Gilak

The Gilaks are a Caspian Iranian people of the rainy lowlands below the Alborz, centred on Rasht and Lahijan, speaking Gilaki, related to Mazandarani. Their hinterland was the old Daylam, whose warriors fought Arab armies at Jalula in 637 and never submitted to the caliphate.

Gilan converted gradually to Zaydi Shiism in the ninth and tenth centuries; the Buyid dynasty arising there ruled much of Iran and took Baghdad in 945. After the Seljuk invasions ispahbads ruled independently behind the Alborz; although the Ilkhan Oljeitu conquered the region in 1307, it broke free after 1336.

By the fifteenth century sericulture made Gilan one of Persia's wealthiest provinces, its silk exported through Bandar-e Anzali. Shah Abbas I overthrew its last local ruler, Khan Ahmad Khan, and annexed Gilan; in 1722 Russian troops seized Rasht and held the province for about ten years.