Why did Iran remain persian-speaking while places like Egypt, Syria...

Why did Iran remain persian-speaking while places like Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia became completely arab and no longer have any ties to their pre-existing cultures?

Persian was almost wiped out until the Shahmaneh made it cool again

Persian exceptionalism

Correct me if I am wrong but weren't semetic languages closer to Arab than say Farsi?

It's probably this and also the fact that in Iran the arab rule was "swiftly" (a couple of centuries) replaced by local rulers. The same can be said about the berber area, in fact they got rid of the arab yoke first, but they didn't have the cultural baggage of the persians.

Not really true. The shahnameh was based on previous works to begin with.

Egyptian wasn't semetic, although it was Afro-Asiatic, but by that point you've gone back so far it matters a lot less

Was it closer to Arab than say Farsi?

Definitely

Because these countries spoke Semitic languages so it was easier for them to be assimilated into Arabic culture. Also there were no major Arab migration into Iran.
> Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia became completely arab and no longer have any ties to their pre-existing cultures
This is wrong, Copts, Assyrians, Arab Christians and other Middle Eastern Christians hold on to their cultures and religions since Arab conquest.

I knew this one guy who still read the bible in Aramaic of a modern derivative of it.

This x100.

Persians saw arabs as primitive savages.

They had a strong existing identity, the rest did not. The old Roman areas they took over didn't know who they were, they had been under foreign occupation for centuries, so they adopted easily. Persia had always been a strong empire of its own and was its own heartland, so they wouldn't adopt another culture quite so easily.

This. Every other answer is plain wrong

> Counting the Sahara as part of your territory

why.jpg

>cultures
>implying they had any before we showed them ours.

Northern Arabs dominated the elite of the Umayyad state. Many received salaries and government and military posts because of that privilege. When the Yemeni tribes began agitating for inclusion into the elite, they Northern-Arabized themselves, taking up their dialect and culture.

When Arabic became the official administrative language a few decades later, Berbers and Syriacs did the same. The Umayyads and pure-bred North Arabs wanted to segregate themselves, but their discriminatory policies had the opposite effect and it turns out it's not that hard to manufacture a North Arab pedigree for yourself.

The Arabs in Iran, however, had a different policy. Rather than try and segregate themselves they married into the local Sassanid aristocracy, creating a bi-lingual Arab-Persian elite who prevented Arabization by more easily guarding class membership.

For the same reason that the Eastern Mediterranean continued to speak Greek after Roman domination for centuries. It was a resilient culture, and face it, an admirable benchmark for the Saracens.

Berber and Tuareg territories alongside trade routes to places like Timbuktu

Ferdowsi

IRAN SHIA

Egyptians are Egyptians not Arabs. They are Sunni.
Syrians are Syrians (Sunni) and Kurds not Arabs.
Iraqis are Sunni, Shia and Kurds not Arabs.
Arabs are Arabs and they are Sunni.

Huh, I didn't actually expect to get a real answer to that question. Thanks Veeky Forums bro!