Iranism of Buyids Dynasty

The Buyid government, which ruled most of the northern, central, southern and western parts of Iranshahr in the 4th and 5th centuries AH, was the first stable Post-Islamic Iranian government to take over the territory of Sassanid Iranshahr, except Khorasan, Merv and Sistan. Helping to spread Shi’ism, not emphasizing Persian language and writing Shahnameh, and accepting the Islamic caliphate by the Buyids, had been one of the reasons why historians and Iranologists have neglected the Iranianism of this government. This essay tries to reveal the role and contribution of the Buyid government in preservation and retrieval of national-Iranian identity and the transfer of Sassanid Iranian culture and identity to the Islamic era by analyzing the reasons of neglecting the Persian language and showing other important elements of Iranian-Sassanid identity in this period. It seems that among the elements of Iranian identity in this period, the formation of Iranian government, descent-making, Iranian rituals, Iranian architecture, Shi’ism and Sufism, along with religious and scientific tolerance, have been more important and efficient, which this essay has explained them.