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From New World Encyclopedia

Islamic Republic of Iran

Iran (, rn), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran ( , transliteration: Jomhr-ye Eslm-ye rn), and formerly known as "Persia" in the West, is one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, and is one of the few states that comprise the Cradle of Humanity.

The history of Iran covers over four thousand years. Throughout history, it has been of great strategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia. Iran is significant in international politics due to its large supply of petroleum as well as its influence in the Middle East region.

Cyrus the Great and Zoroastrianism, both of which originated in this land, along with the flowering of thought in ninth-century Persia, each had a decisive impact on the progress of human history.

The ancient nation of Iran was known to the West as Persia, due to the ancient Greek language name for Iran, Persis. The name Persia is used to describe the nation of Iran, its people, or its ancient empire. The Persians have called their country Iran/Iranshahr since the Sassanian period, which started in 224 C.E.

The name Persia comes from a region in the south of Iran, called Fars or Pars in the Persian language. This region was the core of the original Persian Empire.

Westerners referred to the state as Persia until March 21, 1935, when Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call the country by its native name, Iran, which means Land of the Aryans. Because of some Persian scholars' protests the government announced in 1959 that both Persia and Iran could be used.

In 2007, the official name of the nation was the Islamic Republic of Iran, but the noun Persia and the adjective Persian are still used.

Iran is the seventeenth-largest country in the world. Its area roughly equals the size of the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Germany combined. Iran's area is approximately 636,300 square miles (1,648,000 square kilometers), of which 631,663 square miles (1,636,000 square kilometers) is land, and approximately 4,633 square miles (12,000 square kilometers) is water.

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Iran - New World Encyclopedia