Ulaş Töre Sivrioğlu

While nostalgia is a modern term, the longing for a lost and glorified past was undoubtedly available throughout the ages. In this respect, the Romans’ craving for the Augustus era, the Muslims’ longing for Asri Saadet or the Ottomans’ glorification of the Suleiman the Magnificent era can be described as “nostalgic”. The emphasis on nostalgic past for Iranian Muslims in the Middle Ages was primarily focused on the Sassanid past. During the early Islamic centuries, Iranian poets, writers, historians who wrote in Persian and Arabic took an attitude that glorified the Sasani past and belittled the Arab history. This attitude, some of which are reflections of the daily political climate of their era, appears as one of the reflections of the tension between Iranian and Arab Muslims, especially in the Abbasid Caliphate era. High-ranking Muslim Iranian bureaucracies have at times been accused of trying to restore the Sassanid dynasty. This accusation was also made against Shi’ite movements. On the other hand, it cannot be claimed that the Sasani heritage was owned only by Shi’ites or Iranians. In the development of Islamic civilization, the Sasani heritage has also influenced Muslim Arabs, especially in the geography called “Mashrik” countries. Although many studies have been carried out on the role of the Sassanid heritage in the development of the Islamic civilization, it has not been examined well enough whether Muslims have adopted this heritage with a nostalgic yearning or inherited by necessity. In this study, the approaches of the medieval Muslims to the Sasanian heritage have been examined by considering the nostalgia, trying to understand why Muslim Iranians and Arabs are interested in the Sasanian past and for what purposes they try to keep this heritage alive. This study aims to examine the efforts of Muslim Iranians who are stuck between Islamic religion and culture and Sasanian heritage to reconcile both cultural codes and the results of the tension they fell into during these efforts. In addition, it will also try to explain why the Muslim Iranians so persistently and vigorously defended their Sasanian heritage.
Keywords: Sasanids, Islamic Period, Persian, Literature, Muslim Iranians, Nostalgia.