''

Introduction

The Iranian civilization is often said to be the “First Historical People” (Hegel, The Philosophy of History, 1837) and is a very interesting topic to those who’re studying history. A long time before the Cold War, the Iranian Empire and the Roman Empire were two world superpower competing for hegemony of the world (or just their known world at this time). But as everybody already know the Roman History, at least the major events, few were interested in the Persian History.

Let’s start by the Achaemenid Empire (or the شاهنشاهی هخامنشی shahanshahy-e hakhamanshy in today persian).

Before the establishment of the Empire by Cyrus the Great circa 550 BC, the Middle East was fragmented but dominated by the Neo-babylonian empire. Cyrus destroyed the Neo-babylonian state and overthrew the Median tribes who were ruling the South West of nowadays Iran. He named himself “King of Kings” (Shahanshah) and created the biggest empire in his days, ruling over a massive 44% of the world population (49.4 M of the world’s 112.4 M around 480BC). One of his successors, Darius, build the city of Persepolis and took majors reforms for the empire, creating the first Persians coinages, improving the road system in Persia and increased the role of administration.

In 499 BC happened the first Invasion of mainland Greece where the Persian were defeated by the coalition of the Greeks states. That was not a major defeat for the Persians but that was a major victory for the Greek national identity.

Between 334 and 331 BC, a Macedonian King, Alexander, conquered Persia in a sort of antique Blitzkrieg and after his death, one of his general, Seleucos Nicator, formed the Seleucid Empire, who imported the Greek culture and language in Persia, Afghanistan and Northern India.

In 248 BC, the Parthians, a northern Iranian people, overthrew the greeks rulers and created the Parthian Empire ( شاهنشاهی اشکانی Shahanshahy-e Ashkani) , which lasted for four centuries. During this era, the Roman conquered the Levant and established themselves as a superpower. This brought a centuries long rivalry between the Parthians and the Roman for the domination of Mesopotamia. Two centuries of war didn’t made any real change of the frontiers and in 224 AD, the Parthians were overthrew by one of their vassals, the Sassanian.

The first emperor of the Sassanian empire ( شاهنشاهی ساسانی Shahanshah-e Sasani) , Ardashir, greatly reformed the land he inherited of the Parthians, creating an empire whose supremacy was based on a formidable administration and a powerful army. He also inherited the rivalry with the roman, which lasted for four more centuries, making it the longest lasting conflict in the whole history.

During the last war between roman and Persians, latters came to siege the roman capital of Constantinople but there were beaten at the Battle of al-Qassidiya in 632 AD, succumbing to a new major player in the region, the Arabs, who were now unified behind a new religion, Islam. That was the end of a millenial lasting Empire, which was one the greatest state during the whole Antiquity.

But the Persian civilization was not just a warmongering one. During one millennial they also developed a unique religion, the zoroastrism, the religion of the great fires, and a unique culture of arts, architecture and literature (which was almost lost after the islamic conquest). The zoroastrism take his roots in the Indo-European folklore and was the official religion of the three indigenous empire in Iran : the Achaemenids, the Parthians and the Sassanians. After the islamic conquest, it survived for almost five centuries as the Iranians were quasi fully islamized at the end of the 11th century.

Iranian culture didn’t vanished after the Arab invasion, but became a major component of the new islamic civilization, in a particular way, and especially during the Islamic Golden Age (8th to 14th century). In this presentation, we’ll make a little tour of the specials aspects of this Iranian Islamic culture and its contribution to the medieval Islamic civilization.

On the names Iran(ians) and Persia(ns)

For a lot of people, Iran and Persia mean the same things. In fact this is almost true but there is a slightly difference between the two terms. The persians were (and are) not the only people inhabiting the country that was called Persia. In fact they are members of a bigger ethnic group called “Iranian” (which is relative to the term “Aryan” ). The persians aren’t the only Iranians, there are plenty others. Kurdish are often said to be Iranians, as well as the Tajiks and ancients Medes, Parthians or Scythians.

This explains why in 1935, the country changed its name from Persia to Iran, as a wish to integrate all of the Iranian peoples, not just only persians.

But in my presentation, the difference between all of these peoples is unimportant and I’ll be using as much “Persian” than “Iranian” to speak about peoples living in Persia.

The Iranian Language as a factor of national cohesion

The Iranian language, also known as Parsi ( پارسی ) or Farsi ( فارسی ) is an Indo-European language who was spoken by almost all of the diverses Iranians societies, and especially in the various administrations. It was the church language of the Zoroastrians, in an ancient form albeit. It had a very great prestige in the ancient middle east, as the Persians Empires were the locals hegemons.

But after the arab invasion , it had lost a lot of its importance facing the use of Arabic by the new masters of Iran. However , during the 8th and 9th centuries, it adapted to the new language, adopting the new arabic script and loanwords and in the 10th century the farsi was ready for a cultural rebirth. The new Persian descended not from the church dialect of Pahlavi but from the dialect used at the court during the Sassanian era, the Zaban-e Dari ( زبان دری ) , the language of the court.

In the 10th century, the use of the Persian was sacred by the three indigenous ruling dynasties in Iran: the Tahirid in the Khorassan, the Saffarid in the Sistan and the Samanids in Transoxiana. Encouraged by that, somes of iranian scholars began to use the Persian language to write theirs chef d’oeuvre. Ferdowsi and his Shahnameh ( شاهنامه “Book of the Kings”) or Omar Khayyam’s Ruba’iyyat ( رباعیات "Quatrains”) are yet studied and enjoyed by scholars of the greatest universities in the world.

Another major aspect of the Farsi is the fact that many of the neighboring peoples or conquerors of Persia adopted the Farsi as a new language. It’s called the Persianization. Mostly the turkic tribes who trekked across Persia but also a wide part of the Arab society adopted Persian manners and customs , especially in the administration and businesses.

As example we have the letter from Güyük Khan to Pope Innocent IV in 1246 which is written in mostly persian but also a little part in Turkish.

We also have the example of the Ottoman, who wrote their language with the Arabic script that they learned from Farsi.

All of this made the Persian a factor of national identification for the Iranians, as the neighboring people adopted their language and relied heavily on the persian culture. The Shahnameh also found the national myth as the stories of Rostam, Fereydoun and Djamchid were seen as the history of Iran. The Shahnameh as well consecrates the hate of the northerns Turkics nomadic tribes of the Touran, seen as barbaric and without morals.

The Islamisation of Persia

Nowadays, Persia is a major Islamic Power, the first one of the renewal of islamic theocracies, but it has a certain special assets that distinguish Persian Islam from others.

Before the arab conquest, Iranians had their own religion, the zoroastrism, and it took a huge amount of time for the new rulers to convert Persians to their religion. We can distinguish three phases of the islamization of Persia :

This long history of islamization may explicate the special islam nowadays practiced in Iran (Twelver Shiism, Importance of religious in the country culminating with the 79 revolution…)

Iran in the center of the silk road

Succeeding the Steppe Route, the silk road has been, until the 16th century, the largest commercial circuit in the world. Starting from Xi’an, passing by the Ouïghouristan, Transoxiana, Persia and Mesopotamia, and ending in Antioche, Trebizond and Cairo, the road was active from the 1st century BCE to the 16th century AD, when technological innovations and the discover of Americas moved the commercials route on sea.

On this road was not only traded silk, which was primarily only produced in China, but also tea and porcelain from China, and camels, horses, wine and gold from Occident. Those who were living on the course of the Silk Road became incredibly wealthy and a new mercantile class, founding its power from its incomes, became an important dynamic in the region.

But among the materials that where traded, ideas, religions and inventions also came with Silk road. Christianism, Islam and Judaism exported themselves to China and India, while Bouddhism crossed the Himalaya to settle in Afghanistan and Transoxiana. Paper and Gunpowder where imported from China by the Arabics and Iranians merchants, before they exported it themselves to Occident, throughout Al-Andalus, Moorish Sicily and Turkish Anatolia.

In Persia, the amazing wealth from trade made cities grow incredibly fast and Merv, Khiva, Tabriz, Samarkand and Ispahan became greats center of population, attracting scholars and warriors from all across the muslim world. While the trade may had been the factor for the beginning of a new era of peace, the Pax orientalis, it actually open a new era of war and destruction, the era of the greats nomads conquerors.

Iran: The land of the greats conquerors

Iran has seen, in its history, an extraordinary number of immensely enormous empires. It’s maybe the only case, beside China, in human history. The Achaemenid empire was housing 2 men of 5 in the whole world in its golden age. After that, the military genius of Alexander was fully focused on the creation of a new greco-persian empire. Persia was in the center of the first arabs khalifats, which extended from Spain to Tibet.

But after the withdrawal of the arabs, the iranian wealth attracted many medievals greats conquerors. The first one was Ismail Samani, who created the Samanid empire in north eastern Persia. He was not really a conqueror, but it was him that created the ideals conditions for the following conquerors (amassing massive amount of riches, weakening the arab empire…)

The true first conqueror was Sabuktigin, a turkish warrior, who found the ghaznavid empire ( غزنویان ) in nowadays Afghanistan. His son Mahmud greatly expanded his domain toward India and South Persia.

The following conquerors were members of an Oghuz Turkic Tribe, the Seljuks. In 1037-1038, two brothers of the Seljuk captured the cities of Merv and Nishapur, creating the Seljuk Empire. In ten years, they conquered all territories between Merv and Baghdad, subjugating the muslim khalif and one of their kins, Alp Arslan ( آلپ ارسلان "The heroic lion”), bend the roman empire on the knees at the battle of Manzikert in 1071, invading the most parts of Greek Anatolia. Alp Arslan also take the city of Jerusalem, inducing the first crusade.

During the end of the 12th century, the empire fragmented and its iranian part was conquered by one of its former vassals, the khwarezmian dynasty. Like their predecessors, Khwarezmian were Persianized Turkish and great warriors. But after a hundred years of war with all of theirs neighbors, they were defeated by the new world hegemon: the Mongol Horde.

The mongol invasion took place between 1219 and 1221 and saw a huge devastation of Central Asia and Persia. Genghis Khan and one of his son destroyed three of the greatest cities in the world: Merv, Herat and Nishapur. The number of casualties is estimated between five and fifteen millions of people.

Undoubtedly, the mongol conquest really changed History. The wealth of Persia made the mongols push further toward Russia, Caucasus and Mesopotamia. The gunpowder carried by the mongols permitted ottomans to later successfully siege Constantinople and conditioning the establishment of the three gunpowder empires during the modern period.

Whatever, after the death of Genghis Khan, a large part of the mongols converted to Islam and settled a new state in Persia, the Ilkhanate ( ایل خانان "Il-khanan”). The different khan of Persia used to war with theirs neighbor and theirs kins’s states, like the Golden Horde in Pontic Steppe, and rebuilding the regions that they decimated during their conquest, especially Khorassan.

But the new mongol-persian state was not so stable and after the death of khan Abu Said in 1335, which coincides with the apparition of the Black Plague, the Ilkhanate completely disintegrate. The Plague killed almost a third of Persian population, which cause a really great mess in the region, without a dominant power in the Iranian Plateau for a century before another mass killer appeared in Balkh, Timur.

The mongol heritage didn’t disappear with their state in 1335, and in 1370 a turco-mongol persianized warrior, fantasying on the mongol empire, decide to create his own empire in a very murderous way. He’s estimated to have kill some seventeen millions of people. Each time he captured a city, he killed every inhabitant, except craftsmen who were deported to the Timurid capital, Samarkand.

Despite the number of his victims, Timur had launched a new golden age for Persian Culture, the Timurid Renaissance, his son Shahrukh is seen to be a major protector of arts, patronizing some of the greatest Pesian works, like the Zafernameh ( ظفرنامه "the book of Victories”) of Sharaf ad-din Ali Yezdi.

The Timurid Renaissance is often seen as the end of the Medieval Persia, as Timur conquests were transitioning with the moderns empires of Safavids and Qajars.

The contribution of Iran to the Islamic Golden Age

The persian importance to the Islamic Golden Age may be seen in various fields. First, in politics, maybe the lesser. As already said, arabs empires adopted many of Sassanian’s courts manners. They also used some of their administrations : Persian coinage were reused by the arabs, with the addition of brief arabic inscription (like Bismillah, which was scripted on some coins that faced heads of the lasts zoroastrians emperors). The news arabs governements also heavily replied on the Divan ( دیوان ) which was originated from the sassanian court. Some islamized persians became talented administrators under Abbasids, like Samani in Khorassan.

The second persian influence on the muslim world may be seen in arts and culture. We have already spoke of the farsi renaissance but literature was not the field mastered by iranians. They were also greats religious scholars and faqih. Hadith collectors like Imam al-Bukhari or Hakim al-Nishapuri the Muhaddith of Khorassan and theologians like Shaykh Tusi and Abu al-Qassim al-Zamakhshari were seen to be the betters in their profession.

Persian manual art was also praised all among the world. Nishapur became a great centre of pottery, like Samarkand during the Timurid Renaissance. Calligraphy too became studied and revered in the islamic world. The persian Nasta’liq ( نستعلیق ) is, still in our days, one of the most used style.

The third field of Iranian radiance was in science, maybe the most prolific. During seven centuries, Iran has housed an important number of scientists, maybe only rivaled by Al-Andalus. The proximity of Iran with the House of Wisdom ( بيت الحكمة "bayt alHikmah”) in Baghdad and with byzantines great centers of learning (Antioche) may have been played a great role in this fact. On the other side, the Indian science have been an important influence on persian society, as the chineses ones through the Silk Road and the Mongol invasion.

As for the arts, it’s impossible to list all of Iranian contributions to sciences but we may presents some scholars and their majors works:

Conclusion

It’s easy to think that the arab invasion of Persia fully erased the imperial era Persia. In fact, as we saw, the two first centuries of the muslim era marked a real rupture but after that the country re-birthed with even more particularities in a lot of fields.

These particularities tend to disappear during the modern era but during the Pahlavi era (1925 – 1979), Reza Shah and his son Mohammed Reza Shah tried to cultivate these assets to stand out their country from foreign influences, mainly from the USSR and Great Britain. These desires of independence led to the soviet and british invasion of Iran during the WWII, and the deposition of Mossadegh, too much reforming prime minister, by the CIA in 1953.

So after five centuries of declining and unsuccessful reformations, a massive popular revolution overthrew Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. An Islamic Republic ( جمهوری اسلامی "Jomhori-ye Islami”) was established, that lead to resurgence of islamists movements in Middle East and Afghanistan.

The Islamic Revolution really marked a rupture in Iran history and politic, maybe more than the arab invasion. Iranian government was a traditional ally of USA in the first part of Cold War, but they’re now allied with Putin’s Russia (mainly because of anti-americanism). As the last shah was focused on intellectual and industrial modernization of the country, ayatollahs are focusing on establishing Iranian hegemony on the Middle East. They are actually in a cold war with Saudi Arabia for muslim world leading and Israel, seen as the sionist devil and a beachhead of american imperialism.

The Iranian doctrine in these wars is based on the help provided to shiites movements or parties tied with Iranian Shiism in the Shiite Crescent (Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, the Damas Government in Syria, various shiites militias in Iraq) or movements that may be weakening to Saudi Arabia and Israel (Hamas, Houthis).

Russia may be a strong ally, yet Iran doesn’t want to be subjugated and to bless their independence, Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapon since the revolution, another point of disagreement with the West and Israel.

However, the Iranian government isn’t so stable and for a few years, a democratic protestation tends to grow in the country, caused by unemployment, corruption and the warring politics of the ayatollahs. Even if this movement succeed to overthrow islamists, it’s probable the rupture is too deep to be closed, and this may end in a civil war, like in Syria, Iraq and others.

Bibliography