Arab rule

Conquest

  • “The Arab conquerors must have been astounded at how quickly they were able to overthrow the last Sasanian king. Yazdgard III (r. 632–651) had to abandon Ctesiphon, near the modern site of Baghdad, and fled for his life into the Asiatic steppe. But he was intercepted and killed. His sons and a few surviving aristocrats managed to reach China, where the Tang emperor welcomed them to his court at Chang’an. There, a Sasanian court in exile lasted for almost 200 years, and a few abortive attempts at reconquering Iran were launched.”

Caliphs

  • “The Umayyad clan was the first Arabian dynasty to rule Iran. For nearly a century, it reigned from Damascus, attempting to enforce authority over the old Sasanian empire. Fifty-thousand Arabian troops stationed at the garrison city of Marv, in eastern Iran, took Persian wives and began adopting Iranian cultural practices. In 750, those troops rose in revolt and overthrew the Umayyads. The new dynasty, known to posterity as Abbasid, established their new capital in Baghdad, only about 20 miles from Ctesiphon.”
  • “Their civil administration imitated the customs of the Sasanian chancery, and a new generation of Iranian functionaries arose in service to the new empire, which took on an Iranian identity. The successors of Muhammad were instructed and edified by volumes of Persian literature, treatises on Iranian courtly manners, and the history of the Sasanians. The heritage of the Sasanian era—its literature, architecture, metal-working, glassware, carpets, and textiles—inspired subsequent mediaeval Persianate culture, and became part of the foundation of Classical Islamic civilisation.”