Iran in World History

819–999
Samanid Empire in Central Asia; 
re-emergence of Persian as literary and 
administrative language
980–1010
Poet Ferdowsi redacts Iranian heroic 
epic 
Shah-nameh
from various oral and 
written sources
977–1116
Ghaznavid Turkic Empire; lives of 
scholars Avicenna and Abu Rayhan 
Biruni; Turco-Persian Islamic culture 
introduced into India
1037–1194
Seljuk Empire; life of Sufi theologian 
Mohammad Ghazali; suppression 
of Shi‘ism and reaction of Isma‘ili 
assassins
1256–1335
Ilkhanid Empire; Mongol con-
quests, assimilation of Mongols to 
Perso-Islamic culture; lives of poets 
Jalal od-din Rumi and Sa‘di of Shiraz

---

C h r o n o l o g y
126
1370–1507
Timurid Empire; flourishing of litera-
ture and the arts, life of classical poet 
Hafez; fragmentation of empire into 
regional kingdoms
1501–1722
Safavid Empire; Iran forcibly converted 
to Shi‘ism; apogee of Persian paint-
ing tradition; rise of Timurid Mughal 
Empire in India, attracting many 
Iranian migrants
1736–96
Khorasan-based Afsharid dynasty
1747
Foundation of Afghanistan
1760–94
Shiraz-based Zand dynasty
1796–1925
Ghajar dynasty; weak government, 
regions under control of powerful 
landowners; rise of European hege-
mony; rising Kurdish nationalism
1925–79
Pahlavi dynasty; modernization of Iran; 
Iranian-speaking Tajiks and Ossetes 
under Soviet rule
1978–80
Iranian revolution; Islamists led by 
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini margin-
alize rival revolutionary groups and 
establish Islamic Republic