Pinko_Panther Member since Dec 11th 2002 11808 posts
Tue Nov-04-03 08:50 PM
86. "RE: Semi-BS" In response to In response to 83 Tue Nov-04-03 09:29 PM
I am Iranian and I can attest that we are not Arabs. Not that I have any allegiance to any one ethnicity but the dynasties of Iran, unfortunately, treated the religious minorites of their lands very poorly. The country has for most of its period been dominated by harsh Shi'a ulama while the central Turkish chieftans who ruled the lands of Iran had no success in establishing any central authority like the Ottomans, Abbasids and Umayyads.
What Eli is talking about is the treatment of "people of the book" type policies of the Arabic dynasties of the Abbasids and Umayyads. Very different from the Iranian Qajars, Pahlavis and Safavids. Although jews and christians of the Abbasid, Umayyad and Ottoman empires were subject to higher taxes (see millet system), their day to day lives were mostly free from interference from the Caliphate. In other words, as long as they kept a steady flow of income for the Sultan, then they were not bothered.
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