Persia In the Muslim Empire
In western Arabia the Prophet Mohammed founded a new religion, Islam, in the early seventh century. Upon his death in 632, his followers, the Muslims, started north on the path of conquest. Persia was quickly overrun, as were Syria and Egypt. The Muslims did not devastate the countries they occupied, however. Northern Arabians settled in Persia and Mesopotamia and made the area the center of Islam. A new city, Baghdad, was built on the Tigris River to be the residence of the caliph (Muslim ruler). The Abbasids, a dynasty of caliphs established in 750, remained in power until the Mongol invasion of the 13th century.
Although other religions were tolerated at first, all Persia was converted to Islam within a few hundred years. Arabic became the official language, and “Arab" came to mean an Arabic-speaking Muslim of any nationality. The Arabians, with a primitive cultural background of their own, adopted Persian culture. Baghdad became the center of a great intellectual awakening in which mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy, history, and geography, as well as art and literature, thrived. The art and writings of Persia spread across the Muslim world to Spain and were there introduced into European culture. Baghdad was the center also of trade between the Near East and India and China.
Gradually the Persians took over political rule of the Abbasid caliphate, although the caliph in Baghdad remained spiritual leader. In the ninth century a dynasty of Persian provincial governors, the Samanids, gained control of the entire eastern section of the caliphate. The Samanid capital, Bukhara, rivaled Baghdad in culture, and Persian poetry here reached its highest development. In the 10th century a second Persian dynasty, the Buyids, assumed power in Baghdad.
The Seljuk Turks, a nomadic people from central Asia, had been moving southward during most of the Islamic era. Many had settled north of the Oxus River, where they fell under Muslim rule and became converted to Islam. The royal courts of both Bukhara and Baghdad were staffed with Turkish slaves, who in time became the royal guard and then the high command of the army.
In the 11th century actual control of the country fell, section by section, to the Seljuk Turks. Baghdad was occupied by the Seljuks in 1055, but the caliph was retained as religious head. The arts and sciences continued to flourish. One achievement was creation of an improved calendar by a group of scholars that included Omar Khayyám, the noted mathematician, astronomer, and poet.
The Seljuks, moving westward against the Byzantine Empire, in 1071 won a great victory at Manzikert (Malazgirt, in eastern Turkey). The Byzantines appealed to Europe for help, and the Crusades were the result.
