Why were medieval islamic scholars overwhelmingly of Persian descent?

Why were medieval islamic scholars overwhelmingly of Persian descent?

Because guess where the heart of the Abbasid caliphate is

Because the Muslim empire was mostly based on Persian civilization perhaps?

Was*

Baghdad?

They technically weren't if you include everyone from that period who were scholars in other fields besides natural philosophy, such as linguists, poets, lawyers, and architects, but with regards to where they did seemingly over-represent themselves:

1) The population of Persian Iraq and Central Asia was immense compared to the sparse deserts and frontiers around Syria, Egypt, and North Africa.

2) The Muslim population of Persia specifically dwarfed any other in the early period because the Arab tribes that settled in Iran married into the local aristocracy while they segregated themselves elsewhere.

3) Central Asia early on developed a tradition of religious teachers living on the frontier more stable and longer lasting than the politically volatile Syrian and Anatolian border region, achieving critical mass of itinerant students and circles of masters within a few generations.

4) The proximity with India led to unique scientific and philosophical developments that started first in Central Asia, then eventually the rest of the Islamic world after a good century or two head start in Iran.

Because of Persian privilege, I guess.

>this is how Western intellectuals actually think

Because Persians are white-ish.

Fuck off Achmed

Within the Islamic Empires, work was passed from father to son as was the custom in medieval times:

Arabs tended to be governors, administrators, politicians, kings, royalty, and military officers etc

Turks and Caucasians tended to be soldiers, knights, mercenaries, and warriors

Jews tended to work in finance and accounting (no surprises here), or as merchants and bankers (again, no surprises)

That left the Persians to go into more esoteric and academic subjects like theology, science, medicine, literature, philosophy, and poetry.

because arabs have never had basically nothing going for them other than their trendy religion and oil

Arabs can't do anything for themselves besides lie, blow themselves up and dig for oil. All the "success" of the Islamic world was carried by the Aryans.

This guy gets it

/thread

Exactly

Reminds me of how the British have carried the rest of Christian civilization

>Muslim empire was mostly based on Persian civilization
Not really. During the Ummayyad period they actually left most of the pre-existing institutions in place so the empire was equal parts persian, byzantine, and arab with an Islamic twist. The Ummayyads especially were mostly concerned that people pay the Jizya, they didn't even settle in a lot of the pre-existing capitals and would make separate Muslim cities to rule from (Like Baghdad instead of Ctesiphon or Cairo instead of Alexandria). Syria was a little different because there were already a lot of arabs there (there were arabs in Iraq too but Hira is shit compared to being right in the middle of the fucking Tigris and Euphrates)

>Syria
>Egypt
>sparse frontiers
retard alert

>Arab tribes that settled in Iran married into the local aristocracy while they segregated themselves elsewhere
You mean, except Syria were most wealthy arabs already owned land and would vacation in prior to the conquests (like Abu Sufyan)

Also you know, Baghdad, they kinda left the old Persian capital to rot in favor of a new one. The arabs HATED the old Persian regime and how arrogant it was in it's dealings with them.
It's literally because Islam was more readily adopted in Persia then any other region so you had a larger population with a stronger Islamic tradition opposed to other places in the Empire which remained predominately Christian for many years. Unlike the Christians Zoroastrianism really hadn't benefited anyone but the elite so the poor masses had little reason to hold onto as opposed to Christianity which is the religion of the meek.

I really don't know why I reply to these /pol/ tier memes anymore

>retard alert
Read again:

>sparse deserts and frontiers around Syria, Egypt, and North Africa
>around

We all know how urbanized Syria and Egypt were, but that wasn't the issue. Early Islamic scholarship coalesced around teachers who gathered in high numbers in frontier towns and regions. Kufa and Bukhara were from an early age meccas, no pun intended, of hadith scholars, who then developed other niche, intellectual interests over time.

Syria, however, while it had a robust frontier culture for a time and saw a few important legal scholars emerge from its hinterlands and border towns, quickly found itself in a series of back and forth border conflicts with the Byzantines, Armenians, and Khazars that didn't plague Persian Iraq or Central Asia until a few centuries later with the rise of new Turkic confederations. Thus as cities continuously changed hands, emptied by enemy sacks, or withered away as the interior capital regions in the Jazira or southern Syria drew away what prosperity and intellectualism had started to emerge, what happened in Iran did not happen in Syria, or Egypt, but later happened in the Maghreb and Spain.

>You mean, except Syria were most wealthy arabs already owned land and would vacation in prior to the conquests (like Abu Sufyan)
And who jealously guarded their lineage and questioned the Arabness of every one around them if they did not meet their qualifications. There's a reason why the Umayyad armies of the mid 8th century were still drawn from pure Northern Arab tribes (with less trusted Yemenis sent to the borders), while the Abbasid revolt that swept through had the support of native Persians. The sumptuary laws that appear in Syria culturally segregating native Syrians from their Arab rulers did not have a parallel in Khorasan or Khwarezm.

>I really don't know why I reply to these /pol/ tier memes anymore
That's unfair of you. There's absolutely nothing I've said to deserve that.

I re-read your post and realized that we are actually in agreement and I just disagreed with certain points in your post that I took out of context in a butt flury.

My bad man.

Arabs are dumb as fuck. If you look at the 2 great focuses of the islamic golden Age ( the Cordoba caliphate/Taifas and Persia) you will see how arabs were just leeches that only made prosperous covilizations backwards shitholes in the long run.

>Arabs are leeches
>Ibn Rushd
>al-Idrisi
>Ibn Khaldun

"Look Mom I'm shit posting!!!!!!"

Genetically determined intellectual superiority.

ITS CUZ ARYANS ARE NORDICS SO WE WUZ PERSIANS AND SHIEEET!!! STUPID SANDNIGGER ARABS CANT EVEN DO THEIR GOLDEN AGE WITHOUT NOBLE BLOND HAIRED BLUE EYED ARYANS!!

Go and fuck a goat mohamed.
Not an argument

>Ibn Rushd
Berber
>al-Idrisi
Berber

Only Ibn Khaldun had actual Arab ancestry.

But user... Persians actually are Aryans. That devalues your meme by half of what it's worth.

>implying aryans were blue eyed blond haired nordics

>Berber
Those populations had been long been absorbed into wider Arab culture.

So unless you just don't know how to history then you're advocating a racial theory which everyone but /pol/ thinks is crap. Go back to your containment board

>Implying aryans weren't blue eyed blond haired nordics

Because Arabs were barbarian garbage, what else is new.

Berbers are genetically distinct from Arabs, which are genetically distinct from all other populations which today we refer to as 'Arabs'.

Arabs from the Arabian Penninsula are a very diverse bunch with only the tiniest overlap with their conquered and assimilated subjects.

Because Muslim empire first gained foothold within the Sasanid empire, which was a persian empire.

They weren't, this is a stale meme, please discard it.

You mean the Abbasids? There's probably not a single more cosmopolitan / meritocratic-egalitarian period in pre-modern history. Arabs, Persians, Copts, Greeks, a shit ton of people took part in the cultural and intellectual development of Islamic civilization. Pic related is one of the greatest minds of the period and was Arab.

For reference, check out pic related.

Filename answers a lot of questions people have on this board, especially this one tbqh.

Kill yourself you you dumb tripfaggot
Reminder that global rule 3 is in effect here

Are you implying Aryans aren't superior?

Are you being ironic when you talk about Aryanism?