A Brief History of Iran
About this lecture
In this lecture, Sheikh Yasir Qadhi delivers a sweeping 20-minute overview of Iran's history — from the ancient Achaemenid Empire and Zoroastrianism, through the miraculous Muslim conquest of the Sassanid Empire, to the profound and often overlooked contributions of Persian scholars to Islamic civilization. He then explains how Iran transformed from a Sunni heartland into a Twelver Shia state under the Safavid dynasty, and brings the history into the modern era by detailing the CIA's Operation Ajax, the Shah's brutal rule, and the roots of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The lecture closes with a powerful reflection on the dangers of ruling in the name of religion and the human cost of geopolitical power games.
