Iran has one of the oldest, richest, and most influential art heritages in the world, which encompasses many disciplines including
literature,
music,
dance,
architecture,
painting,
weaving,
pottery,
calligraphy,
metalworking,
embroidery, and
stonemasonry. Iranian art has gone through numerous phases, which is evident from the unique aesthetics of Iran. From the
Elamite
Chogha Zanbil to the
Median and Achaemenid reliefs of
Persepolis to the
mosaics of
Bishapur. The
Islamic Golden Age brought changes to the styles and practice of the arts. However, each Iranian dynasty had its own particular foci, building upon the previous dynasty's, all of which during their times were heavily influential in shaping the cultures of the world then and today.
Contemporary art There is a resurgence of interest in Iranian contemporary artists and in artists from the larger Iranian diaspora. Key notables include
Shirin Aliabadi, Mohammed Ehsai, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh,
Golnaz Fathi,
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Parastou Forouhar,
Pouran Jinchi,
Farhad Moshiri,
Shirin Neshat, Parviz Tanavoli, Y. Z. Kami, and Charles Hossein Zenderoudi.
Language Several
languages are spoken throughout Iran, including languages from the
Iranian,
Turkic, and
Semitic language families. According to the
CIA World Factbook, 78% of Iranians speak an Iranian language as their
native tongue, 18% speak a Turkic language as their native tongue, and 2% speak a Semitic language as their native tongue, while the remaining 2% speak languages from various other groups. Although the
Azerbaijanis speak a Turkic language, their culture, history, and genetics are often associated with the
Iranian people. The predominant language and national language of Iran is
Persian, which is spoken fluently across the country.
Azerbaijani is spoken primarily and widely in the northwest,
Kurdish and
Luri are spoken primarily in the west,
Mazandarani and
Gilaki are spoken in the regions along the
Caspian Sea,
Arabic primarily in the Persian Gulf coastal regions,
Balochi primarily in the southeast, and
Turkmen primarily in northern border regions. Smaller languages spread in other regions notably include
Talysh,
Georgian,
Armenian,
Assyrian, and
Circassian. Dialects of Persian are sporadically spoken throughout the region from China to Syria to Russia, though mainly in the
Iranian Plateau.
Literature The
literature of Iran is one of the world's oldest and most celebrated, spanning over 2,500 years from the many Achaemenid inscriptions, such as the
Behistun inscription, to the celebrated Iranian poets of the Islamic Golden Age and modern Iran.
Iranian literature has been described as one of the great literature of humanity and one of the four main pillars of world literature.
L.P. Elwell-Sutton describes the literature of the Persian language as "one of the richest poetic literature of the world". Very few literary works of
pre-Islamic Iran have survived following the destruction of the libraries of
Persepolis by
Alexander the Great and the subsequent
invasion of Iran by the Arabs in 641, who sought to eradicate all non-
Quranic texts. This resulted in all Iranian libraries being destroyed and books either being burnt or thrown into rivers. The only way that Iranians could protect these books was to bury them, but many of the texts were forgotten over time. Azerbaijani literature was developed highly after Iran's first reunification in 800 years under the
Safavid Empire, whose rulers themselves wrote poetry. There remain a few literary works of the extinct Iranian language of
Old Azeri that was used in
Azerbaijan prior to the linguistic Turkification of the people of the region. Kurdish literature has incorporated the various Kurdish dialects that are spoken throughout the
Middle East. The earliest works of Kurdish literature are those of the 16th-century poet
Malaye Jaziri. Some notable poets include
Ferdowsi,
Saadi,
Hafiz,
Attar,
Nezami,
Jami,
Rumi,
Omar Khayyam,
Taleb Amoli,
Ubayd Zakani,
Shams Tabrizi,
Rudaki and
Vahshi Bafqi. These poets have inspired
Goethe,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, and many others. Contemporary literature has been influenced by classical Persian poetry, but also reflects the particularities of modern-day Iran, through writers such as
Houshang Moradi-Kermani, the most translated modern Iranian author, and poet
Ahmad Shamlou.
Music Iranian music has directly influenced the cultures of
West Asia,
Central Asia,
Europe, and
South Asia. It has mainly influenced and built up much of the musical terminology of the neighboring Turkic and Arabic cultures and reached India through the 16th-century
Persianate Mughal Empire, whose court promoted new musical forms by bringing Iranian musicians. Several
trumpets made of silver, gold, and copper were found in eastern Iran that are attributed to the
Oxus civilization and date back between 2200 and 1750 BC. The use of both vertical and horizontal
angular harps have been documented at the archaeological sites of Madaktu (650 BC) and
Kul-e Fara (900–600 BC), with the largest collection of Elamite instruments documented at Kul-e Fara. Multiple depictions of horizontal harps were also sculpted in
Assyrian palaces, dating back between 865 and 650 BC. He has been credited to have organized a musical system consisting of seven "royal modes" (
xosrovāni), 30 derived modes (
navā), and 360 melodies (
dāstān). Although the cultures of its ethnic groups are very similar and in most areas nearly identical, each has its own distinct and specific dance style. Iran possesses four categories of dance with these being: group dances, solo improvisational dances, war or combat dances, and spiritual dances. Typically, the group dances are often unique and named after the region or the ethnic groups with which they are associated. These dances can be chain dances involving a group or the more common group dances mainly performed at festive occasions like weddings and
Noruz celebrations which focus less on communal line or circle dances and more on solo improvisational forms, with each dancer interpreting the music in their special way but within a specific range of dance vocabulary sometimes blending other dance styles or elements.
Solo dances are usually reconstructions of the
historical and court dances of the various Iranian dynasties throughout history, with the most common types being that of the
Safavid and
Qajar dynasties due to them being relatively newer. Spiritual dances are known as "sama". These dances serve spiritual purposes, such as removing ill omens or exorcising evil spirits. These dances involve trance, music, and complex movements. One example is the
Balochi dance "le'b gowati", performed to rid a possessed person of the offending spirit. In the
Balochi language, the term "gowati" refers to psychologically ill patients who have recovered through music and dance. The earliest researched dance from Iran is a dance worshiping
Mithra, the
Zoroastrian angelic divinity of covenant, light, and oath, which was used commonly by the
Roman cult of Mithra. One of the cult's ceremonies involved the sacrifice of a bull followed by a dance that promoted vigor in life. fortress in
Derbent, Dagestan. Inscribed on Russia's
UNESCO world heritage list since 2003.The traditional theme of Iranian architecture is cosmic symbolism, which depicts the communication and participation of man with the powers of heaven. This theme has given continuity and longevity to the architecture and has been a primary source of the emotional character of the nation. Architecture ranges from simple structures to "some of the most majestic structures the world has ever seen". Architectural style is the combination of intensity and simplicity to form immediacy, while ornament and, often, subtle proportions reward sustained observation. Iranian architecture makes use of abundant symbolic geometry, using pure forms such as the circle and square, and plans are based on often symmetrical layouts featuring rectangular courtyards and halls. The paramount virtues of Iranian architecture are: "a marked feeling for form and scale; structural inventiveness, especially in
vault and
dome construction; a genius for decoration with a freedom and success not rivaled in any other architecture". The traditional architecture is categorized into two families and six following classes or styles. The two categories are Zoroastrian and Islamic, which reference the eras of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic Iran, and the six styles, in order of their era, are Parsian, Parthian Khorasani, Razi, Azari, Esfahani. The pre-Islamic styles draw on 3,000 to 4,000 years of architectural development from the various civilizations of the Iranian plateau. The post-Islamic architecture draws ideas from its pre-Islamic predecessor and has geometrical and repetitive forms, as well as surfaces that are richly decorated with glazed tiles, carved
stucco, patterned brickwork, floral
motifs, and
calligraphy. In addition to historic gates, palaces, bridges, buildings, and religious sites that highlight the highly developed supremacy of the Iranian art of architecture, gardens are also an example of cosmic symbolism and unique style of combining intensity and simplicity for form immediacy. The traditional style of Iranian gardens is to represent an earthly paradise or a heaven on Earth. From the time of the Achaemenid Empire, the idea of an earthly paradise spread through Iranian literature to other cultures, with the word for paradise in the Iranian languages of Avestan, Old Persian, and Median, spreading to languages across the world. The style and design of the Iranian garden greatly influenced the garden styles of countries from Spain to Italy and Greece to India, with some notable examples of such gardens being the gardens of the
Alhambra in Spain,
Humayun's Tomb, and the
Taj Mahal in India, the
Hellenistic gardens of the
Seleucid Empire and the
Ptolemies in
Alexandria. == Cuisine ==