Arak, Iran Arak, Iran Arak (, "Arâk"; ), is the capital of Markazi Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 526,182, in 160,761 families. this city nicknamed as Industrial Capital of Iran. A major industrial city, Arak hosts several industrial factories inside and within a few kilometers outside the city, including the factory of Machine Sazi Arak and the Iranian Aluminium Company. These factories produce nearly half of the needs of the country in steel, petrochemical, and locomotive industries. As an industrial city in a developing country, Arak is subject to the issue of air pollution. The term "Arâk" remains
Iran of the Iranians, surrounding themselves with a culture that was distinctively Iranian. By the 1500s, Ismail I of Ardabil established the Safavid Empire, with his capital at Tabriz. Beginning with Azerbaijan, he subsequently extended his authority over all of the Iranian territories, and established an intermittent Iranian hegemony over the vast relative regions, reasserting the Iranian identity within large parts of Greater Iran. Iran was predominantly Sunni, but Ismail instigated a forced conversion to the Shia branch of Islam, spreading throughout the Safavid territories in the Caucasus, Iran, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. As a result, thereof, modern-day Iran is the only