The history of Iran (or Persia, as it was known in the Western world) is
intertwined with Greater Iran, a sociocultural region spanning from Anatolia to the
Indus River and from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf. Central to this area is
modern-day Iran, which covers the bulk of the Iranian plateau.
Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with
historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC.[1] The western part of the
Iranian plateau participated in the traditional ancient Near East with Elam (3200–
539 BC), and later with other peoples such as the Kassites, Mannaeans, and Gutians.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel called the Persians the "first Historical People".[2]
The Iranian empire began in the Iron Age with the rise of the Medes, who unified
Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC.[3] The Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC),
founded by Cyrus the Great, was the largest empire the world had seen, spanning
from the Balkans to North Africa and Central Asia. They were succeeded by the
Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian empires, who governed Iran for almost 1,000 years,
making Iran a leading power once again. Persia's arch-rival during this time was
the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire.
Iran endured invasions by the Macedonians, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols. Despite these
invasions, Iran continually reasserted its national identity and developed as a
distinct political and cultural entity. The Muslim conquest of Persia (632–654)
ended the Sasanian Empire and marked a turning point in Iranian history, leading to
the Islamization of Iran from the eighth to tenth centuries and the decline of
Zoroastrianism. However, the achievements of prior Persian civilizations were
absorbed into the new Islamic polity. Iran suffered invasions by nomadic tribes
during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period, negatively impacting the
region.[4] Iran was reunified as an independent state in 1501 by the Safavid
dynasty, which established Shia Islam as the empire's official religion,[5] marking
a significant turning point in the history of Islam.[6] Iran functioned again as a
leading world power, especially in rivalry with the Ottoman Empire. In the 19th
century, Iran lost significant territories in the Caucasus to the Russian Empire
following the Russo-Persian Wars.[7]
Iran remained a monarchy until the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when it officially
became an Islamic republic on 1 April 1979.[8][9] Since then, Iran has experienced
significant political, social, and economic changes. The establishment of the
Islamic Republic of Iran led to the restructuring of its political system, with
Ayatollah Khomeini as the Supreme Leader. Iran's foreign relations have been shaped
by the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), ongoing tensions with the United States, and its
nuclear program, which has been a point of contention in international diplomacy.
Despite economic sanctions and internal challenges, Iran remains a key player in
Middle Eastern and global geopolitics.
Prehistory
Further information: List of archaeological sites in Iran and Prehistory of Iran
Further information: Tepe Sialk, Jiroft culture, and Shahr-e Sukhteh
Paleolithic
The earliest archaeological artifacts in Iran were found in the Kashafrud and Ganj
Par sites that are thought to date back to 10,000 years ago in the Middle
Paleolithic.[10] Mousterian stone tools made by Neanderthals have also been found.
[11] There are more cultural remains of Neanderthals dating back to the Middle
Paleolithic period, which mainly have been found in the Zagros region and fewer in
central Iran at sites such as Kobeh, Kunji, Bisitun Cave, Tamtama, Warwasi, and
Yafteh Cave.[12] In 1949, a Neanderthal radius was discovered by Carleton S. Coon
in Bisitun Cave.[13] Evidence for Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic periods are
known mainly from the Zagros Mountains in the caves of Kermanshah and Khorramabad
and a few number of sites in Piranshahr, Alborz and Central Iran. During this time,
people began creating rock art.[14][15]
Neolithic to Chalcolithic
Early agricultural communities such as Chogha Golan in 10,000 BC[16][17] along with
settlements such as Chogha Bonut (the earliest village in Elam) in 8000 BC,[18][19]
began to flourish in and around the Zagros Mountains region in western Iran.[20]
Around about the same time, the earliest-known clay vessels and modelled human and
animal terracotta figurines were produced at Ganj Dareh, also in western Iran.[20]
There are also 10,000-year-old human and animal figurines from Tepe Sarab in
Kermanshah Province among many other ancient artefacts.[21]
The south-western part of Iran was part of the Fertile Crescent where most of
humanity's first major crops were grown, in villages such as Susa (where a
settlement was first founded possibly as early as 4395 cal BC)[22]: 46–47 and
settlements such as Chogha Mish, dating back to 6800 BC;[23][24] there are 7,000-
year-old jars of wine excavated in the Zagros Mountains[25] (now on display at the
University of Pennsylvania) and ruins of 7000-year-old settlements such as Tepe
Sialk are further testament to that. The two main Neolithic Iranian settlements
were Ganj Dareh and the hypothetical Zayandeh River Culture.[26]
Bronze Age
Further information: Tepe Sialk, Jiroft culture, Elam, Kura–Araxes culture,
Akkadian Empire, Kassites, and Mannaea
Cylinder with a ritual scene, early 2nd millennium BC, Geoy Tepe, Iran
Chogha Zanbil is one of the few extant ziggurats outside of Mesopotamia and is
considered to be the best preserved example in the world.
Parts of what is modern-day northwestern Iran was part of the Kura–Araxes culture
(circa 3400 BC—ca. 2000 BC), that stretched up into the neighbouring regions of the
Caucasus and Anatolia.[27][28]
Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of Iran and the world. Based on C14
dating, the time of the foundation of the city is as early as 4395 BC,[22]: 45–46 a
time right after the establishment of the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk in 4500 BC.
The general perception among archaeologists is that Susa was an extension of the
Sumerian city-state of Uruk, hence incorporating many aspects of Mesopotamian
culture.[29][30] In its later history, Susa became the capital of Elam, which
emerged as a state founded 4000 BC.[22]: 45–46 There are also dozens of prehistoric
sites across the Iranian plateau pointing to the existence of ancient cultures and
urban settlements in the fourth millennium BC.[23] One of the earliest
civilizations on the Iranian plateau was the Jiroft culture in southeastern Iran in
the province of Kerman.
It is one of the most artefact-rich archaeological sites in the Middle East.
Archaeological excavations in Jiroft led to the discovery of several objects
belonging to the 4th millennium BC.[31] There is a large quantity of objects
decorated with highly distinctive engravings of animals, mythological figures, and
architectural motifs. The objects and their iconography are considered unique. Many
are made from chlorite, a grey-green soft stone; others are in copper, bronze,
terracotta, and even lapis lazuli. Recent excavations at the sites have produced
the world's earliest inscription which pre-dates Mesopotamian inscriptions.[32][33]
There are records of numerous other ancient civilizations on the Iranian plateau
before the emergence of Iranian peoples during the Early Iron Age. The Early Bronze
Age saw the rise of urbanization into organized city-states and the invention of
writing (the Uruk period) in the Near East. While Bronze Age Elam made use of
writing from an early time, the Proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, and
records from Sumer pertaining to Elam are scarce.
Russian historian Igor M. Diakonoff stated that the modern inhabitants of Iran are
descendants of mainly non-Indo-European groups, more specifically of pre-Iranic
inhabitants of the Iranian Plateau: "It is the autochthones of the Iranian plateau,
and not the Proto-Indo-European tribes of Europe, which are, in the main, the
ancestors, in the physical sense of the word, of the present-day Iranians."[34]
Early Iron Age
See also: Neo-Assyrian Empire and Urartu
A gold cup at the National Museum of Iran, from the first half of the 1st
millennium BC
Records become more tangible with the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its
records of incursions from the Iranian plateau. As early as the 20th century BC,
tribes came to the Iranian plateau from the Pontic–Caspian steppe. The arrival of
Iranians on the Iranian plateau forced the Elamites to relinquish one area of their
empire after another and to take refuge in Elam, Khuzestan and the nearby area,
which only then became coterminous with Elam.[35] Bahman Firuzmandi say that the
southern Iranians might be intermixed with the Elamite peoples living in the
plateau.[36] By the mid-first millennium BC, Medes, Persians, and Parthians
populated the Iranian plateau. Until the rise of the Medes, they all remained under
Assyrian domination, like the rest of the Near East. In the first half of the first
millennium BC, parts of what is now Iranian Azerbaijan were incorporated into
Urartu.
