The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Iran:
Iran – sovereign country located in Southwest Asia and the Middle East. [1] Iran is bound by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south and the Caspian Sea to its north. Shi'a Islam is the official religion, and Persian is the official language. [2] Iran's population is about 83,500,000; [3] and is the 18th largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 square kilometres (636,372 sq mi). Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC. [4] [5] [6] Throughout history, Iran has been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia and is a regional power. [7] [8] The political system of Iran, based on the 1979 Constitution, comprises several intricately connected governing bodies. The highest state authority is the Supreme Leader, currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Administrative divisions of Iran
International organization membership of Iran
The Islamic Republic of Iran is a member of: [1]
The history of Iran is intertwined with Greater Iran, a sociocultural region spanning from Anatolia to the Indus River and from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf. Central to this area is modern-day Iran, which covers the bulk of the Iranian plateau.
Mazandaran province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Sari. Located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and in the adjacent Central Alborz mountain range, the province is in the central-northern part of the country. Mazandaran, founded in 1937, covers an area of 23,842 km2.
Gilan province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, in the northwest of the country. Its capital is the city of Rasht. The province lies along the Caspian Sea, in Iran's Region 3, west of the province of Mazandaran, east of the province of Ardabil, and north of the provinces of Zanjan and Qazvin. It borders Azerbaijan in the north.
Bandar-e Anzali is a city on the Caspian Sea in the Central District of Bandar-e Anzali County, Gilan province, Iran, serving as the capital of both the county and the district.
East Azerbaijan province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Tabriz.
Ahmad Shah Qajar was the Shah of Persia (Iran) from 16 July 1909 to 15 December 1925, and the last ruling member of the Qajar dynasty.
Shirvan is a historical region in the eastern Caucasus, as known in both pre-Islamic Sasanian and Islamic times. Today, the region is an industrially and agriculturally developed part of the Republic of Azerbaijan that stretches between the western shores of the Caspian Sea and the Kura River, centered on the Shirvan Plain.
Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan, also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a historical region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq and Turkey to the west and Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijani exclave of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic to the north.
The Treaty of Gulistan was a peace treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and Qajar Iran on 24 October 1813 in the village of Gulistan as a result of the first full-scale Russo-Persian War. The peace negotiations were precipitated by the successful storming of Lankaran by General Pyotr Kotlyarevsky on 1 January 1813. It was the first of a series of treaties signed between Qajar Iran and Imperial Russia that forced Persia to cede the territories that formerly were part of Iran.
Mohammad-Ali Mirza Dowlatshah was a famous Iranian Prince of the Qajar dynasty. He is also the progenitor of the Dowlatshahi family of Persia. He was born at Nava, in Mazandaran, a Caspian province in the north of Iran. He was the first son of Fath-Ali Shah, the second Qajar king of Persia, and Ziba-Chehr Khanum, a Georgian girl of the Tsikarashvili family. He was also the elder brother of Abbas Mirza. Dowlatshah was the governor of Fars at age 9, Qazvin and Gilan at age 11, Khuzestan and Lorestan at age 16, and Kermanshah at age 19.
The Russo-Persian Wars or Russo-Iranian Wars were a series of conflicts between 1651 and 1828, concerning Persia and the Russian Empire. Russia and Persia fought these wars over disputed governance of territories and countries in the Caucasus. The main territories disputed were Aran, Georgia and Armenia, as well as much of Dagestan – generally referred to as Transcaucasia – and considered part of the Safavid Iran prior to the Russo-Persian Wars. Over the course of the five Russo-Persian Wars, the governance of these regions transferred between the two empires. Between the Second and Third Russo-Persian Wars, there was an interbellum period in which a number of treaties were drawn up between the Russian and the Persian Empires, as well as between both parties and the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman interest in these territories further complicated the wars, with both sides forming alliances with the Ottoman Empire at different points throughout the wars. Following the Treaty of Turkmenchay, which concluded the Fifth Russo-Persian War, Persia ceded much of its Transcaucasian territory to the Russian Empire.
The Talysh Khanate or Talish Khanate was an Iranian khanate of Talysh origin that was established in Afsharid Persia and existed from the middle of the 18th century till the beginning of the 19th century, located in the south-west coast of the Caspian Sea.
Yeprem Khan, born Yeprem Davidyan, was an Iranian-Armenian member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), revolutionary leader and a leading figure in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran.
Rudbar County is in Gilan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Rudbar.
Talesh County is in Gilan province, in northwestern Iran. Its capital is the city of Tālesh.
Khoy County is in West Azerbaijan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Khoy.
Khamaneh is a city in the Central District of Shabestar County, East Azerbaijan province, Iran. The city is 72 km from Tabriz.
The majority of the population of Iran consists of Iranic peoples. The largest groups in this category include Persians and Kurds, with smaller communities including Gilakis, Mazandaranis, Lurs, Tats, Talysh, and Baloch.
Kargan Rud District is in Talesh County, Gilan province, in northwestern Iran. Its capital is the city of Lisar. The area was historically part of the Karganrud Khanate. It was created after the Russo-Persian War, when Fath 'Ali Shah divided Persian Talesh among 5 prominent families to weaken Mir Mostafa Khan's power.
The Guarded Domains of Iran, alternatively the Sublime State of Iran and commonly called Qajar Iran, Qajar Persia or the Qajar Empire, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic origin, specifically from the Qajar tribe, from 1789 to 1925. The Qajar family took full control of Iran in 1794, deposing Lotf 'Ali Khan, the last Shah of the Zand dynasty, and re-asserted Iranian sovereignty over large parts of the Caucasus. In 1796, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar seized Mashhad with ease, putting an end to the Afsharid dynasty. He was formally crowned as Shah after his punitive campaign against Iran's Georgian subjects.