Persia

Persia is originally the name of a region in Iran. See: Fars Province and Persis. Parts of Bushehr, Kohgiluye&Boyer-Ahmad and the western half of Hormozgan may aso be included. # Persia is a pars pro toto Western name for Iran. It was used from ancient times until 1935. Since 1949, both the terms "Persia" and "Iran" can be used officially. (See also: Iran naming convention.) * The Persian Empire of ancient and medieval times The Persian Empire was a series of successive Iranian or Iraniate empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Western Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus.[1] The first Persian Empire formed under the Median Empire (728559 BC) after defeating and ending the Assyrian Empire with the help of Babylonians. The Achaemenid Persian Empire (550330 BC) was the largest empire of the ancient world and it reached its greatest extent under Darius the Great and Xerxes the Great — famous in antiquity as the foe of the classical Greek states (See Greco-Persian Wars). It was a united Persian kingdom that originated in the region now known as Pars province (Fars province) of Iran. It was formed under Cyrus the Great, who took over the empire of the Medes, and conquered much of the Middle East, including the territories of the Babylonians, Assyrians, the Phoenicians, and the Lydians. Cambyses, Son of Cyrus the Great, continued his conquests by conquering Egypt. The Achaemenid Persian Empire was ended during the Wars of Alexander the Great, but Persian Empire arose again under the Parthian and Sassanid Empires of Iran, followed by Iranian post-Islamic Empires like Tahirids, Saffarids, Buyids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Seljuks, Khwarezmshahids and Safavids, up to the modern day Iran. Most of the successive states in Greater Iran prior to March 1935 are collectively called the Persian Empire by Western historians. Virtually all the successor empires of Persia were major regional and some major international powers in their day.. ( wikipedia)