Iran was previously called Persia, what was it known as before it was Persia?
“The Greeks (who tended earlier to use names related to “Median”) began in the fifth century to use adjectives such as Perses, Persica or Persis for Cyrus the Great’s empire (a word meaning “country” being understood). Such words were taken from the Old Persian Pārsa – the name of the people whom Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty first ruled (before he inherited or conquered other Persian Kingdoms) and of whom he was one. This tribe gave its name to the region where they lived (the modern day province is called Fars/Pars) but the province in ancient times was larger than its current area. In Latin, the name for the whole empire was Persia. In the later parts of the Bible, where this kingdom is frequently mentioned (Books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah), it is called “Paras” (Hebrew פרס), or sometimes “Paras u Madai” (פרס ומדי) i.e. “Persia and Media”.” “The name Persia was the official name of Iran in the Western world before 1935, but the Iranian people inside their coun
