Iran

Iran (Persian: ?????) is a Middle Eastern country located in Southwest Asia bordering Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkmenistan to the north, Pakistan and Afghanistan to the east, Turkey and Iraq to the west. Although locally known as Iran at least since the Sassanian period, until 1935 the country was referred to in the West as Persia. In 1959, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi announced that both terms could be used. In 1979 a revolution which was eventually led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, established a theocratic Islamic Republic, changing the country's official name into the Islamic Republic of Iran (?????? ?????? ?????). The name Iran is a cognate of the Aryan meaning "Land of the Aryans."

Terminology

By its people, Iran or Persia has been called Aryanam since ancient times and Iran/Eranshahr since the Sassanian period. "Aryanam" is the ancient version of "Iran" and the old genitive plural meaning (land) of the Aryans. The term Persia is the name used for this country by European countries since the Persian Empire of the Achaemenids in the 6th century BC.

Related Topics:
Sassanian - Europe - Persian Empire - Achaemenids

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See also: Iran naming dispute

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