Arabs and Persians

Persians can be referred to as the inhabitants of Iran or Persia and whose mother tongue is Persian while Arabs can be referred to as the members of the Semitic people dwelling in Arabia, whose Islamic religion and language spread extensively throughout northern Africa and the Middle East right from the seventh century (Corporation, 2007).

Just before the 7^th century it is true that the Persians and Arabs lived together fairly peacefully.  Both Persian and Arab tribes each had their own traditional lifestyles which distinguished them. The Arab tribes continued their own traditional rural lifestyle which constituted of raising livestock, moving with their livestock in the desert like nomads, as well as cultivating crops while the Persians lived a modern life in town and specialized in selling and buying of goods and services. However, it reached a time when the Arab population outnumbered the population of Persians and as a result the Arab tribes took over more land such that by around 600 they drove Persian tribes out of Oman.

In the seventh century, the Arab tribes had already taken over Oman. During the seventh century, the tribes of Arab from the cities Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia initiated the spreading of a new faith known as Islam all over the Arabian Peninsula. As from around 660 Oman was under the control of the brawny Muslim Umayyad dynasty which was based in Damascus in Syria. The subjection of Persia by the Arabian Muslim forces in the 7th century brought about varied changes. The country became disunited from the political point of view and the powerful centralized state ceased to have a meaning. The country was governed by diverse warlords and feudal from Arab, Mogul, Turkish, and at times Persian origins for many centuries. In an attempt to attain independence, wars were fought and lost. According to culture, considerable efforts were made in order to preserve the national identity, language, and heritage (Laet, 1994).         

It is apparent that the tensions between Persians and Arabs have bottomless historic roots. Those effects that were brought about by the Arab invasion during the seventh century and the conversion of Iran into Islam are vivid until now; Iranians go on with priding themselves on effectively resisting the domination of Arabs in their country. Even if Iran for the most part accepted Islam, a great deal of Iran's cultural and ethnic identity was not changed, and this is contrary to that of other nations within the Middle East. Iran was successfully converted into an Islamic state, and not an Arab state. Due to the fact that the Iranians were satisfied with being Islam, this made the Iran's Arab neighbors to experience bitterness to a larger extent (Parsi, 2007).

This millennium-old conflict that was deeply rooted in the minds of both Persians and Arabs had brought about a radically distinctive type of dogmatism that had adversely touched on the relations that existed between the two ethnic groups. The Arabs believed themselves to be ethnically higher-up as compared to the Iranians, but the Persian antagonism was to a larger extent rooted in a feel of cultural domination. This state of mind persisted until the twentieth century and has been found exerting a powerful hold until now. In fact most of the people contend that Arab-Persian bad blood has grown comparatively stronger in latest decades (Tarock, 1998).

In 638 there occurred Arab destruction of the Sassanian Empire at the battle of Qadisiyya.  The Persians perceived the defeat as a tremendous catastrophe which from that particular time has not been blanked out. The hatred is profoundly engrafted in the Iranian mind that Persians have not blanked out the invasion by Arabs although they have forgotten the rest of the invasions. Most of the historians hold that, in spite of the Arab invasion, Persia did not lose her characteristic character and identity. Therefore while accommodating Islam, the Persian reshaped and modified it into their definite cultural focal point (Abdulghani & Abdulghani, 1984).