PersiaPersis, Persian Parsa, ancient country in the southwestern part of Iran, roughly coextensive with the modern region of Fārs.https://www.britannica.com › place › Persis
ancient Iran, also known as Persia, historic region of southwestern Asia that is only roughly coterminous with modern Iran.
The name Persia derives from Parsa, the name of the Indo-European nomadic people who migrated into southern Iran—to an area then called Persis—about 1000 bce. The first written reference to the Parsa occurs in the annals of Shalmaneser II, an Assyrian king, who reigned in the 9th century bce.
In 1935 the Iranian government requested those countries which it had diplomatic relations with, to call Persia "Iran," which is the name of the country in Persian. The suggestion for the change is said to have come from the Iranian ambassador to Germany, who came under the influence of the Nazis.
On the day of the Persian New Year, March 21 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi, requested foreign delegates to use the term Iran, instead of Persia, in a conscious reference to the ancient ancestry of the Iranians.
The Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire, lasted from approximately 559 B.C.E. to 331 B.C.E. At its height, it encompassed the areas of modern-day Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Many people continue to believe that “Persian” and “Arab” are interchangeable terms, when, in reality, they are labels for two distinct ethnicities. That is to say, Persians are not Arabs.
Languages of Iran
Although Persian (Farsi) is the predominant and official language of Iran, a number of languages and dialects from three language families—Indo-European, Altaic, and Afro-Asiatic—are spoken.
Persians can trace their lineage back to what is today Iran, but all Persians don't necessarily live in Iran. Instead, populations of Persians can be found in other nations including Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Persian Gulf states.
Syria was part of the Persian Empire from 539BC. The King of Persia, Cyrus the Great, took Syria as part of his territory due to its position on the Mediterranean coast. The region was well located in the East with abundant forest and a navy fleet.
In the Western world, Persia (or one of its cognates) was historically the common name used for Iran. On the Nowruz of 1935, Reza Shah officially asked foreign delegates to use the Persian term Iran (meaning the land of Aryans in Persian), the endonym of the country, in formal correspondence.
The heart of ancient Persia is in what is now southwest Iran, in the region called the Fars. In the second half of the 6th century B.C.E., the Persians (also called the Achaemenids) created an enormous empire reaching from the Indus Valley to Northern Greece and from Central Asia to Egypt.
In the 1930s, steps began to be taken by Reza Shah to formalise the change in name from Persia to Iran, and the request came into force in March 1935.
Persia (roughly modern-day Iran) is among the oldest inhabited regions in the world. Archaeological sites in the country have established human habitation dating back 100,000 years to the Paleolithic Age with semi-permanent settlements (most likely for hunting parties) established before 10,000 BCE.
In ancient times Iraq formed part of the core of Persia (modern-day Iran) for about a thousand years.
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian.
Modern Persians themselves are also a heterogeneous group of peoples descended from various ancient Iranian and indigenous peoples of the Iranian plateau, including the Elamites.
Despite some resistance from elements of the Zoroastrian clergy and other ancient religions, the vast majority of Iranians became and have remained Muslims. Today 98% of ethnic Iranians, including the population of Persia, are at least nominal Muslims.
As for the question that which of them is older, then Persian takes the prize if we include the history of its earliest version. The Old Persian had been around since 550-330 BC until it transitioned into the Middle version of the tongue in 224 CE. Old Arabic, on the other hand, emerged in the 1st century CE.
Tajik is closely related to Dari and Farsi. It is the official language of the Republic of Tajikistan but is also spoken in parts of Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and China.
“Farsi” is the, well, Persian word for the language. “Persian” is the English word.
The names Jasmine and Aladdin are both of Middle-Eastern origin, with “Aladdin” being derived from Arabic while “Jasmine” has its roots in Persian.
The Arabian Peninsula was the initial site of the out-of-Africa migrations that occurred between 125,000 and 60,000 yr ago, leading to the hypothesis that the first Eurasian populations were established on the Peninsula and that contemporary indigenous Arabs are direct descendants of these ancient peoples.
The supreme god is Ahura Mazda. Ahura Mazda is all-good. His eternal opponent, Angra Mainyu, is all-evil. Goodness is apparent through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds.