Persia
Further information: Shah and King of KingsIn Persia, from the time of Darius the Great, Persian rulers used the title "King of Kings" (Shahanshah in modern Iranian) since they had dominion over peoples from India to Greece. Alexander the Great probably crowned himself shahanshah after conquering Persia, bringing the phrase basileus toon basileoon to Greek. It is also known that Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia, was named as the king of kings when he made his empire after defeating the Parthians.
The last shahanshah was ousted in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution. Shahanshah is usually translated as king of kings or simply king for ancient rulers of the Achaemenid, Arsacid, and Sassanid dynasties, and often shortened to shah for rulers since the Safavid dynasty in the 16th century.
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Famous quotes containing the word persia:
“Life is a long Dardenelles, My Dear Madam, the shores whereof are bright with flowers, which we want to pluck, but the bank is too high; & so we float on & on, hoping to come to a landing-place at last—but swoop! we launch into the great sea! Yet the geographers say, even then we must not despair, because across the great sea, however desolate & vacant it may look, lie all Persia & the delicious lands roundabout Damascus.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)