By Oksana Miller.
The Persian language comes from the ancient nation of Persia in the Middle East. In the book of Esther, we first read about Persia as a vast and powerful empire ruled by King Xerxes (Esther1:5), or as he was commonly known, Ahasuerus. He was husband to Queen Vashti who was deposed because she disobeyed a direct command from the king. He later took a Jewish girl named Esther as his wife and she became queen of Persia.
This amazing story can be found in the Old Testament of the Bible. Later accounts of the Persian Empire are mentioned in the book of Daniel. Today, Persia is known as Iran, having officially changed its name in 1935, and the Persian language is known as Farsi. The name “Iran” comes from the Farsi word ‘aryanam’ that means ‘land of the noble ones.’
Islam did not appear in Persia until 633-654 BC when it replaced the dominant religion of Zoroastrianism. During the 1980s, many Iranians left Iran and chose not to return home following the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. This included many Iranians who were highly educated who came to the USA and who are now either citizens or permanent residents of this country. The census of 2012 estimated that there are 1,500,000 Iranians living in America today.
Today, Islam is the most dominant religion of Iran, with many people who are unreached by the Good News both in the US and in Iran. With Bibles and other outreach tools, CLC Multi-Language Media wants to help you to reach out to your Iranian friend. Please visit https://multilanguagemedia.org/languages/persian/ to find the perfect gift.
Written By
Oksana Miller – Oksana is a Bilingual speaker in Russian and English and enjoys reading about ancient history and the Bible.