The Empire of Persia (Persian: 𐫀𐫖𐫁𐫡𐫀𐫤𐫡𐫏 𐫀𐫏𐫡𐫀𐫗), commonly known as Persia and colloquially referred to as Iran, is a country located predominantly in Western, Central, and Southern Asia, bordering Rhomania and Kurdistan to its west, Arabia and the Persian Gulf to its south, Georgia, Armenia, Bazgan, Amu Darya, Assyria, and Khwarazm to its north and Bharat to its east.
With an imperial history dating back millennia and the largest military in its region, Persia is recognized as one of the "great powers" in the world and has influence in the League to Enforce Peace, the World Trade Organization and the Organization of Manichaeist States. As of 2024, there are over 440 million people living in Persia.
History[]
Early history (pre-224)[]
Pre-Persian history of the Persian Plateau (10,000 BC-550 BC)[]
The earliest agricultural communities in what is now modern-day Persia date back to 10,000 years ago with sites such as the Chogha Golan dating back to the Middle Paleolithic period. Persia was part of the fertile crescent where the first human agricultural communities formed and settlements such as Chogha Mish formed, dating back 6,800 years.
Going into the Bronze Age, cultures such as the Kura–Araxes culture emerged in modern-day Persia and stretched as far as Anatolia. During this period, the oldest-known Persian settlement of Susa is also believed to have emerged. However, many archaeologists have come to understand Susa is an extension of Sumer rather than an independent city-state. Later on, Susa emerged as the capital of Elam which was one of many early stated that had emerged on the Persian Plateau. There are also records of dozens of city-states and civilizations present on the Persian Plateau before the emergence of the Iranian peoples during the Early Iron Age.
Records of Persian history became clearer and more tangible following the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its several documented invasions into the Persian Plateau. The arrival of the Iranians onto the Persian plateau proved to be destabilizing to the already-established civilizations on the plateau, with the Elamites being forced to relinquish more and more of their empire to the insurgent Iranians. While the Elamites eventually went extinct, it is believed that modern Persians still have substantial Elamite ancestry. By the 1st millennium BC, the Persian plateau was predominantly inhabited by Medes, Persians, and Parthians and would remain under Assyrian domination until the rise of the Medes.

A map showing the empires of the Persian Plateau around 600 BC
In 646 BC, the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal sacked Susa, permanently ending the Elamites as a power on the plateau. For over 150 years, the Assyrians had been attempting to conquer the Median people of the Western Persian Plateau but found little to no success in this endeavor. Greater Assyrian pressure resulted in the smaller city-states of Western Persia to coalesce and form increasingly larger and more centralized states. By the 7th century BC, the Medes were united under the leadership of Deioces. Deioces and his descendants would pursue the Assyrians and chase them back into Mesopotamia, with a joint Medes-Babylonian coalition resulting in the total destruction of Assyria in 612 BC. The Medes continued to dominate the Persian Plateau until Cyrus the Great would unite the Persian peoples under the Achaemenid Empire and conquer the Medes in 550 BC.
Early Persian empires (550 BC-224 AD)[]
Standard of Cyrus the Great, used as the flag of the Achaemenid Empire
Under Cyrus the Great and the Achaemenid Empire, the Persians would rise as the dominant people in the region, successfully conquering the Medians, Lydians, and the Neo-Babylonians, with their empire stretching from the Hindu Kush to Macedonia at its greatest extent around 500 BC. The Achaemenid Empire has been recognized by historians for its advanced bureaucratic and administrative systems which were believed to be the most advanced in the world at the time. Cyrus became known by the title "King of Kings", mirroring a similar
Cyrus' son, Cambyses II, had successfully conquered the last major power in the region, ancient Egypt, in 525 BC, securing Persia as the regional hegemon of the region for a time. Following the premature death of Cambyses II, a power struggle emerged in the empire which would eventually be won by Darius I. Darius I eventually became known as Darius the Great for his many accomplishments as king. Most notable of these were the creation of the building program at the capital of Persepolis, the reconstruction of a canal between the Nile and Red Sea (a precursor to the modern Suez Canal), the adoption of a coinage system for the empire, and the creation of the Royal Road, one of the first highway systems in the world.
Under Darius the Great, the Achaemenid Empire emerged as the largest empire in world history up to that point. By the late 6th century BC, Darius I launched his European campaign, starting the first of the Greco-Persian Wars. Despite early victories in the conflict, including the conquest of Thrace and the subjugating of all coastal Greek city-states, the tide would turn in favor of the Greeks the longer the conflict went on. By 449 BC, there were no further mentions of Persian intervention into Greece, with the outcome of the wars being determined to be a Greek victory due to the continued independence of the Greek city-states. However, less than 100 years, Persia would be on the retreat as Alexander the Great would successfully conquer the Achaemenid Empire in a series of campaigns that ultimately resulted in the Persian dynastic center of Susa falling in 330 BC. During its time under Macedonian occupation, Persia would experience Hellenization. After Alexander's death, the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire continued to rule over Persia until its remnants in Syria Palestina were annexed by the Romans in 63 BC.
The northwest Iranian people known as the Parthians would coalesce into a singular empire in 248 BC. The Parthian Empire would continue to exist in some form or another until 224 AD, controlling Mesopotamia and eastern Arabia on occasion, but often being driven out of the region by the Roman Empire. Despite a long reign, the Parthian Empire would come to an end when one of its vassal states, would revolt against them and successfully overthrow them in 224 AD.
Sasanian Empire (224-551)[]

Ardashir I, first Sasanian Shah
Ardashir I was crowned as the first Shah of the Sasanian Empire and began a series of economic and military reforms to modernize Persia. The most notable of these reforms was the declaration of Zoroastrianism as the state religion of Persia and the expansion of Persia's western armed forces. These reforms acted as the catalyst in the re-emergence of Persia as the leading power in the world. As the Roman Empire began to fracture into two, the Sassanians were unopposed for a time in their expansion west. At the empire's height, it stretched all the way from Egypt to modern-day Baluchistan.
Despite these successes, the Sasanians would find themselves in conflict with the insurgent Eastern Roman Empire from the 6th century AD onwards. Soon, the Sasanians were forced out of Mesopotamia as the Eastern Roman Empire began to assert itself in the region. However, the fortunes of the Sasanian Empire would turn following a decisive Roman victory in the Iberian War which would see Sasanian Shah Khosrow I captured and killed in Lazica in 530. With the Shah dead and morale in the empire at an all-time low, Khosrow I's descendants, Hormizd IV and Anoshazad, began to fight each other for the title of Shah, plunging the Sasanian realm into civil war.
Fought between reigning Shah Hormizd IV and his younger brother Anoshazad, the civil war was primarily fought within the Persian Plateau while Sasanian holdings outside of the plateau fell to rival empires such as the Romans, the Arabians, and the Hephthalites. The conflict finally came to an end on 12 June 544 following the forces of Hormizd IV successfully encircling and murdering Anoshazad in the city of Guyim. Despite Hormizd IV's victory, the Persian military was left in a severely weakened state and was unable to prevent the Hephthalite Empire from conquering more land in Central Asia, weakening Persia's standing as a result.
With the Persian military weakened, the Hephthalites successfully began several incursions into the Persian Plateau from 544 onwards. The Persian military was unsuccessful in countering or driving the invading army out of Persia. Following a decisive Hephthalite victory at the Battle of Rhages in 550, the Sasanians were undergoing a full-scale retreat in a last-ditch effort to regroup the military for the defense of Ctesiphon. The Battle of Ctesiphon lasted from 12 June 550 to 12 February 551, with heavy casualties taken by both the Sasanians and the Hephthalites. While the Sasanians successfully drove back the Hephthalites from Ctesiphon in October 550, it was a pyrrhic victory as Hephthalite reinforcements would overwhelm and push the exhausted Sasanians out of Ctesiphon by 551. The loss of Ctesiphon proved devastating for the Sasanians, and the exiled Sasanian Shah surrendered and fled the empire.
Hephthalite Persia (551-1303)[]
The rule of the Hephthalites would be the catalyst for massive religious and societal change within Persia. With the Sasanians destroyed, the former state religion of Zoroastrianism became increasingly seen as a symbol of the old Sasanian order, especially as many prominent Zoroastrian Magi refused to endorse or cooperate with Hephthalite rule. In contrast, Manichaeism had grown in popularity throughout the Hephthalite heartland of Central Asia. Due to a lack of support from the Zoroastrian clergy, Persian Shah Shahrhiyar I (born Akhshunwar) to convert to Manicheaism in 580. While the royal family converted to Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism would remain popularly practiced among the Persian citizenry until a failed uprising in 620 would result in Persian Shah Peroz II proclaiming Manichaeism as the official religion of the Persian Empire and began an active campaign against the Zoroastrians of the empire. The war against the Rashidun Caliphate and the insurgent Muslims to the south was also used as further justification to institutionalize Manicheaism as the state religion of Persia whilst viciously persecuting Muslims and Zoroastrians who opposed the Shah. Following the receipt of reinforcements from Central Asia, the Hephthalites defeated the Rashidun forces at the Battle of Suza, ending the expansion of Islam eastward into the Persian Plateau.
By 800, it was estimated that Zoroastrians only constituted 20% of all Persians, with Manichaeism becoming widely practiced due to the incorporation of many Zoroastrian symbols, such as the Cypress of Kashmar, into the Persian Manicheaist theology surrounding the tree of life. The institutionalization of Manichaeism under the Hephthalites also resulted in drastic social changes within Persia. The Avesta of Zoroastrianism held that men and women were spiritually equal and were recipients of religious education during the Zoroastrian era of Persian history but did not hold substantial political leadership within the religion's senior ranks. Manichaeism changed this dynamic, and women were allowed to serve within Manichaeism's elect and held substantial power as spiritual leaders. By the 900s, it's believed that male preference regarding primogeniture was abolished and elder women within the Balashid dynasty were able to inherit the throne.
From the late 10th century into the 14th century, intense conflict between the Manicheaist Persians, the Muslim Arabians, and the Christian Rhomanians would persist and the levant remained one of the bloodiest regions in the world. The Abbasid Caliphate's newly created capital of Baghdad was located only 160 km (99 miles) south of the Persian capital of Ctesiphon, increasing tensions and the frequency of border skirmishes between both empires. The three-way stalemate in the levant would persist for centuries after the fall of the Hephthalites. Following the death of Ardashir XI in 1303, the Persian throne would pass to the Bavand family, a prominent noble family that had risen to prominence in the later years of Hephthalite rule.
Bavand Empire (1303-1767)[]
Chehab Empire (1767-1920)[]
People's Republic of Persia (1920-1992)[]
Modern Persia (1992-present)[]
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