Iran has one of the oldest histories in the world, extending more than 5000 years, and throughout history, Iran has been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia and Western Asia. Iran is a founding member of the UN, NAM, OIC, OPEC, and ECO. Iran as a major regional power occupies an important position in the world economy due to its substantial reserves of petroleum and natural gas, and has considerable regional influence in Western Asia. The name Iran is a cognate of Aryan and literally means "Land of the Aryans." (Full article...)
The Baháʼí Faith is a religion established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. It initially developed in Iran and parts of the Middle East, where it has faced ongoing persecution since its inception. The religion has 7–8 million adherents known as Baháʼís who are spread throughout most of the world's countries and territories.
The Baháʼí Faith has three central figures: the Báb (1819–1850), executed for heresy, who taught that a prophet similar to Jesus and Muhammad would soon appear; Baháʼu'lláh (1817–1892), who claimed to be said prophet in 1863 and who had to endure both exile and imprisonment; and his son, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (1844–1921), who made teaching trips to Europe and the United States after his release from confinement in 1908. After ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death in 1921, the leadership of the religion fell to his grandson Shoghi Effendi (1897–1957). Baháʼís annually elect local, regional, and national Spiritual Assemblies that govern the religion's affairs, and every five years an election is held for the Universal House of Justice, the nine-member governing institution of the worldwide Baháʼí community that is located in Haifa, Israel, near the Shrine of the Báb. (Full article...)
Heraclius's reign was marked by several military campaigns. The year Heraclius came to power, the empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Heraclius immediately took charge of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. The first battles of the campaign ended in defeat for the Byzantines; the Persian army fought their way to the Bosphorus but Constantinople was protected by impenetrable walls and a strong navy, and Heraclius was able to avoid total defeat. Soon after, he initiated reforms to rebuild and strengthen the military. Heraclius drove the Persians out of Asia Minor and pushed deep into their territory, defeating them decisively in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh. The Persian Shah Khosrow II was overthrown and executed by his son Kavad II, who soon sued for a peace treaty, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territory. This way peaceful relations were restored to the two deeply strained empires. (Full article...)
Khurshid (Book Pahlavi: hwlšyt'; Tabari/Persian: اسپهبد خورشید, Spāhbed Khōrshīd 'General Khorshid'; 734–761), erroneously designated Khurshid II by earlier scholars, was the last Dabuyidispahbadh of Tabaristan. He succeeded to the throne at an early age, and was supervised by his uncle as regent until he reached the age of fourteen. Khurshid supported various rebellions and maintained diplomatic contacts with Tang China. Finally, the Abbasids conquered his country in 759–760, and captured most members of his family. Khurshid fled to Daylam, where he ended his life. (Full article...)
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Location and main events of the Ionian Revolt.
The Ionian Revolt, and associated revolts in Aeolis, Doris, Cyprus and Caria, were military rebellions by several Greek regions of Asia Minor against Persian rule, lasting from 499 BC to 493 BC. At the heart of the rebellion was the dissatisfaction of the Greek cities of Asia Minor with the tyrants appointed by Persia to rule them, along with the individual actions of two Milesian tyrants, Histiaeus and Aristagoras. The cities of Ionia had been conquered by Persia around 540 BC, and thereafter were ruled by native tyrants, nominated by the Persian satrap in Sardis. In 499 BC, the tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, launched a joint expedition with the Persian satrap Artaphernes to conquer Naxos, in an attempt to bolster his position. The mission was a debacle, and sensing his imminent removal as tyrant, Aristagoras chose to incite the whole of Ionia into rebellion against the Persian king Darius the Great.
In 498 BC, supported by troops from Athens and Eretria, the Ionians marched on, captured, and burnt Sardis. However, on their return journey to Ionia, they were followed by Persian troops, and decisively beaten at the Battle of Ephesus. This campaign was the only offensive action by the Ionians, who subsequently went on the defensive. The Persians responded in 497 BC with a three-pronged attack aimed at recapturing the outlying areas of the rebellion, but the spread of the revolt to Caria meant that the largest army, under Daurises, relocated there. While initially campaigning successfully in Caria, this army was annihilated in an ambush at the Battle of Pedasus. This battle had started a stalemate for the rest of 496 BC and 495 BC. (Full article...)
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran's economy has experienced slower economic growth, high inflation, and recurring crises. The Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), increased corruption, and subsequent international sanctions severely disrupted development. In recent years, Iran's economy has faced stagnant growth, inflation rates among the highest in the world, currency devaluation, rising poverty, water and power shortages, and low rankings in corruption and business climate indices. The brief war with Israel in June 2025 further exacerbated economic pressures, causing billions in damage and loss of revenues. Despite possessing large oil and gas reserves, Iran's economy remains burdened by structural challenges and policy mismanagement, resulting in limited growth and a decline in living standards in the post-revolution era. (Full article...)
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The second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC) occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece. The invasion was a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece (492–490 BC) at the Battle of Marathon, which ended Darius I's attempts to subjugate Greece. After Darius's death, his son Xerxes spent several years planning for the second invasion, mustering an enormous army and navy. The Athenians and Spartans led the Greek resistance. About a tenth of the Greek city-states joined the 'Allied' effort; most remained neutral or submitted to Xerxes.
The invasion began in spring 480 BC, when the Persian army crossed the Hellespont and marched through Thrace and Macedon to Thessaly. The Persian advance was blocked at the pass of Thermopylae by a small Allied force under King Leonidas I of Sparta; simultaneously, the Persian fleet was blocked by an Allied fleet at the straits of Artemisium. At the famous Battle of Thermopylae, the Allied army held back the Persian army for three days, before they were outflanked by a mountain path and the Allied rearguard was trapped and annihilated. The Allied fleet had also withstood two days of Persian attacks at the Battle of Artemisium, but when news reached them of the disaster at Thermopylae, they withdrew to Salamis. (Full article...)
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The Imamzadeh Chaharmenar in Tabriz, where the Rawadid rulers are buried
Abu Mansur Wahsudan (also spelled Vahsudan; Persian: ابو منصور وهسودان) was the penultimate Rawadidamir (ruler) of Azarbaijan from 1025 to 1058/59. He is considered the most prominent ruler of his dynasty. With the assistance of his Kurdish neighbours, he initially contained the attacks of migrating Turkmen tribes, but was eventually forced to acknowledge the authority of the Seljuk ruler Tughril (r. 1037–1063) in 1054. He was succeeded by his son Abu Nasr Mamlan II (r. 1058/59–1070). (Full article...)
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Drachma of Yazdegerd II, minted at Gurgan or Qom between 439-447
His reign was marked by wars against the Eastern Roman Empire in the west and the Kidarites in the east, as well as by his efforts and attempts to strengthen royal centralisation in the bureaucracy by imposing Zoroastrianism on the non-Zoroastrians within the country, namely the Christians. This backfired in Armenia, culminating in a large-scale rebellion led by the military leader Vardan Mamikonian, who was ultimately defeated and killed at the Battle of Avarayr in 451. Nevertheless, religious freedom was subsequently allowed in the country. (Full article...)
Upon the death of his father, Varsken went to the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon and was received by the shahanshahPeroz I (r. 459–484), converting to the family's former religion, Zoroastrianism. As a reward for his conversion, he was given the viceroyalty of Caucasian Albania and a daughter of Peroz in marriage. (Full article...)
The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world of the Greeks and the enormous empire of the Persians began when Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek-inhabited region of Ionia in 547 BC. Struggling to control the independent-minded cities of Ionia, the Persians appointed tyrants to rule each of them. This would prove to be the source of much trouble for the Greeks and Persians alike.
In 499 BC, the tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, embarked on an expedition to conquer the island of Naxos, with Persian support; however, the expedition was a debacle and, preempting his dismissal, Aristagoras incited all of Hellenic Asia Minor into rebellion against the Persians. This was the beginning of the Ionian Revolt, which would last until 493 BC, progressively drawing more regions of Asia Minor into the conflict. Aristagoras secured military support from Athens and Eretria, and in 498 BC these forces helped to capture and burn the Persian regional capital of Sardis. The Persian king Darius the Great vowed to have revenge on Athens and Eretria for this act. The revolt continued, with the two sides effectively stalemated throughout 497–495 BC. In 494 BC, the Persians regrouped and attacked the epicenter of the revolt in Miletus. At the Battle of Lade, the Ionians suffered a decisive defeat, and the rebellion collapsed, with the final embers being stamped out the following year. (Full article...)
The Saint Thaddeus Monastery, also known as Kara Kilise, is an ancient Armenian monastery located in the mountainous area of Iran's West Azarbaijan Province, about 20 km from the town of Maku. In July 2008, the St. Thaddeus Monastery was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, along with the St. Stepanos monastery and the chapel of Dzordzor as a part of The Armenian Monastic Ensemble in Iran.
...that the nearly completed Sivand Dam project in Fars Province, Iran will flood 130 archaeological sites and hasten the destruction of the ancient Persian city of Pasargadae?
Imperial Bank of Persia head office on the eastern side of Toopkhaneh, Teheran, 1902 The Imperial Bank of Persia (Persian: بانک شاهنشاهی ایران, romanized: Bânk-e Šâhanšâhi-ye Irân), sometimes transcribed as Bank Shahi, was a British bank that played a central role in the financial history of late Qajar Iran, known in English at the time as Persia. The bank was legally established in London and subject to British law, with the bulk of its operations based in Tehran under a concession initially granted by the Qajar government to Paul Julius Reuter. It served as the country's main bank of issue until that role was transferred to Bank Melli Iran in 1932, and introduced European financial practices to a country in which they were previously unknown.
Following political changes in Pahlavi Iran it was renamed the Imperial Bank of Iran in 1935, then the British Bank of Iran and the Middle East in 1949 following expansion into other Middle Eastern countries. In 1952, its operations in Iran were terminated, with some of its former business restructured as Bank Bazargani. The remaining activity outside Iran was renamed British Bank of the Middle East (BBME), which in 1959 was purchased by HSBC and in 1999 was renamed HSBC Bank Middle East. Bank Bazargani in turn was reorganized in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution, to become the nucleus of Bank Tejarat. (Full article...)
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ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, c. 1912
ʻAbdu'l-BaháKBE (/əbˈdʊlbəˈhɑː/; Persian: عبد البهاء, IPA:[ʔæbdolbæhɒːʔ];, 23 May 1844 – 28 November 1921), born ʻAbbás (Persian: عباس, IPA:[ʔæbːɒːs]), was the eldest son of Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Faith, who designated him to be his successor and head of the Baháʼí Faith from 1892 until 1921. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was later cited as the last of three "central figures" of the religion, along with Baháʼu'lláh and the Báb, and his writings and authenticated talks are regarded as sources of Baháʼí sacred literature.
He was born in Tehran to an aristocratic family. At the age of eight, his father was imprisoned during a government crackdown on the Bábí Faith and the family's possessions were looted, leaving them in virtual poverty. His father was exiled from their native Iran, and the family established their residence in Baghdad in Iraq, where they stayed for ten years. They were later called by the Ottoman state to Istanbul before entering another period of confinement in Edirne and finally the prison-city of ʻAkká (Acre). ʻAbdu'l-Bahá remained a prisoner there until the Young Turk Revolution freed him in 1908 at the age of 64. He then made several journeys to the West to spread the Baháʼí message beyond its middle-eastern roots, but the onset of World War I left him largely confined to Haifa from 1914 to 1918. Following the war, the openly hostile Ottoman authorities were replaced by the British Mandate over Palestine, during which time he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his help in averting famine following the war. (Full article...)
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From one of the lowest energy intensity users in the world in 1980, Iran has become one of the major consumers of energy with very high energy intensity. The economy of Iran includes a lot of subsidies. Food items, such as flour and cooking oil, are subsidized, along with fuels such as gasoline. However cutting subsidies can cause civil unrest.
Mass demonstrations of people protesting against the Shah and the Pahlavi government on the day of Hosseini's Ashura on 11 December 1978 at College Bridge, Tehran
The Persians are descended from ancient Iranian peoples who migrated to Persis (also called "Persia proper" and corresponding with Iran's Fars Province) by the 9th century BC. Alongside the various ethnicities and cultures that they were contemporaries with, they established and ruled some of the world's most powerful empires, which are widely recognized for their massive cultural, political, and social influence in the ancient Near East and beyond. Persians have contributed greatly to art and science, and Persian literature is one of the world's most prominent literary traditions both inside and outside of Iran. The regional prestige of their civilization was the basis for the development of many noteworthy Persianate societies, especially among the Turkic peoples, throughout Central Asia and South Asia. (Full article...)
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The Letter of Tansar (Persian: نامه تنسر) was a 6th-century Sassanid propaganda instrument that portrayed the preceding Arsacid period as morally corrupt and heretical (to Zoroastrianism), and presented the first Sassanid dynast Ardashir I as having "restored" the faith to a "firm foundation." The letter was simultaneously a declaration of the unity of Zoroastrian church and Iranian state, "for church and state were born of the one womb, joined together and never to be sundered."
The document seems to have been based on a genuine 3rd-century letter written by Tansar, the Zoroastrian high priest under Ardashir I, to a certain Gushnasp of Parishwar/Tabaristan, one of vassal kings of the Arsacid Ardavan IV. This original missive was apparently written not long after Ardashir had overthrown Ardavan, and Tansar appears to have been responding to charges levelled at Ardashir, and the delay in accepting Ardashir's suzerainty. Representative of those charges is the accusation that Ardashir "had taken away fires from the fire-temples, extinguished them and blotted them out." To this, Tansar replies that it was the "kings of the peoples [i.e. Parthians' vassal kings]" that began the practice of dynastic fires, an "innovation" unauthorized by the kings of old. A similar response appears in Book IV of the 9th century Denkard. (Full article...)
From the Achaemenid Empire of 550 BC–330 BC for most of the time a large Iranian-speaking state has ruled over areas similar to the modern boundaries of Iran, and often much wider areas, sometimes called Greater Iran, where a process of cultural Persianization left enduring results even when rulership separated. The courts of successive dynasties have generally led the style of Persian art, and court-sponsored art has left many of the most impressive survivals. (Full article...)
The fortified site, which is located on a hill created by the outflow of a calcium-rich spring pond, was recognized as a World Heritage Site in July 2003. The citadel includes the remains of Adur Gushnasp, a Zoroastrianfire temple built during the Sasanian era and partially rebuilt (as a mosque) under the Ilkhanate. This temple housed one of the three "Great Fires" or "Royal Fires" that Sassanid rulers humbled themselves before in order to ascend the throne. The fire at Takht-i Soleiman was called Adur Gushnasp and was dedicated to the arteshtar or the warrior class of the Sassanid. The foundations of the fire temple around the pond is attributed to that legend. Takht-e Soleyman appears on the 4th century Peutinger Map. (Full article...)
... that Maryam Eslamdoust was the first Iranian-born woman to hold public office in Great Britain?
In this month
January 7, 2011 – Dozens of Christians in Iran are arrested, after security forces forcibly entered their homes and verbally and physically abused them, in a crackdown on converts from Islam and evangelical groups, which an Iranian official who confirmed the arrests called an "enemy cultural invasion."
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