Which country has a more glorious history, Iran or Pakistan?
Irān, very simple.
It’s not because the land that we today call “Pakistan” doesn’t have a great or grand history. No, it’s rather because the nation state that today is called “Pakistan” itself only has recent modern history. The Indus River has seen much history, much of its lands has Indo-Aryan heritage, but also Iranian heritage (mostly in the west of the Indus).But what we today call “Pakistan” was created as an independent federal dominion out of the British India for the Muslim population in 1947, later became an Islamic Republic in 1956.
Iran on the other hand is an ancient nation with a continues national identity for at least going back 2500+ years. However, the strong fundamental national identity of Iran rose first in 224 AD, where the name “Irān” was used by Ardeshir I for the nation and the name stretched out to “Irānshahr” i.e. “Empire of Iranians” for the expansed empire itself.
Iran has five major indigenous empires:
- Medes
- Achaemenids
- Arsacids (Parthians)
- Sassanids
- Safavids