Persia Historical name for a region roughly coterminous with modern Iran. The term was used for centuries, chiefly in the West, and originally described a region of southern Iran formerly known as Persis or Parsa. Parsa was the name of an Indo-European nomadic people who migrated into the area c. 1000 bc; the use of the name was gradually extended by the ancient Greeks and other Western peoples to apply to the whole Ira¬ nian plateau. The people of Iran have always called their country Iran, and in 1935 the government requested that the name Iran be used instead of Persia.
Persian cat Breed of stocky, round-headed domestic cat that has a long, silky coat (many colours possible), large round eyes, snub nose, and thick ruff. The breed is often referred to as the longhair.
Persian Gulf Arm of the Arabian Sea. It is about 615 mi (990 km) long and rarely exceeds a depth of 300 ft (90 m). It is connected with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea through the Strait of Hormuz. It contains the island kingdom of Bahrain and is bordered by Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Iraq. It has long been a maritime trade route between the Middle East and South Asia; its mod¬ ern economy is dominated by petroleum production.
Persian Gulf War, First or Gulf War (1990-91) International con¬ flict triggered by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Though jus¬ tified by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on grounds that Kuwait was historically part of Iraq, the invasion was presumed to be motivated by Iraq’s desire to acquire Kuwait’s rich oil fields and expand its power in the region. The United States, fearing Iraq’s broader strategic intentions and acting under UN auspices, eventually formed a broad coalition, which included a number of Arab countries, and began massing troops in north¬ ern Saudi Arabia. When Iraq ignored a UN Security Council deadline for it to withdraw from Kuwait, the coalition began a large-scale air offen¬ sive (Jan. 16-17, 1991). Saddam responded by launching ballistic mis¬ siles against neighbouring coalition states as well as Israel. A ground offensive by the coalition (February 24-28) quickly achieved victory. Estimates of Iraqi military deaths range up to 100,000; coalition forces lost about 300 troops. The war also caused extensive damage to the region’s environment. The Iraqi regime subsequently faced widespread popular uprisings, which it brutally suppressed. A UN trade embargo remained in effect after the end of the conflict, pending Iraq’s compliance with the terms of the armistice. The foremost term was that Iraq destroy its nuclear-, biological-, and chemical-weapons programs. The embargo continued into the 21st century and ceased only after the Second Persian Gulf War.
Persian Gulf War, Second (2003) International conflict that took place between Iraq and a combined force of troops from the United States and Great Britain, with smaller contingents from several other countries. The trade embargo and weapons-inspection process that the UN imposed on Iraq following the First Persian Gulf War (1990-91) had partly fallen into abeyance by 2001. U.S. Pres. George W. Bush argued that the Sep¬ tember 11 attacks on the U.S. in that same year highlighted the threat to U.S. security posed by hostile countries such as Iraq. Encouraged by Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the UN issued Security Council Resolution 1441 in November 2002, demanding that Iraq readmit weap¬ ons inspectors and comply with all previous resolutions. Although Iraqi did readmit inspectors, Bush and Blair declared in early 2003 (despite objections by many world leaders) that Iraq was continuing to hinder UN inspections and that it still retained proscribed weapons. On March 20, seeking no further UN resolutions, the U.S. and Britain (with token rep¬ resentation from other countries) launched a series of air attacks on Iraq, and a ground invasion followed. Iraqi military and paramilitary forces were rapidly defeated; on April 9 U.S. forces took control of the capital, Baghdad, and British forces completed their occupation of the southern city of AI-Basrah the same day. Within a few more days, all major cities had fallen, and by May 1 major combat operations had been completed. Guerrilla assaults on occupying forces continued thereafter, hindering Iraq’s recovery.
Persian language or Farsi language Iranian language spoken by more than 25 million people in Iran as a first language, and by millions more as a second. Modern Persian is a koine developed from southwest¬ ern dialects in the 7th-9th centuries, after the introduction of Islam brought a massive infusion of loanwords from Arabic. Its standardization and literary cultivation took place in northeastern Persia and Central Asia in the 11 th— 12th centuries. Polities outside Persia itself (e.g., Mughal
India, Ottoman Turkey) have at times been major literary centres. Its sta¬ tus in those countries led to a very strong Persian influence on Urdu and Ottoman Turkish. Other Turkic and Indo-Aryan languages, Caucasian lan¬ guages, and Iranian languages have also borrowed heavily from Persian. It is written in a slightly modified form of the Arabic alphabet.
Persian Wars or Greco-Persian Wars (492-449 bc) Series of wars between Greek states and Persia, particularly two invasions of Greece by Persia (490, 480-479). When Darius I came to power in Persia in 522, the Ionian Greek city-states in Anatolia were under Persian con¬ trol. They rose up unsuccessfully in the Ionian revolt (499-494). The sup¬ port lent by Athens provoked Darius to invade Greece (492). His fleet was destroyed in a storm. In 490 he assembled a huge army on a plain near Athens; his devastating defeat at the Battle of Marathon sent him back to Persia. In 480 the Persians under Xerxes I again invaded Greece, seeking to avenge the defeat. This time all Greece fought together, with Sparta in charge of the army and Athens of the navy. A band of Spartans under Leonidas was overcome at the Battle of Thermopylae, allowing the Persian army to reach Athens, which they sacked (480). When the Per¬ sian navy was soundly defeated at the Battle of Salamis, Xerxes withdrew it to Persia. His army was defeated at the Battle of Plataea in 479 and driven from Greece, and the navy met a similar fate at Mycale on the Anatolian coast. Sporadic fighting went on for 30 more years, during which Athens formed the Delian League to free the Ionians. The Peace of Callias (449) ended the hostilities.
persimmon Either of two trees of family, and their globular, edible fruits. The native American persim¬ mon ( D. virginiana ), a small tree with dark-red to maroon fruits that contain several large, flattened seeds, grows from the Gulf states north to central Pennsylvania and central Illi¬ nois. The Oriental persimmon ( D. kaki), grown extensively in China and Japan, has larger, more astrin¬ gent, yellow to red fruit. Good sources of vitamins A and C, persim¬ mons are eaten fresh or stewed or cooked as jam.
Perski, Shimon See Shimon Peres
personal computer (PC) Microcomputer designed for use by one person at a time. A typical PC assemblage comprises a CPU; internal memory consisting of RAM and ROM; data storage devices (including a hard disc, a floppy disc, or CD-ROM); and input/output devices (including a display screen, keyboard, mouse, and printer). The PC industry began in 1977 when Apple Computer introduced the Apple II. Radio Shack and Commodore Business Machines also introduced PCs that year. IBM entered the PC market in 1981. The IBM PC, with increased memory capacity and backed by IBM’s large sales organization, quickly became the industry standard. Apple’s Macintosh (1984) was particularly useful for desktop publishing. Microsoft Corp. introduced MS Windows (1985), a graphical user interface that gave PCs many of the capabilities of the Macintosh, initially as an overlay of MS-DOS. Windows went on to replace MS-DOS as the dominant operating system for personal comput¬ ers. Uses of PCs multiplied as the machines became more powerful and application software proliferated. Today, PCs are used for word process¬ ing, Internet access, and many other daily tasks.