 In this territory once known as Persia lives an Indo-European group related to the Aryans of India, having supplanted an earlier agricultural civilization, and having emigrated from the East during the second millennium B.C. In 549 B.C., Cyrus the Great united the Medes and the Persians to form the Persian Empire; and in 538 B.C., he succeeded in conquering Babylonia and restored Jerusalem to the Jews. Colonizing Arabs from Damascus brought Islam to Persia in the seventh century of this millennium, replacing the indigenous religion of Zoroastrianism. Names in Iran reflect the unique nature of the predominant language, Farsi (or Persian), which despite its use of Arabic script is not related to the Semitic group of languages. Children's names in Iran are derived from religious or historical sources, and, as in many Islamic countries, must be officially sanctioned, such as Muhammad, Ebrahim, Kourosh, Farhad, or Hamid. Among well-known Iranians is the internationally acclaimed filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. |
