133-681: The Arab conquest of Iran , which culminated in the fall of the Sasanian Empire to the nascent Rashidun Caliphate , brought about a monumental change in Iranian society by purging Zoroastrianism , which had been the Iranian nation's official and majority religion since the time of the Achaemenid Empire . Since the Rashidun invasion, Islam (in any form) has consistently held the status of Iran's official religion except for during
266-459: A Turkish Kurdish delegation and an Iraqi Kurdish delegation at the border area near Mount Dalanpar where they signed the Pact of Three Borders which demonstrated the existence of a strong Kurdish sense of cross-border solidarity and sentiment. Cross-border interaction became difficult to sustain in the 1950s due to repression from SAVAK on the Iranian side. However, Kurds were able to reinforce
399-594: A grand madrassah at Samarkand . Although Shi'as have lived in Iran since the earliest days of Islam, the writers of the Four Books of Shi'a ahadith were Iranians of the pre-Safavid era and there was one Shi'a dynasty in part of Iran during the tenth and eleventh centuries, according to Mortaza Motahhari the majority of Iranian scholars and masses remained Sunni till the time of the Safavids. The domination of
532-456: A blessing, the advent of the true faith, the end of the age of ignorance and heathenism; by others as a humiliating national defeat, the conquest and subjugation of the country by foreign invaders. Both perceptions are of course valid, depending on one's angle of vision." Under Umar and his immediate successors, the Arab conquerors attempted to maintain their political and cultural cohesion despite
665-821: A form of deism —that is, belief in God without identifying as religious . In all GAMAAN surveys, 7% to 10% of Iranian respondents identified as atheists . Moreover, the online surveys offered respondents a unique opportunity to express themselves, leading to fluctuating numbers of Iranians identifying as Zoroastrians. Muslims conquered Iran in the time of Umar (637) and conquered it after several great battles. Yazdegerd III fled from one district to another Merv in 651. By 674, Muslims had conquered Greater Khorasan (which included modern Iranian Khorasan province and modern Afghanistan , Transoxania ). As Bernard Lewis has quoted "These events have been variously seen in Iran: by some as
798-473: A grandson of Khosrau II and was said to be a mere child aged 8 years. After the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah in 628, Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad sent many letters to the princes, kings, and chiefs of the various tribes and kingdoms of the time, exhorting them to convert to Islam and bow to the order of God. These letters were carried by ambassadors to Persia , Byzantium , Ethiopia , Egypt , Yemen , and
931-569: A major offence in the Levant, Yazdegerd ordered the concentration of massive armies to push the Muslims out of Mesopotamia for good through a series of well-coordinated attacks on two fronts. Umar ordered his army to retreat to the Arabian border and began raising armies at Medina for another campaign into Mesopotamia. Owing to the critical situation, Umar wished to command the army personally, but
1064-455: A more centralized administrative system. During the 20th century Iran underwent significant changes such as the 1906 Constitutional Revolution and the secularism of the Pahlavi dynasty. According to scholar Roy Mottahedeh, one significant change to Islam in Iran during the first half of the 20th century was that the class of ulema lost its informality that allowed it to include everyone from
1197-466: A new element even to Islam itself. Culturally, politically, and most remarkable of all even religiously, the Iranian contribution to this new Islamic civilization is of immense importance. The work of Iranians can be seen in every field of cultural endeavor, including Arabic poetry, to which poets of Iranian origin composing their poems in Arabic made a very significant contribution. In a sense, Iranian Islam
1330-530: A prime target for the Muslims. Sasanian society was divided into four classes: priests, warriors, secretaries, and commoners. The latter formed the bulk of the population, served as its sole tax base, and remained its poorest class. At the climax of Khosrau II's ambitious Byzantine territory conquests in the Levant and much of Asia Minor , taxes rose dramatically, and most people could not pay. Years of Sassanid-Byzantine wars had ruined trade routes and industry,
1463-461: A report by the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN) in the same year showed a sharp decline in religiosity in the country, as only 40% of Iranian respondents identified as Muslims. Subsequent GAMAAN surveys in 2022 showed that, depending on how the question was asked, 38% to 56% identified as Shia Muslims, 5% identified as Sunni Muslims, and roughly a quarter of were susceptible to
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#17327721533991596-572: A sharp decline in religiosity in Iran (mostly among Islam), and only 40% of Iranians who took part of the online survey identified as Muslims. Figures in the census taken by the Islamic Republic do not include Baháʼís (who are not recognized as a religious group in the Iranian Constitution) or whether a Muslim is Sunni or Shia , but estimates are that there are 300,000 Baháʼís, and approximately 15 million Sunnis, making
1729-649: A short period in the 13th century, when the Mongol invasions and conquests destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate and smaller Islamic realms before resulting in the establishment of the Ilkhanate . The process by which Iranian society became integrated into the Muslim world took place over many centuries, with nobility and city-dwellers being among the first to convert, in spite of notable periods of resistance, while
1862-560: A significant impact on some of the new generation of Iranian intellectuals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After entering Iran, the students of this school continued to expand this thinking and with the formation of missionary groups. These thoughts have been strengthened on one hand due to the cultural relationships between the Baloch tribes and on the other hand due to the connection of Sistan and Baluchestan's Iran and India's Hanafi religious leaders in Iran. Today, Deobandi thinking
1995-521: A way unprecedented in Shi'ite history. Likewise, the ulama began to take a more active role in agitating against Sufism and other forms of popular religion, which remained strong in Iran, and in enforcing a more scholarly type of Shi'a Islam among the masses. The development of the ta'ziah —a passion play commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Husayn and his family — and Ziarat of the shrines and tombs of local Shi'ite leaders began during this period, largely at
2128-538: Is His servant and Prophet. Under the Command of God, I invite you to Him. He has sent me for the guidance of all people so that I may warn them all of His wrath and may present the unbelievers with an ultimatum. Embrace Islam so that you may remain safe. And if you refuse to accept Islam, you will be responsible for the sins of the Magi. There are differing accounts of the reaction of Khosrau II . Years of warfare between
2261-483: Is a remarkable fact that, with few exceptions, most Muslim scholars… in the intellectual sciences have been non-Arabs, thus the founders of grammar were Sibawaih and after him, al-Farsi and Az- Zajjaj . All of them were of Persian descent... they invented rules of (Arabic) grammar . Great jurists were Persians. Only the Persians engaged in the task of preserving knowledge and writing systematic scholarly works. Thus
2394-605: Is a second advent of Islam itself, a new Islam sometimes referred to as Islam-i Ajam . It was this Persian Islam, rather than the original Arab Islam, that was brought to new areas and new peoples: to the Turks, first in Central Asia and then in the Middle East in the country which came to be called Turkey, and India. The Ottoman Turks brought a form of Iranian civilization to the walls of Vienna..." The Islamization of Iran
2527-598: Is disagreement on which is the largest denomination among Kurds; experts such as Richard N. Frye and Martin van Bruinessen argue that Sunni Islam (the Shafi'i branch ) is the majority religion, while researcher Anu Leinonen believes it is the Twelver branch of Shia Islam. Pockets of Sunni Kurds belong to the Qadiriyya tariqa (around Marivan and Sanandaj ). These orders have experienced repression from
2660-503: Is now Azerbaijan became predominantly Shi’ite countries. As in the case of the early caliphate , Safavid rule had been based originally on both political and religious legitimacy, with the shah being both king and divine representative. With the later erosion of Safavid central political authority in the mid-17th century, the power of the Shia scholars in civil affairs such as judges, administrators, and court functionaries, began to grow, in
2793-487: Is now Iraq was under Islamic control. Khalid received a call for aid from northern Arabia at Dawmat al-Jandal, where another Muslim Arab general, Iyad ibn Ghanm , was trapped among the rebel tribes. Khalid went there and defeated the rebels in the Battle of Dawmat al-Jandal in the last week of August. Upon his return, he received news of the assembling of a large Persian army. He decided to defeat them all separately to avoid
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#17327721533992926-738: Is now widely believed that the annexation of the Lakhmid kingdom was one of the main factors behind the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the subsequent Islamic conquest of Persia, as the Lakhmids agreed to act as spies for the Muslims after being defeated in the Battle of Hira by Khalid ibn al-Walid . The Persian ruler Khosrau II (Parviz) defeated a dangerous rebellion within his own empire, Bahram Chobin 's rebellion. He then turned his focus to his traditional Byzantine enemies, leading to
3059-613: Is one of the intellectual currents in Sistan and Baluchestan and preaching groups are active in different cities and villages. Its playing a crucial role in Iran's political landscape. The Deobandis aimed to homogenize religious schools and were opposed to certain popular practices. The Naqshbandi order played an important role in the Deobandi school of thought in the Persian-speaking world. The Iranian Revolution (also known as
3192-830: The Abbasid revolution of 749–51, in which Iranian converts played a major role, the Caliphate's center of gravity moved to Mesopotamia and underwent significant Iranian influences. Accordingly, the Muslim population of Iran rose from approx. 40% in the mid 9th century to close to 100% by the end of 11th century. Islam was readily accepted by Zoroastrians who were employed in industrial and artisan positions because, according to Zoroastrian dogma, such occupations that involved defiling fire made them impure. Moreover, Muslim missionaries did not encounter difficulty in explaining Islamic tenets to Zoroastrians, as there were many similarities between
3325-535: The Battle of Ullais , fought in mid-May. The Persian court, already disturbed by internal problems, was thrown into chaos. In the last week of May, the important city of Al-Hirah fell to the Muslims . After resting his armies, in June, Khalid laid siege to the city of al-Anbar , which surrendered in July. Khalid then moved south, and conquered the city of Ayn al-Tamr in the last week of July. At this point, most of what
3458-603: The Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628 . For a few years, he succeeded. From 612 to 622, he extended the Persian borders almost to the same extent that they were under the Achaemenid dynasty (550–330 BC), capturing Western states as far as Egypt , Palestine (the conquest of the latter being assisted by a Jewish army), and more. The Byzantines regrouped and pushed back in 622 under Heraclius . Khosrau
3591-602: The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 . Following the execution of Sasanian shah Khosrow II in 628, Persia's internal political stability began deteriorating at a rapid pace. Subsequently, ten new royal claimants were enthroned within the next four years. Shortly afterwards, Persia was further devastated by the Sasanian Interregnum , a large-scale civil war that began in 628 and resulted in the government's decentralization by 632. Amidst Persia's turmoil,
3724-615: The Euphrates River. The border was constantly contested. Most battles, and thus most fortifications, were concentrated in the hilly regions of the north, as the vast Arabian or Syrian Desert (Roman Arabia) separated the rival empires in the south. The only dangers expected from the south were occasional raids by nomadic Arab tribesmen. Both empires therefore allied themselves with small, semi-independent Arab principalities, which served as buffer states and protected Byzantium and Persia from Bedouin attacks. The Byzantine clients were
3857-631: The French and Russian Revolutions , and an event that "made Islamic fundamentalism a political force ... from Morocco to Malaysia ." According to official Islamic Republic figures, 99% of Iranians are Muslims , with the remainder being Christians , Jews , and Zoroastrians . A 2020 survey by the World Values Survey found that 96.6% of Iranians believe in Islam . However, according to another 2020 online survey by GAMAAN, there has been
3990-541: The Ghassanids ; the Persian clients were the Lakhmids . The Ghassanids and Lakhmids feuded constantly, which kept them occupied, but that did not greatly affect the Byzantines or the Persians. In the 6th and 7th centuries, various factors destroyed the balance of power that had held for so many centuries. The conflict with the Byzantines greatly contributed to its weakness, by draining Sassanid resources, leaving it
4123-686: The Ghaznavids , that lasted to 1186. Later, the Seljuks , who like the Ghaznavids were Turks, slowly conquered Iran over the course of the 11th century. Their leader, Tughril Beg , turned his warriors against the Ghaznavids in Khorasan. He moved south and then west, conquering but not wasting the cities in his path. In 1055 the caliph in Baghdad gave Tughril Beg robes, gifts, and the title King of
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4256-816: The Kurdistan Province , Kermanshah Province , West Azerbaijan Province , Ilam Province , and Lorestan Province . Shia Feyli Kurds inhabit Kermanshah Province, except for those parts where people are Jaff , and Ilam Province; as well as some parts of Kurdistan and Hamadan provinces. The Kurds of Khorasan , in the North Khorasan Province of northeastern Iran, are Shi'ite Muslims. The Lak tribe populate parts of Ilam Province and Lorestan Province , while Chegini Kurds reside in central Lorestan . The two major religions among Kurds in Iran are Islam and Yarsanism , while fewer Kurds adhere to Baháʼí Faith and Judaism . There
4389-593: The Maysan region, which the Muslims seized later as well. Kurds in Iran Kurds in Iran ( Kurdish : کورد لە ئێران , romanized : Kurdên Îranê , Persian : کردها در ایران ) constitute a large minority in the country with a population of around 9 and 10 million people. Iranian Kurdistan or Eastern Kurdistan ( Rojhilatê Kurdistanê ), refers to the parts of western Iran inhabited by Kurds which borders Iraq and Turkey . It includes
4522-622: The Muslim armies. Moreover, the powerful northern and eastern Parthian families, the kust-i khwarasan and kust-i adurbadagan, withdrew to their respective strongholds and made peace with the Arabs, refusing to fight alongside the Sassanians. Another important theme of Pourshariati's study is a re-evaluation of the traditional timeline. Pourshariati argues that the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia "took place, not, as has been conventionally believed, in
4655-593: The Muslim conquest of Persia , they relied solely on the accounts of the Armenian Christian bishop Sebeos , and accounts in Arabic written some time after the events they describe. The most significant work was probably that of Arthur Christensen , and his L’Iran sous les Sassanides , published in Copenhagen and Paris in 1944. Recent scholarship has begun to question the traditional narrative: Parvaneh Pourshariati , in her Decline and Fall of
4788-474: The Muslim conquest of Iran , the Arab conquest of Persia , or the Arab conquest of Iran , was a major military campaign undertaken by the Rashidun Caliphate between 632 and 654. As part of the early Muslim conquests , which had begun under Muhammad in 622, it led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the eventual decline of Zoroastrianism , which had been predominant throughout Persia as
4921-474: The Safavids because the mountainous region of Larestan was too isolated. The majority of Lari people are Sunni Muslims, 35% of Lari people are Shia Muslims. Muslim conquest of Persia Khuzestan Central Persia Caucasus Pars Khorasan Other geographies Byzantine Empire Sassanid Persia Caucasus Other regions The Muslim conquest of Persia , also called
5054-576: The Safavids forcefully converted Iran to Shia Islam in the 18th century. This was the first time since the collapse of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC with the Battle of Opis , that Mesopotamia was ruled again by Semitic -speaking people, after centuries of Persian ( Achaemenid , Parthian and Sasanian empires), and Roman-Greek ( Macedonian , Seleucid the Roman empires) ruling periods. When Western academics first investigated
5187-586: The historic Iranian monarchy and replacing it with an Islamic republic . Shia and Sunni Islam in Iran. Statistics from the CIA . Actual values reported by the 2011 source are Shia, 90-95% and Sunni, 5-10% . Later reports from the same site do not report this breakdown. The two sources indicate the total percentage of all Muslims to have been [i] 99.4% (2011 estimate , the remaining 0.6% being other religious groups—including 0.3% Zoroastrian, Jewish, or Christian, and 0.4% unspecified), or 98.5% (2020 estimate ,
5320-619: The " Islamic Golden Age ". During this period, hundreds of scholars and scientists vastly contributed to technology, science and medicine, later influencing the rise of European science during the Renaissance . The most important scholars of almost all of the Islamic sects and schools of thought were Persian or live in Iran including most notable and reliable Hadith collectors of Shia and Sunni like Shaikh Saduq , Shaikh Kulainy , Imam Bukhari , Imam Muslim and Hakim al-Nishaburi ,
5453-806: The 1980s, the two political and military groups had become powerful and cross-border interaction was therefore less important. Kurdish separatism in Iran or the Kurdish–Iranian conflict is an ongoing, long running, separatist dispute between the Kurdish opposition in Western Iran and the governments of Iran, lasting since the emergence of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1918. During the Iranian Revolution , Kurdish nationalist political parties were unsuccessful in attracting support, who at that time had no interest in autonomy. However, since
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5586-501: The 9th and 10th centuries, non-Arab subjects of the Ummah , especially Persians created a movement called Shu'ubiyya in response to the privileged status of Arabs. This movement led to resurgence of Persian national identity. Although Persians adopted Islam, over the centuries they worked to protect and revive their distinctive language and culture, a process known as Persianization . Arabs and Turks also participated in this attempt. As
5719-717: The Arab armies reached and overran the Persian plateau. Despite some resistance from elements of the Zoroastrian clergy and other ancient religions, the anti-Islamic policies of later conquerors like the Il-khanids, the impact of the Christian and secular West in modern times, and the attraction of new religious movements like Babism and the Baháʼí Faith (qq.v.), the vast majority of Iranians became and have remained Muslims. Today perhaps 98 percent of ethnic Iranians, including
5852-614: The Arabs managed to maintain their presence in the area. Later on, the Persians defeated Abu Ubaid in the Battle of the Bridge . Muthanna bin Haritha was later victorious in the Battle of Buwayb . In 635 Yazdgerd III sought an alliance with Emperor Heraclius of the Eastern Roman Empire , marrying the latter's daughter (or, by some traditions, his granddaughter) in order to seal the arrangement. While Heraclius prepared for
5985-466: The Byzantines with Persian support. Umar, allegedly aware of this alliance and not wanting to risk a battle with two great powers simultaneously, quickly reinforced the Muslim army at Yarmouk to engage and defeat the Byzantines. Meanwhile, he ordered Saad to enter into peace negotiations with Yazdegerd III and invite him to convert to Islam to prevent Persian forces from taking the field. Heraclius instructed his general Vahan not to engage in battle with
6118-533: The East. Under Tughril Beg's successor, Malik Shah (1072–1092), Iran enjoyed a cultural and scientific renaissance, largely attributed to his brilliant Iranian vizier, Nizam al Mulk . These leaders established the Isfahan Observatory where Omar Khayyám did much of his experimentation for a new calendar, and they built religious schools in all the major towns. They brought Abu Hamid Ghazali , one of
6251-490: The Islamic Republic of Iran, on must declare oneself as a member of one of the four recognized faiths—Muslims, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians. This official division ignores other religious minorities in Iran, notably those of the Baháʼí Faith . State sanctioned persecution of Bahá’ís follows from them being a "non-recognized" religious minority without any legal existence, classified as "unprotected infidels" by
6384-534: The Islamic Revolution, Persian : انقلاب اسلامی, Enghelābe Eslāmi ) was the revolution that transformed Iran from a secular, westernizing monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , to an Islamic republic based on the doctrine of Velayat-e faqih (rule by an Islamic jurist), under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , the leader of the revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic. It has been called "the third great revolution in history", following
6517-521: The Islamic legitimacy of the government in toto and embrace this or that alternative religiosity ... An example of one kind of religious alternative are figures (such as Ahmad al-Hassan ), claiming to be deputies of the Hidden Imam . In July 2018, following the protests , University of Maryland 's School of Public Policy released a report, Iranian Public Opinion after the Protests , and when
6650-529: The KDP rebuffed support from KDPI due to the desire to maintain close relations with Iran. In the 1970s, KDPI with Komalah and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) fought around Piranshahr , Sardasht , Baneh in the northern parts of Iranian Kurdistan against Iranian forces who received support from KDP. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, political infighting among Kurds increased and KDPI and Komala fought over political and spatial influence in Iranian Kurdistan as they were fighting Iran together. In
6783-504: The Kurdish population in the country was aware of the necessity of Kurdish unity and the need to form political and administrative entities for Kurds. However, these calls for Kurdish unity did not reach the broader Kurdish population until the 20th century when it awakened and diffused as a response to the implementation of nation-state policies ( Persianization ) by changing Iranian rulers. These policies not only alienated Kurds but also excluded them from equal access to citizenship. An example
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#17327721533996916-501: The Muslims before receiving explicit orders. Fearing more Arab reinforcements, Vahan attacked the Muslim army in the Battle of Yarmouk in August 636, and was routed. With the Byzantine threat ended, the Sasanian Empire was still a formidable power with vast manpower reserves, and the Arabs soon found themselves confronting a huge Persian army with troops drawn from every corner of the empire, including war elephants, and commanded by its foremost generals. Within three months, Saad defeated
7049-399: The Persian army in the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah , effectively ending Sasanian rule west of Persia proper. This victory is largely regarded as a decisive turning point in Islam's growth: with the bulk of Persian forces defeated, Saad with his companions later conquered Babylon ( Battle of Babylon (636) ), Kūthā , Sābāṭ ( Valashabad ) and Bahurasīr ( Veh-Ardashir ). Ctesiphon , the capital of
7182-421: The Persians decided to take back their lost territory. The Muslim army was forced to leave the conquered areas and concentrate on the border. Umar immediately sent reinforcements to aid Muthanna ibn Haritha in Mesopotamia under the command of Abu Ubaid al-Thaqafi . At that time, a series of battles between the Persians and Arabs occurred in the region of Sawad , such as Namaraq , Kaskar and Baqusiatha, in which
7315-423: The Roman forces, it was too slow and regimented to act with full force against the agile and unpredictable lightly armed Arab cavalry and foot archers. The Persian army had a few initial successes. War elephants temporarily halted the Arab army, but when Arab veterans returned from the Syrian fronts, where they had been fighting against Byzantine forces, they provided crucial instruction on how to effectively counter
7448-439: The Sasanian Empire. In 642, Umar ibn al-Khattab , eight years into his reign as Islam's second caliph , ordered a full-scale invasion of the rest of the Sasanian Empire. Directing the war from the city of Medina in Arabia, Umar's quick conquest of Persia in a series of coordinated and multi-pronged attacks became his greatest triumph, contributing to his reputation as a great military and political strategist. In 644, however, he
7581-412: The Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran , published in 2008, provides both a detailed overview of the problematic nature of trying to establish exactly what happened, and a great deal of original research that questions fundamental facts of the traditional narrative, including the timeline and specific dates. Pourshariati's central thesis is that contrary to what
7714-412: The Sasanian towns in Mesopotamia , actions that generated a considerable amount of booty was collected. Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha went to Medina to inform Abu Bakr about his success and was appointed commander of his people, after which he began to raid deeper into Mesopotamia. Using the mobility of his light cavalry , he could easily raid any town near the desert and disappear again into the desert, beyond
7847-448: The Sasanians and the Byzantines, as well as the strain of the Khazar invasion of Transcaucasia , had exhausted the army. No effective ruler followed Khosrau II , causing chaos in society and problems in the provincial administration, until Yazdegerd III rose to power. All these factors undermined the strength of the Persian army. Yazdegerd III was merely 8 years old when he came to the throne and, lacking experience, did not try to rebuild
7980-406: The Sassanid Empire, fell in March 637 after a siege of three months. In December 636, Umar ordered Utbah ibn Ghazwan to head south to capture al-Ubulla (known as "port of Apologos" in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea ) and Basra , in order to cut ties between the Persian garrison there and Ctesiphon . Utbah ibn Ghazwan arrived in April 637, and captured the region. The Persians withdrew to
8113-734: The Sunni creed during the first nine Islamic centuries characterizes the religious history of Iran during this period. There were however some exceptions to this general domination which emerged in the form of the Zaydīs of Tabaristan , the Buwayhid , the rule of Sultan Muhammad Khudabandah (r. Shawwal 703-Shawwal 716/1304-1316) and the Sarbedaran . Nevertheless, apart from this domination there existed, firstly, throughout these nine centuries, Shia inclinations among many Sunnis of this land and, secondly, original Imami Shiism as well as Zaydī Shiism had prevalence in some parts of Iran. During this period, Shia in Iran were nourished from Kufah , Baghdad and later from Najaf and Hillah . However, during
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#17327721533998246-454: The Sunni percentage at between 7% and 10%. (Almost all of Iran's Shia follow the Twelver branch.) The Atlantic Council gives a higher percentage of Sunni, saying "Sunni leaders and observers" put the Sunni population of Iran "between 12 and 25 percent". Most of the Sunni in Iran are Kurds , Achomi Persians , Khorasani Persians , Turkmens , Arabs , Talysh and Baloch , living in the northwest, northeast, south and southeast, respectively,
8379-479: The Universities of Cambridge and Utah , the country's "Kurds and Turkmen are predominantly Sunni Muslims", with Iran’s Arab population being split between "Sunni and Shiʿi" (Shia). Other sources note that this smaller percentage comprises the country's ethnic minorities, the Kurds , Turkmens , and Arabs , as well as Achomi Persians , Khorasani Persians , and Baloch . According to the 2020 Wave 7 World Values Survey , 96% of Iranians identify as Muslims. However,
8512-443: The algebra of Omar Kahayyam" was dispensed with. Darul Uloom Deoband was established in 1866 in the Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh , India, as part of the anti-British movement . It gave rise to a traditional conservative Sunni movement known as the Deobandi movement . Students from various regions, including Sistan and Baluchestan in Iran, attended Deoband, which led to the spread of its founders ideas. This movement had
8645-403: The army. The Sasanian Empire was highly decentralized, and was in fact a "confederation" with the Parthians , who themselves retained a high level of independence. After the last Sasanian-Byzantine war, the Parthians wanted to withdraw from the confederation, and the Sasanians were thus ill-prepared and ill-equipped to mount an effective and cohesive defense against the Muslim armies. Moreover,
8778-407: The arrival of Islam, Rudaki , was born during this era and was praised by Samanid kings. The Samanids also revived many ancient Persian festivals. Their successor, the Ghaznawids , who were of non-Iranian Turkic origin, also became instrumental in the revival of Persian. In 962 a Turkish governor of the Samanids, Alptigin , conquered Ghazna (in present-day Afghanistan) and established a dynasty,
8911-446: The attractions of the civilizations they had conquered. The Arabs were to settle in the garrison towns rather than on scattered estates. The new non-Muslim subjects, or dhimmi , were to pay a special tax, the jizya or poll tax, which was calculated per individual at varying rates for able bodied men of military age. Iranians were among the very earliest converts to Islam, and their conversion in significant numbers began as soon as
9044-523: The authorities, and are subject to systematic discrimination on the basis of their beliefs. Similarly, atheism is officially disallowed. One unanticipated effect of theocratic rule in Iran is that in the last couple of decades up to at least 2018, not only have secular people become alienated from the regime, but the state has lost much of its religious credibility among the ultra-religious communities because of widespread corruption, discrimination and its secularisation. Thus, many ultra-religious people deny
9177-405: The category of "silent pragmatist traditionalist majority", which is defined as those who "might approve of religion and aspects of the regime, while rejecting enforced religion and other aspects of the regime." According to The World Factbook of the CIA, between 90-95% of Iran's Muslim are Shia, and another 5-10% are Sunni, the American Iranian Council, citing the Islamic Republic estimates, gives
9310-408: The city of Al-Hirah in Iraq on the same day. This assertion has been brought under scrutiny by some modern historians of Islam—notably Grimme and Caetani. Particularly in dispute is the assertion that Khosrau II received a letter from Muhammad, as the Sassanid court ceremony was notoriously intricate, and it is unlikely that a letter from what at the time was a minor regional power would have reached
9443-440: The conquering of Iran and Azerbaijan and commenced a policy of forced conversion of Sunni Muslims to Shia Islam . Many Sunnis were murdered. When Shah Ismail I conquered Iraq , Dagestan , Eastern Anatolia , and Armenia he similarly forcefully converted or murdered Sunni Muslims. The oppression and forced conversion of Sunnis would continue, mostly unabated, for the greater part of next two centuries until Iran as well as what
9576-707: The cross-border political activity, when the First Iraqi–Kurdish War commenced in 1961, as the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) gave financial support and loyalty to their counterpart in Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), while KDPI themselves accessed spatial resources. Relations between KDP and KDPI would later deteriorate greatly as KDP became a close ally of SAVAK against Iraq. CIA documents from 1963 show that
9709-461: The development of the modern Iranian state: first, they ensured the continuance of various ancient and traditional Persian institutions, and transmitted these in a strengthened, or more 'national', form; second, by imposing Ithna 'Ashari Shi'a Islam on Iran as the official religion of the Safavid state, they enhanced the power of mujtahids . The Safavids thus set in train a struggle for power between
9842-687: The early 10th century, the Abbasids almost lost control to the growing Persian faction known as the Buwayhid dynasty (934–1055). Since much of the Abbasid administration had been Persian anyway, the Buwayhid, who were Zaidi Shia , were quietly able to assume real power in Baghdad. The Samanid dynasty was the first fully native dynasty to rule Iran since the Muslim conquest, and led the revival of Persian culture. The first important Persian poet after
9975-665: The entirety of the Arab Peninsula under the authority of the Caliph at Medina. Abu Bakr set in motion a historical trajectory (continued later by Umar and Uthman) that in a few decades led to one of the largest empires in history , beginning with a confrontation with the Sassanid Empire under the general Khalid ibn al-Walid . After the Ridda wars , a tribal chief of northeastern Arabia, Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha , raided
10108-482: The faith and forcibly converting the Iranian populace . The Safavids' actions triggered tensions with the neighbouring Sunni-majority Ottoman Empire , in part due to the flight of non-Shia refugees from Iran. It is estimated that by the mid-17th century, Iran had become a Shia-majority nation. Over the following centuries, with the state-fostered rise of an Iran-based Shia clergy, a synthesis was formed between Iranian culture and Shia Islam that marked each indelibly with
10241-521: The faiths. According to Thomas Walker Arnold , for the Persian, he would meet Ahura Mazda and Ahriman under the names of Allah and Iblis . Muslim leaders in their effort to win converts encouraged attendance at Muslim prayer, and allowed the Quran to be recited in Persian instead of Arabic so that it would be intelligible to all. The first complete translation of the Qur'an into Persian occurred during
10374-646: The first Rashidun invasion of Sasanian territory took place in 633, when the Rashidun army conquered parts of Asoristan , which was the Sasanians' political and economic centre in Mesopotamia . Later, the regional Rashidun army commander Khalid ibn al-Walid was transferred to oversee the Muslim conquest of the Levant , and as the Rashidun army became increasingly focused on the Byzantine Empire ,
10507-521: The first epidemic was brought by the Sasanian armies from its campaigns in Constantinople , Syria , and Armenia . It caused the death of many Aryan and therefore contributed to the fall of the Sasanian Empire. Khosrau II was executed in 628 and, as a result, there were numerous claimants to the throne; from 628 to 632 there were ten kings and queens of Persia. The last, Yazdegerd III , was
10640-477: The first nine centuries there are four high points in the history of this linkage: Due to their history being almost fully intertwined, Iran as well as Azerbaijan are both discussed here. Iran and Azerbaijan were predominantly Sunni until the 16th century. Changes in the religious make-up of nowadays both nations changed drastically from that time and on. In 1500 the Safavid Shah Ismail I undertook
10773-493: The former group the largest non-Muslim minority in Iran. Iran's government was, until recently, unique in having Shi'i Islam as the state religion. It still is unique in following the theocratic principle of velayat-e faqih or " Guardianship of the Islamic jurist ", according to which government must be run in accordance with traditional Islamic sharia , and for this to happen a leading Islamic jurist ( faqih ) must provide political "guardianship" ( wilayat or velayat ) over
10906-424: The greatest theologians of Shia and Sunni like Shaykh Tusi , Imam Ghazali , Imam Fakhr al-Razi and Al-Zamakhshari , the greatest physicians , astronomers , logicians , mathematicians , metaphysicians , philosophers and scientists like Al-Farabi , Avicenna , and Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī , the greatest Shaykh of Sufism like Rumi , Abdul-Qadir Gilani . Ibn Khaldun narrates in his Muqaddimah : It
11039-702: The greatest Islamic theologians, and other eminent scholars to the Seljuk capital at Baghdad and encouraged and supported their work. A serious internal threat to the Seljuks during their reign came from the Hashshashin - Ismailis of the Nizari sect, with headquarters at Alamut between Rasht and Tehran . They controlled the immediate area for more than 150 years and sporadically sent out adherents to strengthen their rule by murdering important officials. Several of
11172-871: The hands of the Shahanshah. With regards to Persia, Muslim histories further recount that at the beginning of the seventh year of migration, Muhammad appointed one of his officers, Abdullah Huzafah Sahmi Qarashi, to carry his letter to Khosrau II inviting him to convert: In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful. From Muhammad, the Messenger of God, to the great Kisra of Persia. Peace be upon him, who seeks truth and expresses belief in God and in His Prophet and testifies that there are no gods but one God whom has no partners, and who believes that Muhammad
11305-574: The heresy, alienating the Ghassanids and sparking rebellions on their desert frontiers. The Lakhmids also revolted against the Persian king Khusrau II. Nu'man III (son of Al-Monder IV), the first Christian Lakhmid king, was deposed and killed by Khusrau II in 602, because of his attempt to throw off Persian suzerainty. After Khusrau's assassination in 628, the Persian Empire fractured and the Lakhmids were effectively semi-independent. It
11438-656: The highly trained jurist to the "shopkeeper who spent one afternoon a week memorizing and transmitting a few traditions." Laws by Reza Shah that requiring military service and dress in European-style clothes for Iranians, gave talebeh and mullahs exemptions, but only if they passed specific examinations proving their learnedness, thus excluding less educated clerics. In addition Islamic Madrasah schools became more like 'professional' schools, leaving broader education to secular government schools and sticking to Islamic learning. "Ptolemaic astronomy, Aveicennian medicines, and
11571-440: The idea that “the government should not be strict in enforcing Islamic laws” (33%, strongly)", with only 22% agreeing strongly and 15% somewhat agreeing with the idea that the government should not be strict in enforcing Islamic laws . In 2023, Raz Zimmt, an expert on Iran attached to Israel 's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), quoting Iranian sociologist Hamidreza Jalaeipour , argued that 70% of Iranians fall into
11704-497: The invaders. When the main Arab army reached the Persian borders, Yazdegerd III procrastinated in dispatching an army against the Arabs. Even Rostam-e Farokhzad , who was both Eran Spahbod and Viceroy , did not see the Arabs as a threat. Without opposition, the Arabs had time to consolidate and fortify their positions. When hostilities between the Sasanians and the Arabs finally began, the Persian army faced fundamental problems. While their heavy cavalry had proved effective against
11837-645: The last major battle of the Sassanids. The Sassanid dynasty came to an end with the death of Yazdegerd III in 651. Muhammad died in June 632, and Abu Bakr took the title of Caliph and political successor at Medina . Soon after Abu Bakr 's succession, several Arab tribes revolted, in the Ridda Wars ( Arabic for the Wars of Apostasy). The Ridda Wars preoccupied the Caliphate until March 633, and ended with
11970-404: The leader must be Twelver Shia. It lists Zoroastrian , Jewish , and Christian Iranians as "the only recognized religious minorities, who, within the limits of the law, are free to perform their religious rites and ceremonies, and to act according to their own canon in matters of personal affairs and religious education." Consequently, to avail oneself of many of the rights of citizenship in
12103-532: The members of Majlis ash-Shura demurred, claiming that the two-front war required Umar's presence in Medina. Accordingly, Umar appointed Saad ibn Abi Waqqas , a respected senior officer, even though Saad was suffering from sciatica. Saad left Medina with his army in May 636 and arrived at Qadisiyyah in June. While Heraclius launched his offensive in May 636, Yazdegerd was unable to muster his armies in time to provide
12236-603: The month of November. These devastating defeats ended Persian control over Mesopotamia, and left the Persian capital Ctesiphon vulnerable. Before attacking Ctesiphon, Khalid decided to eliminate all Persian forces in the south and west. He accordingly marched against the border city of Firaz , where he defeated the combined forces of the Sasanian Persians , the Byzantines and Christian Arabs in December. This
12369-505: The nation's official religion. The persecution of Zoroastrians by the early Muslims during and after this conflict prompted many of them to flee eastward to India , where they were granted refuge by various kings. While Arabia was experiencing the rise of Islam in the 7th century, Persia was struggling with unprecedented levels of political, social, economic, and military weakness; the Sasanian army had greatly exhausted itself in
12502-543: The newly conquered Mesopotamian territories were retaken by the Sasanian army. The second Rashidun invasion began in 636, under Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas , when a key victory at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah permanently ended all Sasanian control to the west of modern-day Iran . For the next six years, the Zagros Mountains , a natural barrier, marked the political boundary between the Rashidun Caliphate and
12635-596: The notable exception of the provinces along the Caspian Sea (i.e., in Tabaristan and Transoxiana ), had come under Muslim domination. Many localities fought against the invaders; although the Rashidun army had established hegemony over most of the country, many cities rose in rebellion by killing their Arab governors or attacking their garrisons. Eventually, military reinforcements quashed the Iranian insurgencies and imposed complete control. The Islamization of Iran
12768-556: The objective of Khalid, Abu Bakr sent reinforcements and ordered the tribal chiefs of northeastern Arabia, Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha, Mazhur bin Adi, Harmala and Sulma to operate under Khalid's command. Around the third week of March 633 (first week of Muharram 12th Hijrah) Khalid set out from Al-Yamama with an army of 10,000. The tribal chiefs, with 2,000 warriors each, joined him, swelling his ranks to 18,000. After entering Mesopotamia, he dispatched messages to every governor and deputy who ruled
12901-557: The official religion of Iran is Shia Islam and the Twelver Ja'fari school , though it also mandates that other Islamic schools are to be "accorded full respect", and their followers are free to act in accordance with their own jurisprudence in performing their religious rites. According to the constitution, high level officials such as the Supreme Leader, president, and members of the powerful Assembly of Experts that chooses
13034-421: The overall pattern is consistent with what can be deduced from traditional historical sources. Although in some areas, for example, Shiraz at the time of Moqaddasi's visit in about 375/985 (p. 429), there may still have been strong non-Muslim elements, it is reasonable to suppose that the Persian milieu as a whole became predominantly Islamic within the period of time suggested by Bulliet's research. Following
13167-406: The passage of time, Iranians' readiness to practise Shi'a Islam grew day by day. It was the Safavids who made Iran the spiritual bastion of Shi’ism against the onslaughts of shi'as' by orthodox Sunni Islam, and the repository of Persian cultural traditions and self-awareness of Iranianhood, acting as a bridge to modern Iran. According to Professor Roger Savory: In Number of ways the Safavids affected
13300-552: The peasantry and the dehqans (land-owning magnates) took longer to do so. Around the 10th century, most Persians had become Muslims . Between the 7th century and the 15th century, Sunni Islam was the dominant sect in Iran, and Iranian academics of this period contributed greatly to the Islamic Golden Age . In the 16th century, the newly enthroned Safavid dynasty initiated a massive campaign to install Shia Islam as Iran's official sect, aggressively proselytizing
13433-531: The people. Following the Iranian Revolution, the 1979 Constitution of Islamic Republic of Iran called for a "guardian" to be the Supreme Leader of Iran , and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , the leader of the revolution and author of the doctrine of Velayat-e faqih , became the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran mandates that
13566-405: The period from 628 to 632." An important consequence of this change in timeline means that the Arab conquest started precisely when the Sasanians and Parthians were engaged in internecine warfare over who was to succeed the Sasanian throne. When Arab squadrons made their first raids into Sasanian territory, Yazdegerd III did not consider them a threat, and he refused to send an army to encounter
13699-500: The population of Persia, are at least nominal Muslims. For such a fundamental, pervasive, and enduring cultural transformation, the phenomenon of Iranian conversions to Islam has received remarkably little scholarly attention. Recent research has established a general chronological framework for the process of conversion of Iranians to Islam. From a study of the probable dates of individual conversions based on genealogies in biographical dictionaries, Richard Bulliet has suggested that there
13832-417: The population's main income sources. The existing Sassanid administrative structure proved inadequate when faced with the combined demands of a suddenly expanded empire, economy, and population. Rapid turnover of rulers and increasing provincial landholder ( dehqan ) power further diminished the Sasanians. Over a period of fourteen years and twelve successive kings, the Sassanid Empire weakened considerably, and
13965-681: The power of the Abbasid caliphs diminished, a series of dynasties rose in various parts of Iran, some with considerable influence and power. Among the most important of these overlapping dynasties were the Tahirids in Khorasan (820–72); the Saffarids in Sistan (867–903); and the Samanids (875–1005), originally at Bokhara . The Samanids eventually ruled an area from central Iran to Pakistan. By
14098-588: The power of the central authority passed into the hands of its generals. Even when a strong king emerged following a series of coups, the Sassanids never completely recovered. The Byzantine clients, the Arab Ghassanids , converted to the Monophysite form of Christianity , which was regarded as heretical by the established Byzantine Eastern Orthodox Church . The Byzantines attempted to suppress
14231-564: The powerful northern and eastern Parthian families, the Kust-i Khwarasan and Kust-i Adurbadagan, withdrew to their respective strongholds and made peace with the Arabs, refusing to fight alongside the Sasanians . Pourshariati argues that the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia "took place, not, as has been conventionally believed, in the years 632–634, after the accession of the last Sasanian king Yazdgerd III (632–651) to power, but in
14364-405: The prompting of the Shi'ite clergy. According to Mortaza Motahhari , the majority of Iranians turned to Shi'a Islam from the Safavid period onwards. Of course, it cannot be denied that Iran's environment was more favorable to the flourishing of the Shi'a Islam as compared to all other parts of the Muslim world. Shi'a Islam did not penetrate any land to the extent that it gradually could in Iran. With
14497-479: The provinces calling on them to either embrace Islam or pay tribute. Khalid did not receive any responses and continued with his tactical plans. Khalid went on to win decisive victories in four consecutive battles: the Battle of Chains , fought in April; the Battle of River , fought in the third week of April; the Battle of Walaja the following month (where he successfully used a double envelopment manoeuvre), and
14630-419: The provinces of West Azerbaijan , Kurdistan and Kermanshah , Golestan and North Khorasan , and Sistan and Baluchestan . A majority of Lari people and Talysh , a part of Kurds , virtually all Baluchis and Turkomans , and a minority of Persians , Arabs and Lurs are Sunnis. The mountainous region of Larestan is mostly inhabited by indigenous Sunni Persians who did not convert to Shia Islam during
14763-425: The reach of the Sasanian army . Al-Muthanna's acts made Abu Bakr think about the expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate . To ensure victory, Abu Bakr used a volunteer army and put his best general, Khalid ibn al-Walid , in command. After defeating the self-proclaimed prophet Musaylimah in the Battle of Yamama , Khalid was still at Al-Yamama when Abu Bakr ordered him to invade the Sasanian Empire. Making Al-Hirah
14896-512: The reign of Samanids in the 9th century. Seyyed Hossein Nasr suggests that the rapid increase in conversion was aided by the Persian nationality of the rulers. According to Bernard Lewis : "Iran was indeed Islamized, but it was not Arabized. Persians remained Persians. And after an interval of silence, Iran reemerged as a separate, different and distinctive element within Islam, eventually adding
15029-500: The remaining 1.5% being other religious groups—including 0.7% Christian, 0.3% Baha'i, combined numbers for Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Hindu adherents totaling 0.2%, and agnostics at 0.3%, in both cases, numbers not summing to 100% because of rounding). According to an October 2024 update to Britannica.com by scholars at the Universities of Cambridge and Utah , as of the date of their source data, Muslims accounted for 99.6% of
15162-422: The respondents were asked if "Iran’s political system needs to undergo fundamental change" the researchers noted that "over three in four disagreed (77%) with a majority doing so strongly (54%)" with only 5% "agreeing strongly". They further found out that "a substantial, if lesser, majority (67%) did not agree that “the government interferes too much in people’s personal lives” (30%, strongly), and 59% did not accept
15295-418: The risk of being defeated by a large unified Persian army. Four divisions of Persian and Christian Arab auxiliaries were present at Hanafiz, Zumiel, Sanni and Muzieh. Khalid divided his army into three units, and employed them in well-coordinated attacks against the Persians from three different sides at night, in the Battle of Muzayyah , then the Battle of Saniyy , and finally the Battle of Zumail , all during
15428-643: The son of Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji. Mustafa Barzani had also supported the Republic of Mahabad by sending 2,100 soldiers which in turn also increased Kurdish self-confidence. Many teachers and military officers from Iraqi Kurdistan moreover crossed the border to support the republic. In 1944, the Society for the Revival of the Kurds/Kurdistan (JK) considered the first Kurdish nationalist movement met with
15561-420: The state, including the destruction of their places of worship . Yarsanis are also targeted by the central government. While Ottoman Kurdistan has been identified as the source of Kurdish national inspiration, Iranian Kurdistan has been identified as the ideological cradle for the emergence of Kurdish nationalism. In Iran, Kurdish intellectual writings and poetry from the 16th and 17th century indicate that
15694-615: The tincture of the other. Later, under the Pahlavi dynasty , Islamic influence on Iranian society was rolled back in order to assert a new Iranian national identity—one that focused on pre-Islamic Iran by shedding more light on Zoroastrian tradition and other aspects of ancient Iranian society, particularly during the Achaemenid era. However, in 1979, the Islamic Revolution brought about yet another monumental change by ending
15827-522: The total population of Iran— c.f. comparable older numbers and somewhat discrepant more recent numbers, at CIA.gov —with the "vast majority... [stated as being] of the Ithnā ʿAsharī, or Twelver, Shiʿi branch". The Iranian government's 2016 census purportedly presents 99% of the Iranian population as Muslim ( c.f. pie chart and its sources), and 80% of this figure is composed of Twelver Shias . Approximately 7% of Iranians are Sunnis. According to scholars at
15960-558: The truth of the statement of the prophet ( Muhammad ) becomes apparent, " If learning were suspended in the highest parts of heaven the Persians would attain it "… The intellectual sciences were also the preserve of the Persians, left alone by the Arabs , who did not cultivate them… as was the case with all crafts… This situation continued in the cities as long as the Persians and Persian countries , Iraq , Khorasan and Transoxiana (modern Central Asia), retained their sedentary culture. In
16093-522: The urban and the crown that is to say, between the proponents of secular government and the proponents of a theocratic government; third, they laid the foundation of alliance between the religious classes (' Ulama ') and the bazaar which played an important role both in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1906, and again in the Islamic Revolution of 1979; fourth the policies introduced by Shah Abbas I conduced to
16226-639: The various Barzani rebellions in Iraqi Kurdistan became a source of support for the Republic of Mahabad . Other examples of cross-border interaction include the subjugation of the Simko Shikak revolt forcing Simko to flee to Rawandiz in Iraqi Kurdistan – where he sought the support of Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji . Following the fall of the Republic of Mahabad in 1946, some of its leaders also fled to Iraqi Kurdistan where they were sheltered by
16359-694: The various theories on the etymology of the word assassin derive from this group. Another notable Sunni dynasty were the Timurids . Timur was a Turco-Mongol leader from the Eurasian Steppe , who conquered and ruled in the tradition of Genghis Khan . Under the Timurid Empire , the Turco-Persian tradition which began during the Abbasid period would continue. Ulugh Beg , grandson of Timur , built an observatory of his own, and
16492-468: The war elephants. These factors contributed to the decisive Sassanid defeat at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah. The Persians, who had only one generation before conquered Egypt and Asia Minor, lost decisive battles when nimble, lightly armed Arabs accustomed to skirmishes and desert warfare attacked them. The Arab squadrons defeated the Persian army in several more battles culminating in the Battle of Nahāvand ,
16625-538: The years 632–634, after the accession of the last Sasanian king Yazdgerd III (632–651) to power, but in the period from 628 to 632." An important consequence of this change in timeline means that the Arab conquest started precisely when the Sassanians and Parthians were engaged in internecine warfare over succession to the Sassanian throne. Since the 1st century BC , the border between the Roman (later Byzantine ) and Parthian (later Sasanian ) empires had been
16758-405: Was assassinated by the Persian craftsman Abu Lu'lu'a Firuz , who had been captured by Rashidun troops and brought to Arabia as a slave. Some Iranian historians have defended their forebears by using Arab sources to illustrate that "contrary to the claims of some historians, Iranians, in fact, fought long and hard against the invading Arabs." By 651, most of the urban centres in Iranian lands, with
16891-589: Was commonly assumed, the Sassanian Empire was highly decentralized, and was in fact a "confederation" with the Parthians , who themselves retained a high level of independence. Despite their recent victories over the Byzantine Empire , the Parthians unexpectedly withdrew from the confederation, and the Sassanians were thus ill-prepared and ill-equipped to mount an effective and cohesive defense against
17024-421: Was defeated at the Battle of Nineveh in 627, and the Byzantines recaptured all of Syria and penetrated far into the Persian provinces of Mesopotamia . In 629, Khosrau's general Shahrbaraz agreed to peace, and the border between the two empires was once again the same as it had been in 602. The Plague of Sheroe (627–628) was one of several epidemics that occurred in or close to Iran within two centuries after
17157-513: Was gradual and incentivized in various ways over a period of centuries, though some Iranians never converted and there is widespread evidence of Zoroastrian scriptures and all other pre-Islamic being systematically burnt and Zoroastrian priests being executed, particularly in areas that were centers of resistance. Islam had become Iran's predominant religion by the Late Middle Ages ; the majority of Iranians were Sunni Muslims until
17290-625: Was gradual and limited conversion of Persians down to the end of the Umayyad period (132/750), followed by a rapid increase in the number of conversions after the ʿAbbasid revolution, so that by the time when regional dynasties had been established in the east (ca. 338/950) 80 percent or more of Iranians had become Muslims. The data on which Bulliet's study was based limited the validity of this paradigm to generalizations about full, formal conversions in an urban environment. The situation in rural areas and individual regions may have been quite different, but
17423-596: Was the Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1911, which elevated Persian above Kurdish by asserting it as official language, language of administration and language of education. Kurds have a strong cross-border ethnic linkage and few historical Kurdish rebellions were limited to the borders of a single country. For example, the rebellion of Sheikh Ubeydullah in Turkish Kurdistan around 1880 inspired Simko Shikak to rebel in 1918, while
17556-767: Was the last battle in his conquest of Mesopotamia. While Khalid was on his way to attack Qadissiyah (a key fort en route to Ctesiphon), Abu Bakr ordered him to the Roman front in Syria to assume command there. According to the will of Abu Bakr, Umar was to continue the conquest of Syria and Mesopotamia. On the northeastern borders of the Empire, in Mesopotamia, the situation was rapidly deteriorating. During Abu Bakr 's era, Khalid ibn al-Walid had left Mesopotamia with half his army of 9000 soldiers to assume command in Syria, whereupon
17689-426: Was to yield deep transformations within the cultural, scientific, and political structure of Iran's society: The blossoming of Persian literature , philosophy , medicine and art became major elements of the newly forming Muslim civilization. Inheriting a heritage of thousands of years of civilization, and being at the "crossroads of the major cultural highways", contributed to Persia emerging as what culminated into
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