Persian celebrations during the early Abbasid Caliphate

Traditional celebrations and religious cults are among the main characteristics of every civilization and culture. In Iran, the case has been even more interesting. Pre-Islamic Iranian culture treated celebrations and ceremonials with a special regard. There were several monthly celebrations most of them related with religion and agriculture. After converting Iranian people to Islam, a good number of these celebrations, particularly Nawrūz and Mehrgān survived and continued to being performed at due dates. Abbasid caliphs in contrary to their Umayyad predecessors, who used to maintain a strong bias for Arab race and culture, were interested in Persian culture and ceremonials. Their affecting by Persian mirror for princes as well as the influential presence of Iranian viziers like Ibn Muqaffa’, the Barmakides, etc. in Abbasid court has contributed to this cultural survival. This study has touched upon the situation of Iranian celebrations during early Abbasid period as a subject which needs more investigation. In this way, it mainly relied on sparse textual materials which are mostly gleaned from different library sources. It proceeded through an analytical method in order to compose these textual materials into an explanative narration. The results show that the primary purpose of the Abbasid caliphs’ tolerance for Iranian celebration was of political and expedient nature. Nawrūz, Mehrgān and Sedeh were more customary celebrations which their holding was of financial importance.