From ancient conquerors to modern revolutionaries, Iran has produced figures who've shaped history. Join us as we explore the most influential Iranians who've left their mark on politics, science, literature, and philosophy. Our countdown spans from military strategists to visionary poets, revolutionary leaders to scientific pioneers!
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 most influential Iranians in commemoration of Nowruz,
00:07or the Persian New Year, which coincides with the Spring Equinox.
00:11This was one of the first religions to believe in a single, omnipresent God.
00:15They believed their prophet, Zoroaster, was born of a virgin mother in what is now Afghanistan.
00:23Number 10. Nader Shah
00:25The 18th century Persian conqueror has been described as one of history's most brilliant military strategists,
00:31earning comparisons to Napoleon and Genghis Khan.
00:34Nader is credited with revitalizing Iran after decades of chaos, expelling foreign invaders and restoring Persian sovereignty.
00:41The conqueror's military prowess was on full display in campaigns against the Ottomans, Mughals, and Afghans,
00:47reclaiming lost territories and briefly turning Iran into a dominant power in Asia.
00:53Though his later years were marked by paranoia and brutality, his impact on Iran's military and political landscape was undeniable,
01:00cementing his legacy as one of Iran's most influential rulers.
01:04Number 9. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
01:07Imam Khomeini, as a scholar, had a special place in the religious school of Qom,
01:13especially in areas of Sharia laws and jurisprudence, in addition to philosophy and mysticism.
01:19Having this position, he was thoroughly anti-Pahlavi royal family regime.
01:23The architect of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, this revolutionary drastically reshaped the country's political landscape.
01:31Born into a clerical home, he blamed the death of his father on the Reza Shah,
01:35planting a seed of resentment towards the monarchy in Iran and the Pahlavi dynasty.
01:39In terms of knowledge and morality, he was at a very high level, and he was not after either position or worldly possessions.
01:47He had only God in his mind, and whoever lives this way, God will help.
01:52As the leader of the revolution, he overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy and established the Islamic Republic,
01:58introducing a theocratic system based on wilayat al-faqih, or guardianship of the jurist.
02:03Khomeini's defiance of Western influence, and particularly that of the United States,
02:07led to the Iran hostage crisis and years of tension between Iran and the West.
02:12After a decade in power, which coincided with the devastating Iran-Iraq war,
02:17he was replaced by Ayatollah Ali Khomeini after his death, one of the world's longest serving leaders,
02:22who himself could be credited with influencing Iran's stand against Western hegemony.
02:26He was physically in Najaf, but through friends and foreign media, he would get information about the situation here.
02:33No one in the close circle would do anything without his permission.
02:37His knowledge was so acute that he knew details of what was going on here that even Iranians didn't know.
02:46In September 1941, a young man becomes the new ruler of Iran.
02:51At just 21 years of age, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi is sworn in as the new head of state in the Iranian parliament,
02:59in the middle of the Second World War.
03:01The British deposed Reza Shah for cozying up with the Germans in 1941.
03:06They placed his 22-year-old son on the throne, convinced that he would do their bidding.
03:11Mohammad Reza, unlike his father, was not a born leader, though he grew into one.
03:16The young Shah quickly built on his father's legacy by modernizing Iran and assembling the world's fifth largest army.
03:22You built your progress and your affluence at our expense.
03:31So you can't say that we increased the price of oil all of a sudden, because for 20 and some odd years, maybe 24 years,
03:41we have just been terribly exploited.
03:44Growing public dissent fueled by class inequality led to the 1979 Islamic Revolution,
03:50in which a small but fervent percentage of Iran's population rose in revolt.
03:54Struck with cancer, the Shah fled Iran in 1979 and never returned, dying in Egypt the following year.
04:01Owing to various political and economic factors,
04:04younger generations have since developed a nostalgic fondness for the Shah and monarchy.
04:09I have only two arms, but the strength comes because of what I represent to my people, if they like it or not.
04:19His son, the Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, is the symbol of hope to countless Iranians opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran's theocratic regime
04:28and a link to Iran's 2,500-year history of monarchy.
04:31Reza Shah!
04:33Who are you?
04:34Reza Shah!
04:35Who are you?
04:36Shah of Iran!
04:447. Reza Shah Pahlavi
04:47Reza Khan's 1921 coup swiftly ended 12 years of chaos under the Qajar dynasty following the Constitutional Revolution.
04:54Between mismanagement and ineptitude, the Qajars devastated Iran before a Cossack brigadier general named Reza Mirpanj emerged as the new Shah of Iran.
05:03The ambitious young officer changed his name to Reza Shah Pahlavi,
05:07originating from the Sasanian Empire-era name for the Persian language.
05:11The founder of the Pahlavi dynasty put Iran on a positive, productive course,
05:15ensuring generations of prosperity and preventing political and social erosion.
05:20Pahlavi ended feudalism, embraced secularism, and undertook massive infrastructure projects that powered Iran's subsequent growth in the second half of the 20th century.
05:296. Omar Khayyam
05:32The words of an 11th-century Persian, Omar Khayyam.
05:36In the West, his poetry made him a household name.
05:39It became the most famous book of poetry in the English language.
05:43Americans immediately embraced the Rubaiyat.
05:47Omar Khayyam is right to move in finger rights and heaven and writ moves on.
05:52Omar Khayyam, the 11th-century Persian polymath, left an enduring mark on mathematics, astronomy, and literature.
05:59As a mathematician, he made groundbreaking contributions to algebra,
06:03solving cubic equations through geometric methods, and influencing later European scholars.
06:08His work on the Jalali calendar, commissioned by the Seljuk sultan,
06:11was so precise that it surpassed the accuracy of the later Gregorian calendar.
06:29His greatest achievement lies in the world of poetry.
06:32His Rubaiyat, a collection of philosophical quatrains, explores themes of fate and mortality.
06:38Translated by Edward Fitzgerald in the 19th century, his verses gained worldwide acclaim,
06:43shaping Western literary movements and inspiring generations of poets.
07:08Whether our lot is vile or glorious, fortune has never shown her face to us.
07:18But king or commoner, we know that we must leave this earth soon for eternity.
07:24No man has an abiding foothold here. In good or bad, our lives will disappear.
07:28Iran has produced no shortage of poets and writers, Hafez and Rumi to name a few.
07:33But Ferdowsi's influenced towers above the others.
07:36The author of Shahnameh, Book of Kings,
07:39widely considered to be the greatest epic of Persian-speaking countries,
07:42Ferdowsi is celebrated as one of the most influential figures of Persian literature,
07:47and one of the greatest in the history of literature.
07:49That special thing that allowed Persian language and culture to survive
07:55was, remarkably, this book. It's called the Shahnameh.
07:59A collection of tales about Iran's pre-Islamic kings.
08:08British historian John Andrew Boyle observed that the Shahnameh,
08:12quote,
08:12is as intelligible to the average modern Iranian
08:15as the King James Version of the Bible is to a modern English speaker.
08:19There's a reason that the poet's work is credited with keeping Farsi alive in Iran.
08:23It's a poetic rendition of these supernatural tales, historical tales, romances.
08:32It's really a most magnificent grown-up storybook.
08:37Number 4. Avicenna
08:39Ibn Sina, commonly known to Westerners as Avicenna,
08:43was another 11th century Persian polymath who shaped the course of medicine,
08:47philosophy, and science for centuries.
08:49His magnum opus, The Canon of Medicine,
08:52became the definitive medical textbook in Europe and the Islamic world for over 600 years,
08:57trailblazing clinical trials, quarantine, and the understanding of contagious diseases.
09:02In philosophy, he built upon Aristotle and Neoplatonism,
09:05influencing great thinkers like Thomas Aquinas and shaping medieval scholasticism.
09:10As such, Avicenna's holistic approach to knowledge
09:13set the stage for the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution.
09:16His medical insights saved lives,
09:18and his philosophical teachings laid the groundwork for modern thought.
09:22Number 3. Al-Khwarizmi
09:25Revolutionizing mathematics, Al-Khwarizmi's seminal work,
09:32introduced systematic methods for solving linear and quadratic equations,
09:36giving rise to the term algebra.
09:38Now, Al-Khwarizmi wasn't the first man to solve quadratic equations.
09:43They go all the way back to antiquity.
09:45But he was certainly the first mathematician to provide the general method,
09:49the technique, the recipe for solving them, what we would today call the algorithm.
09:54His contributions to fields like trigonometry and geography
09:57refined Ptolemaic maps, influencing later cartographers.
10:01Crucially, his advocacy for the Hindu-Arabic numeral system,
10:05especially the concept of zero, streamlined calculations
10:08and became the standard in the Islamic and Western worlds.
10:12The number system we use today, the decimal system,
10:15is called the Hindu-Arabic numeral system.
10:18It's called Hindu because it comes originally from India.
10:22Arabic because it came by the Islamic world,
10:25and scholars in Baghdad, like Al-Khwarizmi,
10:28transmitted it first to the Islamic world and then to the rest of the world.
10:32The Latinized form of his name, Algoritmi, inspired the term algorithm,
10:37underscoring his lasting impact on computer science.
10:40Al-Khwarizmi wasn't just an academic.
10:42He was a game-changer who shaped how we solve problems today.
10:46And we forget how difficult it was before it existed.
10:51So imagine if I wanted to add up my bill,
10:54but not using the decimal system, using Roman numerals instead.
10:58Number 2. Zoroaster
11:00They believed their prophet, Zoroaster,
11:02was born of a virgin mother in what is now Afghanistan.
11:07Satan, heaven, and hell were all Zoroastrian concepts,
11:11later embraced by Christianity and Islam.
11:14The ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster founded Zoroastrianism,
11:18a religion with one creator, Ahura Mazda, and many deities.
11:23Zoroastrianism also influenced the first monotheistic religions,
11:26which shaped spiritual and philosophical thought for millennia.
11:30Zoroaster's teachings, recorded in the Avesta,
11:34Scholars now claim the three wise men who paid tribute at the birth of Christ
11:39were, in fact, Zoroastrian priests.
12:03Zoroastrianism influenced all Abrahamic religions,
12:14Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,
12:17in turn influencing over 3 billion of their followers.
12:20Zoroastrianism's emphasis on ethics, truth, and individual responsibility
12:25helped shape Persian culture and governance,
12:27particularly during the Achaemenid Empire,
12:30which embraced religious tolerance and justice.
12:32While the number of Zoroastrians has waxed and waned over centuries,
12:36Iran's secular renaissance coincides with increased interest
12:40in one of the world's oldest religions.
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13:17As the founder of the Persian Empire,
13:20Cyrus the Great or Khorosh-e-Bozorg's early childhood is the stuff of legends.
13:25Perhaps his greatest achievement was merging the Median and Persian Empires
13:29to form the first global empire, and the largest of its era.
13:33The Greek historian Xenophon's book Cyropaedia is a fictionalized biography of Cyrus
13:37that went on to influence leaders like Aristotle, Alexander the Great, and Thomas Jefferson.
13:43As such, Cyrus can arguably be posited as Iran's greatest leader.
13:47That having been said, his successors Darius and Xerxes
13:50lay a substantial claim to the throne by building on his legacy.
13:54Their achievements include development of the Persian Empire's postal and taxation system,
13:59windmills, and air conditioning, among other advancements.
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