IRAN, The native name of Persia, in its broadest sense, 1 See PEastA.) The word Iran itself, in its modern form, is earlier found as Ellin (whence often Eranian as an adjective), and it is ultimately connected with Aryan (q.v.) as a racial designation. In the Arcata (q.v.) the people speak of themselves as A iry6 rlairilmvo (`Aryan nations'), and Ariya in the Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions is employed in the sense of what we should to-day call Persian in the larger application of the term. As a more or less defined unit in ancient and modern times, the land of Iran is important geographically, ethnologically. historically, and linguistically.
GEmmAeirc ANn ETHNOLOGY OF 1 RAN. As far as modern times are eoncerned, the more impor tant geographical and ethnological points con neeted with Iran viihl he found treated under PEastA. In remote times, as later, the Iranian boundaries comprehended the entire region from the Caucasus. the Caspian Sea, and P,ussian Turkestan on the north, to the Tigris. the Per sian Gulf, and the Arabian Sea on the west and south, and extended to the Indus on the east. likewise comprisin• the modern Afghanistan and the territory to the north of it as far as the Jaxartes River (Sir Darya). The wide extent of this area showed as great a variety of climate. extremes of heat and cold, in antiquity as at pres ent, and presented considerable diversity of fea tures and characteristics. While the larger part of the country has ever been marked as highland ur mountainous, there are extensive low or de pressed tracts, with salt desert,, a lid arid wastes, alternating with swampy districts and plains. \\hat we know of the country in antiquity shows that it was generally fertile and Nl VII wooded in parts: hut irrigation is not infrequently referred to. ‘•ith regard to territorial distribution in an cient times, it may be added that in the A resin the lands on the which came more prominently into notice were the country known in history as Media (q.v.). in•lnding Azerbaijan or Atropa tente (q.v.), and the districts alma the Caspian Sea, and on the east, Bactria (q.v.), including the modern territories of Kborassan and Seistan, together with parts of the present Afghanistan. Persis (ancient Pi irsa), or Persia proper, is first mentioned at the time of the founding of the Achamenian kingdom. (See ACILENI EN es.) Erom that time the real history of the Iranian Empire as a whole begins. Ethnologioally, the Iranian people are members of the Aryan or Indo•Ger manic family. The general 'Iranian type may be deduced by a comparison of the racial features of the Persians, Kurds, Ossetes, lialuchis, Af ghans, and inhabitants of the Pamir districts.
The Iranian type, however, has been somewhat affected. even from the earliest times, by ad mixture with the adjoining Semitic, Turanian, and Indian tribes that border on the land itself. On the other hand, the spread of Iranian blood beyond its own country may be reeognized, for instance, among the people of Northwestern India. Similarly, 'Iranian lineaments, like lin guistic traits, may he found penetrating into Armenia and Asia Minor, even from a remote period in the past. \\lien the gradual dispersion of the Aryan or 1111(10• Germanic tribes ',ad: place in prehistoric limos, it is presumed that the Iranians may have entered the great plateau from the north, on the west of the Oxus and Jaxartcs, and have thus begun their advance into the country that later because their habitat. Linguistic, mythological, and religious evidences prove that they mush long have remained in union with their Indian cousins.
IllsTonv The beginnings of Iranian history are shrouded in darkness, although the existence of an kingdom in Bactria is in ferred from early Oriental and classical references. (See BACTILIA.) Wit h the Median kingdom. how ever, we are on historic ground, even though the early tradition of a Median conquest of Baby lonia, it.c. 34n0, as recorded by lierosits may not be authentic. Nevertheless, with the presumed advance of the Iranian peoples westward in their land, the Medes came earliest into real prominence, and though subject to As syria for centuries, they were able to throw off the Assyrian yoke about the ninth century my., and real unity was given to the Median king dom in the eighth century by an able Iranian monarch. (For the subsequent history of the kingdom, see MEDIA.) The aeeount of the overthrow- of the Median dynasty by Cyrus (about n.c. 550), and the events which led to the founding of the great Persian Empire of (lie Aohremenian kings. and to its fall through Alex ander the Great, will be found in the several articles devoted to those topics. The Solenoid dynasty ( gee SFLEOCID.E ) swayed the fortunes of Iran for about seventy years, and gave place to the Parthian dynasty of the Arsacida! (q.v.), which reigned for nearly five centuries (n.c. 250 .s.n. 226). This rule yielded in turn IO the Iranian monarchy of the Sassanida; (q.v.). The overthrow of this house by the Arab Mohamme dan invasion in the seventh century changed the history of Iran, nationally, religiously, and lin guistically. For details of these events, consult the article PERSIA.