Greater Iran (in Persian: ایرانِ بُزُرگ Irān-e Bozorg, or ایران زَمین Irānzamīn "Iranian soil") refers to the regions that have significant Iranian cultural influence. It roughly corresponds to the territory on the Iranian plateau and its bordering plains,[1] stretching from Iraq, the Caucasus, and Turkey in the west to the Indus River of Pakistan in the east. It is also referred to as Greater Persia,[2][3][4] while the Encyclopædia Iranica uses the term Iranian Cultural Continent.[5]
The term 'Iran' is not limited to the modern state, more or less equivalent to western Iran. Iran is included all the political boundaries ruled by Iranian including Mesopotamia and usually Armenia and Transcaucasia.[6][7] In a sense the concept of Greater Iran, starts from the history that originated with the first Persian Empire in Persis, and in fact is synonymous with history of Iran in many aspects. The core of ancient Persia comprised Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. In the modern era, Persia (a part of which is now called Iran) lost many territories gained under the Safavid dynasty, including Iraq to the Ottomans in 1533, Afghanistan to the British (via Treaty of Paris in 1857[8] and MacMahon Arbitration in 1905[9]), and its Caucasus territories to Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries.[10] The Turkmanchey Treaty of 1828, after the Russo-Persian wars permanently severed the Caucasian provinces from Iran and settled the modern boundary along the Aras river.[11] The Treaty of Gulistan in 1813 resulted in Persia (Iran) ceding Armenia, Azerbaijan, and eastern Georgia to Russia.[12] Due to this geographic diversity, newly independent nations under Russian or British involvement, while maintaining a cultural or language connection with Persia, developed their own unique socio-political and cultural paths. In 1935 under the rule of Reza Shah, the endonym Iran was made the official international name.[13]
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The name “Irān“, meaning “land of the Aryans”, is a new Persian of the old genitive plural aryānām (proto-Iranian, meaning "of the Aryans"), first attested in the Avestan as airyānąm (Avestan is an old Iranian language spoken in northeastern Greater Iran, or in what are now Turkmenistan and Tajikistan).[14][15][16][17] The proto-Iranian term aryānām is present in the term Airyana Vaēǰah, the homeland of Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism, near the provinces of Sogdiana, Margiana, Bactria, etc., listed in the first chapter of the Vidēvdād, immediately after it.[18][19] The Avestan evidence is confirmed by the Greek sources: Eratosthenes apud Strabo speaks of Arianē as being between Persia and the Indian subcontinent.[15]
Although, up until the end of the Parthian period in the 3rd century C.E, idea of “Irān“ had an ethnic, linguistic, and religious value, it did not yet have a political import. The idea of an “Iranian“ empire or kingdom in a political sense is a purely Sasanian one. It was the result of a convergence of interests between the new dynasty and the Zoroastrian clergy, as we can deduce from the available evidence. This convergence gave rise to the idea of an Ērān-šahr “Kingdom of the Iranians,” which was “ēr“ (Middle Persian equivalent of Old Persian “ariya“ and Avestan “airya“).[15]
Richard Foltz notes that while "A general assumption is often made that the various Iranian peoples of 'greater Iran'—a cultural area that streched from Mesopotamia and the Caucasus into Khwarizm, Transoxiana, Bactria, and the Pamirs and included Persians, Medes, Parthians and Sogdians among others—were all 'Zoroastrians' in pre-Islamic times... This view, even though common among serious scholars, is almost certainly overstated." Foltz argues that "While the various Iranian peoples did indeed share a common pantheon and pool of religious myths and symbols, in actuality a variety of deities were worshipped—particularly Mitra, the god of covenants, and Anahita, the goddess of the waters, but also many others—depending on the time, place, and particular group concerned.".[20] To the Ancient Greeks, Greater Iran ended at the Indus.[21]
Richard Nelson Frye defines Greater Iran as including "much of the Caucasus, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, with cultural influences extending to China and western India." According to Frye, "Iran means all lands and peoples where Iranian languages were and are spoken, and where in the past, multi-faceted Iranian cultures existed."[22]
According to J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams most of Western greater Iran spoke SW Iranian languages in the Achaemenid era while the Eastern territory spoke Eastern Iranian languages related to Avesta.[23]
George Lane also states that after the dissolution of the Mongol empire, the Ilkhanids became rulers of greater Iran[24] and Uljaytu, according to Judith G. Kolbas, was the ruler of this expanse between 1304-1317 A.D.[25]
Primary sources, including Timurid historian Mir Khwand, define Iranshahr (Greater Iran) as extending from the Euphrates to the Oxus[26]
Traditionally, and until recent times, ethnicity has never been a defining separating criterion in these regions. In the words of Richard Nelson Frye:
| “ | Many times I have emphasized that the present peoples of Central Asia, whether Iranian or Turkic speaking, have one culture, one religion, one set of social values and traditions with only language separating them. | ” |
Only in modern times did western colonial intervention and ethnicity tend to become a dividing force between the provinces of Greater Iran. As Patrick Clawson states, "ethnic nationalism is largely a nineteenth century phenomenon, even if it is fashionable to retroactively extend it."[27] "Greater Iran" however has been more of a cultural super-state, rather than a political one to begin with.
In the work Nuzhat al-Qolub (نزهه القلوب), the medieval geographer Hamdollah Mostowfi wrote:
چند شهر است اندر ایران مرتفع تر از همه
Some cities of Iran are better than the rest,
بهتر و سازنده تر از خوشی آب و هوا
these have pleasant and compromising weather,
گنجه پر گنج در اران صفاهان در عراق
The wealthy Ganjeh of Arran, and Esfahān as well,
در خراسان مرو و طوس در روم باشد اقسرا
Merv and Tus in Khorasan, and Konya (Aqsara) too.
The Cambridge History of Iran takes a geographical approach in referring to the "historical and cultural" entity of "Greater Iran" as "areas of Iran, parts of Afghanistan, and Chinese and Soviet Central Asia".[28] A detailed list of these territories follows in this article.
In Persian, Greater Iran is called Iranzamin (ایرانزمین) which means "The Land of Iran". Iranzamin was in the mythical times opposed to the Turanzamin the Land of Turan, which was located in the upper part of Central Asia.[29]
In the pre-Islamic period, Iranians distinguished two main regions in the territory they ruled, one Iran and the other Aniran. By Iran they meant all the regions inhabited by ancient Iranian peoples. That region was much vaster than it is today. This notion of Iran as a territory (opposed to Aniran) can be seen as the core of early Greater Iran. Later many changes occurred in the boundaries and areas where Iranians lived but the languages and culture remained the dominant medium in many parts of the Greater Iran.
As an example, the Persian language (referred to, in Persian, as Farsi) was the main literary language and the language of correspondence in Central Asia and Caucasus prior to the Russian occupation, Central Asia being the birthplace of modern Persian language. Furthermore, according to the British government, Persian language was also used in Iraqi Kurdistan, prior to the British Occupation and Mandate in 1918-1932 [3].
With Imperial Russia continuously advancing south in the course of two wars against Persia, and the treaties of Turkmenchay and Gulistan in the western frontiers, plus the unexpected death of Abbas Mirza in 1823, and the murdering of Persia's Grand Vizier (Mirza AbolQasem Qa'im Maqām), many Central Asian khanates began losing hope for any support from Persia against the Tsarist armies.[30] The Russian armies occupied the Aral coast in 1849, Tashkent in 1864, Bukhara in 1867, Samarkand in 1868, and Khiva and Amudarya in 1873.
In the Middle Ages, the territory of Greater Iran was known to be composed of two portions: Persian Iraq (western portion) and Khorasan (eastern portion). The dividing region was mostly along with Gurgan and Damaghan cities. Especially the Ghaznavids, Seljuqs and Timurids divided their Empire to Iraqi and Khorasani regions. This point can be observed in many books such as "Tārīkhi Baïhaqī" of Abul Fazl Bayhqi, Faza'ilul al-anam min rasa'ili hujjat al-Islam (a collection of letters of Al-Ghazali) and other books. Transoxiana and Chorasmia were mostly included in the Khorasanian region.
Iraq was a province of various Persian Empires since the Achaemenid period and was heavily influenced by Persian culture. It is where one of the Sassanid capitals was located (Ctesiphon). There are still cities and provinces in contemporary Iraq where the Persian names of the city are still retained. e.g. al-Anbar or Baghdad. Other cities of Iraq with originally Persian names include Nokard (نوكرد) --> al-Haditha, Suristan (سورستان) --> Kufa, Shahrban (شهربان) --> Miqdadiya, Arvandrud (اروندرود)--> Shatt al-Arab, and Asheb (آشب) --> Imadiyya.[34]
In the modern era, the Safavid dynasty of Iran briefly asserted their hegemony over Iraq in the periods of 1501-1533 and 1622-1638, losing Iraq to the Ottoman Empire on both occasions.
Culturally and historically Kurdistan has been part of what is known as Greater Iran. Kurds who speak a Northwestern Iranian language known as Kurdish comprise the majority of the population of the region there are also communities of Arab, Armenian, Assyrian, Azeri, Jewish, Persian, and Turkic people traditionally scattered throughout the region. Most of its inhabitants are Muslim, but there are also significant numbers of other religious sects such as Yazidi, Yarsan, Alevi, Christian, Kurdish Jews, and a modern revival of interest in Zoroastrianism, though the last of these is largely, if not entirely, nominal.
Armenia was a province of various Persian Empires since the Achaemenid period and was heavily influenced by Persian culture. Armenia however, has historically been largely populated by a distinct Indo-European-speaking people who merged with local Caucasian peoples, rather than being directly associated with the Iranian peoples. Ancient Armenian society was a combination of local cultures, Iranian social and political structures, and Hellenic/Christian traditions.[35] Due to centuries of independent indigenous development, conquests by western powers including the Romans and Russians, and its diverse diasporic population that has absorbed many cultural traits, especially those of Europe and Lebanon.
Iran continues to have a sizeable Armenian minority that links Armenians to Iranian culture. Many Armenians such as Yeprem Khan were directly involved and remembered in the History of Iran.
With the Treaty of Gulistan, Iran had to cede all the Khanates of the South Caucasus, which included Baku Khanate, Shirvan Khanate, Karabakh Khanate, Ganja Khanate, Shaki Khanate, Quba Khanate, and parts of the Talysh Khanate. Derbent (Darband) was also lost to Russia. These Khanates comprise what is today the Republic of Azerbaijan. By the Treaty of Turkmenchay, Iran was forced to cede Nakhichevan Khanate and the Mughan regions to Russia, as well as Erivan Khanate. These territories roughly constitute the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan and Republic of Armenia. Most localities in this region bear Persian names or names derived from Iranian languages.
The eastern Georgian regions of Kartli and Kakheti were Persian Provinces during Sassanid times (particularly starting with Hormozd IV). Some members of the Georgian elite were involved in the Safavid government and Amin al-Sultan, Prime Minister of Iran, was the son of a Georgian father.[36]
Eastern Georgia was under the influence of Persia until 1783 when Erekle II of Kartli and Kakheti signed the Treaty of Georgievsk with the Russian Empire. Persia officially gave up claim to parts of Georgia according to the terms of the Gulistan and Turkmenchay Treaties.
Early in antiquity, Narseh of Persia is known to have had fortifications built here. In later times, some of Persia's literary and intellectual figures from the Qajar period have hailed from this region. Also separated from Greater-Iran/Persia in the mid-19th century, by virtue of the Gulistan Treaty and Turkmenchay Treaty.
که تا جایگه یافتی نخچوان
Oh Nakhchivan, respect you've attained,
بدین شاه شد بخت پیرت جوان
With this King in luck you'll remain.
---Nizami
North Caucasus region in today's southern Russia including the republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkariya & other republics & oblasts of the region long formed part of Persia & the Iranian cultural sphere until they were annexed by Imperial Russia over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries. Strong Persian cultural influence can be traced up as far as Tatarstan in central Russia. Fine examples of Iranian architecture in many Caucasus cities like the Sassanid citadel in Derbent bear witness to the importance of these territories before the arrival of Russians to the region, when it was under Persian influence, rule & suzerainty. (Even today, after decades of partition, some of these regions retain a sort of Iranian identity, as seen in their old beliefs, traditions and customs (e.g. Norouz)).[37]
Khwarazm is one of the regions of Iran-zameen, and is the home of the ancient Iranians, Airyanem Vaejah, according to the ancient book of the Avesta. Modern scholars believe Khwarazm to be what ancient Avestic texts refer to as "Ariyaneh Waeje" or Iran vij. Iranovich These sources claim that Urgandj, which was the capital of ancient Khwarazm for many years, was actually "Ourva": the eighth land of Ahura Mazda mentioned in the Pahlavi text of Vendidad. Others such as University of Hawaii historian Elton L. Daniel believe Khwarazm to be the "most likely locale" corresponding to the original home of the Avestan people,[38] while Dehkhoda calls Khwarazm "the cradle of the Aryan tribe" (مهد قوم آریا). Today Khwarazm is split between several central Asian republics.
Superimposed on and overlapping with Chorasmia was Khorasan which roughly covered nearly the same geographical areas in Central Asia (starting from Semnan eastward through northern Afghanistan roughly until the foothills of Pamir, ancient Mount Imeon). Current day provinces such as Sanjan in Turkmenia, Razavi Khorasan Province, North Khorasan Province, and Southern Khorasan Province in Iran are all remnants of the old Khorasan. Until the 13th century and the devastating Mongol invasion of the region, Khorasan was considered the cultural capital of Greater Iran.[39]
Afghanistan was part of Greater Khorasan, and hence was recognized with the name Khorasan (along with regions centered around Merv and Nishapur), which in Pahlavi means "The Eastern Land" (خاور زمین in Persian).[40]
Afghanistan is where Balkh is located, home of Rumi, Rabi'a Balkhi, Sanāī Ghaznawi, Jami, Khwaja Abdullah Ansari and where many other notables in Persian literature came from.
ز زابل به کابل رسید آن زمان
From Zabul he arrived to Kabul
گرازان و خندان و دل شادمان
Strutting, happy, and mirthful
---Ferdowsi in Shahnama
The national anthem in Tajikistan, "Surudi Milli", attests to the Perso-Tajik identity, which has seen a large revival, after the breakup of the USSR. Their language is almost identical to that spoken in Afghanistan and Iran, and their cities have Persian names, e.g. Dushanbe, Isfara, Rasht Valley, Garm, Murghab, Vahdat, Zar-afshan river, Shurab, and Kulob ([4]). Its also important to note that Rudaki, considered by many as the father of modern Persian Language, was from Tajikistan.
Home of the Parthian Empire (Nysa). Merv is also where the half-Persian caliph al-Mamun moved his capital to. The city of Eshgh Abad (some claim that the word is actually the transformed form of "Ashk Abad" literally meaning "built by Ashk", the head of Arsaced dynasty) is yet another Persian word meaning "city of love", and like Iran, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan, it was once part of Airyanem Vaejah.
The famous cities of Afrasiab, Bukhara, Samarkand, Shahrisabz, Andijan, Khiveh, Navā'i, Shirin, Termez, and Zar-afshan are located here. These cities are the birthplace of the Islamic era Persian literature. The Samanids, who claimed inheritance to the Sassanids, had their capital built here.
ای بخارا شاد باش و دیر زی
Oh Bukhara! Joy to you and live long!
شاه زی تو میهمان آید همی
Your King comes to you in ceremony.
---Rudaki
The Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County regions of China harbored a Persian population and culture.[41] Chinese Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County was always counted as a part of the Iranian cultural & linguistic continent with Kashgar, Yarkand, Hotan, and Turpan bound to the Iranian history.[42]
The western provinces and territories of Pakistan, which comprise Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA and Baluchistan, are Iranian-speaking regions where Pashtuns and Baluchis comprise the majority of the local populations. The Baluch and Pashtun tribes are the easternmost of the Iranic peoples and the Baluchistan region, which covers southwestern Pakistan, is the easternmost region of the Iranian plateau.
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