Iranian Intermezzo

Iranian Intermezzo
Part of the history of Iran
	A map of the Iranian plateau in the 10th century, showing the Buyid state, the Samanid state and its dependencies, the Sallarid state and its dependencies, the Ziyarid state, and others.
Date	821–1055
Location	Greater Iran
Participants	Various Iranian Muslim dynasties
Outcome	End of Arab rule over Iran; The Decline of Zoroastrianism and the domination of Islam in Persia; Revitalization of the Iranian language;

The Iranian Intermezzo,^[2] also called the Persian Renaissance,^[3] was a period in Iranian history marked by the rise to power of the first Iranian Muslim dynasties. Beginning nearly 200 years after the Arab conquest of Iran and lasting until the middle of the 11th century, it is noteworthy since it was an interlude between the decay of Arab power under the Abbasid Caliphate and the rise of Turkic power under the Seljuk Empire, which triggered the Sunni Revival. The Iranian Intermezzo brought an end to Arab hegemony over Iranian lands and revived Iran's national spirit, albeit in conformity with Islam,^[4] though there were some non-Muslim movements (e.g., Mardavij) that outright rejected the Islamization of Iran.^[5] Although Zoroastrianism continued to decline, the movement did succeed in revitalizing the Persian language, with the most significant Persian literature from this period being the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi.^[6] The Iranian dynasties that took part in this effort were the Tahirids, the Saffarids, the Banu Ilyas, the Ghaznavids, the Sajids, the Samanids, the Ziyarids, the Buyids, the Sallarids,^[7] the Rawadids, the Marwanids, the Shaddadids,^[8] the Kakuyids, the Annazids, and the Hasanwayhids.

According to the American historian Alison Vacca, the Iranian Intermezzo "in fact includes a number of other Iranian, mostly Kurdish, minor dynasties in the former caliphal provinces of Armenia, Albania, and Azerbaijan".^[8] Likewise, in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the British historian Clifford Edmund Bosworth states that the Russian historian Vladimir Minorsky considers the Rawadids to be flourishing during this period.^[9]

^ Encyclopædia Britannica: Persian dynasties.
^ Such an obviously coined designation was introduced by Vladimir Minorsky, "The Iranian Intermezzo", in Studies in Caucasian history (London, 1953) and has been taken up by Bernard Lewis, among others, in his The Middle East: A brief history of the last 2,000 years (New York, 1995).
^ Harter, Conrad Justin (2016). Narrative and Iranian Identity in the New Persian Renaissance and the Later Perso-Islamicate World (Thesis). University of California Irvine.
^ Bernard Lewis. The Middle East: 2,000 Years of History from the Rise of Christianity to the Present Day. pp. 81–82.
^ Robinson, Chase F. (4 November 2010). The New Cambridge History of Islamb. Vol. 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, Sixth to Eleventh Centuries. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-18430-1.
^ "Ferdowsi and the Ethics of Persian Literature". UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
^ Vacca, Alison (2017). Non-Muslim Provinces under Early Islam: Islamic Rule and Iranian Legitimacy in Armenia and Caucasian Albania. Cambridge University Press. pp. 5–7. ISBN 978-1107188518.
^ ^a ^b Vacca, Alison (2017). Non-Muslim Provinces under Early Islam: Islamic Rule and Iranian Legitimacy in Armenia and Caucasian Albania. Cambridge University Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-1107188518. The Iranian intermezzo in fact includes a number of other Iranian ethnic groups, mostly Kurdish, minor dynasties in the former caliphal provinces of Armenia, Albania, and Azerbaijan before the arrival of the Seljuks, such as the Kurdicized Arab Rawwādids in Azerbaijan and the Kurdish Marwānid family in eastern Anatolia from the tenth to the eleventh centuries. Finally, the most famous Kurdish dynasty, the Shaddādids, came to power in Dabīl/Duin in the tenth century, ruling until the twelfth. The Shaddādids named their children after Sasanian shāhanshāhs and even claimed descent from the Sasanian line. It is the other branch of the Shaddādid family, which controlled Ani, that Minorsky offers as the "prehistory" of Salāḥ al-Dīn.
^ Bosworth, C.E. (1995). "Rawwādids". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Lecomte, G. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VIII: Ned–Sam. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09834-3.

[1] Encyclopædia Britannica: Persian dynasties.

[2] Such an obviously coined designation was introduced by Vladimir Minorsky, "The Iranian Intermezzo", in Studies in Caucasian history (London, 1953) and has been taken up by Bernard Lewis, among others, in his The Middle East: A brief history of the last 2,000 years (New York, 1995).

[3] Harter, Conrad Justin (2016). Narrative and Iranian Identity in the New Persian Renaissance and the Later Perso-Islamicate World (Thesis). University of California Irvine.

[4] Bernard Lewis. The Middle East: 2,000 Years of History from the Rise of Christianity to the Present Day. pp. 81–82.

[5] Robinson, Chase F. (4 November 2010). The New Cambridge History of Islamb. Vol. 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, Sixth to Eleventh Centuries. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-18430-1.

[6] "Ferdowsi and the Ethics of Persian Literature". UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries. Retrieved 19 September 2023.

[7] Vacca, Alison (2017). Non-Muslim Provinces under Early Islam: Islamic Rule and Iranian Legitimacy in Armenia and Caucasian Albania. Cambridge University Press. pp. 5–7. ISBN 978-1107188518.

[Vacca-8] Vacca, Alison (2017). Non-Muslim Provinces under Early Islam: Islamic Rule and Iranian Legitimacy in Armenia and Caucasian Albania. Cambridge University Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-1107188518. The Iranian intermezzo in fact includes a number of other Iranian ethnic groups, mostly Kurdish, minor dynasties in the former caliphal provinces of Armenia, Albania, and Azerbaijan before the arrival of the Seljuks, such as the Kurdicized Arab Rawwādids in Azerbaijan and the Kurdish Marwānid family in eastern Anatolia from the tenth to the eleventh centuries. Finally, the most famous Kurdish dynasty, the Shaddādids, came to power in Dabīl/Duin in the tenth century, ruling until the twelfth. The Shaddādids named their children after Sasanian shāhanshāhs and even claimed descent from the Sasanian line. It is the other branch of the Shaddādid family, which controlled Ani, that Minorsky offers as the "prehistory" of Salāḥ al-Dīn.

[9] Bosworth, C.E. (1995). "Rawwādids". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Lecomte, G. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VIII: Ned–Sam. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09834-3.

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