I am so lazy to type a thousand words from my personal books and yara yara..so i just copy & pasted a general view of the last few decades of sassanid times.short form : A 17 year old teenage king who was the last sassanid blood child who survived the purge of 10 year terror after khosrow,s death.yazdgirdIII was the 1st Sassanid king (according to will Durant in his age of faith book) with mixed aryan & persian blood(her mom was a roman negress slave whom Khosrow captured in his conquest of Jerusalem)….Arab came and nomadic Iranains died fighting or left…Those who left:
sarmatians:(their exodus started a century prior but expedited by Arab Invasion)—->moved to Ukrain, hungary and finally serbo croatian land and eastern burgandy in France
Scythians: saka ,Dahai, sag zian or “red headed devils” according to herodotus…the last of original tribes fought along side YazdgirdIII in nahavand against Arabs but infighting during the battle between tribal leaders caused them to kill more of eachothers than arabs according to H.G Wells “outlines of history”…the last remnants migrated in around late 660AD to todays Ossetia and Ukraine to join their kinzmen already there.
Iberians:close kinzmen to Alans who migrated 2 centuries earlier to Gauls & frankish lands in Central Europe…fought along side Azaris for half century against Khalifs Armies ..Disapeared from the Astara/western Caspean for good after 700AD..some unconfirmed accounts claime them to be forfathers of todays people of Bask in spain…
parsis of Sakestan aka sistan(province of imprisoned scythians) left to Kushan India and got absorbed into Indian society…
Those who stayed:those who got screwed lol..azaris,persians,Lurs,Gilaks,Baluchis,Kurds,
The Arab conquest of Persia (633–656) led to the end of the Sassanid Empire and the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. However, the achievements of the previous Persian civilizations were not lost, but were to a great extent absorbed by the new Islamic polity.
Most Muslim historians have long offered the idea that Persia, on the verge of the Arab invasion, was a society in decline and decay and thus it embraced the invading Arab armies with open arms. This view is not widely accepted however. Some authors have for example used mostly Arab sources to illustrate that “contrary to the claims , Iranians in fact fought long and hard against the invading Arabs. This view further more holds that once politically conquered, the Persians began engaging in a culture war of resistance and succeeded in forcing their own ways on the victorious Arabs.
As Bernard Lewis has quoted
“These events have been variously seen in Iran: by some as a blessing, the advent of the true faith, the end of the age of ignorance and heathenism; by others as a humiliating national defeat, the conquest and subjugation of the country by foreign invaders. Both perceptions are of course valid, depending on one’s angle of vision”
Since the 1st century BC, the border between the Roman (later Byzantine) and Parthian (later Sassanid dynastic) empires had been the Euphrates river. The border was constantly contested. Most battles, and thus most fortifications, were concentrated in the hilly regions of the north, as the vast Arabian or Syrian Desert (Roman Arabia) separated the rival empires in the south. The only dangers expected from the south were occasional raids by nomadic Arab tribesmen. Both empires therefore allied themselves with small, semi-independent Arab principalities, which served as buffer states and protected Byzantium and Persia from Bedouin attacks. The Byzantine clients were the Ghassanids; the Persian clients were the Lakhmids. The Ghassanids and Lakhmids feuded constantly — which kept them occupied, but did not greatly affect the Byzantines or Persians.
In the 6th and 7th centuries, various factors destroyed the balance of power that had held for so many centuries.
Balance Between Persia and Byzantium Swings Wildly
See also: Fall of Sassanid dynasty
The Persian ruler Khusrau II (Parviz) defeated a dangerous rebellion within his own empire (the Bahram Chobin’s rebellion). He afterwards turned his energies outwards, upon the traditional Byzantine enemies in the Roman-Persian Wars. For a few years, he succeeded gloriously. From 612 to 622, he extended the Persian borders almost to the same extent that they were under the Achaemenid dynasty (550–330 BC), capturing cities of Antioch, Damascus, Alexandria, and Jerusalem.
The Byzantines regrouped and pushed back in 622 under Heraclius. Khusrau was defeated at the Battle of Nineveh in 627, and the Byzantines recaptured all of Syria and penetrated far into the Persian provinces of Mesopotamia. In 629, Khusrau’s son agreed to peace, and the border between the two empires was once again the same as it was in 602.
Assassination of Khusrau II and a Succession of Weak Rulers
Khusrau II was assassinated in 628 and as a result, there were numerous claimants to the throne; from 628 to 632 there were ten kings and queens of Persia. The last, Yazdegerd III, was a grandson of Khusrau II and was said to be a mere child.
The Lakhmids also revolted against the Persian king Khusrau II. Al-Noman III (son of Al-Monder IV), the first Christian Lakhmid king, was deposed and killed by Khusrau II, because of his attempt to throw off the Persian tutelage. After Khusrau’s assassination, the Persian Empire fractured and the Lakhmids were effectively semi-independent.
It is tenale that weakening the Lakhmids and the Ghassanids bulwark contributed to the consequent Arab-Muslim breakthrough into what is today known as Iraq and Jordan
The collapse of the Sassanid polity after the death of Khusrau II left the Persians in a weak position vis-a-vis Arab invaders. At first the Muslims merely attempted to consolidate their rule over the fringes of the desert and the Lakhmid Arabs. The border town of Hira fell to the Muslims in 633. The Sassanids had reorganized under a new king, Yazdegerd III.
The main military commander of the Muslims, Khalid ibn al-Walid, was able to conquer most of Mesopotamia (Iraq) from the Persians in a span of nine months, from April 633 until January 634, after a series of battles. The following are some of the most significant battles fought between the Muslim Arabs and the Persians in Mesopotamia.
Battle of Walaja
The Battle of Walaja was a battle fought in Mesopotamia (Iraq) on May 633 between the Muslim Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid against the Persian Empire and its Arab allies. The strength of the Persian army at the battle was 70,000 compared to 18,000 for the Arabs.
Khalid decisively defeated the Persian forces using a variation of the double envelopment tactical manoeuvre, similar to the manoeuvre Hannibal used to defeat the Roman forces at the Battle of Cannae, though Khalid developed his version independently.
Battle of Firaz
Khalid defeated the combined forces of the Persian Empire, Byzantine Empire and Christian Arabs at the Battle of Firaz. The result of the battle was a decisive victory for Khalid, which led to most of Mesopotamia being annexed by the Muslims.
After this victory, Khalid left Mesopotamia to lead another campaign at Syria against the Roman Empire, after which Mithna ibn Haris took command in Mesopotamia.
Battle of the Bridge
The Sassanids mounted a counterattack under Bahman Jadu, who led 10,000 Persians against 9,000 Arabs. The Persians won a major victory at the Battle of the Bridge against the Muslims in October 634, in which Abu Ubaid was killed in battle. The Persians lost 600 men, and the Arabs more than 4,000.
After a decisive Muslim victory against the Romans in Syria at the Battle of Yarmuk in 636, the second caliph, Umar, was able to transfer forces to the east and resume the offensive against the Sassanids.
The Battle of al-Qādisiyyah Main article: Battle of al-Qādisiyyah
This was the decisive engagement that sealed the fate of the Sassanid empire. Around the year 636, Rostam Farrokhzād, advisor and general for Yazdegerd III (r. 632–51) led an army said to number 90,000 men across the Euphrates River to al-Qādisiyyah, near the present-day city of Hilla in Iraq. Some have criticised him for this decision to face the Arabs on their own ground — on the fringes of the desert — and surmised that the Persians could have held their own if they had stayed on the opposite bank of the Euphrates.
The Caliph Umar dispatched 36,000 men under the command of Sa`d ibn Abī Waqqās against the Persian army. The Battle of al-Qādisiyyah followed, with the Persians prevailing at first, but on the third day of fighting, the Muslims gained the upper hand. The Persian general Rostam Farrokhzād was caught and beheaded. According to some sources, the Persian losses were 20,000, and the Arabs lost 8,500 men.
Following the Battle, the Arab Muslim armies pushed forward toward the Persian capital of Ctesiphon (also called Al-Mada’in in Arabic), which was quickly evacuated by Yazdgird after a brief siege. After seizing the city, they continued their drive eastwards, following Yazdgird and his remaining troops. Within a short space of time, the Arab armies defeated a major Sāsānian counter-attack in the Battle of Jalūlā’, as well as other engagements at Qasr-e Shirin, and Masabadhan. By the mid-7th Century, the Arabs controlled all of Mesopotamia, including the area that is now the Iranian province of Khuzestan.
Conquest of the Iranian Plateau
It is said that the caliph Umar did not wish to send his troops through the Zagros mountains and onto the Iranian plateau. One tradition has it that he wished for a “wall of fire” to keep the Arabs and Persians apart. Later commentators explain this as a common-sense precaution against over-extension of his forces. The Arabs had only recently conquered large territories that still had to be garrisoned and administered.
Battle of Nahavand
Names of territories during the Caliphate
Umar’s generals and warriors pushed for further action. They argued that Yazdegerd III could again become a threat if he were left undisturbed while raising more troops. The continued existence of the Persian government was an incitement to revolt in the conquered territories. Finally, those Arabs who felt slighted in the distribution of land and booty from the Mesopotamian conquests pushed for further raids.
Umar relented. Arab raiding parties passed over the Zagros mountains separating Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau.
Yazdegerd, the Sassanid king, made yet another effort to regroup and defeat the invaders. By 641 he had raised a new force, which took a stand at Nihavand, some forty miles south of Hamadan in modern Iran. Al-Nu’man ibn Muqarrin al-Muzani and his cavalry attacked and again defeated the Persian forces. Muslims recognized it as the Victory of victories (Fath alfotuh).
End of the Sassanids
Yazdegerd was unable to raise another army and became a hunted fugitive. He fled from one district to another until a local miller killed him for his purse at Merv in 651. The Islamic forces established a garrison town at Merv. By 656, they had already conquered Greater Khorasan (which included the cities Merv and Balkh, with the center or capital being the city of Herat). For many decades to come, this was the easternmost limit of complete Muslim rule.
According to Tarikh-i Bukhara “The residents of Bukhara became Muslims. But they renounced [Islam] each time the Arabs turned back. Qutayba b. Muslim made them Muslim three times, [but] they renounced [Islam] again and became nonbelievers. The fourth time, Qutayba waged war, seized the city, and established Islam after considerable strife….They espoused Islam overtly but practiced idolatry in secret.”
During the reign of the Ummayad dynasty, the Arab conquerors imposed Arabic as the primary language of the subject peoples throughout their empire, displacing their indigenous languages. However, Middle Persian proved to be much more enduring. Most of the structure and vocabulary survived, evolving into the modern Persian language. However, Persian did incorporate a certain amount o Arabic vocabulary, especially as pertains to religion, as well as switching from the Pahlavi Aramaic alphabet to a modified version of the Arabic alphabet
