96-586: Iranian Intermezzo , or Persian Renaissance , was a period in Iranian history which saw the rise of various native Iranian Muslim dynasties in the Iranian Plateau , after the 7th-century Arab Muslim conquest and the fall of the Sasanian Empire . The period is noteworthy since it was an interlude between the decline of Abbāsid rule and power by Arabs and the " Sunni Revival " with the 11th-century emergence of
192-505: A Shia Iranic dynasty that originated from Daylaman . They founded a confederation that controlled most of Iran and Iraq in the 10th and 11th centuries. Indeed, as Dailamite Iranians the Būyids consciously revived symbols and practices of Persia's Sassānid dynasty. In fact, beginning with 'Adud al-Daula they used the ancient Sassānid title Shāhanshāh (Persian: شاهنشاه), literally meaning king of kings. The Sallarid dynasty (also referred to as
288-514: A Shia Muslim dynasty of Daylamite origin that held power in western Iran, Jibal and Kurdistan (c. 1008–c. 1051). They later became atabegs (governors) of Yazd , Isfahan and Abarkuh from c. 1051 to 1141. They were related to the Buyids . The Annazids was a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty which ruled an oscillating territory on the frontier between Iran and present-day Iraq for about 130 years. The Annazids were related by marriage to
384-707: A casus belli to attack the Empire. After many gains, the Sassanians were defeated at Issus, Constantinople, and finally Nineveh, resulting in peace. With the conclusion of the over 700 years lasting Roman–Persian Wars through the climactic Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 , which included the very siege of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople , the war-exhausted Persians lost the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah (632) in Hilla (present-day Iraq ) to
480-763: A Neanderthal radius was discovered by Carleton S. Coon in Bisitun Cave. Evidence for Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic periods are known mainly from the Zagros Mountains in the caves of Kermanshah and Khorramabad and a few number of sites in Piranshahr , Alborz and Central Iran . During this time, people began creating rock art . Early agricultural communities such as Chogha Golan in 10,000 BC along with settlements such as Chogha Bonut (the earliest village in Elam) in 8000 BC, began to flourish in and around
576-562: A canal between the Nile and the Red Sea , a forerunner of the modern Suez Canal . He improved the extensive road system, and it is during his reign that mentions are first made of the Royal Road (shown on map), a great highway stretching all the way from Susa to Sardis with posting stations at regular intervals. Major reforms took place under Darius. Coinage , in the form of the daric (gold coin) and
672-579: A distinct political and cultural entity. The Muslim conquest of Persia (632–654) ended the Sasanian Empire and marked a turning point in Iranian history, leading to the Islamization of Iran from the eighth to tenth centuries and the decline of Zoroastrianism . However, the achievements of prior Persian civilizations were absorbed into the new Islamic polity. Iran suffered invasions by nomadic tribes during
768-534: A highly popular figure for around two centuries, until the Mongol period , where he became unpopular amongst the highly skilled poets of that time. However, he had not been forgotten, as demonstrated by the attribution of his name to the Pseudo- Diwan-i Rudaki , called "one of the notorious literary frauds" by de Blois. Scholars such as Hasan ibn Luft Allah al-Razi in the 17th century and Reza-Qoli Khan Hedayat in
864-601: A number of historians who see the rule of the Umayyads as setting up the "dhimmah" to increase taxes from the dhimmis to benefit the Muslim Arab community financially and by discouraging conversion. Governors lodged complaints with the caliph when he enacted laws that made conversion easier, depriving the provinces of revenues. In the 7th century, when many non-Arabs such as Persians entered Islam, they were recognized as mawali ("clients") and treated as second-class citizens by
960-531: A period of more than 400 years, Iran was once again one of the leading powers in the world, alongside its neighbouring rival, the Roman and then Byzantine Empires . The empire's territory, at its height, encompassed all of today's Iran, Iraq , Azerbaijan , Armenia , Georgia , Abkhazia , Dagestan , Lebanon , Jordan , Palestine , Israel , parts of Afghanistan , Turkey , Syria , parts of Pakistan , Central Asia , Eastern Arabia , and parts of Egypt . Most of
1056-560: A propagandist and then to revolt on their behalf. He took Merv defeating the Umayyad governor there Nasr ibn Sayyar . He became the de facto Abbasid governor of Khurasan. During the same period, the Dabuyid ruler Khurshid declared independence from the Umayyads but was shortly forced to recognize Abbasid authority. In 750, Abu Muslim became the leader of the Abbasid army and defeated the Umayyads at
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#17328487663701152-586: A settlement was first founded possibly as early as 4395 cal BC) and settlements such as Chogha Mish , dating back to 6800 BC; there are 7,000-year-old jars of wine excavated in the Zagros Mountains (now on display at the University of Pennsylvania ) and ruins of 7000-year-old settlements such as Tepe Sialk are further testament to that. The two main Neolithic Iranian settlements were Ganj Dareh and
1248-507: A significant degree. Nevertheless, in a famous edict, Samanid authorities declared that "here, in this region, the language is Persian, and the kings of this realm are Persian kings." The Ziyarid dynasty ( Persian : زیاریان ) was an Iranian dynasty of Gilaki origin that ruled Tabaristan from 930 to 1090. At its greatest extent, it ruled much of western and northern Iran . The Banu Ilyas were an Iranian dynasty of Sogdian origin which ruled Kerman from 932 until 968. Their capital
1344-590: A small portion of his work has survived, most notably a small part of his versification of the Kalila wa-Dimna , a collection of Indian fables. Born in the village of Banoj (located in the present-day Rudak area), the most important part of Rudaki's career was spent at the court of the Samanids. While biographical information connects him to the Samanid amir (ruler) Nasr II ( r. 914–943 ), he may have already joined
1440-460: A time right after the establishment of the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk in 4500 BC. The general perception among archaeologists is that Susa was an extension of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk , hence incorporating many aspects of Mesopotamian culture. In its later history, Susa became the capital of Elam, which emerged as a state founded 4000 BC. There are also dozens of prehistoric sites across
1536-661: A unified empire of the Medes and Persians, leading to the Achaemenid Empire (c.550–330 BC). Cyrus the Great overthrew, in turn, the Median , Lydian , and Neo-Babylonian empires, creating an empire far larger than Assyria. He was better able, through more benign policies, to reconcile his subjects to Persian rule; the longevity of his empire was one result. The Persian king, like the Assyrian ,
1632-483: Is Rōdhakī , while al-Rūdhakī is an arabicised form. Other transliterations include Rudagi , Rawdhagi and Rudhagi . Little information is available about Rudaki's life, much which has been reconstructed from his poems. He lived during the era of the Samanid Empire (819–999), under which New Persian literature began to develop and flourish. Of Persian stock, Rudaki was born in c. 858 , in
1728-518: Is generally easy for literate native Persian readers to understand despite variations in terminology, word forms, and phrase and sentence patterns. Although Rudaki displayed pro-Isma'ili sympathies in his writings, his poetry is fully secular in nature. Islam was firmly established by the 10th century; however, Persians still remembered their deep-rooted Zoroastrian history. Rudaki was more prone to evoke ancient Iranian and Zoroastrian notions instead of Muslim ones. Some of Rudaki's poems were written in
1824-457: Is his versification of the Kalila wa-Dimna , a collection of Indian fables. Nasr II had ordered Bal'ami to translate the book from Arabic to Persian, and then appointed "interpreters" to read it out loud, so that Rudaki, who was blind, could versify it. Only a few of the verses made by Rudaki have survived. Some of them have been identified in the Lughat-i Furs . Rudaki's surviving poetry
1920-522: Is not descended from the literary form of Middle Persian (known as pārsīk , commonly called Pahlavi), which was spoken by the people of Fars and used in Zoroastrian religious writings. Instead, it is descended from the dialect spoken by the court of the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon and the northeastern Iranian region of Khurasan . During this period, New Persian was known as darī or parsī-i darī . By
2016-616: The Shahnameh by Ferdowsi . The Iranian dynasties and entities which comprised the Iranian Intermezzo were the Tahirids , Saffarids , Banu Ilyas , Ghaznavids , Sajids , Samanids , Ziyarids , Buyids , Sallarids , Rawadids , Marwanids , Shaddadids , Kakuyids , Annazids and Hasanwayhids . According to the historian Alison Vacca, the Iranian Intermezzo "in fact includes a number of other Iranian, mostly Kurdish , minor dynasties in
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#17328487663702112-495: The divan (collection of short poems) of Rudaki consisted of more than 180,000 verses, but most of it has been lost. What little remains of Rudaki's writings, mostly single verses, can be found in Persian dictionaries, particularly the Lughat-i Furs of Asadi Tusi. A few complete poems have also survived, most notably a qasida (eulogy or ode ) consisting of almost 100 verses quoted in the anonymous Tarikh-i Sistan . The qasida
2208-582: The Babylonian king Nabopolassar invaded Assyria and laid siege to and eventually destroyed Nineveh , the Assyrian capital, which led to the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire . Urartu was later on conquered and dissolved as well by the Medes. The Medes are credited with founding Iran as a nation and empire, and established the first Iranian empire, the largest of its day until Cyrus the Great established
2304-599: The Battle of the Zab . Abu Muslim stormed Damascus , the capital of the Umayyad caliphate, later that year. The Abbasid army consisted primarily of Khorasanians and was led by an Iranian general, Abu Muslim Khorasani . It contained both Iranian and Arab elements, and the Abbasids enjoyed both Iranian and Arab support. The Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads in 750. According to Amir Arjomand, the Abbasid Revolution essentially marked
2400-647: The Caucasus to the Russian Empire following the Russo-Persian Wars . Iran remained a monarchy until the 1979 Iranian Revolution , when it officially became an Islamic republic on 1 April 1979. Since then, Iran has experienced significant political, social, and economic changes. The establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran led to the restructuring of its political system, with Ayatollah Khomeini as
2496-676: The Diyar Bakr region of Upper Mesopotamia (present day northern Iraq/southeastern Turkey) and Armenia , centered on the city of Amid ( Diyarbakır ). The Shaddadids were a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty. who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951 to 1199 AD. They were established in Dvin . Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal family of Armenia. The Kakuyids ( Persian : آل کاکویه ) were
2592-649: The First Persian invasion of Greece , the Persian general Mardonius re-subjugated Thrace and made Macedon a full part of Persia. The war eventually turned out in defeat, however. Darius' successor Xerxes I launched the Second Persian invasion of Greece . At a crucial moment in the war, about half of mainland Greece was overrun by the Persians, including all territories to the north of the Isthmus of Corinth , however, this
2688-724: The Hasanwayhids who they were in fierce rivalry with. The legitimacy of the Annazid rulers stemmed from the Buyid amir Bahāʾ al-Dawla and the dynasty relied on the Shadhanjan Kurds. Hasanwayhids was a powerful Shia Kurdish dynasty reigning the western parts of Iran such as Iranian Azerbaijan and Zagros Mountains between Shahrizor and Khuzestan from c. 959 to 1015. The last Hasanwayhid ruler died in 1015 in Sarmadj, south of Bisotun , as
2784-668: The Iranian plateau before the emergence of Iranian peoples during the Early Iron Age . The Early Bronze Age saw the rise of urbanization into organized city-states and the invention of writing (the Uruk period ) in the Near East. While Bronze Age Elam made use of writing from an early time, the Proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, and records from Sumer pertaining to Elam are scarce. Russian historian Igor M. Diakonoff stated that
2880-674: The Kashafrud and Ganj Par sites that are thought to date back to 10,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. Mousterian stone tools made by Neanderthals have also been found. There are more cultural remains of Neanderthals dating back to the Middle Paleolithic period, which mainly have been found in the Zagros region and fewer in central Iran at sites such as Kobeh, Kunji, Bisitun Cave , Tamtama, Warwasi , and Yafteh Cave. In 1949,
2976-632: The Kurdish area. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel called the Persians the "first Historical People". The Iranian empire began in the Iron Age with the rise of the Medes , who unified Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC. The Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC), founded by Cyrus the Great , was the largest empire the world had seen, spanning from the Balkans to North Africa and Central Asia . They were succeeded by
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3072-609: The Late Middle Ages and early modern period , negatively impacting the region. Iran was reunified as an independent state in 1501 by the Safavid dynasty , which established Shia Islam as the empire's official religion, marking a significant turning point in the history of Islam . Iran functioned again as a leading world power, especially in rivalry with the Ottoman Empire . In the 19th century, Iran lost significant territories in
3168-593: The Neo-Assyrian Empire and its records of incursions from the Iranian plateau. As early as the 20th century BC, tribes came to the Iranian plateau from the Pontic–Caspian steppe . The arrival of Iranians on the Iranian plateau forced the Elamites to relinquish one area of their empire after another and to take refuge in Elam, Khuzestan and the nearby area, which only then became coterminous with Elam. Bahman Firuzmandi say that
3264-625: The Seleucid , Parthian , and Sasanian empires, who governed Iran for almost 1,000 years, making Iran a leading power once again. Persia's arch-rival during this time was the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire . Iran endured invasions by the Macedonians , Arabs , Turks , and Mongols . Despite these invasions, Iran continually reasserted its national identity and developed as
3360-619: The Seljuks began entering the region. History of Iran The history of Iran (or Persia , as it was known in the Western world) is intertwined with Greater Iran , a sociocultural region spanning from Anatolia to the Indus River and from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf . Central to this area is modern-day Iran , which covers the bulk of the Iranian plateau . Iran is home to one of
3456-530: The Seljuq Turks . The Iranian revival consisted of Iranian support based on Iranian territory and most significantly a revived Iranian national spirit and culture in an Islamic form, although there were some Iranian Zoroastrian movements rejecting Islam altogether as a religion (e.g. Mardavij ). It also focused on reviving the Persian language , the most significant Persian-language literature from this period being
3552-586: The shekel (silver coin) was standardized (coinage had already been invented over a century before in Lydia c. 660 BC but not standardized), and administrative efficiency increased. The Old Persian language appears in royal inscriptions, written in a specially adapted version of the cuneiform script . Under Cyrus the Great and Darius I , the Persian Empire eventually became the largest empire in human history up until that point, ruling and administrating over most of
3648-538: The 4th millennium BC. There is a large quantity of objects decorated with highly distinctive engravings of animals, mythological figures, and architectural motifs. The objects and their iconography are considered unique. Many are made from chlorite , a grey-green soft stone; others are in copper , bronze , terracotta , and even lapis lazuli . Recent excavations at the sites have produced the world's earliest inscription which pre-dates Mesopotamian inscriptions. There are records of numerous other ancient civilizations on
3744-464: The 9th century. Shortly thereafter the real power of the Abbasid caliphs began to wane; eventually, they became religious figureheads while the warrior slaves ruled. Rudaki Rudaki (also spelled Rodaki ; Persian : رودکی ; c. 858 – 940/41) was a poet , singer, and musician who is regarded as the first major poet to write in New Persian . A court poet under the Samanids , he reportedly composed more than 180,000 verses, yet only
3840-437: The European Scythians around the Danube river. In 512/511 BC, Macedon became a vassal kingdom of Persia. In 499 BC, Athens lent support to a revolt in Miletus , which resulted in the sacking of Sardis . This led to an Achaemenid campaign against mainland Greece known as the Greco-Persian Wars , which lasted the first half of the 5th century BC, and is known as one of the most important wars in European history . In
3936-420: The Great (r. 712–728), managed to hold his domains during his long struggle against the Arab general Yazid ibn al-Muhallab , who was defeated by a combined Dailamite-Dabuyid army, and was forced to retreat from Tabaristan. With the death of the Umayyad Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik in 743, the Islamic world was launched into civil war. Abu Muslim was sent to Khorasan by the Abbasid Caliphate initially as
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4032-418: The Iranian plateau pointing to the existence of ancient cultures and urban settlements in the fourth millennium BC. One of the earliest civilizations on the Iranian plateau was the Jiroft culture in southeastern Iran in the province of Kerman . It is one of the most artefact-rich archaeological sites in the Middle East. Archaeological excavations in Jiroft led to the discovery of several objects belonging to
4128-405: The Musafirids or Langarids) was an Islamic Persian dynasty principally known for its rule of Iranian Azerbaijan , Shirvan , and a part of Armenia from 942 until 979. Rawwadid dynasty was a Sunni Muslim Kurdish dynasty, centered in the northwestern region of Adharbayjan ( Azerbaijan ) between the late 8th and early 13th centuries. The Marwanids were a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty in
4224-526: The Parthian cavalry was most notably feared by the Roman soldiers, which proved pivotal in the crushing Roman defeat at the Battle of Carrhae . On the other hand, the Parthians found it difficult to occupy conquered areas as they were unskilled in siege warfare. Because of these weaknesses, neither the Romans nor the Parthians were able completely to annex each other's territory. The Parthian empire subsisted for five centuries, longer than most Eastern Empires. The end of this empire came at last in 224 AD, when
4320-433: The Roman Empire. During this time, the Sassanian and Romano-Byzantine armies clashed for influence in Anatolia, the western Caucasus (mainly Lazica and the Kingdom of Iberia ; modern-day Georgia and Abkhazia ), Mesopotamia , Armenia and the Levant. Under Justinian I, the war came to an uneasy peace with payment of tribute to the Sassanians. However, the Sasanians used the deposition of the Byzantine emperor Maurice as
4416-454: The Romans at the Battle of Edessa in 260 and took emperor Valerian prisoner for the remainder of his life. Eastern Arabia was conquered early on. During Khosrow II 's rule in 590–628, Egypt , Jordan , Palestine and Lebanon were also annexed to the Empire. The Sassanians called their empire Erânshahr ("Dominion of the Aryans", i.e., of Iranians ). A chapter of Iran's history followed after roughly six hundred years of conflict with
4512-408: The Samanid court under Nasr II's father and predecessor Ahmad Samani ( r. 907–914 ). Tabatabai states that this is proven in a poem by Rudaki, where he tries to comfort Ahmad Samani after the death of his father Ismail Samani in 907. Rudaki's career at the Samanid court is regarded as the most important part of his life. The role of a court poet was more than just entertaining others, and
4608-409: The Sasanian Empire and led to the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. Over time, the majority of Iranians converted to Islam. Most of the aspects of the previous Persian civilizations were not discarded but were absorbed by the new Islamic polity. As Bernard Lewis has commented: "These events have been variously seen in Iran: by some as a blessing, the advent of the true faith,
4704-405: The Sasanian Empire's lifespan was overshadowed by the frequent Byzantine–Sasanian wars , a continuation of the Roman–Parthian Wars and the all-comprising Roman–Persian Wars ; the last was the longest-lasting conflict in human history. Started in the first century BC by their predecessors, the Parthians, and Romans, the last Roman–Persian War was fought in the seventh century. The Persians defeated
4800-644: The Sasanian throne under the two prominent generals Bahrām Chōbin and Shahrbaraz , it remained loyal to the Sasanians during their struggle against the Arabs, but the Mihrans were eventually betrayed and defeated by their own kinsmen, the House of Ispahbudhan , under their leader Farrukhzad , who had mutinied against Yazdegerd III. Yazdegerd III fled from one district to another until a local miller killed him for his purse at Merv in 651. By 674, Muslims had conquered Greater Khorasan (which included modern Iranian Khorasan province and modern Afghanistan and parts of Transoxiana ). The Muslim conquest of Persia ended
4896-424: The Sassanian Persians into the broader Muslim world. In 633, when the Sasanian king Yazdegerd III was ruling over Iran, the Muslims under Umar invaded the country right after it had been in a bloody civil war. Several Iranian nobles and families such as king Dinar of the House of Karen , and later Kanarangiyans of Khorasan , mutinied against their Sasanian overlords. Although the House of Mihran had claimed
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#17328487663704992-410: The Supreme Leader. Iran's foreign relations have been shaped by the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), ongoing tensions with the United States, and its nuclear program, which has been a point of contention in international diplomacy. Despite economic sanctions and internal challenges, Iran remains a key player in Middle Eastern and global geopolitics. The earliest archaeological artifacts in Iran were found in
5088-499: The Zagros Mountains region in western Iran. Around about the same time, the earliest-known clay vessels and modelled human and animal terracotta figurines were produced at Ganj Dareh, also in western Iran. There are also 10,000-year-old human and animal figurines from Tepe Sarab in Kermanshah Province among many other ancient artefacts. The south-western part of Iran was part of the Fertile Crescent where most of humanity's first major crops were grown, in villages such as Susa (where
5184-571: The age of eight, Rudaki had reportedly memorized the Qur'an and was skilled in poetry. He was instructed on how to play the chang by a prominent musician named Abu'l-Abak Bakhtiar. In his early years, Rudaki became a popular figure due to his fine voice, skill with poetry and playing the chang. Surviving biographical information connects Rudaki with the Samanid amir (ruler) Nasr II ( r. 914–943 ) or with his vizier Abu'l-Fadl al-Bal'ami (died 940). However, according to literary scholar Sassan Tabatabai, Rudaki had apparently already joined
5280-408: The city of Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan), the Samanids promoted the arts, giving rise to the advancement of science and literature, and thus attracted scholars such as Rudaki and Avicenna . While under Samanid control, Bukhara was a rival to Baghdad in its glory. Scholars note that the Samanids revived Persian more than the Buyids and the Saffarids, while continuing to patronize Arabic to
5376-401: The court under the latter's predecessor, Ahmad Samani ( r. 907–914 ). Rudaki's success was largely due to the support of his primary patron, the vizier Abu'l-Fadl al-Bal'ami (died 940), who played an important role in the blooming of New Persian literature in the 10th-century. Following the downfall of Bal'ami in 937, Rudaki's career deteriorated, eventually being dismissed from
5472-486: The court. He thereafter lived his last years in poverty, dying blind and alone in his hometown. In Iran , Rudaki is acknowledged as the "founder of New Persian poetry" and in Tajikistan as the "father of Tajik literature ". His full name was Abu Abd Allah Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Hakim ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Adam al-Rudhaki al-Sha'ir al-Samarqandi ( Persian : ابوعبدالله جعفر بن محمد بن حکیم بن عبدالرحمن بن آدم الرودکی الشاعر سمرقندی ). The proper transliteration of his name
5568-420: The downfall of Bal'ami in 937. He soon fell out of favour with the amir and was dismissed from the court. Rudaki thereafter lived his last years in poverty, dying blind and alone in his hometown in 940 or 941. The French Iranologist Gilbert Lazard considered Rudaki's first successor to have been Abu-Shakur Balkhi , who composed many mathnavis , notably the Afarin-nama . According to Asadi Tusi ,
5664-437: The empire's organization had loosened and the last king was defeated by one of the empire's vassal peoples, the Persians under the Sasanians. However, the Arsacid dynasty continued to exist for centuries onwards in Armenia , the Iberia , and the Caucasian Albania , which were all eponymous branches of the dynasty. The first shah of the Sasanian Empire, Ardashir I , started reforming the country economically and militarily. For
5760-510: The empire's territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India and also playing a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asiatic medieval art. This influence carried forward to the Muslim world . The dynasty's unique and aristocratic culture transformed the Islamic conquest and destruction of Iran into a Persian Renaissance. Much of what later became known as Islamic culture, architecture, writing, and other contributions to civilization, were taken from
5856-409: The empire. The city of Baghdad was constructed on the Tigris River , in 762, to serve as the new Abbasid capital. The Abbasids established the position of vizier like Barmakids in their administration, which was the equivalent of a "vice-caliph", or second-in-command. Eventually, this change meant that many caliphs under the Abbasids ended up in a much more ceremonial role than ever before, with
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#17328487663705952-413: The end of the Arab empire and the beginning of a more inclusive, multi-ethnic state in the Middle East. One of the first changes the Abbasids made after taking power from the Umayyads was to move the empire's capital from Damascus , in the Levant , to Iraq . The latter region was influenced by Persian history and culture, and moving the capital was part of the Persian mawali demand for Arab influence in
6048-524: 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." After the fall of the Sasanian Empire in 651, the Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate adopted many Persian customs, especially the administrative and the court mannerisms. Arab provincial governors were undoubtedly either Persianized Arameans or ethnic Persians; certainly Persian remained
6144-433: The expressive picture of nature given by Rudaki in his writings. Besides being a poet, Rudaki was also a singer and musician. Since the era of Sasanian Iran (224–651), poems were commonly carried out as songs used in music. Under the Sasanians, the official, religious and literary language was Middle Persian . Following the Muslim conquest of Iran , the language entered a new phase, known as New Persian . However, it
6240-413: The former caliphal provinces of Armenia , Albania , and Azerbaijan ". The historian Clifford Edmund Bosworth states in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam that Minorsky considers the Rawadids to be flourishing during the period of the Iranian intermezzo. The Tahirid dynasty ( Persian : سلسله طاهریان ) was an Iranian dynasty that ruled over the northeastern part of Greater Iran , in
6336-397: The hypothetical Zayandeh River Culture . Parts of what is modern-day northwestern Iran was part of the Kura–Araxes culture (circa 3400 BC—ca. 2000 BC), that stretched up into the neighbouring regions of the Caucasus and Anatolia . Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of Iran and the world. Based on C14 dating, the time of the foundation of the city is as early as 4395 BC,
6432-509: The invading Muslim forces. The Sasanian era, encompassing the length of Late Antiquity , is considered to be one of the most important and influential historical periods in Iran, and had a major impact on the world. In many ways, the Sassanian period witnessed the highest achievement of Persian civilization and constitutes the last great Iranian Empire before the adoption of Islam. Persia influenced Roman civilization considerably during Sassanian times, their cultural influence extending far beyond
6528-412: The language of official business of the caliphate until the adoption of Arabic toward the end of the seventh century, when in 692 minting began at the capital, Damascus . The new Islamic coins evolved from imitations of Sasanian coins (as well as Byzantine ), and the Pahlavi script on the coinage was replaced with Arabic alphabet . During the Umayyad Caliphate, the Arab conquerors imposed Arabic as
6624-562: The latter wrote a play focused on Rudaki, entitled Rudaki , which was the first Tajik biographical drama. The 1100th anniversary of Rudaki's birth was commemorated by Iran and the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic in 1958, who together held a conference which was joined by several eminent Iranian and Tajik academics. It was during this period that Rudaki's burial place in Panjrud was discovered. The Soviet archaeologist and anthropologist Mikhail Mikhaylovich Gerasimov (died 1970) dug out and analyzed Rudaki's remains, which he used to recreate
6720-461: The latter's face on a sculpture. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Rudaki started to become a stronger representation of Tajik identity and also reinforced their ties to the rest of the Persian-speaking world. According to Nile Green , Rudaki "heralded a new era for Persian letters." The Iranologist Francois de Blois states that Rudaki "was the most celebrated Persian poet prior to Ferdowsi." Following his death, Rudaki continued to remain
6816-401: The modern inhabitants of Iran are descendants of mainly non-Indo-European groups, more specifically of pre-Iranic inhabitants of the Iranian Plateau: "It is the autochthones of the Iranian plateau, and not the Proto-Indo-European tribes of Europe, which are, in the main, the ancestors, in the physical sense of the word, of the present-day Iranians." Records become more tangible with the rise of
6912-589: The pre-Islamic andarz style, i.e., ethical teachings, friendly criticism and advice for correct behavior in both private and public. An example of Rudaki's Zoroastrian roots can be seen in an excerpt where he is talking about his patron: It's a puzzle, describing his grace and will: He is the Avesta in wisdom, the Zand in essence... Rudaki is considered to have been the first major poet to write in New Persian. Although he
7008-528: The primary language of the subject peoples throughout their empire. Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf , who was not happy with the prevalence of the Persian language in the divan , ordered the official language of the conquered lands to be replaced by Arabic, sometimes by force. In al-Biruni 's From The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries for example it is written: "When Qutaibah bin Muslim under the command of Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef
7104-527: The region of Khorasan (made up of parts of Iran , present-day Afghanistan , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , and Uzbekistan ). The Tahirid capital was located in Nishapur . The Saffarid dynasty ( Persian : سلسله صفاریان ) was an Iranian empire which ruled in Sistan (861–1003), a historical region in southeastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan. Their capital was Zaranj . The Sajid dynasty ( Persian : ساجیان )
7200-447: The region. For over 150 years Assyrian kings of nearby Northern Mesopotamia had been wanting to conquer Median tribes of Western Iran. Under pressure from Assyria, the small kingdoms of the western Iranian plateau coalesced into increasingly larger and more centralized states. In the second half of the seventh century BC, the Medes gained their independence and were united by Deioces . In 612 BC, Cyaxares , Deioces ' grandson, and
7296-518: The ruling Arab elite until the end of the Umayyad Caliphate. During this era, Islam was initially associated with the ethnic identity of the Arab and required formal association with an Arab tribe and the adoption of the client status of mawali . The half-hearted policies of the late Umayyads to tolerate non-Arab Muslims and Shias had failed to quell unrest among these minorities. However, all of Iran
7392-614: The southern Iranians might be intermixed with the Elamite peoples living in the plateau. By the mid-first millennium BC, Medes , Persians , and Parthians populated the Iranian plateau. Until the rise of the Medes, they all remained under Assyrian domination, like the rest of the Near East . In the first half of the first millennium BC, parts of what is now Iranian Azerbaijan were incorporated into Urartu . In 646 BC, Assyrian king Ashurbanipal sacked Susa , which ended Elamite supremacy in
7488-573: The successful Greek repelling of the Second Invasion with numerous Greek city-states under the Athens' newly formed Delian League , which eventually ended with the peace of Callias in 449 BC, ending the Greco-Persian Wars. In 404 BC, following the death of Darius II , Egypt rebelled under Amyrtaeus . Later pharaohs successfully resisted Persian attempts to reconquer Egypt until 343 BC, when Egypt
7584-436: The support of his primary patron, Bal'ami. The latter played an important role in the blooming of Persian literature in the 10th century. Bal'ami regarded Rudaki as the best amongst Persian and Arab poets. Rudaki was a close friend to his student Shahid Balkhi , a leading poet and scholar of the Samanid realm. Following Shahid Balkhi's death in 936, Rudaki wrote an elegy for him. Rudaki's career started to decline following
7680-526: The then known world, as well as spanning the continents of Europe , Asia, and Africa. The greatest achievement was the empire itself. The Persian Empire represented the world's first superpower that was based on a model of tolerance and respect for other cultures and religions. In the late sixth century BC, Darius launched his European campaign, in which he defeated the Paeonians , conquered Thrace , and subdued all coastal Greek cities, as well as defeating
7776-489: The village of Banoj (Panjrud), located in the Rudak area between Samarqand and Bukhara . Rudaki's blindness is implied by the writings of early poets such as Daqiqi (died 977), Ferdowsi (died 1020/25), Abu Zura'ah al-Mu'ammari ( fl. 10th-century ) and Nasir Khusraw (died after 1070). The historian Awfi (died 1242), even says that Rudaki was born blind, but this has been questioned by some modern scholars, due to
7872-570: The vizier in real power. A new Persian bureaucracy began to replace the old Arab aristocracy, and the entire administration reflected these changes, demonstrating that the new dynasty was different in many ways from the Umayyads. By the 9th century, Abbasid control began to wane as regional leaders sprang up in the far corners of the empire to challenge the central authority of the Abbasid caliphate. The Abbasid caliphs began enlisting mamluks , Turkic-speaking warriors, who had been moving out of Central Asia into Transoxiana as slave warriors as early as
7968-729: The world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC. The western part of the Iranian plateau participated in the traditional ancient Near East with Elam (in Ilam and Khuzestan ), Kassites (in Kuhdesht ), Gutians (in Luristan ) and later with other peoples such as the Urartians (in Oshnavieh and Sardasht ) in the southwest of Lake Urmia and Mannaeans (in Piranshahr , Saqqez and Bukan ) in
8064-504: Was Bardasir . The Ghaznavids were an Persianate Muslim dynasty and empire of Turkic mamluk origin, ruling at its greatest extent, large parts of Iran , Khorasan , and the northwest Indian subcontinent from 977 to 1186. Buyid dynasty , also known as the Buyid Empire or the Buyids ( Persian : بوییان Buyiān , Caspian : Bowyiyün), also known as Buwaihids or Buyyids , were
8160-527: Was also " King of Kings ", xšāyaθiya xšāyaθiyānām ( shāhanshāh in modern Persian) – "great king", Megas Basileus , as known by the Greeks . Cyrus's son, Cambyses II , conquered the last major power of the region, ancient Egypt , causing the collapse of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt . Since he became ill and died before, or while, leaving Egypt , stories developed, as related by Herodotus , that he
8256-615: Was also turned out in a Greek victory, following the battles of Plataea and Salamis , by which Persia lost its footholds in Europe, and eventually withdrew from it. During the Greco-Persian wars, the Persians gained major territorial advantages. They captured and razed Athens twice , once in 480 BC and again in 479 BC. However, after a string of Greek victories the Persians were forced to withdraw, thus losing control of Macedonia , Thrace and Ionia . Fighting continued for several decades after
8352-818: Was an Islamic dynasty that ruled from 889–890 until 929. The Sajids ruled Azerbaijan and parts of Armenia first from Maragha and Barda and then from Ardabil . The Sajids originated from the Central Asian province of Ushrusana and were of Iranian ( Sogdian ) heritage. The Samanid dynasty ( Persian : سلسلهٔ سامانیان ), also known as the Samanid Empire or simply Samanids (819–999), ( Persian : سامانیان Sāmāniyān ) were an Iranian empire in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan , named after its founder Saman Khuda who converted to Sunni Islam despite being from Zoroastrian theocratic nobility. With their roots stemming from
8448-414: Was an essential aspect of the Persian court. According to the first Sasanian king Ardashir I ( r. 224–242 ), a poet was "part of government and the means of strengthening rulership." Besides applauding the suzerain and his domain, a poet was also expected to give advice and moral guidance, which meant that Rudaki was most likely experienced in that field as well. Rudaki's success was largely due to
8544-402: Was dedicated to Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad , who ruled the region of Sistan as a Samanid governor from 923 to 963. In it, Rudaki calls Abu Ja'far an aristocrat of Sasanian ancestry and "pride of Iran", thus indicating a sense of continuity in Iranian identity from the Sasanian to the Samanid period. For this poem, Abu Ja'far rewarded Rudaki with 10,000 dinars . Rudaki's best known work
8640-589: Was predated by other poets who wrote in New Persian, such as Abu Hafs Sughdi (died 902), most of their work has not survived. In Iran, Rudaki is acknowledged as the "founder of New Persian poetry" and in Tajikistan as the "father of Tajik literature", both claims which according to the Iranologist Richard Foltz are not contradictory. Rudaki's life is depicted in the 1957 film of A Poet's Fate , written by Satim Ulugzade (died 1997). The following year,
8736-400: Was reconquered by Artaxerxes III . From 334 BC to 331 BC, Alexander the Great defeated Darius III in the battles of Granicus , Issus and Gaugamela , swiftly conquering the Persian Empire by 331 BC. Alexander's empire broke up shortly after his death, and Alexander's general, Seleucus I Nicator , tried to take control of Iran, Mesopotamia , and later Syria and Anatolia . His empire
8832-482: Was sent to Khwarazmia with a military expedition and conquered it for the second time, he swiftly killed whoever wrote the Khwarazmian native language that knew of the Khwarazmian heritage, history, and culture. He then killed all their Zoroastrian priests and burned and wasted their books, until gradually the illiterate only remained, who knew nothing of writing, and hence their history was mostly forgotten." There are
8928-587: Was still not under Arab control, and the region of Daylam was under the control of the Daylamites , while Tabaristan was under Dabuyid and Paduspanid control, and the Mount Damavand region under Masmughans of Damavand . The Arabs had invaded these regions several times but achieved no decisive result because of the inaccessible terrain of the regions. The most prominent ruler of the Dabuyids, known as Farrukhan
9024-505: Was struck down for impiety against the ancient Egyptian deities . After the death of Cambyses II, Darius ascended the throne by overthrowing the legitimate Achaemenid monarch Bardiya , and then quelling rebellions throughout his kingdom. As the winner, Darius I , based his claim on membership in a collateral line of the Achaemenid Empire. Darius' first capital was at Susa, and he started the building program at Persepolis . He rebuilt
9120-742: Was the Seleucid Empire . He was killed in 281 BC by Ptolemy Keraunos . The Parthian Empire —ruled by the Parthians, a group of northwestern Iranian people—was the realm of the Arsacid dynasty. This latter reunited and governed the Iranian plateau after the Parni conquest of Parthia and defeating the Seleucid Empire in the late third century BC. It intermittently controlled Mesopotamia between c. 150 BC and 224 AD and absorbed Eastern Arabia . Parthia
9216-520: Was the eastern arch-enemy of the Roman Empire and it limited Rome's expansion beyond Cappadocia (central Anatolia). The Parthian armies included two types of cavalry : the heavily armed and armored cataphracts and the lightly armed but highly-mobile mounted archers . For the Romans, who relied on heavy infantry , the Parthians were too hard to defeat, as both types of cavalry were much faster and more mobile than foot soldiers. The Parthian shot used by
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