Kish at the Beginning of the Islamic Period and Afterwards

Kish at the Beginning of the Islamic Period and Afterwards

Kish had not yet surrendered to the Arabs by the year 23 AH. But the Persian Gulf islands (including Kish), being on the route of the Arabs' naval attacks on Fars and Kerman, were naturally attacked by them before the Arabs reached and attacked the province of Fars. The first governor appointed by the Arabs was a man from the Abdallah Qays tribe; it is said the island's name was taken from the name of that first Islamic governor Qays, which later became Kish. Of course, before the Islamic period and throughout history, the island of Kish has appeared under other names in the writings of foreign historians. For example, in the second century AD, the name of Kish in the writings of Camenian historians appears in Greek as Arianosia Arien and finally the Isle of Venus, and in Alexander's time as the Isle of Mercury, Khemyn or Khen. But Iranian historians recorded its name as Kian, Kis, Gis, Qais and some even mistakenly as Qeshm. In the first half of the first century AH, which was a time of wars, uprisings and revolts of Iranians against the Arabs in the southern and western cities of Iran, Kish, caught up in the course of those intense movements, suffered severe crises and lost its former commercial activity and prosperity.
During the Saffarid period, especially in the time of the Buyids and also during the Seljuk sultans — which was a period of prosperity and advancement of culture, knowledge, welfare and flourishing trade, particularly maritime trade — Kish, this pearl of the Persian Gulf, regained its prosperity, and in the period of the Atabegs of Fars and Sultan Malik Shah of the Seljuks, with the power these rulers wielded in politics and governance in Fars, Kerman and the Persian Gulf, Kish reached its true position. This status, after the Mongol invasion of Iran, was more or less preserved due to the prudence of their Iranian viziers, and the prosperity of trade there remained.