The emergence of Islam in the seventh century and the Arab conquests of Iran were a turning point for various types of arts and literature. Persian music, along with other Persian cultural elements, became the main component of what has been termed “Islamic civilization”. Where Persian literature emerged with the formation of the modern Persian language after the Arab conquest. Thus, Language and literature joined forces for the advancement of intellect, before the emergence of the classical Persian literature, then its transformation into its modern styles later on, especially after the Khomeini’s revolution in 1979

 

The heart of the storied Persian empire of antiquity, Iran has long played an important role in the region as an imperial power and later—because of its strategic position and abundant natural resources, especially petroleum—as a factor in colonial and superpower rivalries. The country’s roots as a distinctive culture and society date to the Achaemenian period, which began in 550 BCE. From that time the region that is now Iran—traditionally known as Persia—has been influenced by waves of indigenous and foreign conquerors and immigrants, including the Hellenistic Seleucids and native Parthians and Sasanids. Persia’s conquest by the Muslim Arabs in the 7th century CE was to leave the most lasting influence, however, as Iranian culture was all but completely subsumed under that of its conquerors.

 

The two cornerstones of Iranian Shiʿism are the promise of the return of the divinely inspired 12th imam—Muḥammad al-Mahdī al-Ḥujjah, whom the Shiʿah believe to be the mahdi—and the veneration of his martyred forebears. The absence of the imam contributed indirectly to the development in modern Iran of a strong Shiʿi clergy whose penchant for status, particularly in the 20th century, led to a proliferation of titles and honorifics unique in the Islamic world. The Shiʿi clergy have been the predominant political and social force in Iran since the 1979 revolution.