The Comprehensive history of Iran

Recording and compiling several thousand years of the history of the land and people of Iran, with its unique ups and downs, is the duty of all Iranians who consider their country to have a significant contribution to human history and civilization. Therefore, a relatively comprehensive series that explains the chief aspects of Iran’s history in a scholarly way was required. Scattered works about various eras or academic series rarely published on this subject have covered merely corners of Iran’s history. Hence, the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia decided to compile The Comprehensive History of Iran. This twenty-volume series includes various aspects of Iran’s political, social, and cultural history from the pre-Islamic era to the overthrow of the Qajar dynasty. In this series, the word Iran covers the Iranian world or cultural Iran, which has always included a more expansive territory than the geographical borders of this land. From this point of view, the volumes and chapters related to Iran’s cultural history undoubtedly have particular importance.

The first five volumes of The Comprehensive History of Iran are devoted to the history of pre-Islamic Iran. The first volume contains the history of ancient man in the Iranian plateau and the pre-Aryan civilizations, the arrival of the Aryans, the Medes era, and a part of the Achaemenids’ political history.

The second volume begins with the continuation of Achaemenid history. The Seleucids, scattered governments or the sectarian monarchs, the Sasanian era, and the mythological history of Iran are studied in this volume.

The third volume includes Iran’s economic and social history from the beginning to the end of the Sasanian empire, the administrative and military organizations in Iran, and the archeology and art of Iran during the periods of Medes and Achaemenids.

The fourth volume examines the art and architecture of pre-Islamic Iran and religions and education in ancient Iran.

The fifth volume also includes research on the Iranian language and literature, historiography, geography, philosophy, and other sciences.

The Islamic section of The Comprehensive History of Iran contains fifteen volumes. The first volume (the sixth of the series) includes the history of Iran from the Islamic conquest to the emergence of semi-independent and independent states, and topics such as the conquest of Iran and the last days of the Sassanid government, Iran in the era of Arab ethnic rule, Iranians and the emergence of the Abbasid government, Iranian ministry and bureaucracy and part of the eastern and western governments of Iran in the Islamic era.

The second volume (the seventh of the series) contains the history of Iranian governments in Khorasan, Northern Iran, Central, Western and Southern Iran from Tahirids to Kakuyids. The history of administrative and political organizations is also discussed in each of these chapters.

The Buyids, Ghaznavids, and Iran in the Seljuq era, some minor dynasties in the west of Iran, such as Bani Sekman in Armenia and Melikdoms of Karabakh, are discussed in the third volume of the Islamic period (the eighth of the series).

The fourth volume (the ninth of the series) is devoted to the history of Iran from Atabakan to Ilkhanates. In this section, the dynasties known as Atabakan, from Atabakan of Azerbaijan to Injuiyan, the context of the Mongol invasion, Genghis’s successors, the establishment of the Ilkhanate government, and the administrative and political organizations of these periods are studied.

The fifth volume (the tenth of the series) deals with the continuation of the Ilkhanid dynasty, the Turkmens, the Timurids, and a part of the Safavid dynasty.

The continuation of the Safavid era, Afsharids, and Zand dynasties are examined in the sixth volume (the eleventh of the series).

The seventh volume (the twelfth of the series) deals with the Qajar era, religious developments, Iran’s foreign relations with the Ottoman Empire and powerful European countries, the contexts of the uprising and the Constitutional Revolution, the roles of social classes in political and social developments, the encounter of the modern civilization and Iran, and many other issues. In the appendices of this volume, the khanates of Central Asia, Ganja and Sheki, Qarabagh, Hormuz, and the Persian Gulf are studied.

Volumes eight to fifteen are dedicated to the cultural history of the Iranian world. The eighth and ninth volumes comprise the history of science and literature and contain topics such as the role of Iranians in translating scientific works into Arabic, the era of composing scientific works, philosophical and theological knowledge among Iranians, astronomy and mathematics, natural sciences and medicine, hospitals, religious science and jurisprudential religions, Sufism and the Sufi sect, and historiography. The tenth to twelfth volumes (fifteenth to seventeenth of the series) include the Persian language and literature history from the beginning of the Islamic era to the end of the Qajar period. In this section, Persian literature in the cultural realm of Iran is discussed in terms of literary periods. The Literary Return period, the Constitutional literature, popular literature, newspapers and journalism, literature of Iranian ethnic groups, and the history of education are among the chapters of these volumes.

The thirteenth and fourteenth volumes (eighteenth and nineteenth of the series) are specified to the history of Iranian art and architecture, including handicrafts, decorative, dramatic, and ritual arts, music, and architecture. The fifteenth volume (the twentieth of the series) is dedicated to social history, the legal system in Iran, religions and sects, social classes, and public life.

The efforts of the designers and scientific and executive managers of this great work were aimed at creating a relatively “comprehensive” work. This twenty-volume series includes more than 55 main titles and 160 sub-titles, and about 300 minor sub-titles.

Outstanding researchers in Iran’s history, culture, and literature, engaged in research and teaching inside and outside the country, participated in the compilation of this great work.