The name Persia comes from a province in the south of Iran, called Fars in the modern Persian language and Pars in Middle Persian. Persis is the Hellenized form of Pars, based on which other European nations termed it Persia. This province was the core of the original Persian Empire. Westerners referred to the state as Persia until March 21, 1935, when the Persian monarch (called the Shah), Reza Shah Pahlavi, formally asked the international community to call the country by its native name, Iran, which means Land of the Aryans. In 1979, a revolution led by the powerful and influential Ayatollah Khomeini, considered a spiritual leader to many Shia Muslims, brought an end to the Iranian monarchy and established the first modern theocratic Islamic Republic, which makes the present full name of the country --- Islamic Republic of Iran.

-- Edited by europology at 12:25, 2005-03-01