Arab conquest of Persia; CCWV.LIFE

The Arab Muslim armies defeat the Sasanians, and Yazdegerd III, the last king, is killed in 651. Persia passes under Muslim rule; over the following centuries most Iranians convert to Islam, and the Zoroastrians who hold their faith become a minority in their own land. The date here follows the table; the Denkard and Bundahishn were compiled after this conquest from older materials.

Tagged: Iranian Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism

The Event

Date: 651 (exact)
Era: Early Islamic Centuries; Standard periodization of Zoroastrian history
Location: Persia; today Iran
Traditions: Zoroastrianism
Streams: Iranian Zoroastrian

How the Tradition Tells It

The conquest's date is given as 651, the death of Yazdegerd III; the military collapse unfolded from the battle of al-Qadisiyya in 636, and the community's own memory of the centuries after is told differently in Iran and in India.

Primary Sources

The tradition's own record of the event.

Secondary Sources

Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. London: Routledge, 1979.
Choksy, Jamsheed K. Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Encyclopaedia Iranica, entries on the Avesta, the Sasanians, and the Parsi calendar disputes.
Hinnells, John R. The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Rose, Jenny. Zoroastrianism: An Introduction. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011.

Provenance: HIST-1010; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-28.