Lesson 2/55 min
Iran
Basics
- Old name: Persia; renamed Iran in 1935.
- The 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled the Shah; the Islamic Republic was declared on 1 April 1979, which is Iran's national day.
- A Shia-majority country. The highest authority in decision-making is the religious leader (the Supreme Leader).
- The parliament is the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis), unicameral (Zubair).
- The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was formed in 1979. The Freedom Movement is an Iranian organisation (per the books).
- Iran's first nuclear power plant is at Bushehr. The two books also name Isfahan as a main nuclear site; as they do not agree on this, there is no quiz question on it.
- Bam is a city in Iran (asked in an exam). Abadan is an old oil-refinery city; the book's “world's largest” claim is not true today.
- Qasem Soleimani was killed in Baghdad in January 2020 (“recently” in the book).
Notable people
| Name | Known for |
|---|---|
| Hulagu Khan | Founder of the Ilkhanate; took Iran with the Mongols; within ten years took Baghdad, Damascus and Aleppo. Grandson of Genghis Khan (Zubair; Khandokar prints “son”) |
| Nadir Shah | Seized Iran's throne in 1736 and built a large empire; attacked Delhi and took the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor |
| Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi | Iran's last king (1941–1979); overthrown in the Islamic Revolution |
| Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini | Leader of the Islamic Revolution; ended the monarchy; first Supreme Leader; died 3 June 1989 |
| Shirin Ebadi | Lawyer and human-rights activist; Nobel Peace Prize 2003; the first Muslim woman Nobel laureate; per the books she visited Bangladesh in 2018 to see the Rohingya camps |
Poets and thinkers: Rumi (a Persian-language poet; “philosopher of Iran” in the book), Omar Khayyam, Ferdowsi (Iran's national poet; Khandokar mistakenly prints “Hafiz Ferdowsi”) and Sheikh Saadi. Ferdowsi and Saadi wrote in Persian.
Disputed places and the Iran-Iraq war
- Abu Musa island (Persian Gulf): disputed between Iran and the UAE; it is under Iranian control.
- The Shatt al-Arab waterway is disputed between Iraq and Iran; the Iran-Iraq war began over it in 1980 (asked in exams).
- The war ended in 1988 through a UN-brokered ceasefire; the book's “Algiers Accord 1988” is wrong, the Algiers Accord was signed in 1975.
- The UN force that monitored the ceasefire was UNIIMOG (United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observation Group), asked in the 43rd BCS.
2025–2026: per news reports
| When | Event |
|---|---|
| 28 February 2026 | The United States and Israel begin large-scale strikes on Iran; Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is killed |
| 8 March 2026 | Mojtaba Khamenei becomes the new Supreme Leader; reports say he has not appeared in public |
| April–June 2026 | A ceasefire and a 14-point US-Iran memorandum (17 June in reports) |
| From July 2026 | Sources differ on whether the memorandum collapsed or expired; there are reports of attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The situation is unsettled. |
Check yourself
The Iran-Iraq war began over which waterway?
At a glance
- 1
Iran was formerly Persia; renamed Iran in 1935; the Islamic Revolution came in 1979 (asked in a JnU exam).
- 2
The parliament is the Majlis; the highest authority is the religious leader; the first one, Khomeini, died on 3 June 1989.
- 3
The Iran-Iraq war ran 1980–1988 over the Shatt al-Arab; the ceasefire was monitored by UNIIMOG.
- 4
Abu Musa island is disputed between Iran and the UAE; the first nuclear power plant is at Bushehr.
- 5
Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003; Nadir Shah took the throne in 1736 and carried off the Peacock Throne.
- 6
2026: Ali Khamenei killed (28 February), Mojtaba Khamenei Supreme Leader (8 March), President Pezeshkian.