Two Centuries of Silence

Two Centuries of Silence (Persian: دو قرن سکوت‎ Do Qarn Sokūt) is a book published in 1957 and written by Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub, a prominent scholar of Iranian culture, history and literature. The work is a historical account of the events and circumstances of the first two centuries of Islam in Persia (modern day Iran) following the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century AD. The history covers the events from the invasion of the Arabs to the rise of the Tahirid Dynasty.

Zarrinkoub presents a lengthy discussion on the large flux and influence of the Arabs on the literature, language, culture and society of Persia during the two centuries following the Islamic conquest of Iran. Zarrinkoub discusses how the Arab/Islamic conquest was followed by almost "two centuries of silence" socially, culturally and politically by native Persians. Zarrinkoub describes the Arab conquerors as uncivilized, brutal, and unsophisticated during the Iranian "period of silence." Zarrinkoub penned the history during an era of Iranian nationalism and the text is widely recognized as a seminal source of Iranian history.

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