Islamization of Iran

Part of a series on
Islamization
Islamizations Late Antiquity - Middle Ages - Modern Islamization Spread of Islam Islamic missionary activity Islamization of Palestine Islamization of Jerusalem Islamization of Syria Islamization of Egypt Islamization of Iran Islamization and Turkification of Xinjiang Islamization of Bosnia and Herzegovina Islamization of the Sudan region Spread of Islam in Southeast Asia Spread of Islam in Indonesia Islamization of Albania Islamization in Pakistan Conversion to Islam Conversion to Islam in prisons Conversion to Islam in U.S. prisons Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques List of converts to Islam
v t e

The Islamization of Iran began with the Muslim conquest of Iran, when the Rashidun Caliphate annexed the Sasanian Empire. It was a long process by which Islam, though initially rejected, eventually spread among the Persians and the other Iranian peoples. Although Arabization was a common element of the early Muslim conquests, it did not have as significant of an impact in Iran as it did elsewhere, as the Iranian populace persisted in maintaining many of their pre-Islamic traditions, such as their language and culture, albeit with adaptations to conform to the nascent religion. A distinctly Iranian Muslim identity emerged in this context and later sidelined the Arabs in what is known as the Iranian Intermezzo.^[1]

Iranian society was deeply transformed by the spread of Islam, which greatly influenced the nation's cultural, scientific, and political structure; the blossoming of Persian literature, philosophy, medicine, and art became major elements of Islam in Iran. Integrating a heritage of thousands of years of civilization and being at the "crossroads of the major cultural highways"^[2] in the Near East contributed to the Iranians emerging at the forefront of the Islamic Golden Age under the Abbasid Caliphate.

Between the 7th century and the 16th century, Sunni Islam was dominant among the Iranians, but this changed with the Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam, which marked another historic societal shift for the nation. Consequently, Shia Islam remains dominant in modern-day Iran, where it is the official religion, as well as in Iraq and Azerbaijan.