Show persians take il acce N new L ew name for historic kingdom revive iran once designating entire region washington new years yeara day tor for the persians which is march 22 will bring to the ancient kingdom of persia a new name iran persia was derived from the province of pers or pat parsa sa the seed from which the modern nation sprang iran Is the ancient name for the entire geographical region which includes bludes parts of Afghan afghanistan isain and luc histan in recent times however iran lias has been used as a secondary title for the persian political unit it should not be confused with iraq the similar name of the nation which borders it on the west persians have always called their country iran land of the aryans and themselves lerant Iri nl 1 I says a bulletin from the washington D C headquarters of the national geographic society but at ile he same time they have looked upon fars the modern name for pers as the roost most typical persian province and even eyen as the cradle of the aryan race the off official iclal change chance in name turns attention to the country as a whole and emphasizes arans years of strong nationalism its people have demonstrated again and again their ability to revive from m major ajor catas batas trophies often subjugated at different periods in its development iran has been overrun and even subjugated by greek aral arab turk and mongol ol armies but the irani have clun clung tenaciously to their national characteristics and cal culture caltune ture arans two great poets Fir dausi and omar khayyam helped to preserve the persian language and national spirit through many troubled years Firda best known work shah namah Is one of the worlds epics and edw edward a r I 1 fitzgeralds tr translation an of the Kubai Rubal yat focused the attention of europe on the culture of iran iran two and a halt half times the area of texas is covered by a network of modern highways in varying degrees of repair fol following lowin g ancient trade routes until 1031 iran was a country without railroads with the exception of a few extremely short stretches of narrow gauge line but now railway construction Is progressing both in the north and in the south plans call for the meeting of these tracks within the next nest few years so that the fertile provinces bordering the caspian sea in the north will be linked with the persian gulf teheran the beautiful capital city is now leached beached by ali plane motor car or camel caravan but before long it will be included on the trans iranian railroad the capital has a population of but it is utterly unlike most of the modern capitals of the world of comparable size its wide boulevards along which traffic Is directed by helmeted policemen lund an out outward ward air of modernity to the city but the lumbering caravans of camels and donkeys soon dispel the modern appearance of the calil malil main thoroughfares side streets of the capital capital are narrow crooked and dark and add further to the popular conception of a typical oriental city modern buildings there Is of course a section of beautiful modern bril buildings dings including the post ollice the imperial bank of persia the legislative buildings of the majlis the iranian congress or parlia ment and the palace home of his imperial raf majesty jesty riza shah rahl Pah evl levi shah ln in aliah of iran until 1906 iran was an absolute monarchy in that year the reigning shall shah was forced to gr grant ant a 9 constitution under which tile the national consultative assembly of majlis was established in october 1925 this assembly voted to depose the young soltan sll tan rian khan rah Pah levi then prime minister was appointed to head a provisional government ern ment in december of the same year lie ascended tile the throne as king under the present constitution arans government somewhat resembles that of great britain the prime minister is the constitutional executive and head of the cabinet and all executive action Is subject to lo the approval and support of the majlis the country is divided into 26 provinces headed by governors general wall and governors hakim both are directly responsible to the central government all towns and villages have chiefs called who are usually appointed by the governors although sowe sometimes times elected by the citizens iran Is modeling its educational system after that of england the va lialis crown prince Is attending a school near geneva organized very much on the plan of an english public school A large number of government students women as well us as men dien have been sent abroad to schools A university has been founded in addition to a number of teachers colleges technical and secondary schools |