Persophilia

Persophilia refers to the appreciation and love of the culture, people or history of Iran (Persia). The earliest use of the word may have been by the Royal Numismatic Society in 1838; it referred to a king of Marium, in modern-day Cyprus. The opposite of Persophilia is anti-Persian sentiment or anti-Iranianism.

Origins
Admiration of the Persians was especially high during the Achaemenid dynasty. Its founder, Cyrus the Great, was the only Gentile to be considered a messiah in the Bible. Alexander the Great, who conquered the empire in its entirety, was himself an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great and adopted Persian customs. The Macedonian satrap Peucestas gained the support of his subjects in Persis due to his Persophilia. Ancient Greek leaders of the Achaemenid period who gave themselves Persian titles or names were considered Persophiles. The kings of Sidonian whose governmental policies gave special rights to the Persians may also be referred to as Persophiles.

Caucasian leaders who sided with the Sasanians are branded as Persophiles, such as Stephen I of Iberia.

Early Abbasid caliphs Harun al-Rashid and Al-Ma'mun are described as Persophile by the English author Percy Sykes, due to their pro-Persian policies.

Admiration of Persian culture continued during the Mughal Empire in South Asia; for example, Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana was considered the foremost Persophile of his time.

One of the most prominent contemporary Persophiles was the British literary historian Edward Granville Browne, who participated in the 1906 Persian Constitutional Revolution.

A recent book on Persophilia is the Iranian Hamid Dabashi is "Persophilia, Persian Culture on the Global Scene".

Other Persophiles

 * Alexander the Great (356–323 BC)
 * Pausanias
 * Xenophon
 * Ralph Waldo Emerson
 * Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the author of West–Eastern Diwan
 * Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
 * Edward FitzGerald
 * Friedrich Nietzsche
 * Mehmed Tahir Münif Pasha
 * Muhammad Iqbal
 * Arthur Upham Pope
 * Howard Baskerville
 * Richard Nelson Frye
 * Peter Avery
 * Coleman Barks
 * John Limbert
 * Garnik Asatrian
 * Richard Foltz
 * Dick Davis
 * Jackson Hinkle