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  1. Home
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  3. The Cambridge History of Iran
  • Cited by 25
  • Volume 4: The Period from the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs
  • Edited by R. N. Frye
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
March 2008
Print publication year:
1975
Online ISBN:
9781139054966
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521200936
Subjects:
Middle East Studies, Area Studies, History, Regional History Before 1500, Middle East History
Series:
The Cambridge History of Iran
Collection:
Cambridge Histories - Middle East & African Studies
Information

Book description

Volume 4 is a survey of every aspect of the civilisations which flourished in the Iranian region from the Arab conquests to the Saljuq expansion: in particular, it studies the gradual transition of Iran from Zoroastrianism to Islam, the uniting of all Iranians under one rule, the flowering into full magnificence of the Persian language, and the establishment of those other acts which were to flourish so brilliantly after the Mongol conquest. The volume as a whole provides a comprehensive record of the formative centuries of Islam in Iran.

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Contents

Contents
  • 1 - THE ARAB CONQUEST OF IRAN AND ITS AFTERMATH
    pp 1-56
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Muhammad's death in 11/632 was followed in his successor Abū Bakr's time by a crisis of apostasy, the Ridda, which put both the religion and the government of Medina in jeopardy. The emergence of the Sāsānian navy owed a great deal to the co-operation which existed with the Arabs. Khusrau I intervened in Yemenī affairs on the pretext of aiding the Arabs against Byzantium, with the result that Iranian forces replaced Ethiopian there. Among the secretaries at the Sāsānian court was one for Arab affairs. From ancient times Iran had had contacts varying in degree of closeness and amity with the Arabs. Before the Sāsānian era, Arab tribes had settled in the Tigris-Euphrates region, though at the beginning of the era Ardashīr I had wrested from them the district known as Maisan, in southern Iraq on the Persian Gulf. Iraq and Syria were in the hands of the Khurāsāns, to be followed by Egypt and Arabia.
  • 2 - THE ‘ABBĀSID CALIPHATE IN IRAN
    pp 57-89
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter gives an account of all the principal political events in Iran under the ‘Abbāsids and then discusses the long-term significance of these events for the history of that country; but it should never be forgotten that the ‘Abbāsids intended to create and for a time nearly succeeded in creating a universal Islamic empire. When Zaidī 'Alid pretenders rebelled in the Yemen and in Māzandarān they posed essentially similar political threats to the ‘Abbāsids. The actions of the central government, and the reactions of the Iranian Muslims under ‘Abbāsid rule, were always more subject to Islamic considerations than to any specific feeling about Iranians as a group. The success of the ‘Abbāsid revolution has often been viewed as a success by Iranians over Arabs; but a very great number of the soldiers and propagandists who won and maintained ‘Abbāsid rule were Arabs, and there is sign that the Iranian supporters of the dynasty in the early period were anti-Arab.
  • 3 - THE ṬĀHIRIDS AND ṢAFFĀRIDS
    pp 90-135
  • View abstract

    Summary

    During the 3rd/9th century, four generations of the Tāhirid family succeeded each other hereditarily as governors for the 'Abbāsid caliphs. The practical effects of the trends inaugurated by the Tāhirids were seen in the governmental policies and cultural climate of succeeding dynasties, the Saffārids and Sāmānids in eastern Persia, the various Dailamite and Kurdish dynasties in the west. The founders of the Tāhirid family fortunes were typical of the Persians who had lent their support, first to the anti-Umayyad da'wa of Abū Muslim, and then to the new regime of the 'Abbāsid which in 132/749 emerged from that upheaval. One of the most important aspects of early Saffārid policy, of significance for the spread of Islam in Afghanistan and on the borders of India long after their empire had collapsed, was that of expansion into eastern Afghanistan.
  • 4 - The SĀMĀNIDS
    pp 136-161
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The original home of the Sāmānids is uncertain, for some Arabic and Persian books claim that the name was derived from a village near Samarqand. The Sāmānid state had received recognition in the year 261/875 when the caliph al-Mu'tamid sent the investiture for all of Transoxiana to Nasr b. Ahmad, in opposition to the claims of Ya‘qūb b. al-Laith, the Saffārid. Ismā‘īl was the real founder of the Sāmānid state, and is highly regarded in all sources for his good qualities as a ruler, indeed almost an idealized ruler. He enlarged the Sāmānid domain in all directions. In 280/893 he raided to the north and captured the city of Tarāz where a Nestorian church was reputedly turned into a mosque and much booty was taken. The organization of the Sāmānid state was modelled after the caliph's court in Baghdad with its central and provincial divisions.
  • 5 - THE EARLY GHAZNAVIDS
    pp 162-197
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The establishment of the Ghaznavid sultanate in the eastern Iranian world represents the first major breakthrough of Turkish power there against the indigenous dynasties. The Sāmānid in Transoxiana and Khurāsā meant that there was a strong barrier in the northeast against mass incursions from the steppes into the civilized zone. The group of Turks in Ghazna was a small one, set down in an hostile environment, and a dynamic policy of expansion may have seemed to Sebük-Tegin, the best way to ensure its survival. Sebük-Tegin's successful maintenance of himself in power at Ghazna and his victories against the Indians made him a force in the internal politics of the Sāmānid empire, at the time moving towards its final collapse. By acquiring Khurāsā, Mahmūd became master of a rich and flourishing province. Khurāsā had rich agricultural oases, irrigated by means of a skilful utilization of a modest water supply.
  • 6 - THE MINOR DYNASTIES OF NORTHERN IRAN
    pp 198-249
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Among the provinces of the Sāsānian empire, the coastal regions along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea resisted the penetration of the Arabs and Islam most tenaciously. The early history of the Sāsānian dynasty is, however, shrouded in obscurity. The first mention of an Ispahbad ruling Tabaristān in a reliable report concerns the year 79/698. Tabaristān was ruled by Muslim governors residing in Āmul. Their first task was to secure the Muslim domination over the newly subdued territories. Though the nobility was generally left unharmed, some prominent Zoroastrian leaders were killed during the first years of the occupation. The history of the Bāvandid, Ispahbads of Shahriyārkūh in the 4th/ioth century can only fragmentarily be pieced together from occasional references in literary sources and some numismatic evidence. Rūyān in the 4th/10th century came under the rule of a dynasty bearing the title Ustandār. The population of Azarbaijan at the time of the conquest was predominantly Iranian, speaking numerous dialects.
  • 7 - IRAN UNDER THE BŪYIDS
    pp 250-304
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The Iranian highlands by the Caspian Sea were controlled by the Zaidite rulers of Tabaristān and by various local potentates. The form of government established by the Būyids may be described with reservations as a military dictatorship. The Būyids were Dailamites and were largely dependent on soldiers drawn from their own people. The Dailamites had a long tradition of military prowess dating back to pre-Christian times and including campaigns against Georgia as allies of the Sāsānians. Women had always held an important place in Dailamite society and they were to wield great political influence and were even to achieve personal rule. In the mountain fastnesses of their homeland the Dailamites had already succeeded in repelling more than a dozen Muslim attacks before the beginning of the 3rd/9th century, when they began to receive Islamic influences. Baha' al-Daula, after protracted efforts, had finally succeeded in restoring some semblance of unity to the Būyid empire.
  • 8 - TRIBES, CITIES AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
    pp 305-328
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The history of the Sāsānian period is often presented with Islamic bias, for the purpose of leading to conclusions which authors of the Islamic period wished to demonstrate, reflecting the conflicts and problems of their times. In Central Asia and in Afghanistan of today there persisted elements, probably rather heterogeneous, of the confederation known as the Hephthalites, which had an Indo-European core but had been infiltrated by various Turkish elements. Certain Iranian authors of the Islamic era have produced a summary classification of social divisions, based on a particular aspect of actual social conditions quite independent of the Muslim theoretical system. The seat of local government was generally in the citadel, but the central monument of the city, in proportion to its degree of conversion to Islam, was the Great Mosque. In pre-Islamic times Iranian society had been possessed of reserves of slaves and had retained them under Islam.
  • 9 - THE VISUAL ARTS
    pp 329-363
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter discusses the traditional approach of Islamic art of Iran, first architecture and architectural decoration, then the so-called minor arts whose importance is far greater than their slightly pejorative name suggests. Northeastern Iranian ceramics provide examples of figural representations. The subjects are riders, dancers, standing or seated personages holding flowers and pitchers, as well as a number of unidentified activities. The greatest originality of these representations lies in their style. A sketchy line outlines the main subjects with very little consideration for bodily proportions and at times with distortions which could be considered as folk caricatures or as wilful modifications of visual impressions. There is a fairly large number of objects in metal which are commonly assigned to the period between the fall of the Sāsānian dynasty and the middle of the 5th/11th century.
  • 10 - NUMISMATICS
    pp 364-377
  • View abstract

    Summary

    In the first years after the conquest of Byzantine and Sāsānian lands the invaders made use of the existing currency, the Byzantine gold solidus or denarius aureus and the copper follis in Palestine and Syria, the Sāsānian silver drahm in the east. During the latter half of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth decades of the Hijra, a number of innovations were introduced and several radical iconographical changes were experimented. Excavations in recent years have disclosed the fact that during the transitional years following the Arab conquest, there were local issues of copper coinage. 'Abd al-Malik's monetary reform, began with gold coins in the year 77 and two years later mints in Iran and Iraq started issuing the purely epigraphical dirham which was to become the most popular coin in the Near and Middle East. The ‘Abbāsid and Khārijite movements are well reflected in the coinage.
  • 11 - THE EXACT SCIENCES
    pp 378-395
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter describes scientific activity in Iran during the four centuries beginning about 30/650. Early ‘Abbāsid scientists tended to be astronomer-astrologers whose techniques and theories were inherited from Indian and Sāsānian forebears and whose role as innovators was small. Their sole major contribution was in the form of numerous and meticulous astronomical observations. Present knowledge of the scribal arithmetic is due largely to study of a textbook for the use of government employees written by Abu'l-Wafā' al-Buzjānī, a thinker of great originality and power. Computational mathematics did not reach the degree of sophistication it achieved later, in Mongol and Timurid times, but numerical tables of functions were considerably more extensive and precise than those produced by the Greeks and the Indians. Among the more complicated arithmetic processes, the operation of root extraction received considerable attention in ‘Abbāsid times.
  • 12 - LIFE SCIENCES, ALCHEMY AND MEDICINE
    pp 396-418
    • By S. H. Nasr, University of Tehrān; Chancellor, Aryamehr University
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Islamic science came into being in the 2nd/8th century as a result of the vast effort of translation which made the scientific and philosophical traditions of antiquity available in Arabic. This interest in science during the late Sāsānian period is reported in Arabic sources to have been associated more with the Syriac language than with Pahlavī. The transition from the Sāsānian to the Islamic era in the sciences is marked by the period of translation from Graeco-Syriac, Pahlavī and Sanskrit sources into Arabic. From the Islamic point of view the whole universe is alive and the life sciences really deal with all things. Among the Muslim philosophers who developed the theory of the faculties of the vegetable and animal souls, many of the most important were Persian. Most of the study of plants was connected with their properties and application to different fields, especially medicine.
  • 13(a) - PHILOSOPHY AND COSMOLOGY
    pp 419-441
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter discusses the philosophy and cosmology in Persia from the rise of Islam to the Saljuq period, which is almost synonymous with studying the first phase in the development of Islamic philosophy and cosmology itself. The Persian translators and the whole class of secretaries who cultivated philosophy were important in creating the new style of philosophical prose in Arabic. The early history of Islamic philosophy and theology during the 3rd/9th century is connected with the cities of Baghdad, Basra and Kufa, in all three of which the Arab and Persian elements were mixed, such that it is often difficult to separate them. The written record of Islamic philosophy begins with the "philosopher of the Arabs" Abū Ya‘qūb al-Kindī, who wrote extensive treatises in Arabic on philosophy and the sciences during the 3rd/9th century, relying most of all on the translations of Syriac scholars as well as of course on Islamic sources.
  • (b) - SŪFISM
    pp 442-463
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The spiritual transformation of a people and their participation in the life of a new spiritual universe brought into being by a fresh revelation from heaven is too profound a reality to be reduced simply to sociopolitical or economic factors. To study the history of Sūfism in Persia during the first few centuries of Islamic history, one must turn to the study of the origin of Sūfism from the first decades of Islamic history. Sūfism, in its inner reality, and not necessarily in all the formulations it has adopted throughout its history to expound its perennial truths, is rooted in the Quran and the Sunna and Hadith of the Prophet of Islam. The first manifestations of Sūfism, are to be found, after the Prophet, Ali and a few other of the closest Companions, in several of the figures who came to be known throughout the early community for their asceticism and piety.
  • 14 - THE RELIGIOUS SCIENCES
    pp 464-480
  • View abstract

    Summary

    There is a strange persistence in many Western studies of the religious history of Islamic Iran to be concerned almost solely with small sects and extremist religious movements. A notable feature of the Islamization of Iran that is reflected in the work of the Persian scholars, who were concerned with the religious sciences is strong opposition to the Zanādiqa and similar heterodox groups. The sciences dealing with the Quran are divided traditionally into those dealing with the recitation of the Book and those dealing with commentary upon it and the meaning of its content. The Quran itself provides in many places intellectual evidence and demonstration for its arguments and is the example for all later developments of Islamic religious sciences in which rational arguments are provided for articles and principles of faith. The efforts of Persian scholars in helping to lay the foundation of many of the Islamic sciences during the early period continued into the Saljuq and Timurid periods.
  • 15 - SECTS AND HERESIES
    pp 481-519
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The religious evolution of Iran during the centuries from the Arab conquest to the rise of the Saljuqs was determined by a number of factors which, so far, have not been adequately isolated and analysed. This chapter identifies the politico-economical dimension of rebellions and heresies, and at the same time single out a few recurring and typical traits deserving the attention of the student of Iranian religious phenomena. It considers political and social developments of Iran by analysing their factual background before proceeding to a religious interpretation. The leader's wealth stressed by sources and the claim to Abū Muslim's treasure do not allow one to bracket this revolt together with other purely "protest" movements. The very term of Khurramdīn can in fact incorporate a number of meanings ranging from ambiguous though plausible identification with a reformed branch of new Mazdakism adjusted to Islamic pattern, to a vague sort of common denominator for a number of small sects mentioned by heresiographers.
  • 16 - NĀSIR-I KHUSRAU AND IRANIAN ISMĀ‘ĪLĪSM
    pp 520-542
  • View abstract

    Summary

    In order to appreciate the importance of Nāṣir-i Khusrau in the history of Iranian thought, it is necessary to place him in the setting of Ismā'īlism as a whole, for he was one of its most outstanding personalities. This chapater discusses the survival of Ismā'īlism under the mantle of Sūfism which comes nearer perhaps to revealing its true grandeur and the inspiration of its distant origins, rather than in the brilliant setting of the Fāṭimid court. On the basis of such data an attempt may be made to evaluate Iranian Ismā'īlism in the Persian language and literature. More than once Nāṣir evokes his exile and his nostalgia in terms of touching sadness. However, he gives scarcely any solid facts about his life and his activities. From the outset, when the connection between the alchemy of Jābir and the Ismā'īlī gnosis is considered, the fact that the concepts of Jābir seem to be unknown to Rhazes is indicative.
  • 17 - ZOROASTRIAN LITERATURE AFTER THE MUSLIM CONQUEST
    pp 543-565
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The first author for consideration is a mōbad named Āturfarnbag i Farruxzātān, of whom it is known that he lived under the 'Abbāsid Caliph Ma'mūn and that he was chief of the Mazdaeans of Fars. Āturfarnbag is mentioned also in the Dātistān-i dēnīk, as an authority on the tariffs of the cult, and in the "Epistles" of Manušcīhr. With the publication of the Rivāyat of Emēt a few years before that of the Rivāyat of Āturfarnbag one of the surprises in store must have been the small group of questions devoted to the forms of marriage between close relations, the existence of which, even in remote antiquity, was vehemently contested in the last century. Defence of Mazdaism is manifestly based on the Dēnkart. The Zoroastrian scholars living under Islamic rule did not confine themselves to writing in Pahlavī, for the internal use of their own community.
  • 18 - ARABIC LITERATURE IN IRAN
    pp 566-594
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Arabic literature in Iran can be traced from the 1st/7th century onwards, it is nevertheless true that for the first two centuries or so the sources available are scanty and widely dispersed in later works. Yet during the Umayyad epoch Arabic literature in Iran was not much different from what obtained elsewhere in the Muslim world. Nevertheless, the hold of the Arabs over their empire and the identification of Islam with Arabism persisted down to the end of the Umayyads. Other genres of Arabic literature appear in the early 'Abbāsid period. Iran saw two important dynasties arise on its soil in the 4th/10th century: the Būyids, who ruled in the south and also in Iraq, and the Sāmānids, who ruled in the east from their court at Bukhārā. Like the Būyids in the south and west of Iran, the Sāmānids were also great patrons of the arts and sciences.
  • 19 - THE RISE OF THE NEW PERSIAN LANGUAGE
    pp 595-632
  • View abstract

    Summary

    New Persian literature, like that of many other countries, begins with poetry. Phonetically and grammatically, the degree of evolution from Old Persian to Middle Persian is considerable, the differences being comparable with the differences between Latin and French, for example. The emergence of the New Persian language and literature presents considerable historical problems. In an account passed down by the Fihrist, Ibn al-Muqaffac describes the linguistic situation in Iran at the end of the Sāsānian period. The Iranians, he says in effect, have five languages, including pahlavī, darī, pārsī, suryānī, and khūzī. The emergence of Persian literature involved the elevation of a widely distributed oral language, darī, to the rank of a language of general culture. Persian poetry is indebted both to Arabic literature and to the Iranian tradition. Since Persian poetry originated in courts for the glorification of Iranian princes, lyrical poetry was the first genre to appear.
  • 20 (a) - THE “RUBĀ'Ī” IN EARLY PERSIAN LITERATURE
    pp 633-657
  • View abstract

    Summary

    In the western conception of Persian literature the words rubā'īyāt and 'Umar Khayyām have become practically synonymous, and it is only recently that scholarship in this field has brought a growing realization that this picture is incomplete. This chapter shows what extent Khayyām contributed to the development of this particular Persian literary form. The rubā'ī is one of the most foot-loose of Persian verse-forms, a fact largely explained by its brevity and its uniformity of metre and form. The shape of the rubā'ī has remained unchanged throughout its long career in Persian literature. In any case the stanzaic poem is comparatively rare in Persian literature. Khayyām's name first appears as the author of rubā'īyāt in 7th/13th century sources, by which time people are already a century after his own time, more than sufficient for corruptions and interpolations to have taken place.
  • (b) - ‘UMAR KHAYYĀM: ASTRONOMER, MATHEMATICIAN AND POET
    pp 658-664
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abu'1-Fath 'Umar b. Ibrāhīm al-Khayyāmī in Persian texts is usually called simply 'Umar-i Khayyām, that is, 'Umar the tentmaker, and it is reasonable to assume that his father or grandfather followed that trade. In fact, his surviving scientific works, if one excludes the spurious Naurūnāma treatise on the Persian New Year's Day, occupy only 130 pages in Rozenfel'd's translation. For an assessment of these works the reader is referred to his and Yushkevich's introductory essays and commentary and to Professor E. S. Kennedy's chapter in Volume 5 of the Cambridge History of Iran. It is the rubā'īyāt or quatrains which, mirrored in FitzGerald's masterpiece, have won for 'Umar the poet a fame far greater than was vouchsafed to 'Umar the scientist. Not until the middle of the 9th/15th century, three hundred years after his death, do the first attempts appear to have been made to collect together the whole corpus of his poems.

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