History And History Of Iran

History/Customs

Iran, also known as Persia, is a country in Western Asia. Though Iran is also known as Persia, it wasn't until 1935 that it adopted its present name. It is the second largest nation in the Middle East, having a land area of 1,648,195 km2. With over 77 million people, it is the world's 17th most populous nation. It shares borders with Iraq, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. In the 1500s B.C., Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979, until the monarchy was overthrown. The Medes and the Persians first occupied Iran. However, the Persian king Cyrus the Great overthrew the Medes and became ruler of the Persian Empire. Its official language, Persian, is Indo-European. Though Iran adopted a different version of the Arabic alphabet, it refused to lose its own identity after the establishment of the Arab Empire in the 7th century. Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical settlements dating back to 4000 BCE. Iran's climate can be very extreme, ranging from subtropical to sub polar, due to the tremendous variations in altitude and rainfall. The Iranian nation is one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world. The Mesolithic and Upper Paleolithic populations occupied caves in the Elburz and Zagros mountains, while the earliest civilizations in the region descended from the Zagros hills.

Timeline –

550-330 BC: Achaemenid dynasty rules the first Persian Empire

140 BC - 224 AD: Persia under the rule of the Arsacid dynasty

15th century: competing Iranian, Turkic and Mongol dynasties, including the empire of Timur the Lame in eastern Iran

1828: cedes control of Caucasus to Russia after second Russo-Persian war

1935: formerly known as Persia, I...

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... a mixture of rice and toasted nuts and is traditionally served in many Iranian homes on the night before the spring festival of Nowruz. Another dish eaten on Norwuz is pan-fried mahi or sea bass, typically from the Caspian Sea. It is usually seasoned with flour, salt, black pepper, and saffron. The fish is eaten with the basmati rice dish sabzi polo. These two dishes, served together as sabzi polo mahi, are the Nowruz equivalent of Thanksgiving turkey and mashed potatoes. A third dish, kuku sabzi, combines even more fresh herbs and a blend of seasonings with the briny contents of the egg sac from the fish, ground walnuts, and just enough egg to hold it all together, somewhat resembling a frittata. The sabzi polo mahi, along with the kuku sabzi celebrates the renewed fertility of the natural world (symbolized by the eggs, fish, and fresh herbs) after a long winter.