Persia and Islam: The History of the Islamic Empires that have Ruled Persia Since the Middle Ages

As the Persian Empire’s power makes clear, Persia has been a crucial area throughout history, and thus it has been fought over incessantly, watching empires rise and fall. For most of the past 1,400 years, Islamic powers have struggled for supremacy in the region.

The split between the two forms of Islam was already in the process of forming upon the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad had constructed around himself not only a potent new religious movement but also a powerful young state called the Ummah (the "Community" for lack of a better translation). Belonging to the Islamic faith also meant belonging to the Ummah, which was governed by its own laws and had many of its own institutions. Amid the upheaval in the Islamic world following Muhammad’s death, the Umayyad Caliphate lasted for less than a century, but in that time it managed to become one of the most influential of the major caliphates established following him. Its official existence was from 661-750, and the rulers were the male members of the Umayyad dynasty, roughly translated from Arabic as the “Sons of Umayyah.” Its primary base of power was in Syria following the creation of a dynastic, hereditary rule headed by one of Syria’s long-lasting governors, Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan.

The Ottoman Empire and Safavids would also vie for power in Persia after the caliphates, and the Ottomans in particular spent several centuries expanding their empire’s size, power, and influence, bumping up against Eastern Europe and becoming one of the world’s most important geopolitical players. It was a rise that would not truly start to wane until the 19th century. Preserving its mixed heritage, coming from both its geographic position rising above the ashes of the Byzantine Empire and the tradition inherited from the Muslim Conquests, the Ottoman Empire lasted more than six centuries.

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Lydbog: 22. november 2024