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How did PERSIA become IRAN The story no one told you · truthunedited

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  Speaker 1: What if I told you that Persia never truly disappeared,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It simply changed its form and its name. Why would
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  Speaker 1: a civilization with thousands of years of history choose to
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  Speaker 1: alter its own identity before the world in the twentieth century.
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  Speaker 1: The answer takes us on a journey through mighty empires,
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  Speaker 1: devastating invasions, and political decisions that reshaped the memory of
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  Speaker 1: an entire people. This is not just the story of
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  Speaker 1: a country. It is the story of how power, religion,
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  Speaker 1: and public image can transform the destiny of an entire civilization,
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  Speaker 1: just as we see so often in the pages of
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  Speaker 1: ancient history, where kingdoms rise and fall, as recorded in
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  Speaker 1: the Chronicles of the East. So prepare yourself, because what
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  Speaker 1: you are about to discover goes far beyond a simple
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  Speaker 1: change of name. Now imagine a land surrounded by towering mountains,
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  Speaker 1: scorching deserts, and ancient trade routes, where caravans once crossed
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  Speaker 1: continents carrying not only goods, but also ideas, beliefs, and stories. Identity, power,
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  Speaker 1: and legacy traveled with every caravan that passed along those
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  Speaker 1: ancient roads. This land is the Iranian Plateau, a strategic
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  Speaker 1: region that for millennia served as a true cradle of civilizations. Here, cities, kingdoms,
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  Speaker 1: and peoples emerged that would deeply shape the history of
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  Speaker 1: the Near East. But how did it all begin? Who
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  Speaker 1: were the true architects of what we now call Iran.
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  Speaker 1: To understand this, we must go back to the second
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  Speaker 1: millennium before christ when the Indo Iranian peoples arrived in
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  Speaker 1: the region. They were nomadic groups who spoke Indo European languages,
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  Speaker 1: distant ancestors of the languages that would later give rise
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  Speaker 1: to Latin, Greek, and eventually Portuguese and Spanish. Their language
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  Speaker 1: had no relation to Arabic, despite the common association many
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  Speaker 1: make today. In Old Persian. For exams, Madar meant mother
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  Speaker 1: and pidhar meant father, words that echo ancient linguistic roots
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  Speaker 1: shared with other Indo European peoples. These were not just sounds,
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  Speaker 1: They were deep traces of a very ancient cultural identity
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  Speaker 1: shaped over generations that crossed mountains, deserts, and plains. Among
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  Speaker 1: these peoples, two groups began to stand out over time,
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  Speaker 1: the Meads and the Persians. The Medes settled in the
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  Speaker 1: northwest of what is now Iran. They were organized militarily
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  Speaker 1: strong and quickly became a regional power. Their cities began
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  Speaker 1: to grow, and their influence spread across the surrounding mountains
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  Speaker 1: and plains. The Persians, on the other hand, settled further
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  Speaker 1: south in a region called pas, a name that centuries
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  Speaker 1: later would give rise to the word Persia. At first,
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  Speaker 1: they were just one among many peoples in the region,
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  Speaker 1: with little political or military prominence. Nothing suggested that this
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  Speaker 1: small nation living among mountains fertile plains would one day
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  Speaker 1: change the course of history. At that time, the term
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  Speaker 1: Persian was merely a regional designation. It did not represent
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  Speaker 1: an empire or a dominant civilization. The true center of
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  Speaker 1: power then was the Medes, who founded one of the
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  Speaker 1: first great kingdoms of the region, long before the name
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  Speaker 1: Persia echoed in foreign courts or appeared in the records
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  Speaker 1: of historians. But history was about to change. Among those
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  Speaker 1: ancient mountains, amid peoples divided by tribes and fragile alliances,
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  Speaker 1: a leader would arise whose ambition would completely transform the
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  Speaker 1: destiny of the region. A man who saw beyond tribal
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  Speaker 1: borders and dreamed of a unity few could imagine possible.
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  Speaker 1: His name was Kurosh or as he would be known
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  Speaker 1: in Greek tradition and in the pages of world history,
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  Speaker 1: Cyrus the Great with him would begin the era of
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  Speaker 1: an empire that would not seek only to conquer lands,
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  Speaker 1: but also hearts. Interestingly, this same king would later be
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  Speaker 1: remembered in the Hebrew Scriptures in the Book of Ezra
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  Speaker 1: as the ruler who allowed the exiles of Judah to
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  Speaker 1: return and rebuild Jerusalem, a rare distinction for a foreign
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  Speaker 1: monarch in the Biblical narrative. Long before Alexander, Napoleon or
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  Speaker 1: Genghis Khan dreamed of ruling vast territories, there was a
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  Speaker 1: man who began to build something similar, but in a
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  Speaker 1: different way. While many empires of the ancient East ruled
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  Speaker 1: through fear, destruction and the exile of entire peoples, Cyrus
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  Speaker 1: the Great chose an unexpected path for his time. After
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  Speaker 1: defeating the Medes, he did more than simply unify rival peoples.
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  Speaker 1: He founded the Achemenid Empire, a vast political structure that
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  Speaker 1: functioned in ways the ancient world had never seen before.
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  Speaker 1: Instead of imposing a single culture, Cyrus allowed conquered peoples
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  Speaker 1: to maintain their traditions. Instead of destroying temples, he preserved them.
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  Speaker 1: Instead of erasing identities, he permitted different religions and customs
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  Speaker 1: to continue under his rule. Thus an empire was born
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  Speaker 1: that did not rely solely on force, but sought to
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  Speaker 1: cultivate something far more powerful, loyalty, and so began the
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  Speaker 1: story of the civilization the world would come to call Persia.
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  Speaker 1: For the Jews living in exile in Babylon, for example,
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  Speaker 1: Cyrus was not seen as a mere foreign conqueror. To many.
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  Speaker 1: He was remembered as an unexpected liberator. It was under
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  Speaker 1: his decree that the exiles were allowed to return to
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  Speaker 1: Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, an event recorded in the
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  Speaker 1: Book of Ezra. Centuries later, the prophet Isaiah would even
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  Speaker 1: refer to Cyrus as an instrument raised by God to
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  Speaker 1: fulfill a greater purpose for the Babylonians themselves. However, the
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  Speaker 1: narrative was different. In local records. Cyrus did not present
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  Speaker 1: himself as a servant of a Persian god. On the contrary,
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  Speaker 1: he claimed to have been chosen by Marduk, the chief
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  Speaker 1: god of Babylon. This was an extremely intelligent political strategy.
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  Speaker 1: Instead of imposing his own religion, he positioned himself as
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  Speaker 1: the restorer of the order that the conquered peoples believed
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  Speaker 1: had been lost. It was diplomacy in its most effective form,
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  Speaker 1: a blend of pragmatism, cultural respect, and political calculation. Under
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  Speaker 1: the rule of Cyrus and his successors, especially Darius the First,
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  Speaker 1: the Persian Empire expanded at an astonishing pace. Its borders
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  Speaker 1: stretched from the Indus River in the east to the
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  Speaker 1: waters of the Aegean Sea in the west, from Egypt
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  Speaker 1: in the south to the vast regions of Central Asia
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  Speaker 1: in the north. In less than a century, kingdoms that
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  Speaker 1: had once dominated the ancient world Babylon, Lydia, Egypt, became
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  Speaker 1: provinces of a single empire. Peoples who had once been
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  Speaker 1: rivals now answered to the same imperial authority. But the
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  Speaker 1: true power of Persia was not found in military conquest alone.
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  Speaker 1: The empire developed an extraordinary network of roads, connecting thousands
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  Speaker 1: of kilometers of territory. The most famous of these became
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  Speaker 1: known as the Royal Road, along which imperial messengers could
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  Speaker 1: cross the empire in a matter of days. The Greek
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  Speaker 1: historian Herodotus described this system with admiration. Messengers traveled through deserts, mountains,
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  Speaker 1: and storms with a speed that astonished the ancient world.
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  Speaker 1: In addition, the Persians created a sophisticated administrative system. Regional
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  Speaker 1: governors known as satraps managed each province, collecting tribute, maintaining order,
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  Speaker 1: and representing the central authority of the emperor. It was
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  Speaker 1: an impressive combination of organization, diplomacy, and political strategy. For
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  Speaker 1: this reason, many modern historians, such as Lloyd Llewellyn Jones,
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  Speaker 1: described the Achemenid Empire as the first superpower in history.
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  Speaker 1: But this balance between cultural respect and centralized power was fragile,
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  Speaker 1: like a rope stretched over an abyss. The empire depended
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  Speaker 1: on stability, strong leadership, and control over vast territories. It
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  Speaker 1: would take only a single external blow, a sword or
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  Speaker 1: an ambition to begin unraveling this colossal structure, and that
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  Speaker 1: blow would come from the west. In three hundred thirty
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  Speaker 1: four BC, a relatively small but highly disciplined army crossed
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  Speaker 1: the Hellespont heading east. At its head was a young
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  Speaker 1: Macedonian king who had not yet reached the age of thirty.
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  Speaker 1: His name was Alexander, but history would remember him as
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  Speaker 1: Alexander the Great. His goal was not merely to conquer lands.
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  Speaker 1: He sought to avenge the ancient Persian invasions of the
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  Speaker 1: Greek cities, to prove his greatness and perhaps, as many believe,
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  Speaker 1: to achieve what only the heroes of myth pursue yude,
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  Speaker 1: the immortality of glory. And in a short time he did.
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  Speaker 1: In a stunning sequence of decisive battles Granacus Issus and
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  Speaker 1: finally Gaugamela, the Persian armies were defeated. The mighty accommended Empire,
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  Speaker 1: which for generations had ruled half of the known world,
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  Speaker 1: began to crumble before the advance of that young conqueror.
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  Speaker 1: But the most surprising part was not Alexander's victory. It
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  Speaker 1: was what he chose to do next. Instead of completely
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  Speaker 1: destroying Persia, Alexander came to admire it. He studied its administration,
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  Speaker 1: preserved its bureaucracy, and continued to rule from the ancient
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  Speaker 1: Persian palaces. He married Roxana, an Eastern princess, adopted Persian clothing,
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  Speaker 1: and took part in rituals connected to Zoroastrian tradition. Before long,
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  Speaker 1: he began presenting himself as the legitimate successor of the
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  Speaker 1: ancient Achemenid kings. For many Greeks, this was almost a
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  Speaker 1: betrayal within his own army. This so called Persianization sparked unrest.
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  Speaker 1: Generals shaped by Hellenic tradition saw these changes as a
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  Speaker 1: cultural humiliation. After all, hadn't they marched into the heart
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  Speaker 1: of Asia to destroy Persian power. Now their own king
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  Speaker 1: seemed captivated by the splendor spirituality an ancient imperial tradition
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  Speaker 1: he had conquered. Tensions grew, Whispers of conspiracy began to
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  Speaker 1: circulate among officers and soldiers. But Alexander seemed to perceive
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  Speaker 1: something his men could not fully grasp. He understood that
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  Speaker 1: ruling such a vast empire was not merely a matter
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  Speaker 1: of swords and battles. It was a matter of symbols, legitimacy,
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  Speaker 1: and cultural fusion. His vision appeared to be something even greater,
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  Speaker 1: the creation of a universal civilization where East and West
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  Speaker 1: could coexist. Perhaps he did not want to be merely
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  Speaker 1: a Macedonian king. Perhaps he sought something closer to an
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  Speaker 1: eternal sovereign. But this vision was abruptly cut short. In
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  Speaker 1: three hundred twenty three b C, at just thirty two
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  Speaker 1: years old, Alexander died suddenly in Babylon without a clear successor,
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  Speaker 1: His immense empire was divided among his generals, known as
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  Speaker 1: the Diodosci. The central region of ancient Persia fell under
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  Speaker 1: the control of the Seleucids, descendants of Seleucus, one of
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  Speaker 1: Alexander's leading commanders. Yet Persia as an identity, as a memory,
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  Speaker 1: and as an idea of empire did not disappear. It
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  Speaker 1: simply fell silent for a time, and soon new dynasties
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  Speaker 1: would awaken that ancient legacy, claiming for themselves the throne
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  Speaker 1: and inheritance of the old kings. When Alexander died, his
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  Speaker 1: colossal empire quickly began to fragment. What once seemed invincible
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  Speaker 1: shattered like a mirror cast to the ground. Each piece
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  Speaker 1: fell into the hands of a different general. But among
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  Speaker 1: those scattered fragments, Persia did not vanish. It remained alive,
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  Speaker 1: preserved in the culture, memory, and identity of its people.
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  Speaker 1: Under the rule of the Seleucids, successes of Seleucus, and
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  Speaker 1: later under the power of the Parthians, the ancient Persian
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  Speaker 1: land remained a coveted territory. Empires rose and fell, rulers changed,
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  Speaker 1: but the cultural heart of the region continued to beat strongly.
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  Speaker 1: Language traditions and the pride of an ancient civilization endured
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  Speaker 1: in its cities, markets and temples. It was only a
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  Speaker 1: matter of time before a new dynasty would once again
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  Speaker 1: claim that legacy, and that is exactly what happened with
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  Speaker 1: the rise of the Sassanids. This dynasty emerged from the
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  Speaker 1: very region where Persian power had first been born centuries earlier.
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  Speaker 1: Its rulers claimed to be direct heirs of the Acemenid kings,
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  Speaker 1: proudly restoring many of their imperial traditions. Under Sasanian rule,
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  Speaker 1: the ancient Persian religion, Zoroastrianism, once again took a central
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  Speaker 1: place in the empire. It was a millennia old faith
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  Speaker 1: based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroasta, centred on
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  Speaker 1: the worship of Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom. Fire.
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  Speaker 1: Temples were restored, ancient rituals were revived, and Persian identity
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  Speaker 1: flourished once more. Persia had risen again as an empire
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  Speaker 1: worthy of respect and fear, But as so often happens
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  Speaker 1: in history, no power remains eternal. In the seventh century,
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  Speaker 1: a new force began to rise on the horizon, coming
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  Speaker 1: from the Arabian Peninsula. It was Islam, and it would
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  Speaker 1: not arrive as a visitor. It would come as a conqueror.
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  Speaker 1: Within a few decades, Arab armies defeated the Sasanian Empire
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  Speaker 1: and took control of the ancient Persian lands. With them
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  Speaker 1: came new beliefs, a new political order, and a new
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  Speaker 1: language of prestige. Arabic became the administrative and religious language,
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  Speaker 1: while Zoroastrianism was gradually replaced by the new Islamic faith.
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  Speaker 1: And yet Persian identity did not disappear. It continued to
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  Speaker 1: live on in poetry, science, philosophy, and art. Great thinkers
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  Speaker 1: would emerge centuries later, writing in Persian or deeply influencing
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  Speaker 1: the Islamic world. Poets like Ferdowsi, for example, preserved the
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  Speaker 1: memory of the ancient kings in epic works such as
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  Speaker 1: the Shahnamee, keeping the story of ancient Persia alive. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: even while embracing Islam, Persian civilization found a unique way
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  Speaker 1: to integrate the new without completely abandoning the old. In
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  Speaker 1: the centuries that followed, the region underwent countless transformations. Turks, Mongols,
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  Speaker 1: and various local dynasties competed for control over that strategic land.
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  Speaker 1: The Bayads came to dominate Baghdad, the heart of the Caliphate.
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  Speaker 1: Then came the Seljuks, followed by the devastating Mongol invasions
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  Speaker 1: of Genghis Khan and later the campaigns of Tamalaane. It
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  Speaker 1: was a as if Persia had become a vast chess
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  Speaker 1: board where power constantly shifted from one hand to another.
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  Speaker 1: Yet in the midst of this whirlwind of wars and conquests,
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  Speaker 1: something new began to take shape, a Persian identity that
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  Speaker 1: was now Muslim but still profoundly distinct from the Arab world,
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  Speaker 1: a culture that blended ancient imperial traditions with new religious
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  Speaker 1: and intellectual influences. This identity would grow even stronger with
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  Speaker 1: the rise of a new dynasty that would forever change
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  Speaker 1: the destiny of the region, the Safavid dynasty. The Safavids
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  Speaker 1: were not merely another group seeking political power. They had
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  Speaker 1: a clear vision to unify the territory and shape a
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  Speaker 1: distinct religious identity. Up until that point, most of the
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  Speaker 1: Islamic world, including Persia itself, followed the Sunni tradition. But
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: the Safavids made a decision that would deeply alter the
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  Speaker 1: course of history. They declared twelver Sheism as the official
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  Speaker 1: resus religion of the state. This transformation did not happen peacefully.
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  Speaker 1: The new doctrine was established through religious reforms, political pressure,
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  Speaker 1: and profound social changes, despite tensions and conflicts. This decision
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  Speaker 1: planted the seed of something that would define the country
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  Speaker 1: for centuries to come, the distinction between Schiite Iran and
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  Speaker 1: the predominantly Sunni Islamic world. At the same time, the
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  Speaker 1: Safavids also promoted a remarkable cultural Flourishing monumental architecture, refined poetry,
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  Speaker 1: and advances in medicine, philosophy, and science marked this period.
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  Speaker 1: It was as if a new Persia was emerging, still
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  Speaker 1: deeply connected to its imperial past, yet now integrated into
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  Speaker 1: the Islamic world. And with this new phase, an ancient
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  Speaker 1: name began to re emerge with greater strength. The name
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  Speaker 1: Iran derived from the ancient expression Aaryanam, meaning land of
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  Speaker 1: the Aryans. This name had deep roots in antiquity. For
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  Speaker 1: a long time, it had been used primarily within the
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: country itself, but soon it would return to the international
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  Speaker 1: stage and permanently change the way the world referred to
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  Speaker 1: ancient Persia. In contrast, the name Persia originally referred only
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  Speaker 1: to a specific region, Pars, the ancient pas homeland of
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  Speaker 1: the first Persian kings. However, since the time of the Greeks,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: especially after the Greco Persian Wars described by Herodotus, it
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  Speaker 1: became the name by which the outside world referred to
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  Speaker 1: the entire empire. Thus, while dynasties like the Safavids consolidated
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  Speaker 1: their power and later rulers such as the Kajars maintained
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  Speaker 1: the structure of the state, a curious duel identity began
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  Speaker 1: to take shape. To the outside world, the country was Persia.
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  Speaker 1: To its own people, it had always been Iran. This
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  Speaker 1: ambiguity was not an accident of history. It was the
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  Speaker 1: result of centuries of tradition, politics, and cultural perception, and
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  Speaker 1: for a long time it coexisted without major conflict. But
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: in the twentieth century, with the rise of a new
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  Speaker 1: monarch determined to modernize and transform the country, this duality
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  Speaker 1: would finally be confronted, and the change would not come
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  Speaker 1: through wars or international treaties, but through a simple diplomatic
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  Speaker 1: letter sent to embassies around the world. For centuries, the
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  Speaker 1: world had known that ancient land as Persia, a name
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  Speaker 1: that evoked images of majestic empires, finely woven carpets, mystical poetry,
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  Speaker 1: and an intellectual tradition that deeply influenced the Islamic world.
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  Speaker 1: It was the land of poets like Hafez and Sadi,
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  Speaker 1: of scholars like Avicenna, and of stories preserved in epic
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  Speaker 1: works such as the Shahnamei, which told of the deeds
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  Speaker 1: of ancient kings from legendary figures to historical rulers like
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Cyrus and Darius. Yet in the Western imagination, the word
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  Speaker 1: Persia also carried another meaning. For many Europeans, it represented
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  Speaker 1: an exotic, distant, and decadent East, an image shaped by
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  Speaker 1: ancient Greek narratives that portrayed the Persians as a people
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  Speaker 1: of excessive luxury, opulent palaces, and absolute rulers. It was
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  Speaker 1: in this context that, already in the twentieth century, Raiza Shahpahlavi,
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  Speaker 1: the Iranian monarch with strong ambitions for modernization and nationalism,
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  Speaker 1: made a deeply symbolic decision. In nineteen thirty five, he
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  Speaker 1: sent a diplomatic circular to all foreign embassies requesting that
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  Speaker 1: from that moment on the country be officially called by
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: its endogenous name Iran. But this decision was not merely
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  Speaker 1: a linguistic preference. It represented an attempt to break away
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  Speaker 1: from the orientalist image that many Western countries still held
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  Speaker 1: of ancient Persia. By officially adopting the name Iran, derived
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: from the ancient word Ariyanum, meaning land of the aryans
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  Speaker 1: or land of the nobles, the country so ought to
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  Speaker 1: project a new image, modern, sovereign, and aligned with its
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  Speaker 1: own historical identity. It was a gesture of symbolic diplomacy,
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  Speaker 1: but also of national affirmation. Even so, the decision was
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  Speaker 1: not received without controversy within the country itself. Many intellectuals, historians,
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  Speaker 1: and citizens viewed the change with concern. For them, Persia
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  Speaker 1: was not just a foreign name. It was a symbol
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  Speaker 1: of a glorious heritage built over millennia. It was the
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  Speaker 1: name associated with the Achaemenids, with the achievements of Cyrus,
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  Speaker 1: with the monumental constructions of Darius, and with the literary
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  Speaker 1: and scientific richness that flourished for centuries. To abandon that name,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: for some felt almost like breaking away from a collective
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  Speaker 1: memory that stretched back to ancient days when kings ruled
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: from Passagadai to Persepolis and when diverse peoples lived under
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  Speaker 1: a single empire. Despite the criticism, the decision remained. Iran
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: became the official name used in documents, international treaties, newspapers
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  Speaker 1: and maps around the world, But the story of that
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: nation was far from over. In nineteen seventy nine, a
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  Speaker 1: revolution led by Ayatollah Ruholla Komani overthrew the monarchy and
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  Speaker 1: established the Islamic Republic of Iran. The country entered a
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  Speaker 1: new political and religious era. Relations with the West deteriorated rapidly. Sheism,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: already deeply rooted in national identity since the Safavids, became
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: even more central to the structure of the state, and
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: with that, the global perception of the country changed dramatically
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: to day. For many around the world, the name Iran
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: evokes images of geopolitical tensions, international sanctions, and diplomatic conflicts. Curiously, meanwhile,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the name Persia has come to carry an almost romantic aura,
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  Speaker 1: associated with poetry, refined art, and a grand past that
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  Speaker 1: seems to belong to another era of history. Two names,
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  Speaker 1: one land and a story that flows across millennia like
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  Speaker 1: a river that never ceases to run, because sometimes a
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  Speaker 1: name carries far more than geography or politics. It holds memory, identity,
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  Speaker 1: and even purpose. The land the world once called Persia
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  Speaker 1: and which we now know as Iran, has witnessed the
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  Speaker 1: rise of empires, the fall of kings, and the passage
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: of countless generations. It has been a stage for ancient wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: profound poetry, and conflicts that shape the destiny of entire peoples.
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  Speaker 1: And in a way, its story echoes a principle that
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  Speaker 1: appears repeatedly in the scriptures. Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Yet human history continues to be guided by something greater
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  Speaker 1: than the power of men. As the Book of Daniel says,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: God removes kings and sets up kings, reminding us that
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  Speaker 1: no empire, no matter how great it may seem, lasts forever.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps that is why this land, marked by so many
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: changes of names and dynasties, still carries an identity that
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: has survived it. All empires have passed, religions have changed,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: governments have fallen, but the memory of a people has
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: endured through the centuries. In the end, the real question
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  Speaker 1: is not only why Persia became Iran. The deeper question
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  Speaker 1: is what this story reveals about the world itself. That power, borders,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: and names may change, but the human search for meaning,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: faith and purpose remains the same. Because above all the
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: empires of history, there is a kingdom that does not
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: depend on armies, crowns, or borders, a kingdom that, as
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: the ancient words say, shall never be destroyed. Thank you
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: for watching until the end. May God bless your life,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and I'll see you soon.