The Islamic Republic of Iran Ground Forces (, Niruye Zaminiye Arteše Jomhuriye Eslâmiye Irân) (, NEZAJA) are the conventional ground forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces. In Iran, it is also called Artesh, () which is Persian for "army."
In 2025, the Central Intelligence Agency estimated that the regular Iranian Army ground forces had 350,000 personnel. Conscripts serve for 21 months as of 2015. Iran has two parallel land forces with some integration at the command level: the regular Artesh (Army), and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also known as the Sepâh (IRGC). Thus the IRGC Ground Forces parallel the Arteshs regular ground forces.
History
Antiquity A national army of sorts has existed in Iran since the establishment of the Persian Empire. National armies usually appeared throughout the country's points of strength, while in times of weakness mercenaries and conscript armies were recruited temporarily from fiefdoms. The original core of full-time troops and imperial body guards were called the Immortals, these were established in 580 BC by Cyrus the Great. These were replaced by the Junishapur Shâhanshâh (King of Kings) in the Sassanid Dynasty after a period of disunity and chaos in the country. Following the Islamic invasion of Iran and eventual resurgence of Iranian dynasties a new full-time army was formed by the name of Qezelbash in the Safavid dynasty.
Qajar era The Qajar period saw several attempts to re-model the traditional Iranian military based on western models. These were met with limited success.
"In 1918 the Qajar armed forces consisted of four, separate, foreign-commanded military units. Several provincial and tribal forces could also be called on during an emergency, but their reliability was highly questionable. More often than not, provincial and tribal forces opposed the government's centralisation efforts, particularly because Tehran was perceived to be under the dictate of foreign powers. Having foreign officers in commanding positions over Iranian troops added to these tribal and religious concerns."
"Loyal, disciplined, and well trained, the most effective government unit was the 8,000-man Persian Cossack Brigade. It was created in 1879 and commanded by Russian Imperial Army officers until the 1917 Russian Revolution. After that date its command passed into Iranian hands, and the brigade represented the core of the new, Iranian armed forces. Swedish officers commanded the 8,400-man Gendarmerie, organised in 1911 as the first, internal security force. The 6,000-man South Persia Rifles was financed by Britain and commanded by British officers from its inception in 1916. Its primary task was to combat tribal forces allegedly stirred up by German agents during the First World War. The Qajar palace guard, the Nizam, commanded by a Swedish officer, was a force originally consisting of 2,000 men, although it deteriorated rapidly in numbers because of rivalries. Thus, during the First World War, the 24,400 troops in these four, separate, military units made up one of the weakest forces in Iranian history." After the First World War, the army had shrunk, but not much on paper, ostentiably numbering 25,000 in total. By 1920 it consisted of the Persian Cossacks; the Gendarmerie, expanded from two regiments that had stayed loyal; and the South Persia Rifles and the regular army, reduced to the Central Brigade in Tehran, with a theoretical strength of 2,200.
Pahlavi era From 1922-26, Reza Shah as he would become introduced a series of reforms to unify the disparate forces. After unification of the forces, the Army was reorganized into five divisions to be based in the country's five largest cities.
Following the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1925, the new Imperial Iranian Army became a priority. Azizollah Zarghami served as the chief of staff of the Imperial Army in 1934–1941. By 1941, it stood at 125,000 troops—five times its original size—and was considered well trained and well equipped. However, the army was focused on internal security operations, rather than, Farrokh says, fighting the "well-led and equipped Western and Soviet armies."
Ward writes that the 'army's sixteen divisions were spread across the country in their home garrisons, and only some of the western divisions had received any significant reinforcements of infantry and artillery. Maj. Gen. Hassan Mogaddam, the 5th Division commander, was put in charge of all western forces." The defence of the Khorramshahr-Ahvaz area was put under the navy's Rear Admiral Gholamali Bayandor, with his sailors plus a brigade of the army's 6th Division.
In August 1941 the Soviets and British launched the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, which began on 25 August and lasted until 17 September. London and Moscow had insisted that the Shah expel Iran's large German population and allow shipments of war supplies to cross the country en route to the Soviet Union. Both of these proved unacceptable to Reza Shah; he was sympathetic to Germany, and Iran had declared its neutrality in the Second World War. Iran's location was so strategically important to the Allied war effort, however, that London and Moscow chose to violate Tehran's neutrality. From the south came the British Paiforce, under the command of Lieutenant-General Edward Quinan. Paiforce was made up of the 8th and 10th Indian Infantry Divisions, plus three other brigades. Meanwhile, the Soviets invaded from the north. Three armies, the 44th, 47th and 53rd Armies of the Transcaucasian Front under General Dmitry Timofeyevich Kozlov, occupied Iran's northern provinces.
Against the Allied forces, the army was overwhelmed in three days, while the fledgling Imperial Iranian Air Force and Imperial Iranian Navy suffered heavy damage. Conscripts deserted by the thousands. The army was reduced from 16 to nine divisions in the last week of August 1941, and Iran accepted the British/Soviet terms for an end to the war on August 31, 1941.
Reza Shah's institutional power base had been ruined. He therefore abdicated in favour of his young son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. In the absence of a broad political power base and with a shattered army, Mohammad Reza Shah faced an almost impossible task of rebuilding. There was no popular sympathy for the army in view of the widespread and largely accurate perception that it was a brutal tool used to uphold a dictatorial regime. The young shah also wanted to distance Tehran from European military contacts. In 1942, he invited the United States to send an Army Mission, Iran to advise in the reorganisation effort. With American advice, emphasis was placed on quality rather than quantity.
In mid-1943, Colonel Ali Akbar Derakhshani was sent to restore order in Rezaieh and its vicinity. In October 1943, Derakshani presented a report to Mohammad Reza Shah at Marmar Palace, where the Shah expressed gratitude for his efforts. On October 26, 1943, Derakhshani was awarded a military medal personally by the Shah and, less than a week later, was promoted to the command of the 3rd Division with its headquarters in Tabriz, covering military forces in both East and West Azerbaijan provinces, despite still holding the rank of colonel.خاطرات، چاپ آمریکا، ٣١٣
The small but more confident army that resulted from American training was capable enough to participate in the 1946 campaign in Azarbaijan to put down a Soviet-inspired, separatist rebellion. During the three years of occupation, Stalin had expanded Soviet political influence in Azerbaijan and the Kurdish area in northwestern Iran. On 12 December 1945, after weeks of violent clashes, a Soviet-backed separatist People's Republic of Azerbaijan was founded. The Kurdish People's Republic was also established in late 1945. Iranian troops sent to re-establish control were blocked by Soviet Red Army units. When the deadline for withdrawal arrived on 2 March 1946, six months after the end of hostilities, the British began to withdraw, but Moscow refused, "citing threats to Soviet security," sparking the Iran crisis of 1946. Soviet troops did not withdraw from Iran proper until May 1946, following Iran's official complaint to the newly formed United Nations Security Council and intense pressure from the United States.George Lenczowski, American Presidents and the Middle East, (1990), p. 7-13
In 1944-1945 a U.S. financial advisory mission led by Arthur Millspaugh had produced potential future army size figures that clashed with the Shah's wishes, but after Millspaugh had been dismissed, the Majlis agreed to expand the army once more, and by autumn 1945 was proposing a 12,000 man increase to an existing plan for 90,000. But unlike its 1925 counterpart, the succeeding 1946 Majlis was suspicious of the shah's plans for a strong army. Many members of the parliament feared that the army would once again be used as a source of political power. To curtail the shah's potential domination of the country, they limited his military budgets. After the Second World War a U.S. Army Mission was placed on a more regular basis under General Robert W. Grow, and gradually grew in size. A host of western advisors slowly arrived.
In 1948 and 1951, British and U.S. reporting mentioned the 2nd Division of the Central Garrison [Tehran]; 3rd Division at Tabriz; 4th Division at Rezaiyeh; 6th Division at Fars; 7th Division at Kerman; 8th Division at Meshad and the 9th Division at Isfahan.https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100055165772.0x00007e, British Embassy, Tehran, 12th October 1948. The 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 8th Divisions in the same locations are reported in ARMISH reports in 1951 cited in Ward, "Immortal," 2014, p.342. Gholam Reza Azhari commanded the 11th Infantry Division in 1959-60. In 1959-60, with the implementation of a new army plan, the 6th Division was reorganized on a Western pattern with three brigades, and renamed the 8th Armoured Division.See Talk:92nd Armoured Division (Iran) for source. In 1964, with a perceived lesser threat from the Soviet Armed Forces, military attention was refocused on the south, and in February 1966 the Shah ordered formation of a new Third Corps, including parachute units, to be based at Shiraz.
From the 1966–67 edition to the 1969–70 edition, the IISS Military Balance listed the Iranian Army with one armoured division, possibly the 16th, seven infantry divisions, and one independent armoured brigade. By the 1971–72 edition, two armoured divisions, five infantry divisions, the independent armoured brigade, and other independent brigades were listed. Within two years after that, the listing quickly changed to three armoured divisions and three infantry divisions.
The 16th Armoured Division of Qazvin was established in 1963, "operational by 1970" according to its Farsi Wikipedia article. An infantry brigade at Charbahr became the 88th Armoured Brigade of Zahedan from 1976.
The returning chief of the U.S. Army Section, ARMISH-MAAG, Colonel Theo C. Mataxis, wrote in June 1970: The IIGF has undergone six reorganizations since 1962. As a result, before one reorganization has been completed, another has been initiated. None have been carried through to completion. This is especially true of the IIGF Logistical System since combat unit force goals have changed so frequently that the development of a logistical unit plan to support them has never got off the ground.
The army was to become the world's fifth largest by 1979. Throughout the 1970s the Imperial Iranian Ground Forces, as they were then known, underwent a rapid transformation and increase in strength. During this period, Iran established the Imperial Iranian Army Aviation (IIAA). It was mainly equipped with American aircraft types.