Category:Persian

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The historical reference of Persia originated from the Kingdom of Anshan.This relatively small realm stretched over the present day province of Fars in Iran. These people, however, rose above obscurity during the reign of Cyrus the Great in 600 B.C. What is to be referred in the “known world” as Persian Empire was essentially founded through the Cyrus' subjugation of the neighboring dynastic empires of Media, Lydia, and Neo-Babylon.

In his lifetime, Cyrus the Great effectively founded the Achaemenid dynasty. He laid the foundations for an empire for which his later successor of Darius the Great was able to build upon. The latter king was able to further extend the territorial size empire and established a cohesive infrastructure over the entire empire. This control is perhaps the most momentous development with rippling significance. It through this very cohesion that the first true stable multiple ethnic community was ever created.

After a short period of turbulence following the fall of the Achaemenid Dynasty, Ardashir I founded the second great Persian empire known as the Sassanid Empire. This new Persian Empire was the archrival for supremacy with the Roman Empire in its entire Eastern front. As a matter of fact, Shapur I, the second Persian king, posed such threat to the Romans that they captured Valerian, the only Roman emperor ever to be held in captivity by a foreign power.

Despite the brutality and violence necessary in its initial founding, Persia under Sassanid rule ushered in an era of great cultural growth with the birth of Islam which laid grounds for today’s Muslim world.

Due to the great historical heritage of Persia, in 1959, the scholars finally convinced the government to amend the constitution such that the terms "Persia" and "Iran" can be used interchangeably. In today's language, the terms "Persian" and "Iranian" is one of the same.

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