Middle East

Iran

Iran is a Middle Eastern country located in Southwest Asia bordering Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan to the north, Pakistan and Afghanistan to the east, Turkey and Iraq to the west. Although locally known as 'Iran', at least since the Sassanian period, until 1935 the country was referred to in the West as Persia. In 1959, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi announced that both terms could be used. In 1979 a revolution, which was eventually led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, established a theocratic Islamic Republic, changing the country's official name into the Islamic Republic of Iran . The name Iran is a cognate of the Aryan meaning "Land of the Aryans." more informationon Iran

Full country name: Islamic Republic of Iran
National name: Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran
Area: 636,293 sq mi (1,648,000 sq km)
Population: 68,017,860 (growth rate: 0.9%); birth rate: 16.8/1000; infant mortality rate: 41.6/1000; life expectancy: 70.0; density per sq mi: 107
Capital City: Teheran, 11,224,800 (metro. area), 7,893,700 (city proper)
People: Persian (65%), Azari (25%), Arab (4%), Lors (2%), Turkmen (2%), Kurds, Armenian, Jewish
Language: Persian and Persian dialects 58%, Turkic and Turkic dialects 26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic 1%, Turkish 1%, other 2%
Ethnicity/race: Persian 51%, Azerbaijani 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%
Religion: Islam 98% (Shi'a 89%, Sunni 9%); Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, and Baha'i 2%Literacy rate:79% (2003 est.)
Government: Islamic theocracy since the Pahlavi monarchy regime was overthrown on Feb. 11, 1979.
Head of the State: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (1989)
Head of Government: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005)

History of Iran

Iran traces its national origin to Persia, an empire that emerged in the 6th century BC under Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, who called himself "King of Iran". Indeed, the name Persia is derived from Persis, the ancient Greek name for the empire. The Achaemenid dynasty was followed by the Parthian and Sassanid dynasties as Persia's greatest pre-Islamic empires. Alexander the Great first conquered Persia in 331 BCE, followed by Islam's Arab forces in the 7th century, and Genghis Khan and Tamerlane in the middle ages....more on History of Iran .

Overview of Iran's Economy

GDP: $516.7 billion
GDP per capita: $7,700
Annual Growth: 6.3%
Inflation: 5.5%.
Major Industries: petroleum, petrochemicals, textiles, cement and other construction materials, food processing (particularly sugar refining and vegetable oil production), metal fabrication, armaments.
Major Trading Partners: Japan, China, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, South Korea, Germany, France, UAE, Russia (2003).
Natural resources: $31.3 billion (f.o.b., 2004 est.): industrial raw materials and intermediate goods, capital goods, foodstuffs and other consumer goods, technical services, military supplies.

Also Read: A Brief insight in the Economy of Iran

Climate, Vegetation and Fauna

- Climate and Weather : Iran is one of the only countries in the world which has the complete four seasons...more
- Geography : TIran borders Azerbaijan (length of border: 432 km / 268 mi ) and Armenia (35 km / 22mi) to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan...more
- Art and Culture : Like all ancient civilizations, culture constitutes the focal point and heart of Iranian civilization...more

Regions of the Middle East There are many interpretations of the term ‘the Middle East.’ One of the most common includes the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Near East, the Iranian plateau, and occasionally North Africa. To view more information on the region of Asia and/or Africa, visit the Middle East article.Different Middle Eastern cultures are spread [...]
Eurocentrism in Middle East Some have criticized the term Middle East for its perceived Eurocentrism. The region is only east from the perspective of western Europe. To an Indian, it lies to the west; to a Russian, it lies to the south. The description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the [...]
Borders of Middle East The term Middle East defines a cultural area, so it does not have precise borders. The most common and highly arbitrary definition includes: Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Turkey, Iran (Persia), Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Iran is [...]
History of the Middle East The Middle East is the birthplace and spiritual center of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The region saw both periods of relative tolerance and violence. In the 20th century, it has been at the center of world affairs, and has been strategically, economically, politically, culturally, and religiously sensitive area. It possesses significant [...]
Characteristics of Middle East The Middle East is generally thought of as a predominantly Islamic Arabic community. However the area encompasses many distinct cultural and ethnic groups, including the Arabs, Berbers, Jews, Iranians, Syriacs (also called: Arameans, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Maronites), Kurds, Druze and Turks. The main language groups include: Arabic, Aramaic Hebrew, Persian, Kurdish and Turkish. [...]
Introducation of Middle East The Middle East is a political and cultural subregion of Asia, or of Africa-Eurasia. The core of the region comprises the lands between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf along with the Anatolian, Arabian and Sinai peninsulas. Sometimes, it is used in a broader sense which can include areas stretching from [...]
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History of Asia The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, linked by the interior mass of the Central Asian steppe. The coastal periphery was home to some of the world’s earliest known civilizations, with each of the three regions developing [...]
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Geography of Asia Asia is the central and eastern part of Eurasia, comprising approximately fifty countries. It has an area, including islands, of roughly 49,694,700 km². Asia is joined to Africa by the Isthmus of Suez and to Europe by a long border generally following the Ural Mountains. Main Geographical Features The mean elevation of the continent is [...]

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