Detail Facts on How Persia Became Iran Term Paper

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 1712 words ( 6 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1+

Page 1 of 6

Persia became Iran

Iran, which is the name nowadays for its country, was formerly known as Persia. The two identities of present day Iran is associated both to the peak of power of pre-Islamic, Achaemenid Persia, as also to its Islamic origin situated both in the 7th century start of Islam in Iran via Arab invasion, and to its 16th century when Shiite Islam formally turned out the state religion of Iran. The country has always been acknowledged among its own people as Iran (land of the Aryans); even though for centuries it was pinpointed to as Persia (Pars or Fars, a provincial state in southern Iran) by the Europeans, mainly because of the writings of Greek historians. In 1935 the government mentioned that it should be called Iran, although in 1949 allowances were made for both names to be implemented. Persia turned out a powerful empire under the Cyrus between 600 and 529 BC. In 546 BC it ruled Sardis in Lydia which was the resort of King Croesus and the initial coins. Following this ruling over Persia started generating its own coins, possibly minting them in Sardis. When Darius I attained the throne in 526 BC, he made issuance of gold coins which turned out popular as Darics of archers. The facial design of these demonstrated the king in a running kneeling down position brandishing a spear and a bow. In 330 BC, Darius was ruled by Alexander the Great of Macedon, and the ultimate days of the Persian Empire terminated. (Gold Coins of Persia: A Brief History of Persia)

Ever since that time Persia has possessed a calculated history being ruled by Assyrians, Medes, Macedonians, Seljuks, Turks and Mongols, but has got back much of its own individuality. Persia changed from an ultimate monarchy to a level of constitutional monarchy in 1906. In 1921, Reza Khan reined a bloodless cluster, and in 1925 perpetrated himself to be elected as Shah. His son Shahpur Mohammed Reza succeeded him in 1926. (Gold Coins of Persia: A Brief History of Persia) The Persians emerge at around 650 BC. So great was their influence on Iranian History that even until this day Iran is recurrently pinpointed to as Persia. In current times, the Persians are the hugest and most significant group in Iran, constituting nearly 50% of the Iranian population. (Mackey, 5) The primitive Persians were one of innumerous Aryan tribal groups that made accommodation in the Iranian plateau. The Persians accommodated the southern region of the plateau, while the Medes settled in the north Western segment. Nowadays Persia/Persian is the semblance of Iran/Iranian. Historically, Persia is the segment of Iran in which the Persian Empire was based. Persia turned out the common name for Iran in the Medieval Europe, but for Iranians it has always turned out to be Iran, the land of the Nobles. There is a label tussle within the core of every Iranian, between the peak of power in age-old Persia under the Achaemenid dynasty on the one pretext, and the powerful reign on the Iranian mindset held by Islam ever since the 7th century, an Islam provided a specific change in the Shiite semblance of the belief.

During 1935 the Iranian government made a request to those countries with which it had diplomatic association, to call Persia Iran, which turns out to be the name of the country in Persian. The suggestive idea for the molding is said to have arisen from the Iranian ambassador to Germany, who came under the impact of the Nazis. At the particular juncture Germany was in the hand of racial fever and enhanced good accord with nations of Aryan blood. It is believed that some of the German friends of the ambassador made persuasion of the ambassador, as with the beginning of Reza Shah, Persia had converted into a new attire in its history and had unchained from the dilapidating influences of Britain and Russia, whose intrusions in Persian Affairs had almost disenabled the country ruled by Quajars, it was only suiting that the country be named by its own name, Iran. This would not only give a sign of new start and bring home to the globe the new phase in Iranian history, but would also pinpoint the Aryan race of its population, as Iran is in semblance with Aryan and is a derivation of it. (Persia or Iran? When Persia Became Iran)

The Iranian ministry of foreign affairs sent across a circular to all foreign embassies in Tehran, making a request that the country henceforth be labeled Iran. Diplomatic courtesy gave way, and slowly the Name Iran started appearing in official correspondence and news items.

Stuck Writing Your "Detail Facts on How Persia Became Iran" Term Paper?

View All Our Example Detail Facts on How Persia Became Iran Term Paper

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

At first Iran sounded different (for non-Iranians), and many failed to acknowledge its association with Persia. Some (Westerners) believed that it was perhaps one of the new countries like Iraq and Jordan etched out of the ruins of the Ottoman empire, or a country in Africa or Southeast Asia that had just been given Independence, and not a few exchanged it with Iraq, itself a current individuality. With the passage of time and turn of events, bearing semblance to the Allied invasion of Iran in 1941, and the nationalization of the oil industry under Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mosaddeq, displayed the country in the headlines, the name Iran became widely prevalent, and Persia categorized itself as a disuse, though more mitigated in Britain than in the United States. (Persia or Iran? When Persia Became Iran)

Even in ancient origins from Achaemenid and Sasanians (2500 and 1800 years ago), the country has been labeled Iran. Reza Shah Pahlavi, king of Iran, made a declaration of the name Iran as the formal name of the country to Europeans in the 1930s. This movement resulted in a great confusion in the Western world as if the name of the country was exchanged, when in fact, it was only announced that the country' original name is Iran, not Persia. To make out the situation better, think of Iran as Great Britain and Persia to be England. Observably enough, Tehran, the existent capital of Iran, historically is situated in the ancient Media, not Persia. Particular questions that are posed are: "Is the country Iran or Persia? Do we turn out to be Persians or Iranians? Farsi or Persian?" When in the juncture of the 20th century Iranians requested westerners to mold the name of the country from Persian to Iran, they were so anticipating to flee the colonial power's impact and hoist the Iranian rights over their own affairs that they did not foresee the results. One result is that due to the phonetic shortages of the English Alphabet Iran and Iraq have semblances in the sound. This may be unobservable. Anyhow it has made it very convenient for average westerner who is very provincial and has dearth of knowledge outside his narrow confinement to consider Iran as part of the Arab life. By terming the country Iran, Iranians feel they dissociated the connection between the country name and Persian Gulf. The British cunningly turned down accepting Iranian Gulf and it gave them with the ultimate divide and rule tactic between the Arab and the Iran.

There exists a misunderstanding among some Iranians that Persia is an age-old culture and has nothing associated with Iran, the current country. Those who believe that implying Persian is supremacist or that Persian is a racial usage are also showing their dearth of knowledge of history or have other intentions. They are inclined to be Islamists who wrongly associate Persia with Zoroastrianism. One can only perceive that they see it as some sort of intimidation. The sources of the Western word Persia itself is probably Greek on the basis of a segment of Iran nowadays called Fars in Arabic and modern Persian, Persis in Greek and Pars in Persian. To track down the sources of the word, one requires observing the affluence of western literature about Persia. One can move back as far as the age-old literature and then succeeding Islam, by pinpointing to Marco Polo travel accounts or the 17th century travelers such as Tavernier or later on Chardin and innumerous others beyond the usage of this writing to discover. It is a mistake to make suggestion that there are racial references in applying the word Persia.

In most of the current Internet, and literature, the usages Persian and Iran have often been applied interchangeably to pinpoint to a wide geographic segment that has been extensive from India to Mediterranean. These two assignments pinpoint to quite different geographic, political and cultural forms. Persia is derivation of the word Pars, or Persis, as it was labeled among the ancient Greeks, and has a narrow and particular reference. It pinpoints to a mountainous region to the northwest of the Persian Gulf, where the city of Shiraz and province of Pars (Present Iran) and the Achaemenid palace, Persepolis, are located. Anyhow the usage of the word Iran is Aryan and denotes the….....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Detail Facts On How Persia Became Iran" (2003, December 08) Retrieved June 28, 2025, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/detail-facts-persia-became-iran-160687

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Detail Facts On How Persia Became Iran" 08 December 2003. Web.28 June. 2025. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/detail-facts-persia-became-iran-160687>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Detail Facts On How Persia Became Iran", 08 December 2003, Accessed.28 June. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/detail-facts-persia-became-iran-160687
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example