Iran’s political and militant past has been in the news all around the world after Israel launched missile attacks on it last week and Donald Trump blasted three of its nuclear bases over the weekend.
However, one of the numerous concerns posed by observers of the recent Middle East unrest is one that many have been asking for centuries: why Iran was ever known as Persia, and when was the country’s official name changed?
When does Iranian civilisation date back to?
Under the leadership of Cyrus the Great, the Achaemenid Empire extended its enormous holdings and developed its culture in the sixth century B.C., marking the early beginnings of Iranian civilisation, according to historians and archaeologists.
Cyrus was a native of ‘Parsa’, a district in the country’s southwest.
As a result, the name “Persian” was later used by classical historians to refer to the entire monarchy that coexisted with its ancient Greek, Arab, and early Roman neighbours.
How did the Iranians refer to themselves?
Iran was referred to as Persia by Western civilisations until 1935, hence the term is an exonym (a name provided by foreigners).
During this period, the vast majority of Iranians referred to their nation as “Arya” or “Airyan,” with the indigenous title denoting the land of the Aryans, which the Iranian people called themselves, according to Far Horizons.
This word, which has its roots in Zoroastrian and ancient Iranian texts, describes Iranian identity that goes beyond geography and historical conquests.
Why was the name changed?
However, Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran from 1925 to 1941, formally accepted the name “Iran” in 1935.
The action was taken in an effort to re-establish the nation’s rich cultural heritage, classical history, and progress towards becoming a contemporary Middle Eastern nation. It was a statement of cultural sovereignty and a redefinition of Iran’s identity.
The UK’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs recorded Iran’s name-change at the time, documenting: “On the 25th December [1934] the Persian Ministry for Foreign Affairs addressed a circular memorandum to the Foreign Diplomatic Missions in Tehran requesting that the terms ‘Iran’ and ‘Iranian’ might be used in official correspondence and conversation as from the next 21st March, instead of the words “Persia” and ‘Persian’ hitherto in current use.”
“His Majesty’s Minister in Tehran has been instructed to accede to this request.”
Was it ever called ‘Persia’ again?
The short answer is yes.
When World War II started in 1939, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill asked that the Iranian government temporarily change its name that ‘Persia be used by the United Nations [i.e., the Allies] for the length of the common war’.
Why? the nation’s proximity to Iraq, a neighbour in the Middle East with a name that is somewhat similar.
Although the Iranian Foreign Ministry granted Churchill’s request, it was mainly disregarded, particularly by the Americans, who had not yet been involved in Iraq and saw no need to complicate matters.
A lot of political forces complained that they did not know how to properly refer to Iran, and by 1959, Iranian leaders had come together.
In the end, it was determined that the terms “Persia” and “Iran” may be used interchangeably, with the former being best suited to characterise the country’s history and culture and the latter its contemporary political climate and current events.
