The period is noteworthy since it was an interlude between the decline of Abbāsid rule and power by Arabs and the "Sunni Revival" with the 11th-century emergence of the Seljuq Turks.

[8] The historian Clifford Edmund Bosworth states in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam that Minorsky considers the Rawadids to be flourishing during the period of the Iranian intermezzo.

The Saffarid dynasty (Persian: سلسله صفاریان) was an Iranian empire[10] which ruled in Sistan (861–1003), a historical region in southeastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan.

[18] With their roots stemming from the city of Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan), the Samanids promoted the arts, giving rise to the advancement of science and literature, and thus attracted scholars such as Rudaki and Avicenna.

The Ghaznavids were an Persianate Muslim dynasty and empire of Turkic mamluk origin, ruling at its greatest extent, large parts of Iran, Khorasan, and the northwest Indian subcontinent from 977 to 1186.

[26] The Marwanids were a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty in the Diyar Bakr region of Upper Mesopotamia (present day northern Iraq/southeastern Turkey) and Armenia, centered on the city of Amid (Diyarbakır).

[b][c] The Kakuyids (Persian: آل کاکویه) were a Shia Muslim dynasty of Daylamite origin that held power in western Iran, Jibal and Kurdistan (c. 1008–c.

[31] The Annazids was a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty which ruled an oscillating territory on the frontier between Iran and present-day Iraq for about 130 years.

[33] Hasanwayhids was a powerful Shia[34] Kurdish dynasty reigning the western parts of Iran such as Iranian Azerbaijan and Zagros Mountains between Shahrizor and Khuzestan from c. 959 to 1015.