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Iran (nation)

 Subject
Subject Source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
Scope Note: Îrān is located south of the Caspian Sea and north of the Persian Gulf. It borders Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The capital city is Tehran and the primary language is Farsi, although Turkish, Kurdish, and Afghan are spoken among the minorities. Islam is the primary religion. The country was inhabited in 100,000 BCE, but recorded history began with the Elmites in 3000 BCE. Three major dynasties of this pre-Islamic era are the Persian (550-331 BCE), the Parthian (250 BCE- 224 CE) and the Sassanian (224-651 CE). The Persians were able to establish an empire with the help of Cyrus the Great. This dynasty collapsed in 331 BCE when Alexander the Great conquered the region. After the fall of the Seleucid, Parthian, Bactrian, and Sassanian empires, the non-Persian Islamic princes began their rule. Following this period came the Safavid (1502-1736) dynasty (marking an Írānian state with roughly the same boundaries as present-day Írān) and the Qājār (1779-1921) dynasty. During Qājār rule, European intervention in Iranian politics began to elevate. After a famine and bankruptcy in 1921 the last of the Qājār kings, Nāser od-Dīn Shāh and Mozzaffar od-Dīn Shāh, set the grounds for Reza Khan's takeover, effectively beginning the last Persian dynasty, the Pahlavi (1921-1979 CE). Khan's son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1941-1979 CE), took power, and fled the country in 1979, giving way to the Islamic Republic of Írān.

Found in 2 Collections and/or Records:

Anderson, Sidney E., papers and photographs

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 14
Content Description

This record contains the personal collection of Sidney E. Anderson, including 7 photographs and two scrapbooks from his deployment in Iran and Mesopotamia [Iraq] from 1943 to 1944. It also contains a pocket guide to Iran.

Dates: circa 1943 - 1944

Smith, Leland collection

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 47
Scope and Contents

Leland's largest donation was approx. 4 pallets of boxed material. Approx. 30 binders of US president and foreign country news clippings were not accessioned and were forwarded to the book sale. The remaining approx. 40 binders covering Minnesota military and Middle East topics.

Dates: 1909 - 1960; Event: Donated by Leland Smith on multiple dates.