Iran

Long before the Persians, the kingdom of Elam flourished in the south-west of present-day Iran, centred on the city of Susa, from around 3200 BCE. Closely entwined with neighbouring Mesopotamia, Elam reached its height in the second millennium BCE before being ground down between Babylon and Assyria, with Susa sacked by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal around 647 BCE. Meanwhile Indo-Iranian peoples — the Medes and the Persians — settled the plateau, and the Medes built a kingdom centred on Ecbatana.

Around 550 BCE Cyrus II, a Persian vassal, rose against and defeated his Median overlord Astyages, uniting Medes and Persians under the Achaemenid house. Within two decades he had absorbed Lydia and, in 539 BCE, the great city of Babylon. The Cyrus Cylinder, composed after that conquest, records his restoration of temples and the return of deported peoples, and is often celebrated as an early statement of religious tolerance. By the reign of Darius I (522–486 BCE) the empire stretched from the Aegean and Egypt to the Indus.

Darius organised this vast realm into provinces called satrapies, built the Royal Road from Susa to Sardis, standardised coinage, and began the ceremonial capital of Persepolis around 518 BCE. Persian kings practised a broadly Zoroastrian faith and tolerated the many religions of their subjects. The empire's expansion into the Aegean brought it into collision with the Greek city-states in the Greco-Persian Wars of the early fifth century BCE.

Persian power endured for two centuries until Alexander the Great of Macedon shattered the Achaemenid army at Gaugamela in 331 BCE. The following year Alexander entered and burned Persepolis, and the last Achaemenid king, Darius III, was killed in flight, ending the dynasty in 330 BCE.

Turning points

1. c. 3200 BCEFormation

   The kingdom of Elam and the city of Susa

   Elam, one of the earliest civilisations of the region, flourishes around its capital Susa in south-western Iran, trading and warring with Mesopotamia until Susa is sacked by the Assyrians around 647 BCE.

   [1] [2]

2. c. 550 BCEFormation

   Cyrus the Great founds the Achaemenid Empire

   Cyrus II overthrows the Median king Astyages and unites the Medes and Persians, founding the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire — the first Persian world empire.

   [3] [4]

3. 539 BCEPolitics & Power

   Conquest of Babylon and the Cyrus Cylinder

   Cyrus captures Babylon and issues the Cyrus Cylinder, a Babylonian cuneiform document recording his restoration of temples and return of deported peoples, often hailed as an early charter of tolerance.

   [5] [3]

4. c. 518 BCECulture & Ideas

   Darius I builds Persepolis

   Darius the Great organises the empire into satrapies, builds the Royal Road and standardised coinage, and begins the magnificent ceremonial capital of Persepolis, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

   [6] [3]

5. 330 BCEWar & Rupture

   Alexander conquers Persia and burns Persepolis

   After defeating Darius III at Gaugamela (331 BCE), Alexander the Great enters and burns Persepolis and the last Achaemenid king is killed, ending the empire in 330 BCE.

   ↗See the data

   [7] [4]

Figures of the era

Alexander's death in 323 BCE left his empire to his generals, and Iran fell to the Seleucids, a Hellenistic dynasty that fused Greek and Persian culture. Greek rule on the plateau was never secure, and from the mid-third century BCE the Parni, a nomadic people, established the Parthian (Arsacid) Empire under Arsaces I, conventionally dated to 247 BCE. The Parthians revived Persian traditions, ruled from Ctesiphon, and for nearly five centuries proved Rome's most formidable rival in the East.

In 224 CE Ardashir I, a ruler from Persis, overthrew the last Parthian king Artabanus IV and founded the Sasanian Empire. The Sasanians cast themselves as restorers of Achaemenid glory, built a centralised state, and made Zoroastrianism the official religion, with a powerful priesthood and fire temples across the realm. Sasanian art, architecture and administration deeply influenced both the later Islamic world and Byzantium.

For four centuries the Sasanians and the Romans, later the Byzantines, fought along their shared frontier. The exhausting wars of 602–628 CE drained both empires. Weakened and divided, the Sasanian state proved unable to withstand the Arab Muslim armies that swept out of Arabia. After decisive defeats, above all at Nahavand in 642 CE, the empire collapsed, and the last shah, Yazdegerd III, was killed in 651 CE.

Turning points

1. 247 BCEFormation

   The Parthian (Arsacid) Empire

   Arsaces I founds the Parthian Empire in north-eastern Iran, reviving Persian traditions and becoming Rome's chief rival in the East for nearly five centuries.

   [8] [9]

2. 224 CEFormation

   Ardashir I founds the Sasanian Empire

   Ardashir I overthrows the last Parthian king and establishes the Sasanian Empire, the last great pre-Islamic Persian state, with its capital at Ctesiphon.

   [9] [10]

3. 3rd century CEReligion

   Zoroastrianism as state religion

   The Sasanian kings establish Zoroastrianism, the faith attributed to the prophet Zoroaster, as the official religion of Iran, supported by a powerful priesthood and network of fire temples.

   [11] [10]

4. 602–628 CEWar & Rupture

   Exhausting wars with Byzantium

   The last great Byzantine–Sasanian war drains both empires militarily and economically, leaving Persia dangerously weakened on the eve of the Arab conquest.

   ↗See the data

   [9]

5. 642 CEWar & Rupture

   Battle of Nahavand — the 'Victory of Victories'

   Arab Muslim forces crush the Sasanian army at Nahavand, breaking organised Persian resistance; the empire finally collapses with the death of Yazdegerd III in 651 CE.

   ↗See the data

   [12] [9]

Figures of the era

The fall of the Sasanians brought Iran into the world of Islam. Over the following centuries most Iranians converted, and Persia was governed first by the Umayyad and then the Abbasid caliphs. Yet Persia was no passive province: Persian administrators, scholars and the New Persian language, written in Arabic script, became central to Islamic civilisation. The Abbasid Revolution of 750 CE, which drew heavily on support from Khorasan, shifted the caliphate's centre of gravity eastward to a new capital at Baghdad, built near the old Sasanian heartland.

From the eighth to the thirteenth centuries Persia stood at the heart of the Islamic golden age. In Baghdad's House of Wisdom, founded under the Abbasids, Persian, Arab and other scholars translated and extended the learning of Greece, India and Persia. Iranian thinkers made landmark contributions: the physician-philosopher Avicenna (Ibn Sina) wrote the Canon of Medicine, used in Europe for centuries; al-Khwarizmi pioneered algebra; and the polymath Omar Khayyam reformed the calendar and wrote celebrated quatrains.

As caliphal authority weakened, Persian-speaking dynasties such as the Samanids of Bukhara fostered a renaissance of Persian culture. Around 1010 CE the poet Ferdowsi completed the Shahnameh, the 'Book of Kings', a vast epic that preserved Iran's pre-Islamic legends and helped secure the survival of the Persian language. This flowering of literature, science and art unfolded even as new Turkic powers, above all the Seljuks, rose to dominate the region.

Turning points

1. 651 CEReligion

   Islamisation of Persia begins

   With the Sasanian state destroyed, Iran is incorporated into the Islamic caliphate; over the following centuries most of its people convert to Islam while retaining the Persian language and much of their culture.

   [12] [13]

2. 750 CEPolitics & Power

   Abbasid Revolution and the rise of Baghdad

   Backed by support from Persian Khorasan, the Abbasids overthrow the Umayyads and found Baghdad, drawing heavily on Persian administrative and intellectual traditions.

   [14] [13]

3. 9th–11th centuries CECulture & Ideas

   Persia at the heart of the Islamic golden age

   In the House of Wisdom and beyond, Persian scholars such as Avicenna, al-Khwarizmi and Omar Khayyam advance medicine, mathematics and astronomy during the Islamic golden age.

   [15] [14]

4. c. 1010 CECulture & Ideas

   Ferdowsi completes the Shahnameh

   The poet Ferdowsi finishes the Shahnameh, the 'Book of Kings', an epic of some 50,000 couplets that preserves Iran's mythic and pre-Islamic history and anchors the Persian language.

   [16] [15]

Figures of the era

From 1219 the armies of Genghis Khan poured into Iran, sacking great cities and inflicting catastrophic loss of life. His grandson Hulagu Khan completed the conquest, seizing the Ismaili fortress of Alamut in 1256 and destroying Abbasid Baghdad in 1258. The Mongols established the Ilkhanate (c. 1260–1335), which, though founded in bloodshed, eventually adopted Islam and patronised Persian art and historiography. In the late fourteenth century the conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) again ravaged and then ruled the region, and the Timurid courts became renowned centres of Persianate culture.

Out of this turbulence rose the Safavids. In 1501 the young Ismail I captured Tabriz, proclaimed himself shah, and declared Twelver Shia Islam the official religion of his realm. This decisive act set Iran apart from its Sunni Ottoman and Uzbek neighbours and forged a religious identity that endures to this day, often at the cost of conflict and forced conversion.

The Safavid state reached its zenith under Shah Abbas I, the Great (reigned 1588–1629), who reformed the army, curbed the power of the Turkic tribal aristocracy, and in 1598 moved his capital to Isfahan. There he created the magnificent Naqsh-e Jahan (Imam) Square, framed by mosques, palaces and a grand bazaar — a masterpiece of Safavid urban design now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Isfahan became one of the world's great cities, but after Abbas the dynasty declined, and in 1722 Afghan invaders sacked the capital, with the dynasty formally ending in 1736.

Turning points

1. 1219 CEWar & Rupture

   Mongol invasion of Iran

   Genghis Khan's armies invade Iran, devastating its cities; his grandson Hulagu completes the conquest, taking Alamut in 1256 and destroying Baghdad in 1258, and founds the Ilkhanate.

   ↗See the data

   [17] [18]

2. 1370 CEPolitics & Power

   Timur and the Timurid era

   Timur (Tamerlane) conquers the lands of the former Ilkhanate, founding the Timurid empire whose courts become celebrated centres of Persianate art and learning.

   [17]

3. 1501 CEReligion

   Ismail I founds the Safavid dynasty and Shia Iran

   Ismail I captures Tabriz, proclaims himself shah, and declares Twelver Shia Islam the state religion, setting Iran apart from its Sunni neighbours and shaping its identity to the present day.

   [19] [20]

4. 1598 CECulture & Ideas

   Shah Abbas moves the capital to Isfahan

   At the height of Safavid power, Shah Abbas the Great relocates the capital to Isfahan and builds the grand Naqsh-e Jahan (Imam) Square, a UNESCO World Heritage masterpiece of urban design.

   [21] [19]

5. 1722 CEWar & Rupture

   Afghan sack of Isfahan and Safavid decline

   Afghan invaders besiege and sack Isfahan, shattering Safavid power; the dynasty formally ends in 1736, opening a period of instability before the rise of the Qajars.

   ↗See the data

   [19] [20]

Figures of the era

From the late eighteenth century the Qajar dynasty ruled Iran, but its long nineteenth century was marked by weakness before the European powers. Wars with Russia cost Iran the Caucasus, and Britain and Russia carved out spheres of influence, securing lucrative concessions over tobacco, oil and finance. Resentment at this foreign penetration and at royal misrule fuelled demands for reform.

In 1905–1906 a broad coalition of merchants, clerics and intellectuals forced Mozaffar al-Din Shah to grant a constitution and a national parliament, the Majles. This Constitutional Revolution, the first of its kind in the Middle East, was a landmark in Iranian political history, though the constitution was soon suspended and the movement crushed with Russian help by 1911. The discovery of oil in 1908 made Iran a strategic prize and bound its economy ever more tightly to foreign companies.

In 1921 the army officer Reza Khan seized power in a coup, and in 1925 the Majles deposed the last Qajar shah and made him Reza Shah Pahlavi. He drove a programme of authoritarian modernisation — building railways, schools, a centralised state and a secular legal system — and in 1935 had the country known internationally as Iran. After Allied forces deposed him in 1941, his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took the throne.

In 1951 the popular prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalised the British-controlled oil industry, but in August 1953 he was overthrown in a coup organised by the American CIA and British intelligence. The restored shah ruled increasingly autocratically, pursuing rapid Westernising reform while suppressing dissent, until mounting opposition exploded into the revolution of 1978–79.

Turning points

1. 1906 CEPolitics & Power

   Persian Constitutional Revolution

   After mass protests, Mozaffar al-Din Shah grants a constitution and the first Majles (parliament), a pioneering experiment in constitutional government in the Middle East.

   [22] [23]

2. 1908 CEEconomy & Trade

   Discovery of oil

   Oil is struck in south-western Iran, making the country a strategic prize and tying its economy to foreign-controlled concessions for decades to come.

   ↗See the data

   [23]

3. 1925 CEPolitics & Power

   Reza Khan founds the Pahlavi dynasty

   Having seized power in a 1921 coup, Reza Khan deposes the last Qajar shah and is crowned Reza Shah Pahlavi, launching an authoritarian drive to modernise and centralise Iran.

   [24] [23]

4. 1953 CEPolitics & Power

   The CIA-backed coup against Mosaddegh

   Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had nationalised the oil industry, is overthrown in August 1953 in a coup organised by the CIA and British intelligence, restoring the shah's power.

   [25] [26]

Figures of the era

In 1978 mass protests, strikes and demonstrations against the shah's autocracy, inequality and Westernisation convulsed Iran. On 16 January 1979 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled the country, and on 1 February the exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned in triumph to Tehran. The monarchy collapsed on 11 February 1979. In a referendum held on 30–31 March, an overwhelming majority voted to replace it with an Islamic republic, which Khomeini proclaimed on 1 April 1979.

A new constitution, approved later that year, vested ultimate authority in a Supreme Leader and the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, the 'guardianship of the jurist', alongside an elected president and parliament. The seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran in November 1979, and the 444-day hostage crisis that followed, set the new republic on a collision course with the West that has endured for decades.

Barely a year after the revolution, Iraq invaded in September 1980, beginning a grinding eight-year war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives before Iran accepted a UN-brokered ceasefire under Resolution 598 in August 1988. In the decades since, the Islamic Republic has navigated reform and retrenchment at home, regional rivalries and proxy conflicts abroad, and a long confrontation with Western powers over its nuclear programme and sanctions, while periodic waves of popular protest have tested the system.

Turning points

1. Feb 1979Politics & Power

   The Islamic Revolution

   The shah flees in January 1979 and Ayatollah Khomeini returns from exile; the monarchy collapses on 11 February, ending some 2,500 years of Iranian kingship.

   [27] [28]

2. 1 Apr 1979Formation

   Proclamation of the Islamic Republic

   After a referendum on 30–31 March approves the change by an overwhelming majority, Khomeini proclaims the Islamic Republic of Iran on 1 April 1979.

   [28] [27]

3. Nov 1979Politics & Power

   US embassy seized and hostage crisis

   Militant students storm the US embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans for 444 days and setting the new republic on a long course of confrontation with the West.

   [27]

4. 1980–1988War & Rupture

   The Iran–Iraq War

   Iraq invades in September 1980, igniting a devastating eight-year war; Iran accepts UN Security Council Resolution 598 and a ceasefire takes effect on 20 August 1988.

   ↗See the data

   [29] [30]

Figures of the era