The Background

It is a land of contrasts and a Bible land. "Persian" or "Iran" may be used interchangeably, so in this book the modern country is called Iran and Persia is used when we speak of ancient times and old things.

The area of Iran is about 648,000 square miles, which is about equal to the area of Great Britain, France, Germany and Spain put together or about as large as that part of the United States of America which lies east of Mississippi River excluding New England.

The population is more than 60 million people.

Iran lies between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, and has common frontiers with Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Oakistan, Armenia, Azarbaijan and Turkmenistan.

There are four basic land regions in Iran 1) The mountains, 2) the desert, 3) the Caspian Sea coast 4) the Khuzestan plain.

The mountains cover almost one-fourth of Iran, and most of the people in Iran live in the mountain area. The valleys among the mountains are the main area of agriculture production, and almost all of Iran's industrial centers are in this area.

The Caspian Sea coast extends in a narrow strip between Alborz mountains and the sea. Almost all of Iran's forests are located there. It is the only region in Iran with heavy rainfall. Most of the world's caviar (including Russia's) come from this region.

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Iran has a recorded history of some 2,500 years, but human settlements have been found dating back to 10,000 B.C. A more or less continuous record of settlements can be traced from 5,000 B.C. From about 6,000 B.C. the inhabitants of this area were domesticating animals, cultivating crops, and creating pottery and stoneware. The sophisticated form and design of their pottery mark the beginning of art.

About 2,000 B.C. a race of people known as Aryans moved southward. One stream of this great migration went into present-day India and the other stream came into Iran. The two main groups of Aryans who settled in Iran are known as the Medes and the Persians. The Medes settled in the northwest region of Iran and the Persians lived farther south in the modern provinces of Fars and Khuzestan. Fars takes its name from the ancient tribe of Persians.

The Persian name of the Iranian language is Farsi and is written with Arabic characters. The names Fars, Farsi and Persia all come originally from the same word.

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