Timeline of Iran
Five millennia of Iranian history compressed into a single scroll — every entry below is treated at length on the relevant section page.
- c. 3200 BCE · Prehistory
Proto-Elamite tablets at Susa
One of the world's three independent inventions of writing.
- c. 2400 BCE · Bronze Age
Jiroft & the Burnt City
Chlorite vessels of Jiroft and the planned city of Shahr-e Sukhteh flourish.
- 1250 BCE · Elam
Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil
Built by Untash-Napirisha, the best-preserved ziggurat outside Mesopotamia.
- 612 BCE · Medes
Fall of Nineveh
Median king Cyaxares, with Babylonian allies, ends the Assyrian Empire.
- 550 BCE · Achaemenid
Cyrus founds the Persian Empire
Defeats Astyages of Media; within twenty years rules from Aegean to Indus.
- 539 BCE · Achaemenid
Cyrus enters Babylon
Issues the Cyrus Cylinder, returning deported peoples to their homelands.
- 522–486 BCE · Achaemenid
Reign of Darius I
Royal Road, Behistun inscription, gold daric, satrapal system, Persepolis begun.
- 480 BCE · Achaemenid
Xerxes burns the Acropolis
Greco-Persian Wars peak; defeated at Salamis the same year.
- 330 BCE · Hellenistic
Alexander burns Persepolis
End of the Achaemenid dynasty.
- 247 BCE · Parthian
Arsaces founds the Parthian Empire
Iranian rule restored; will last almost five centuries.
- 53 BCE · Parthian
Battle of Carrhae
Parthians annihilate seven Roman legions under Crassus.
- 224 CE · Sasanian
Ardashir I founds the Sasanian Empire
Conscious revival of the Achaemenid imperial idea.
- 260 CE · Sasanian
Shapur I captures emperor Valerian
Commemorated on the rock reliefs at Naqsh-e Rostam.
- 531–579 CE · Sasanian
Khosrow I Anushirvan
Tax reform, codification of law, Academy of Gundishapur, Taq Kasra completed.
- 636–651 CE · Conquest
Arab conquest of Iran
Sasanian collapse at Qadisiyyah and Nahavand; Yazdgerd III killed near Merv.
- 819–999 · Samanid
Persian Renaissance from Bukhara
New Persian becomes a literary language; Rudaki, Avicenna, al-Biruni.
- 1010 · Samanid/Ghaznavid
Ferdowsi completes the Shahnameh
50,000 couplets preserve a thousand years of Iranian myth.
- 1037–1194 · Seljuk
Seljuk Empire
Nizam al-Mulk's Siyasatnama; Khayyam reforms the Persian calendar (1079).
- 1219–1221 · Mongol
Mongol invasion
Cities of Khorasan destroyed; Merv, Nishapur, Herat, Balkh.
- 1256–1335 · Ilkhanate
Mongol Iran becomes Persian
Ilkhans convert to Islam; Maragha observatory; Rashid al-Din's world history.
- 1370–1405 · Timurid
Timur and his successors
Devastation followed by the brilliance of Herat and Samarkand.
- 1501 · Safavid
Shah Ismail establishes Twelver Shi'ism
Reshapes the religious geography of the Middle East.
- 1598 · Safavid
Shah Abbas moves capital to Isfahan
Naqsh-e Jahan square, Sheikh Lotfollah, Ali Qapu.
- 1722 · Late Safavid
Afghan sack of Isfahan
Begins three decades of civil war.
- 1739 · Afsharid
Nader Shah sacks Delhi
Returns with the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
- 1751–1779 · Zand
Karim Khan rules from Shiraz
Calls himself only Vakil al-Ra'aya — 'Deputy of the People'.
- 1813 & 1828 · Qajar
Treaties of Gulistan and Turkmenchay
Iran loses the entire Caucasus to Russia.
- 1851 · Qajar
Dar al-Funun founded
Iran's first modern polytechnic, in Tehran.
- 1906 · Qajar
Constitutional Revolution
First popular constitution adopted in Asia.
- 1908 · Qajar
Oil discovered at Masjed Soleyman
First commercial oil strike in the Middle East.
- 1925 · Pahlavi
Reza Shah founds the Pahlavi dynasty
Trans-Iranian Railway, secular courts, University of Tehran.
- 1951 · Pahlavi
Mosaddegh nationalizes Iranian oil
Time Man of the Year for 1951.
- 19 Aug 1953 · Pahlavi
Anglo-American coup
CIA operation TPAJAX overthrows Mosaddegh.
- 1963 · Pahlavi
White Revolution
Land reform, female suffrage, literacy corps.
- 11 Feb 1979 · Republic
Islamic Revolution
End of 2,500 years of monarchy.
- 1980–1988 · Republic
Iran–Iraq War
Eight years; perhaps a million dead.
- 2009 · Republic
Green Movement
Largest protests since 1979.
- 2015 · Republic
JCPOA nuclear agreement
Multilateral deal limiting Iran's nuclear program; US withdraws 2018.
- 2022 · Republic
Mahsa Amini protests
Nationwide demonstrations under the slogan Zan, Zendegi, Azadi.
References
- ↗ Encyclopædia Iranica — Chronology of Iranian History
- ↗ Cambridge History of Iran (7 vols.)
- ↗ Met Museum — Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (Iran)
- ↗ UNESCO World Heritage — Iran
All imagery is sourced from Wikimedia Commons, public-domain museum collections (British Museum, Louvre, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Museum of Iran), or UNESCO World Heritage records. No AI-generated images are used. Scholarly text is synthesized from Encyclopædia Iranica, the Cambridge History of Iran, and peer-reviewed publications.