Islamization of Iran

The Islamization of Iran occurred as a result of the Muslim conquest of Persia. It was a long process by which Islam, though long rejected, was gradually accepted by the majority of the population. On the other hand, Iranians have maintained certain pre-Islamic traditions, including language and culture, and adapted them with Islamic codes. Finally these two customs and traditions merged as the "Iranian Islamic" identity.

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", contributed to Persia emerging as what culminated into the "Islamic Golden Age".

After the Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire, during the 90-year long reign of the Ummayad dynasty, the Arab conquerors tried to impose Arabic as the primary language of the subject peoples throughout their empire. Hajjāj ibn Yusuf was not happy with the prevalence of the Persian language in the divan, ordered the official language of the conquered lands to be replaced by Arabic, sometimes by force.

Accounts of violent suppression of Persian culture under the Ummayads emerge two or three centuries their fall, in the writings of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani and Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī.

However after the reign of the Umayyads, Iran and its society in particular experienced reigning dynasties who legitimize Persian languages and customs, while still encouraging Islam. Moreover, there was close interaction between Persian and Arab leaders, particularly during the wake of the Samanids who promoted revived Persian more than the Buyids and the Saffarids, while continuing to patronize Arabic to a significant degree.

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