The Samani dynasty (Persian: سامانیان Sāmāniyān), also known as the Samanid Empire, or simply Samanids (819–999) was a Persian state and empire in Central Asia and Greater Iran, named after its founder Saman Khuda, who converted to Islam despite being from Zoroastrian theocratic nobility. It was a native Persian dynasty in Greater Iran and Central Asia after the collapse of the Sassanid Persian empire caused by the Arab conquest.