Īrān va Āmrīkā: az 1720 mīlādī tā emrūz Persian 9/15/2023

The history of relations between Iran and the United States did not begin in 1979—or even in 1953. It began hundreds of years earlier, when the United States was still one of Britain’s colonies and Iran was known to the outside world as the Persian Empire. This relationship started with something far more intriguing than hostage crises or mutual accusations of “great sins.”

In the 1790s, Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams, while seeking sources of inspiration and guidance for governing their new nation, studied the history of Persia. From the 1850s to the 1920s, Iranian newspapers frequently urged their readers to learn from the American model and transform their country into a progressive and prosperous constitutional republic. In 1919 (1298 AH), reports surfaced of pro-American uprisings in the streets of Tehran.

This is where the real story of Iran and America begins — a story that has been largely omitted from our modern discussions of the subject. Long before the governments in Tehran and Washington began stepping on each other’s toes in the turbulent eras we now recall — long before the clichés of the “Great Satan” and the “Axis of Evil”, and before the Mossadegh affair and the hostage crisis — the relationship between these two nations was shaped by a spirit of mutual respect and shared understanding.