What is 'Hormuz' strait?#5
Persia staked its pride and pulled out its final card, which was the war elephant unit. By today’s standards, it was like driving out dozens of giant tanks.
“Those people from the desert will flee in fear when they see these giant monsters they have never seen before, right?”
But according to narratives, the Arab army, instead of fleeing, used a tactic of focusing their attacks on the weaknesses of the elephants. Records state that at the time of the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah, a massive sandstorm blew in and obscured the vision of the Persian army. Eventually, the army of the empire they believed to be invincible suffered a crushing defeat. With this one battle, the land of Iraq, which was the heart of Persia, fell into Arab hands, and the empire began to collapse like dominoes. Finally, in 651, as the last emperor of Sassanid Persia was assassinated, the empire completely perished.
After the Arabs conquered Persia in the 7th century, the Arabs called non-Arabs Ajam. Originally, the word derived from a term meaning those whose speech is not clear. From the perspective of the Arab conquerors, it also carried a derogatory nuance toward the conquered Persians.
In response, the Persian poet Ferdowsi spent about thirty years writing a massive epic called Shahnameh, the Book of Kings. He completed 60,000 lines of poetry in a language close to pure Persian instead of Arabic. The final passage shows his pride. “I have spent thirty years writing this book. Now, the Persian language will never disappear.”
It was a declaration to the Arab conquerors that no matter how much they were ruled, they would protect their spiritual roots. Even now, Iranians call the New Year Nowruz and observe ancient Persian cultural traditions that are distinct from Arab countries.
The Persians were now in a position to be under Arab rule. This is where the Persians’ intense preservation of identity began. “Yes, you took our land with the sword. But our depth in administration and literature is deeper. We will manage the country for you and calculate the taxes for you.” On the surface, they believed in Islam and used Arabic, but inside, they maintained the pride that they were fundamentally different from the Arabs. The process of Iran strengthening its unique identity, distinct from the surrounding order, is also interpreted as an influence of this long psychological sense of separation.
If you have heard the story up to this point, Islam and Arab might look almost the same. But in fact, Islam and Arab are quite different concepts. This time, we will change the perspective and proceed with the story.
In the 7th and 8th centuries, after the Arabs conquered Persia, Egypt, and Syria in succession, the Islamic Empire suddenly grew to a massive size. This was about 1,300 years ago, during the Umayyad Dynasty, which had its capital in Damascus. The Arab ruling class of this period considered themselves the center of the new empire.
“Islam is a religion founded by us Arabs. Allah sent revelations in our Arabic language, and we also protected the holy sites. So, the center is naturally us.”
Thus, even if Persians or people from Central Asia converted to Islam, they were not immediately given equal treatment as Arabs. The term for them was Mawali. These non-Arab converts often faced discriminatory treatment compared to Arabs regarding taxes and social status.
The attitude of the Arab ruling class was generally like this. “It is good that you became Muslims. But the center is we Arabs.”