PERSIAN ART PRE AND POST ISLAMIC ERAS

by M.K.SADIGH

This lecture associated with slide show was sponcered by New York Queens Library presented in two branches Flushing branch Saturday, Oct. 2, 2001,at 12 noon and in Bayside branch Saturday, Nov.3, 2001,at 2:00pm.

Introduction Part I

The immense plateau of Iran lying north and east of Zagros mountain chain, west of these great mountains lays the lovely plain of Susiana, geographically an extension of the Tigris river, a river of southwest Asia rising in eastern Turkey and flowing about 1,850 km (1,150 mi) southeast through Iraq . Euphrates River a river of southwest Asia flowing about 2,735 km (1,700 mi) from central Turkey through Syria and into Iraq, where it joins the Tigris River to form the Shatt al Arab. Euphrates river valleys, historically the home of peoples with cultural and political ties to the inhabitants of Mesopotamia. Throughout the ages, however, the inhabitants of Susiana were also in close contact with the peoples who descended from the northern mountain valleys of Luristan and particularly from the southeastern Iranian plateau in the modern province of Fars.
It was this highland region in the southeast that was to become the cradle of Elamite civilization during the third and second millennia B.C. and later the homeland of the Indo-European Persians, who were newcomers to Iran at the beginning of the first millennium B.C. The Euphrates River was a major transportation route in ancient times, and its waters were a major source of irrigation for the flourishing civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia.
SUSA of Elam and URUKof Mesopotamia both were located in a geographical area, where these two rivers could facilitate their interrelations to a vast number of other cultures. The reach soil of the lands around the bank of these rivers and the capacity of using them as means of transportation substantiated cultural growth. These two cultures initiated many dynamic grounds, such as symbols and signs, architectural structures of temples and castles, calculations, and city planning. They created the sculptures of their own gods, and practiced spiritual activities which, eventually evolved to a major monotheistic believe, and gave a larger dimension to their intellectual capacity. Susa as an ancient city, which, only its ruined remnants remained for us to day, four thousand years ago was the capital of Elam. Because of its strategic significance during its several thousand years of cultural existence, Susa was constantly invaded by outside forces. Historical documents, show, the artistic objects created in this region were, the potteries small-carved cylinders covered with composed delicate and expressive images of human and animals. These small cylinders were the foundation of linguistic structure in the post protoliterate periods; they were the means of transition of opinions and believe.
These cylinders along with most of molded bronze pieces, eventually established the basic ground for the structure of far more significant civilized society to follow their own. The invasions , wars, massacre and destruction of the Susa were ongoing reality, which always forced them to produce portable artifacts. What ever left for us, as their cultural identification is certainly indicative of the potential of Elamite people with a creative mind and far advanced in their time. Generally in every one of the art pieces created in Susa and Yorka in Mesopotamia there were clear reflection of their philosophical believes and their interpretation of divinity, power, fear, hops, and survival. The elements of cultural development, which were the outcomes of it, comprised all the necessary constituents for civility, which, had to be created and materialized in order to pave the road for future development of a greater political powers.
The creation of the symbols and signs, in Elam, representing the gods and supreme powers, enhanced the intellectual capacity of the ancient Elamites. This advancement took them beyond the sculptures and man made god symbols in the temples, which they constructed for worshiping. Their intellectual maturity raised them to a level of believe in, Mithra, the ancient Persian god of light and guardian against evil, often identified with the sun which, developed to Mithraism, A religious cult of Persian origin, especially popular among the Roman military that flourished in the late Roman Empire. A Persian monotheistic religion who was the worshiper of sun and light. Eventually, this believe developed to zaraosteraizm , the religious system founded in Persia by Zoroaster and set forth in the Avesta, the entire body of sacred writings of the Zoroastrian religion. The Avesta basically consists of the interpretation teaching of the worship of Ormazd in the context of a universal struggle between the forces of light and of darkness.
The symbols which, developed and expressed as carved or embossed on stone cylinders, stone plates and gold or bronze vases. Drawings of rock relief on the walls of their temples, especially in the Middle Elamite period which is 1150-1120 B.C. depicting a king and his subjects, were created to signify the power and glory. In other documents we see the Elamite deities in a seal impression, at Susa which, that it self is the indicative of advanced cultural and political organization.
Susa (Persians call it Shoosh), is located in the bank of Persian Plateau and is not far from Mesopotamia. The strategic position of this region made it the target of many historical invasions. Susa was one of the first and the most significant center where, the figurative symbolism which was the geneses of human linguistic capacity was formed. Because of these constant invasions, or generally through the extensive trades with other kingdoms, the treasures of well crafted artistic pieces, which every one of them reflected the progress and development of their technology as well as advanced symbolism were transformed to other kingdoms. Consequently, the outcomes of their technological advancement were taken to far away lands and became the samples and guidelines for their craftsmen and artists as inspiration sources.
The foundation of linguistic structure before protoliterate periods was the figurative symbolism which was reflected as symbols in cylinders, potteries, and bronze and metal works, in the post protoliterate periods; these symbols developed to the more advanced means of transition of opinions and believe. These cylinders along with most of molded bronze pieces, eventually established the basic ground for the structure of far more significant civilized society to follow their own. The invasions and wars, the massacre and destruction of the Susa were ongoing historical reality, which always forced them to produce portable artifacts. What ever left for us, as their identification is certainly indicative of the potential of a people with a creative mind and far advanced in their time. Generally in every one of the art pieces created in Susa as well as Yorka in Mesopotamia there were clear reflection of their philosophical believes and their interpretation of divinity, power, fear, hops, and survival. The elements of cultural development, which were the outcomes of it, comprised all the necessary constituents for a civility, which, had to be created and materialized in order to pave the road for future development of a greater political power.
The Elamite cultural development, historically was fundamental for the formation of Persian identity, which occurred, when New Elamite period became Persian Empire. A vast empire of southwest Asia founded by Cyrus II 546 B.C. and brought to the height of its power and glory by Darius I, and his son Xerxes I 519? - 465 B.C. King of Persia (486-465) who organized a vast army that defeated the Greeks at Thermopylae and destroyed Athens (480). After the defeat of his navy at Salamis (480) and of his army at Plateau (479), he retreated to Persia, where he was later assassinated. The powerful empire of Cyrus the great continued to the Darius the third from 533 to 230 BC.
A later empire was established by the Sassanid Persian dynasty (A.D. 224-651) and the last line of Persian kings before the Arab conquest. The Sassanid era was marked by wars against Romans, Armenians, and Huns and by the revival of Zoroastrianism. All these powerful political systems culturally were inspired by the treasures of Elamite and Persian reach cultures and adapted a great part of the whole outcomes of more than tree thousand years of Elam's cultural development and restructured a greater nation called Persia.
We have introduced Elam and relevant historical elements which were determinant factors for the formation of Persian identify in the pre Islamic conquest. It is necessary to go beyond this introduction and elaborate the distinct periods of Elam's cultural development. Beginning with the Prehistoric Elam from about 4200-to3700 B.C., Protoliterate period when crafted of stone and metal appeared in Susa around 3500 B.C. The old Elamite or Proto-Elamite period which developed from the southern highlands Between 2700 and 2500 B.C., the Middle Elamite period when, Elam reached unprecedented heights of political and military power late in the second millennium B.C. under the kings of Anshan and Susa., The Neo Elamite period from prominence at the end of the second millennium and continued to decline until about 700 B.C. The wars of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar I (1125-1104 B.C.) against Susiana were only partly responsible for this reversal; there were also famines around the turn of the millennium that seriously affected both Mesopotamia and Susa.

Prehistoric Susa (4200-to3700 B.C)

The first period of occupation at Susa, from about 4200-to3700 B.C. is known, as Susa became the regional center of what is now central Khuzestan province shortly after its foundation. Two discoveries, the massive funerary with its many burials and the haute terrasse, a mud-brick platform with the remains of a local ceremonial center on top of it- both dated to this early period- suggest that Susa's importance, as a religious center was a major reason for its growth. Elaborate painted ceramics and stamp seals with complicated scenes link the material culture of Susa to the Iranian highlands and distinguish Susian artifacts from those of the contemporary Ubaid cultures that flourished 125 miles to the west in southern Mesopotamia. The political affiliations of Susa at this time are not known.

Protoliterate Susa (3500 -3000 BC)

Identifying prehistoric characteristic of Susa is based on comparison of the objecs found in Susa with those of Uruk in Mesopotamia. Writing cylinder seals, mass-production plain ceramics, and a variety of new items crafted of stone and metal appeared in Susa around 3500 B.C. Susa II is the name given to the period extending from 3500 to about 3100 B.C. The objects from that time are so close in style to objects found in the first Mesopotamian cities, however, that the term Uruk period, used to designate Mesopotamian developments during the same era, is often applied to Susa and Uruk was the major Mesopotamian city of the time.
We can not clearly understand what kind of changes happened before 3500 BC. which is known as ''SusaI''and''SusaII'' Mesopotamian cultural styles and social forms were gradually absorbed and adopted in Susian after the collapse of the Susa I governing power. Another assertion is a more abrupt transformation, resulting directly from Uruk's cultural or military imperial domination. At that time, Susa also failed to be the only major town in its region. Chogha Mish, seventeen miles to the east, and perhaps Abu Fanduwah, seven miles to the south, became local centers of administration and exchange, with population of 1,000 to 3,000. Susa, Chogha Mish, and Abu Fanduwah were far smaller than the cities of Mesopotamia to the west such as Uurk and Nippur, whose populations were probably three to four times those of the towns of Susiana.
The Susa III which is a period that New developments took place during from about 3100 to 2700 B.C., sometime just before 3000 B.C. This is the time when Susiana slipped out of the Mesopotamian cultural sphere. Susa became once again the only major settlement in the region, and the surrounding Susiana plain lost much of its population. The ceramics and writing system employed in Susa at that time resembled those in use at Anshan (modern Tal-I Malyan) in Fars province, 320 miles southeast of Susa and the site of the later Elamite capital. Susa became a kind of gateway city on the western edge of the Iranian world; products of the highlands passed through it on their way to the rapidly growing Mesopotamian cities of the lowlands to the west. The distribution of contemporary sites on the plateau suggests that the foundations of the highland-lowland union that characterized the historical Elamite period were first in the early third millennium B.C. Thus the writing system of that time and the culture with which it was associated are called '' Proto- Elamite.''

The Old Elamite Period (2700-2500 BC)

The end of the Susa III was coincident with the disappearance of the Proto-Elamite sites from the southern highlands. Between 2700 and 2500 B.C., Susian material culture showed a strong relation to that of peoples living along the foothill road and in the mountain valleys of Lurestan, to the northwest. The similarities suggest that there were political connections between Susians and the highlanders, perhaps forged in response to the threat posed by the militaristic Mesopotamian city-states of the Early Dynastic period (ca. 2700-2400 B.C.).
Susa lost its independence when the rulers of Akkad sometime between 2400 and 2200 B.C. The political change brought on an almost wholesale borrowing of Mesopotamian styles of art and manufacture and the adoption of Old Akkadian writing and administrative systems , Susan became a transshipment point for commodities and troops along the foothill road that ran northwest to southwest, lining the southeastern Zagros Mountains with central Mesopotamia The city was probably a staging point for expeditions farther to the east and a rear position where troops could wait out the winter season.
The material culture of Susiana in the late third millennium was predominantly Mesopotamian However, local resistance is sometimes discernible in historical records pf the period. Not surprisingly, it was when imperial rule over Susa was waning- first at the end of the Akkadian empire (ca.2200 B.C.) and again near the end of the Ur III Empire (ca. 2000 B.C.)- That powerful rulers of the Zagros regions tried to establish their independence. These revolts were centered not in Susa but in the highlands of Iran, and Susa were a prize to be won back from its Mesopotamian overloads. After the collapse of the Akkadian empire, Susa was conquered by puzur-Inshushinak, a king of Awan and a contemporary of Ur-Nammu (ca. 2113- 2095 B.C.), the first ruler of the Ur. III Empire in Mesopotamia. Shortly thereafter Susa was conquered and incorporated into the Ur III Empire in the reign of Shulgi, the second king of the dynasty. However, another group of mountaineers won it back around 2000 B.C.

The Middle Elamite Era (2000- 640 BC)

Elam reached unprecedented heights of political and military power late in the second millennium B.C. under the kings of Anshan and Susa. The actual formation of the Elamite Empire is difficult to trace because sometime after the middle of the millennium, both written and archaeological documentation from Susa comes to a halt. The Skillman dynasty and its unique system of shared rule seem to have disappeared. Archaeological surveys indicate that the intense agricultural activity characteristic of the early second millennium in Susiana and around Anshan diminished. Many small rural settlements were abandoned and the number and size of urban centers grow, making it likely that the economy of Elam increasingly depended on the herding of livestock, trade, and plunder.
Although previously Susan had been the unquestioned center of settlement in the region, the most important finds from the middle of the millennium are at Kabnak (modern Haft Tape) nineteen miles to the southeast, excavated by Ezat O. Negahban. There a major temple complex and associated workshops were constructed about 1450 B.C.by Tepti-ahar, who used the title'' king of Susa and Anshan.'' Texts of the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries from Haft Tape were still written in Akkadian, but the king's title and proper names they contain reflect an increasing'' Elamization'' of the written language.
Another challenge to Susa's local supremacy arose under the igi-halkid king Untash-Napirisha (ca. 1340-1300 B.C.), who constructed his new capital, Al Untash-Napirisha, or the city of Untash-Napirisha (modern Choga Zanbil), twenty- five miles southeast of Susa on a previously unsettled plateau above the banks of the Diz River. The city centered on a ziggurat, or stepped temple tower, two hundred feet high, was built at a strategic point along a road leading to the southeastern highlands. Thousands 0f backed bricks inscribed in Elamite cuneiform were used in its construction. Studies of these inscriptions suggest that the establishment of Al Untash- Napirisha was an ambitious attempt to replace Susa as the political and religious center of the Elamite kingdom. The city seems to have been a kind of federal sanctuary where the gods of the highlands and the lowlands were worshiped on an equal footing. To found such ecumenical complexes at Susa, with its long history of cultural traditions influenced by Mesopotamia, might well have been more difficult. The middle Elamite kings may have established temple-cities throughout southwestern and south central Iran to strengthen control of their kingdom, although none was as large as Al Untash - Napirisha. However, the city was never finished and was practically abandoned after the death of its founder.
Susa regained its prominence less than a century later with the rule of the Shutrukid line. King Shutruk-Nahhunte I (1190- 1155 B.C.) and his two suns, Kutir-Nahhunte and Shilhak- Inshushinak, battled the Kassite dynasty, which had ruled Mesopotamia since 1500, and were victorious. It was under the Shutrukid dynasty, in the last centuries of the second millennium B.C., that the Elamite king kingship of Anshan and Susa reached the peak of its political supremacy. The Shurtrukids success was based on their ability to exploit and control both Susiana and the highland kingdoms to the southeast. They also controlled the foothill roads leading northwest into Mesopotamia, which made it possible to extend their rule to Mesopotamia. The Shutrukid kings rebuilt the structures on the

Acropolis, replacing mud brick with baked inscribed bricks, glazed bricks--- and adorned the sanctuary of Inshushinak with the famous monuments of Naram-Sin (No.109) and Hammurabi (fig.44). Through the display of these captured monuments and other war trophies they attemted to establish Susa's position as a great city in Mesopotamian tradition and to legitimize their dynasty as the successors of the defeated Kassite kings who had ruled Mesopotamia for some four centuries.
Little direct evidence exists to document the role that Susa played in the international court politics and trade of the late Bronze Age. The sophisticated levels of metal and ivory work and of glass and glazing technology evident at Susa point to the city's involvement in the processes of procuring raw materials and manufacturing the luxury goods and weapons that were commonly traded in the ancient Near East at that time. Although the Susian role in international exchange is unknown, techniques and styles characteristic of Susian work are reflected in artworks produced slightly later in Assyria and western Iran, indicating that lowland Elamite craft traditions exerted a major influence on those cultures.

The Neo-Elamite Period

Susa rapidly fell from prominence at the end of the second millennium and continued to decline until about 700 B.C. The wars of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar I (1125-1104 B.C.) against Susiana were only partly responsible for this reversal; there were also famines around the turn of the millennium that seriously affected both Mesopotamia and Susa. However, it was probably the political unrest, as much as ecological disaster that led formerly settled groups to take up a nomadic existence, retreating to the upland valleys of eastern Khozestan. Blocked by the Assyrian empire to the northwest, the Elamites were unable to maintain control of the foothill road leading toward Mesopotamia. The Median kingdoms held the uplands to the north and northeast. By about 1000 B.C., the Susian kings had also lost their footholds in Anshan, and new ethnic groups may have pushed the Elamites of Fars westward into the valleys of eastern Khuzestan.
Late in the eight century B.C. both archaeological and historical records document Susa's renewals part of the resurgence of Elamite power. Allied with Babylonians and highland Elamites the Susians challenged the powerful armies of Assyria repeatedly for almost a century. At Susa, a small temple of Inshushinuk decorated with panels of glazed brick and glazed architectural ornaments crowned the Acropolis mound. Large burial vaults dated to this period in which were found golden jewelry, richly decorated objects, and containers made of glazed frit are a sign of local prosperity. Susa continued to be a ceremonial and cultural center, but the towns of Madaktu and Hidalu, mentioned in texts, appear to have been the major centers of political and military activity. Preserved are six separated fragments of a stele that has been plausibly to furnish important information. It bears an inscription of a king who ruled over Anshan and Susa in the troubled, and still poorly understood, times during and after the major defeat of Elam by Ashurbanipal in the 650s and 640s B.C. (sees No. 189). The seated king faces right. He has wide shoulders but a narrow waist, held by a rosette-decorated belt. His garment is ankle -length and decorated with fringes, concentric circles in squares and what may be crudely rendered rosettes. In his small right hand is staff

The Achaemenid Era (646 -330 B.C.)

After Susiana fell to the Assyrians in 646B.C. the Elamite was no longer a major political force. By the middle of the sixth century they had come under the rule of the Persians, whose powerful Achaemenid dynasty rapidly conquered a vast territory. The Elamites became subordinate partners and were absorbed into that new, Iranian empire. Darius the great (522-486 B.C.), recognizing the traditional importance of the old Elamites capital of Susa, fortified it and made it his lowland capital. Once more Susa was under the control of a highland dynasty, and again it became a vital, cosmopolitan city and a locus of interchange between people of the Mesopotamian plain and the Iranian highlands.
In January of 330 B.C., Alexander of Macedon left Babylon for Susa, which surrendered as he approached. The palace of Darius had been abandoned, but the vast wealth of its treasury was intact, and the city was peacefully occupied. From Susa, Alexander marched to Perspolis, which experienced a different fate - plunder, massacre, and destruction- ending the Persian Empire.
We have briefly introduced the basic historical sources of pre Islamic Persian arts. The selection of sources does not mean other sources did not have the cultural significance to have constructive impacts in the formation of Persian identity. Indeed, every region contributed its own share and has its impact as the constituency of Persian culture. In the second part our discussion will cover the art of post Islamic period which starts with Arab conquest and the development of artistic styles influenced or rather complementation of Sassanide arts but produced an recognized as Islamic art.

The Sassanid era (A.D. 224-651)

The political flactuations from 330 BC. By the fall of Achaemenids came to an end by the formation of The Sassanid era, A Persian dynasty (A.D. 224-651) and the last line of Persian kings before the Arab conquest. The Sassanid era was marked by wars against Romans, Armenians, and Huns (Hun were member of a nomadic pastoralist people who invaded Europe in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. In addition, they were defeated in 455. Often, Hun is a barbarous or destructive person. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a German, especially a German soldier in World War I. [From Late Latin Hunº the Huns from Turki ) and by the revival of Zoroastrianism.

CHAPTER 2
The Arab conquest and the early Islamic Era (AD 638)

The first conflict between local Bedouin tribes and Sasanian forces seems to have been in 634, when the Arabs were defeated at the Battle of the Bridge. There a force of some 5,000 Muslims under Abu 'Ubayd ath-Thaqafi was routed by the Persians. In 637 a much larger Muslim force under Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas defeated the main Persian army at the battle of Al-Qadisiyya and moved on to sack Ctesiphon. By the end of the following year (638), the Muslims had conquered almost all of Iraq, and the last Sasanian king, Yazdegerd III, had fled to Iran, where he was killed in 651.
The Muslim conquest was followed by mass immigration of Arabs from eastern Arabia and Oman. These new arrivals did not disperse and settle throughout the country; instead they established two new garrison cities, at Al-Kufah, near ancient Babylon, and at Basra in the south. The intention was that the Muslims should be a separate community of fighting men and their families living off taxes paid by the local inhabitants. In the north of the country, Mosul began to emerge as the most important city and the base of a Muslim governor and garrison. Apart from the Persian elite and the Zoroastrian priests, whose property was confiscated, most of the local people were allowed to keep their possessions and their religion.
Iraq now became a province of the Muslim Caliphate, which stretched from North Africa and later Spain in the west to Sind (now southern Pakistan) in the east. At first the capital of the Caliphate was at Madinah (Medina), but, after the murder of the third caliph, 'Uthman, in 656, his successor, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law 'Ali, made Iraq his base. In 661, however, 'Ali was murdered in Al-Kufah, and the caliphate passed to the rival Umayyad family in Syria. Iraq became a subordinate province, even though it was the richest area of the Muslim world and the one with the largest Muslim population. This situation gave rise to continual discontent with Umayyad rule; this discontent was in various forms.
In 680 'Ali's son al-Husayn arrived in Iraq from Madinah, hoping that the people of Al-Kufah would support him. They failed to act, and his small group of followers was massacred at Karbala`, but his memory lingered on as a source of inspiration for all who opposed the Umayyads. In later centuries, Karbala` and 'Ali's tomb at nearby An-Najaf became important centres of Shi'ite pilgrimage and are still greatly revered today. The Iraqis had their opportunity after the death in 683 of the caliph Yazid I when the Umayyads faced threats from many quarters. In Al-Kufah the initiative was taken by al-Mukhtar ibn Abi 'Ubayd, who was supported by many mawali, non-Arab converts to Islam who felt they were treated as second-class citizens. Al-Mukhtar was killed in 687, but the Umayyads realized that strict rule was required. The caliph 'Abd al-Malik (685-705) appointed the fearsome al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf as his governor in Iraq and all of the east. Al-Hajjaj became a legend as a stern but just ruler. His firm measures aroused the opposition of the local Arab elite, and in 701 there was a massive rebellion led by Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath. The insurrection was defeated only with the aid of Syrian soldiers. Iraq was now very much a conquered province, and al-Hajjaj established a new city at Wasit, halfway between Al-Kufah and Basra, to be a base for a permanent Syrian garrison. In a more positive way, he encouraged Iraqis to join the expeditions led by Qutaybah ibn Muslim that between 705 and 715 conquered what is now Central Asia for Islam. Even after al-Hajjaj's death in 714, the Umayyad-Syrian grip on Iraq remained firm, and resentment was widespread.

UMAYYAD DYNASTY (AD 661-750)

First great Muslim dynasty to rule the Empire of the Caliphate (AD 661-750), sometimes referred to as the Arab kingdom (reflecting traditional Muslim disapproval of the secular nature of the Umayyad state). The Umayyads, headed by Abu Sufyan, were a largely merchant family of the Quraysh tribe centred at Mecca. They had initially resisted Islam, not converting until 627, but subsequently became prominent administrators under Muhammad and his immediate successors. In the first Muslim civil war (fitnah; 656-661)--the struggle for the caliphate following the murder of 'Uthman, the third caliph (reigned 644-656)--Abu Sufyan's son Mu'awiyah, then governor of Syria, emerged victorious over 'Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law and fourth caliph; Mu'awiyah then established himself as the first Umayyad caliph.
Umayyad rule was divided between two branches of the family: the Sufyanid (reigned 661-684), descendants of Abu Sufyan, and the Marwanid (reigned 684-750), Marwan I and his successors. The Sufyanids, notably Mu'awiyah I (reigned 661-680), centralized caliphal authority in Damascus. The Syrian army became the basis of Umayyad strength, enabling the creation of a united empire through greater control of the conquered provinces and of Arab tribal rivalries. Muslim rule expanded to Khorasan, garrison cities were founded at Merv and Seistan as bases for expeditions into Central Asia and northwestern India, and the invasion of northwestern Africa was begun. A new fleet conducted a series of campaigns against Constantinople (669-678), which, while ultimately unsuccessful, offset the secular image of the state, because they were directed against the Christians. Though the Sufyanids generally retained the Byzantine and Persian administrative bureaucracies they inherited in the provinces, politically they were organized along Arab tribal lines, in which the caliph was chosen by his peers to become, theoretically, "first among equals" and act on the advice of a shura (tribal council). Mu'awiyah, however, in securing during his lifetime an oath of allegiance to his son Yazid I, disregarded the traditional election (bay'ah) and introduced the alien concept of hereditary succession.
Civil war and the deaths of Yazid I in 683 and of Mu'awiyah II in 684 brought Sufyanid rule to an end. Marwan I was proclaimed caliph in Syria in 684 amid tribal wars.
Under 'Abd al-Malik (reigned 685-705), the Umayyad caliphate reached its peak. Muslim armies overran most of Spain in the west and invaded Mukran and Sind in India, while in Central Asia, the Khorasanian garrisons conquered Bukhara, Samarkand, Khwarezm, Fergana, and Tashkent. In an extensive program of Arabization, Arabic became the official state language; the financial administration of the empire was reorganized, with Arabs replacing Persian and Greek officials; and a new Arabic coinage replaced the former imitations of Byzantine and Sasanian coins. Communications also improved with the introduction of a regular post service from Damascus to the provincial capitals, and architecture flourished.
Decline began with the disastrous defeat of the Syrian army by the Byzantine Leo III, the Isaurian (717). Then the fiscal reforms of the pious 'Umar II (reigned 717-720), intended to mollify the increasingly discontented mawali (non-Arab Muslims) by placing all Muslims on the same footing, without respect of nationality, led to financial crisis, while the recrudescence of feuds between southern (Kalb) and northern (Qays) Arab tribes seriously reduced military power.
Hisham (reigned 724-743) was able to stem the tide temporarily. As the empire was reaching the limits of expansion--the Muslim advance into France was decisively halted at Poitiers (732), and Arab forces in Anatolia were destroyed (740)--frontier defenses, manned by Syrian troops, were organized to meet the challenge of Turks in Central Asia and Berbers in North Africa.
But in the years following Hisham's death, feuds between the Qays and the Kalb erupted into major revolts in Syria, Iraq, and Khorasan (745-746), while the mawali became involved with the Hashimiyah (q.v.), a religio-political sect that denied the legitimacy of Umayyad rule. In 749 the Hashimiyah, aided by the western provinces, proclaimed as caliph Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah, who thereby became first of the 'Abbasid dynasty.
The last Umayyad, Marwan II (reigned 744-750), was defeated at the Battle of the Great Zab River (750). Members of the Umayyad house were hunted down and killed, but one of the survivors, 'Abd ar-Rahman, escaped and established himself as a Muslim ruler in Spain (756), founding the dynasty of the Umayyads of Córdoba.

THE ABBASID CALIPHATE (AD 747-935)

Opposition to the Umayyads finally came to a head in northeastern Iran (Khorasan) in 747 when the mawla Abu Muslim raised black banners in the name of the 'Abbasids, a branch of the family of the Prophet, distantly related to 'Ali and his descendants.

In 749 the armies from the east reached Iraq, where they received the support of much of the population. The 'Abbasids themselves came from their retreat at Humaymah in southern Jordan, and in 749 the first 'Abbasid caliph, as-Saffah, was proclaimed in the mosque at Al-Kufah. This " 'Abbasid Revolution" ushered in the golden age of medieval Iraq. Khorasan was too much on the fringes of the Muslim world to be a suitable capital, and from the beginning the 'Abbasid caliphs made Iraq their base. By this time Islam had spread well beyond the original garrison towns, even though Muslims were still a minority of the population.
At first the 'Abbasids ruled from Al-Kufah or nearby, but in 762 al-Mansur founded a new capital on the site of the old village of Baghdad. It was officially known as Madinat as-Salam ("City of Peace"), but in popular usage the old name prevailed. Baghdad soon became larger than any city in Europe or western Asia. Al-Mansur built the massive Round City with four gates and his palace and the main mosque in the centre. This Round City was exclusively a government quarter, and soon after its construction the markets were banished to the Karkh suburb to the south. Other suburbs soon grew up, developed by leading courtiers: Harbiyyah to the northeast, where the Khorasani soldiers were settled, and, across the Tigris on the east bank, a new palace quarter for the caliph's son and heir al-Mahdi. The siting of Baghdad proved to be an act of genius. It had access to both the Tigris and Euphrates river systems and was close to the main route through the Zagros Mountains to the Iranian plateau. Wheat and barley from Al-Jazirah and dates and rice from Basra and the south could be brought by water. By the year 800 the city may have had as many as 500,000 inhabitants and was an important commercial centre as well as the seat of government. The city grew at the expense of other centres, and both the old Sasanian capital at Ctesiphon (called Al-Mada`in, "The Cities," by the Arabs) and the early Islamic centre at Al-Kufah fell into decline.
The high point of prosperity was probably reached in the reign of Harun ar-Rashid (786-809), when Iraq was very much the centre of the empire and riches flowed into the capital from all over the Muslim world. The prosperity and order in the southern part of the country was, however, offset by outbreaks of lawlessness in Al-Jazirah, notably the rebellion of the Bedouin Walid ibn Tarif, who defied government forces between 794 and 797. Even the most powerful governments found it difficult to extend their authority beyond the limits of the settled land.
Much more serious disruption followed the death of Harun in 809. He left his son al-Amin as caliph in Baghdad but divided the Caliphate and gave his son al-Ma`mun control over Iran and the eastern half of the empire. This arrangement soon broke down, and there ensued a prolonged and very destructive civil war. The supporters of al-Amin made an ill-judged attempt to invade Iran in the spring of 811 but were soundly defeated at Rayy (modern Shahr-e Rey, just south of modern Tehran). Al-Ma`mun's supporters retaliated by invading Iraq, and from August 812 until September 813 they laid siege to Baghdad, while the rest of Iraq slid into anarchy. The collapse of Baghdadi resistance and the death of al-Amin did not improve matters, for al-Ma`mun, now generally recognized as caliph, decided to rule from Marw in distant Khorasan (modern Mary, in Turkmenistan). This downgrading of Iraq united many different groups in prolonged and bitter resistance to al-Ma`mun's governor and led to another siege of Baghdad. Finally al-Ma`mun was forced to concede that he could not rule from a distance, and in August 819 he returned to Baghdad.
Once again Iraq was the central province of the Caliphate and Baghdad the capital, but the prolonged conflict had left much of Baghdad in ruins and caused great destruction in the countryside. It probably marked the beginning of the long decline in the prosperity of the area; this decline was marked from the 9th century onward.
Al-Ma`mun sent his generals to bring Syria and Egypt back under 'Abbasid rule and set about restoring the government apparatus, many of the administrative records having been destroyed in the fighting. His reign in Baghdad (819-833) saw Iraq become the centre of remarkable cultural activity, notably the translation of Greek science and philosophy into Arabic. The caliph himself collected texts, employed translators like the celebrated Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and established an academy in Baghdad, the Bayt al-Hikmah ("House of Wisdom"), with a library and an observatory. Private patrons such as the Banu Musa brothers followed his example. This activity had a profound effect not only on Muslim intellectual life but also on the intellectual life of western Europe, for much of the science and philosophy taught in universities in the Middle Ages was derived from these Arabic translations, rendered into Latin in Spain in the 12th century.
Politically the position was less rosy. Al-Ma`mun was unable to recruit sufficient forces to replace the old 'Abbasid army that had been destroyed in the civil war, and he became increasingly dependent on his younger brother, Abu Ishaq, who had gathered a small but highly efficient force of Turkish mercenaries, many of them slaves or ex-slaves from Central Asia. When al-Ma`mun died in 833, Abu Ishaq, under the title of al-Mu'tasim, succeeded him without difficulty. Al-Mu'tasim was no intellectual but rather an effective soldier and administrator. His reign marks the introduction into Iraq of an alien, usually Turkish, military class, which was to dominate the political life of the country for centuries to come. From this time Iraqi Arabs were rarely employed in military positions, though they continued to be influential in the civil administration.
The recruitment of this new military class provoked resentment among the Baghdadis, who felt that they were being excluded from power. This resentment led al-Mu'tasim to found a new capital at Samarra, the last major urban foundation in Iraq until the 20th century. He chose a site on the Tigris about 100 miles north of Baghdad. Here he laid out a city with palaces and mosques, broad straight streets, and a regular pattern of housing. The ruins of this city, which was expanded by his successor al-Mutawwakil (847-861), can still be seen on the ground and, more strikingly, in aerial photographs, in which the whole plan can be made out. Samarra` became a vast city, but it had none of the natural advantages of Baghdad: communication by river and canal with the Euphrates and southern Iraq was much more difficult, and despite massive investment the water supply was always inadequate. Samarra` survived only while it was the capital of the Caliphate, from 836 to 892. When the caliphs returned to Baghdad, it showed no independent urban vitality and soon shrank to a small provincial town, which is why its remains can still be seen when all traces of early 'Abbasid Baghdad have disappeared.
For nearly 30 years the new regime worked well, and Iraq was for the last time the centre of a large empire. Tax revenues from other areas enriched Samarra`, and Baghdad continued to prosper under the rule of the Tahirid family. Basra remained a great entrepôt on the Persian Gulf. The employment of Turkish soldiers without any ties to the local community gave rise to political instability, however. In 861 the caliph al-Mutawwakil was assassinated in his palace in Samarra` by disaffected troops, and there began a nine-year anarchy in which the Turkish soldiers made and deposed caliphs virtually at will. In 865 open civil war raged between Samarra` and Baghdad, resulting in another destructive siege of Baghdad.
The anarchy played itself out, and in 870 stability was restored with the caliph al-Mu'tamid in Samarra` as titular ruler and his dynamic military brother al-Muwaffaq exercising real power in Baghdad, but the anarchy had done real and lasting damage to Iraq. Almost all the provinces of the empire, both the Iranian lands in the east and Syria and Egypt to the west, had broken away and become independent. Worse, a major social revolt had broken out in southern Iraq itself. In the prosperous years of early Islamic Iraq, large numbers of slaves had been imported from East Africa to be used in grueling agricultural work in the marshes of southern Iraq. In 869 they rose in rebellion, led by an Arab who claimed to be a descendant of 'Ali. This rebellion was extremely serious for the 'Abbasid government: it laid to waste large areas of agricultural land, and the great trading port of Basra was taken and sacked in 871, the rebels burning mosques and houses and massacring the inhabitants with indiscriminate ferocity. Although Basra was soon recaptured, it is unlikely that it ever fully recovered, and trade shifted down the gulf to cities such as Siraf (modern Taheri) in southern Iran. The crushing of this revolt involved long and hard amphibious campaigns in the marshes, led by al-Muwaffaq and his son Abu` l-'Abbas (later the caliph al-Mu'tadid) from 879 until the rebel stronghold at Mukhtarah was finally taken in 883.
The reigns of al-Mu'tadid (892-902) and his son al-Muktafi (902-908) saw Iraq united under 'Abbasid control. Once more Baghdad was the capital, although the caliphs had largely abandoned the Round City of al-Mansur on the west bank, and the centre of government now lay on the east bank in the area that has remained the centre of the city ever since. It was a period of great cultural activity, and Baghdad was home to many intellectuals, including the great historian at-Tabari, whose vast work chronicled the early history of the Muslim state; however, it was no longer the capital of a great empire. During the reign of the boy caliph al-Muqtadir (908-932), the political situation deteriorated rapidly. The weakness of the caliph gave rise to endless intrigues among parties of viziers and to a growing tendency for the military to take matters into its own hands. Increasingly the government in Baghdad lost control of the revenues and lands of Iraq. In 935 the final crisis occurred when the caliph ar-Radi was obliged to hand over all real secular power to an ambitious general, Ibn Ra`iq.
The political catastrophe of the 'Abbasid Caliphate was accompanied by economic collapse. It is probable that the vicious circle of decline started with the civil war after Harun's death in 809, and there can be no doubt that it was exacerbated by the demands of the Turkish military for payment. Administrators increasingly resorted to short-term expedients such as tax farming, which encouraged extortion and oppression, and the granting of iqta's to the military. In theory, iqta's were grants of the right to collect and use tax revenues; they could not be inherited or sold. The purpose of an iqta' was that the soldiers themselves would collect what they could directly from lands assigned to them. Both these remedies put a premium on short-term exploitation of land rather than long-term investment. xcept in the north, most Iraqi agriculture was dependent on investment in and upkeep of complex irrigation works, and these new fiscal systems proved disastrous. In 935, the same year in which ar-Radi handed over power to the military leader Ibn Ra`iq, the greatest of the ancient irrigation works of central Iraq, the Nahrawan canal, was breached to impede an advancing army. The damage was never repaired, large areas went out of cultivation, and villages were abandoned. The destruction of the canal is symbolic of the end of the irrigation culture that had brought great wealth to ancient Mesopotamia and that had underpinned Sasanian and early Islamic government.

Central Asian Arts: Visual arts: EASTERN TURKISTAN

Uighurs The figural arts found new patrons in eastern Turkistan among the Turkic Uighurs, who while living in T'ang dynasty China had been influenced by Manichaean figurative art. The overthrow in China in AD 846 of Buddhism by official Confucianism forced the Buddhist Uighurs to migrate to eastern Turkistan. Gradually, they gained control over the Tien Shan region, Turfan, and the northeastern section of the Tarim Basin.

The Turkic Uighurs especially favoured portraiture. In the 7th and 8th centuries, Uighur artists already had acquired great proficiency in rendering likenesses in a style heavily influenced by Chinese portraiture of the T'ang period. These portraits were painted on silk and were frequently inscribed with the sitter's name. Khitans. The figural style is believed to have been transmitted to the Mongols by the Khitans when the latter were living on the middle reaches of the Yenisey.

The wealth of the Khitan princes is reflected in the furnishings of burial mounds discovered at Kopeni, some 200 miles (300 kilometres) to the south of Krasnoyarsk. Dating from the 7th to 8th century, these mounds were similar in type to those constructed by the nomads of the 1st millennium BC. One of the richest graves contained four gold jugs set on a silver dish and a number of gold, silver, and bronze ornaments (State Hermitage Museum). Two of the jugs, although undecorated, carry Orhon inscriptions on their bases. Two others are covered with delicate relief representations of birds and fish surrounded by flowers and vegetation, executed in a style influenced by Islamic art. A Scytho-Altaic hunting motif of riders pursuing a tiger, a deer, and a panther appears on a bronze ornamental object.

Turkic tribes had been concentrating their numbers in Central Asia from about the 5th century AD. In the 6th century the Kul Tepe and Bilge Khan tribes established a state of their own in the Orhon valley. The inscriptions that they carved on the valley's rocks are of considerable historical importance. In the 7th century the Turkic Oguz people were so numerous that they constituted 24 tribes. The Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, and Seljuqs were of Oguz extraction

The Samanids centred their kingdom in Khorasan. In the 9th century, under the leadership of Esma'il, they ruled over Transoxania and eastern Persia from their capital of Bukhara. Esma'il's türbe, or mausoleum, the oldest Islamic monument surviving in Bukhara, reproduces the form of the Zoroastrian chanar taq, or fire temple. In Samanid and Seljuqid hands, the türbe generally took the of small circular or octagonal building, roofed with a turret shaped like the point of a pencil. Mounted on a solid or single-vaulted substructure, its single chamber had a domed ceiling and a mihrab, or niche indicating the direction of Mecca. In the more elaborate türbes, the single door was framed with bands of geometric decoration, and the turret was sometimes ribbed. (see also Index:Samanid dynasty, Zoroastrianism) Ghaznavids and Ghurids. Alp Tigin, a slave of Turkic origin at the Samanid court, escaped in AD 962 to Kabul, where he rapidly gained control of the town. He transferred his headquarters to Ghazna in central Afghanistan and established his dynasty there. Few Ghaznavid works of art have survived, but the admirably proportioned and decorated mortuary towers at Ghazna are architectural achievements of great splendour. Still finer is the minaret of Jam, a Ghurid structure of the 11th century. Standing alone in a desolate region, it escaped discovery until 1957. It is conjectured that the minaret may mark the position of the lost Ghurid capital of Firuzkuh. (see also Index: Ghaznavid dynasty, tomb, funerary art, Ghurid sultanate) Seljuqs.The art of the Seljuqs, who founded kingdoms in Persia, eastern Byzantium, Syria, and Iraq, eclipsed that of the Samanids, Ghurids, and Ghaznavids. They were great architectural patrons and constructed numerous mosques, madrasahs (Islamic religious schools), hospitals, orphanages, baths, caravansaries, bridges, and türbes notable for their decorative masonry, elaborately ornamented portals, and use of Kufic script as an architectural decorative device. The Seljuqs also attained a high standard in their decorative arts, especially metalwork, wood carving, and pottery. The Mongols, who terminated the Seljuq period, adopted certain Seljuqid artistic conventions, particularly the use of ornamented portals and glazed-tile paneling.

The Samanids, and Samanid dynasty

There was nothing of the popular hero in the Samanids' origin. Their eponym was Saman-Khuda, a landlord in the district of Balkh and, according to the dynasty's claims, a descendant of Bahram Chubin, the Sasanid general. Saman became Muslim. His four grandsons were rewarded for services to the caliph al-Ma`mun (813-833) and received the caliph's investiture for areas that included Samarkand and Herat. They thus gained wealthy Transoxanian and east Khorasanian entrepôt cities, where they could profit from trade across Asia, even as far as Scandinavia, and the provision of Turkish slaves, much in demand in Baghdad, while they protected the frontiers and provided security for merchants in Bukhara, Samarkand, Khojand, and Herat. With one transitory exception, they upheld orthodoxy and at each new accession paid a tribute to Baghdad for the tokens of investiture from the caliph whereby their rule represented lawful authority. Thus, legal transactions in Samanid realms would be valid, and Baghdad received tribute in return for the insignia prayed over and signed by the caliph. This tribute took the place of regular revenue, so that it represented a solution of those taxation problems and the consequent resentments that had bedeviled the Umayyad regime. In modern assessments of imperial power, Baghdad may seem to have been politically the weaker for this type of arrangement, but ensuring the reign of Islam in peripheral provinces was important to the caliphs. Islam's portals to the Far East were adequately guarded, the supply of Turkish slaves was maintained, and Turkish pagan tribes were converted to Islam under the Samanid aura.
SHOOBIYEH a revolutionary group, Akhavane Saless, Ba

SAMANID DYNASTY (AD 819-999)

Samanid was the first native dynasty to arise in Iran after the Muslim Arab conquest. It was renowned for the impulse that it gave to Iranian national sentiment and learning.
The four grandsons of the dynasty's founder, Saman-Khoda, had been rewarded with provinces for their faithful service to the 'Abbasid caliph al-Ma`mun: Nuh obtained Samarkand; Ahmad, Fergana; Yahya, Shash; and Elyas, Herat. Ahmad's son Nasr became governor of Transoxania, also spelled Transoxnana, Arabic Ma Wara` An-nahr ("That Which Lies Beyond the River"), historical region of Turkistan in Central Asia east of the Amu Darya (Oxus River) and west of the Syr Darya (Jaxartes River), roughly corresponding to present-day Uzbekistan and parts of Turkmenistan and Kazakstan. A great centre of Muslim civilization during the European Middle Ages, Transoxania was the centre of the Timurid empire in the 15th century, and its cities Bukhara and Samarkand were known worldwide. The region came under Russian occupation in the 19th century.
in 875, but it was his brother and successor, Isma'il I (892-907), who overthrew the Saffarids in Khorasan (900) and the Zaydites of Tabaristan, thus establishing a semiautonomous rule over Transoxania and Khorasan, with Bukhara as his capital.
Under the loosely centralized feudal government of the Samanids, Transoxania and Khorasan prospered, with a notable expansion of industry and commerce, attested by the use of Samanid silver coins as currency throughout northern Asia. The main cities of Samarkand and Bukhara became cultural centres. Persian literature flourished in the works of the poets Rudaki and Ferdowsi, philosophy and history were encouraged, and the foundations of Iranian Islamic culture were laid.
The most important contribution of the Samanid age to Islamic art is the pottery produced at Nishapur and Samarkand. The Samanids developed a technique known as slip painting: mixing semi fluid clay (slip) with their colours to prevent the designs from running when fired with the thin fluid glazes used at that time. Bowls and simple plates were the most common forms made by Samanid potters. The potters employed stylized Sasanian motifs such as horsemen, birds, lions, and bulls' heads, as well as Arabic calligraphic design. Polychrome pieces usually had a buff or red body with designs of several colours, bright yellows, greens, black, purples, and reds being the most common. Many pottery pieces were produced at Nishapur, however, with only a single line on a white background. The art of bronze casting and other forms of metalwork also flourished at Nishapur throughout the Samanid period.
Although few Samanid buildings have survived, a mausoleum of Isma'il the Samanid (d. 907), still standing in Bukhara, shows the originality of the architecture of the era. The perfectly symmetrical mausoleum is constructed entirely of brick; brick is also used to form decorative patterns in relief, based on the position and direction of each architectural unit.
From the mid-10th century, Samanid power was gradually undermined, economically by the interruption of the northern trade and politically by a struggle with a confederation of disaffected nobles. Weakened, the Samanids became vulnerable to pressure from the rising Turkish powers in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Nuh II (976-997), to retain at least nominal control, confirmed Sebüktigin, a former Turkish slave, as semi-independent ruler of Ghazna (modern Ghazni, Afg.) and appointed his son Mahmud governor of Khorasan. But the Turkish Qarakhanids, who then occupied the greater part of Transoxania, allied with Mahmud and deposed the Samanid Mansur II, taking possession of Khorasan. Bukhara fell in 999, and the last Samanid, Isma'il II, after a five-year struggle against the Ghaznavid Mahmud and the Qarakhanids, was assassinated in 1005.

Ghaznavid Dynasty Turkish dynasty (AD 977-1186)

Ghaznavid Dynasty (AD 977-1186), Turkish dynasty that ruled in Khorasan (in northeastern Iran), Afghanistan, and northern India. The founder of the dynasty was Sebüktigin (ruled 977-997), a former Turkish slave who was recognized by the Samanids (an Iranian Muslim dynasty) as governor of Ghazna (modern Ghazni, Afg.). As the Samanid dynasty weakened, Sebüktigin consolidated his position and expanded his domains as far as the Indian border. His son Mahmud (ruled 998-1030) continued the expansionist policy, and by 1005 the Samanid territories had been divided. The river Oxus formed the boundary between the two successor states to the Samanid Empire, the Ghaznavids ruling in the west and the Qarakhanids in the east. Ghaznavid power reached its zenith during Mahmud's reign. He created an empire that stretched from the Oxus to the Indus Valley and the Indian Ocean; in the west he captured (from the Buyids) the Iranian cities of Rayy and Hamadan. A devout Muslim, Mahmud reshaped the Ghaznavids from their pagan Turkic origins into an Islamic dynasty and expanded the frontiers of Islam. The Persian poet Ferdowsi (d. 1020) completed his epic Shah-nameh ("Book of Kings") at the court of Mahmud about 1010. Mahmud's son Mas'ud I (reigned 1031-41) was unable to preserve the power or even the integrity of the Ghaznavid empire. In Khorasan and Khwarezm, Ghaznavid power was challenged by the Seljuq Turks. Mas'ud suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Dandanqan (1040), whence all the Ghaznavid territories in Iran and Central Asia were lost to the Seljuqs. The Ghaznavids were left in possession of eastern Afghanistan and northern India, where they continued to rule until 1186, when Lahore fell to the Ghurids. Little survives of Ghaznavid art, but the period is important for its influence on the Seljuq Turks in Iran and on later Islamic art in India.

Seljuq Turks, Migration and renewal (1041-1270)

The Seljuqs were a family among the Oguz Turks, a label applied to the migratory pastoralists of the Syrdarya-Oxus basin. Their name has come to stand for the group of Oguz families led into Ghaznavid Khorasan after they had been converted to Sunnite Islam, probably by Sufi missionaries after the beginning of the 11th century. In 1040 the Seljuqs' defeat of the Ghaznavid sultan allowed them to proclaim themselves rulers of Khorasan. Having expanded into western Iran as well, Toghrïl Beg, also using the title "sultan," was able to occupy Baghdad (1055) after "petitioning" the 'Abbasid caliph for permission. The Seljuqs quickly took the remaining Buyid territory and began to occupy Syria, whereupon they encountered Byzantine resistance in the Armenian highlands. In 1071 a Seljuq army under Alp-Arslan defeated the Byzantines at Manzikert north of Lake Van; while the main Seljuq army replaced the Fatimids in Syria.
Eldegüzids of Azerbaijan (1137-1225) and Salghurids of Fars (1148-1270) split Iran into independent rival principalities. (see also Index: Eldegüzid dynasty, Salghurid dynasty) The Salghurid court in Shiraz especially fostered the arts, as parvenu, competitive courts are wont to do. The poet Sa'di (died 1292) was a contemporary in Shiraz of the Salghurid atabeg Abu Bakr ebn Sa'd ebn Zangi (1231-60), to whom he alludes by name in his Bustan ("The Orchard"), a book of ethics in verse. Abu Bakr's father, Sa'd, after whom Sa'di took his pen name.

Mongols Genghis Khan (1224 - 1335)

Mongols. Genghis Khan, the renowned Mongol conqueror, sacked and destroyed Bukhara in 1224, sparing only the 12th-century Kalyan tower, which was used for throwing criminals to their death.
The Mongol conquest of Iran was complete by the 1258 seizure of Baghdad. Under the dynastic name of II-Khans, monarchs of Mongol descent ruled Iran, but initially they were not Muslim. Ghazi Khan (1295-1304) had been raised as a Buddhist and accepted Islam only on his accession to the throne. His successor Uljaytu had been baptized and brought up as a Nestorian Christian before, influenced by one of his wives, he became a Muslim. But the end of the 13th century the II- Khans had became an indigenous, Muslim dynasty with a strong devotion to patronage of Iranian Islamic culture that is perhaps most noticeable in the arts of the precious book. Under the influence of powerful viziers II-Khan rulers commissioned the greatest extant 14th - century manuscripts- the 1306 and 1314 manuscripts of the Jami al tawarikh and the c. 1335-35 Demotte Shahnameh, and they established a model of centralized, style-setting, royal patronage that was to be the pattern for the development of the art of the illustrated manuscripts in Iran.
With the death of the ruler Abu Sa'id in 1335 the II Khan state broke up and was supplanted or displaced by regional powers and patrons like the
Injus in Shiraz and the Jalayrids in Tabriz.

14th-century Turkic conqueror Timur and Timurids (AD 1400)

The 14th-century Turkic conqueror Timur, however, endowed Samarkand with new glory by building a series of religious monuments widely renowned for their splendour and decorative use of glazed tiles. Timur's invasion and conquest in the late 14th century shifted the royal centre east to Herat. Timur's son and successor of Shah Rukh (1404-47) supported an archaicizing style of painting based on the Tabriz style of a century before, while Shah Rukh's son Baysunghur distinguished himself as one of the most gifted royal artists and connoisseurs in Islamic history. He established an image of princely culture and patronage that was to serve as model for many later rulers, particularly those of Timurid descent. For eastern Islam, strongly under the influence of Iranian culture. Heart remained the leading cultural centre well into the 16th century, and its leading artists-painters like Behzad and calligraphers like Mir'Ali- established methods and styles that would be perpetuated as ideas of elegance for many decades.

LATE PERIOD, SAFAVID ART

Islamic Arts: Visual arts. Safavid art. The Safavid dynasty was founded by Esma'il I (1501-24). The art of this dynasty reached its zenith during the reigns of Tahmasp (1524-76) and of 'AbbasI (1588-1629). This phase of the Safavid period also marked the last significant development of Islamic art in Iran, for after the middle of the 17th century original creativity disappeared in all mediums. Rugs and objects in silver, gold, and enamel continued to be made and exhibited a considerable technical virtuosity, even when they were lacking in inventiveness. The Safavids abandoned Central Asia and northeastern Iran to a new Uzbek dynasty that maintained the Timurid style in many buildings (especially at Bukhara) and briefly sponsored a minor and derivative school of painting. The main centers of the Safavid empire were Tabriz and Ardabil in the northwest.

M.K.SADIGH

Oct.10, 2001, New York