WI: the Sassanids win the battle of Nahavand?

In OTL the battle of Nahavand was one the major defeats for the Sassanid Empire. Despite having superior numbers, they were beaten by the Arabs, and afterwards, they were able to conquer Persia.

So what if the Persians win? Will it allow them to keep the Arabs out of Persia, or will the Arabs conquer Persia anyway?
I think Persia would want to reconquer Mesopotamia, but I think its hard for them to do that, so what will happen next?
And what is the internal position of the Sassanids? I know that it was probably not very strong at the time, but a victory could allow them to strengthen their position.
 
I think by this time the Arab tide was too great to repel and sooner or later Persia would fall. The earlier Battle of al-Qadisiyyah was probably more decisive than Nahavand.
 
I think by this time the Arab tide was too great to repel and sooner or later Persia would fall. The earlier Battle of al-Qadisiyyah was probably more decisive than Nahavand.

I am not sure; a continuous string of victories helps make weaknesses smaller and strengths larger.

Persia by Nahavand was on its last legs, beginning to come apart at the seams. Definitely in serious trouble. But a victory at Nahavand and maybe some reconquest is gonna make Sassanid persia seem like a good hope for success. Bit like the Byzantines, who were beaten back by the Arabs in oodles of places, but a few strategic victories were enough to keep the core together.

So Sassanid Persia might continue in Persia proper. Some outlying areas in Central Asia will be gone, and Mesopotamia is lost, but surviving in the Iranian mountains/plateaus seems possible. Although winning earlier is, obviously, better.
 

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I think by this time the Arab tide was too great to repel and sooner or later Persia would fall. The earlier Battle of al-Qadisiyyah was probably more decisive than Nahavand.

No, there really wasn't a tide so much as an expansion of political authority of a small minority. Mesopotamia was more of a financial and material loss than a sign of destruction. According to Wikipedia, the Caliph Umar wanted to stop there, and leave Persia to the Persians because Persia was still seen as the greater power. A loss may actually less to a collapse of control over Mesopotamia
 
I think by this time the Arab tide was too great to repel and sooner or later Persia would fall. The earlier Battle of al-Qadisiyyah was probably more decisive than Nahavand.
Wouldn't the Arabs be dangerously overstretched if there was a decisive victory by the Persians?They did take a lot of territory in the span of a few years and their army is definitely much smaller than their opponents.They are also fighting against the ERE at the same time.
 
Wouldn't the Arabs be dangerously overstretched if there was a decisive victory by the Persians?They did take a lot of territory in the span of a few years and their army is definitely much smaller than their opponents.They are also fighting against the ERE at the same time.

The Arabs would probably still have many armies left and they already conquered a lot of Byzantine territory, I am not sure if the Byzantines can repell them.
 
No more thoughts?

I think in many ways it's difficult to say what would or would not have happened, due to the lack of sources for the period. Arab accounts of the conquest are all written many years after the events and thus have a vested interest in portraying the Arabs as heroic religious warriors fighting off hordes of godless opponents for the good of Islam, and of course the Christian sources like Theophanes are based on Arabic accounts.

I'd imagine a decisive early defeat at the hands of either the Romans or the Iranians could do a lot to break down the still very fragile political unity of the Arabs, but ultimately we just don't know enough about exactly what went on in the 630s and 640s to say.
 
If I may state a case, considering I'm doing research on the subject of an Alt Timeline centered around continued Sasanian dynasty (have not decided yet on whether to have the PoD at Qadissiyah or Nahavand yet). A Sasanian Victory of Nahavand would at least halt any further expansion by Islamic Armies, which at that point would have control of roughly all of Mesopotamia, Khuzestan and the Levant and Egypt, but would leave a relatively poor Persian core at the hands of the Sasans...whether or not that will save them in the long run is up in the air though.
 
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