Arab Conquest & Early Islam

The Arab Muslim conquest of the 630s-640s fundamentally transformed Kurdish lands, though the process was neither swift nor peaceful. Kurdish tribes initially allied with the Sassanids to resist the invasion -- al-Tabari records that in 639 CE, the Sassanid general Hormuzan called upon Kurdish warriors to fight the Arabs in Khuzestan. Mass conversion under Caliph Umar (634-644) was driven by military pressure and incentives like tax exemptions, but fierce resistance persisted for roughly a century, with Kurdish revolts recorded in 645, 659, and 666 across regions from Jazira to Isfahan. While Kurds eventually embraced Islam -- predominantly the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islam -- they maintained their distinct language, culture, and tribal structures, never becoming Arabized. From the Islamic conquest until the 10th century, Kurdish groups played a marginal political role, mentioned primarily as mercenaries and rebels, until the fragmentation of the Abbasid caliphate finally allowed Kurdish dynasties to rise.