How did Persian culture survive the Arab conquest, and what did the Shahnameh do for it?

Mostly through language and memory: Persian survived the Arab conquest, took on Arabic words and script, and then found a monument in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, an epic of some 50,000 couplets that some experts call a pillar of the modern Persian language. Whether Ferdowsi set out to rescue Persian identity is debated.

First the conquest. The Rashidun Caliphate conquered the Sasanian Empire between 633 and 651. The Arabs defeated the Persian army in several battles, ending with Nahavand, the last major Sasanian battle, and the dynasty ended with the death of Yazdegerd III in 651.

But not everything vanished. The administrative system of the late Sasanian period was largely retained under the Rashiduns and early Umayyads. Under the Umayyads, Arabic became the primary language of their subjects, yet most of Middle Persian's structure and vocabulary survived, evolving into New Persian. It took in Arabic words and switched to a modified Arabic alphabet.

Centuries later, the Samanid bureaucracy used New Persian and commissioned translations of Pahlavi texts into it. In that climate Ferdowsi wrote the Shahnameh, or "Book of Kings", between about 977 and 1010. It tells Iran's mainly mythical and partly historical past from the creation of the world to the Muslim conquest, and it took him 33 years.

Traditional Iranian historiography says he was grieved by the fall of the Sasanians and wanted to preserve the memory of Persia's golden days. Most scholars agree that preserving the pre-Islamic legacy was his main concern, though some challenge this. Either way, some experts say, works like the Shahnameh explain why Persian today is largely the same language as in his time.