Iran: A Brief Profile Trivia Quiz

Answer: Persia

This was the same year in which Reza Shah Pahlavi established the first European-style university.

Answer: 444 days

On 4 November, 1979, a huge mob of Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran. On 20 January, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, the 52 hostages were freed.

Answer: Rial

Iran has several different exchange rates. State transactions such as imports of essential goods and oil export receipts are held an official rate, while the official export rate for almost everything else is different. For travelers authorized to receive hard cash, there is yet another rate.

Answer: Absolute monarchy

The founder of the Achaemenid Empire was Cyrus, who killed the opulent Lydian king Croesus and amassed a great deal of land. His successors ruled until the empire was crushed in 330 BC by Alexander the Great.

Answer: Smoked hashish

The Syrian word is "hashishiyya," for "one who smokes or chews hashish." The origin of the word "assassin" had been strongly debated for some time, but Silvestre de Sacy laid the controversy to rest with his discovery of this term.

Answer: Shi'a Islam

Shi'a Muslims comprise about 90% of the population. Baha'i, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism together comprise about 1%. Under the rule of the Sassanids from AD 224-642, Zoroastrianism was the state religion, but it is no longer popular. Iranians did not, for the most part, become Muslims until the 9th century AD.

Answer: Nader Shah (Afshari dynasty)

Mithradates II (123 - 87 BC), Ali (656 - 661 AD), Sulayman (1339 - 1343 AD), Nader Shah (1737 - 1747 AD). Nader Shah invaded India, sacked Delhi and Lahore, and returned with a vast amount of treasure and land. Under his rule, the boundaries of the Iranian empire were at their greatest since the days of the Sassanids (224 - 642 AD). Nader was assassinated in 1747 by officers of his own guard, and was succeeded by Karim Khan (Zand dynasty).

Answer: Shapour Bakhtiar

Shapour Bakhtiar was Prime Minister for less than two months before being overthrown in February 1979. He was subsequently replaced by Ruhollah Khomeini, who encouraged women to wear veils, banned alcohol and Western music, and abolished political parties.

He died from internal bleeding in 1989 and was succeeded by Ali Khamenei. Bakhtiar was assassinated in autumn of 1991 by Ali Vakili Rad.

Answer: Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is to the north of Turkmenistan, which shares its southern border with Iran.

Answer: 1 million

Approximately 300,000 were killed and another 500,000 were wounded, from a total population of about 60 million. Both countries still hold thousands of POWs.