Islam in Iran

The <a href="/facts/Muslim_conquest_of_Persia/o3y3Wxhk">Arab conquest of Iran</a>, which culminated in the fall of the <a href="/facts/Sasanian_Empire/JvbRevkA">Sasanian Empire</a> to the nascent <a href="/facts/Rashidun_Caliphate/UBtWHvDj">Rashidun Caliphate</a>, brought about a monumental change in Iranian society by purging <a href="/facts/Zoroastrianism/rM0QUMtg">Zoroastrianism</a>, which had been the Iranian nation's official and majority religion since the time of the <a href="/facts/Achaemenid_Empire/avlzWxF0">Achaemenid Empire</a>. Since the Rashidun invasion, Islam (in any form) has consistently held the status of Iran's official religion except for during a short period in the 13th century, when the <a href="/facts/Mongol_invasions_and_conquests/dVfUoc9J">Mongol invasions and conquests</a> destroyed the <a href="/facts/Abbasid_Caliphate/mPeLAbXt">Abbasid Caliphate</a> and smaller Islamic realms before resulting in the establishment of the <a href="/facts/Ilkhanate/ukltWdQk">Ilkhanate</a>. The process by which Iranian society became integrated into the <a href="/facts/Muslim_world/n9vVGogr">Muslim world</a> took place over many centuries, with nobility and city-dwellers being among the first to convert, in spite of notable periods of resistance, while the peasantry and the <a href="/facts/Dehqan/gKnHvoEI">dehqans</a> (land-owning magnates) took longer to do so. Around the 10th century, most <a href="/facts/Persians/4GhM3jl2">Persians</a> had become <a href="/facts/Muslims/W2ukq4pg">Muslims</a>.
Between the 7th century and the 15th century, <a href="/facts/Sunni_Islam/WYo0zeq0">Sunni Islam</a> was the dominant sect in Iran, and Iranian academics of this period contributed greatly to the <a href="/facts/Islamic_Golden_Age/yAeG2rBA">Islamic Golden Age</a>. In the 16th century, the newly enthroned <a href="/facts/Safavid_dynasty/QmhkbI06">Safavid dynasty</a> initiated a massive campaign to install <a href="/facts/Shia_Islam/JIQl7ooz">Shia Islam</a> as Iran's official sect, aggressively proselytizing the faith and <a href="/facts/Safavid_conversion_of_Iran_to_Shia_Islam/Pbud0xlU">forcibly converting the Iranian populace</a>. The Safavids' actions triggered tensions with the neighbouring Sunni-majority <a href="/facts/Ottoman_Empire/6QvfTRsg">Ottoman Empire</a>, in part due to the flight of non-Shia refugees from Iran. It is estimated that by the mid-17th century, Iran had become a Shia-majority nation. Over the following centuries, with the state-fostered rise of an Iran-based Shia clergy, a synthesis was formed between <a href="/facts/Culture_of_Iran/3nU0YMQH">Iranian culture</a> and Shia Islam that marked each indelibly with the tincture of the other. Later, under the <a href="/facts/Pahlavi_dynasty/FDYMgMos">Pahlavi dynasty</a>, Islamic influence on Iranian society was rolled back in order to assert a new Iranian national identity—one that focused on pre-Islamic Iran by shedding more light on Zoroastrian tradition and other aspects of ancient Iranian society, particularly during the Achaemenid era. However, in 1979, the <a href="/facts/Iranian_Revolution/frTYhJ0F">Islamic Revolution</a> brought about yet another monumental change by ending the <a href="/facts/List_of_monarchs_of_Persia/NyYXHApF">historic Iranian monarchy</a> and replacing it with an <a href="/facts/Islamic_republic/hE0SWdyj">Islamic republic</a>.

Islam in Iran open-in-new

Islam in Iran