Persia
Persia ایران | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
| Capital | Shiraz |
| Largest city | Isfahan |
| Official languages | Persian |
| Minority languages | Armenian Kurdish dialects Azari Turkmen Various others |
| Religion | Shi'i Islam (predominant) Sunni Islam Eastern Orthodoxy Various others |
| Demonym | Persian Aryan Iranian |
| Government | Constitutional monarchy |
| Establishment | 1771 |
Persia, sometimes formally known as the Sublime State of Persia, is a country in western Asia. It is bordered by Russia and Turkestan to the north, Afghanistan and Balochistan to the east, and the Ottoman Empire and various Mesopotamian states to the west. Home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, the country has been ruled by the Dareshuri dynasty since the late 18th century. Its capital, the city of Shiraz, is situated in the extreme south of the Persian plateau. The country is also referred to by its indigenous Persian name, Iran (Persian: ایران, ērān).
History
Under the last Safavid shah Tahmasp II, the Safavid dynasty unexpectedly collapsed in the 1680s. Fiscal crises, foreign invasions, and the weakening of central authority caused the country's capital, Isfahan, to fall to a raid led by the Andar clan of the Pashtun Khelji tribe on the empire's eastern frontier (what was to become Afghanistan). Shortly after the capture of the city, Timur Khan Andari established the Khelji empire there — a dynasty that would last for over seven decades. In 1684, an Anglo-Dutch coalition seized the islands of Kishma and Ormus from Persia. Through the 18th century, Safavid princes served as powerless yet legitimizing figureheads under the Khelji khans.
Persia collapsed into civil war in the 1760s. By the end of the decade, a Turkic tribe from Fars, the Dareshuri, captured the cities of Shiraz, Isfahan, Hamadan, and Yazd, establishing their dominance on the Persian plateau. In 1771, Eskander Qoli Khan declared the creation of a new dynasty, conquering the vast majority of the country by the end of the century.
