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From the first cities of Elam to the twentieth century, the story of Iran is one of empires, conquests and recoveries. Here it is told through the places, objects and people that carried it.

The periods

Iranian history
  1. Elam and the first cities4000 BCE
  2. The Medes850 BCE
  3. The Achaemenids550 BCE
  4. Seleucids and Parthians330 BCE
  5. The Sasanians224
  6. The Arab conquest and the Persian revival636
  7. Seljuks, Mongols and Ilkhanids1040
  8. The Timurids1370
  9. The Safavids1501
  10. Afsharids, Zands and Qajars1736
  11. The Pahlavi century and after1925

Choose a period to read about it.

  1. 4000–539 BCE

    Elam and the first cities

    Long before the Persians, the lowlands of Khuzestan and the highlands of Fars were home to Elam, a civilisation with its own language, gods and kings, centred on the city of Susa.

    عیلام1

  2. 850–550 BCE

    The Medes

    An Iranian people of the north-western highlands, the Medes helped bring down Assyria and ruled from Ecbatana, beneath modern Hamadan, before Cyrus the Great absorbed their kingdom.

    مادها2

  3. 550–330 BCE

    The Achaemenids

    From Cyrus to Darius III, the first Persian empire stretched from the Aegean to the Indus and left behind Persepolis, the Cyrus Cylinder and a model of kingship the region would long remember.

    هخامنشیان3

  4. 330 BCE–224

    Seleucids and Parthians

    After Alexander, Greek kings ruled Iran for a time, until the Parthians, horsemen from the north-east, built an empire that lasted nearly five centuries and held Rome at bay.

    سلوکیان و اشکانیان4

  5. 224–651

    The Sasanians

    For four centuries the Sasanian kings ruled an empire of fire temples, rock reliefs and brick palaces, the last great Iranian empire before Islam.

    ساسانیان5

  6. 636–1040

    The Arab conquest and the Persian revival

    Islam reached Iran with the Arab armies of the 7th century. Persian survived, took on a new script and, under dynasties such as the Samanids, returned as one of the great literary languages of the world.

    فتح اعراب و احیای زبان فارسی6

  7. 1040–1335

    Seljuks, Mongols and Ilkhanids

    Turkic and then Mongol conquerors took Iran in turn. The Seljuks built mosques and colleges; the Mongols brought catastrophe, then, as the Ilkhanids, became patrons of history-writing and art.

    سلجوقیان، مغولان و ایلخانان7

  8. 1370–1507

    The Timurids

    Timur's campaigns were brutal, but his heirs made Samarkand and Herat capitals of Persian painting, poetry, astronomy and architecture.

    تیموریان8

  9. 1501–1736

    The Safavids

    The Safavids made Twelver Shia Islam Iran's state religion and rebuilt Isfahan as one of the most admired cities in the world.

    صفویان9

  10. 1736–1925

    Afsharids, Zands and Qajars

    A soldier-king who sacked Delhi, a regent who rebuilt Shiraz, and a dynasty that made Tehran the capital and lived through Iran's Constitutional Revolution.

    افشاریان، زندیان و قاجاریان10

  11. 1925–2026

    The Pahlavi century and after

    Two Pahlavi shahs built railways, universities and a centralised state, while poets, novelists and film-makers created a new Persian culture. The era ended with the revolution of 1979.

    دوران پهلوی و پس از آن11