Iran has a long history of art, music, architecture, poetry, philosophy, traditions, and ideology. Iranian culture was long the predominant culture of the Middle East, with Persian considered the language of intellectuals during much of the second millennium A.D. Nearly all philosophical, scientific, or literary work of the Islamic empires was written in or translated to Persian as well as Arabic. The Islamic conquest of Iran during the first half of the seventh century began a synthesis of the Arabic and Iranian tongues. By the tenth century, this cultural diffusion threatened to erase native Persian entirely, as many Persian writers, scientists, and scholars elected to write in the language of the Qur'an (Arabic). This prompted Ferdowsi to write the Shahnameh, Iran's national epic, also as many of the Arab-oriented regimes was largely disdainful towards Persians and Persian culture. It was written entirely in Persian without using one word of Arabic. This gave rise to a strong reassertion of Iranian national identity, and is in part responsible for the continued existence of Persian as a separate language.

Iran's literary tradition is rich and varied as well, although the world is most familiar with Iranian poetry.

Film has continued to thrive in modern Iran, and many Iranian directors have garnered worldwide recognition for their work. (Iranian film has won over three hundred awards in the past twenty-five years.) . The Iranian media is a mixture of private and state-owned, but books and movies must be approved by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance before being released to the public. The state also actively monitors the Internet, which has become enormously popular among the Iranian youth. Iran is now the world's fourth largest country of bloggers.

The quest for social justice and equity is an important Iranian cultural trait. The Cyrus Cylinder is considered the world's first declaration of human rights, and was the basis of government for the Achaemenid dynasty. Equality of the sexes also has a strong historical precedent in Iran: from the Achaemenid to Sassanid dynasties, women were encouraged to pursue an education and study at universities; they held property, influenced the affairs of state, and worked and received the same compensation as men. Today, women compose more than half of the incoming classes for universities around the country. Respect for the elderly and hospitality for foreigners are also an integral part of Iranian etiquette.

The Iranian New Year (Norouz) is celebrated on March 21 from Spain in the west to Kazakhstan in the east. It is celebrated as the first day of spring. Norouz was nominated as one of UNESCO's Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2004.

Persian Language

Persian (Farsi) is the national language of Iran. Persian is one of the world's oldest languages, a well-recognized tongue as early as the 6th century B.C., it is an Indo-European language or particularly Irano-Aryan. This dialect was spoken in the province of Fars so its name derived from that. Three forms of Persian is identified by scholars: old, middle, and modern. read more

Religion In Iran

The majority of Iranians are Shiite Muslim (Moslem) which is the state religion of Iran. In 1986, statistics indicated that approximately more than 98.5% of the people are Muslim. There are also Sunnis Muslim in Iran. read more

Calenders

There are three different calendars used in Iran.The most common calendar which is used on a daily basis is solar calendar. Norouz, Persain New Year is a National Holiday and is based on solar calendar. read more

Historical Places

There are a lot of historic sites and tourist attractions in Iran. Here you get familiar with those which have been registered in the UNESCO List of world human heritage. Of course, Iran is an ancient country that can potentially offer plenty of historic sites and tourist attractions to its visitors. read more