the zoroastrian religion was the religion in persia before islam.
the zoroastrian religion was the religion in persia before islam.
what was the religion in persia before islam?
the zoroastrian religion
islam in iran









































the muslim conquest of persia (637–651) led to the end of the sasanian empire and the eventual decline of the zoroastrian religion in iran (persia). however, the achievements of the previous persian civilizations were not lost, but were to a great extent absorbed by the new islamic polity. islam has been the official religion of iran since then, except for a short duration after the mongol raids and establishment of ilkhanate. iran became an islamic republic after the islamic revolution of 1979 which ended the persian monarchy.
islam in iran
in 1861, gobineau returned to tehran as the french minister. gobineau lived a modest, ascetic lifestyle and became engulfed with an obsession with ancient persia that soon got out of control as he sought to prove that ancient persia was founded by his much admired aryans, leading him to engage in what irwin called "deranged" theories about persia's history. in 1865 gobineau published "les religions et les philosophies dans l'asie centrale", an account of his travels in persia and encounters with the various esoteric islamic sects he discovered being practiced out in the persian countryside. gobineau's mystical frame of mind led him to feel in persia what he called ""un certain plaisir"" ("a certain pleasure") as no else in the world did he feel the same sort of joy he felt when viewing the ruins of persia. gobineau had a low opinion of islam, a religion invented by the arab mohammed, who gobineau viewed thus as part of the "semitic race", unlike the persians whose indo-european language led gobineau to see them as aryans. gobineau believed that shia islam was part of a "revolt" by the aryan persians against the semitic arabs, seeing a close connection between shia islam and persian nationalism. gobineau's understanding of persia was distorted and confused as he mistakenly believed that shi'ism was practiced only in persia, that in shi'ism the imam ali is much more venerated than muhammad and he was unaware that shia islam only became the state religion of persia under the safavids. based on his own experiences, gobineau believed that the persians did not really believe in islam with the faith of the prophet just being a mere cover over a society that still preserved many pre-islamic features. gobineau also described the savage persecution of the followers of bábism and of the new religion of the bahá'í faith by the persian state, which was determined to uphold shia islam as the state religion. gobineau approved of the persecution of the babi, writing that they were "veritable communists" and "true and pure supporters of socialism", as every bit as dangerous as the french socialists, writing the peacock trone was right to stamp out bábism. gobineau was one of the first westerners to examine the esoteric sects of persia, and though his work was idiosyncratic, he did spark scholarly interest in an aspect of persia that had been ignored by westerners until then. gobineau's command of farsi was only average and his arabic was even worse, but since there were few western orientalists who knew farsi, gobineau was able to pass himself off for decades as a leading orientalist who knew persia like no one else.
arthur de gobineau