Khorāsān (Middle Persian: Xwarāsān; Persian: خراسان [xoɾɒːˈsɒːn] ()), sometimes called Greater Khorasan, is a historical eastern Iranian region. The name Khorāsān is Persian and means "where the sun arrives from" or "the Eastern Province". The name was first given to the eastern province of Persia during the Sasanian Empire and was used from the late Middle Ages in distinction to neighbouring Transoxiana. Greater Khorasan is today sometimes used to distinguish the larger historical region from the former Khorasan Province of Iran (1906–2004), which roughly encompassed the western half of the historical Greater Khorasan.