The Origins of Persia — Ancient Iran

The modern country of Iran was once known as Persia, and was known as such from ancient times all the way to the 20th century.

Iran as a geographical region extends just beyond the Zagros Mountains in the west at the Iraqi border. In the south it is hemmed in by the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, in the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in the north, Iran shares a border with the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan, and Türkiye.

The modern extent of Iran is roughly equivalent to the extent achieved by the emperors, leaders, and warlords of the ancient Persian Empire.

The Heartland of Persis — Persia Proper

As with most empires, not all land within that empire is created equal. There are borderlands on the periphery of the empire, as well as distinct colonies. Yet in the center of the empire there is also the ancestral homeland, the heartland of the Persian peoples.

In the Akkadian Empire, this was the city-state of Akkad. For the Babylonian Empire, this was the state of Babylonia. In the case of the ancient Persian Empire, the land of Persis was the heartland.

Scholars refer to Persis as ‘Persia proper’, which is believed to have been the ancestral home of the Persians where they lived after they had migrated into Iran, and before they had forged an empire.

Today, the land of Persis is roughly equivalent to the modern Fars Province of Iran (often written as ‘Pars’). [1] Indeed, this is where the name of the Fars Province derives from.

The Origin of the Name ‘Persia’

The ancient Persian people knew their land and their people as Parsa — they were the Parsa, and they lived in Parsa. This was an ethnonym for their people (specifically their endonym).

It is commonly believed among scholars that the Parsa made their way into Iran from the north. This is based partially on ancient Assyrian records. Earliest inscriptions that refer to Parsa in southwestern Iran date to c.500 BCE. [1]

However, earlier Assyrian inscriptions (c.900 BCE) refer to a land called Parsua that is much further to the north. Perhaps near Armenia and the Caucasus.

‘Pasua’ and ‘Parsa’ are very similar, so we might be seeing a mention of a people in 900 BCE in one location, and then 400 years later further south in a different location (marking an historical migration) with a slightly different name. [1]

Earlier, when they lived further north near Armenia, they might have been known as the Parsuash. Then they migrated south — perhaps as a result of constant Assyrian attacks [1] — before ending up in Parsa (that is, the modern Fars Province).

The Parsa, Perseus, Perses and the Greeks

The Greeks adapted the name Parsa — which the Persians used for both themselves and their land — into their Greek language as Persis. [1] Later, the Romans adopted the Greek term into Latin as Persia. [1]

In Greek Mythology, the legendary hero Perseus was the founder of the Perseid dynasty. He is known for slaying the Gorgon Medusa and for rescuing Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. (One of greatest heroes before Heracles, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon.) [1]

According to Greek tradition, Perseus and Andromeda had a son named Perses. He came to be regarded as the forefather of the Persian people.

Herodotus says the Xerxes invoked this ancestry to gain support of the Argives during his campaign in Greece (unsuccessfully). In the First Alcibiades (4th century BCE) Plato implies that Achaemenes was one of Perses descendants, and Achaemenes was the traditional forefather of the Achaemenid Dynasty of Persia. [1]

Persian Empires

The Parsa are the origin of the term Persia, and it is ultimately the various empires forged by their people that led to the land and people of modern Iran being referred to as Persia and Persians.

In the 6th century BCE King Cyrus of Persia carved out a great empire through the Near East (covering Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel and more) toppling three empires as he did so. Greek writers during this time called the empire ‘Persia’.

When Alexander the Greak conquered the Persians around 300 BCE, he quenched Persian power over all but Persia proper … for a time. Yet in the third century CE King Ardashir I of Persis founded the Sasanian Empire, conquering large portions of the former Persian Empire back. [1]

Even after the Muslim conquests of the seventh century CE, when the Muslims conquered all of the lands, the term Persia had already been used for so long for this land and her people, and a history of a thousand years of empires solidified it in the land.