Battle of Nahavand

Battle of Nahavand
Part of the Muslim conquest of Persia

Painting of the Nahavand Castle, which was one of the last Sasanian strongholds.
Date642
Location
Nahāvand, near Hamadan, Iran
Result
  • Near collapse of the Sasanian Empire
Belligerents
Rashidun Caliphate Sasanian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas
An-Numan ibn Muqarrin †[2]
Tulayha †[3]
Amru bin Ma'adi Yakrib †[4]
Zubayr ibn al-Awwam[5]		 Piruz Khosrow †
Mardanshah †
Strength
30,000[6] 50,000–100,000[7]
Casualties and losses
Heavy[8][9] Heavy[9][10]

The Battle of Nahavand (Arabic: معركة نهاوند Maʿrakah Nahāwand, Persian: نبرد نهاوند Nabard-e Nahâvand), also spelled Nihavand or Nahawand, was fought in 642 between the Rashidun Muslim forces under caliph Umar and Sasanian Persian armies under King Yazdegerd III.[11] Yazdegerd escaped to the Merv area, but was unable to raise another substantial army. It was a victory for the Rashidun Caliphate and the Persians consequently lost the surrounding cities including Spahan (Isfahan).

The former Sassanid provinces, in alliance with Parthian and White Hun nobles, resisted for about a century in the region south of the Caspian Sea, even as the Rashidun Caliphate was replaced by the Umayyads, thus perpetuating the Sassanid court styles, Zoroastrian religion, and Persian language.

  1. ^ The Expansion of the Saracens-The East, C.H. Becker, The Cambridge Medieval History: The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundation of the Western Empire, Vol. 2, ed. John Bagnell Bury, (MacMillan Company, 1913), 348.
  2. ^ Iran, Arab Conquest of (636-671), Adam Ali, Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia, Vol.1, ed. Alexander Mikaberidze, (ABC-CLIO, 2011), 406.
  3. ^ Islamic desk reference, By E. J. van Donzel, pg.458
  4. ^ "The fall of Persia", Vol. 2, ed. Sayyid Ali Al-Jumjumani
  5. ^ Abd al Hadi, Ahmad (2001). من معارك الفتوح الإسلامية [From the battles of the Islamic conquests] (in Arabic). مركز الراية للنشر والإعلام،. p. 120. ISBN 9789775967466. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  6. ^ "Battle of Nahāvand". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  7. ^ Crawford 2013, p. 185.
  8. ^ Iran in the Early Islamic Period, Michael G. Morony, The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History, ed. Touraj Daryaee, (Oxford University Press, 2012), 211.
  9. ^ a b "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica".
  10. ^ Iran in the Early Islamic Period, Michael G. Morony, The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History, 211.
  11. ^ Willem Vogelsang (2002), The Afghans, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0-631-19841-5