Posted by Lyn Bunce on Jun 13, 2017
PRESIDENT'S REPORT                                               13TH JUNE 2017
 
An interesting evening at Rotary last Tuesday with our special guests, George and Sue Blenkhorn giving us a power
point presentation on their recent visit to Iran

A little bit about Iran
 
Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating
back to 7000 BC.[1] The south-western and western part of the Iranian Plateau participated in the traditional Ancient
Near East with Elam, from the Early Bronze Age, and later with various other peoples, such as the Kassites, Mannaeans,
and Gutians. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel names the Persians as the first Historical People. [2] The Medes unified
Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC.[3] The Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC), founded by Cyrus the Great, was the
first of the Persian empires to rule from the Balkans to North Africa and also Central Asia, spanning three continents,
from their seat of power in Persis (Persepolis). It was the largest empire yet seen and the first world empire. [4] The
First Persian Empire was the only civilization in all of history to connect over 40% of the global population, accounting
for approximately 49.4 million of the world's 112.4 million people in around 480 BC. [5] They were succeeded by the
Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Empires, who successively governed Iran for almost 1000 years and made Iran once
again as a leading power in the world. Persia's arch-rival was the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine
Empire.

The Persian Empire proper begins in the Iron Age, following the influx of Iranian peoples. Iranian people gave rise to the
Medes, the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian Empires of classical antiquity.

Once a major empire of superpower proportions, [6] [7] having conquered far and wide, Iran has endured invasions
too, by the Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and the Mongols. Iran has continually reasserted its national identity throughout the
centuries and has developed as a distinct political and cultural entity.

The Muslim conquest of Persia (633–656) ended the Sasanian Empire and was a turning point in Iranian history.
Islamization of Iran took place during the eighth to tenth centuries and led to the eventual decline of Zoroastrianism in
Iran as well as many of its dependencies. However, the achievements of the previous Persian civilizations were not lost,
but were to a great extent absorbed by the new Islamic polity and civilization.

Iran, with its long history of early cultures and empires, had suffered particularly hard during the late Middle Ages and
the early modern period. Many invasions of nomadic tribes, whose leaders became rulers in this country, affected it
negatively. 

Iran was once again reunified as an independent state in 1501 by the Safavid dynasty, which converted Iran to Shia
Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the history of
Islam. Functioning again as a leading power, this time amongst the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, their arch-rival
for centuries, Iran had been a monarchy ruled by an emperor almost without interruption from 1501 until the 1979
Iranian Revolution, when Iran officially became an Islamic republic on April 1, 1979.
Over the course of the first half of the 19th century Iran lost many of its territories in the Caucasus (which it had been
ruling intermittently encompassed for millennia), comprising modern-day Eastern Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan,
and Armenia, to its rapidly expanding and emerged neighbouring rival the Russian Empire, following the Russo-Persian
Wars between 1804–13 and 1826–8.

George and Sue also mentioned how friendly the people were and that they a fantastic experience considering that Sue
wasn’t all that keen in the beginning to travel to Iran

The deb Balls are going along as expected with the first of the training sessions commencing tonite. Please check the
Roster sent out by Geoff Janssen.
Make sure if you are unable to attend on your rostered time that you swap with another fellow Rotarian on the Roster.

Have a great week.
 

President Lyn