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Persian Empire

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

                               History of Iran

                     Empires of Persia - Kings of Persia

     * Proto-Elamite civilization (3200–2700 BCE)
     * Jiroft civilization (3000–5th c. BCE)
     * Elamite dynasties (2700–539 BCE)
     * Kingdom of Mannai (10th–7th c. BCE)
     * Median Empire (728–550 BCE)
     * Achaemenid Empire (648–330 BCE)
     * Seleucid Empire (330–150 BCE)
     * Parthian Empire (250 BCE– 226 CE)
     * Sassanid Dynasty (226–650)
     * Patriarchal Caliphate (637–651)
     * Umayyad Caliphate (661-750)
     * Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258)
     * Tahirid dynasty (821–873)
     * Alavid dynasty (864–928)
     * Saffarid dynasty (861–1003)
     * Samanid dynasty (875–999)
     * Ziyarid dynasty (928–1043)
     * Buwayhid dynasty (934–1055)
     * Ghaznavid Empire (963–1187)
     * Ghori dynasty (1149–1212)
     * Seljukid Empire (1037–1194)
     * Khwarezmid dynasty (1077–1231)
     * Ilkhanate (1256–1353)
     * Muzaffarid dynasty (1314–1393)
     * Chupanid dyansty (1337–1357)
     * Jalayerid dynasty (1339–1432)
     * Timurid Empire (1370–1506)
     * Qara Qoyunlu Turcomans (1407–1468)
     * Aq Qoyunlu Turcomans (1378–1508)
     * Safavid Empire (1501–1722/1736)
     * Hotaki Ghilzai dynasty (1722–1729)
     * Afsharid dynasty (1736–1802)
     * Zand dynasty (1750–1794)
     * Qajar dynasty (1781–1925)
     * Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979)
     * Iranian Revolution (1979)
     * Provisional Government (1979–1980)
     * Islamic Republic of Iran (1980–Present)

   The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over
   the Iranian plateau (Irān - "Land of the Aryans") and beyond.
   Generally, the earliest entity considered a part of the Persian Empire
   is Persia's Achaemenid dynasty (648–330 BC), a united Aryan kingdom
   that originated in the region now known as Pars province of Iran and
   was formed under Cyrus the Great. Successive states in Iran prior to
   March, 1935 are collectively called the Persian Empire by Western
   historians.

Name

   Persia has long been used by the West to describe the nation of Iran,
   its people, and its ancient empires. It derives from the ancient Greek
   name for Iran's maritime province, called Fars in the modern Persian
   language, Pars in Middle Persian and Pārsā in Old Persian, a word
   meaning "above reproach". Persis is the Hellenized form of Pars, and
   through the Latinized word Persia, the other European nations came to
   use this word for the region.

   This area was the core of the original Persian Empire. Most foreigners
   referred to the state as Persia until March 21, 1935, when Reza Shah
   Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call the country
   Iran; which was often used by the Aryan tribes who formed the country
   in the Achaemenid era united the plateau in that region.

History

Achaemenid Empire (648 BC–330 BC)

   Apadana Hall, Persepolis: Angra Mainyu kills the primeval bull, whose
   seed is rescued by Mah, the moon, as the source for all other animals.
   Enlarge
   Apadana Hall, Persepolis: Angra Mainyu kills the primeval bull, whose
   seed is rescued by Mah, the moon, as the source for all other animals.

   The earliest known record of the Persians comes from an Assyrian
   inscription from c. 844 BC that calls them the Parsu (Parsuash,
   Parsumash) and mentions them in the region of Lake Urmia alongside
   another group, the Madai ( Medes). For the next two centuries, the
   Persians and Medes were at times tributary to the Assyrians. The region
   of Parsuash was annexed by Sargon of Assyria around 719 BC. Eventually
   the Medes came to rule an independent Median Empire, and the Persians
   were subject to them.

   The Achaemenids were the first to create a centralized state in Persia,
   founded by Achaemenes (Hakhamanish), chieftain of the Persians around
   700 BC.

   Around 653 BC, the Medes came under the domination of the Scythians,
   and Teispes, the son of Achaemenes, seems to have led the nomadic
   Persians to settle in southern Iran around this time — eventually
   establishing the first organized Persian state in the important region
   of Anshan as the Elamite kingdom was permanently destroyed by the
   Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal (640 BC). The kingdom of Anshan and its
   successors continued to use Elamite as an official language for quite
   some time after this, although the new dynasts spoke Persian, an
   Indo-Iranian tongue.
   Darius I of Persia.
   Enlarge
   Darius I of Persia.

   Teispes' descendants branched off into two lines, one line ruling in
   Anshan, while the other ruled the rest of Persia. Cyrus II the Great
   united the separate kingdoms around 559 BC. At this time, the Persians
   were still tributary to the Median Empire ruled by Astyages. Cyrus
   rallied the Persians together, and in 550 BC defeated the forces of
   Astyages, who was then captured by his own nobles and turned over to
   the triumphant Cyrus, now Shah of a unified Persian kingdom. As Persia
   assumed control over the rest of Media and their large empire, Cyrus
   led the united Medes and Persians to still more conquest. He took Lydia
   in Asia Minor, and carried his arms eastward into central Asia. Finally
   in 539 BC, Cyrus marched triumphantly into the ancient city of Babylon.
   After this victory, he set the standard of the benevolent conqueror by
   issuing the Cyrus Cylinder. In this declaration, the king promised not
   to terrorize Babylon nor destroy its institutions and culture. Cyrus
   was killed during a battle against the Massagetae or Sakas.
   Achaemenid empire at its greatest extent.
   Enlarge
   Achaemenid empire at its greatest extent.

   Cyrus' son, Cambyses II, annexed Egypt to the Achaemenid Empire. The
   empire then reached its greatest extent under Darius I. He led
   conquering armies into the Indus River valley and into Thrace in
   Europe. His invasion of Greece was halted at the Battle of Marathon.
   His son Xerxes I also tried to subdue the Greeks, but his army was
   defeated at the Battle of Plataea 479 BC.

   The Achaemenid Empire was the largest and most powerful empire the
   world had yet seen. More importantly, it was well managed and
   organized. Darius divided his realm into about twenty satrapies
   (provinces) supervised by satraps, or governors, many of whom had
   personal ties to the Shah. He instituted a systematic tribute to tax
   each province. He took the advanced postal system of the Assyrians and
   expanded it. Also taken from the Assyrians was the usage of secret
   agents of the king, known as the King's Eyes and Ears, keeping him
   informed.

   Darius built the famous Royal Road by improving ancient trade routes,
   thereby connecting far reaches of the empire. He moved the
   administration centre from Fars itself to Susa, near Babylon and closer
   to the centre of the realm. The Persians allowed local cultures to
   survive, following the precedent set by Cyrus the Great. This was not
   only good for the empire's subjects, but ultimately benefited the
   Achaemenids, since the conquered peoples felt no need to revolt.

   It was during the Achaemenid period that Zoroastrianism reached
   South-Western Iran, where it came to be accepted by the rulers and
   through them became a defining element of Persian culture. The religion
   was not only accompanied by a formalization of the concepts and
   divinities of the traditional (Indo-)Iranian pantheon but also
   introduced several novel ideas, including that of free will, which is
   arguably Zoroaster's greatest contribution to religious philosophy.
   Under the patronage of the Achaemenid kings, and by the 5th century BC
   as the de-facto religion of the state, Zoroastrianism would reach all
   corners of the empire. In turn, Zoroastrianism would be subject to the
   first sycretic influences, in particular from the Semitic lands to the
   west, from which the divinities of the religion would gain astral and
   planetary aspects and from where the temple cult originates. It was
   also during the Achaemenid era that the sacerdotal Magi would exert
   their influence on the religion, introducing many of the practices that
   are today identified as typically Zoroastrian, but also introducing
   doctrinal modifications that are today considered to be revocations of
   the original teachings of the prophet.

   The Achaemenid Empire united people and kingdoms from every major
   civilization in south west Asia. For the first time in history, people
   from very different cultures were in contact with one another under one
   ruler.

Hellenistic Persia (330 BC–150 BC)

   The later years of the Achaemenid dynasty were marked by decay and
   decadence. The greatest empire of the time collapsed in only eight
   years, when it fell under the attack of a young Macedonian king,
   Alexander the Great.

   The Achaemenid Empire's weakness was exposed to the Greeks in 401 BC,
   when the Satrap of Sardis hired ten thousand Greek mercenaries to help
   secure his claim to the imperial throne (see Xenophon, Anabasis). This
   exposed both the political instability and the military weakness of
   late Achaemenid State.

   Philip II of Macedon, leader of most of Greece, and his son Alexander
   decided to take advantage of this weakness. After Philip's death,
   Alexander looked toward Persia. Alexander's army landed in Asia Minor
   in 334 BC. His armies quickly swept through Lydia, Phoenicia, and
   Egypt, before defeating all the troops of Darius III at Issus and
   capturing the capital at Susa. The last Achaemenid resistance was at
   the "Persian Gates" near the royal palace at Persepolis. The Achaemenid
   Empire was now in Alexander's hands.
   Map of Alexander's empire.
   Enlarge
   Map of Alexander's empire.

   Along his route of conquest, Alexander founded many colony cities, all
   named "Alexandria". For the next several centuries, these cities served
   to greatly extend Greek, or Hellenistic, culture in Persia.

   Alexander's empire broke up shortly after his death, and Alexander's
   general, Seleucus I Nicator, tried to take control of Persia,
   Mesopotamia, and later Syria and Asia Minor. His ruling family is known
   as the Seleucid Dynasty. However he was killed in 281 BC by Ptolemy
   Keraunos before he could conquer Greece and Macedonia.

   Greek colonization continued until around 250 BC; Greek language,
   philosophy, and art came with the colonists. Throughout Alexander's
   former empire, Greek became the common tongue of diplomacy and
   literature. Trade with China had begun in Achaemenid times along the
   so-called Silk Road; but during the Hellenistic period it began in
   earnest. The overland trade brought about some fascinating cultural
   exchanges. Buddhism came in from India, while Zoroastrianism traveled
   west to influence Judaism. Incredible statues of the Buddha in
   classical Greek styles have been found in Persia and Afghanistan,
   illustrating the mix of cultures that occurred around this time (See
   Greco-Buddhism), although it is possible that Greco-Buddhist art dates
   from Achaemenid times when Greek artists worked for the Persians.

   The Seleucid kingdom began to decline rather quickly. Even during
   Seleucus' lifetime, the capital was moved from Seleucia on the Tigris
   in Mesopotamia to the more Mediterranean Antioch on the Orontes. The
   eastern provinces of Bactria and Parthia broke off from the Seleucid
   Kingdom in 238 BC. King Antiochus III's military leadership kept
   Parthia from overrunning Persia itself, but his successes alarmed the
   burgeoning Roman Republic. Roman legions began to attack the kingdom.
   At the same time, the Seleucids had to contend with the revolt of the
   Maccabees in Judea and the expansion of the Kushan Empire to the east.
   The empire fell apart and was conquered by Parthia and Rome.

Parthian Confederacy (150 BC–AD 226)

   The Parthian Empire.
   Enlarge
   The Parthian Empire.

   Its rulers, the Arsacid dynasty, belonged to an Iranian tribe that had
   settled there during the time of Alexander. They declared their
   independence from the Seleucids in 238 BC, but their attempts to unify
   Iran were thwarted until after Mithridates I advent to the Parthian
   throne in about 170 BC.

   The Parthian Confederacy shared a border with Rome along the upper
   Euphrates River. The two polities became major rivals, especially over
   control of Armenia. Heavily-armoured Parthian cavalry ( cataphracts)
   supported by mounted archers proved a match for Roman legions, as in
   the Battle of Carrhae in which the Parthian General Surena defeated
   Marcus Licinius Crassus of Rome. Wars were very frequent, with
   Mesopotamia serving as the battleground.

   During the Parthian period, Hellenistic customs partially gave way to a
   resurgence of Persian culture. However, the empire lacked political
   unity. The administration was shared between Seven Parthian clans who
   constituted the Dahae Confederation, each of these clans governed a
   province of the empire. Suren-Pahlav Clan, Karen-Pahlav Clan and Mihran
   Clan were the most influential ones. By the 1st century BC, Parthia was
   decentralized, ruled by feudal nobles. Wars with Rome to the west and
   the Kushan Empire to the northeast drained the country's resources.

   Parthia, now impoverished and without any hope to recover the lost
   territories, was demoralized. The kings had to give more concessions to
   the nobility, and the vassal kings sometimes refused to obey. Parthia's
   last ruler Artabanus IV had an initial success in putting together the
   crumbling state. However, the fate of the Arsacid Dynasty was doomed
   when in AD 224, the Persian vassal king Ardashir revolted. Two years
   later, he took Ctesiphon, and this time, it meant the end of Parthia.
   It also meant the beginning of the third Persian Empire, ruled by the
   Sassanid kings. Sassanids were from the province of Persis, native to
   the first Persian Empire, the Achaemenids.

Sassanid Empire (226–651)

   The Sassanid Empire in 610.
   Enlarge
   The Sassanid Empire in 610.

   Ardashir I, led a rebellion against the Parthian Confederacy in an
   attempt to revive the glory of the previous empire and to legitimize
   the hellenized form of Zoroastrianism practised in south western Iran.
   In two years he was the Shah of a new Persian Empire.

   The Sassanid dynasty (also Sassanian) (named for Ardashir's
   grandfather) was the first dynasty native to the Pars province since
   the Achaemenids; thus they saw themselves as the successors of Darius
   and Cyrus. They pursued an aggressive expansionist policy. They
   recovered much of the eastern lands that the Kushans had taken in the
   Parthian period. The Sassanids continued to make war against Rome; a
   Persian army even captured the Roman Emperor Valerian in 260.

   The Sassanid Empire, unlike Parthia, was a highly centralized state.
   The people were rigidly organized into a caste system: Priests,
   Soldiers, Scribes, and Commoners. Zoroastrianism was finally made the
   official state religion, and spread outside Persia proper and out into
   the provinces. There was sporadic persecution of other religions. The
   Catholic (Orthodox) Christian church was particularly persecuted, but
   this was in part due to its ties to the Roman Empire. The Nestorian
   Christian church was tolerated and sometimes even favored by the
   Sassanids.

   The wars and religious control that had fueled The Sassanid empire's
   early successes eventually contributed to its decline. The eastern
   regions were conquered by the White Huns in the late 5th century.
   Adherents of a radical religious sect, the Mazdakites, revolted around
   the same time. Khosrau I was able to recover his empire and expand into
   the Christian countries of Antioch and Yemen. Between 605 and 629,
   Sassanids successfully annexed Levant and Roman Egypt and pushed into
   Anatolia.

   However, a subsequent war with the Romans utterly destroyed the empire.
   In the course of the protracted conflict, Sassinid armies reached
   Constantinople, but could not defeat the Byzantines there. Meanwhile,
   the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius had successfully outflanked the Persian
   armies in Asia Minor and attacked the empire from the rear while the
   main Iranian army along with its top Eran Spahbods were far from
   battlefields. This resulted in a crushing defeat for Sassanids in
   Northern Mesopotamia. The Sassanids had to give up all their conquered
   lands and retreat. This defeat was mentioned in Qur'an as a "victory
   for believers," referring to the Romans, who were monotheists, in
   contrast to the pagan Sassinids. (Note: The official religion of the
   Sassanid empire was Zoroastrianism. It is not an Abrahamic/Semitic
   religion like Christianity or Islam, so it would be classified as
   "Pagan" by the followers of those religions even though it was
   monotheistic).

   Following the advent of Islam and collapse of Sassanid Empire, Persians
   came under the subjection of Arab rulers for almost two centuries
   before native Persian dynasties could gradually drive them out. In this
   period a number of small and numerically inferior Arab tribes migrated
   to inland Iran.

   Also some Turkic tribes settled in Persia between the 9th and 12th
   centuries.

   In time these peoples were integrated into numerous Persian populations
   and adopted Persian culture and language while Persians retained their
   culture with minimal influence from outside.

Islam and Persia (650–1219)

   The explosive growth of the Arab Caliphate coincided with the chaos
   caused by the defeat of Sassanids in wars with the Byzantine Empire.
   Most of the country was conquered between 643 to 650. Persia's conquest
   by Islamic Arab armies marks the transition into " medieval" Persia.

   Yazdgerd III, the last Sasanian emperor, died ten years after he lost
   his empire to the newly-formed Muslim Caliphate. He tried to recover
   some of what he lost with the help of the Turks, but they were easily
   defeated by Muslim armies. Then he sought the aid of the Chinese Tang
   dynasty. However, the Chinese help did not avail and Arab muslims
   ultimately defeated the Chinese forces in the battle of Talas, a
   century after Yazdgerd's death. He is believed to have lived on the
   borders of Islamic Persia. Some historians say that he lived inside
   Islamic Iran.

   The Arab empire, ruled by the Umayyad Dynasty, was the largest state in
   history up to that point. It stretched from the Iberian Peninsula to
   the Indus River, from the Aral Sea to the southern tip of the Arabian
   Peninsula. The Umayyads borrowed heavily from Persian and Byzantine
   administrative systems and moved their capital to Damascus, in the
   centre of their empire. The Umayyads would rule Persia for a hundred
   years.

   The Arab conquest dramatically changed life in Persia. Arabic became
   the new lingua franca, Islam eventually replaced Zoroastrianism, and
   mosques were built. A new language, religion, and culture were added to
   the Iranian cultural milieu. During this time and because of the vast
   reaches of the Arab empire, many Persian (Iranian) scholars had a
   direct impact on the European Renaissance centuries later (See full
   list here).

   In 750 the Umayyads were ousted from power by the Abbasid dynasty. By
   that time, Persians had come to play an important role in the
   bureaucracy of the empire ISBN 1-84212-011-5. The caliph Al-Ma'mun,
   whose mother was Persian, moved his capital away from Arab lands into
   Merv in eastern Iran. It was he who later founded the House of Wisdom
   in Baghdad, based on the Iranian Jondishapour.

   But political unrest continued. In 819, Samanids carved out an
   independent state in eastern Persia to become the first native rulers
   after the Arabic conquest. They made Samarqand, Bukhara and Herat their
   capitals and revived the Persian language and culture. It was
   approximately during this age, when the poet Firdawsi finished the
   Shahnameh, an epic poem retelling the history of the Iranian kings.
   This epic was completed by 1008 AD.

   In 913, western Persia was conquered by the Buwayhid, a Deylamite
   tribal confederation from the shores of the Caspian Sea. They made the
   city of Shiraz their capital. The Buwayhids destroyed Islam's former
   territorial unity. Rather than a province of a united Muslim empire,
   Iran became one nation in an increasingly diverse and cultured Islamic
   world.

Turkic rule (1037–1219)

   The Muslim world was shaken again in 1037 with the invasion of the
   Seljuk Turks from the northeast. The Seljuks created a very large
   Middle Eastern empire. The Seljuks built the fabulous Friday Mosque in
   the city of Isfahan. The famous Persian mathematician and poet, Omar
   Khayyám, wrote his Rubaiyat during Seljuk times.

   In the early 13th century the Seljuks lost control of Persia to another
   group of Turks from Khwarezmia, near the Aral Sea. The Shahs of the
   Khwarezmid Empire ruled for only a short while, however, because they
   had to face the most feared conqueror in history: Genghis Khan.

Under the Mongols and their successors (1219–1500)

   In 1218, Genghis Khan sent ambassadors and merchants to the city of
   Otrar, on the northeastern confines of the Khwarizm shahdom. The
   governor of Otrar had these envoys executed. Genghis, out for revenge,
   sacked Otrar in 1219 and continued on to Samarkand and other cities of
   the northeast.

   Genghis' grandson, Hulagu Khan, finished what Genghis had begun when he
   conquered Khwarzim Empire, Baghdad, and much of the rest of the Middle
   East from 1255 to 1258. Iran became the Ilkhanate, a division of the
   vast Mongol Empire.

   In 1295, after Ilkhan Mahmud Ghazan converted to Islam, he renounced
   all allegiance to the Emperor Chengzong of Yuan China who had recently
   succeeded his grandfather Kublai Khan as Great Khan. The Ilkhans
   patronized the arts and learning in the fine tradition of Iranian
   Islam; indeed, they helped to repair much of the damage of the Mongol
   conquests.

   In 1335, the death of Abu Sa'id, the last well-recognized Ilkhan,
   spelled the end of the Ilkhanate. Though Arpa Ke'un was declared Ilkhan
   his authority was disputed and the Ilkhanate was splintered into a
   number of small states. This left Iran open to still more conquest at
   the hands of Timur the Lame or Tamerlane, a Central Asian conqueror
   seeking to revive the Mongol Empire. He invaded Iran beginning around
   1370 and plundered the country until his death in 1405. Timur was an
   even bloodier conqueror than Genghis had been. In Isfahan, for
   instance, he slaughtered 70,000 people so that he could build towers
   with their skulls. He conquered a wide area and made his own city of
   Samarkand rich, but he made no effort to forge a lasting empire. Iran
   was essentially left in ruins.

   For the next hundred years Persia was not a unified state. It was ruled
   for a while by descendants of Timur, called the Timurid emirs. Toward
   the end of the 15th century, Persia was taken over by the Emirate of
   the White Sheep Turkmen (Ak Koyunlu). But there was little unity and
   none of the sophistication that had defined Iran during the glory days
   of Islam.

Safavid dynasty (1500–1722)

   The Safavid Dynasty hailed from the town of Ardabil in the region of
   Azarbaijan. The Safavid Shah Ismail I overthrew the White Sheep Turkish
   rulers of Persia to found a new native Persian empire. Ismail expanded
   Persia to include all of present-day Azerbaijan, Iran, and Iraq, plus
   much of Afghanistan. Ismail's expansion was halted by the Ottoman
   Empire at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, and war with the Ottomans
   became a fact of life in Safavid Iran.

   Safavid Persia was a violent and chaotic state for the next seventy
   years, but in 1588 Shah Abbas I of Safavid ascended to the throne and
   instituted a cultural and political renaissance. He moved his capital
   to Isfahan, which quickly became one of the most important cultural
   centers in the Islamic world. He made peace with the Ottomans. He
   reformed the army, drove the Uzbeks out of Iran and into modern-day
   Uzbekistan, and recaptured the island of Hormuz from the Portuguese.

   The Safavids were followers of Shi'a Islam, and under them Persia
   (Iran) became the largest Shi'a country in the Muslim world, a position
   Iran still holds today.

   Under the Safavids Iran enjoyed its last period as a major imperial
   power. In 1639, a final border was agreed upon with the Ottoman Empire
   with the Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin; which delineates the border between
   the Republic of Turkey and Iran and also that of between Iraq and Iran,
   today.

Persia and Europe (1722–1914)

   An 18th-century Persian astrolabe. Throughout the Middle Ages, the
   natural philosophy and mathematics of ancient Greeks were furthered and
   preserved within the Muslim world. During this period, Persia became a
   centre for the manufacture of scientific instruments, retaining its
   reputation for quality well into the 19th century.
   Enlarge
   An 18th-century Persian astrolabe. Throughout the Middle Ages, the
   natural philosophy and mathematics of ancient Greeks were furthered and
   preserved within the Muslim world. During this period, Persia became a
   centre for the manufacture of scientific instruments, retaining its
   reputation for quality well into the 19th century.

   In 1722, the Safavid state collapsed. That year saw the first European
   invasion of Persia since the time of Alexander: Peter the Great,
   Emperor of Imperial Russia, invaded from the northwest as part of a bid
   to dominate central Asia. To make the situation truly hopeless, Ottoman
   forces accompanied the Russians, successfully laying siege to Isfahan.

   The country was able to weather the invasions; neither the Russians nor
   the Turks gained any territory. However, the Safavids were severely
   weakened, and that same year (1722), the Afghans launched a bloody
   battle in response to the Safavids' attempts on trying to forcfully
   convert them from Sunni to Shi'a sect of Islam. The last Safavid shah
   was executed, and the dynasty came to an end.

   The Persian empire experienced a temporary revival under Nadir Shah in
   the 1730s and 1740s. Nadir drove out the Russians and confined the
   Afghans to their present home in Afghanistan. He launched many
   successful campaigns against Persia's old enemies, the nomadic khanates
   of Central Asia; most of them were destroyed or absorbed into Persia.
   However, his empire declined after his death. His rule was followed by
   the weak and short-lived Zand dynasty. Iran was left unprepared for the
   worldwide expansion of European colonial empires in the late 18th
   century and throughout the 19th century.

   Persia found relative stability in the Qajar dynasty, ruling from 1779
   to 1925, but lost hope to compete with the new industrial powers of
   Europe; Persia found itself sandwiched between the growing Russian
   Empire in Central Asia and the expanding British Empire in India. Each
   carved out pieces from the Persian empire that became Bahrain,
   Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan amongst other
   previous provinces.

   Although Persia was never directly invaded, it gradually became
   economically dependent on Europe. The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907
   formalised Russian and British spheres of influence over the north and
   south of the country, respectively, where Britain and Russia each
   created a " sphere of influence", where the colonial power had the
   final "say" on economic matters.

   At the same time Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar had granted a concession to
   William Knox D'Arcy, later the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, to explore
   and work the newly-discovered oil fields at Masjid Soleiman in
   southwest Persia, which started production in 1914. Winston Churchill,
   as First Sea Lord to the British Admiralty, oversaw the conversion of
   the Royal Navy to oil-fired battleships and partially nationalized it
   prior to the start of war. A small Anglo-Persian force was garrisoned
   there to protect the field from some hostile tribal factions.

World War I and the interbellum (1914–1935)

   Persia was drawn into the periphery of World War I because of its
   strategic position between Afghanistan and the warring Ottoman,
   Russian, and British Empires. In 1914 Britain sent a military force to
   Mesopotamia to deny access to the Persian oilfields from the Ottomans.
   The German Empire retaliated on behalf of its ally by spreading a
   rumour that Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany had converted to Islam, and
   sent agents through Iran to attack the oil fields and raise a Jihad
   against British rule in India. Most of those German agents were
   captured by Persian, British and Russian troops who were sent to patrol
   the Afghan border, and the rebellion faded away. This was followed by a
   German attempt, assisted by his mainly Swedish bodyguard, to abduct and
   control Ahmad Shah Qajar, which was foiled at the last moment.

   In 1916 the fighting between Russian and Ottoman forces to the north of
   the country had spilt down into Persia; Russia gained the advantage
   until most of her armies collapsed in the wake of the Russian
   Revolution of 1917. This left the Caucasus unprotected, and the
   Caucasian and Persian civilians starving after years of war and
   deprivation. In 1918 a small force of 400 British troops under General
   Dunsterville moved into the Trans-Caucasus from Persia in a bid to
   encourage local resistance to German and Ottoman armies who were about
   to invade the Baku oilfields. Although they later withdrew back into
   Persia, they did succeed in delaying the Turks access to the oil almost
   until the Armistice. In addition, the expedition’s supplies were used
   to avert a major famine in the region, and a camp for 30,000 displaced
   refugees was created near the Mesopotamian frontier.

   By World War I, Persia was not the world power it had once been. It had
   become a tool in the political battles of other empires. In 1919,
   northern Persia was occupied by the British General William Edmund
   Ironside to enforce the Turkish Armistice conditions and assist General
   Dunsterville and Colonel Bicherakhov contain Bolshevik influence (of
   Mirza Kuchak Khan) in the north. Britain also took tighter control over
   the increasingly lucrative oil fields.

   In 1925, Reza Shah Pahlavi seized power from the Qajars and established
   the new Pahlavi dynasty, the last Persian monarchy before the
   establishment of the Islamic Republic. However, Britain and the Soviet
   Union remained the influential powers in Persia into the early years of
   the Cold War.

   On March 21, 1935, Iran was officially accepted as the new name of the
   country. After Persian scholars' protests to this decision, in 1953
   Mohammad Reza Shah announced both names "Iran" and "Persia" could be
   used.

Timeline

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Persia in fiction

     * The Persian Empire is the seat of power for the sultan Shahryar,
       husband of Scheherazade in the 1001 Nights — though the tales
       themselves span from China to the Middle East and even parts of
       North Africa.
     * Prince of Persia is a puzzle and action-based video game series set
       in a mythological version of Ancient Persia.

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