Persians or Arabs?

Question

Can somebody please prove to me, if persians were first or arabs? me and my friends always seem to have this discussion, they say arabs and we say persians, they say persians copy everything arabs do, and we say if it wasnt for persia, arabs prob wouldnt exist. We asked our sose teacher and he said techniqually persians were first. But i want to know are persians the same as iranians? and so are iranians first or arabs? please help us settle this once and for all haha.

Answer 1

Of course Persians were not Muslims! They were conquered by the invading arabs and forcibly converted to Islam. Even after that bloody conquest they rebelled several times trying to revert to their old religion and customs.



The Persian religion was polytheistic (many Gods). The greatest Persian god was "Ahura-Mazda", the god of light and wisdom.

His Father was the god Zurvan Akarana ("infinite time") He had 2 sons- Ahura Mazda and Ahriman ("destructor").



After the wars with Byzantium many Persians converted to Christianity- after all Basra (in Iraq) was once a Byzantine city



Before their invasion of Persia and Byzantium the Arabs did not amount to much- as opposed to Persia which is known in history for centuries. So while I cannot say for certain "when it all began", I can say what was recorded in history



Of course the "arabists" may take claim for the achievements of those they conquered- the Egyptians (who are not genetically Arab/Semitic) or the Assyrians (also not genetically Arab/ Semitic).

I know this might sound strange but the population which is closest genetically to the Arabs are the Jews- but I somehow don't see any Muslim Arab taking pride in their achievents

Answer 2

~If you are really interested in "settling" the dispute, and being able to justify your position, why are you asking here? Punch up "Arab", "Persian" and "Iran" into a search engine and do a little (actually very little) reading. Once you figure out how you are going to define "Arab" that is, by genealogical, cultural or linguistic categorization, the task will be much easier. The etymology is important.



Of course, if the definition you select will include Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians as 'Arabs', you may complicate the issue. I suspect one could classify the Jews as Arab on the basis of some definitions.



Then too, you have to decide what constitutes a Persian. Do Aryans (Proto-Iranians) count? How about Indo-Iranians? Just for fun, throw the Oxus civilization discovered at the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex into the mix and decide if they were forbears of the Persians and, if so, whether or not or not they can or should be called Persians.



Modern Iran was called Persia until 1935. Does that make a contemporary Iranian a close relative of Darius, Cyrus or Xerxes? If so, I guess that makes Iranians and Persians the same thing. By that logic, I guess the Russians and Danes and English and French and Italians and Irish and Dutch and Spanish and Portuguese etc. should still be called Teutons.





Islamic or Muslim? Give me a break. During the classical period, Persians were Zoroastrian. Before that they had other beliefs. As with all civilizations since the dawn of time until the present, mankind creates the gods he needs and then builds the necessary religion around those gods to suit the required purpose - generally to concentrate the wealth and power and to keep the masses in line with superstition and myth. It worked then, it works today. "Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people." Mary Alice McKinney "Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence." [Richard Dawkins]

Answer 3

Arabs are more ancient than what many people think. According to wikipedia the Arabic people of Thamud, who are also mentioned in the Koran, had established their kingdom as early as 3000 BC. Wikipedia also tells that Persians are Iranians & their language is traced to the ancient Indo European Aryans who arrived circa 2000-1500 BCE.



So far, although Arabs seems to be more ancient, the Persian civilization was surely better preserved than the ancient Arabic ones. & to say that one group copied every thing the other did is rather prejudice. The truth is both cultures had thrived & incorporated during the time of the Abbasids.



The religion of ancient Persians was Zoroastrianism. Today with the Anti-Islam propaganda, many people love to show that Islam is an evil cult, which spread by violence. But the truth is so different. The Mongols for instance had conquered vast territories, but their empire didn’t last for long. If Islam depended on the sword it wouldn’t remain that long.

Answer 4

Persians and Iranians are the same.

Persian civilization came first, but when they join arabs in the time of Abbassides, the persian-arabic civilization was the greatest in the World.

Answer 5

arabs meaning the muslim arabs? persia was persia even before muslim first appeared. persia was there as early as the egyptians with their pyramids. persians also fought alexander the great. muslim as a religion appeared only around 660 when mohammad invaded much of middle east including persia and converted them. so persians were first. the present iranians are most identified with the persian although part of iraq was also part of persia.

Answer 6

Persians had an ancient civilisation long before the Arabs. Persians are now called Iranians.

Before they were muslim they had various gods such as Mazda the god of light and they were also Zorastrians who worshipped fire