Daylamites
Map showing Daylam in western Tabaristan. The Daylamites or Dailamites (Middle Persian: Daylamīgān ; Persian: دیلمیان Deylamiyān ) were an Iranian people inhabiting the Daylam—the mountainous regions of northern Iran on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. [1] They were employed as soldiers from the time of the Sasanian Empire, and long resisted the Muslim conquest of Persia and subsequent Islamization. In the 930s, the Daylamite Buyid dynasty emerged and managed to gain control over much of modern-day Iran, which it held until the coming of the Seljuq Turks in the mid-11th century. Contents 1 Origins, language and equipment 2 History 2.1 Pre-Islamic period 2.1.1 Seleucid and Parthian period 2.1.2 Sasanian period 2.2 Islamic period 2.2.1 Resistance to the Arabs 2.2.2 The Daylamite expansion 3 Culture 3.1 Names 3.2 Religion 3.3 Customs, equipment and appearance 4 References 5 Sources Origins, langu...