The Islamic Jihad Conquest of Persia (Iran)

 

The Islamic Jihad Conquest of Persia (Iran)

“With Syria now almost entirely under the control of the invaders, the Muslims could turn their attention back to Persia. But many were reluctant, according to Tabari: “The Persian front was among the most disliked and difficult of the warfronts for them, because of the strength of the Persians’ sovereignty, their military force, their might, and their subjection of the nations.”47 Finally Umar himself made an appeal, basing it firmly upon Islam: The Hijaz is not a home for you except for foraging, its inhabitants do not survive in it except by that. Where are the impulsive migrants for the sake of God’s promise? Travel in the land that God has promised you in the Book to make you heirs to, for He has said, “That he may make it [Islam] triumph over all religion” [cf. Qur’an 9:33, 48:28, 61:9]. God is the one who grants victory to His religion, strengthens His helper, and commits to His people of the inheritances of the nations. Where are the righteous worshippers of God?48 Many Muslims heeded the call, and as far as they could tell, Umar’s words proved true. The Muslims met a vastly superior Persian force at Buwaib on the Euphrates; Muslim sources recorded that the Persian army was devastated, losing one hundred thousand men to the Muslims’ one hundred.49 Soon after that, the armies approached each other again at another town on the Euphrates, Qadisiyya. Despite their earlier losses, the Persians still vastly outnumbered the Muslims and were vastly better equipped. As seven thousand Muslims encamped to face a Persian force of thirty thousand, the Persians were derisive. Seeing the thinness of the Arabs’ arrows, the Persians laughed, saying the invaders had come armed with spindles. Some of the Persians called out to the invading warriors: “You have no might or power or weapons. What has brought you here? Turn back!”50 The Arabs responded: “We shall not turn back. We are not the kind of people who turn back.”51 The Persians invited the Muslims to send an emissary to explain why they had come. The Muslims sent a warrior named Al-Mughirah, who explained to Rustam, the Persian commander, and his men about Islam and added: “If you kill us, we shall enter Paradise; if we kill you, you shall enter the Fire, or hand over the poll tax.”52 The Persians snorted derisively and retreated to the battle lines. But the Persian emperor, Yazdegerd III, was intrigued. He summoned the Muslim envoys to his court and asked them what they wanted. When the rough jihadis entered, clad in rustic cloaks and sandals and carrying whips, the perfumed, splendidly clad Persian courtiers were as amazed as they were contemptuous.53 Yazdegerd, however, was in no mood for mockery. He asked the Muslims point-blank: “Why did you come here? What induced you to attack us and covet our country?” A member of the Muslim delegation, Al-Nu’man ibn Muqarrin, answered by telling him about the prophet, whom he did not name, who “promised us the goodness of this world and of the next,” and who brought all the tribes of Arabia under his sway, “willingly or unwillingly.” The prophet, said Al-Nu’man, “ordered us to start with the nations adjacent to us and invite them to justice.” He added: We are therefore inviting you to embrace our religion. This is a religion which approves of all that is good and rejects all that is evil. If you refuse our invitation, you must pay the poll tax. This is a bad thing, but not as bad as the alternative; if you refuse, it will be war.54 Yazdegerd was incensed. He responded: “But for the custom not to kill envoys, I would have killed you. I have nothing for you.”55 He told them that the Persians would “punish you severely as an example for others.”56 But it was not to be. At Qadisiyya, the Persians were again decisively defeated. The Muslims’ control over Iraq was now virtually total, and the warriors of jihad continued moving against what remained of the Sassanid Empire, pursuing the shattered remnants of the Persian army into Persia itself. When the Muslims took the Persian imperial capital of Ctesiphon in 636, they entered the emperor’s White Palace, had the throne replaced with a pulpit, proclaimed that there was no god but Allah and Muhammad was his prophet, and said Friday prayers there. One of them quoted (or, given the lack of contemporary historical evidence of the existence by this time of the Muslim holy book, perhaps composed) verses of the Qur’an about the opulence they had conquered: “How much they left behind of gardens and springs and crops and noble sites, and comfort wherein they were amused. Thus. And We caused another people to inherit it. And the heaven and earth did not weep for them; nor were they reprieved.” (44:25–29). When the Arabs took Basra in Iraq, Umar instructed his lieutenant Utbah bin Ghazwan to offer the people choices essentially identical to those Khalid had previously offered the Persians: “Summon the people to God; those who respond to your call, accept it from them, but those who refuse must pay the poll tax out of humiliation and lowliness. If they refuse this, it is the sword without leniency. Fear God with regard to what you have been entrusted.”57 With Persia largely subdued, Umar declared proudly: “The Empire of the Magians has become extinct this day and from now on they will not possess a span of land to injure the Muslims in any way.”58 However, he warned the Muslims that their ability to hold the land, and to conquer more, depended entirely upon their adherence to the will of Allah and to the religion that the deity had declared “perfected” (Qur’an 5:3): “Muslims do keep in mind not to admit any change in your way of life; otherwise, Allah the Almighty will take the sovereign power from you and give it to others.”59 The ability to gain and retain political power was directly tied to one’s obedience to Allah and Islam.”

—Robert Spencer