International Journal of Management and Humanity Sciences. Vol.

, 3 (9), 3133-3138, 2014

Available online at http://www.ijmhsjournal.com
ISSN 2322-424X2014

Study on Nahavand War Effects on Islam Instigation in Iran

1 2
Abdollah Ataee*, and Zeinab Ahmadvand

1- Associate professor in Boualisina University of Hamedan

2- PhD student in the field of History of Iran, Isfahan University, Literature and Human Science College

*Corresponding author E-mail: ahmadvand915@yahoo.com

Abstract

This research relies on how and why there had been the rapid expansion and wisdom
of Islam in Iran in the early hegira centuries, which is important in this period. The
circumstances of Iran in this age are affected by the arrival of the Muslim Arabs
resulted from the dualistic different social, cultural, and belief systems. The process
of how the religion of Islam is complied and the apostasy among the ancient Iranian
people and the consequences are the most important issues to be argued. In this age,
the past form of the Iranian society by almost one thousand years of the relative unity
was gradually changed and found quite different veneer from the ancient heritage.
Islam instigation in Iran made many tangible effects on political, social, cultural, and
economic structures of the Iranian society as some still remain today. This period in
our country's history is called the border between the ancient history and the
instigation to Iran into a new era and different from the transition period. The
awareness of the Muslims conquests, especially Nahavand Battle known as Fatah Al-
Fotuh and the effect of this event when Islam instigated in Iran and its role in the
formation of the modern Iranian identity are the purpose of this study.

Keywords: Nahavand Battle, Fath al-Fotuh, Islam, Iran, Sasanian

Introduction

The geographical importance of Iran as the contact way of the East and the West has had huge impacts
on the countrys political fortune for a long history. The strategic location of the Iranian plateau as the bridge
and the main roads and the old worlds commerce and communication ways connected the ancient
civilizations, e.g. India, China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome to the territory of Iran that caused of the
international importance in the world of that date. The attraction of our country along with its other attractions
led to the formation of the numerous invasions and wars throughout the history and the inhabitants and the
other nations have paid attention. The Alexander attacked Iran with the dream of creating a widespread
empire encompassing the West to the East, which conquered the First Achaemenid Persian Empire and the
subsequent wars and conquests of the other nations, e.g. Turks and Mongolians who were motivated to
reach the East or the West via the Iranian territory for different purposes that is noteworthy and these
continuing threats is challenging to the life history of this country. Meanwhile, the Arab Muslims had
conquest of Iran to spread Islam as a universal religion among the ethnic groups and deliver it to the East,
which it can be investigated on the major geographical areas of the human habitation and the human
civilization. The Arab Muslims had successive conquests in Iran and the victory of Nahavand Battle as Fatah
Al-Fotuh and the main battle against the Sassanian and they could break one of the most powerful empires
to acquire some parts of eastern Iran and Central Asia and the early centuries of Islam in the far eastern
regions of Sasanian to the north-east coasts to Turkestan.

The circumstances of Iran along with the Arab conquests

With precise evaluation of the political structure of Sassanid statute and the foundation of this
government, two factors of religion and centralism constitute the main feature relevant to the predecessors
and also this policy played a role in maintaining the boundaries and therefore the political independence
against the external threats, such as Romans and Turks in the East and the West as well as the internal
unity of the Iranian people can be acknowledged, hence the original bases were left out, which was effectual
in the collapse and fall as one of the most important factors. Despite the Sassanids tendencies towards
Intl. J. Manag. Human. Sci. Vol., 3 (9), 3133-3138, 2014

centralism and authoritarianism, they demanded more mastery over all classes and social strata, therefore
the Sassanian aristocracy had the power scene in the rich class (Vaspuheran) and the religious leaders
(priests) and the other authority classes with governmental dynasty and some periods were the competition
scenes of these classes because the king had insufficient power in the court and the society. The principle of
justice was limited in society and the Sasanids were concentrated lacking the social mobility, which meant to
maintain the social status of each social class and prevent them from trespassing (Qomi, 1982: 180).
The limited social regime along with the crisis of authoritarianism among the ruling classes led to the
emergence of the social and religious movements and military revolts, e.g. Mazdak revolt and Mani uprising
and Bahram Chubin movement, which ultimately led to the deep social, political, and religious crisis.
The reforms of Anushiravan (531-579 AD) in the social, political and economic areas could not deal with
these crises, but added to the turmoil and, when the Anushiravan died, the weakness and disability raged
the Sassanian Empire System and made up the defeat of the Sassanids and the victory of the Muslim Arabs
(Christensen, 1996: 649). In the next step, the Second Kossro destroyed the Banilakhm Family to focus
more on his power and break down the barrier between Iranians and Arabs and it caused the Sassanids
defeat by the Arabs at Zoqar War and the weaknesses of Sassanids was revealed to Arab Muslims in the
next battles (Noldeke, 1979: 491). The long wars between Iran and Rome in 604-628 in the time of Khosrow
Parviz, although initially had many victories for Iran, Romans finally won and there was no outcome except
the human and economic costs to our country. However, the neighbors of Iran, the Turks and the Romans,
were both faced with the domestic problems at this time, they were not a serious threat to the Sassanids; but
the weakness of Sassanids was on a great extent caused by the previous confrontations (Ibid.).
The difficult political and economic pressure could not be tolerated by the peasants. Hussein ibn
Mohammad Qomi describes the economic situation of that time:
The people were annihilated and destroyed that they sold a slave girl for one dirham (Qomi: 180).
Natural disasters, e.g. flooding and local river flooding and epidemic diseases, e.g. cholera, plague, and
famine, could also more affect the public status (Massoudi, 1406: 291). When Khosrow Parviz was
murdered and the central authority vanished, the society had chaos and instability until the last Sassanid
king, the Third Yazdegerd (632-652 AD) and twelve people became the authority to rule the kingdom within
five years, some of them did not exceed a few days (Ibn Miskawayh, 1987: 140-145)
On the other hand, the lack of permanent army and the use of mercenary Turk, Arab, Roman, and Indian
forces in Sassanid Army reduced the unity in Iran army against Arabs. Also the Iranian military power due to
the destructive wars with the Romans in last days of Sassanid Empire severely weakened the military
figures against the Arab invasion (Zarrinkoub, 1985: 537).
However, the strict religious conditions and the priests and Zoroastrian Magis unjust actions caused
resentment among people and even the society was ready to accept other faiths. Nevertheless, the religious
followers such as Mani and Mazdak and the other religions, e.g. Christianity and Buddhism caused many
religious pressures adding to the challenge (Nafisi: 23).

Confrontation between Arabs and Iranians until Nahavand Battle

Arabs were in Arab Peninsula one thousand year before Prophet Mohammad had business relationships
in many territories, e.g. Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria. Among the most important Arabic states coincided
with the government of Sassanid Persia were the Ghassan Government in northern Saudi Arabia associated
with Byzantine and Hirah Government in the South under the supervision of Iran. These two states served
Byzantine and Sassanid kings until the eighth century, but the Arabic states vanished during the Sassanid
Khosrow II by the Persians in 602 AD (Minorsky, 1945: 11).
The demolition of these states, both Byzantine and Iran, were in directly influence of Saudi Arabia and
Arabs noticed Iran and Byzantine territories. How these conquests happened is described in detail in many
books and primary sources and new researches by historians, thus the rapid victories and conquests of the
Muslims against both great powers of the world at that day are noteworthy. The first direct confrontation of
th
Arabs with Iranians was in 12 year of Hijra and Muthana al-Sheibani, the head of the Bani Bakr tribe,
attacked the borders of Iran. He could conquer the Iranian border warders and earn trophies. After this
action, Muthanna went to the first Caliph of Muslims (Abu Bakr) and gave a report about the weakness of the
Iranian Army and the suitable condition to conquer some Persian Empire regions (Dinawar, 1985: 142).
th
Abu Bakr in 12 year of Hijra sent an army to Iranian borders commanded by Abu Khalid ibn Walid and
the result of this war was that Hirah was captured by the Arabs. The consequence of this conquest in the
long run includes Muslims infiltration to Iran. Iranians sent many forces to regain Hirah to battle with the
th
Arabs commanded by Bahman Jaduyeh in the 13 year of Hijra. This war is called Jassar, in which the Arab
commander Abu Obeyd Saghafi was killed and Iranians had victory and recaptured Hirah (Baladhuri, 1985:
14).

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After the arrival of the Second Muslims Caliph Omar, the problem of the foreign conquests was followed
more seriously in Iran and Rome fronts. The Muslim Arabs could prepare the ground for the complete
conquest of Mesopotamia through some wars, e.g. Bouyeb in the thirteenth century Hijra, and recaptured
Hirah.
Sasanian court did not consider the Muslims invasion a serious threat to the Empire of Iran until this time,
th
while the successive victories of the Islamic Army and understanding their risk in the 14 year of Hijra, the
great army had the commander Rostam Farrokhzad to fight the Arab Muslims. This campaign is called
Ghadessieh led to the defeat of the Persians. By the Muslims victory in Ghadessieh Battle, the Sassanian
border cities and areas were soon captured by the Muslim army one after another, thus a large part of Iraq
territory became the part of the Muslim territory and the precedents of Ctesiphon fall upon the Sassanid
political capital appeared (Massoud, 1968: 320).
Despite the efforts of Yazdegerd III, the last king of the Sassanid, Muslims captured Ctesiphon and this
event was a turning point in the downfall of the Sassanid Empire. When Muslims won Jalula Battle, all areas
around Tigris came under the political power of Islamic Army and the Muslim Arabs came to the central
regions of Iran (Tabari, 1983: 1822).

Fath al-Fotuh (Nahavand Battle)

The Nahavand region is located in the southeastern province of Hamedan as one of the most important
regions in the Sassanian period. During this period, this region was used to transit, as the central connection
point between the western Sassanid Empire to the central regions of Iran, and Karan dynasty was one of the
superior Sassanian dynasties in Nahavand. The archaeological investigations in the Qajar period by the
French archaeologists determined that Nahavand is an ancient city Battle, which dates back to the reign of
the Seleucids (Kulsinkov, 2537: 254).
After Jula Battle and the occupation of the western part of the Sassanian government, the Sasanian court
headed by Yazdegerd was transferred to the central regions of Iran. While Arabs founded the military
barracks in Mesopotamia and some cities, e.g. Basra and Kufa with the military purposes, and followed their
plans to continue their conquests in Iran in the fourteenth and seventeenth years of Hijra.
This action of the Iranian governors of the various provinces that benefited from the weakening of the
Sasanian government and Arabs presence to increase their independence and authority in the sovereignty
areas, so that they recognized the Arabs threat as an alarm to vanish them so they united Sasanian court
and state. This coherent alliance was formed against the Muslims for the first and last time in the region of
Nahavand (Ibn Assam, 1993: 219).
Nahavand Battle was the last major battle between Iran and Islam Armies.
Baladhuri cites the year of Nahavand Battle on 19 Hijra in this year, the Persian rulers of States of
Dinawar, Isfahan, Avand, Kerman, Ghomes, Hamadan, Kashan, Nahavand wrote letters to each other and
call to stand united against the Arabs. Yazdegerd, the last Sassanid king, was the alliance link and assigned
Mardanshah Abruband (ZolHajeb) as the leader of this union. The purpose of this war was the regain of the
lost territories to Iran, e.g. Ctesiphon and complete resolution of the Arab threats. In contrast, Ammar ibn
Yasir, the ruler of Kufa, informed Omar about this ubiquitous union of the Persians in a battle against the
Arabs. Baladhuri noted the number of the people in the Iranian army sixty thousand people or in another
promise hundreds of thousands of people (Baladhuri, 1985: 63).
Umar ibn al-Khattab first regarded the extent and the significance of this battle to keep the Arabs
conquests in Savad region (Iraq) and he was determined to take charge of the army commander, therefore
eventually the Arabs had simultaneously fighting on different fronts and were discouraged in this action, i.e.
Yemen and Syria. After that the Islam Army commanding was proposed by Imam Ali to Naeman ibn Moqren
Mazani Amel Kaskar and there were four substitutes for him if he was killed, so that the experience of Jassar
War and the killed commander of the Islam Army and Muslims defeat could not be repeated and these four
people were Hazifeh ibn Yaman, Jarbar ibn Abdullah Bajli, Maghirah ibn Shoebeh, Ashass ibn Qais,
respectively (Dinawar, 1987: 170).
Most historians have mentioned the year of Nahavand Battle 21 Hijra / 641 AD. Iranians had too many
forces in the corps in most states of the nation; therefore for some reasons the Muslim army commander
was superior and the Muslim armies gained wealth or achieved eternal Paradise through martyrdom, also
the inconsistent Iranian army and commanders along the other mentioned factors caused the Persians
defeat. The Muslims called this victory Fath al-Fotuh, because by this victory the Sassanid Empire and the
central power of Iran disappeared completely and the Iranian political and military power was broken and
there was no more force resist against the Muslim Arabs (Ibn Assam, 1993: 229).
Ibn Athir writes about the cause of this designation, Muslims called the Nahavand conquest Fatl al-
Fotuh, because the Iranians could not come together and stand against the Arabs after that and the
Muslims occupied al;l of their country after this war. (Ibn al-Athir, 1992: 18)
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Instigation of Islam in Iran after Nahavand Battle

Nahavand Battle was the context of the complete collapse of the Sassanid government. Among the initial
consequences of this war was the hopelessness and helplessness of Yazdegerd and the Sassanid
government against the Muslim Arabs. After the Nahavand conquest, the Sassanid Yazdegerd went to
Isfahan to get help of Vispuheran, but he took refuge in the Estakhr-Fars city, after the Arabs occupied
Isfahan. It seems that he tends on reviving the Sasanian court in this city because of the characteristics of
Estakhr city in regard of religious and political qualification for the Sassanid dynasties. Omar, who feared the
resurgence of Sasanian, commanded wholly attack on Fars and escaped to the ancient location of the
Sassanids in 29 Hijra and Goor city in Ardeshir Khoreh by the help of Abdullah ibn Amer Yazdegerd III in the
route of Kerman-Khorasan (Marv) and asked the neighboring governments for assistance, but after
Yazdegerd died in 652 AD / 31 Hijra, the Syrian Mahuy order to kill him who was the Iranian ruler of Marv.
Sassanid dynasty became extinct in 652 AD, after 426 years of ruling in Iran (Tabari, 1983, vol 3: 28).
Among the other results of Nahavand conquest was Muslims access to most areas of Iran in a short time
without any serious resistance from the Persians. After Nahavand Battle and the defeat of Iran Army, as
each of the local rulers accepted the submission in front of Muslims forward movement while defending their
province, hence the Muslim Arabs broke some local resistances and could separated all regions from Iran
one by one. The conquered areas were Hamadan, Dinawar, Maspezan, Qom, Kashan, and Isfahan from the
direct result of Nahavand Battle, so that the Muslims moved forward to the coast of Amu Darya (Jeyhoun) in
st
the 31 year of Hijra.
The forward movement of the Islamic troops in the central regions had impressive swiftness and in less
than one decade, all territories of Iran except Deilaman and Tabarestan were safe due to the special
geographical conditions of the Arab invasion. Also some border areas and most of Iran were dominated by
the politics of Muslims (Ibn al-Athir, 1992: 18-20).
Some cities, e.g. Fars and Azerbaijan, had been the traditional Sasanian religious centers and had firm
resistance against Arabs for long time; hence eventually they all tended to join Muslims in exchange for
ransom payments and maintaining their sovereignty. Khosrow Shenom, the ruler of Hamadan, made peace
with the Muslims in the condition that he kept self-governing of Hamadan and paid ransom after Nahavand
Battle. As a result, after the Nahavand Battle, most cities of Iran had peace contract (Ibid.). The insecurity of
the Sassanid dynasty was very evident in the end of the regime.
The great empire was under the domestic pressure (severe class differences, corruption, oppression, and
disrupted reproductive system) and falls within inner revolution and military conflict, which had doubtful
virtue.
The collapse of the Sasanian government, the quarrel between the royal family members, the rogue
priests and rulers created a chaotic state, so that no historian could even write correctly the number of the
last Sassanid kings or their duration. Some factors, e.g. Donya Grani Moghan, the defeat of Fareh Izadi in
the successive falls of the poor kings, destroyed the convergence of state and nation. The hard spirit and
belief in divinity destiny was disseminated among the people by the priests, the social system classes was
harsh and some factors like race were the main cause of privilege and property, the Sharia of Zoroastrian
religion was depleted, the religious persecution of Jews, Christians, Manichaeism, and Mazdakians caused
severe conflict between religious beliefs that is apparent in the end of Sasanian period and the severe
quarrels in the religion of Zoroastrianism, the rigor behavior of the intolerant priests, and the stringent tax
agents finally vanished the weak social and economic structure of the Sasanian Regime, which created
some conditions to count to get rid of these conditions.
The martyr Morteza Motahari paid attention to the attractions of Islam, such as regarding the principle of
equality and justice for Iranians, and he knew the public discontent on the government and the rituals and
customs of that time as one of the most important factors in the defeat of the Sassanid Empire and some of
the other important Islamic indicators among the public people (Motahari, 1980: 98).
The other reasons for the rapid instigation of Islam among Iranians after Nahavand battle include the
Muslims focus on the principle of opinion freedom, as this issue was interesting and attractive for the
Iranians during the ideological tremulous years of Sassanid Regime along with the religion of Moghan and
Hirbazan as these schools had a kind of divergence and death penalty.
Furthermore, the religion of Islam has no formalities and relies on very simple tasks to be expressed, on
the other hand, its basis was on monotheism and the morals promotion, since Iranians have stood for
benevolent behavior, speaking, and deeds, it caused to spread Islam peacefully among Iranians (Ibid.).
Upon the fall of the Sassanid Empire, the Persian world finally was ready to say goodbye to the ancient
past. Although these ancient past of the Iranian culture could not be isolated, the desire was to escape the
constraints of the social classes and the heavy taxes, in addition to the simple attractions of the new religion,
the ancient Iranians gradually converted into Islamic Iran. Thereby, this tendency to Islam did not prevent the

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continuation of the Persian language and the other cultural symbols and even it penetrated among non-
Muslims gradually (Zarrinkoob, 2005: 16).

Results and Discussion

The social and political conditions were pitiful and complex in the late Sassanid era, so that there was a
clear contrast between the upper classes and the majority of the Iranian people, while some part of this
dissatisfaction was a result of the economic chaotic situation. The tremulous economy of Iran was wavering
and the crops were reduced and the development discipline was destabilized which could only depend on
the safety of Iranshahr idealism and the governments challenges and inability to provide the national
security made insecure paths and loss of business and trading incomes, which were main source of income
in the country and the tax pressures to compensate these deficits made greater divergence in the nation and
the government in the late period of Sasanids.
The reason of the Muslims victory in their last battle (Nahavand Battle) was laid in the political, social, and
economic structure of the Sassanids. In contrast, the Muslim Arabs had equality and fraternity that were
influential and fascinating for the Iranian poor masses and they could convince a large part of the nation. In
addition, there were two important motivations among Arabs that were impressive and remarkable in the
conquests in Iran (if they become murdered, they go to heaven, and if they survive, they reach the Iranians
st
unique treasures). Nahavand Battle occurred in the 21 AH, which opened all of the next Arabs conquests
in Iran. The fall of the great organized empire with a history of four hundred years occurred by a newly
emerged force without organization or strong roots, which was established for twenty years and the
conquerors did not expect it too much and the conquered people did not envision it, so the conquerors knew
it as a miracle, which the Prophet had promised them in Khandagh Battle.

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