wikishia:Featured articles/2025/25
Iran, officially known as the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a country in southwestern Asia and the abode of one of the oldest world civilizations. The country's capital and largest city is Tehran.
With the establishment of the Safavid dynasty, the first independent Shia country was formed in Iran. The holy shrine of Imam al-Rida (a) and the shrines of the descendants of the Prophet (s), Shia seminaries in different cities, important Shia cities, outstanding Shia scholars and religious authorities are among the elements of Iran's importance in the Shia world.
Iran is a country in southwestern Asia with 1,648,195 km² land area. The country's population was about eighty one million in 2016. The capital of the country is Tehran at the southern foot of the Alborz Mountains. With 8755 km borderline, Iran is bounded by its fifteen neighboring countries:
- Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Russia to the north;
- Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east;
- Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait to the south;
- and Iraq and Turkey to the west.
In 16/637, during the reign of the caliph Umar b. Khattab, Arab Muslims conquered Iran and overthrew the Sassanid empire. There are various opinions as to the main factors that led to the conversion of the Iranians to Islam. Some have suggested compulsion as the main factor, but others have highlighted the closeness between the Iranian and Islamic cultures. Yet, a third group have emphasized that Islam spread in Iran in a gradual process over time.
Several factors led to the spread of Shi'ism in Iran prior to the Safavid dynasty, such as the following:
- Salman al-Farsi, a special companion of the Prophet (s) and Imam Ali (a), was Iranian and one of the early Shias. He was the governor of al-Mada'in, where most people were Iranians, and Salman's interactions with them laid the first foundations of Shi'ism in that city, and from there in other regions. .....
Other featured articles: Lady Fatimah al-Zahra' (a) – Ziyara – Four Books