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"Say to the desert Arabs
who lagged behind: 'You shall be summoned against a people given
to vehement war: you shall fight them, or they shall submit.
Then if you show obedience, Allah will grant you a goodly reward,
but if you turn back as you did before, He will punish you with
a painful Punishment."
[Quran 48:16]
The fort of Nujair, the
last stronghold of apostasy, had fallen to the Muslims in about
the middle of February 633. Soon after, Abu Bakr wrote to Khalid,
who was still at Yamamah: "Proceed to Iraq. Start operations
in the region of Uballa. Fight the Persians and the people who inhabit
their land. Your objective is Hira." 1
It was a big order. Abu Bakr was taking
on the mightiest empire of the time, before which the world had
trembled for more than a thousand years.
The Persian Empire was unique in many ways.
It was the first truly great empire of history, stretching, in the
time of the early Achaemenians, from Northern Greece in the west
to the Punjab in the east. It was unique also in the length of time
over which it flourished-from the Sixth Century BC to the Seventh
Century AD, except for a gap caused by the Greek conquest. 2
No other empire in history had lasted so long in all its greatness
as a force of culture and civilisation and as a military power.
It had known reverses, but after each reverse it had risen again
in its characteristic glory and brilliance.
The last golden age of Persia had occurred
in the Sixth Century AD when Anushirwan the Just restored the empire
to its earlier level of greatness. Anushirwan reigned for 48 years
and was a contemporary of Justinian. He wrested Syria from the Romans,
the Yemen from the Abyssinians, and much of Central Asia from the
Turks and other wild tribes of the steppes. This magnificent emperor
died in 579, nine years after the birth of Prophet Muhammad.
As often happens when a great ruler passes
away, Anushirwan was followed by a number of lesser mortals and
the glory and prosperity of the empire began to fade. Civil war
and intrigue sapped the strength of the state. The decline approached
its climax in the time of Shiruya (Ciroes) a great-grandson of Anushirwan,
who first imprisoned and then killed his father, Chosroes Parwez.
Not content with this heinous crime, he turned to worse cruelties.
So that none may dispute his right to the throne or pose a challenge
to his authority, he had all the male members of his family killed
with the exception of his son, Ardshir. The estimate of those of
the house of Anushirwan who lost their lives to the maniacal fury
of Shiruya, adult and child, varies from 15 to 18. And Shiruya reigned
for only seven months before he too was dead.
With his death the confusion became worse.
And there is confusion also in the accounts of the early historians
about the order in which various emperors followed Shiruya and the
duration of their respective reigns. All that is certain and unanimously
accepted is the position of Yazdjurd bin Shahryar bin Perwez, who
somehow escaped the assassins of Shiruya and became the last Persian
Emperor of the line of Sasan. This ill-starred young man was to
see the final disintegration of the great empire of the Chosroes.
1. Tabari: Vol. 2, pp. 553-4.
2. The Parthians, who overthrew the Seleucid
power, though not Persians, were nevertheless Iranians. Thus the
Greek interlude lasted less than two centuries until its end at
the hands of the Parthians in the middle of the Second Century BC,
The Persian Sasanids came to power in 220 AD.
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