in 1935, reza shāh pahlavi was shah of iran. he officially asked foreigners to call the country "iran". this was done to show that iran belongs to all the non-persian iranians as well as to persian iranians. the name iran means "land of the aryans". it is used in the ancient book of the zoroastrians, the avesta. in the 19th and early 20th century, the name "aryan" was used by europeans to mean "all indo-europeans". the "aryan race" was a term that hitler used to describe his "superior" or "perfect" race, but it first meant iranians. "aryan" means "noble" in iranian languages.