Iranians have a long history of which they could be proud. As one scholar said, “the glory of Iran is its culture,” and its culture is shaped by its rich history. Iranian history is a story of triumphant conquest and cultural stability in the face of conquest. Iranian history is recorded as a far back as 4000 BCE, there are many surviving documents and artifacts from that time period. Iran is home to the great ancient city of Persopolis, over which the most famous of all ancient Persian kings reigned, Cyrus the Great. Cyrus the Great is credited in all of world history to be the first king to grant all of his citizens equal protection under the law. This is a trait of Persian culture that would shape the rest of Iranian history.
The second major chapter in Iranian history marks the beginning of the Islamic period. The Arabs invaded Iran in the 7th century and brought Islam. Iran ran was converted to Islam. Iran, known to have a well established cultural infrastructure, had a great many of its citizens become Islamic scholars, philologists, and philosophers during this time period. The Iranians refined Islamic culture, in fact, they Persianized the formerly nomadic Arabs. During this time period to the late 15th century marks the greatest chapter in Iranian history. This part of Iranian history marks the point at which Iran was the culturally dominant country in that region. The Turks, Afghans, Kurds, and Turkmen all invaded the country but Iran had a strange way of changing the culture of the invader, never the reverse.