Persian Empire - Wikipedia Persian Empire This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. ( Learn how and when to remove these template messages ) This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. ( November 2016 ) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( November 2016 ) This article is incomplete. Please help to improve it, or discuss the issue on the talk page. ( March 2017 ) The Persian Empire ( Persian : شاهنشاهی ایران, translit. shāhanshāhi - ye irān, lit. ' Imperial Iran ' ) is one of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Iran ( formerly known as Persia in the Western world until 1935 ). The first of these was the Achaemenid Empire established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC with the conquest of Median, Lydian and Babylonian empires. It covered much of the Ancient world when it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Persia was then ruled by the Parthian Empire which supplanted the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, and then by the Sassanian Empire which ruled up until the mid-7th century. Iranian dynastic history was interrupted by the Arab conquest of Persia in 651 AD, establishing the even larger Islamic caliphate, and later by the Mongol invasion. The main religion of ancient Persia was the native Zoroastrianism, but after the seventh century, it was replaced by Islam. The Safavid Empire was the first great Persian Empire established after Arab conquest of Persia by Shah Ismail I. From their base in Ardabil, the Safavid Persians established control over parts of Greater Iran and reasserted the Iranian identity of the region, thus becoming the first native Persian dynasty since the Sasanian Empire to establish a unified Iranian state. Contents 1 List of Iranian dynasties described as a Persian Empire 2 See also 3 References 4 External links List of Iranian dynasties described as a Persian Empire Achaemenid Empire ( 550 -- 330 BC ) Sasanian Empire ( 224 -- 651 ) Safavid dynasty ( 1501 -- 1736 ) Afsharid dynasty ( 1736 -- 1796 ) Zand dynasty ( 1751 - 1794 ) Qajar dynasty ( 1785 -- 1925 ) Pahlavi dynasty ( 1925 -- 1979 ) Extent of the first Persian Empire, the Achaemenid Empire Extent of the Sasanian Empire in 621 The maximum extent of the Safavid Empire under Shah Abbas I Extent of the Afsharid Empire under Nader Shah See also Look up persian empire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. List of monarchs of Persia Iranian monarchy List of Iranian dynasties and countries Persia Iranian peoples Persian people List of tombs of Iranian people References Jump up ^ Herodotus. The Histories. Halicarnassus. ISBN 978 - 0143107545. Jump up ^ History of the World in 1,000 Objects ( DK Publishing, 2014 ), p. 71. External links Media related to Persian Empire at Wikimedia Commons Persian Empire travel guide from Wikivoyage `` Persia ''. Encyclopædia Britannica ( 11th ed. ). 1911. This Iran - related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Persian_Empire&oldid=800486457 '' Categories : History of Iran Former empires Persian history Iran stubs Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from November 2016 All articles needing additional references Articles to be expanded from March 2017 Commons category with local link different than on Wikidata Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference All stub articles Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikivoyage Afrikaans Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Български Bosanski Català Čeština Cymraeg Deutsch Esperanto فارسی Français Frysk Galego 한국어 हिन्दी Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia עברית Қазақша Kiswahili Latviešu Lietuvių Magyar മലയാളം Bahasa Melayu Монгол Na Vosa Vakaviti Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Occitan ଓଡ଼ିଆ پښتو Patois Polski Português Română Rumantsch Русиньскый Русский Gagana Samoa Shqip Sicilianu Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Svenska தமிழ் ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt 文言 粵語 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 13 September 2017, at 21 : 10. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who conquered the persian empire and most of the ancient world
Answer: Islamic caliphate