Iranian Society

Iranian Society

To best understand Iran, their related societies and their people, one must first attempt to acquire an understanding of their culture. It is in the study of this area where the Iranian people's identity optimally expresses itself. As the first sentence of prominent Iranologist Richard Nelson Frye's latest book on Persia reads: "Iran's prize possession has been its culture."

Thus an eclectic cultural elasticity has been said to be one of the key defining characteristics of the Persian spirit and a clue to its historic longevity. Furthermore, Iran's culture has manifested itself in several facets throughout the history of Iran as well as that of Central Asia.

The article uses the words Persian and Iranian interchangeably, sometimes referring to the language and its speakers, and other times referring to the name of pre-20th century Iran, a nomenclature which survives from western explorers and orientalists. Both are not the same however, and the cultures of the peoples of Greater Persia are the focus of this article.