History of Iran - Essay Example

Topic Iran Part I - History of Iran before the first world war. The Islamic Republic of Iran, which is a Middle Eastern country, is previously known as Persia to the outside world. It is considered as a pivotal region for its rich cultural heritage and sophisticated human civilization. The term Iran arrived from a word called Aryanam ,which means the “Land of Aryans”. It is a country geographically placed between Middle East, Central Asia and Mediterranean regions. Iran has confronter different political situation along its historical revolutionary journey.The history of Iran before the First World War is worth interpreting and describing. It is before the onset of First World War that the country brought about credible transformation in the cultural, political and social arenas. Before 20th century, the country has surprisingly witnessed many wars, political clashes and historical events. The human civilization of Iran can be dated back to 100,000 years. However, around 5000 B.C, the region has engaged in building cities and agricultural activites.Around 500 – 300 B.C Iran was ruled by powerful dynasty called Achaemenid, which was formulated by Cyrus the Great. “Among the wealthiest of its neighbors Assyria and Babylonia, the Persians under its founder Cyrus the Great, his son Cambyses and grandson Darius conquered nearly 2 million square miles of the middle and near east”. Later the famous ruler of Greece, Alexander the Great, conquered the then called Persia around 300 B.C. After this the Parthian dynasty who was an indigenous sect conquered the country in 250 B.C. After few decades, the Sassanian dynasty took over Iran. Gradually during 637 A.D., the inhabitants of Arabian Peninsula who were Muslims conquered Iran and ruled the entire region for the following 35 years. Before the Muslim invasion, the region was projecting a religion called Zoroastrianism. Gradually, with the arrival of Islamic culture, more and more people who followed Zoroastrianism converted to Islam. Then in the 11th century came the Seljuk Turks who conquered Iran slowly and established Sunni empire in the country. It is the Seljuk Turks who brought about a revolution in the artistic, cultural and scientific field of the nation. The scientist, artists and poets produced by this Sunni empire changed the face of Iran considerably. However, by the advent of 13th century the great Mongolian ruler called Genghis khan invaded Persia. The invasion by Genghis khan caused widespread havoc and wreckage to Persian region and resulted in slaughtering of the infrastructure of many cities of the region.Around 1335, the rule of Mongols ended but the later history of Persia witnessed many chaos and political conflicts. During 1381, one ruler called “Timur the lame” conquered Iran, but was later expelled by Turks with vengeance. As time passed by, the Shia sect of Islam was introduced in Persia by the Safavid dynasty. The safavid dynasty ruled Persia till the middle of 18th century and their ethnic background was Azeri/Kurdish. The Safavid dynasty was in power in the Persian region for the entire 18th century. Later Zand dynasty, Qajar dynasty and Pahlavi dynasty also established their regime in ancient Persia. The head of Zand dynasty was Karim Khan Zand who belonged to simple tribal group and also was predecessor to Nader Shah. It is during the rule of Karim Khan Zand that the region recovered from the wreckage caused to the region by the previous 40 year old war. The Iranian capital Shiraz was established by Khan and he also took initiative to build beautiful cities which enriched the heritage of Iranian culture. He also uplifted the agricultural sector of Iran by removing taxation load of the famers and also contributed much to the artistic field by motivating scholars and poets. Karim Khan also attracted the foreign alliance by inviting the East India Company to start trade in the Persian Gulf Port. It was with the arrival of Qajar dynasty that the ruling of Karim Khan came to an end. The Qajar dynasty was established in the Southern part of Iran and the then ruler of Qajar dynasty Agha Mohammad Khan made credible effort to join southern and Northern Iran. In the period between1797-1834, the Iran under the control of Fath Ali Shah set out fight with Russia in an attempt to expand their geographical territory. According to (Buyers,2000) “ Agha Mohammed Khan ‘successors ruled Persia until the coup detat of Reza Shah ousted Ahmed Shah and established the new Pahlavi dynasty in 1925”Interestingly, as the 20th century emerged, the Persian region faced a contemporary revolution. During the early 20th century, the Reza khan who was an Iranian military officer took over the government by out casting the then Qajar ruler and established himself as Shah. This is tagged as the birth of Pahlavi dynasty which was the final dynasty in Iran. Reza Shah was a personality with modern thoughts and worked forcefully to upgrade Iran as a modern nation. Part II – Ethnics conflicts in Iran Iran with a population of 70.5 million is 50% comprised of Persians. Iran is a country which has many ethnicities like Shia’s, Azeri’s, Kurds, Baluchis, Arabs, Jews, Christians, Baha’s, Zoroastrians and Sunni Muslims and others. These ethnic minorities faces discrimination on various grounds of life like education, housing and employment and they survive in underdeveloped region of the country. For this very same reason, the ethnic conflict occurring in Iran is inevitable and evident. “Although ethnic rioting in Iran has not been uncommon in the past, generally incidents of ethnic unrest seem to have risen steadily since President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad took office in 2005”. In Iran, the Turks who are minorities have fought in Northeast for their rights and also the Baluchis have kidnapped government officials and beheaded them for their own rights and demand The Arabs in the country has blasted the oil pipelines in anguish and despair. Apart from this, the Kurdish guerillas also have fought continuously with Iranian soldiers in the border of Turkey and Iran. For all these, the ethnics blame their President Ahmedinejad, who is a Shia chauvanist. The Azeri , who is a minority sect in Iran also have complaints that the Iran media consistently make fun of them which gave way to repression and assault among Shia’s and them. Moreover, the Kurdish minority and Shia Muslims are mostly engaged in tug of war and this creates tension within in the state on a contiuous basis. Here we can see that, Iran’s diverse ethnic minority has led to emergence of much conflicts in region which is little hard to handle. Work cited Buyers, C. (2000, August). PERSIA. In .royalark.net. Retrieved November 19, 2012, from http://www.royalark.net/Persia/qajar.htm Hirst, K. (2012). Forgotten Empire. In archaeology.about.com. Retrieved November 19, 2012, from http://archaeology.about.com/od/persianempire/fr/curtis05.htm Hassan, H. D. (2008, November 25). Iran: Ethnic and Religious Minorities. In fas.org. Retrieved November 19, 2012, from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL34021.pdf Read More