650 – 660s

Events in the 650s 3

• 224 – 651 Sasanian Empire — last pre-Islamic empire The longest-lived Persian imperial dynasty Founded by Ardashir I, the Sasanian Empire revived Persian power, made Zoroastrianism the state religion, and ruled as a superpower rivalling Rome and Byzantium for over four centuries. It was a golden age of Persian art, architecture and administration before falling to the Arab Muslim conquest.
• 633 – 651 Muslim conquest of Persia Islam replaces Zoroastrianism as the dominant faith The Arab Muslim armies overthrew the Sasanian Empire between 633 and 651, ending over a thousand years of Persian imperial religion. Islam gradually replaced Zoroastrianism, but Persian language and culture survived and would deeply shape Islamic civilisation.
• 651 – 1501 Islamic Persia — caliphates, Seljuks and Mongols Centuries of Islamic rule and a Persian cultural flowering After the conquest, Persia was ruled successively by the Arab caliphates, Persian and Turkic dynasties, the Seljuk Turks, and — devastatingly — the Mongols under Genghis Khan and Hulagu in the 13th century. Yet this era produced a brilliant Persian cultural renaissance: the poetry of Ferdowsi, Rumi, Hafez and Omar Khayyam, and advances in science and mathematics.