TheIslamization of Iran began with theMuslim conquest of Iran, when theRashidun Caliphate annexed theSasanian Empire. It was a long process by whichIslam, though initially rejected, eventually spread among thePersians and the otherIranian peoples. AlthoughArabization was a common element of theearly Muslim conquests, it did not have as significant of an impact in Iran as it did elsewhere, as the Iranian populace persisted in maintaining many of their pre-Islamic traditions, such as theirlanguage andculture, albeit with adaptations to conform to the nascent religion. A distinctly Iranian Muslim identity emerged in this context and later sidelined theArabs in what is known as theIranian Intermezzo.[1]
Iranian society was deeply transformed by thespread of Islam, which greatly influenced the nation's cultural, scientific, and political structure; the blossoming ofPersian literature,philosophy,medicine, andart became major elements ofIslam in Iran. Integrating a heritage ofthousands of years of civilization and being at the "crossroads of the major cultural highways"[2] in theNear East contributed to the Iranians emerging at the forefront of theIslamic Golden Age under theAbbasid Caliphate.
Between the 7th century and the 16th century,Sunni Islam was dominant among the Iranians, but this changed with theSafavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam, which marked another historic societal shift for the nation. Consequently,Shia Islam remains dominant in modern-dayIran, where it is the official religion, as well as inIraq andAzerbaijan.
After theMuslim conquest of Iran, during the 90-year-long reign of theUmayyad dynasty, until the time ofAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan, thedivan was dominated by themawali and accounts were written using thePahlavi script. The controversial Umayyad governorAl-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf forced all the mawali who had left for cities, in order to avoid paying thekharaj tax, to return to their lands. He was upset at the usage ofPersian as the court language in the eastern Islamic empire, and ordered that it be changed to Arabic.[3]
There are a number of historians who see the rule of the Umayyads as setting up the "dhimmah" to increase taxes from thedhimmis to benefit the Arab Muslim community financially and by discouraging conversion.[4] Islam, during the Umayyad Caliphate, was initially associated with the ethnic identity of the Arab and required formal association with anArab tribe and the adoption of the client status ofmawali.[4] Governors lodged complaints with the caliph when he enacted laws that made conversion easier, depriving the provinces of revenues. Notable Zoroastrian converts to Islam includedAbd-Allāh Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ,Fadl ibn Sahl andNaubakht Ahvazi.
Patrick Clawson states that "The Iranians chafed under Umayyad rule. The Umayyads rose from traditional Arab aristocracy. They tended to marry other Arabs, creating an ethnic stratification that discriminated against Iranians. Even as Arabs adopted traditional Iranian bureaucracy, Arab tribalism disadvantaged Iranians."[5]
The Arab conquerors, according to many historians, formed "a ruling aristocracy with special rights and privileges, which they emphatically did not propose to share with themawali".[6] Some rulers, such asHajjaj ibn Yusuf even went as far as viewing the Mawali as "barbarians", implementing harsh policies such asbranding to keep the subjects in check.[7]
The case ofHajjaj is particularly noteworthy as many reports have come down to us from his racial policies and iron tactics in governing the provinces. And yet many skeptics point to the fact that some of these reports were written by Abbasid era writers who may have had a skewed view of their predecessors.
However, Hajjaj was not the only case of cruelty against the Mawali.[8] The non-Iranian appointee of the Caliph inIsfahan for example cut off the heads of any of the Mawali who failed to pay their taxes,[9] andIbn Athir in hisal-kāmil reports thatSa'id ibn al-'Ās killed all but one person in the port city ofTamisah, during his incursion toGorgan in the year 651.
Such tumultuous conditions eventually were responsible for the rise of theShuubiyah movement, and the rise of Persian nationalist tendencies in the 9th century with the emergence of theSamanids.
During theAbbasid period, an enfranchisement was experienced by themawali and a shift was made in political conception from that of a primarily Arab empire to one of a Muslim empire,[10] and around 930, a requirement was enacted that required all bureaucrats of the empire be Muslim.[4] Both periods were also marked by significant migrations of Arab tribes outwards from theArabian Peninsula into the newly conquered territories.[10]
Before theMuslim conquest of Iran, thePersian people were predominantlyZoroastrian. The historianal-Masudi, aBaghdad-bornArab, who wrote a comprehensive treatise on history and geography in about 956, records that after the conquest:
Zoroastrianism, for the time being, continued to exist in many parts of Iran. Not only in countries that came relatively late under Muslim sway (e.g Tabaristan) but also in those regions which early had become provinces of the Muslim empire. In almost all the Iranian provinces, according to Al Masudi, fire temples were to be found – the Madjus he says, venerate many fire temples inIraq,Fars,Kirman,Sistan,Khurasan,Tabaristan, al Djibal,Azerbaijan andArran.
This general statement of al-Masudi is fully supported by the medieval geographers who make mention of fire temples in most of the Iranian towns.[11]
Also, 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.[12] Moreover,Muslim missionaries did not encounter difficulty in explaining Islamic tenets to Zoroastrians, as there were many similarities between the two faiths. According toThomas Walker Arnold, for the Persian, he would meetAhura Mazda andAhriman under the names ofAllah andIblis.[12] At times, Muslim leaders, in their effort to winconverts, encouraged attendance atMuslim prayer with promises of money and allowed theQuran to be recited inPersian instead ofArabic so that it would be intelligible to all.[13] Later, theSamanids, whose roots stemmed from Zoroastrian theocratic nobility, propagatedSunniIslam and Perso-Islamic culture deep into the heart ofCentral Asia. The first complete translation of the Quran into the Persian language occurred during the reign of the Samanids in the 9th century.
The "conversion curve" byRichard Bulliet highlights a relatively low conversion rate of non-Arab subjects during the Arab-centricUmayyad period, estimated at 10%. In contrast, during the more politically multicultural Abbasid period, the Muslim population increased significantly, from approximately 40% in the mid-9th century to nearly 80% by the end of the 11th century.[10]
The emergence of Iranian Muslim dynasties had a great effect on the changing religion, perSeyyed Hossein Nasr.[14] These dynasties have adopted some Persian cultural values and adapted them with Islam.
Although Persians adopted the religion of their conquerors, over the centuries they worked to protect and revive their distinctive language and culture, a process known asPersianization. Arabs andTurks participated in this attempt.[15][16][17][18]
In the 9th and 10th centuries, non-Arab subjects of theUmmah created a movement calledShu'ubiyyah in response to the privileged status of Arabs. Most of those behind the movement were Persian, but references toEgyptians andBerbers are attested.[19] Citing as its basis Islamic notions of equality of races and nations, the movement was primarily concerned with preserving Persian culture and protecting Persian identity, though within a Muslim context. It was a response to the growingArabization ofIslam in the earlier centuries. The most notable effect of the movement was the survival ofPersian language, the language of the Persians, to the present day.
TheAbbasids also held a strong pro-Iranian campaign against the Umayyads in order to get support from the Persian population. After their establishment asCaliphs, holidays such asNowruz for example were permitted after a decades-long suppression by the Umayyad rulers[citation needed]. The Abbasids, in particularal-Mamun, also actively promoted the Persian language. TheSamanid dynasty who defeated the Saffarids, and called themselves descendants of SassanidEran spahbodBahram Chobin.
However, after the reign of theUmayyads andAbbasids, Iran and its society in particular experienced reigning dynasties who legitimized Persian languages and customs, while still encouraging Islam. Moreover, there was close interaction between Persian and Arab leaders, particularly during the wake of theSamanids who promoted revived Persian more than theBuyids and theSaffarids, while continuing to patronizeArabic to a significant degree.[20]
TheSamanid 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 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, theGhaznawids, who were of non-Iranian origin, also became instrumental in the revival of Persian.
TheShi'aBuyid rulers, adopted a similar attitude in this regard. They tried to revive many of the Sassanid customs and traditions. They even adopted the ancient Persian title ofShahanshah (King of Kings) for their rulers.
After the rise of theSafavid dynasty,Twelver Shia Islam became the officialstate religion and itsadoption imposed upon the majority of the Iranian population.
According toBernard Lewis:
"Iran was indeedIslamized, but it was notArabized.Persians remained Persians. And after an interval of silence, Iran re-emerged as a separate, different and distinctive element within Islam, eventually adding a new element even to Islam itself. Culturally, politically, and most remarkable of all even religiously, the Iranian contribution to this newIslamic civilization is of immense importance. The work of Iranians can be seen in every field of cultural endeavor, includingArabic poetry, to which poets of Iranian origin composing their poems in Arabic made a very significant contribution. In a sense, Iranian Islam is a second advent of Islam itself, a new Islam sometimes referred to asIslam-iAjam. It was this Persian Islam, rather than the original Arab Islam, that was brought to new areas and new peoples: to theTurks, first inCentral Asia and then in theMiddle East in the country which came to be calledTurkey, and of course toIndia. TheOttoman Turks brought a form of Iranian civilization to the walls ofVienna."[1]
The Persians had a great influence on their Arab conquerors. Thecaliphs adopted many administrative practices of theSasanian Empire, such as coinage, the office ofvizier, or minister, and thedivan, a bureaucracy for collecting taxes and giving state stipends. Indeed, Persians themselves largely became the administrators. It is well established that the Abbasid caliphs modeled their administration on that of the Sasanians.[21] The caliphs adopted Sasanian court dress and ceremony. In terms of architecture Islamic architecture borrowed heavily from Persian architecture.Sasanian architecture had a distinctive influence overIslamic architecture.
Iranians, since the beginning had interest and sincere efforts in compiling the study of Arabicetymology,grammar,syntax,morphology,figures of speech, rules ofeloquence, andrhetoric.Arabic was not seen as an alien language but the language of Islam and thereby Arabic was widely accepted as an academic and religious language and embraced in many parts of Iran. It was for the sake of the Quran and Islam that books ofphilosophy,mysticism,history,medicine,mathematics, andlaw had been written or translated into this language.
Persians also contributed greatly to Arabic learning andliterature. The influence of theAcademy of Gundishapur is particularly worthy of note.
The New Persian language written in the Arabic alphabet with some modifications was formed in the late ninth century in eastern Iran and came to flourish inBukhara, the capital of the PersianSamanid dynasty.
Persian language, because of its strong support from later Abbasid rulers condoning the language became one of the universalIslamic languages, next to Arabic.
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 reliableHadith collectors ofShia andSunni likeShaikh Saduq,Shaikh Kulainy,Imam Bukhari,Imam Muslim andHakim al-Nishaburi, the greatesttheologians of Shia and Sunni likeShaykh Tusi,Imam Ghazali,Imam Fakhr al-Razi andAl-Zamakhshari, the greatestphysicians,astronomers,logicians,mathematicians,metaphysicians,philosophers andscientists likeAl-Farabi,Avicenna, andNasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī, the greatestShaykh of Sufism likeRumi, andAbdul-Qadir Gilani.
In 1377, theArab sociologist,Ibn Khaldun, narrates in hisMuqaddimah:[22]
"It is a remarkable fact that, with few exceptions, most Muslim scholars ... in the intellectual sciences have been non-Arabs, thus the founders of grammar wereSibawaih 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 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."
OneAbbasid Caliph is even quoted as saying:
"ThePersians ruled for a thousand years and did not need usArabs even for a day. We have been ruling them for one or two centuries and cannot do without them for an hour."[23]
