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<!-- Sid Meier's Civilization 4 -->
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<Civ4GameText xmlns="http://www.firaxis.com">
	<TEXT>
		<Tag>TXT_KEY_CIV_IRAN_SHORT_DESC</Tag>
		<English>Iran</English>
	</TEXT>
	<TEXT>
		<Tag>TXT_KEY_CIV_IRAN_DESC</Tag>
		<English>Iran</English>
	</TEXT>
	<TEXT>
		<Tag>TXT_KEY_CIV_IRAN_ADJECTIVE</Tag>
		<English>Iranian</English>
	</TEXT>
	<TEXT>
		<Tag>TXT_KEY_CIV_IRAN_PEDIA</Tag>
		<English>[TAB]The history of Iran has been intertwined with the history of a larger historical region, comprising the area from the Danube River in the west to the Indus River and Jaxartes in the east and from the Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and Egypt in the south.The southwestern part of the Iranian plateau participated in the wider Ancient Near East with Elam, from the Early Bronze Age. The Persian Empire proper begins in the Iron Age, following the influx of Iranian peoples which gave rise to the Median, Achaemenid, the Parthians, the Sassanid dynasties during classical antiquity.[PARAGRAPH:2]The southwestern part of the Iranian plateau participated in the wider Ancient Near East with Elam, from the Early Bronze Age. The Persian Empire proper begins in the Iron Age, following the influx of Iranian peoples which gave rise to the Median, Achaemenid, the Parthians, the Sassanid dynasties during classical antiquity.[PARAGRAPH:2]Once a major empire of superpower proportions, Persia as it had long been called, has been overrun frequently and has had its territory altered throughout the centuries. Invaded and occupied by Greeks, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and othersand often caught up in the affairs of larger powersPersia has always reasserted its national identity and has developed as a distinct political and cultural entity.[PARAGRAPH:2]Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC. The Medes unified Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC. The Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC) was the first of the Iranian empires to rule from the Balkans to North Africa and also Central Asia. They were succeeded by the Seleucid Empire, Parthians and Sassanids which governed Iran for almost 1,000 years.[PARAGRAPH:2]The Islamic conquest of Persia (633-656) and the end of the Sassanid Empire was a turning point in Iranian history. Islamicization in Iran took place during 8th to 10th century and led to the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. However, the achievements of the previous Persian civilizations were not lost, but were to a great extent absorbed by the new Islamic policy and civilization.[PARAGRAPH:2]After centuries of foreign occupation and short-lived native dynasties, Iran was once again reunified as an independent state in 1501 by the Safavid dynasty who established Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the history of Islam.The Safavids ruled from 1501 to 1722 (experiencing a brief restoration from 1729 to 1736) and at their height, they controlled all of modern Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Azerbaijan and Republic of Armenia, most of Iraq, Georgia, Afghanistan, and the Caucasus, as well as parts of Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Turkey. Safavid Iran was one of the Islamic "gunpowder empires", along with its neighbours, the Ottoman and Mughal empires.The Safavid dynasty had its origin in the Safaviyya Sufi order, which was established in the city of Ardabil in the Azerbaijan region. It was of mixed ancestry (Kurdish and Azerbaijani, which included intermarriages with Georgian and Pontic Greek dignitaries). From their base in Ardabil, the Safavids established control over all of Greater Iran and reasserted the Iranian identity of the region, thus becoming the first native dynasty since the Sassanid Empire to establish a unified Iranian state.Despite their demise in 1736, the legacy that they left behind was the revival of Persia as an economic stronghold between East and West, the establishment of an efficient state and bureaucracy based upon checks and balances, their architectural innovations and their patronage for fine arts. The Safavids have also left their mark down to the present era by spreading Shi'a Islam in Iran, as well as major parts of the Caucasus, South Asia, Central Asia, and Anatolia.[PARAGRAPH:2]After several intermediate dynasties, Iran was united again under the Qajar dynasty. Like virtually every dynasty that ruled Persia since the 11th century, the Qajars came to power with the backing of Turkic tribal forces, while using educated Persians in their bureaucracy. In 1779, after brutally murdering Lotf Ali Khan, of the Zand dynasty, ruler of southern Persia, Agha Mohammad Khan, the leader of the Qajar tribe, set out to reunify Iran. In his quest for power, he razed cities, massacred entire populations, and blinded some 20,000 men in the city of Kerman because the local populace had chosen to defend the city against his siege.[PARAGRAPH:2] Increased European interest in Iran and the ravages of time destroyed the Qajar dynasty as well. By the 17th century, European countries, including Great Britain, Imperial Russia, and France, had already started establishing colonial footholds in the region. Iran as a result lost sovereignty over many of its provinces to these countries via the Treaty of Turkmenchay, the Treaty of Gulistan, and others. The Great Persian Famine of 1870-1871 is believed to have caused the death of 2 million persons.A new era in the History of Persia dawned with the Constitutional Revolution of Iran against the Shah in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Shah managed to remain in power, granting a limited constitution in 1906 (making the country a constitutional monarchy). The first Majlis (parliament) was convened on October 7, 1906.The discovery of oil in 1908 by the British in Khuzestan spawned intense renewed interest in Persia by the British Empire (see William Knox D'Arcy and Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, now BP). Control of Persia remained contested between the United Kingdom and Russia, in what became known as The Great Game, and codified in the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, which divided Persia into spheres of influence, regardless of her national sovereignty.During World War I, the country was occupied by British and Russian forces but was essentially neutral. In 1919, after the Russian revolution and their withdrawal, Britain attempted to establish a protectorate in Iran, which was unsuccessful. Finally, the Constitutionalist movement of Gilan and the central power vacuum caused by the instability of the Qajar government resulted in the rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi and the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1925. In 1921 military coup established Reza Khan, a Persian officer of the Persian Cossack Brigade, as the dominant figure in the next 20 years. Seyyed Zia'eddin Tabatabai was also a leader and important figure in the perpetration of the coup. The 1921 overthrow was not actually directed at the Qajar monarchy; it was targeted at officials who were in power and actually had a role in controlling the government; the cabinet and others who had a role in governing Persia. In 1925, after being prime minister for a couple of years, Reza Shah became the king of Iran and established the Pahlavi dynasty.[PARAGRAPH:2] The end of the Pahlavi dynasty came with the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The revolution was populist, nationalist and later Shi'a Islamic. It was in part a conservative backlash against the Westernizing and secularizing efforts of the Western-backed Shah, and a liberal backlash to social injustice and other shortcomings of the ancien regime. The result of the war was the creation of the modern Islamic Republic of Iran, a Shi'a theocracy. The country remains as such till the present day.</English>
	</TEXT>
	<TEXT>
		<Tag>TXT_KEY_UNIT_QIZILBASH</Tag>
		<English>Qizilbash</English>
		<French>Qizilbash</French>
		<German>Qizilbash</German>
		<Italian>Qizilbash</Italian>
		<Spanish>Qizilbash</Spanish>
		<Hungarian>Qizilbash</Hungarian>
	</TEXT>
	<TEXT>
		<Tag>TXT_KEY_BUILDING_CARAVANSERAI</Tag>
		<English>Caravanserai</English>
		<French>Caravanserai</French>
		<German>Caravanserai</German>
		<Italian>Caravanserai</Italian>
		<Spanish>Caravanserai</Spanish>
		<Hungarian>Caravanserai</Hungarian>
	</TEXT>
</Civ4GameText>

