Whoever wishes to gain a full understanding of the cultural conditions of the East will have to endeavour to familiarise themselves with the prevailing religious situation. This applies especially to Persia from the seventh to the eleventh centuries ce, since this is the time during which this country gave up the religion which it had called its own for over a millennium, namely Zoroastrianism, and joined the emerging religion of Islam. Consequently, the Persian nation contributed to the broadening of Islam beyond the confines of a merely Arab national religion and helped to give it the character of a world religion in a way that few others can claim.Yet the development of this religion in Persia was quite different from its progress in many other countries in the Middle East. Almost all the Persians became Muslims within a few centuries without significant outside coercion on the part of their conquerors. This contrasted with the situations in Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Spain where large Christian communities remained in existence for centuries and either victoriously prevailed, as in Spain through the re-conquest undertaken by the Christian kingdoms of the North, or survived as smaller communities, as in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. However, Persia did not wholly lose itself by adopting Islam (Source: Iran in the Early Islamic Period).
Persian Reception of Islam: Beginning of a Cultural Construction
