Persia is the old English word for the ancient country of Iran (pronounced: ee-run).
Achaemenids called themselves and their language Pârsa, and their ancestors were among the tribes of Aryan (Âryâ: Noble) nomads who had settled long ago in the southwestern region of Pârs, the modern region of Fars consisting of Persepolis and Shiraz.
Âryânâ collectively referred to Land of Nobles (Aryans), the larger area that was inhabited by other Aryan tribes.
Bûmi was the word used to refer to the Achaemenid Empire which consisted of Dahyâva, all the Lands and People, within the imperial realm of the Achaemenids.
Ancient Medes, Ananites and Persians were all considered to be various Aryan tribes connected by blood ties, distinct from other people of the empire, and their position was dominant in the imperial court of the Achaemenids.
By the time Herodotus started to write his Histories some 100 years later after Kuru, the term Persian had come to mean the collective of all the Persian tribes, including the Medes and Ananites. While the consolidation of the Persian tribes most likely occurred during the early years of rule of Kuru, it was Dâriu I who explicitly claimed his own royal blood to Hakhâmane [Achaemenes] from the Persian [Pârsa] tribe. It is highly likely that both Kuru and Dâriu came from two different royal families, belonging to the same Royal House.
King Darius (Dâriu) was the first Great King who called himself a Persian and an Achaemenid:
Darius the King said: I am Darius, son of Hystaspes, grandson of Arsames, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Achaemenid."
King Xerxes (Khaâyâr-â), Darius' son and heir, called himself the King in Persia, after his father:
Xerxes the King said: I am Xerxes, the Great King, son of Darius, the Great King, the King of Kings, the King in Persia."
And so the Hellenes (ancient Greeks) hellenized Achaemenid Pârsa to Persis. Persianus was the latinization of the Hellene Persis, and the root of:
Âryânâ evolved to the Middle Persian Êrân-ahr (pronounced ee-run shahr), Imperial Dominion of Aryans, during the reign of the Sasanian Empire. Eventually the word 'ahr' was dropped and the country became known as Êrân in the East.
In 1935, Pahlavi Dynasty who had come into power in 1921, requested the western name of 'Persia' to be replaced by 'Iran', an English spelling variation of 'Êrân'. The request was motivated by nationalistic feelings to reflect the broader ethnic mix of the country, as well as by political considerations to signal closer alignment with Germany in defiance to British and Russian governments, resented for their meddlings in internal Persian affairs during the reign of Qajar Dynasty.
The change of name from 'Persia' to 'Iran' created confusion in the West, and the ancient 'Persian' roots of modern 'Iran' were lost in translation.
Invasion of Persia in 1941 by the British and Russian Allied forces during the World War II and the nationalization of the Oil Industry by the Prime Minister Mosaddegh in 1951 made 'Iran' known in the modern world and the common usage of 'Persia' eventually discontinued.
When the Iranian Revolution toppled the Pahlavi Dynasty in 1979, 'Iran' remained the known designation for the ancient country: from 'Imperial State of Iran' to 'Islamic Republic of Iran'.
However, Persia (Pârsa), referring to the Achaemenids and their world empire, as they called themselves, still seems appropriate. In spirit, it includes all the Lands and all the People of the Achaemenid Empire.
