that is the king of the Persians and then of the Arabs, and the king of men, because of a fascination for the racial beauty of the [Byzantine] empire’s population.[17]
The Islamic modifications are of interest here. In Sassanian Iran the conception of the “four kingdoms” manifested itself as a concept of Greater Iran as a centre of civilisation surpassing, or at least equal to, other nations in terms of its culture. Islamic “democracy”, on the other hand, stresses the differences and the specific contributions of individual civilisations towards the single world of culture created by them, for the theory was that the Islamic state should in the end become worldwide and integrate all these achievements, since, after all, the “infidels” had been conquered by the Muslims.
Thus the Islamic conquest swept away a number of restrictions within Iranian culture, and not only religious ones but also those relating to estates. The Zoroastrian or state propagandist interpretations were eliminated from all artistic forms, themes and compositions which had been developed in Sassanian Iran; kings finally became simply kings; heroes, warriors and hunters simply themselves; beasts, birds, flowers and plants simply beasts, birds, flowers and plants. And this repertory, which included a great number of images and compositions imported from other cultures, passed into the art of medieval Iran, developing along the same general lines which characterised medieval art, such as an intensification of decoration and a striving towards abstract compositions.
And yet the art and culture of Iran did not fuse into a general Islamic culture. On the contrary, after the Iranian renaissance (10th-11th centuries) the Modern Persian language became the language of Islam together with Arabic and under the influence of the Iranians, Islam itself became a multilingual, multinational culture and religion. In the words of one contemporary historian: “Iranian civilisation played the same role in the development of Islamic culture as Greek civilisation did in the formation of Christianity and its culture.”[18]
From the 7th-9th centuries the eastern province of Iran, Khurasan, was of special significance in the founding of the new culture (in the Middle Ages it encompassed the north-east of present-day Iran, the south of present-day Turkmenistan and the north-west of present-day Afghanistan).
In the 6th-7th centuries the situation there resembled that of Syria, for example, in the 2nd century, in terms of the intensity of its conflict of ideas. In the Marv region, archaeologists have discovered a Christian monastery and cemetery; there was a large Jewish community which buried its dead in day ossuaries bearing Hebrew inscriptions; a Buddhist monastery was situated there, as was one of the most ancient and revered Zoroastrian temples. In 651 CE the last Sassanid shahanshah, Yazdegerd III, met his death here whilst fleeing from the Arabs. Medieval historians relate that his death was shameful: he was robbed and murdered in his sleep, his body was thrown into a river, and afterwards he was buried by the Christian bishop of Marv, Elijah.
The Gate of All Nations, c. 470 BCE. Persepolis, Iran.
Bas-relief with Persian soldiers.
One immediate consequence of the Arab conquest of Iran was an influx of Arabs settling in many cities or setting up military camps which soon became cities. This Arab immigration was on a mass scale; in the 10th century, for example, the Arab population already constituted a majority in the city of Qum.
The second consequence was the spread of Islam and of Arabic. During the first two centuries of Islam in the territory of Khurasan, the religion of the Arabs underwent an intensive process of transformation into the religion of the entire Caliphate, whilst the language of the Koran and various Arab tribes developed into an Arab literary language; in all of this the Persians, who had converted to Islam, played no small part. It was here that Shi’ism, one of Islam’s most important movements, developed, and in particular its extreme faction, Ismailism, and other doctrines that were to serve as rallying points for many national uprisings.
Thus during the early Islamic period (under the Umayyad Caliphate), Khurasan was a stronghold of Islamic science and Arab literature. It was here too, in Khurasan, that the anti-Umayyad rising began, instigated by Abu Muslim, leader of a political and religious party supporting the Abbasid family.
The common people were widely involved in the rising: peasants, craftsmen, and also the Khurasan dihqans, descendants of the Sassanian nobility. There were also Muslims and Zoroastrians amongst the rebels. Having established themselves on the caliph’s throne, the Abbasids were naturally quick to settle with all the dissatisfied. One of the consequences of the Abbasid victory was a complete “Iranisation” of the Caliphate. The Abbasids offered a number of high positions in the state to the Iranian nobility that had helped them to seize the Caliphate. The state system of their Caliphate followed the Sassanian pattern.
There was yet another important consequence of the change of power. Before the Abbasid age the Islamic community of Iran had consisted primarily of Arabs and only afterwards of Persians converted to Islam, who were considered as clients (mawali) of the Arab families and tribes and did not possess equal rights with true Arabs. The Abbasids ended this division and in the same period many dihqans, who had preserved or even raised their social status, adopted Islam. This Iranian elite did a great deal for Islam.
The supporters of the Iranophile cultural movement, the so-called Shuubiyya, wrote their works in Arabic. This movement flourished especially in Khurasan under the Abbasids, and despite the fact that it inculcated into an Islamic culture the pre-Islamic ideas, traditions and customs of Sassanian Iran, in objective terms it led to the enrichment and widening of Islam itself and to a rejection of the provincial narrowness of Muslim culture. In the court of the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun (813–833 CE) translation in particular blossomed: works of many types were translated into Arabic – ethical and didactic (andarz), historical (numerous “Histories of the Kings of Fars” linked to the Khwataw-namak cycle), literary (such as Kalila and Dimna) and many others. At the same time scientific tracts and parts of religious and philosophical books were translated. It is interesting to note that at approximately the same period a Zoroastrian orthodoxy, that was not in any way prohibited by Islam, held power in Fars; basic Zoroastrian works such as the Denkart were written here. In honour of the arrival of al-Mamun in Marv (809 CE), a certain Abbas-i Marwazi delivered the first verses in the Modern Persian language.
These were all the first steps of the “Persian Renaissance” leading to a flowering of Modern Persian literature by the 10th century and, in the final analysis, to that of the Iranian cultures of Firdawsi, Nizami, Sa’di and Hafiz.
The creation of Modern Persian literature was also a factor of the utmost importance for medieval Persian art, for it was this which was to serve as the basis of figurative art. The essential preconditions already existed.
The illustrative quality and the variety of forms within late Sassanian art, the rich artistic traditions of wall-painting in eastern Iran and Central Asia and the no less rich traditions of Christian art in the eastern provinces of Byzantium, etc. But before discussing what happened to Persian art in the early Middle Ages, it is necessary to know something of the “Persian Renaissance” which flourished in eastern Iran, mainly during the rule of its Samanid dynasty – a line of Iranian nobles who claimed descent from the Sassanian general and usurper Varahran Chobin.
Modern Persian literature began as courtly literature. At that period the demotic language in the whole of Iran, Khurasan and Central Asia had for a long time been Dari, or what was to be Modern Persian. The Arabs themselves promoted the spread of Dari over a vast territory and its transformation into a language of communication between different ethnic groups; they used it to communicate with the local population in Iran, Khurasan and Central Asia.[19] The adoption of Arabic script (more convenient than Middle Persian or Sogdian)
Bartold 1969–1977, vol. VI, p. 216.
Frye 1972, p. 344.
According to one theory (Tavadia 1952, p. 384), the term “Tajik” is the Sogdian form of the Persian word tazi – “Arab” or “Muslim”. Initially the inhabitants of Central Asia called the Arabs and Persians, who converted to Islam, “Tajiks”.
