From Empire to Ayatollah: Long journey of a country at war's edge
From Empire to Ayatollah: Long journey of a country at war's edge
TNN
Updated: Jun 26, 2025, 12:28 IST IST
An empire that was once the world's largest, whose architecture was unmatched, which taught the world a thing or two about governance and administration, and whose art and poetry had charmed the world. How then did Iran reach where it is today?
To the whole world, this country was Persia, but its own people preferred to call it Iran , or the land of the Aryans. It was only in 1935 that the Iranian government formally requested that the country be called Iran.
But for historians, trawling through three millennia of the country's past, it would always be Persia, an empire that was once the world's largest, whose architecture was unmatched, which taught the world a thing or two about governance and administration, and whose art and poetry had charmed the world.
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