La historia de Irán (o Persia , como se la conocía en el mundo occidental) está entrelazada con la del Gran Irán , una región sociocultural que se extiende desde Anatolia hasta el río Indo y desde el Cáucaso hasta el golfo Pérsico . En el centro de esta zona se encuentra el Irán actual , que cubre la mayor parte de la meseta iraní .
Irán es el hogar de una de las civilizaciones más antiguas del mundo, con asentamientos históricos y urbanos que datan del 4000 a. C. [1] La parte occidental de la meseta iraní participó en el antiguo Oriente Próximo tradicional con Elam (3200-539 a. C.), y más tarde con otros pueblos como los casitas , los maneos y los gutianos . Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel llamó a los persas el "primer pueblo histórico". [2] El Imperio iraní comenzó en la Edad del Hierro con el ascenso de los medos , que unificaron Irán como nación e imperio en el 625 a. C. [3] El Imperio aqueménida (550-330 a. C.), fundado por Ciro el Grande , fue el imperio más grande que el mundo haya visto, abarcando desde los Balcanes hasta el norte de África y Asia central . Fueron sucedidos por los imperios seléucida , parto y sasánida , que gobernaron Irán durante casi 1000 años, convirtiendo a Irán en una potencia líder una vez más. El archirrival de Persia durante este tiempo fue el Imperio Romano y su sucesor, el Imperio Bizantino .
Irán soportó invasiones de macedonios , árabes , turcos y mongoles . A pesar de estas invasiones, Irán reafirmó continuamente su identidad nacional y se desarrolló como una entidad política y cultural distinta. La conquista musulmana de Persia (632-654) puso fin al Imperio sasánida y marcó un punto de inflexión en la historia iraní, lo que llevó a la islamización de Irán desde el siglo VIII al X y al declive del zoroastrismo . Sin embargo, los logros de las civilizaciones persas anteriores fueron absorbidos por la nueva política islámica . Irán sufrió invasiones de tribus nómadas durante la Baja Edad Media y el período moderno temprano , lo que afectó negativamente a la región. [4] Irán fue reunificado como un estado independiente en 1501 por la dinastía safávida , que estableció el Islam chiita como la religión oficial del imperio, [5] marcando un punto de inflexión significativo en la historia del Islam . [6] Irán funcionó nuevamente como una potencia mundial líder, especialmente en rivalidad con el Imperio otomano . En el siglo XIX, Irán perdió importantes territorios en el Cáucaso ante el Imperio ruso tras las guerras ruso-persas . [7]
Irán siguió siendo una monarquía hasta la Revolución iraní de 1979 , cuando se convirtió oficialmente en una república islámica el 1 de abril de 1979. [8] [9] Desde entonces, Irán ha experimentado importantes cambios políticos, sociales y económicos. El establecimiento de la República Islámica de Irán condujo a la reestructuración de su sistema político, con el Ayatolá Jomeini como Líder Supremo. Las relaciones exteriores de Irán han estado marcadas por la Guerra Irán-Irak (1980-1988), las tensiones en curso con los Estados Unidos y su programa nuclear, que ha sido un punto de discordia en la diplomacia internacional. A pesar de las sanciones económicas y los desafíos internos, Irán sigue siendo un actor clave en la geopolítica mundial y de Oriente Medio.
Los primeros artefactos arqueológicos en Irán se encontraron en los sitios de Kashafrud y Ganj Par que se cree que datan de hace 10.000 años en el Paleolítico Medio. [10] También se han encontrado herramientas de piedra musterienses hechas por neandertales . [11] Hay más restos culturales de neandertales que datan del período Paleolítico Medio , que se han encontrado principalmente en la región de Zagros y menos en el centro de Irán en sitios como Kobeh, Kunji, la cueva de Bisitun , Tamtama, Warwasi y la cueva de Yafteh . [12] En 1949, Carleton S. Coon descubrió un radio neandertal en la cueva de Bisitun. [13] La evidencia de los períodos Paleolítico superior y Epipaleolítico se conoce principalmente en los montes Zagros en las cuevas de Kermanshah y Khorramabad y en algunos sitios en Piranshahr y Alborz y el centro de Irán . Durante este tiempo, la gente comenzó a crear arte rupestre . [ cita requerida ]
Las primeras comunidades agrícolas como Chogha Golan en el año 10.000 a. C. [14] [15] junto con asentamientos como Chogha Bonut (la aldea más antigua de Elam) en el año 8000 a. C., [16] [17] comenzaron a florecer en la región de los montes Zagros y sus alrededores en el oeste de Irán. [18] Casi al mismo tiempo, las vasijas de arcilla y las figurillas de terracota modeladas con humanos y animales más antiguas que se conocen se produjeron en Ganj Dareh, también en el oeste de Irán. [18] También hay figurillas humanas y animales de 10.000 años de antigüedad de Tepe Sarab en la provincia de Kermanshah, entre muchos otros artefactos antiguos. [19]
La parte suroccidental de Irán era parte de la Media Luna Fértil , donde se cultivaban la mayoría de los primeros cultivos importantes de la humanidad, en aldeas como Susa (donde se fundó un asentamiento por primera vez posiblemente ya en 4395 cal AC) [20] : 46–47 y asentamientos como Chogha Mish , que data de 6800 AC; [21] [22] hay jarras de vino de 7000 años de antigüedad excavadas en los Montes Zagros [23] (ahora en exhibición en la Universidad de Pensilvania ) y ruinas de asentamientos de 7000 años de antigüedad como Tepe Sialk son otro testimonio de eso. Los dos principales asentamientos neolíticos iraníes fueron Ganj Dareh y la hipotética Cultura del Río Zayandeh . [24]
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Partes de lo que hoy es el noroeste de Irán formaban parte de la cultura Kura-Araxes (circa 3400 a. C. - ca. 2000 a. C.), que se extendía hasta las regiones vecinas del Cáucaso y Anatolia . [25] [26]
Susa es uno de los asentamientos más antiguos conocidos de Irán y del mundo. Según la datación C14, la fecha de fundación de la ciudad es tan temprana como 4395 a. C., [20] : 45–46 un momento justo después del establecimiento de la antigua ciudad sumeria de Uruk en 4500 a. C. La percepción general entre los arqueólogos es que Susa era una extensión de la ciudad-estado sumeria de Uruk , incorporando así muchos aspectos de la cultura mesopotámica. [27] [28] En su historia posterior, Susa se convirtió en la capital de Elam, que surgió como un estado fundado en 4000 a. C. [20] : 45–46 También hay docenas de sitios prehistóricos en la meseta iraní que apuntan a la existencia de culturas antiguas y asentamientos urbanos en el cuarto milenio a. C. [21] Una de las primeras civilizaciones en la meseta iraní fue la cultura Jiroft en el sureste de Irán en la provincia de Kerman .
Es uno de los sitios arqueológicos más ricos en artefactos de Oriente Medio. Las excavaciones arqueológicas en Jiroft condujeron al descubrimiento de varios objetos pertenecientes al cuarto milenio a. C. [29] Hay una gran cantidad de objetos decorados con grabados muy distintivos de animales, figuras mitológicas y motivos arquitectónicos. Los objetos y su iconografía se consideran únicos. Muchos están hechos de clorita , una piedra blanda de color verde grisáceo; otros son de cobre , bronce , terracota e incluso lapislázuli . Las excavaciones recientes en los sitios han producido la inscripción más antigua del mundo que es anterior a las inscripciones mesopotámicas. [30] [31]
Existen registros de numerosas civilizaciones antiguas en la meseta iraní antes del surgimiento de los pueblos iraníes durante la Edad del Hierro Temprana . La Edad del Bronce Temprana vio el surgimiento de la urbanización en ciudades-estado organizadas y la invención de la escritura (el período Uruk ) en Oriente Próximo. Si bien el Elam de la Edad del Bronce utilizó la escritura desde una época temprana, la escritura protoelamita sigue sin descifrarse y los registros de Sumer relacionados con el Elam son escasos.
El historiador ruso Igor M. Diakonoff afirmó que los habitantes modernos de Irán son descendientes de grupos principalmente no indoeuropeos, más específicamente de habitantes preiraníes de la meseta iraní: "Son los autóctonos de la meseta iraní, y no las tribus protoindoeuropeas de Europa, los que son, en lo principal, los antepasados, en el sentido físico de la palabra, de los iraníes actuales". [32]
Los registros se vuelven más tangibles con el surgimiento del Imperio neoasirio y sus registros de incursiones desde la meseta iraní. Ya en el siglo XX a. C., las tribus llegaron a la meseta iraní desde la estepa póntico-caspia . La llegada de iraníes a la meseta iraní obligó a los elamitas a renunciar a una zona de su imperio tras otra y a refugiarse en Elam, Juzestán y el área cercana, que solo entonces se convirtió en colindante con Elam. [33] Bahman Firuzmandi dice que los iraníes del sur podrían estar mezclados con los pueblos elamitas que viven en la meseta. [34] A mediados del primer milenio a. C., medos , persas y partos poblaban la meseta iraní. Hasta el surgimiento de los medos, todos permanecieron bajo la dominación asiria , como el resto del Cercano Oriente . En la primera mitad del primer milenio a. C., partes de lo que ahora es Azerbaiyán iraní se incorporaron a Urartu .
En el año 646 a. C., el rey asirio Asurbanipal saqueó Susa , lo que puso fin a la supremacía elamita en la región. [35] Durante más de 150 años, los reyes asirios de la cercana Mesopotamia del Norte habían querido conquistar las tribus medas del oeste de Irán. [36] Bajo la presión de Asiria, los pequeños reinos de la meseta occidental de Irán se fusionaron en estados cada vez más grandes y centralizados. [35]
En la segunda mitad del siglo VII a. C., los medos obtuvieron su independencia y fueron unificados por Deioces . En 612 a. C., Ciaxares , nieto de Deioces , y el rey babilónico Nabopolasar invadieron Asiria y sitiaron y finalmente destruyeron Nínive , la capital asiria, lo que llevó a la caída del Imperio neoasirio . [37] Urartu fue conquistada y disuelta más tarde también por los medos. [38] [39] A los medos se les atribuye la fundación de Irán como nación e imperio, y establecieron el primer imperio iraní, el más grande de su época hasta que Ciro el Grande estableció un imperio unificado de los medos y los persas, lo que condujo al Imperio aqueménida (c. 550-330 a. C.).
Ciro el Grande derrocó, a su vez, a los imperios medo, lidio y neobabilónico , creando un imperio mucho más grande que Asiria. Fue más capaz, mediante políticas más benignas, de reconciliar a sus súbditos con el gobierno persa; la longevidad de su imperio fue uno de los resultados. El rey persa, como el asirio , era también " rey de reyes ", xšāyaθiya xšāyaθiyānām ( shāhanshāh en persa moderno) - "gran rey", Megas Basileus , como lo conocían los griegos .
El hijo de Ciro, Cambises II , conquistó la última gran potencia de la región, el antiguo Egipto , provocando el colapso de la XXVI Dinastía de Egipto . Dado que enfermó y murió antes o mientras abandonaba Egipto , se desarrollaron historias, como las relata Heródoto , de que fue abatido por impiedad contra las antiguas deidades egipcias . Después de la muerte de Cambises II, Darío ascendió al trono derrocando al legítimo monarca aqueménida Bardiya , y luego sofocando rebeliones en todo su reino. Como vencedor, Darío I , basó su reclamo en la pertenencia a una línea colateral del Imperio aqueménida.
La primera capital de Darío fue Susa, y comenzó el programa de construcción en Persépolis . Reconstruyó un canal entre el Nilo y el Mar Rojo , un precursor del moderno Canal de Suez . Mejoró el extenso sistema de carreteras, y es durante su reinado que se menciona por primera vez el Camino Real (mostrado en el mapa), una gran carretera que se extendía desde Susa hasta Sardes con estaciones de correos a intervalos regulares. Bajo Darío se llevaron a cabo importantes reformas. La acuñación de monedas , en forma de dárico (moneda de oro) y siclo (moneda de plata), se estandarizó (la acuñación de monedas ya se había inventado más de un siglo antes en Lidia alrededor del 660 a. C., pero no se estandarizó), [40] y aumentó la eficiencia administrativa.
El antiguo idioma persa aparece en inscripciones reales, escritas en una versión especialmente adaptada de la escritura cuneiforme . Bajo Ciro el Grande y Darío I , el Imperio persa acabó convirtiéndose en el mayor imperio de la historia humana hasta ese momento, gobernando y administrando la mayor parte del mundo conocido entonces, [41] además de abarcar los continentes de Europa , Asia y África. El mayor logro fue el propio imperio. El Imperio persa representó la primera superpotencia del mundo [42] [43] que se basó en un modelo de tolerancia y respeto por otras culturas y religiones. [44]
A finales del siglo VI a. C., Darío lanzó su campaña europea, en la que derrotó a los peonios , conquistó Tracia y sometió todas las ciudades griegas costeras, además de derrotar a los escitas europeos alrededor del río Danubio . [45] En 512/511 a. C., Macedonia se convirtió en un reino vasallo de Persia. [45]
En el año 499 a. C., Atenas prestó su apoyo a una revuelta en Mileto , que resultó en el saqueo de Sardes . Esto condujo a una campaña aqueménida contra la Grecia continental conocida como las Guerras greco-persas , que duraron la primera mitad del siglo V a. C. y se las conoce como una de las guerras más importantes de la historia europea . En la primera invasión persa de Grecia , el general persa Mardonio volvió a subyugar Tracia e hizo de Macedonia una parte completa de Persia. [45] Sin embargo, la guerra finalmente resultó en una derrota. El sucesor de Darío, Jerjes I, lanzó la segunda invasión persa de Grecia . En un momento crucial de la guerra, cerca de la mitad de Grecia continental fue invadida por los persas, incluyendo todos los territorios al norte del istmo de Corinto , [46] [47] sin embargo, esto también resultó en una victoria griega, después de las batallas de Platea y Salamina , por las cuales Persia perdió sus puntos de apoyo en Europa, y finalmente se retiró de ella. [48] Durante las guerras greco-persas, los persas obtuvieron importantes ventajas territoriales. Capturaron y arrasaron Atenas dos veces , una en 480 a. C. y otra en 479 a. C. Sin embargo, después de una serie de victorias griegas, los persas se vieron obligados a retirarse, perdiendo así el control de Macedonia , Tracia y Jonia . La lucha continuó durante varias décadas después del exitoso rechazo griego de la Segunda Invasión con numerosas ciudades-estado griegas bajo la recién formada Liga de Delos de Atenas , que finalmente terminó con la paz de Calias en 449 a. C., poniendo fin a las guerras greco-persas. En el año 404 a. C., tras la muerte de Darío II , Egipto se rebeló bajo el mando de Amirteo . Los faraones posteriores resistieron con éxito los intentos persas de reconquistar Egipto hasta el año 343 a. C., cuando Artajerjes III lo reconquistó .
Entre el 334 a. C. y el 331 a. C., Alejandro Magno derrotó a Darío III en las batallas de Gránico , Issos y Gaugamela , conquistando rápidamente el Imperio persa en el 331 a. C. El imperio de Alejandro se desintegró poco después de su muerte, y el general de Alejandro, Seleuco I Nicátor , intentó tomar el control de Irán, Mesopotamia y, más tarde , Siria y Anatolia . Su imperio fue el Imperio seléucida . Fue asesinado en el 281 a. C. por Ptolomeo Keraunos .
El Imperio parto , gobernado por los partos, un grupo de personas del noroeste de Irán, fue el reino de la dinastía arsácida. Esta última reunificó y gobernó la meseta iraní después de la conquista de Partia por los parnos y la derrota del Imperio seléucida a fines del siglo III a. C. Controló de manera intermitente Mesopotamia entre aproximadamente el 150 a. C. y el 224 d. C. y absorbió Arabia Oriental .
Partia era el archienemigo oriental del Imperio Romano y limitaba la expansión de Roma más allá de Capadocia (Anatolia central). Los ejércitos partos incluían dos tipos de caballería : los catafractos, fuertemente armados y acorazados, y los arqueros montados , ligeramente armados pero muy móviles .
Para los romanos, que dependían de la infantería pesada , los partos eran demasiado difíciles de derrotar, ya que ambos tipos de caballería eran mucho más rápidos y móviles que los soldados de a pie. El tiro parto utilizado por la caballería parta era especialmente temido por los soldados romanos, lo que resultó fundamental en la aplastante derrota romana en la batalla de Carras . Por otro lado, a los partos les resultó difícil ocupar las zonas conquistadas, ya que no eran expertos en la guerra de asedio . Debido a estas debilidades, ni los romanos ni los partos pudieron anexionarse completamente el territorio del otro.
El imperio parto subsistió durante cinco siglos, más que la mayoría de los imperios orientales. El fin de este imperio llegó finalmente en el año 224 d. C., cuando la organización del imperio se había debilitado y el último rey fue derrotado por uno de los pueblos vasallos del imperio, los persas bajo el mando de los sasánidas. Sin embargo, la dinastía arsácida continuó existiendo durante siglos en Armenia , la Península Ibérica y la Albania caucásica , que eran todas ramas epónimas de la dinastía.
El primer shah del Imperio sasánida, Ardashir I , comenzó a reformar el país económica y militarmente. Durante un período de más de 400 años, Irán volvió a ser una de las principales potencias del mundo, junto con su vecino rival, el Imperio romano y luego el bizantino . [49] [50] El territorio del imperio, en su apogeo, abarcó todo el actual Irán , Irak , Azerbaiyán , Armenia , Georgia , Abjasia , Daguestán , Líbano , Jordania , Palestina , Israel , partes de Afganistán , Turquía , Siria , partes de Pakistán , Asia Central , Arabia Oriental y partes de Egipto .
La mayor parte de la vida del Imperio sasánida se vio ensombrecida por las frecuentes guerras bizantino-sasánidas , una continuación de las guerras romano-partas y las guerras romano-persas que abarcaron todo el Imperio; la última fue el conflicto más duradero en la historia humana. Iniciada en el siglo I a. C. por sus predecesores, los partos y los romanos, la última guerra romano-persa se libró en el siglo VII. Los persas derrotaron a los romanos en la batalla de Edesa en 260 y tomaron prisionero al emperador Valeriano por el resto de su vida.
Arabia Oriental fue conquistada en un principio. Durante el gobierno de Cosroes II en 590-628, Egipto , Jordania , Palestina y Líbano también fueron anexados al Imperio. Los sasánidas llamaron a su imperio Erânshahr ("Dominio de los arios", es decir, de los iraníes ). [51]
Un capítulo de la historia de Irán siguió a unos seiscientos años de conflicto con el Imperio Romano. Durante este tiempo, los ejércitos sasánidas y romano-bizantinos se enfrentaron por la influencia en Anatolia, el Cáucaso occidental (principalmente Lazica y el Reino de Iberia ; las actuales Georgia y Abjasia ), Mesopotamia , Armenia y el Levante. Bajo el reinado de Justiniano I, la guerra desembocó en una paz precaria con el pago de tributos a los sasánidas.
Sin embargo, los sasánidas utilizaron la deposición del emperador bizantino Mauricio como casus belli para atacar al Imperio. Después de muchas victorias, los sasánidas fueron derrotados en Issos, Constantinopla y finalmente Nínive, lo que resultó en la paz. Con la conclusión de las guerras romano-persas que duraron más de 700 años hasta la culminante guerra bizantino-sasánida de 602-628 , que incluyó el mismísimo asedio de la capital bizantina de Constantinopla , los persas, exhaustos por la guerra, perdieron la batalla de al-Qādisiyyah (632) en Hilla (actual Irak ) ante las fuerzas musulmanas invasoras.
La era sasánida, que abarca la Antigüedad tardía , se considera uno de los períodos históricos más importantes e influyentes de Irán y tuvo un gran impacto en el mundo. En muchos sentidos, el período sasánida fue testigo del mayor logro de la civilización persa y constituye el último gran imperio iraní antes de la adopción del Islam. Persia influyó considerablemente en la civilización romana durante la época sasánida, [52] su influencia cultural se extendió mucho más allá de las fronteras territoriales del imperio, llegando hasta Europa occidental, [53] África, [54] China e India [55] y también desempeñó un papel destacado en la formación del arte medieval europeo y asiático. [56]
Esta influencia se trasladó al mundo musulmán . La cultura única y aristocrática de la dinastía transformó la conquista y destrucción islámica de Irán en un renacimiento persa. [53] Gran parte de lo que más tarde se conocería como cultura, arquitectura, escritura y otras contribuciones a la civilización islámicas fueron tomadas de los persas sasánidas y llevadas al mundo musulmán en general. [57]
En 633, cuando el rey sasánida Yazdegerd III gobernaba Irán, los musulmanes bajo el mando de Umar invadieron el país justo después de que éste hubiera estado envuelto en una sangrienta guerra civil. Varios nobles y familias iraníes, como el rey Dinar de la Casa de Karen y, posteriormente, los Kanarangiyans de Khorasan , se amotinaron contra sus señores sasánidas. Aunque la Casa de Mihran había reclamado el trono sasánida bajo el mando de dos generales prominentes, Bahrām Chōbin y Shahrbaraz , permaneció leal a los sasánidas durante su lucha contra los árabes, pero los Mihrans fueron finalmente traicionados y derrotados por sus propios parientes, la Casa de Ispahbudhan , bajo el mando de su líder Farrukhzad , que se había amotinado contra Yazdegerd III.
Yazdegerd III huyó de un distrito a otro hasta que un molinero local lo mató para robarle su dinero en Merv en 651. [58] En 674, los musulmanes habían conquistado el Gran Jorasán (que incluía la actual provincia iraní de Jorasán y el actual Afganistán y partes de Transoxiana ).
La conquista musulmana de Persia puso fin al Imperio sasánida y condujo a la decadencia de la religión zoroástrica en Persia. Con el tiempo, la mayoría de los iraníes se convirtieron al Islam. La mayoría de los aspectos de las civilizaciones persas anteriores no fueron descartados, sino que fueron absorbidos por la nueva política islámica . Como ha comentado Bernard Lewis :
“Estos acontecimientos han sido vistos de diversas maneras en Irán: por algunos como una bendición, el advenimiento de la verdadera fe, el fin de la era de la ignorancia y el paganismo; por otros como una humillante derrota nacional, la conquista y subyugación del país por invasores extranjeros. Ambas percepciones son, por supuesto, válidas, dependiendo del ángulo de visión de cada uno.” [59]
Tras la caída del Imperio sasánida en 651, los árabes del califato omeya adoptaron muchas costumbres persas, especialmente las administrativas y los modales de la corte. Los gobernadores provinciales árabes eran, sin duda, arameos persianos o persas étnicos; sin duda, el persa siguió siendo el idioma de los asuntos oficiales del califato hasta la adopción del árabe hacia finales del siglo VII, [60] cuando en 692 comenzó la acuñación en la capital, Damasco . Las nuevas monedas islámicas evolucionaron a partir de imitaciones de monedas sasánidas (así como de bizantinas ), y la escritura pahlavi en las monedas fue reemplazada por el alfabeto árabe .
Durante el califato omeya, los conquistadores árabes impusieron el árabe como lengua principal de los pueblos sometidos en todo su imperio. Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf , que no estaba contento con la prevalencia de la lengua persa en el diván , ordenó que la lengua oficial de las tierras conquistadas fuera reemplazada por el árabe, a veces por la fuerza. [61] En De los signos restantes de los siglos pasados de al-Biruni , por ejemplo, está escrito:
“Cuando Qutaibah bin Muslim, bajo el mando de Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef, fue enviado a Corasmia con una expedición militar y la conquistó por segunda vez, mató rápidamente a todo aquel que escribiera en la lengua nativa de Corasmia y que conociera la herencia, la historia y la cultura de Corasmia. Luego mató a todos sus sacerdotes zoroastrianos y quemó y destruyó sus libros, hasta que gradualmente sólo quedaron los analfabetos, que no sabían nada de escritura, y por lo tanto su historia fue en gran parte olvidada”. [62]
Hay varios historiadores que consideran que el gobierno de los Omeyas estableció la "dhimmah" para aumentar los impuestos de los dhimmis con el fin de beneficiar económicamente a la comunidad árabe musulmana y desalentar la conversión. [63] Los gobernadores presentaron quejas ante el califa cuando promulgó leyes que facilitaban la conversión, privando a las provincias de ingresos.
En el siglo VII, cuando muchos no árabes, como los persas , entraron al Islam, fueron reconocidos como mawali ("clientes") y tratados como ciudadanos de segunda clase por la élite árabe gobernante hasta el final del califato omeya. Durante esta era, el Islam se asoció inicialmente con la identidad étnica del árabe y requirió la asociación formal con una tribu árabe y la adopción del estatus de cliente de mawali . [63] Las políticas poco entusiastas de los últimos omeyas de tolerar a los musulmanes no árabes y a los chiítas no habían logrado sofocar el malestar entre estas minorías.
Sin embargo, todo Irán aún no estaba bajo control árabe, y la región de Daylam estaba bajo el control de los daylamitas , mientras que Tabaristán estaba bajo el control de los dabuyidas y paduspánidas , y la región del monte Damavand bajo el control de los masmughans de Damavand . Los árabes habían invadido estas regiones varias veces, pero no lograron un resultado decisivo debido al terreno inaccesible de las regiones. El gobernante más destacado de los dabuyidas, conocido como Farrukhan el Grande (r. 712-728), logró mantener sus dominios durante su larga lucha contra el general árabe Yazid ibn al-Muhallab , quien fue derrotado por un ejército combinado dailamita-dabuyida, y se vio obligado a retirarse de Tabaristán. [64]
Con la muerte del califa omeya Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik en 743, el mundo islámico se vio inmerso en una guerra civil. Abu Muslim fue enviado a Jorasán por el califato abasí, inicialmente como propagandista y luego para rebelarse en su nombre. Tomó Merv y derrotó al gobernador omeya allí, Nasr ibn Sayyar . Se convirtió en el gobernador abasí de facto de Jorasán. Durante el mismo período, el gobernante dabuyid Khurshid declaró la independencia de los omeyas, pero poco después se vio obligado a reconocer la autoridad abasí. En 750, Abu Muslim se convirtió en el líder del ejército abasí y derrotó a los omeyas en la batalla de Zab . Abu Muslim asaltó Damasco , la capital del califato omeya, más tarde ese año.
El ejército abasí estaba formado principalmente por jorasánes y estaba dirigido por un general iraní, Abu Muslim Khorasani . Contenía elementos tanto iraníes como árabes, y los abasíes disfrutaban del apoyo tanto iraní como árabe. Los abasíes derrocaron a los omeyas en 750. [65] Según Amir Arjomand, la Revolución abasí marcó esencialmente el fin del imperio árabe y el comienzo de un estado más inclusivo y multiétnico en Oriente Medio. [66]
Uno de los primeros cambios que realizaron los abasíes después de tomar el poder de los omeyas fue trasladar la capital del imperio desde Damasco , en el Levante , a Irak . Esta última región estaba influenciada por la historia y la cultura persas, y el traslado de la capital era parte de la demanda persa de influencia árabe en el imperio. La ciudad de Bagdad fue construida sobre el río Tigris , en 762, para servir como la nueva capital abasí. [67]
Los abasíes establecieron en su administración el cargo de visir , como el de Barmakids , que era el equivalente a un «vicecalifa» o segundo al mando. Con el tiempo, este cambio significó que muchos califas de los abasíes acabaron desempeñando un papel mucho más ceremonial que nunca, con el visir en el poder real. Una nueva burocracia persa empezó a sustituir a la antigua aristocracia árabe, y toda la administración reflejó estos cambios, demostrando que la nueva dinastía era diferente en muchos aspectos de los omeyas. [67]
En el siglo IX, el control abasí comenzó a debilitarse a medida que surgían líderes regionales en los rincones más alejados del imperio para desafiar la autoridad central del califato abasí. [67] Los califas abasíes comenzaron a reclutar a mamelucos , guerreros de habla turca, que habían estado saliendo de Asia Central hacia Transoxiana como guerreros esclavos ya en el siglo IX. Poco después, el poder real de los califas abasíes comenzó a menguar; finalmente, se convirtieron en figuras religiosas mientras los esclavos guerreros gobernaban. [65]
El siglo IX también fue testigo de la revuelta de los zoroastrianos nativos, conocidos como los khurramitas , contra el opresivo gobierno árabe. El movimiento fue liderado por un luchador por la libertad persa, Babak Khorramdin . La rebelión iranizante [68] de Babak , desde su base en Azerbaiyán en el noroeste de Irán , [69] exigía el regreso de las glorias políticas del pasado iraní [70] . La rebelión Khorramdin de Babak se extendió a las partes occidental y central de Irán y duró más de veinte años antes de ser derrotada cuando Babak fue traicionado por Afshin , un general de alto rango del califato abasí.
As the power of the Abbasid caliphs diminished, a series of dynasties rose in various parts of Iran, some with considerable influence and power. Among the most important of these overlapping dynasties were the Tahirids in Khorasan (821–873); the Saffarids in Sistan (861–1003, their rule lasted as maliks of Sistan until 1537); and the Samanids (819–1005), originally at Bukhara. The Samanids eventually ruled an area from central Iran to Pakistan.[65]
By the early 10th century, the Abbasids almost lost control to the growing Persian faction known as the Buyid dynasty (934–1062). Since much of the Abbasid administration had been Persian anyway, the Buyids were quietly able to assume real power in Baghdad. The Buyids were defeated in the mid-11th century by the Seljuq Turks, who continued to exert influence over the Abbasids, while publicly pledging allegiance to them. The balance of power in Baghdad remained as such – with the Abbasids in power in name only – until the Mongol invasion of 1258 sacked the city and definitively ended the Abbasid dynasty.[67]
During the Abbasid period an enfranchisement was experienced by the mawali and a shift was made in political conception from that of a primarily Arab empire to one of a Muslim empire[71] and c. 930 a requirement was enacted that required all bureaucrats of the empire be Muslim.[63]
Islamization was a long process by which Islam was gradually adopted by the majority population of Iran. Richard Bulliet's "conversion curve" indicates that only about 10% of Iran converted to Islam during the relatively Arab-centric Umayyad period. Beginning in the Abbasid period, with its mix of Persian as well as Arab rulers, the Muslim percentage of the population rose. As Persian Muslims consolidated their rule of the country, the Muslim population rose from approximately 40% in the mid-9th century to close to 90% by the end of the 11th century.[71] Seyyed Hossein Nasr suggests that the rapid increase in conversion was aided by the Persian nationality of the rulers.[72]
Although Persians adopted the religion of their conquerors, over the centuries they worked to protect and revive their distinctive language and culture, a process known as Persianization. Arabs and Turks participated in this attempt.[73][74][75]
In the 9th and 10th centuries, non-Arab subjects of the Ummah created a movement called Shu'ubiyyah in response to the privileged status of Arabs. Most of those behind the movement were Persian, but references to Egyptians, Berbers and Aramaeans are attested.[76] Citing as its basis Islamic notions of equality of races and nations, the movement was primarily concerned with preserving Persian culture and protecting Persian identity, though within a Muslim context.
The Samanid dynasty led the revival of Persian culture and the first important Persian poet after the arrival of Islam, Rudaki, was born during this era and was praised by Samanid kings. The Samanids also revived many ancient Persian festivals. Their successor, the Ghaznawids, who were of non-Iranian Turkic origin, also became instrumental in the revival of Persian culture.[77]
The culmination of the Persianization movement was the Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran, written almost entirely in Persian. This voluminous work, reflects Iran's ancient history, its unique cultural values, its pre-Islamic Zoroastrian religion, and its sense of nationhood. According to Bernard Lewis:[59]
"Iran was indeed Islamized, but it was not Arabized. Persians remained Persians. And after an interval of silence, Iran re-emerged as a separate, different and distinctive element within Islam, eventually adding a new element even to Islam itself. Culturally, politically, and most remarkable of all even religiously, the Iranian contribution to this new Islamic civilization is of immense importance. The work of Iranians can be seen in every field of cultural endeavour, including Arabic poetry, to which poets of Iranian origin composing their poems in Arabic made a very significant contribution. In a sense, Iranian Islam is a second advent of Islam itself, a new Islam sometimes referred to as Islam-i Ajam. It was this Persian Islam, rather than the original Arab Islam, that was brought to new areas and new peoples: to the Turks, first in Central Asia and then in the Middle East in the country which came to be called Turkey, and of course to India. The Ottoman Turks brought a form of Iranian civilization to the walls of Vienna..."
The Islamization of Iran was to yield deep transformations within the cultural, scientific, and political structure of Iran's society: The blossoming of Persian literature, philosophy, medicine and art became major elements of the newly forming Muslim civilization. Inheriting a heritage of thousands of years of civilization, and being at the "crossroads of the major cultural highways",[80] contributed to Persia emerging as what culminated into the "Islamic Golden Age". During this period, hundreds of scholars and scientists vastly contributed to technology, science and medicine, later influencing the rise of European science during the Renaissance.[81]
The most important scholars of almost all of the Islamic sects and schools of thought were Persian or lived in Iran, including the most notable and reliable Hadith collectors of Shia and Sunni like Shaikh Saduq, Shaikh Kulainy, Hakim al-Nishaburi, Imam Muslim and Imam Bukhari, the greatest theologians of Shia and Sunni like Shaykh Tusi, Imam Ghazali, Imam Fakhr al-Razi and Al-Zamakhshari, the greatest physicians, astronomers, logicians, mathematicians, metaphysicians, philosophers and scientists like Avicenna and Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī, and the greatest shaykhs of Sufism like Rumi and Abdul-Qadir Gilani.
In 977, a Turkic governor of the Samanids, Sabuktigin, conquered Ghazna (in present-day Afghanistan) and established a dynasty, the Ghaznavids, that lasted to 1186.[65] The Ghaznavid empire grew by taking all of the Samanid territories south of the Amu Darya in the last decade of the 10th century, and eventually occupied parts of Eastern Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-west India.[67]
The Ghaznavids are generally credited with launching Islam into a mainly Hindu India. The invasion of India was undertaken in 1000 by the Ghaznavid ruler, Mahmud, and continued for several years. They were unable to hold power for long, however, particularly after the death of Mahmud in 1030. By 1040 the Seljuqs had taken over the Ghaznavid lands in Iran.[67]
The Seljuqs, who like the Ghaznavids were Persianate in nature and of Turkic origin, slowly conquered Iran over the course of the 11th century.[65] The dynasty had its origins in the Turcoman tribal confederations of Central Asia and marked the beginning of Turkic power in the Middle East. They established a Sunni Muslim rule over parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries. They set up an empire known as Great Seljuq Empire that stretched from Anatolia in the west to western Afghanistan in the east and the western borders of (modern-day) China in the north-east; and was the target of the First Crusade. Today they are regarded as the cultural ancestors of the Western Turks, the present-day inhabitants of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, and they are remembered as great patrons of Persian culture, art, literature, and language.[82][83][84]
The founder of the dynasty, Tughril Beg, turned his army against the Ghaznavids in Khorasan. He moved south and then west, conquering but not wasting the cities in his path. In 1055 the caliph in Baghdad gave Tughril Beg robes, gifts, and the title King of the East. Under Tughril Beg's successor, Malik Shah (1072–1092), Iran enjoyed a cultural and scientific renaissance, largely attributed to his brilliant Iranian vizier, Nizam al Mulk. These leaders established the observatory where Omar Khayyám did much of his experimentation for a new calendar, and they built religious schools in all the major towns. They brought Abu Hamid Ghazali, one of the greatest Islamic theologians, and other eminent scholars to the Seljuq capital at Baghdad and encouraged and supported their work.[65]
When Malik Shah I died in 1092, the empire split as his brother and four sons quarreled over the apportioning of the empire among themselves. In Anatolia, Malik Shah I was succeeded by Kilij Arslan I who founded the Sultanate of Rûm and in Syria by his brother Tutush I. In Persia he was succeeded by his son Mahmud I whose reign was contested by his other three brothers Barkiyaruq in Iraq, Muhammad I in Baghdad and Ahmad Sanjar in Khorasan. As Seljuq power in Iran weakened, other dynasties began to step up in its place, including a resurgent Abbasid caliphate and the Khwarezmshahs. The Khwarezmid Empire was a Sunni Muslim Persianate dynasty, of East Turkic origin, that ruled in Central Asia. Originally vassals of the Seljuqs, they took advantage of the decline of the Seljuqs to expand into Iran.[85] In 1194 the Khwarezmshah Ala ad-Din Tekish defeated the Seljuq sultan Toghrul III in battle and the Seljuq empire in Iran collapsed. Of the former Seljuq Empire, only the Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia remained.
A serious internal threat to the Seljuqs during their reign came from the Nizari Ismailis, a secret sect with headquarters at Alamut Castle between Rasht and Tehran. They controlled the immediate area for more than 150 years and sporadically sent out adherents to strengthen their rule by murdering important officials. Several of the various theories on the etymology of the word assassin derive from these killers.[65]
Parts of northwestern Iran were conquered in the early 13th century AD by the Kingdom of Georgia, led by Tamar the Great.[86]
The Khwarazmian dynasty only lasted for a few decades, until the arrival of the Mongols. Genghis Khan had unified the Mongols, and under him the Mongol Empire quickly expanded in several directions. In 1218, it bordered Khwarezm. At that time, the Khwarazmian Empire was ruled by Ala ad-Din Muhammad (1200–1220). Muhammad, like Genghis, was intent on expanding his lands and had gained the submission of most of Iran. He declared himself shah and demanded formal recognition from the Abbasid caliph Al-Nasir. When the caliph rejected his claim, Ala ad-Din Muhammad proclaimed one of his nobles caliph and unsuccessfully tried to depose an-Nasir.
The Mongol invasion of Iran began in 1219, after two diplomatic missions to Khwarezm sent by Genghis Khan had been massacred. During 1220–21 Bukhara, Samarkand, Herat, Tus and Nishapur were razed, and the whole populations were slaughtered. The Khwarezm-Shah fled, to die on an island off the Caspian coast.[87]During the invasion of Transoxiana in 1219, along with the main Mongol force, Genghis Khan used a Chinese specialist catapult unit in battle, they were used again in 1220 in Transoxania. The Chinese may have used the catapults to hurl gunpowder bombs, since they already had them by this time.[88]
While Genghis Khan was conquering Transoxania and Persia, several Chinese who were familiar with gunpowder were serving in Genghis's army.[89] "Whole regiments" entirely made out of Chinese were used by the Mongols to command bomb hurling trebuchets during the invasion of Iran.[90] Historians have suggested that the Mongol invasion had brought Chinese gunpowder weapons to Central Asia. One of these was the huochong, a Chinese mortar.[91] Books written around the area afterward depicted gunpowder weapons which resembled those of China.[92]
Before his death in 1227, Genghis had reached western Azerbaijan, pillaging and burning many cities along the way after entering into Iran from its north east.
The Mongol invasion was by and large disastrous to the Iranians. Although the Mongol invaders eventually converted to Islam and accepted the culture of Iran, the Mongol destruction in Iran and other regions of the Islamic heartland (particularly the historical Khorasan region, mainly in Central Asia) marked a major change of direction for the region. Much of the six centuries of Islamic scholarship, culture, and infrastructure was destroyed as the invaders leveled cities, burned libraries, and in some cases replaced mosques with Buddhist temples.[93][94][95]
The Mongols killed many Iranian civilians. Destruction of qanat irrigation systems in the north east of Iran destroyed the pattern of relatively continuous settlements, producing many abandoned towns which were relatively quite good with irrigation and agriculture.[96]
After Genghis's death, Iran was ruled by several Mongol commanders. Genghis' grandson, Hulagu Khan, was tasked with the westward expansion of Mongol dominion. However, by the time he ascended to power, the Mongol Empire had already dissolved, dividing into different factions. Arriving with an army, he established himself in the region and founded the Ilkhanate, a breakaway state of the Mongol Empire, which would rule Iran for the next eighty years and become Persian in the process.
Hulagu Khan seized Baghdad in 1258 and put the last Abbasid caliph to death. The westward advance of his forces was stopped by the Mamelukes, however, at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine in 1260. Hulagu's campaigns against the Muslims also enraged Berke, khan of the Golden Horde and a convert to Islam. Hulagu and Berke fought against each other, demonstrating the weakening unity of the Mongol empire.
The rule of Hulagu's great-grandson, Ghazan (1295–1304) saw the establishment of Islam as the state religion of the Ilkhanate. Ghazan and his famous Iranian vizier, Rashid al-Din, brought Iran a partial and brief economic revival. The Mongols lowered taxes for artisans, encouraged agriculture, rebuilt and extended irrigation works, and improved the safety of the trade routes. As a result, commerce increased dramatically.
Items from India, China, and Iran passed easily across the Asian steppes, and these contacts culturally enriched Iran. For example, Iranians developed a new style of painting based on a unique fusion of solid, two-dimensional Mesopotamian painting with the feathery, light brush strokes and other motifs characteristic of China. After Ghazan's nephew Abu Said died in 1335, however, the Ilkhanate lapsed into civil war and was divided between several petty dynasties – most prominently the Jalayirids, Muzaffarids, Sarbadars and Kartids.
The mid-14th-century Black Death killed about 30% of the country's population.[97]
Prior to the rise of the Safavid Empire, Sunni Islam was the dominant religion, accounting for around 90% of the population at the time. According to Mortaza Motahhari the majority of Iranian scholars and masses remained Sunni until the time of the Safavids.[98] The domination of Sunnis did not mean Shia were rootless in Iran. The writers of The Four Books of Shia were Iranian, as well as many other great Shia scholars.
The domination of the Sunni creed during the first nine Islamic centuries characterized the religious history of Iran during this period. There were however some exceptions to this general domination which emerged in the form of the Zaydīs of Tabaristan (see Alid dynasties of northern Iran), the Buyids, the Kakuyids, the rule of Sultan Muhammad Khudabandah (r. Shawwal 703-Shawwal 716/1304–1316) and the Sarbedaran.[99]
Apart from this domination there existed, firstly, throughout these nine centuries, Shia inclinations among many Sunnis of this land and, secondly, original Imami Shiism as well as Zaydī Shiism had prevalence in some parts of Iran. During this period, Shia in Iran were nourished from Kufah, Baghdad and later from Najaf and Hillah.[99] Shiism was the dominant sect in Tabaristan, Qom, Kashan, Avaj and Sabzevar. In many other areas merged population of Shia and Sunni lived together.[citation needed]
During the 10th and 11th centuries, Fatimids sent Ismailis Da'i (missioners) to Iran as well as other Muslim lands. When Ismailis divided into two sects, Nizaris established their base in Iran. Hassan-i Sabbah conquered fortresses and captured Alamut in 1090 AD. Nizaris used this fortress until a Mongol raid in 1256.[citation needed]
After the Mongol raid and fall of the Abbasids, Sunni hierarchies faltered. Not only did they lose the caliphate but also the status of official madhhab. Their loss was the gain of Shia, whose centre wasn't in Iran at that time. Several local Shia dynasties like Sarbadars were established during this time.[citation needed]
The main change occurred in the beginning of the 16th century, when Ismail I founded the Safavid dynasty and initiated a religious policy to recognize Shi'a Islam as the official religion of the Safavid Empire, and the fact that modern Iran remains an officially Shi'ite state is a direct result of Ismail's actions.[citation needed]
Iran remained divided until the arrival of Timur, a Turco-Mongol[100] belonging to the Timurid dynasty. Like its predecessors, the Timurid Empire was also part of the Persianate world. After establishing a power base in Transoxiana, Timur invaded Iran in 1381 and eventually conquered most of it. Timur's campaigns were known for their brutality; many people were slaughtered and several cities were destroyed.[101]
His regime was characterized by tyranny and bloodshed, but also by its inclusion of Iranians in administrative roles and its promotion of architecture and poetry. His successors, the Timurids, maintained a hold on most of Iran until 1452, when they lost the bulk of it to Black Sheep Turkmen. The Black Sheep Turkmen were conquered by the White Sheep Turkmen under Uzun Hasan in 1468; Uzun Hasan and his successors were the masters of Iran until the rise of the Safavids.[101]
Sufi poet Hafez's popularity became firmly established in the Timurid era that saw the compilation and widespread copying of his divan. Sufis were often persecuted by orthodox Muslims who considered their teachings blasphemous. Sufism developed a symbolic language rich with metaphors to obscure poetic references to provocative philosophical teachings. Hafez concealed his own Sufi faith, even as he employed the secret language of Sufism (developed over hundreds of years) in his own work, and he is sometimes credited with having "brought it to perfection".[102] His work was imitated by Jami, whose own popularity grew to spread across the full breadth of the Persianate world.[103]
The Kara Koyunlu were a Turkmen[104] tribal federation that ruled over northwestern Iran and surrounding areas from 1374 to 1468 CE. The Kara Koyunlu expanded their conquest to Baghdad, however, internal fighting, defeats by the Timurids, rebellions by the Armenians in response to their persecution,[105] and failed struggles with the Ag Qoyunlu led to their eventual demise.[106]
Aq Qoyunlu were Turkmen[107][108] under the leadership of the Bayandur tribe,[109] tribal federation of Sunni Muslims who ruled over most of Iran and large parts of surrounding areas from 1378 to 1501 CE. Aq Qoyunlu emerged when Timur granted them all of Diyar Bakr in present-day Turkey. Afterward, they struggled with their rival Oghuz Turks, the Qara Qoyunlu. While the Aq Qoyunlu were successful in defeating Kara Koyunlu, their struggle with the emerging Safavid dynasty led to their downfall.[110]
Persia underwent a revival under the Safavid dynasty (1502–1736), the most prominent figure of which was Shah Abbas I. Some historians credit the Safavid dynasty for founding the modern nation-state of Iran. Iran's contemporary Shia character, and significant segments of Iran's current borders take their origin from this era (e.g. Treaty of Zuhab).
The Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Persia (modern Iran), and "is often considered the beginning of modern Persian history".[111] They ruled one of the greatest Persian empires after the Muslim conquest of Persia[112] and established the Twelver school of Shi'a Islam[5] as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in Muslim history. The Safavids ruled from 1501 to 1722 (experiencing a brief restoration from 1729 to 1736) and at their height, they controlled all of modern Iran, Azerbaijan and Armenia, most of Georgia, the North Caucasus, Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, as well as parts of Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Safavid Iran was one of the Islamic "gunpowder empires", along with its neighbours, its archrival and principal enemy the Ottoman Empire, as well as the Mughal Empire.
The Safavid ruling dynasty was founded by Ismāil, who styled himself Shāh Ismāil I.[113] Practically worshipped by his Qizilbāsh followers, Ismāil invaded Shirvan to avenge the death of his father, Shaykh Haydar, who had been killed during his siege of Derbent, in Dagestan. Afterwards he went on a campaign of conquest, and following the capture of Tabriz in July 1501, he enthroned himself as the Shāh of Iran,[114]: 324 [115][116] minted coins in this name, and proclaimed Shi'ism the official religion of his domain.[5]
Although initially the masters of Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan only, the Safavids had, in fact, won the struggle for power in Persia which had been going on for nearly a century between various dynasties and political forces following the fragmentation of the Kara Koyunlu and the Aq Qoyunlu. A year after his victory in Tabriz, Ismāil proclaimed most of Persia as his domain, and[5] quickly conquered and unified Iran under his rule. Soon afterwards, the new Safavid Empire rapidly conquered regions, nations, and peoples in all directions, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, parts of Georgia, Mesopotamia (Iraq), Kuwait, Syria, Dagestan, large parts of what is now Afghanistan, parts of Turkmenistan, and large chunks of Anatolia, laying the foundation of its multi-ethnic character which would heavily influence the empire itself (most notably the Caucasus and its peoples).
Tahmasp I, the son and successor of Ismail I, carried out multiple invasions in the Caucasus which had been incorporated in the Safavid empire since Shah Ismail I and for many centuries afterwards, and started with the trend of deporting and moving hundreds of thousands of Circassians, Georgians, and Armenians to Iran's heartlands. Initially only solely put in the royal harems, royal guards, and minor other sections of the Empire, Tahmasp believed he could eventually reduce the power of the Qizilbash, by creating and fully integrating a new layer in Iranian society. As Encyclopædia Iranica states, for Tahmasp, the problem circled around the military tribal elite of the empire, the Qizilbash, who believed that physical proximity to and control of a member of the immediate Safavid family guaranteed spiritual advantages, political fortune, and material advancement.[117] With this new Caucasian layer in Iranian society, the undisputed might of the Qizilbash (who functioned much like the ghazis of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire) would be questioned and fully diminished as society would become fully meritocratic.
Shah Abbas I and his successors would significantly expand this policy and plan initiated by Tahmasp, deporting during his reign alone around some 200,000 Georgians, 300,000 Armenians and 100,000–150,000 Circassians to Iran, completing the foundation of a new layer in Iranian society. With this, and the complete systematic disorganisation of the Qizilbash by his personal orders, he eventually fully succeeded in replacing the power of the Qizilbash, with that of the Caucasian ghulams. These new Caucasian elements (the so-called ghilman / غِلْمَان / "servants"), almost always after conversion to Shi'ism depending on given function would be, unlike the Qizilbash, fully loyal only to the Shah. The other masses of Caucasians were deployed in all other possible functions and positions available in the empire, as well as in the harem, regular military, craftsmen, farmers, etc. This system of mass usage of Caucasian subjects remained to exist until the fall of the Qajar dynasty.
The greatest of the Safavid monarchs, Shah Abbas I the Great (1587–1629) came to power in 1587 aged 16. Abbas I first fought the Uzbeks, recapturing Herat and Mashhad in 1598, which had been lost by his predecessor Mohammad Khodabanda by the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590). Then he turned against the Ottomans, the archrivals of the Safavids, recapturing Baghdad, eastern Iraq, the Caucasian provinces, and beyond by 1618. Between 1616 and 1618, following the disobedience of his most loyal Georgian subjects Teimuraz I and Luarsab II, Abbas carried out a punitive campaign in his territories of Georgia, devastating Kakheti and Tbilisi and carrying away 130,000[118] – 200,000[119][120] Georgian captives towards mainland Iran. His new army, which had dramatically been improved with the advent of Robert Shirley and his brothers following the first diplomatic mission to Europe, pitted the first crushing victory over the Safavids' archrivals, the Ottomans in the above-mentioned 1603–1618 war and would surpass the Ottomans in military strength. He also used his new force to dislodge the Portuguese from Bahrain (1602) and Hormuz (1622) with aid of the English navy, in the Persian Gulf.
He expanded commercial links with the Dutch East India Company and established firm links with the European royal houses, which had been initiated by Ismail I earlier on by the Habsburg–Persian alliance. Thus Abbas I was able to break the dependence on the Qizilbash for military might and therefore was able to centralize control. The Safavid dynasty had already established itself during Shah Ismail I, but under Abbas I it really became a major power in the world along with its archrival the Ottoman Empire, against whom it became able to compete with on equal foot. It also started the promotion of tourism in Iran. Under their rule Persian Architecture flourished again and saw many new monuments in various Iranian cities, of which Isfahan is the most notable example.
Except for Shah Abbas the Great, Shah Ismail I, Shah Tahmasp I, and Shah Abbas II, many of the Safavid rulers were ineffectual, often being more interested in their women, alcohol and other leisure activities. The end of Abbas II's reign in 1666, marked the beginning of the end of the Safavid dynasty. Despite falling revenues and military threats, many of the later shahs had lavish lifestyles. Shah Soltan Hosain (1694–1722) in particular was known for his love of wine and disinterest in governance.[121]
The declining country was repeatedly raided on its frontiers. Finally, Ghilzai Pashtun chieftain named Mir Wais Khan began a rebellion in Kandahar and defeated the Safavid army under the Iranian Georgian governor over the region, Gurgin Khan. In 1722, Peter the Great of neighbouring Imperial Russia launched the Russo-Persian War (1722–1723), capturing many of Iran's Caucasian territories, including Derbent, Shaki, Baku, but also Gilan, Mazandaran and Astrabad. In the midst of chaos, in the same year of 1722, an Afghan army led by Mir Wais' son Mahmud marched across eastern Iran, besieged and took Isfahan. Mahmud proclaimed himself 'Shah' of Persia. Meanwhile, Persia's imperial rivals, the Ottomans and the Russians, took advantage of the chaos in the country to seize more territory for themselves.[122] By these events, the Safavid dynasty had effectively ended. In 1724, conform the Treaty of Constantinople, the Ottomans and the Russians agreed to divide the newly conquered territories of Iran amongst themselves.[123]
Iran's territorial integrity was restored by a native Iranian Turkic Afshar warlord from Khorasan, Nader Shah. He defeated and banished the Afghans, defeated the Ottomans, reinstalled the Safavids on the throne, and negotiated Russian withdrawal from Iran's Caucasian territories, with the Treaty of Resht and Treaty of Ganja. By 1736, Nader had become so powerful he was able to depose the Safavids and have himself crowned shah. Nader was one of the last great conquerors of Asia and briefly presided over what was probably the most powerful empire in the world. To financially support his wars against Persia's arch-rival, the Ottoman Empire, he fixed his sights on the weak but rich Mughal Empire to the east. In 1739, accompanied by his loyal Caucasian subjects including Erekle II,[124][125]: 55 he invaded Mughal India, defeated a numerically superior Mughal army in less than three hours, and completely sacked and looted Delhi, bringing back immense wealth to Persia. On his way back, he also conquered all the Uzbek khanates – except for Kokand – and made the Uzbeks his vassals. He also firmly re-established Persian rule over the entire Caucasus, Bahrain, as well as large parts of Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Undefeated for years, his defeat in Dagestan, following guerrilla rebellions by the Lezgins and the assassination attempt on him near Mazandaran is often considered the turning point in Nader's impressive career. To his frustration, the Dagestanis resorted to guerrilla warfare, and Nader with his conventional army could make little headway against them.[126] At the Battle of Andalal and the Battle of Avaria, Nader's army was crushingly defeated and he lost half of his entire force, as well forcing him to flee for the mountains.[127][better source needed] Though Nader managed to take most of Dagestan during his campaign, the effective guerrilla warfare as deployed by the Lezgins, but also the Avars and Laks made the Iranian re-conquest of the particular North Caucasian region this time a short lived one; several years later, Nader was forced to withdraw. Around the same time, the assassination attempt was made on him near Mazandaran which accelerated the course of history; he slowly grew ill and megalomaniac, blinding his sons whom he suspected of the assassination attempts, and showing increasing cruelty against his subjects and officers. In his later years this eventually provoked multiple revolts and, ultimately, Nader's assassination in 1747.[128]
Nader's death was followed by a period of anarchy in Iran as rival army commanders fought for power. Nader's own family, the Afsharids, were soon reduced to holding on to a small domain in Khorasan. Many of the Caucasian territories broke away in various Caucasian khanates. Ottomans regained lost territories in Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Oman and the Uzbek khanates of Bukhara and Khiva regained independence. Ahmad Shah Durrani, one of Nader's officers, founded an independent state which eventually became modern Afghanistan. Erekle II and Teimuraz II, who, in 1744, had been made the kings of Kakheti and Kartli respectively by Nader himself for their loyal service,[125]: 55 capitalized on the eruption of instability, and declared de facto independence. Erekle II assumed control over Kartli after Teimuraz II's death, thus unifying the two as the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, becoming the first Georgian ruler in three centuries to preside over a politically unified eastern Georgia,[129] and due to the frantic turn of events in mainland Iran he would be able to remain de facto autonomous through the Zand period.[130] From his capital Shiraz, Karim Khan of the Zand dynasty ruled "an island of relative calm and peace in an otherwise bloody and destructive period,"[131] however the extent of Zand power was confined to contemporary Iran and parts of the Caucasus. Karim Khan's death in 1779 led to yet another civil war in which the Qajar dynasty eventually triumphed and became kings of Iran. During the civil war, Iran permanently lost Basra in 1779 to the Ottomans, which had been captured during the Ottoman–Persian War (1775–76),[132] and Bahrain to Al Khalifa family after Bani Utbah invasion in 1783.[citation needed]
Agha Mohammad Khan emerged victorious out of the civil war that commenced with the death of the last Zand king. His reign is noted for the reemergence of a centrally led and united Iran. After the death of Nader Shah and the last of the Zands, most of Iran's Caucasian territories had broken away into various Caucasian khanates. Agha Mohammad Khan, like the Safavid kings and Nader Shah before him, viewed the region as no different from the territories in mainland Iran. Therefore, his first objective after having secured mainland Iran, was to reincorpate the Caucasus region into Iran.[133] Georgia was seen as one of the most integral territories.[130] For Agha Mohammad Khan, the resubjugation and reintegration of Georgia into the Iranian Empire was part of the same process that had brought Shiraz, Isfahan, and Tabriz under his rule.[130] As the Cambridge History of Iran states, its permanent secession was inconceivable and had to be resisted in the same way as one would resist an attempt at the separation of Fars or Gilan.[130] It was therefore natural for Agha Mohammad Khan to perform whatever necessary means in the Caucasus in order to subdue and reincorporate the recently lost regions following Nader Shah's death and the demise of the Zands, including putting down what in Iranian eyes was seen as treason on the part of the wali (viceroy) of Georgia, namely the Georgian king Erekle II (Heraclius II) who was appointed viceroy of Georgia by Nader Shah himself.[130]
Agha Mohammad Khan subsequently demanded that Heraclius II renounce its 1783 treaty with Russia, and to submit again to Persian suzerainty,[133] in return for peace and the security of his kingdom. The Ottomans, Iran's neighboring rival, recognized the latter's rights over Kartli and Kakheti for the first time in four centuries.[134] Heraclius appealed then to his theoretical protector, Empress Catherine II of Russia, pleading for at least 3,000 Russian troops,[134] but he was ignored, leaving Georgia to fend off the Persian threat alone.[135] Nevertheless, Heraclius II still rejected the Khan's ultimatum.[136] As a response, Agha Mohammad Khan invaded the Caucasus region after crossing the Aras river, and, while on his way to Georgia, he re-subjugated Iran's territories of the Erivan Khanate, Shirvan, Nakhchivan Khanate, Ganja khanate, Derbent Khanate, Baku khanate, Talysh Khanate, Shaki Khanate, Karabakh Khanate, which comprise modern-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, Dagestan, and Igdir. Having reached Georgia with his large army, he prevailed in the Battle of Krtsanisi, which resulted in the capture and sack of Tbilisi, as well as the effective resubjugation of Georgia.[137][138] Upon his return from his successful campaign in Tbilisi and in effective control over Georgia, together with some 15,000 Georgian captives that were moved back to mainland Iran,[135] Agha Mohammad was formally crowned Shah in 1796 in the Mughan plain, just as his predecessor Nader Shah was about sixty years earlier.
Agha Mohammad Shah was later assassinated while preparing a second expedition against Georgia in 1797 in Shusha[139] (now part of the Republic of Azerbaijan) and the seasoned king Heraclius died early in 1798. The reassertion of Iranian hegemony over Georgia did not last long; in 1799 the Russians marched into Tbilisi.[140] The Russians were already actively occupied with an expansionist policy towards its neighboring empires to its south, namely the Ottoman Empire and the successive Iranian kingdoms since the late 17th/early 18th century. The next two years following Russia's entrance into Tbilisi were a time of confusion, and the weakened and devastated Georgian kingdom, with its capital half in ruins, was easily absorbed by Russia in 1801.[135][136] As Iran could not permit or allow the cession of Transcaucasia and Dagestan, which had been an integral part of Iran for centuries,[141] this would lead directly to the wars of several years later, namely the Russo-Persian Wars of 1804-1813 and 1826–1828. The outcome of these two wars (in the Treaty of Gulistan and the Treaty of Turkmenchay, respectively) proved for the irrevocable forced cession and loss of what is now eastern Georgia, Dagestan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan to Imperial Russia.[142][137]
The area to the north of the river Aras, among which the territory of the contemporary republic of Azerbaijan, eastern Georgia, Dagestan, and Armenia were Iranian territory until they were occupied by Russia in the course of the 19th century.[143]
Following the official loss of vast territories in the Caucasus, major demographic shifts were bound to take place. Following the 1804–1814 war, but also per the 1826–1828 war which ceded the last territories, large migrations, so-called Caucasian Muhajirs, set off to migrate to mainland Iran. Some of these groups included the Ayrums, Qarapapaqs, Circassians, Shia Lezgins, and other Transcaucasian Muslims.[144]
After the Battle of Ganja of 1804 during the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813), many thousands of Ayrums and Qarapapaqs were settled in Tabriz. During the remaining part of the 1804–1813 war, as well as through the 1826–1828 war, a large number of the Ayrums and Qarapapaqs that were still remaining in newly conquered Russian territories were settled in and migrated to Solduz (in modern-day Iran's West Azerbaijan province).[145] As the Cambridge History of Iran states; "The steady encroachment of Russian troops along the frontier in the Caucasus, General Yermolov's brutal punitive expeditions and misgovernment, drove large numbers of Muslims, and even some Georgian Christians, into exile in Iran."[146]
From 1864 until the early 20th century, another mass expulsion took place of Caucasian Muslims as a result of the Russian victory in the Caucasian War. Others simply voluntarily refused to live under Christian Russian rule, and thus departed for Turkey or Iran. These migrations once again, towards Iran, included masses of Caucasian Azerbaijanis, other Transcaucasian Muslims, as well as many North Caucasian Muslims, such as Circassians, Shia Lezgins and Laks.[144][147]Many of these migrants would prove to play a pivotal role in further Iranian history, as they formed most of the ranks of the Persian Cossack Brigade, which was established in the late 19th century.[148] The initial ranks of the brigade would be entirely composed of Circassians and other Caucasian Muhajirs.[148] This brigade would prove decisive in the following decades in Qajar history.
Furthermore, the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay included the official rights for the Russian Empire to encourage settling of Armenians from Iran in the newly conquered Russian territories.[149][150] Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority in Eastern Armenia.[151] At the close of the fourteenth century, after Timur's campaigns, the Timurid Renaissance flourished, and Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became a minority in Eastern Armenia. [151] After centuries of constant warfare on the Armenian Plateau, many Armenians chose to emigrate and settle elsewhere. Following Shah Abbas I's massive relocation of Armenians and Muslims in 1604–05,[152] their numbers dwindled even further.
At the time of the Russian invasion of Iran, some 80% of the population of Iranian Armenia were Muslims (Persians, Turkics, and Kurds) whereas Christian Armenians constituted a minority of about 20%.[153] As a result of the Treaty of Gulistan (1813) and the Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828), Iran was forced to cede Iranian Armenia (which also constituted the present-day Armenia), to the Russians.[154][155] After the Russian administration took hold of Iranian Armenia, the ethnic make-up shifted, and thus for the first time in more than four centuries, ethnic Armenians started to form a majority once again in one part of historic Armenia.[156] The new Russian administration encouraged the settling of ethnic Armenians from Iran proper and Ottoman Turkey. As a result, by 1832, the number of ethnic Armenians had matched that of the Muslims.[153] It would be only after the Crimean War and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, which brought another influx of Turkish Armenians, that ethnic Armenians once again established a solid majority in Eastern Armenia.[157] Nevertheless, the city of Erivan retained a Muslim majority up to the twentieth century.[157] According to the traveller H. F. B. Lynch, the city of Erivan was about 50% Armenian and 50% Muslim (Tatars[a] i.e. Azeris and Persians) in the early 1890s.[160]
Fath Ali Shah's reign saw increased diplomatic contacts with the West and the beginning of intense European diplomatic rivalries over Iran. His grandson Mohammad Shah, who succeeded him in 1834, fell under the Russian influence and made two unsuccessful attempts to capture Herat. When Mohammad Shah died in 1848 the succession passed to his son Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, who proved to be the ablest and most successful of the Qajar sovereigns. He founded the first modern hospital in Iran.[161]
The Great Persian Famine of 1870–1871 is believed to have caused the death of two million people.[162]
A new era in the history of Persia dawned with the Persian Constitutional Revolution against the Shah in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Shah managed to remain in power, granting a limited constitution in 1906 (making the country a constitutional monarchy). The first Majlis (parliament) was convened on 7 October 1906.
The discovery of petroleum in 1908 by the British in Khuzestan spawned intense renewed interest in Persia by the British Empire (see William Knox D'Arcy and Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, now BP). Control of Persia remained contested between the United Kingdom and Russia, in what became known as The Great Game, and codified in the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, which divided Persia into spheres of influence, regardless of her national sovereignty.
During World War I, the country was occupied by British, Ottoman and Russian forces but was essentially neutral (see Persian Campaign). In 1919, after the Russian Revolution and their withdrawal, Britain attempted to establish a protectorate in Persia, which was unsuccessful.
Finally, the Constitutionalist movement of Gilan and the central power vacuum caused by the instability of the Qajar government resulted in the rise of Reza Khan, who was later to become Reza Shah Pahlavi, and the subsequent establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1925. In 1921, a military coup established Reza Khan, an officer of the Persian Cossack Brigade, as the dominant figure for the next 20 years. Seyyed Zia'eddin Tabatabai was also a leader and important figure in the perpetration of the coup. The coup was not actually directed at the Qajar monarchy; according to Encyclopædia Iranica, it was targeted at officials who were in power and actually had a role in controlling the government — the cabinet and others who had a role in governing Persia.[163] In 1925, after being prime minister for two years, Reza Khan became the first shah of the Pahlavi dynasty.
Reza Shah ruled for almost 16 years until 16 September 1941, when he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. He established an authoritarian government that valued nationalism, militarism, secularism and anti-communism combined with strict censorship and state propaganda.[164] Reza Shah introduced many socio-economic reforms, reorganizing the army, government administration, and finances.[165]
To his supporters, his reign brought "law and order, discipline, central authority, and modern amenities – schools, trains, buses, radios, cinemas, and telephones".[166] However, his attempts of modernisation have been criticised for being "too fast"[167] and "superficial",[168] and his reign a time of "oppression, corruption, taxation, lack of authenticity" with "security typical of police states."[166]
Many of the new laws and regulations created resentment among devout Muslims and the clergy. For example, mosques were required to use chairs; most men were required to wear western clothing, including a hat with a brim; women were encouraged to discard the hijab—hijab was eventually banned in 1936; men and women were allowed to congregate freely, violating Islamic mixing of the sexes. Tensions boiled over in 1935, when bazaaris and villagers rose up in rebellion at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad to protest against plans for the hijab ban, chanting slogans such as 'The Shah is a new Yezid.' Dozens were killed and hundreds were injured when troops finally quelled the unrest.[169]
While German armies were highly successful against the Soviet Union, the Iranian government expected Germany to win the war and establish a powerful force on its borders. It rejected British and Soviet demands to expel German residents from Iran. In response, the two Allies invaded in August 1941 and easily overwhelmed the weak Iranian army in Operation Countenance. Iran became the major conduit of Allied Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union. The purpose was to secure Iranian oil fields and ensure Allied supply lines (see Persian Corridor). Iran remained officially neutral. Its monarch Rezā Shāh was deposed during the subsequent occupation and replaced with his young son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.[170]
At the Tehran Conference of 1943, the Allies issued the Tehran Declaration which guaranteed the post-war independence and boundaries of Iran. However, when the war actually ended, Soviet troops stationed in northwestern Iran not only refused to withdraw but backed revolts that established short-lived, pro-Soviet separatist national states in the northern regions of Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan, the Azerbaijan People's Government and the Republic of Kurdistan respectively, in late 1945. Soviet troops did not withdraw from Iran proper until May 1946 after receiving a promise of oil concessions. The Soviet republics in the north were soon overthrown and the oil concessions were revoked.[171][172]
Initially there were hopes that post-occupation Iran could become a constitutional monarchy. The new, young Shah Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi initially took a very hands-off role in government, and allowed parliament to hold a lot of power. Some elections were held in the first shaky years, although they remained mired in corruption. Parliament became chronically unstable, and from the 1947 to 1951 period Iran saw the rise and fall of six different prime ministers. Pahlavi increased his political power by convening the Iran Constituent Assembly, 1949, which finally formed the Senate of Iran—a legislative upper house allowed for in the 1906 constitution but never brought into being. The new senators were largely supportive of Pahlavi, as he had intended.
In 1951 Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq received the vote required from the parliament to nationalize the British-owned oil industry, in a situation known as the Abadan Crisis. Despite British pressure, including an economic blockade, the nationalization continued. Mosaddeq was briefly removed from power in 1952 but was quickly re-appointed by the Shah, due to a popular uprising in support of the premier, and he, in turn, forced the Shah into a brief exile in August 1953 after a failed military coup by Imperial Guard Colonel Nematollah Nassiri.
Shortly thereafter on 19 August a successful coup was headed by retired army general Fazlollah Zahedi, aided by the United States (CIA)[173] with the active support of the British (MI6) (known as Operation Ajax and Operation Boot to the respective agencies).[174] The coup—with a black propaganda campaign designed to turn the population against Mosaddeq [175] — forced Mosaddeq from office. Mosaddeq was arrested and tried for treason. Found guilty, his sentence was reduced to house arrest on his family estate while his foreign minister, Hossein Fatemi, was executed. Zahedi succeeded him as prime minister, and suppressed opposition to the Shah, specifically the National Front and Communist Tudeh Party.
Iran was ruled as an autocracy under the Shah with American support from that time until the revolution. The Iranian government entered into agreement with an international consortium of foreign companies which ran the Iranian oil facilities for the next 25 years, splitting profits fifty-fifty with Iran but not allowing Iran to audit their accounts or have members on their board of directors. In 1957 martial law was ended after 16 years and Iran became closer to the West, joining the Baghdad Pact and receiving military and economic aid from the US. In 1961, Iran initiated a series of economic, social, agrarian and administrative reforms to modernize the country that became known as the Shah's White Revolution.
The core of this program was land reform. Modernization and economic growth proceeded at an unprecedented rate, fueled by Iran's vast petroleum reserves, the third-largest in the world. However, the reforms, including the White Revolution, did not greatly improve economic conditions and the liberal pro-Western policies alienated certain Islamic religious and political groups. In early June 1963 several days of massive rioting occurred in support of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini following the cleric's arrest for a speech attacking the Shah.
Two years later, premier Hassan Ali Mansur was assassinated and the internal security service, SAVAK, became more violently active. In the 1970s, leftist guerilla groups such as Mujaheddin-e-Khalq (MEK), emerged and contributed to overthrowing the Shah during the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Nearly a hundred Iran political prisoners were killed by the SAVAK during the decade before the revolution and many more were arrested and tortured.[176] The Islamic clergy, headed by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (who had been exiled in 1964), were becoming increasingly vociferous.
Iran greatly increased its defense budget and by the early 1970s was the region's strongest military power. Bilateral relations with Iraq were not good, mainly due to a dispute over the Shatt al-Arab waterway. In November 1971, Iranian forces seized control of three islands at the mouth of the Persian Gulf; in response, Iraq expelled thousands of Iranian nationals. Following a number of clashes in April 1969, Iran abrogated the 1937 accord and demanded a renegotiation.
In mid-1973, the Shah returned the oil industry to national control. Following the Arab-Israeli War of October 1973, Iran did not join the Arab oil embargo against the West and Israel. Instead, it used the situation to raise oil prices, using the money gained for modernization and to increase defense spending.
A border dispute between Iraq and Iran was resolved with the signing of the Algiers Accord on 6 March 1975.
The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution,[177] was the revolution that transformed Iran from an absolute monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, one of the leaders of the revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic.[9] Its time span can be said to have begun in January 1978 with the first major demonstrations,[178] and concluded with the approval of the new theocratic Constitution—whereby Ayatollah Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country—in December 1979.[179]
In between, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left the country for exile in January 1979 after strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country, and on 1 February 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran.[179] The final collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty occurred shortly after on 11 February when Iran's military declared itself "neutral" after guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting. Iran officially became an Islamic Republic on 1 April 1979, after Iranians overwhelmingly approved a national referendum to make it so a day before.[180]
The ideology of the revolutionary government was populist, nationalist and most of all Shi'a Islamic. Its unique constitution is based on the concept of velayat-e faqih the idea advanced by Khomeini that Muslims – in fact everyone – requires "guardianship", in the form of rule or supervision by the leading Islamic jurist or jurists.[181] Khomeini served as this ruling jurist, or supreme leader, until his death in 1989.
Iran's rapidly modernising, capitalist economy was replaced by populist and Islamic economic and cultural policies. Much industry was nationalized, laws and schools Islamicized, and Western influences banned.
The Islamic revolution also created great impact around the world. In the non-Muslim world it has changed the image of Islam, generating much interest in the politics and spirituality of Islam,[182] along with "fear and distrust towards Islam" and particularly the Islamic Republic and its founder.[183]
Khomeini served as leader of the revolution or as Supreme Leader of Iran from 1979 to his death on 3 June 1989. This era was dominated by the consolidation of the revolution into a theocratic republic under Khomeini, and by the costly and bloody war with Iraq.
The consolidation lasted until 1982–3,[184][185] as Iran coped with the damage to its economy, military, and apparatus of government, and protests and uprisings by secularists, leftists, and more traditional Muslims—formerly ally revolutionaries but now rivals—were effectively suppressed. Many political opponents were executed by the new regimes. Following the events of the revolution, Marxist guerrillas and federalist parties revolted in regions comprising Khuzistan, Kurdistan and Gonbad-e Qabus, resulting in severe fighting between rebels and revolutionary forces. These revolts began in April 1979 and lasted between several months to over a year, depending on the region. The Kurdish uprising, led by the KDPI, was the most violent, lasting until 1983 and resulting in 10,000 casualties.
In the summer of 1979 a new constitution giving Khomeini a powerful post as guardian jurist Supreme Leader[186] and a clerical Council of Guardians power over legislation and elections, was drawn up by an Assembly of Experts for Constitution. The new constitution was approved by referendum in December 1979.
An early event in the history of the Islamic republic that had a long-term impact was the Iran hostage crisis. Following the admitting of the former Shah of Iran into the United States for cancer treatment, on 4 November 1979, Iranian students seized US embassy personnel, labeling the embassy a "den of spies."[187] Fifty-two hostages were held for 444 days until January 1981.[188] An American military attempt to rescue the hostages failed.[189]
The takeover was enormously popular in Iran, where thousands gathered in support of the hostage takers, and it is thought to have strengthened the prestige of the Ayatollah Khomeini and consolidated the hold of anti-Americanism. It was at this time that Khomeini began referring to America as the "Great Satan." In America, where it was considered a violation of the long-standing principle of international law that diplomats may be expelled but not held captive, it created a powerful anti-Iranian backlash. Relations between the two countries have remained deeply antagonistic and American international sanctions have hurt Iran's economy.[190]
During this political and social crisis, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein attempted to take advantage of the disorder of the Revolution, the weakness of the Iranian military and the revolution's antagonism with Western governments. The once-strong Iranian military had been disbanded during the revolution, and with the Shah ousted, Hussein had ambitions to position himself as the new strong man of the Middle East. He sought to expand Iraq's access to the Persian Gulf by acquiring territories that Iraq had claimed earlier from Iran during the Shah's rule.
Of chief importance to Iraq was Khuzestan which not only boasted a substantial Arab population, but rich oil fields as well. On the unilateral behalf of the United Arab Emirates, the islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs became objectives as well. With these ambitions in mind, Hussein planned a full-scale assault on Iran, boasting that his forces could reach the capital within three days. On 22 September 1980, the Iraqi army invaded Iran at Khuzestan, precipitating the Iran–Iraq War. The attack took revolutionary Iran completely by surprise.
Although Saddam Hussein's forces made several early advances, Iranian forces had pushed the Iraqi army back into Iraq by 1982. Khomeini sought to export his Islamic revolution westward into Iraq, especially on the majority Shi'a Arabs living in the country. The war then continued for six more years until 1988, when Khomeini, in his words, "drank the cup of poison" and accepted a truce mediated by the United Nations.
Tens of thousands of Iranian civilians and military personnel were killed when Iraq used chemical weapons in its warfare. Iraq was financially backed by Egypt, the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact states, the United States (beginning in 1983), France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, and the People's Republic of China (which also sold weapons to Iran).
There were more than 182,000 Kurdish victims[191] of Iraq's chemical weapons during the eight-year war. The total Iranian casualties of the war were estimated to be between 500,000 and 1,000,000. Almost all relevant international agencies have confirmed that Saddam engaged in chemical warfare to blunt Iranian human wave attacks; these agencies unanimously confirmed that Iran never used chemical weapons during the war.[192][193][194][195]
Starting on 19 July 1988 and lasting for about five months the government systematically executed thousands of political prisoners across Iran. This is commonly referred to as the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners or the 1988 Iranian Massacre. The main target was the membership of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), although a lesser number of political prisoners from other leftist groups were also included such as the Tudeh Party of Iran (Communist Party).[196][197] Estimates of the number executed vary from 1,400[198] to 30,000.[199][200]
On his deathbed in 1989, Khomeini appointed a 25-man Constitutional Reform Council which named then president Ali Khamenei as the next Supreme Leader, and made a number of changes to Iran's constitution.[201] A smooth transition followed Khomeini's death on 3 June 1989. While Khamenei lacked Khomeini's "charisma and clerical standing", he developed a network of supporters within Iran's armed forces and its economically powerful religious foundations.[202] Under his reign Iran's regime is said – by at least one observer – to resemble more "a clerical oligarchy ... than an autocracy."[202]
Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani succeeded Khamenei as president on 3 August 1989, as a pragmatic conservative who served two four-year terms and focused his efforts on rebuilding the country's economy and infrastructure damaged by war, though hampered by low oil prices. Rafsanjani sought to restore confidence in the government among the general population by privatizing the companies that had been nationalized in the first few years of the Islamic Republic, as well as by bringing in qualified technocrats to manage the economy. The state of their economy also influenced the government to move towards ending their diplomatic isolation. This was achieved through the reestablishment of normalized relations with neighbors such as Saudi Arabia and an attempt to improve its reputation in the region with assertions that its revolution was not exportable to other states.[203] During the Persian Gulf War in 1991 the country remained neutral, restricting its action to the condemnation of the U.S. and allowing fleeing Iraqi aircraft and refugees into the country.[citation needed]
Iran in the 1990s had a greater secular behavior and admiration for Western popular culture than in the previous decades. This admiration had become a way in which the urban population expressed their resentment at the invasive Islamic policies of the government.[204] The pressures from the population placed on the new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led to an uneasy alliance between him and President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Through this alliance they attempted to hinder the ulama's ability to gain further control of the state. In 1989, they created a sequence of constitutional amendments that removed the office of prime minister and increased the scope of presidential power. However, these new amendments did not curtail the powers of the Supreme Leader of Iran in any way; this position still contained the ultimate authority over the armed forces, the making of war and peace, the final say in foreign policy, and the right to intervene in the legislative process whenever he deemed it necessary.[204]
President Rafsanjani's economic policies led to stronger relations with the outside world. But his government's relaxation of the enforcement of certain regulations on social behavior were met with some responses of widespread disenchantment among the general population with the ulama as rulers of the country.[204] This led to the defeat of the government's candidate for president in 1997, who had the backing of the supreme Islamic jurist. He was beaten by an independent candidate from the Reformists, Mohammad Khatami. He received 69% of the vote and enjoyed particular support from two groups of the population that had felt ostracized by the practices of the state: women and youth. The younger generations in the country had been too young to experience the shah's regime or the revolution that ended it, and now they resented the restrictions placed on their daily lives under the Islamic Republic. Mohammad Khatami's presidency was soon marked by tensions between the reform-minded government and an increasingly conservative and vocal clergy. This rift reached a climax in July 1999 when massive anti-government protests erupted in the streets of Tehran. The disturbances lasted over a week before police and pro-government vigilantes dispersed the crowds.
Khatami was re-elected in June 2001 but his efforts were repeatedly blocked by the conservatives in the parliament. Conservative elements within Iran's government moved to undermine the reformist movement, banning liberal newspapers and disqualifying candidates for parliamentary elections. This clampdown on dissent, combined with the failure of Khatami to reform the government, led to growing political apathy among Iran's youth.
In June 2003, anti-government protests by several thousand students took place in Tehran.[205][206] Several human rights protests also occurred in 2006.
In the 2005 Iranian presidential election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, mayor of Tehran, became the sixth president of Iran, after winning 62 percent of the vote in the run-off poll, against former president Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.[207] During the authorization ceremony he kissed Khamenei's hand in demonstration of his loyalty to him.[208][209]
During this time, the American invasion of Iraq, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime and empowerment of its Shi'a majority, all strengthened Iran's position in the region particularly in the mainly Shi'a south of Iraq, where a top Shia leader in the week of 3 September 2006 renewed demands for an autonomous Shi'a region.[210] At least one commentator (former U.S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen) has stated that as of 2009 Iran's growing power has eclipsed anti-Zionism as the major foreign policy issue in the Middle East.[211]
During 2005 and 2006, there were claims that the United States and Israel were planning to attack Iran, with the most cited reason being Iran's civilian nuclear energy program which the United States and some other states fear could lead to a nuclear weapons program. China and Russia opposed military action of any sort and opposed economic sanctions. Khamenei issued a fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons. The fatwa was cited in an official statement by the Iranian government at an August 2005 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.[212][213]
In 2009, Ahmadinejad's reelection was hotly disputed and marred by large protests that formed the "greatest domestic challenge" to the leadership of the Islamic Republic "in 30 years". The resulting social unrest is widely known as the Iranian Green Movement.[214] Reformist opponent Mir-Hossein Mousavi and his supporters alleged voting irregularities and by 1 July 2009, 1000 people had been arrested and 20 killed in street demonstrations.[215] Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other Islamic officials blamed foreign powers for fomenting the protest.[216]
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On 15 June 2013, Hassan Rouhani won the presidential election in Iran, with a total number of 36,704,156 ballots cast; Rouhani won 18,613,329 votes. In his press conference one day after election day, Rouhani reiterated his promise to recalibrate Iran's relations with the world.[217]
On 2 April 2015, following eight days of tortuous discussions in Switzerland, which lasted through the night, Iran and six world powers (United States, United Kingdom, France, China and Russia plus Germany) agreed on the outlines of an understanding to limit Iran's nuclear programs, negotiators indicated, as both sides prepared for announcements. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted: "Found solutions. Ready to start drafting immediately." European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini tweeted that she would meet the press with Zarif after a final meeting of the seven nations in the nuclear talks. She wrote: "Good news."
Reading out a joint statement, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini hailed what she called a "decisive step" after more than a decade of work. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif followed with the same statement in Persian. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the top diplomats of Britain, France and Germany also briefly took the stage behind them. The deal is intended to be a provisional framework for a comprehensive agreement and was signed in 2015, and marked a significant breakthrough in the 12-year history of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme.[218]
When Donald Trump was campaigning to become President of the US, he repeatedly said he would abandon the Iran nuclear deal. After he was elected president, the USA announced its withdrawal from the agreement on 8 May 2018.[219]
The Iranian-backed group known as Kataib Hezbollah attacked the United States embassy in Baghdad on 31 December 2019.[220]
On 3 January 2020, the United States military executed a drone strike at Baghdad Airport, killing Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Quds Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.[221]
On 3 August 2021 Ebrahim Raisi was elected 8th President of Iran.[222]
Beginning on 16 September 2022 protests started against the government of Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini.[223][224][225]
On 1 April 2024, Israel's air strike on an Iranian consulate building in the Syrian capital Damascus killed an important senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi.[226] In retaliation for the Israeli strike, Iran attacked Israel with over 300 drones and missiles on 13 April. However, the Iranian attack was mainly intercepted either outside Israeli airspace or over the country itself. It was the biggest missile attack in Iranian history, and its first ever direct attack on Israel.[227] It was followed by a retaliatory missile strike by Israel on Isfahan, Iran on 19 April.[228]
On 19 May 2024, Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in the country’s East Azerbaijan province.[229] First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber was appointed acting president after the death of President Raisi.[230]
On 28 July 2024, Masoud Pezeshkian was formally endorsed as Iran's new president by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pezeshkian, a reformist, won in a presidential election runoff on 5 July.[231]
On 31 July 2024, Ismail Haniyeh, political chief of Palestinian political and military organisation Hamas, was assassinated in Iran’s capital, Tehran, where he was to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian.[232]
._Portrait_of_Fath_'Ali_Shah_Qajar,_1815.jpg/1280px-Mihr_'Ali_(Iranian,_active_ca._1800-1830)._Portrait_of_Fath_'Ali_Shah_Qajar,_1815.jpg)
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)Chinggis Khan organized a unit of Chinese catapult specialists in 1214, and these men formed part of the first Mongol army to invade Transoxania in 1219. This was not too early for true firearms, and it was nearly two centuries after catapult-thrown gunpowder bombs had been added to the Chinese arsenal. Chinese siege equipment saw action in Transoxania in 1220 and in the north Caucasus in 1239–40.
Though he was himself a Chinese, he learned his trade from his father, who had accompanied Genghis Khan on his invasion of Muslim Transoxania and Iran. Perhaps the use of gunpowder as a propellant, in other words the invention of true guns, appeared first in the Muslim Middle East, whereas the invention of gunpowder itself was a Chinese achievement
During the 1250s, the Mongols invaded Iran with 'whole regiments' of Chinese engineers operating trebuchets (catapults) throwing gunpowder bombs. Their progress was rapid and devastating until, after the sack of Baghdad in 1258, they entered Syria. There they met an Islamic army similarly equipped and experienced their first defeat. In 1291, the same sort of weapon was used during the siege of Acre, when the European Crusaders were expelled form Palestine.
Indeed, it is possible that gunpowder devices, including Chinese mortar (huochong), had reached Central Asia through the Mongols as early as the thirteenth century.71 Yet the potential remained unexploited; even Sultan Husayn's use of cannon may have had Ottoman inspiration.
The presence of these individuals in China in the 1270s, and the deployment of Chinese engineers in Iran, mean that there were several routes by which information about gunpowder weapons could pass from the Islamic world to China, or vice versa. Thus when two authors from the eastern Mediterranean region wrote books about gunpowder weapons around the year 1280, it is not surprising that they described bombs, rockets and fire-lances very similar to some types of Chinese weaponry.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{citation}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)Agha Muhammad Khan remained nine days in the vicinity of Tiflis. His victory proclaimed the restoration of Iranian military power in the region formerly under Safavid domination.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Andreeva, Elena (2010). Russia and Iran in the great game: travelogues and orientalism (reprint ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-415-78153-4. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2020.Çiçek, Kemal, Kuran, Ercüment (2000). The Great Ottoman-Turkish Civilisation. University of Michigan. ISBN 978-975-6782-18-7. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Ernest Meyer, Karl, Blair Brysac, Shareen (2006). Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia. Basic Books. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-465-04576-1. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)