of Sasanian art, architecture, music, literature and philosophy on Islamic culture ensured the spread of Iranian culture, knowledge and ideas throughout the Muslim world. The prolonged Byzantine–Sasanian wars, most importantly the climactic war of 602–628, as well as the social conflict within the Sasanian Empire, opened the way for an Arab invasion in the seventh century.^[82][83] The empire was initially defeated by the Rashidun Caliphate, which was succeeded by the Umayyad Caliphate, followed by the Abbasid Caliphate. A prolonged and gradual process of Islamization followed, which targeted Iran's then Zoroastrian majority and included religious persecution,^[84][85][86] demolition of libraries^[87] and fire temples,^[88] a special tax penalty ("jizya"),^[89][90] and language shift.^[91][92]

In 750, the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads.^[93] Arab Muslims and Persians of all strata made up the rebel army, which was united by the Persian Muslim, Abu Muslim.^[94][95][96] In their struggle for power, society gradually became cosmopolitan. Persians and Turks began to replace Arabs in most fields. A hierarchy of officials emerged, a bureaucracy at first Persian and later Turkish which decreased Abbasid prestige and power for good.^[97]

After two centuries of Arab rule, various native semi-independent and independent Muslim Iranian dynasties in the Iranian Plateau rose, namely the Tahirids, Saffarids, Sajids, Samanids, Ziyarids, Buyids, Sallarids, Rawadids, Marwanids, Shaddadids, Kakuyids, Annazids and Hasanwayhids, appearing on the fringes of the declining Abbasid Caliphate.^[98] The period, known as the Iranian Intermezzo, was an interlude between the decline of Abbasid rule and power by Arabs and the "Sunni Revival" with the 11th-century emergence of the Seljuks. It consisted Iranian support based on Iranian territory, and most significantly a revived Iranian national spirit and culture in an Islamic form. It also revived the Persian language, with the most significant Persian-language literature from this period being Shahnameh by Ferdowsi, the country's national epic.^{[99][100][101][102]}

The blossoming literature, philosophy, mathematics, medicine, astronomy and art became major elements in a new age for Iranian civilization, during a period known as the Islamic Golden Age.^[103][104] The Islamic Golden Age reached its peak by the 10th and 11th centuries, during which Iran was the main theatre of scientific activities.^[105] The tenth century saw a mass migration of Turkic tribes from Central Asia to Iran.^[106] Turkic tribesmen were first used in the Abbasid army as mamluks (slave-warriors).^[94] As a result, the Mamluks gained significant political power. In 999, large portions of Iran briefly occupied by the Ghaznavids, and longer subsequently under the Seljuk and Khwarezmian empires.^[106] The Seljuks subsequently gave rise to the Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia.^[107][108] The result of the adoption and patronage of Iranian culture by Turkish rulers was the development of a distinct Turco-Persian tradition.

From 1219 to 1221, under the Khwarazmian Empire, Iran suffered a devastating invasion by the Mongol Empire. According to Steven R. Ward, "Mongol violence and depredations killed up to three-fourths of the population of the Iranian Plateau, possibly 10 to 15 million people. Some historians have estimated that Iran's population did not again reach its pre-Mongol levels until the mid-20th century."^[109] Most modern historians either outright dismiss or are highly skeptical of such statistics and deem them to be exaggerations by Muslim chroniclers of that era. Indeed, as far as Iran was concerned, the bulk of the Mongol onslaught and battles were in the northeast Iran, such as in the cities of Nishapur and Tus.^{[110][111][112]}

Following the fracture of the Mongol Empire in 1256, Hulagu Khan established the Ilkhanate Empire in Iran. In 1357, the capital Tabriz was occupied by the Golden Horde khan Jani Beg and the centralised power collapsed, resulting in the emergence of rivalling dynasties. In 1370, yet another Mongol, Timur, took control over Iran, and established the Timurid Empire. In 1387, Timur ordered the complete massacre of Isfahan, killing 70,000 people.^[113]

Early modern period

Safavids

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