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Islamic Iran

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ArmenianSurvival View Drop Down
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  Quote ArmenianSurvival Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Islamic Iran
    Posted: 01-Oct-2004 at 01:32

When and why did the Zoroastrian faith cease to be the dominant religion in Iran, and how did Islam rise to become the dominant faith?

I apologize for my ignorance on the subject, I just always think of present-day Iran as an Islam-dominated nation, and always associate ancient Iran or Persia with Zoroastrianism, but i know very little about the transition. Anyone who can shed some light on my question, your comments are appreciated.

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  Quote Cyrus Shahmiri Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-Oct-2004 at 03:43
I don't think that Zoroastrianism was ever the dominant religion in Iran, it was the official religion in the Sassanid period but in this period there were some other religons such as Manichaeism, Mazdakism, Zurvanism, ... which had many followers in Iran too. After the Arab conquest, it was not that all Iranians convertd to Islam together, for some hundereds years followers of other religions were still more than muslims, in the tenth century when the great Persian ruler Mardavij, founder of Zeyarid empire, defeats the Abbasids army and enetrs the city of Isfahan, says (in an inscription) "I defeated the caliphate army on the Azar-Ruz (9th day of 9th month of the Iranian year), the birth of light and fire, a lucky day for us all. Nobody will be punished except the traitors to the motherland here in after. We will observe the Persian national festivals as our fathers did for centuries. We will celebrate Nowruz, Mehregan, and Jashn Sadeh, with grandeur and magnificence as a mark of remembrance of good thoughts, good words and good deeds."
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  Quote Berosus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-Oct-2004 at 05:09
Zoroastrianism was the official religion of Iran under the Sassanians, and they were quite militant about this, especially in the reign of Shapur II (309-379 A.D.).  Cyrus is probably thinking of earlier eras.  The Achaemenid kings were Zoroastrian, at least from the time of Darius I, but they didn't force it on anyone else, and the Parthian empire didn't have any state religion whatsoever.

As for when it stopped being important, that's easy--with the Islamic conquest of Iran in the seventh century.  I heard once that the Zoroastrian calendar counts dates from 632 A.D., because that is when Yazdagerd III, the last Zoroastrian king, was crowned.  There are a few Zoroastians living around the Iranian cities of Yazd and Kerman today (heck, there were Buddhists in that area as recently as 1300), but most live in Bombay, India, where they are called Parsees (Persians).
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  Quote Tobodai Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Oct-2004 at 16:08
alot of Zorastrians fled to India and Pakistan I have heard, though I would think India a much safer option
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  Quote ArmenianSurvival Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Oct-2004 at 21:34
I knew it had a lot to do with the Arab conquests, but was Islam ever forced upon the Persian/Iranian people, or was it simply a matter of most of the population independently converting over a period of time?
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  Quote ArmenianSurvival Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Oct-2004 at 22:30

Is there someone who can answer my question??? lol

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  Quote Ptolemy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Oct-2004 at 21:03
Islamization of Iran probably had a lot to do with the protection tax. A certain Caliph officially made the Zorostrian's a 'people of the book', hence they wuould have to pay this tax, or convert to Islam.
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  Quote JanusRook Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Oct-2004 at 00:27

Islamization of Iran probably had a lot to do with the protection tax. A certain Caliph officially made the Zorostrian's a 'people of the book', hence they wuould have to pay this tax, or convert to Islam.

Better than falling under the heathen category of convert or die.

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  Quote Zagros Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-Oct-2004 at 18:08

Iranians converted en masse to Islam, NOT under Arab rule as is widely propogated, but uunder the SAfarid and Samanid Iranic dynasties, , who, as Irnaian elites were Muslims, they sought to consolidate their power and forced much of the conversion to Islam, through blackmail and other dubious methods.

It was under these dynasties that some Zaroastrians fled to India.  I read intrestingly on another forum that Iranian names did not start becomming Islamised until after 40 years had passed under the above Iranic dynasties.  That corroborates the above.

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  Quote ArmenianSurvival Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Oct-2004 at 22:12
How did the Iranian elites become Muslim, and what kind of blackmail and other methods did they use to force Islam on the rest of the population?
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  Quote Zagros Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-Oct-2004 at 10:19

The Arab Caliphate actually benefitted financially from its subjects not being Muslim.  The willing Iranian converts became nobles BECAUSE they were Muslim and these were the descendants of the Iranians that betrayed their country when the Arabs attacked and helped persuade Iranians into subjucation.

The methods were the same as those used in Turkey and India etc, violence, blackmail, incentive, favour et al.

 

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  Quote HulaguHan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Feb-2005 at 18:52

Turkey was not under Arabic control. LOL Turkey was not existing in those days. Turks have never been conquered by Arabs. Actually Arabs never been a threat for us, on the other hand it was Turgish Empire and Gokturk Empire who played offensive game towards arabs and invaded their land in Soghdia, terminating the garrisons, and taking their tressure.

Here in this image Turks are shown living in the north of Umayyads. Gokturks lost their territory to another Turks Uighurs.

Mate arabs know us, they can not even think about conquering Turks, they say halelujah when they save them selves from Turks.

Ihsan, Turkistan is a new region which is formed of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizhstan, and Uighur countries. In my humble opinion, here we should say Soghdia instead of Turkistan. Because in those days region was Soghdian. I hope you may consider this, since you have much knowledge than me.

http://www.allempires.com/empires/turgish/turgish.htm



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