IRAN

IRAN. Ancient Iran, or Persia, from 226 to 630 was the Byzantine Empire’s main competitor. Its armies under the last of the Sassanid Shahinshahs devasted the Empire’s eastern provinces in the early 7th c. In particular, the flourishing communities in the Holy Land (q.v.) suffered lasting damage. Under Islam (q.v.) Iran continued to struggle with Byzantium (q.v.) in the disputed border nations of Armenia and Georgia. A significant Christian population has lived within the Iranian Empire of the Sassanids and their Muslim successors from ancient times, and has continued to do so until the present era, though greatly reduced. It was chiefly within the confines of Sassanid and then Muslim Iran that the Assyrian (Nestorian) Church (q.v.) made its home and, by the 13th c., spread up to and beyond the borders of China. Most recently with the American invasion of Kuwait and the bombing of Iran, though no mosques were damaged, more than two dozen Christian churches were destroyed. The policy of Saddam Hussein was also to use (Nestorian) Christians as the first line of defense, and resultingly many were lost in battle to American forces.