Deylamian

Deilamian

دیلمیان

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.

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