A History of Iran: From Ancient Empires to the Medieval World

EXPLAINER: Recent tensions involving the United States, Israel, and Iran have once again drawn global attention to a region with a long and complex past. But today’s events are only the latest chapter in a much deeper story. To understand Iran’s place in the world, we need to look back thousands of years—through the rise of ancient Persian empires, periods of conquest and the foundations laid during the middle ages that continue to shape the region today. Joseph Keen explains the history from the Sasanian empire to the Safavids.

Episode also on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JaYmzUwcNCE

Transcript

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Welcome to History from a New Perspective, a new history channel and podcast covering the history and historical stories from parts of the world which don't always get as much attention. My name is Joseph Keane, and today we'll be looking at the history of Iran. Now, recent tensions involving the United States, Israel, and Iran have once again drawn global attention to a region with a long and complex past. But today's events are only the latest chapter in a much deeper story. To understand Iran's place in the world, we need to look back thousands of years through the rise of ancient Persian empires, periods of conquest, and the foundations laid during the Middle Ages that continue to shape the region today. Now, today we're going to explore one of the most important periods in the history of Iran, the eight and a half centuries between the fall of the Sasanian Empire in the 7th century and the rise of the Safavid dynasty in the 16th century. Over the course of these centuries, Iran would transform from the heartland of a Zoroastrian imperial power into the center of Shia Islam. Empires would rise and fall, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols would rule the land. Yet through it all, Persian culture would not only survive, it would shape the civilizations that conquered it, while simultaneously being shaped by those very outside cultures. Now to understand how modern Iran emerged, we need to begin in the 7th century with the final days of the lost great Persian Empire. In the early 7th century, the Sasanian Empire was one of the great superpowers. Founded in 224 CE, it ruled Iran and much of the neighbouring region for more than four centuries. Its capital at Tesaphon, near modern Baghdad, was one of the largest cities on earth. The Sasanians were the great rivals of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire, and for generations the two empires fought a series of wars across the Middle East and North Africa. By the early 600s, the Sasanians conquered huge swathes of Byzantine territory, including Jerusalem, Egypt, and parts of Anatolia. But the war took a toll on both empires, and whilst they were weakened, a new force emerged from the Arabian Peninsula, the early Muslims, led by the Prophet Muhammad. Following Muhammad's death in 632, Arab armies began expanding rapidly beyond Arabia under the Rashidun Caliphate. The key moments came in 636 at the Battle of Al-Qadisha, where Arab forces defeated the Sasanian army. A few years later, another significant defeat at the Battle of Nahavand in 642. By the year 651, the Arab-Muslim conquest of Persia was complete. Following the conquest, Iran became part of the expanding Islamic world. First it was ruled by the Rashidun Caliphate, then by the Umayyads, and later by the Abbasids. But the transition from the old Persian world to the Islamic one did not happen overnight. At the time of the conquest, most Iranians were Zoroastrian, an ancient religion that had dominated the Sasanian state. Conversion to Islam was a gradual process, and this took centuries. At first, Arabs dominated political power, and Persian elites had to adapt to a new political reality, but something very interesting happened. Instead of disappearing, Persian culture began to reshape the Islamic world. During the Abbasid period, Persian administrators, scholars, and intellectuals played a huge role in governing the empire. The Abbasid capital at Baghdad became one of the great centres of learning in world history, and many influential administrators and scholars in the Abbasid court came from Iranian backgrounds. In fact, some historians describe this period as the Persianization of the Islamic world, while other scholars debate to what extent this was the case. By the 9th century, the Abbasid Caliphate was weakening. The central authority declined, regional rulers began carving out their own states. In Iran, a series of local dynasties emerged. The leadership of the Bukids and the Kakuyids even embraced Shia Islam, whilst the population remained mostly Sunni. Historians often call this period the Iranian intermezzo, because for the first time since the Arab conquest, Iranian rulers were regaining power. Among the most important of these dynasties were the Samanid dynasty, who ruled parts of Central Asia and Eastern Iran from the 9th to the 10th centuries. Under the Samanids, something extremely important happened, and this was that the Persian language was revived as a major literary and administrative language. Before this, Arabic had dominated scholarship and government, but the Samanids promoted Persian literature and culture. It was during this period that the great poet Fedosi composed Shaname, or Book of Kings. Completed around the year 1010, the Shaname is a vast epic poem recounting the mythical and historical past of Iran, from the creation of the world all the way up to the Arab conquest. Fidosi spent decades composing the poem. It became one of the most important works in Persian culture and helped preserve the memory of Iran's pre-Islamic past. Now, around the same time that Persian culture was flourishing again, a new group began to dominate the political landscape of the region, Turkic peoples from Central Asia. Many of these Turkic warriors had originally been recruited as soldiers by Muslim rulers, but eventually they began founding their own states. One of the earliest major powers was the Gaznavid Empire, founded by Turkic military leaders who ruled parts of Iran, Afghanistan, and northern India. Soon after came an even larger empire, the Seljuk Empire. In the 11th century, Seljuk Turkic armies swept into Iran and the Middle East. At their height, the Seljuks controlled a vast territory stretching from Central Asia to the eastern Mediterranean. Even though the Seljuks were Turkic in origin, they adopted many aspects of Persian culture. Their administration was largely run by Persian bureaucrats, and Persian became the language of government and literature across much of their empire. One of the most famous Seljuk statesmen was Nizam al-Mulk, who helped organize the empire and founded a network of schools known as the Nizamiya Madrasas. These institutions played a major role in shaping Sunni Islamic scholarship. In the early 13th century, Iran faced one of the most devastating invasions in its history. In 1219, the armies of Genghis Khan invaded the region. At the time, Iran was ruled by the Khouraasmian Empire, but the Mongols crushed it by 1221. Cities were destroyed, populations were massacred, and entire regions were devastated. Many of the great urban centers of Iran were left in ruins. The Mongols eventually established a state known as the Ilkhanate, which ruled Iran from the mid-1200s to the 1300s. At first, the Mongol rulers followed their traditional beliefs, but over time the Mongol elite gradually adopted the culture of the lands they ruled. By the late 13th century, many of the Ilkhhanid rulers had converted to Islam. Persian culture once again proved resilient, influencing yet another group of conquerors. After the Ilkhanate collapsed in the 14th century, Iran fragmented into several smaller states. Then another conqueror arrived. His name was Timur, known in the West as Tamilane. Timur was a Central Asian ruler who claimed to roar in the tradition of the Mongols. In the late 1300s, he launched a series of massive campaigns across Iran, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Like the Mongols before him, Timur's conquests were extremely destructive, but the empire he created, known as the Timurid Empire, also became a centre of art, architecture, and scholarship. Now the Timurid courts, especially in cities like Samarkand and Herat, sponsored a flourishing of Persian literature, arts and sciences, with historians sometimes calling this the Timurid Renaissance. By the late 1400s, the Timurid Empire was collapsing. Iran was once again divided among competing regional powers, but out of this chaos emerged a new movement that would fundamentally reshape Iranian history. It began as a Sufi religious order based in the city of Ardabil. Over time, this order developed a loyal following of tribal warriors. Their leader was a young man named Shah Ishmael I, and in 1501, this teenager Ishmael led his followers in conquering the city of Tabriz. There he proclaimed himself Shah of Iran and founded the Safavid dynasty. This moment marked the beginning of a new era. For the first time in centuries, Iran was once again a unified state under an indigenous dynasty. But the Safavids made one decision that would have enormous consequences. They declared Twelva Shia Islam the official religion of the state at a time when most of Iran's population was Sunni. Yet over the next century, the Safavids would transform Iran into the heartland of Shia Islam, a religious identity that continues to define the country today. Between the fall of the Sasanian Empire in 651 and the rise of the Safavids in 1501, Iran experienced one of the most complex and fascinating transformations in world history. Empires collapsed, new conquerors arrived, and entire civilizations were reshaped. Yet, despite centuries of foreign rule and invasion, Persian culture remained incredibly resilient. It influenced the Arab caliphates, the Turkic empires, the Mongols, and the Timurids. However, it should also be acknowledged that this interaction between Persian culture and outside cultures was a mutual exchange rather than just a one-way street. In the end, with the rise of the Safavids, Iran re emerged as a unified state once again. The foundations of modern Iran, its culture, language, and religious identity were all shaped during this time period. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to like and subscribe. Thank you for joining us today on History from a New Perspective, and we'll see you in the next episode.