Daylaman was a province of
Persia, used to be called Deylam; the latter can be the singular form, now a city/region in
Siahkal part of
Gilan,
Iran.Civilization in the area has a history older than 5000 years. Before
Arab invasion,
Deylaman extended from east to
Babol in
Mazandaran and to
Qazvin in south.
Sepidrood was the western border of Deylaman.
Deylamian army was always referred to as independent infantry serving as mercenaries under the
Achaemenid,
Parthian, and
Sassanid Empires. Bloody wars between Deylamian army and Arab invaders near
Zanjan, Qazvin and
Hamedan are among few important resistances after the
Nahavand War.A famous person from Deylam was Sass anid General Vahraz (
Vahriz) who threw his spear from a very long distance at the
Ethiopian king, taking him down right away thus winning the
Iranian army in an otherwise lost war in 570. Vahriz was a Deylamite spahbod in the service of the Sassanid Empire. He was the head of a small expeditionary force of low ranking Azatan (Azadan) nobility, numbering around 700, sent by
Khosrau I to
Yemen. The Yemenites had requested
Khosrau's assistance against the Ethiopians of Axum, who had occupied large parts of the country. Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan, the son of Dhu Yazan, went to Khosrau and offered him all of Yemen if his army would defeat the Ethiopians. After King Masruq was killed, the Ethiopians fled, Vahriz conquered
Sanaa and then went on to conquer the rest of the country. Vahriz then took up residence as the
Persian governor of Yemen, which became a vassal state of the Sassanids until the arrival of
Islam.Deylaman could never be conquered by Arab invaders through war. After the Alavid took refuge in the area due to suppression by the
Abbasi Caliphs, some people converted to Islam and later dynasties such as the Buyid, Ziarian, Kakovan, and Mosaferian (Kangarian) flourished. The Buyid became the most powerful Iranian dynasty after the Arab invasion who took
Baghdad, capital of the
Caliphate under their dominion.
Tags:Abbasi, Achaemenid, Arab, Babol, Baghdad, Caliphate, Deylaman, Deylamian, Ethiopian, Gilan, Hamedan, Iran, Iranian, Islam, Khosrau, Khosrau I, Mazandaran, Nahavand, Parthian, Persia, Persian, Qazvin, Sanaa, Sassanid, Sepidrood, Siahkal, Vahriz, Yemen, Zanjan