Greater Iran (Persian: ایران بزرگ‎‎, Irān-e Bozorg, ایران زَمین, Irānzamīn) refers to the regions of the Caucasus, West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia that have significant Iranian cultural influence due to having been either long historically ruled by the various Iranian and Persian empires (such as those of the Medes, Achaemenids, Parthians, Sassanians, Samanids, Safavids, and Afsharids and the Qajar Empire), having considerable aspects of Persian culture in their own culture due to extensive contact with the various Empires based in Persia (e.g., those regions and peoples in the North Caucasus that were not under direct Iranian rule), or are simply nowadays still inhabited by a significant amount of Iranian people who patronize their respective cultures (as it goes for the western parts of South Asia, Bahrain and China).