Timeline of Iranian history

Millennia: 1st BC · 1st–2nd · 3rd

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Centuries: 7th BC · 6th BC · 5th BC · 4th BC · 3rd BC · 2nd BC · 1st BC · See also · References · Bibliography · External links

33rd century BC

Year	Date	Event
3200 BC		Elam civilization in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran and modern-day southeast Iraq.

13th century BC

Year	Date	Event
1250 BC		Untash-Napirisha king of Elam builds the Chogha Zanbil ziggurat complex in present-day Khuzestan Province.
1210 BC		Elamite Empire reaches the height of its power.

8th century BC

Year	Date	Event
727 BC		Deioces founds the Median government.

7th century BC

Year	Date	Event
647 BC		Assyrian Empire defeats Elam Empire in the Battle of Susa, resulting in looting and total destruction of Susa.
625 BC		Cyaxares the Great declared himself King of the Medes.
616 - 609 BC		Cyaxares the Great attacks the Neo-Assyrian empire and captures Nineveh which leads to the eventual collapse of the Neo-Assyrian empire.

6th century BC

Year	Date	Event
550 BC		The Achaemenid Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great after defeating the Median empire.
539 BC		Cyrus captured Babylon, freed thousands of slaves and issued a declaration of human rights which would later be inscribed into the Cyrus Cylinder.
525 BC		Persia conquers Egypt after Battle of Pelusium (525 BC).

5th century BC

Year	Date	Event
490 BC	August/September	Battle of Marathon, Persian Empire is defeated by Greek states.
480 BC		The Achaemenid Empire under Xerxes I invades mainland Greece.
480-479 BC		Persians capture and destroy Athens. The Acropolis, the Old Temple of Athena and the Older Parthenon are destroyed.

4th century BC

Year	Date	Event
343 BC		Egypt is annexed by Persians after defeat of the Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt in the Battle of Pelusium (343 BC)
334 BC		Alexander III of Macedon crosses the Hellespont into Asia.
334 BC	May	Alexander III of Macedon defeats the armies of the Achaemenid Empire in the Battle of the Granicus river
333 BC	5 November	Alexander III of Macedon defeats the armies of the Achaemenid Empire in the Battle of Issus
330 BC	20 January	Alexander III of Macedon defeats the armies of the Achaemenid Empire in the Battle of the Persian Gate
330 BC	July	Darius III, the last Achaemenid emperor is killed, bringing an end to the Achaemenid empire.
330 BC		Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire is destroyed by Alexander III of Macedon.
323 BC	10/11 June	Alexander III dies in Babylon, triggering a division of his empire among his generals in a treaty known as the Partition of Triparadisus.
312 BC		Seleucus I Nicator, establishes the Seleucid Empire in the Persian territories of the erstwhile Macedonian Empire.

3rd century BC

Year	Date	Event
247 BC		Arsaces I establishes the Parthian Empire also known as the Arsacid Empire in present-day north-eastern Iran.

1st century BC

Year	Date	Event
94 BC		The Parthian Empire reaches its peak, stretching from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to present-day Afghanistan and western Pakistan.
54 BC		Beginning of the Roman–Parthian Wars wars, lasting till 217 CE.

Centuries: 1st · 2nd · 3rd · 4th · 5th · 6th · 7th · 8th · 9th · 10th · 11th · 12th · 13th · 14th · 15th · 16th · 17th · 18th · 19th · 20th

3rd century

Year	Date	Event
211		Ardashir I establishes the Sasanian Empire in Istakhr in present-day Fars Province.
224		Ardashir I defeats the last Parthian Shahanshah Artabanus IV, ending the Parthian Empire.
260		Persians defeated the Romans at the Battle of Edessa and take emperor Valerian prisoner for the remainder of his life.

4th century

Year	Date	Event
360		Sasanian Empire captures the town of Singara, in the Siege of Singara (360)
363		Battle of Samarra (363) between the Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire, in which Roman emperor Julian is wounded, and subsequently dies of his wounds.
371		Roman Empire and Kingdom of Armenia defeat the Sasanian Empire and Caucasian Albania in the Battle of Bagavan

5th century

Year	Date	Event
421		Roman–Sasanian War of 421–422 after which Persian Empire agreed to tolerate Christianity and Roman Empire agreed to tolerate Zoroastrianism

6th century

Year	Date	Event
570 - 578		Aksumite–Persian wars, Yemen is annexed by the Sasanian Empire.
590		Khosrow II becomes ruler of the Sasanian Empire. During his rule till 628, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon are annexed into the Sasanian Empire

7th century

Year	Date	Event
620		Sasanian Empire reaches its greatest height, encompassing all of present-day Iran and Iraq and stretching from the eastern Mediterranean (including Anatolia and Egypt) to Pakistan, and from parts of southern Arabia to the Caucasus and Central Asia.
626	June - July	Sasanian Empire lays siege of Constantinople, however is unable to capture it.
628	25 February	Khosrow II is deposed and killed by his son Kavad II.
628	6 September	Ardashir III becomes ruler of the Sasanian Empire.
632	16 June	Yazdegerd III becomes ruler of the Sasanian Empire.
633	May	Battle of Ullais in which the Rashidun Caliphate defeats the Sasanian Empire resulting in the massacre of 70,000 Persians by Arabs.
634	October	Sasanian Empire led by Bahman Jaduya defeats the Rashidun Caliphate in the Battle of the Bridge.
636		Arab invasion brings end of Sassanid dynasty and start of Islamic rule.[1]
636	16–19 November	Rashidun Caliphate defeats the Sasanian Empire in the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah, takes control of present day Iraq.
637		Destruction of the Ctesiphon library by Arabs of the Rashidun Caliphate.[2]
642		Rashidun Caliphate defeats the Sasanian Empire in the Battle of Nahavand, resulting in the near collapse of the Sasanian Empire.
644	3 November	Second Rashidun Caliph Omar is assassinated by a Persian slave Piruz Nahavandi, possibly as revenge for the Arab invasion of Persia.
644	6 November	Uthman ibn Affan becomes the third Rashidun Caliph. During his reign, almost the whole of the former Sassanid empire's territories rebel from time to time, with major rebellions in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Fars, Sistan (in 649), Khorasan (651), and Makran (650).
651		Rashidun Caliphate defeats the Sasanian Empire and the Göktürk Empire in the Battle of Oxus River.
651		Yazdegerd III, the last Sassanid emperor, is killed near Merv putting an end to both his dynasty and to organized Persian resistance to Arab invasions.
651		Istakhr massacre, in which 150,000 citizens are killed

8th century

Year	Date	Event
716–717		Farrukhan the Great, ruler of Tabaristan in present-day Mazandaran Province defeats the Muslim invasion under Yazid ibn al-Muhallab.
761		Tabaristan falls to Muslim invasion and becomes a province of the Abbasid Caliphate.
767		Ustadh Sis, Persian Zoroastrian revolutionary leader launches a rebellion, occupies Herat and Sistan before marching towards Merv. He initially defeats an Abbasid army under the command of al-Ajtham of Merv, but is himself defeated in a bloody battle against an army led by Muhammad ibn Abdallah.

9th century

Year	Date	Event
816-835		Babak Khorramdin a Persian Zoroastrian revolutionary leader of the Khorram-Dīnân movement defeats successive Arab generals of the Abbasid Caliphate.
821		Tahir ibn Husayn, an Iranian general under the Abbasid Caliphate, declared the establishment of the independent Tahirid Dynasty.
867		Ya'qub-i Laith Saffari founded the Saffarid dynasty.

10th century

Year	Date	Event
930		Zoroastrian commander Mardavij establishes the Ziyarid dynasty and briefly conquers much of northern Persia before being betrayed and killed in 935 CE. The Ziyarid dynasty continued to rule over much of Tabaristan until its demise in 1090 CE.
934		The Shi'ite Buyid dynasty was founded.

11th century

Year	Date	Event
1010		The poet Ferdowsi finished writing the epic poem Shahnameh, a touchstone of the modern Persian language.

12th century

Year	Date	Event
1189		Third Crusade: Teutonic Knights destroyed several cities of the Middle East. As a result of the conflict, the safety of both Christian and Muslim unarmed pilgrims is guaranteed throughout the Levant.

13th century

Year	Date	Event
1219		The Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia begins after two diplomatic missions to Khwarezm sent by Genghis Khan are massacred. In 1220 and 1221, Bukhara, Samarkand, Herat, Tus and Nishapur were razed, and the whole populations were slaughtered.
1220		Pursued by Mongol forces, Shah Muhammad II of Khwarezm dies on an island off the Caspian coast.

16th century

Year	Date	Event
1501		Ismail I established himself in Tabriz and declared himself the king (shah) of Iran.
1514	23 August	Battle of Chaldiran: The Ottoman Empire inflicted a severe defeat on a numerically inferior Persian force, opening the northwestern Iranian Plateau to their occupation.
	7 September	The Ottoman sultan entered Tabriz.
		A mutiny in the Ottoman army forced the sultan to withdraw.
1524	23 May	Ismail died. He was succeeded by his son Tahmasp I.
1590	21 May	The Treaty of Istanbul (1590) was signed between Safavid Empire and the Ottoman Empire ending the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590), under which Safavid Empire ceded the Caucasus and western Iranian territories, for several years.

17th century

Year	Date	Event
1609	November	Battle of DimDim: The Persian army laid siege to a Kurdish fortress on the banks of Lake Urmia.
1610		Battle of DimDim: The fortress was taken, and its occupants were massacred.
1629	19 January	Abbas I of Persia died. His grandson Safi of Persia succeeded him.
1639		The Treaty of Zuhab was signed between Persia and the Ottoman Empire, decisively partitioning the Caucasus between the two (with the greater part remaining Iranian,) and establishing what remains the border between Iran, Turkey, and Iraq.
1642		Safi died. He was succeeded by Abbas II of Persia.
1666		Abbas died. He was succeeded by Suleiman I of Persia.

18th century

Year	Date	Event
1709	21 April	Mirwais Khan Hotak, the leader of the Ghilzai clan and mayor of Kandahar, killed the Persian-appointed governor George XI of Kartli and declared himself King of Persia.
1722	July	Russo-Persian War (1722-1723): A Russian military expedition sailed to prevent the territories in disintegrating neighboring Safavid Iran fall into Ottoman hands.
1723	12 September	Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1723): The envoy of the shah signed a peace treaty ceding the cities of Derbent and Baku and the provinces of Shirvan, Guilan, Mazandaran and Astrabad to the Russian Empire.
1746	4 September	The Treaty of Kerden was signed between the Ottoman Empire and Iran, reaffirming the border drawn in the Treaty of Zuhab and allowing Iranian pilgrims to visit Mecca.
1795	11 September	Battle of Krtsanisi: The Persian army demolished the armed forces of Kartl-Kakheti, captured Tbilisi, and reconquered eastern Georgia, which comprised the territories of the Kartli-Kakheti.
1796	April	Persian Expedition of 1796: The tsarina of Russia launched a military expedition to punish Persia for its incursion into the Russian protectorate of Kartl-Kakheti.

19th century

Year	Date	Event
1804		Russo-Persian War (1804-1813): Russian forces attacked the Persian settlement Ganja.
1813	24 October	Russo-Persian War (1804–1813): According to the Treaty of Gulistan, the Persian Empire ceded all its North Caucasian and swaths of its Transcaucasian territories to Russia, comprising modern-day Dagestan, eastern Georgia, and most of the contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan.
1826	16 July	Russo-Persian War (1826-1828): The Persian army invaded the recently Russian-annexed territories in order to reclaim the lost regions.
1828	21 February	Russo-Persian War (1826–1828) Facing the possibility of a Russian conquest of Tehran and with Tabriz already occupied, Persia signed the Treaty of Turkmenchay; decisive and final cession of the last Caucasian territories of Iran comprising modern-day Armenia, the remainder of the Azerbaijan Republic that was still in Iranian hands, and Igdir (modern-day Turkey).
1881	21 September	Persia officially recognized Russia's annexation of Turkmenistan in the Treaty of Akhal.

20th century

Year	Date	Event
1906		The first Persian Constitution was adopted during the Persian Constitutional Revolution.
1925	31 March	Solar Hijri calendar legally adopted in Iran.[3]
1941	21 August	Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: Three Soviet armies invaded Iran from the north, while British army invades Khuzestan and Central Iran.
1945	November	The Soviet Union established the Azerbaijan People's Government in Iranian Azerbaijan.
1946	22 January	The Soviet-backed Kurdish Republic of Mahabad declared its independence from Iran.
	2 March	Iran crisis: British troops withdrew from Iran. The Soviet Union violated its prior agreement and remained.
	9 May	Iran crisis: The Soviet Union withdrew from Iran.
	11 December	Iran regained control over the territory of the Azerbaijan People's Government.
	15 December	Iran conquered Mahabad.
1953	August	Mohammad Mosaddegh is overthrown in a coup engineered by the British and American intelligence services. Fazlollah Zahedi is proclaimed as prime minister and the Shah returns.[4]
1979	11 February	Iranian Revolution: The Iranian Monarchy collapsed in a popular revolution.
	1 April	A referendum passed which made Iran an Islamic republic.
1980	22 September	Iraq launched a full-scale invasion of Iran. The Iran–Iraq War would last until August 1988. The tactics used by both sides were similar to those used during World War I,[5] including large-scale trench warfare with barbed wire stretched across trenches, manned machine-gun posts, bayonet charges, human wave attacks across a no-man's land, and extensive use of chemical weapons such as mustard gas by the Iraqi government against Iranian troops, civilians, and Iraqi Kurds.
1988	20 August	The Iran–Iraq War ends in a stalemate. The Iran–Iraq War was the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries.[6]
		Massacres of Iranian political prisoners, 1000s of cases of forced disappearances, executions, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.
1994	22 February	Homa Darabi an Iranian pediatrician and women's rights activist immolates herself in protest against compulsory hijab.

21st century

Year	Date	Event
2001	8 June	Iranian presidential election, 2001: President Mohammad Khatami was reelected with vast majority.
2005	24 June	Iranian presidential election, 2005: Ahmadinejad defeated the more liberal Rafsanjani.
2009	12 June	Iranian presidential election, 2009: Ahmadinejad re-elected for a second time after defeated Mousavi.
	13 June	2009–10 Iranian election protests: Protests in Iran over election results.
2014		My Stealthy Freedom, an online movement in which women in Iran post photos of themselves without hijabs, as a protest against the compulsory hijab laws in the country.
2015	14 July	Signing of Iran nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council— China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States—plus Germany).
2018	8 May	United States withdraws from the Iran nuclear deal
2017-19		Iranian woman protest against compulsory hijab in multiple cities including Tehran, Kangavar,Isfahan and Shiraz. Many are physically assaulted with injuries including broken limbs and imprisoned.
2019	9 September	Self immolation of women's rights activist Sahar Khodayari over six month prison sentence for attempting to enter a public stadium to watch a football game, against the national ban against women at such events. Leads to widespread protests, and on 10 October 2019, more than 3,500 women attend the Azadi Stadium for a World Cup qualifier against Cambodia.

See also

• List of years in Iran
• List of Islamic years

Cities in Iran:

• Timeline of Bandar Abbas
• Timeline of Hamadan
• Timeline of Isfahan
• Timeline of Kerman
• Timeline of Mashhad
• Timeline of Qom
• Timeline of Shiraz
• Timeline of Tabriz
• Timeline of Tehran
• Timeline of Yazd

References

1. "Iran profile – timeline". bbc.com. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
2. Lucien X. Polastron (2007). Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries Throughout History. 181: Books on Fire. p. 371. ISBN 9781594771675.CS1 maint: location (link)
3. "Calendars". Encyclopædia Iranica. 1990.
4. "Iran profile – timeline". www.bbc.org. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
5. Abrahamian, Ervand (2008). A History of Modern Iran (3rd print ed.). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521528917.
6. Fürtig, Henner (2012). "Den Spieß umgedreht: iranische Gegenoffensive im Ersten Golfkrieg" [Turning of the Tables: the Iranian counter-offensive during the first Gulf War]. Damals (in German). No. 5. pp. 10–13.

Bibliography

• George Henry Townsend (1867), "Persia", A Manual of Dates (2nd ed.), London: Frederick Warne & Co.
• Henry Smith Williams, ed. (1908). "Chronological Summary of the History of Persia". Historians' History of the World. 24. London: Hooper & Jackson. hdl:2027/njp.32101063964728.
• Benjamin Vincent (1910), "Persia", Haydn's Dictionary of Dates (25th ed.), London: Ward, Lock & Co., hdl:2027/loc.ark:/13960/t89g6g776 – via HathiTrust
• "Iran". Political Chronology of the Middle East. Europa Publications. 2003. pp. 45–64. ISBN 978-1-135-35673-6.
• Andrew J. Newman (2006). "Key Dates". Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. I.B.Tauris. pp. 129+. ISBN 978-1-86064-667-6. (Covers 14th–18th centuries CE)
• "Timeline: A Modern History of Iran". PBS Newshour. USA: Public Broadcasting Service. 2010. (Covers 1921–2009)

External links

• BBC News. "Iran Profile: Timeline".
• "(Iran)". Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Timelines of History: Iran