Editing History of Iran (section)

====Islamic conquest of Persia (633–651)====
{{Main|Muslim conquest of Persia}}
[[File:Map of expansion of Caliphate.svg|400px|thumb|Phases of the Islamic conquest {{legend|#a1584e|Expansion under Muhammad, 622–632}} {{legend|#ef9070|Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661}} {{legend|#fad07d|Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750}}]]

In 633, when the Sasanian king [[Yazdegerd III]] was ruling over Iran, the Muslims under [[Umar]] invaded the country right after it had been in a bloody civil war. Several Iranian nobles and families such as king Dinar of the [[House of Karen]], and later [[Kanarang]]iyans of [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]], mutinied against their Sasanian overlords. Although the [[House of Mihran]] had claimed the Sasanian throne under the two prominent generals [[Bahrām Chōbin]] and [[Shahrbaraz]], it remained loyal to the Sasanians during their struggle against the Arabs, but the Mihrans were eventually betrayed and defeated by their own kinsmen, the [[House of Ispahbudhan]], under their leader [[Farrukhzad]], who had mutinied against Yazdegerd III.

Yazdegerd III fled from one district to another until a local miller killed him for his purse at [[Merv]] in 651.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://p2.www.britannica.com/oscar/print?articleId=106324&fullArticle=true&tocId=9106324 | title=Iran | encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] | access-date=2007-06-21 | archive-date=2013-08-13 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130813184232/http://p2.www.britannica.com/oscar/print?articleId=106324&fullArticle=true&tocId=9106324 | url-status=live }}</ref> By 674, Muslims had conquered [[Greater Khorasan]] (which included modern Iranian Khorasan province and modern Afghanistan and parts of [[Transoxiana]]).

The [[Muslim conquest of Persia]] ended the Sasanian Empire and led to the eventual decline of the [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] religion in Persia. Over time, the majority of Iranians converted to Islam. Most of the aspects of the previous Persian civilizations were not discarded but were absorbed by the new [[Islam]]ic polity. As [[Bernard Lewis]] has commented:
{{blockquote|"These events have been variously seen in Iran: by some as a blessing, the advent of the true faith, the end of the age of ignorance and heathenism; by others as a humiliating national defeat, the conquest and subjugation of the country by foreign invaders. Both perceptions are of course valid, depending on one's angle of vision."<ref name="lewis">{{cite web|url=http://www.tau.ac.il/dayancenter/mel/lewis.html |title=Iran in history |first=Bernard |last=Lewis |publisher=[[Tel Aviv University]] |access-date=2007-04-03  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070429144545/http://www.tau.ac.il/dayancenter/mel/lewis.html |archive-date=2007-04-29 }}</ref>}}