Christianity in Persia and The Status of Non-Musli... - (The Rise of Islam and Non-Muslims in Persian Islam)

3
The Rise of Islam and Non-Muslims in Persian Islam
THE ARAB CONQUEST

(SEVENTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES)
The rapid rise of Islam forever changed the world of Persia and the entire Middle East. Ehsan
Yarshater wrote that “Islam was born at an opportune moment, when the two powers of the
seventh century—the Persian and Byzantine empires—had been depleted by protracted war,
heavy taxes, and abuses of royal and sacerdotal powers and had become paralyzed by inner
contradictions.”1 Initially, Arab warriors were not militarily prepared against their Persian
foes. In 634, the Sasanian emperor Yazdigerd won a dramatic victory over the fledgling Arab
army shortly after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (in 632).
The military situation changed rapidly, and the Muslim armies of Arabia were able to advance
into Persia without much effective opposition. Arab forces rallied and captured the Persian
capital of Ctesiphon, although the Arabs faced limited pockets of Persian resistance for a
number of years.2 The Arab invasion of 642 shattered the territorial unity of Persia.3 For the
first time since the Achaemenid Era, the entire region was once again under one singular rule.
Military victories allowed the Ummayad Caliphate to sweep across Persia with zealous
passion and fierce determination. Their occupation began with Arabs firmly ensconced in
military garrisons far removed from the potentially corrosive social and religious influence of
local Persian communities.
Copyright © 2010. Lexington Books/Fortress Academic. All rights reserved.
When the Ummayad Arab warriors marched into Persia in the 640s, they came in contact with
an exhausted Sasanian Empire that was teetering on the brink of dissolution. The sudden
blitzkrieg of these Arab jihadists was a shock to the confident, insular people of Persia who
did not take their enemies seriously even as they moved steadily toward them. Soon, the
country was thrown into unparalleled chaos, and the Zoroastrian religious clergy (who had
benefited from Persian royal favor for centuries) fell into a precipitous decline.
Arabs brought with them not only an unknown religion but also a host of novel cultural and
technological ideas, as well as unique businesses. Most tellingly, the invaders sought to
enforce a series of Arabization efforts which threatened the core of Persian identity. Arab
leaders mandated that the Persian language be recast into the Arabic script—a move which
angered many intellectuals but forced them to retranslate ancient texts (which ironically
Van, Gorder, Christian A., et al. Christianity in Persia and the Status of Non-Muslims in Modern Iran, Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/tyndale-ebooks/detail.action?docID=483896.
Created from tyndale-ebooks on 2023-03-21 16:30:36.
promoted a stronger sense of Persian uniqueness). The fear of losing their traditions at the
hands of these rude Arab aggressors prompted extensive efforts on the part of Persian scholars
to preserve their distinct cultural heritage. As a result, the overall process of Arabization did
not go smoothly, and problems were exacerbated by some Arab warriors who were either
intent on personal gain or given to indulgent pleasures. In contrast to the usual Persian practice
of grace toward vanquished enemies, Arab soldiers plundered “hoards and ornaments in the
Sasanian treasures and palaces” and stripped the country of its wealth, often reinvesting it in
business.4 As the Arabs began to realize the widespread nature of their growing problems with
their Persian subjects, they chose to turn over the reins of their government to malleable
Persian families who were willing to be submissive to their rule in exchange for financial
rewards.5
Another social change which resulted in Persia as a result of the arrival of the Arabs was the
advent of Persian involvement with the murky African slave trade. While there had been a
lucrative slave trade during the Sasanian era, it was confined to the usual suspects of debtors,
criminals, and unlucky prisoners of war. Persians had historically never promoted slavery as a
means of gaining wealth or for building their cities. Arab conquerors began to bring huge
numbers of black African slaves into southern Persia. Ronald Segal reports that, for the first
time in Persia, massive black communities were formed along the Persian Gulf and that, in
936, one single slave trader dealt with over twelve thousand black slaves in Persian markets.6
The first century of Arab rule in Persia did not immediately see local people converting to
Islam. In actual fact, the Islam of the enemy became both increasingly Persianized and
influenced by Zoroastrian ideas the longer that it remained in the country.7 Those Persians who
decided at an early date to become Muslims were often entranced by the attempts of Shi’ite
holy men to draw parallels between their own convictions and local beliefs which were
already cherished among Persians.8
At first, the advent of Islam into Persia resulted in tremendous suffering for the Zoroastrian
community. Fire temples were summarily demolished, and priests were rounded up and
slaughtered because they were seen to be impure and godless idolaters. Over time, it became
Ummayad government policy that Zoroastrians should be approached in the same way that
Christians and Jews were to be treated. Eventually, Zoroastrians were recognized by Muslim
authorities to be “People of the Book,” which then obligated them to pay a jizya (or poll tax).
Those who chose to convert to Islam no longer had to pay this extra burdensome expense.9
Converts to Islam also discovered that they often enjoyed other economic and trade benefits.
New pro-Muslim laws were passed, such as those mandating that whenever a Muslim married
a non-Muslim, the children born were forced to be raised Muslim. Such laws (and economic
benefits) gradually shifted Persia toward devotion to the Holy Qur’an. Conversion happened
more quickly in urban than in rural areas, but probably 80 percent of the entire nation was
Muslim by the year 1000.10
Since Buddhists were not widely recognized as “People of the Book,” they were usually
forbidden to practice their faith and had the choice between either an enforced exile or
immediate conversion to Islam. As Muslims consolidated their grip on power, Persia’s small
Buddhist communities were easily brushed aside, and most Buddhists simply converted to
Islam instead of facing death. It is possible, however, that some of their esoteric ideas survived
in various Sufi teachings in which adherents became “intoxicated with God.”11 Buddhism
reappeared in Persia during the Mongol Dynasty when it was known as the Il-Khans because a
number of the members of the Mongol Court were nominal Buddhists. The conversion of the
Mongol ruler Ghazan Khan to Islam at the outset of the fourteenth century, however,
convincingly ended any traces of Buddhist influence in Persia: All Buddhist shrines were
either leveled to the ground or turned into masjids.12
The Persian Christianity that Arab Ummayad invaders encountered was characterized by,
among other qualities, strong ascetic sensibilities. It is not surprising that Christians would
hold to such world-renouncing ways of looking at the world after having survived centuries of
unmitigated persecution under the Sasanian Empire. Christian monks and church leaders
focused on the renunciation of the world and the denial of the self. Monasticism was often
presented as the ideal, while common Christians supported the devoted efforts of these
monastic orders. There were no copies of the scripture in the vernacular languages, and even
worship services were in Aramaic instead of Persian. The celibate monks of Persia prayed
seven times daily and ate only one meal a day. They also promoted scholarship and
widespread education. When Arab invaders met these monks, however, their ascetic qualities
were little appreciated. The Christians, for their part, did not comprehend the message of
Islam, and many early Christian leaders simply assumed that Islam was some version of
another unknown Christian heresy.13
The Ummayad Caliphate regarded Christians in their midst as enemies and invariable
supporters of Byzantium (and even of the previous Sasanian rule). Christians were forced to
continue to display an identifying patch of white cloth on their clothing, as the Sasanians had
previously mandated. They were also forbidden to ride on horseback or carry any weapons.
Christians were taxed heavily but were allowed to repair existing churches—although they
were not allowed to build new ones.
The overall first encounters between Christianity and Islam in Persia were mixed. Bishop
Adiabene (in 655) wrote that the Arabs were “by no means as bad as they were thought to be;
they were not far removed from Christianity and they honored our clergy and protected our
churches.”14 The fact that many scholars, scribes, accountants, teachers, and doctors were
Nestorians probably also eased these first interactions between Arab Muslim leaders and their
Persian Christian subjects.
The brief reign of Caliph Umar II (717–720) was marked by dramatic attempts to force non-
Muslims, at the threat of death, to convert to Islam. All Christian churches which had been built
without government permission were summarily destroyed. Umar II was followed by Caliph
Hisham (724–743) who reversed most of his predecessor’s negative injunctions and promoted
a greater degree of tolerance toward his non-Muslim subjects. In some regions, Christians
were even treated with a sort of favored status. One of his governors in eastern Persia, Khalid,
had a mother who was a Christian, and so Christians in that region experienced little or no
difficulties at all.
In 750, Abu Abbas was restored as caliph, and the Abbasid Dynasty established its center of
government in Baghdad. The coming years were a time of stability. Under the Abbasid
Caliphate, the next century saw an unprecedented era of widespread economic and intellectual
growth and cultural, scientific, and artistic advancement. There were some tensions, however,
along the fringes of the Abbasid rulership. Slowly, internal dissensions among various Persian
princes became increasingly noticeable, and a number of these began to break away from
centralized rule with the intent of establishing their own distinct fiefdoms.
Once Zoroastrians were recognized by Muslims as “People of the Book,” their culture was
able to flourish in Islamic Persia. Zoroastrian holy books were transcribed and codified, and
numerous scholars emerged so that Zoroastrianism actually thrived as never before during the
ninth and tenth centuries under Abbasid rule. One factor in this development was that
Zoroastrians began “reformulating some expressions of their tradition in response to the
Muslim impact.”15 This positive situation gradually deteriorated, and, once again (as they had
when the Muslims first arrived) Zoroastrians became the subject of personal scorn and public
attack. Muslims started to refer to Zoroastrians as fire worshippers and infidels. Muslim
leaders openly seized Zoroastrian property and blatantly violated the religious sanctity of their
holy sites. Some Muslims began to physically beat Zoroastrians and forced others to torture
dogs—an animal considered sacred by Zoroastrians but unclean by Muslims. This led to many
Zoroastrians fleeing to Bombay (Mumbai), India, where they eventually became known as the
Parsees (Persians).16
Jews in Persia had a similarly uneven experience with that of the Zoroastrian community under
early Muslim rule. Many Persian Jews quickly converted to Islam while others were initially
treated with respect. A large number of famous Jewish physicians, astronomers, and
mathematicians found employment in the court of their new Muslim rulers at Isfahan. Many of
the translations of renowned texts from Greek into Arabic were done by noted Jewish scholars
at this time. Things changed, however, when some Jewish dissidents attempted to stage a revolt
which, predictably, was decisively crushed.17 A few Jewish rebels emerged who claimed that
they had been sent by God to serve as Israel’s promised messiah. These few eccentrics
negatively affected the overall positive status of Jews in Persia, and many Jews decided to flee
into Andalusia (Spain) where Jewish scholarship was once again able to flourish.
Before the appearance of Islam, a large portion of western Persia had been Christian, but the
Arab invasion brought an end to the advance of Christianity in Persia. Many Christians
concluded that the arrival of Islam had come as a divine judgment from God and was a clear
sign of the imminent return of Christ.18 Others taught that the Prophet Muhammad was the
antichrist and the Holy Qur’an was a crass corruption of the Christian Bible.19 Muslim rulers,
however, expressed few worries about how they were perceived. All non-
Muslims immediately fell into a clearly proscribed status as second-class citizens with few
rights and limited possibilities for economic or political advancement.20 In one decree it was
mandated that no Christian church could stand which was taller than a Muslim masjid.
NonMuslims were often forbidden from serving in the military and rarely held any key posts in
local or regional governments. In times of social unrest, it was often the case that Christians
and Jews were the first to be blamed.
Some scholars have argued that, initially, Christian and Islamic cultural themes and intellectual
ideas were able to coexist and probably even dialogue with each other to the betterment of
both communities.21 Both Muslims and Christians seemed to share a mutual disdain for
Judaism, and there were some early attempts at interreligious dialogue between Muslim and
Christian scholars. Such efforts, however, could never function as a meeting between two
equals since Islam was not only seen to be the superior religion but also the ideological
foundation of the ruling government. Muslims often relied heavily on Christians for the
bureaucratic tasks required to run their government, but many prominent Christian scholars and
doctors were also awarded positions of prominence. Christian scholars under Muslim rule
were involved in many noteworthy translation projects. Some Muslims became resentful of the
role that these non-Muslims were playing in society. When attempts were made to Islamicize
the government by removing Christians, many of them chose to become Muslims instead of
giving up their careers and positions of privilege and authority.
One of the first extended periods of persecution that Christians and Jews experienced (other
than during the rule of Caliph Umar II) was initiated by Caliph Mahdi (775–785). Near the
middle of his reign, about 780, Caliph Mahdi became convinced that Christians—and others—
were assisting the Byzantine Christian enemies. Once again, non-Muslims, Manachaeans,
Christians, and Jews were forced to convert to Islam or face torture and probable death. Vine
writes that “an unpleasant feature of this persecution was cruelty directed toward Christian
women, with as many as a thousand lashes with a bull’s hide thongs being applied to make
them apostatize.”22
Abbasid rule launched an era of relative prosperity and support for Persian culture and the
arts. The Abbasid ruler, al-Mansur (813–833), built a magnificent library in Babylon that
imitated great Sasanian libraries of the past.23 Little else changed, however, for the non-
Muslim minorities of Persia. Throughout the coming centuries of Arab rule, Christians were
treated with suspicion and underwent periods of intermittent persecution. Christians were
increasingly segregated from society and excluded from political power and government
employment. The ongoing pressures that they faced led many Christians to move away from
Persia back into the Roman Empire where they could practice their faith openly and avoid
repressive taxation as secondclass citizens in their own country. New laws were passed by
various rulers, such as Caliph Mutawakkil (846–861), which forbade Christians from attending
the public markets on Friday. Christian cemeteries were destroyed, and, according to Vine, a
wooden image of the devil was even required to be nailed on the door of every Christian
home.24
Mob violence also increased against Christians at the same time that the power of the caliphs
of Baghdad was progressively weakening over their Persian states. When someone was killed
or a masjid was vandalized it was often the case that Christians would be arbitrarily accused
and punished with death. The end of the Arab rule in Persia was a dark epoch for Christians.
The faith of many was already weakened and internal moral and relational problems often
further divided Christian communities in Persia. Patriarch John VI (1013–1020) wrote that
“Christians were compelled (once again) to wear distinctive dress and a number deserted the
faith on account of the trials, woes, and injuries that befell them.”25
NON-MUSLIMS DURING THE SELJUK AND MONGOL ERA

(ELEVENTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURIES)
When Arab control languished in Persia, the Saffarids briefly rose to power. Their rule was
short but significant because they were not Arab-language speakers and they promoted the
Persian language.26 Other smaller dynasties, such as the Samanids and the Buyids promoted
both the Persian language and the Islamic religion.27 The era of small disparate Persian
dynasties was reversed with the forceful arrival of the Seljuk (Saljuq) Turks who came from
Central Asia and conquered Isfahan in 1051.28 The Seljuks had repeatedly been attacking
Persia from Central Asia in search of food and plunder, and these incursions had led previous
rulers to erect massive, but ultimately ineffective, fortifications along Persia’s northern
frontier.
The Seljuks had already converted to Islam by the time they came to Persia and had also been
active in wars against Byzantine and Armenian Christian Empires. These wars made them
predisposed to be decidedly anti-Christian. Alp-Arsalan, according to Waterfield “did not take
kindly to the presence of Christians in his dominions, and he gave orders that iron collars
should be fixed around the necks of all Christians who refused to adopt Islam.”29 Christians
under Seljuk rule faced countless painful indignities.
The Seljuks created a ruthless centralized state with an efficient administrative order and a
stalwart army. They did not, however, seek to change the local languages and also allowed
many of the previous administrative functions of government to continue uninterrupted. The
final Seljuk ruler, Malik Shah, died in 1092 which marked the furthest extent of their rule. In
the following century, the Seljuks gradually lost power and were eventually overwhelmed by
the Mongol onslaught of 1217.
In the twelfth century, Seljuk government administrators referred to one of their provinces in
the western part of their domain as Kurdistan, which was the first known usage of this term.30
Kurdish tribes were primarily military mercenaries who had established minor dynasties in the
northwest of Persia since the tenth century. Kurds were even recruited in the crusader wars,
and one Kurd, the legendary Saladin, became a noted military and political leader. Kurds
spoke their own language and were a fiercely independent, isolated, nomadic people. They
were slow to embrace Islam and give up their own unique tribal shamanism which seems to
have been a mixture of diverging religious influences.31 While some Kurds became Sunni
Muslims, still others joined a host of marginal Shi’ite or Sufi groups.32 Some of the Kurds who
became Sunni were enlisted into Arab armies and eventually lost most of their distinctive
Kurdish identity.
The first Franciscan and Dominican missionaries arrived in the northwestern part of Persia at
the end of the thirteenth century. By 1300, there were three centers of Dominican work: Tabriz,
Dehikerkan, and Maragheh. Their efforts, however, were eventually frustrated by the invasion
of Tamerlane into the region. Dominican and Franciscan missionaries, however, focused on
people who were already Christians and were able to make some inroads among the Persians
because the Nestorian Church was so weakened after decades of intense persecutions.
The Mongol invasion, led by Genghis Khan, the “Scourge of God,” began in 1256. Three years
before, Seljuk rulers received a cryptic message from the khan, warning, “Send me large sums
of money and place yourselves under my rule or I will destroy your kingdom.”33 The missive
went unheeded, and the Mongols began a period of unmitigated carnage and destruction which
swept aside all resistance in its path. Khurasan, in the north, became a wasteland and did not
recover for centuries. The Mongols, led by one of Genghis Khan’s grandsons, Hulugu (Hulegu,
1256–1265), subjugated all of Persia as far eastward as Armenia and Georgia. Large-scale
slaughter decimated entire cities, and the victors piled pyramids of skulls outside each city that
seemed to extend into the clouds. It is impossible to know how many were slaughtered. Vine
believes that between seven hundred thousand and one million three hundred thousand were
killed in Merv and that all but four hundred artisans of the seven hundred fifty thousand citizens
of Nishapur went to their deaths.34 This same kind of devastation took place in Tus, Herat,
Balkh, Ray, Hamadan, and wherever the Mongol armies attacked. This “unrestrained regime of
systematic pillage and oppression led to the massive annihilation of production and the
destruction of economic life” throughout all conquered lands.35
As the Mongols lunged westward, Persian cities wisely chose to surrender instead of being
razed to the ground. In this way, cities like Tabriz were saved from annihilation. The Mongols
installed their regional capital in Tabriz but were mostly content to rule through emissaries and
local bureaucrats. Some Mongols embraced Christianity, largely because it taught that God
would reward those who followed Christ and heal those who were sick and bring victory in
battle. Five of the first six Mongol kings were connected, in some tenuous way, with the
Christian faith.36 Hulugu’s mother and his chief’s wife (Dukas) were both Christians. Some of
the scholars and administrators, who traveled with the Mongols and had joined the Mongols in
Central Asia, were Nestorian Christians. Other reasons for favoring Christianity were
logistical and political. Because their enemies in battle had been Muslims, the Mongols first
favored the Christians in their midst and gave them political power and social status. Muslims
were also resented because they controlled so many of the trade routes that Mongol invaders
hoped to capture for their own benefit. Restrictions and taxes against Christians and Jews that
had been put in place by Muslims were lifted.
Because the Mongols were opportunists, they used Christian skills to their own advantage.
Further, many Mongol courtiers had already learned Christianity from Nestorian missionaries
whom they had encountered in Central Asia. Since it was felt that Muslims could not be trusted
for government positions, many of these were given to Christians. Jewish merchants in Persia
were also often well-treated by the Mongols who benefited from their activities and who did
not seem threatened by their small numbers. In Tabriz, for example, Mongol governors
appointed two Jewish prime ministers.37 One Mongol leader actually decreed, in 1282, that all
government clerks should either be Jews or Christians. The Il-Khan Teguder (renamed Ahmad)
even chose the Jewish teacher Sa’d al-Dawla to serve as his trusted vizier until he was
deposed for assuming too much authority.38
The sack of Baghdad and the capture and execution of the Caliph in 1258 marked a turning
point in both Muslim and Mongol history. Shortly thereafter the enthusiasm that some Mongols
had shown for Christianity began to wane. This change occurred because the Mongols saw
their Muslim opponents winning victories against non-Muslim enemies, which led them to
assume that the Muslim God was thus stronger than the Christian God. In 1260, a Mongol army
was defeated by Muslims at the battle of Ain Jalut, and this further led many Mongols to
question the power of the Christian God. Another major strike against Christianity occurred at
about the same time when a Christian Tatar chief named Nayan tried to lead a rebellion against
the Mongols. The uprising failed, but the fact that the leader of this insurrection, and all of his
army, were Christians, left the Mongols with deep suspicions that other Christians might
become eventual enemies.
When Muslim forces soundly defeated Christian Crusader forces at Acre in 1291, the Mongols
regarded this as another conclusive victory by Islam over the Christian religion. Shortly
thereafter, in 1295, the next Il-Khan chosen was Ghazan, who assumed the Muslim name of
Mahmud (1295–1304).39 After Mahmud’s ascendancy, Mongol rule turned into an unmitigated
nightmare for the Christian church in Persia. Mahmud began a tireless, fierce persecution
against Christians and ordered the destruction of all churches in Persia. Once again, Christians
were reduced to a position of subjection and assigned to an inferior social status. The Mongols
realized that it was better to adapt to the majority Muslim population than to alienate them, and
so they were converted en masse in Mahmud’s summer camp in the Lar Valley north of Teheran
in June of 1295.40 The status of the Christian churches in Persia shifted overnight.
Another change occurred for religious minorities in Persia with the arrival in 1383 of the
fabled Timur.41 Timur, also known as Tamerlane (and Timur Beg, or in Marlowe’s rendering
Tamburlaine), led another massive wave of wreckage throughout Persia which led to a carnage
of countless people.42 As Turko-Mongol warriors had done before his tidal blood bath, Timur
made sure that all valuables from this plunder were carted back to his capitol of Samarkand,
Central Asia along with legions of slaves and cattle.43 Timur’s barbaric cruelty in war was
legendary. He followed the practice of his ancestors, and after liquidating a city and butchering
all of its occupants, he took the time to laboriously pile up huge mountains of skulls as a
testimony to the uselessness of resisting his mighty rage. Outside of Isfahan, it was recorded
that the seventy thousand heads Timur’s army had lopped off were neatly stacked into 120
different pillars. There were ninety thousand heads similarly arranged outside conquered
Baghdad.
While Timur centered his rule in Samarkand, he left Persia to be ruled by a complex web of
various princely families and local aristocracies to oversee his power to tax and fleece the
citizenry. The region saw a huge influx of Central Asian Turkmen. This is known as the
Timurid period. Timurids, at first, were plunderers and invaders. The Timurids who settled in
eastern Iran eventually, however, ended up being active protectors of Persian culture, in
particular Shah Rokh (1405–1447).44 The arts and music flourished and schools of painting,
especially miniatures, were established in Shiraz and Herat.
Timur saw himself not only as the restorer of Central Asian Turkic grandeur but also as a
guardian of the truth of Sunni Islam. He seemingly had no respect for non-Muslims and the rise
of Timur meant that Jews and all other non-Muslims were targeted for ethnic cleansing. Halib
Levy estimates that “some 350,000 Persian Jews were killed, converted, or fled Persia during
Timur’s rule.”45 What Timur did to the Jewish community, he also sought to do to his Christian
communities. Timur was determined, wherever he went, to destroy all traces of these two false
and impure religions. Whenever any traces of a Christian community remained, it was
mercilessly erased, and those Christians who sought to run from these attacks were not usually
able to flee fast enough or run far enough from their enemies before they were hounded down
and cut to pieces. Some Christians who supernaturally managed to survive one horrific wave
of persecution would move to another locale only to experience the exact same result. It is
nothing less than a miracle that any expressions of Christianity survived Timur’s hellish storms
against their churches, schools, monasteries, and resident communities. The ruthless tyrant
finally died in 1405 while attempting to invade China. After Timur, the greatest concentration
of Christians that remained was in the Lake Urmiah region in the relatively remote and
mountainous northwestern portion of the country.
THE SAFAVID EMPIRE (SIXTEENTH TO EIGHTEENTH CENTURY)

AND JEWISH PERSECUTION
The Safavids were sovereigns of Turkish origin who ruled at a “crucial turning point in Iranian
history” and were the “longest-lasting Persian dynasty in the past thousand years.”46 The
Safavids were rooted in Azeri culture and first rose to power in what is now called
Azerbaijan under the oversight of Shah Isma’il Safavi (born in 1487, ruled from 1501–1524).47
The shah penned poetry in Azerbaijani and introduced over a thousand Azerbaijani words into
Persian. His rule offered a clean break from previous Arabic Sunni Islamic overlords, and one
of his first acts as shah was to introduce the names of the Twelve Imams into the
weekly khotba at every masjid and shrine in the country.48 The Safavids trace their origin to a
tight-knit Central Asian Sufi religious order but gradually adapted their practices to embrace
Twelver Shi’a Islam as they became increasingly more successful.49
In the sixteenth century, Safavid rulers changed their official titles from shaykhs to the more
secular term of sultan. Shah Isma’il threatened anyone who refused the Shi’ite faith with either
a slow death or an immediate banishment. The most successful of the Safavid rulers was Shah
Abbas I (who ruled from 1587 until 1629). He was an intriguing monarch who often visited the
market incognito to learn what his subjects were saying and truly thinking. Shah Abbas is
wellknown because he was eager to encourage Persia’s interactions with the outside world.
With the help of his conscripted army of Armenian artisans, Shah Abbas refurbished his capital
of Isfahan into one of the most magnificent first cities in world history. The primary focus of
his attention, however, was on modernizing his military (with gunpowder and canons), as well
as improving his nation’s economic prospects. It was not unusual to see a host of foreign
merchants lobbying for favors and lucrative contracts at Shah Abbas’s political court.
Persian Islam was undergoing dramatic changes at this time. Folk traditions, Sufi mysticism,
emerging Shi’ism, and orthodox Sunnism were all interacting during a period of transition
which brought transformations to all of these varied expressions of Islam. During the Safavid
Empire, Persians adopted Shi’ism as the state religion, and the Shi’ite faith was seen as a
significant unifying factor throughout civic society. One of the main reasons for this shift was
because the citizens of the Ottoman Empire, the primary rival of the Safavids, were Sunni
Muslims. The Safavids hoped that the embrace of Shi’ism would serve to glue the variant
interests of the country together under one holy banner and in opposition to the false faiths of
their enemies. The Safavids also created, according to ‘Ali Shariati, “public rituals” which
incorporated “totally new symbols or rituals”—many of which were borrowed from Persian
Christians—“which had no precedent in Iran or Islam.”50 They also turned to Shi’ism as a way
to promote their assertive vision of Persian nationalism. According to Mark Bradley, Safavid
rulers portrayed “‘Ali and Hussein” as rulers who “were semi-detached from the Arab elite”
in order to portray them as “virtual Iranians.”51
Persia’s transition to Shi’a Islam was imposed by unquestioned military force. The Safavid
government also imported Shi’ite clergy from Lebanon and Syria to reeducate common Sunni
Muslims. The Safavids repeatedly attacked Iraq in hopes of gaining control of Najaf and
Karbala, but these forays were not successful. At the same time, the support of state political
power brought dramatic changes to Shi’ism. Once it became a state religion, Shi’ism
developed new theological ways of seeing the relationship between faith and society. Even
though the Safavid rulers had not been able to maintain their political power and grew
progressively weaker, they left an indelible mark on Persian religious civilization.
Faith became more totalitarian, and politics became more ideological under Safavid rule. Even
though the Mongols had, at one time, sought to wipe out all non-Muslims in Persia, they had
allowed for a few non-Muslims to remain. The Safavids were particularly harsh with Sunni
Muslims and with Zoroastrians.52 Persecution also increased for Jews and Christians. One
British traveler to Safavid Iran was even followed around at the order of the shah with a
basket of sand to cover over all of his steps while he travelled through the palace grounds
because his footprints were considered the markings of an unclean infidel.53 It was an era of
religious intolerance in the name of civic uniformity as an expression of loyal patriotism. A
new code known as Jam Abbasi controlled the dress, travel, and housing of non-Shi’ites.
Persian Jews were categorized as unclean heretics, and many chose to leave Persia (and move
to the Ottoman Empire) at this time. Those Jews who remained had to submit to some of the
harshest codes of conduct ever put in place in the Muslim world against non-Muslims. Jews
were segregated into ghettos and forced to wear a badge of shame on their clothing at all
times.54 One account claimed that, in 1642, a series of odd edicts were passed which
demanded that Jews “must not wear matching shoes, fine clothes, or waist-sashes, that they
must not walk in the middle of a street or walk past a Muslim, that they must not enter a (food
or coffee) shop and touch things, that their weddings must be held in secret and if they were
cursed by a Muslim they must stay silent.”55
When Safavid rulers issued decrees that all Jews should convert to Islam, some chose
outwardly to convert while inwardly maintaining their Jewish beliefs and practices. Converts
to Islam were given the homes and the goods of their non-Muslim family members as a reward
for their decision. When the Safavids were overthrown by the shortlived Afsharid Dynasty
(and the subsequent Zand and Qajar dynasties), Jewish life in Persia continued to dwindle. It
was not until Jews in Europe began to take a measure of interest in their Persian sisters and
brothers that their situation improved slightly.56
CATHOLIC AND ARMENIAN CHRISTIANITY DURING THE SAFAVID

EMPIRE
It was during the Safavid era that Roman Catholic missionaries, after a three hundred year
hiatus, returned to Persia. Their disembarkation coincided with extensive involvement in
Persian politics, for the first time, of European powers such as England, Holland, France, and
Russia into the nation’s domestic and economic affairs. Most of Persia’s initial interaction with
Europe related to trade routes between Asia and Europe which went through the Persian Gulf.
These emerging routes bypassed the Ottoman Empire. In 1507, the Persian Gulf island of
Hormuz was seized by the Portuguese, which led to a group of Augustinian hermits coming to
the island around 1575. Their leader, Simon Morales, then journeyed to the Safavid capital of
Isfahan in 1582 and established a mission there in 1602. The first English merchants landed in
Persia via Russia in 1559.
On July 6, 1604, a group of Discalced (Barefooted) Carmelites set off from the Vatican, via
Russia, to launch a new mission in Persia. The Carmelites settled in Isfahan in 1607 and joined
with the Augustinians who had arrived a few years earlier. These Carmelite missionaries spent
the next 150 years gaining notoriety as one of the most devoted, persevering Christian
missionary ventures in Persian history.57 They translated the mass service and missal into
Persian and opened schools for the Christians of Isfahan. The Carmelites were received by
Shah Abbas in May 1608, and their leader, Father John Thaddeus, presented him with a
crucifix made of pure gold, a book of Old Testament miniatures, and a barrel of strong vodka
(a gift from the Russian czar). Father John was beloved by the shah and traveled freely
throughout the kingdom doing his missionary preaching. In one expedition in 1614, Father John
was arrested in Astrakhan by Russian authorities who regarded him as a Persian spy. The
diplomatic pleadings of Shah Abbas probably saved Father John’s life.
In 1621, the Catholic missionaries of Hormuz Island abandoned their post when their
Portuguese protectors were vanquished by a joint British-Safavid invasion. At this time, five
Persian Carmelites were falsely accused of being spies and were killed as they traveled
towards Hormuz to warn Christians of possible dangers. One martyr, Chassader, was a
gardener who had converted from Islam. When he freely admitted to being a Christian and
refused to recant, Chassader was publicly disemboweled. Another convert, Elie, was wrapped
in a donkey skin, impaled on a stake, and left to die. The final three members of this Catholic
expedition also refused to deny Christ or admit to being spies and, for their resolution, they
were stoned to death, and their bodies were burned.
Shah Abbas was an autocrat in domestic policies but a diplomat when it came to foreign
policy.58 This is why the shah granted Augustinian missionaries concessions to work among
minorities of the country, although they were not allowed to proselytize Muslims. Shireen
Hunter notes that the “fame of Shah Abbas’s benevolence toward the Christians reached the
European powers.”59 In coming decades, Carmelite, Capuchin, and Benedictine monks set up
monasteries in Isfahan. Father Bernard de Sainte Therese built a cathedral in Isfahan in 1640,
and the first Jesuits reached the city in 1653. In 1695, Dominicans dedicated a church in
Isfahan which is still standing to this day.
While Catholicism took root slowly in Persia and eventually lost most of its support from
Europe, the ancient Armenian Christian Church became an increasingly visible presence in the
Persian capital. Armenia had been home to the oldest Christian kingdom in the world,
established in 301 when their pagan king became a Christian under the teachings of Gregory
the Illuminator.60 Although Armenians are sometimes called Orthodox they have no historic
connections with either Greek or Russian Orthodoxy but find basic doctrinal agreement with
both Orthodox communities. Armenian Christians worshipped in an independent church but one
which fully supported the theological creeds of the Councils of Nicea, Ephesus, and
Constantinople.
Shah Abbas brought the first Armenians to Persia in 1604 as captives from his wars in
neighboring Azerbaijan (Karabagh).61 Many of them were resettled near Isfahan and, in 1617,
were awarded a monopoly to manage the shah’s vast trading houses in silk. In 1620, the shah
took a prominent role in an Armenian religious ceremony.62 Although this patronage provided
Armenians with a tremendous economic opportunity, it was also the case that Armenians were
treated in different ways at various times by Shah Abbas. At one point he offered increased
economic incentives if any Armenian would convert to Islam. At the same time (1621) he sent
out generals to the edges of his empire to forcibly convert a number of Armenian communities
to Islam.63 The men of these villages were forcibly circumcised, and some were killed. Near
the end of his reign and, shortly before he died in 1629, the shah passed an edict that any
Christian who converted to Islam would be able to claim all of the wealth and property of any
non-Muslim relative for seven (later reduced to four) generations back in time. In order to save
their wealth and lands, tens of thousands of people converted to Islam.64 Very few of these
converts, however, were Armenians. One of the worst periods of persecution against the
Armenians took place briefly from 1656–1658, where, again, attempts were made to forcibly
convert all non-Muslim Persians into the one true faith of God.65
During the Safavid reigns of Shah Suleiman (1666–1692) and Shah Sultan Husayn (1692–
1722) more discriminatory laws were passed against heretical and impure Persian Christians.
These two rulers were weak and were usually controlled by political and religious authorities
who sought to extend their control at the expense of helpless religious minorities. Throughout
this period, Armenians were repeatedly robbed by the rulers of Persia and were often forced
to pay exorbitant taxes. If they refused to pay these fines, they were threatened by the
government with annihilation. Some parents tragically had no choice but to sell their own
children to pay for these mounting expenses. In other instances, Armenian women were simply
taken by the royal court and added to the harem as payment for these taxes. Waterfield reports,
“In 1683, after the Blessing of the Waters Ceremony, twenty-seven young Armenian girls were
abducted for the King’s pleasure; some of them were afterwards compelled to marry Muslims
who proceeded to claim what little remained of their new relatives’ goods.”66
While some Catholic mission focus was directed toward the Armenian community, the majority
of Catholic efforts centered on serving the needs of the economic and political expatriates who
lived in Isfahan. In addition to the Armenians, some Catholic missionaries targeted Assyrian
Nestorians in western Persia. Some of these Uniates, as they were known, accepted the
authority of the pope in Rome in 1844 (they were also known as Chaldeans or as Syrians).
By this time, Persia had become a Middle Eastern ethnic melting pot with large Kurdish,
Assyrian, Georgian, and Armenian communities becoming increasingly vibrant in the fabric of
the nation. Of the Armenian community in New Julfa near Isfahan, Waterfield observed that
“the incorporation of a large body of Christians into the very heartland of Persia and their
continuing presence in the country was to have a very considerable effect on the future of
Persia. From now on they were always confronted with a body of devoted Christians, who in
spite of many attempts to induce them to abandon their faith and adopt Islam very rarely did
so.”67 Over one hundred thousand Georgian Christians were also resettled in Persia, and many
of these eventually gained noteworthy prestige in the royal court.68
While most Armenians worked for the Safavids in building the city of New Julfa, other
Armenians settled in Mashad, Hamadan, and Shiraz. These communities fared much worse than
the Armenian community in New Julfa. The Safavids and Armenians had a complicated
relationship since both the Safavids and Ottomans were fighting to gain control over Armenia.
Most Armenian historians consider the Safavid era a catastrophe for the nation. During war
many Armenians were captured by the Safavids and became slaves and eventually servants
(called ghullams) with limited freedoms.69 It is probable that Safavids treated Armenians
better than Ottomans and were thus seen as allies, if not liberators. It is impossible to
substantiate such claims, but it was reported that the total number of Armenians killed or
forcibly deported to cities throughout Persia between 1604 and 1605 was somewhere between
250,000 to 300,000 people. Tens of thousands of these Armenians probably also died during
this harsh move. In 1620, there were probably about three hundred thousand Armenians living
in an increasingly prosperous emerging city of New Julfa.70 Andrew Newman notes that
Safavid rulers favored Armenians and “generally sided with indigenous, especially elite
Armenian interests against the interests of foreign Christians.”71
In New Julfa, Armenians were usually able to appoint their own mayor and administer their
own government. Armenians chose their own tax collectors who also served as intermediaries
between the villagers and local landlords and the Safavid crown. There were even periods of
time when Armenians were permitted to build churches, ring church bells on Sunday, consume
alcohol, and construct schools that taught in the Armenian language. Price asserts that some of
these privileges were unprecedented in other Muslim countries at that time.72 There were also
as many as twelve other smaller Armenian villages that ringed New Julfa which were also
autonomous. Kenneth Scott Latourette believed that New Julfa was the “center of religious
devotion and learning” for the Armenian community of the time.73 New Julfa certainly became
the spiritual center for Armenian Christians during this era. Famous Armenian painters,
scholars, and writers flourished in New Julfa. A library and a printing press were established
there in 1641. By 1715, the city had grown to include a population of more than sixty thousand
Armenians with almost thirty separate Armenian churches.74 Most of these churches were
Orthodox, but there were also a number of Armenian Catholics which were supported by the
missionary activities of Jesuits who had established schools and other programs among the
Armenians.
One Armenian church near New Julfa, in the village of Shrushkan, was particularly renowned
in its time. Within the church was an Armenian manuscript of the New Testament which was
said to have curative, miraculous powers. Those who touched this Testament were often
immediately healed. The book was brought out once a year to New Julfa in a festival organized
by a group called “The Gentlemen of the Testament.”75 Sacrifices of sheep and other animals
were made at the festival. Leon Arpee reports some of the odd scenes that also took place at
this festival: “Male and female mediums rolled on the floor in a trance, beat their breasts,
pulled out their hair, and clawed at their faces,” while they prophesied the future before the
Testament, while crowds joined into a “sing-song church chant in cryptic language to the
accompaniment of burning incense.”76 Pilgrims, including Muslims, came from far and wide to
the Festival of the Testament to ascertain their future or to receive their healing miracle by
touching the sacred book.
New Julfa was also a center for the Silk Road trade between Europe and Asia which featured,
among others, scores of prosperous Armenian merchants. Unfortunately, Afghan interlopers
ransacked most of New Julfa when they arrived, and Armenian businessmen were forced, once
again, to go into exile throughout the markets of the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.
The loyalty and industriousness of the Armenian community in Persia was exemplary. When, in
the early eighteenth century, Ottomans invaded Persia they were expelled under the able
leadership of three Armenian Meliks (military leaders). These efforts resulted in Nadir Shah
(1736–1747) honoring the entire Armenian community. One of the benefits he bestowed upon
them was that they were to be granted tax-free status, and this resulted in Armenians from
neighboring countries moving to Persia to enjoy such a favorable condition. As the community
grew in size so did their wealth and significance to the nation as a vital link between Persia
and the countries of the West.
NON-MUSLIMS DURING THE QAJAR DYNASTY (1794–1925)
The Safavid Empire was strained by repeated Afghan incursions until Nadir Shah came to
power and beat back the Afghans before going on to invade India.77 Nadir Shah, who was not
an orthodox Muslim, had expressed public interest in Christianity and Judaism and insisted that
Jews provide him with a translation of the Torah and that Armenian Christians present him
with a translation of the Gospels. Nadir Shah was many things, including indulgent and
tyrannical. He was known for his cruelty and his skills at extortion. One account explained that
Nadir Shah “extracted everything he could from the hapless Armenians” in order to fill his war
coffers.78
Persia was racked by internal turmoil and political chaos at this time. One of the key
contributors to this grim situation was Nadir Shah himself. He was tormented with mental grief
and pressing guilt after having ordered that the eyes of his own son, Reza Qoli, be torn out
(after the youth had been falsely accused of leading a rebellion). Nadir Shah seemed unable to
rule, and soon enemies rose up against him. In 1747, he was knifed by his own bodyguards
outside Mashad in his harem tent while sleeping. One assassin sliced off the shah’s arm as he
raised it to defend himself, and another cut off his head. After Nadir Shah’s death, the stunned
and exhausted realm was divided between barbarous Afghan warriors and the nomadic Zands
of Kurdistan.
Another Turkish tribe, the Qajars, eventually rose to conquer the entire breadth of the Safavid
Empire, and, finally, the sadistic warrior Agha Muhammad Khan was crowned the shah of
Teheran in 1796.79 Upon coming to power he decreed that a number of his political enemies,
such as Lotf Ali Khan, should be publicly gang-raped by his Turkmen slaves. In one account,
Agha Muhammad Khan ordered that all the women and children of one vanquished city be
awarded as slaves to his warriors. He also mandated that any villager who resisted was to be
blinded and that the eyeballs of all rebels be brought to him in heaping baskets. His fearful
servants carried out this gruesome order and reportedly filled twenty thousand baskets of eyes.
In the following decades, blind victims of the khan’s vindictive tortures wandered across the
length and breadth of Persia asking for alms of mercy and recounting their stories of lament.
Agha Mohammad Khan died in 1798 and was succeeded by Fath Ali Shah who led the Qajar
Empire for thirty-seven years. Fath Ali Shah’s governance was lenient, unlike the despotic
authoritarianism of his predecessor. This was because the new shah seemingly only wanted to
drink and carouse. Fath Ali Shah sired an impressive 260 sons by his 158 wives.80 It was
under his reign that the Qajars, facing external threats on all sides, were forced into significant
concessions to the French, Russians, British, and even their bitter rivals of the Ottoman
Empire.81 The ultimate threat to the Qajars, however, came from the fevered rivalry between
Russia and Great Britain, which both sought to exert political control over Persia.82 Captain
John Malcolm was the first British agent to enter Persia in 1801.83 He was followed in 1802
by Napoleon‘s first envoy, the Armenian Mir David Melik Shahnazar.84 Nasir al Din Shah
(1848–1896) frequently appointed envoys to Europe and Russia from among the ranks of his
Armenian subjects.
The situation unfolded rapidly after these first foreign envoys took residence in Persia. The
Qajars were powerless in the face of Western military superiority and, later, its economic
penetration into Persia. Persian independence was slowly strangled to death by foreign
domination. When Russian troops marched toward Teheran, the Qajars had no choice but to
turn to British support which was slow in coming. Turning to Britain led to a Faustian bargain
which ultimately undermined their power even further. Even with British assistance, Russia
was able to impose a harsh treaty on the Qajars which allowed the czar to gain control over a
huge portion of the territories of northern Persia.85
Britain, for its part, was interested in pulling the marionette strings of a weakened Persian
government because it was seeking a profitable land route to India and also to slow down the
steady southward advance of their Russian rivals. Russia and Great Britain both won
concessions from Iran which gave these nations significant control over Persia’s natural
resources. The foreign control of Persia’s economy reached its height under the indifferent rule
of Nasir al-Din Shah. Local populations became increasingly restless, and, in 1906, religious
leaders clamored for the shah to establish a constitutional parliamentary system of government.
Some members of the Armenian community (including some who had recently returned from
Russia’s 1905 revolution) provided leadership to a number of the new political movements
trying to gain influence in Persia at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Persia approved yet another national constitution in 1911. This document declared that
Twelver Shi’a Islam was the official religion of Persia and also installed a group of
five mujtahids designated to approve all potential legislation from an Islamic perspective
before allowing it to be considered by the nation’s elected officials. Local Christian
communities, however, did not feel threatened by these developments. In fact, the genocide of
about 1.5 million Armenians in neighboring Turkey resulted in thousands of Armenians fleeing
to Persia, which only strengthened their community.86 While World War I did not directly
involve Persia, its affect was to weaken Persia’s status as an autonomous state. In 1919, Persia
signed over its military and financial resources fully to Britain, and, in effect, became a British
mandate.
CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN THE SAFAVID AND QAJAR DYNASTIES
In the seventeenth century other European nations became increasingly active in Persia through
religious as well as economic channels. French Catholics became interested in the cause of
foreign missions through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith which was formed in
1622 and was strongly supported throughout France. In 1627, a French Capuchin mission team
was sent to oversee the area now known as Iran and Iraq. These Capuchins were medical
doctors and teachers who were based in Baghdad and who enjoyed the patronage of Shah
Abbas. This assistance included the shah’s reversing a number of long-standing anti-Christian
laws. In 1638, the French bishop of Baghdad, Father Bernard of St. Theresa, had to flee to
Isfahan after it was captured by the Turks.
In the 1830s, the Catholic Church was led by Pope Gregory XVI who had, as cardinal, served
as a prefect of the missional Propaganda Fide (formed to continue the work of the Society for
the Propagation of the Faith).87 The pope was deeply committed to expanding foreign mission
programs at a time when Protestants were increasingly active in such efforts. Gregory
inaugurated a vast restructuring of the mission efforts of the church, which coincided with
French imperialist expansion at the same time.
Catholic Lazarist priests arrived in Persia in the 1840s. They established a diocese in Isfahan
in 1850, in Teheran (in 1853), and one in Urmiah in 1892. The last Catholic diocese which
was established in Iran was organized in 1966 in Ahwaz for Chaldeans who had moved
southward for economic reasons. The arrival of French representation in the royal court also
facilitated the arrival of large numbers of Catholic priests. The French counsel set about
opening primary schools for Armenian Christian children in Tabriz and Isfahan and for
Chaldean Christians in Urmiah and Salamis. The Lazarist schools in Isfahan and the one in
Tabriz were established by the enigmatic but brilliant layman, Eugene Bore.88 French Sisters
of Charity ( Soeurs de la Charite) worked with the tireless Bore and with the Lazarists to staff
these Catholic educational efforts. This was the same order that distinguished itself in
heroically aiding the wounded on the battlefields of the Crimean War in 1856. Another group,
the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, opened leprosariums in Tabriz and Mashad.89 Not all
Catholic missionaries, however, were French. Dominican scholars would later come from
England and Ireland to teach in Catholic schools, and Silesian missionaries traveled from Italy
to lead a summer camp for Iranian youth.90
The Qajar Dynasty interested in courting French favor as an alternative to English and Russian
political designs did not interfere with French Lazarist efforts and allowed further projects to
advance. A Lazarist seminary was opened with training in French, Latin, Syriac, and
Armenian. Large Catholic churches were allowed to be built. Two colleges—one for girls and
one for boys—were launched with instruction in French. They were later put under the
sponsorship of the Sisters of Charity. A Catholic hospital and orphanage were established that
were also open to Muslims. Soon the Lazarist missionaries, Father Varese and Father
Plagnard, brought their educational work to Teheran and Shiraz.91 One Lazarist priest even
gained a position in the royal court of Nadir Shah.
Other than these Lazarist efforts, most Catholic missions left Persia by the end of the eighteenth
century. In spite of that fact, there was enough of a Catholic presence in the country to
encourage the Vatican to continue maintaining a diplomatic link with Iran even after the events
of the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution. Catholic missionaries of all kinds worked in Persia for
centuries with few results to show for their labors in terms of converts to the faith. Educational
and medical programs, in contrast, were a heartwarming success. It is hard to summarize with
a broad brush the extent of so many initiatives across such a long period of time. Short-lived
successes and failures combined with both sincere efforts and political intrigues. Waterfield’s
opinion of the sum of this venture was that “in spite of all of their mistakes—and the mistakes
of those who sent them and who burdened them with such impossible tasks—the presence of
these devoted men was a good thing for Persia. They made but little impression on the course
of history, but for many, many, ordinary helpless people over the years, they provided charity
and hope.”92 The stellar example of Father Aime Chezaud expresses this relationship. He spent
his years in Persia sleeping on a straw mat on the floor and wearing a torn and patched gray
habit. Father Chezaud ate only bread and wild cherries and devoted his life to patiently serving
the poor. At his funeral, after living in Persia for over fifty years, thousands of Muslims as well
as Christians of all types came to weep at the loss of Patre-Habib and remember his singular
contribution to their lives.
JUDAISM IN THE QAJAR ERA
Jews were not as fortunate as were Christians under the Qajar period, since they had no
international support which provided a measure of political protection for their communities.
Laws were passed which denied them the right to pass on their wealth to their children. Jews
were even forbidden to leave their homes during rainstorms because the rain that fell on them
might also touch a Muslim and thus make them ritually unclean and unable to pray.93 Their
problems came in spite of the fact that Haji Ibrahim of Shiraz, a descendant of a converted
Jew, had helped the Qajars rise to power and had been appointed to serve as the nation’s
prime minister under Nasir al-Din.
Lord Curzon lamented that the Jews of Persia were “sunk in great poverty and ignorance.”94
Their penury, lack of education, and lamentable social status meant that they were often openly
abused by their fellow citizens. Some Jews chose to flee the country while still others
converted to Christianity. These trends led the leaders of the Jewish communities of Persia to
successfully seek to develop links with Jews in other countries such as in England and the
United States.95 Because Shi’ite clerics became particularly strong in certain areas of the
country (such as Mashad and Tabriz), Jews suffered in these regions more than in other areas.
In 1839, the Jews of Mashad were given the choice of either forcible conversion or immediate
death. At least thirty-one Jews who refused to convert were killed when the Jewish quarter of
the city was set on fire.96 Other Jews who refused to become Muslims were publicly
beheaded. In spite of public renunciations, Jews continued to practice their ancient religious
ceremonies.
At this time, Jews were relegated to professions forbidden to Muslims such as trading in
jewelry, making wine, and performing as dancers or as musicians. Jews in some cities earned
a living as fortune-tellers ( falgir khanah) where they would often recite prayers in Hebrew
over their unwitting Muslim customers. Jews were, however, allowed to practice medicine,
and the Jews of Hamadan boasted of over one hundred physicians and druggists at the
beginning of the twentieth century. The worsening situation for Jews, ironically, encouraged
large numbers of Persian Jews to embrace a new religion of universal toleration that appeared
on the scene, the Baha’i Faith.97
THE BIRTH OF THE BAHA’I MOVEMENT UNDER QAJAR RULE
During the Qajar Dynasty a new religious group emerged that is now a worldwide religious
tradition. The Baha’is are the largest religious minority in Iran today. Their holy books,
the Qayyum al-Asma (or The Resurrection of the Holy Names) and the Bayan (or Exposition)
teach that salvation and resurrection life can be attained within this lifetime through accepting
the Baha’i message of universal truth. Similar to Islam, fasting and daily prayers are enjoined,
and alcohol and narcotic drugs are forbidden among believers. The old Islamic rules and
outward, formalized rituals, however, were to be set aside to make way for a revitalized law
of inward spiritual purity.
The Baha’i Faith began as a messianic movement, born at a time of profound social chaos,
which called its followers to embrace radical changes and look at the world from a fresh
perspective. The rights of women, advocated by the poet, theologian, and Baha’i disciple
Qazin (known as Qoorat al-Ain) were actively debated, and thriving women’s societies were
formed.98 Such revolutionary ideas were not welcome by the conservative establishment of
religious and political authorities. This is one of the main reasons why the Baha’is have faced
myriad problems in their interactions with various Muslim groups.
The Baha’i Faith is a strongly ethical and multicultural religion which forbids prejudice and
seeks to unify people with mutual respect to work for social justice.99 Service to humanity is
the primary duty of all believers throughout the world. Adherents are encouraged to pray and
meditate daily and to maintain yearly periods of fasting to enhance their spiritual lives.100 The
religion—first preached by a teacher called “the Bab,” Seyyed Ali Mohammad, in Shiraz—
proclaims that there is only one God.101 God has sent many intermediaries throughout history,
including Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad. The final prophet, however, is their founder, the
Baha’u’llah.102
In 1866, Mizra Husayn Ali—the Baha’u’llah—proclaimed that he was “the one whom God
shall make manifest.” He assumed leadership over a movement that the Bab had begun. The
Baha’u’llah encouraged pacifism in a series of revelations which became recognized as sacred
texts. His mystical messages and strong following among both clergy and common people led
the government to exile him to Akka (Acre) where he eventually passed from this life in 1892.
Joseph Sheppherd writes, “In every respect Baha’u’llah is the foundation of the Baha’i faith
and the pivot around which revolve all the teachings and principles of His religion.”103 His
gospel took root among the poor and middle class in Persia who were eager for social
changes. The movement had a clearly nationalistic character, and its holy literature was written
in Persian. The main festival was based on an ancient Persian festival. Another group of
people which took interest in this movement were Persian women who were encouraged by
Baha’i teachings which boldly asserted their rights to express their spiritual and intellectual
gifts publicly.
In the late nineteenth century, and in the early twentieth century, many Baha’i leaders were
murdered because their nonviolent movement was seen to be a threat to the state. Even though
the Baha’is have faced long periods of extensive persecution, these campaigns were
intermittent as various Iranian governments continued to change their policies about how to
deal with the group.104 When governmental policies were established which protected their
rights, the Baha’is became increasingly powerful as a force of intermediation between Muslim
Persia and the non-Muslim West, functioning as “interpreters and agents of European
commercial enterprises and even furnishing some of the first Persian envoys posted to
Europe.”105 The Baha’is were eager to engage in such peacemaking initiatives because they
devoutly believed that “the entire world was but one country and humanity its citizens.”106
Today, the Baha’i Faith, with its lofty aspirations for human unity around the world, have
raised awe-inspiring temples in many countries and have gained a dedicated following which
is active in missionary advances through educational and social justice initiatives. The
international center for the religion is the Universal House of Justice in Haifa, Israel, and, by
2000, the Baha’is claimed to have over five million adherents worldwide.107 The Baha’i
movement, however, is not allowed to practice its faith openly in modern-day Iran.
THE INFLUENCE OF WAR AND EUROPEAN POWERS
During the nineteenth century the autonomous authority of the Qajar Dynasty continued to
decline. Attempts to create a constitution and to reform Persia were attempted in 1906–1909,
but these initiatives were too little and too late. It was during this period of revolt that the
American Presbyterian missionary Howard Conklin Baskerville was killed in battle while
supporting constitutionalist forces.108 During this era of instability the dynasty was critically
wounded by the activities of the British and Russians in Iran during World War I. The military
machines of these foreign empires were dependant on oil and took control of Persia’s central
government in order to ensure their ongoing supply of fuel.109 Fundamentally, however, it was
not pressures from outside but internal clamoring for political and social change that finally
brought down Qajar rule.
The plight of Assyrian Christians in Persia was dramatically affected by the shifting military
currents of World War I. This was because in the western part of the country, where most
Assyrians lived, Russian troops were fighting against the last, fierce vestiges of the Ottoman
Empire. The frontier town of Urmiah, in Kurdistan, had a very large Assyrian Nestorian
population, which was protected by Russians fighting the Turks.
When Russians troops abruptly abandoned the war because of the October 1917 revolution,
Assyrian Christian communities were suddenly unprotected and looked to France for
assistance. France did provide medical aid and a training unit to create a Christian militia, but
this endeavor was frail, and the Kurdish chief Isma’il Aqa (also called Simko) led a brutal
attack against the Christians of Urmiah, which led to the assassination of the Assyrian Christian
patriarch. The massacre of Assyrian Christians continued unabated in the region until June of
1919 when the national government was finally able to reestablish control. Thousands of
Nestorian Christians fled for safety to Baghdad and Hamadan, but only about half of the
seventy-five thousand refugees actually reached safety. Christians in Persia were once again
reminded firsthand that they were vulnerable and unable to count on distant Christian allies
when they required vital, urgent protection.
Overall, the Qajar era was a relatively peaceful period for Christianity in Persia. Evangelical
missionaries began arriving in Persia during Qajar rule (their activities will be described in
chapter 5). During the Qajar Dynasty, the influence of Britain and Russia over Persia led to
increasing autonomy being granted to Christians living within the country. Algar writes,
“Among the non-Muslim minorities in Iran, the Christians, both Armenians and Assyrians,
were able to attain a new position of prominence in government and commerce during the
Qajar period. Thanks to the missionaries, Christians in Persia became the most educated,
modern segment of society. Christians often served as linguistic and diplomatic intermediaries
with the political representatives of Britain and Russia.”110
NON-MUSLIMS UNDER REZA SHAH (1925–1941)

It is not surprising that the Qajar Dynasty finally fell. What is amazing is “that they were able
to retain the throne for so long with such frail bureaucratic and military structures.”111 By
World War I it was a weak regime, and Qajar rulers had long since lost effective control over
large areas of their country. The Qajar government was unpopular and seen as a puppet under
the control of foreign powers.112 A new administration, the Pahlavi, which was reliant on
military and police force, instead of skillful diplomacy, emerged in Iran. The Pahlavi Dynasty
began with the assistance of Britain in leading a bloodless military coup over Ahmad Shah
which placed an “obscure and practically illiterate Cossack” colonel in the army, Reza (or
Rida) Mir Panjeh, in power.113
After the coup, this colonel renamed himself Reza Khan, Sardar Sephah, and then, finally, Reza
Shah Pahlavi, the founder of a new dynasty.114 The British role in his rise to power meant that
Reza Shah “was completely lacking in legitimacy and popular support and, as such, was
extremely weak and vulnerable to foreign diplomatic pressure.”115 While it is true that British
and Pahlavi interests often intersected, it would not be entirely accurate to dismiss Reza Shah
as only serving as a British surrogate. Reza Shah was a stern man of spartan tastes who often
slept on the floor and reportedly never took off his military uniform. Reza Shah had little time
for religion and ordered one man arrested who claimed to be divine by saying, “During my
reign I will not permit any prophets to appear.”116
Reza Shah relied on internal brute police force as well as extensive foreign support. He
amassed a huge army and used much of Persia’s oil revenues garnered from foreign powers to
equip his army with tanks, aircraft, rifles, and artillery. All known political opponents of Reza
Shah were arrested, and many were murdered. At the same time, British, Russian, and
American economic interests demanded tribute from the new shah. In a “complete sell-out of
Persian rights and interests,” the shah ceded to these three powers complete control over the
nation’s vast oil and caviar resources and then even allowed for the wide-scale plunder of
priceless Persian antiquities.117
In spite of foreign economic domination, the shah hoped to present his political rule to his
people in nationalistic terms which paralleled the vision of his Turkish contemporary, Kemal
Ataturk.118 Nationalistic, secular propaganda abounded from the state-run Iranian media which
magnified the glories of ancient Persia. There were many changes and, in 1935, the name of the
country was officially proclaimed to be Iran.119 Reza Shah also transformed the transportation
infrastructure of Iran, invested in heavy industries, and expanded the scope of public education
with the remaining oil revenues which he did not spend on the military.120 Military service
became mandatory, and special guards, assigned to protect the shah, were dressed in ancient
Achaemenid attire. One of the religious groups that benefited from this newfound nationalist
fervor were the Zoroastrians who gained many converts because they were perceived by many
Iranians to represent the truly indigenous religion of the nation.121 On the positive side, Iran
underwent dramatic economic improvements during the first decades of the Pahlavi Dynasty,
but, at the same time, domestic life was marked by increasing repression and the establishment
of an oppressive police state.
In order to appease British, Russian, and American concerns, certain legal codes were
established by Reza Shah which seemed to provide greater human rights for women as well as
for religious minorities in Iran.122 The year 1936 was known as the year of the “Great
Unveiling” because women were ordered to wear Western hats instead of Islamic veils.123
Negative attitudes among Iranians increased toward foreign missionaries, and they were
“carefully watched with considerable interference with their work.”124 During World War II,
Iran again declared neutrality, but, when the shah refused to expel German expatriates, British
and Soviet troops united to enter the country and force the shah to abdicate in favor of his son
Mohammed Reza.125 Reza Shah was exiled to South Africa where he died in July 1944.
RELIGION AND THE REIGN OF MOHAMMAD REZA SHAH
Mohammad Reza Shah, the twenty-two-year-old crown prince, rose to power in 1941 under
the watchful protection of British and Russian forces.126 Foreign regiments occupied Iran
throughout World War II. Only after foreign troops left was the new shah able to turn his
attention to consolidating his control and winning the hearts of the Iranian people.127 One of his
first initiatives was to reach out to Shi’ite clerics who had been alienated by his father’s
secular policies.128 He spoke openly about his frequent religious dreams and visions where the
Twelfth Imam would offer him practical advice on how to lead the nation.129 Initially, the shah
openly promised to “spread the faith of Islam and very publicly went on a pilgrimage to
Mashad,” but he was also, at his core, a secular Muslim who privately sought to remove
clerics from any real political influence.130
An assassination attempt against the shah in 1949 (probably by Marxist extremists) was
followed by the rise of Mohammad Mossadeq to power as prime minister.131 This difficult
period for the shah was not eased until Mossadeq was deposed in a coup. This upheaval,
called Operation Ajax, was sponsored by the American CIA and the British SIS.132
Immediately after these events, the shah sought to improve his standing with his citizens by
investing in the nation’s neglected economic infrastructure. In 1953, what the shah called the
White Revolution (financed by oil revenues) sparked an economic boom which lasted until his
political ouster almost three decades later.
The shah‘s intent was to drag the nation’s archaic social life into the modern era through
economic liberalization and through social secularism which, it was hoped, would weaken the
political power of religion in the lives of Iran’s common people. Because of a series of new
policies, for example, factory workers received a 20 percent raise. Capitalism, and not
Marxism, was to be the engine for this new social revolution. In spite of a 1,200-mile border
with the former Soviet Union, the shah chose to build increasingly closer ties with the
economic oil-hungry giants of Europe and the United States.133
Mohammad Reza Shah’s relations with non-Muslims, like many of his policies, seemed to
function on several levels—all of which were ultimately designed to strengthen his own
command over every aspect of society. The shah seized control of the curriculum and faculties
of Iran’s Shi’ite theological seminaries and determined to quell all forms of rebellion cast in
the guise of religious authority. At other times throughout his rule, however, the shah sought to
appease Shi’ite clerics, and, when he did this, it often led to severe pogroms against the
Baha’is and a few other religious minorities (especially during the mid-1950s).
During the 1960s and 1970s, government policies against the Baha’is were eased at the same
time that rules affecting other religious minorities were also loosened.134 Since the Baha’is and
Protestant Christians (and even a few Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses) were the primary
groups committed to aggressive evangelistic efforts, they increased their open proselytization
efforts at this time.135 Both the Baha’i and Christian groups, however, refrained from attacking
the beliefs of other religions, especially Islam. Protestants held evangelistic slideshows about
Jesus and showed religious movies in villages. They even publicly baptized converts from
Islam. In these two decades, all religious minorities formed community organizations and
educational programs for their children. Religious educational programs by the Armenian
community that had to be in the Persian language under the first shah were once again allowed
to be conducted in the Armenian language.
Certain restrictions for religious minorities remained in place during this period. Non-
Muslims, for example, were not allowed to hold cabinet-level positions in the government or
to have any leadership roles in the army. Government permission was also required for all
religious literature. In addition, persecution continued at the grassroots level, and it was not
unusual for non-Muslims to be removed from their employment simply because of their
religious affiliation.
The Jewish community in Iran largely flourished during the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah,
and this positive relationship began during World War II and continued throughout the rest of
his rule. In one little-known incident, the Jewish community in Teheran was able to provide for
a group of 848 orphaned Polish Jewish children who came to Iran in 1942.136 This effort was
led by Abdol-Husayn Sardari Qajar, the Persian government’s ambassador in Paris (known as
the Iranian Schindler), who helped all Persian Jews living in Europe (and even some non-
Persians), to escape to the relative safety of Iran during the war.137
Jews benefited from the more secular nature of the laws that the shah’s government set in
place, and they were often able to integrate fully into Iranian social life.138 Laws of apostasy
and requirements for non-Muslims to pay special taxes were eliminated. The shah recognized
the State of Israel in 1950 and established close relationships with that nation—a move which
was bitterly opposed by his fundamentalist critics and by many other Muslims worldwide.
Some have called this era a golden age for the Jews in Iran.139 The shah’s government assisted
any Jews in Iran (and also from Iraq) who sought to immigrate to Israel.140 Jewish children
were free to attend Hebrew schools, and Jews in Persia participated in all professional fields.
By the 1970s, Teheran had become the center of a vibrant and economically ascendant Jewish
commercial contingent. A horrific backlash ensued for this community, however, with the 1979
fall of the shah because Jews were perceived to have been strongly supportive of the shah.
One of the shah’s most virulent opponents in enacting his social revolutionary vision was the
formidable Shi’ite cleric Ayatollah Khomeini. From the pulpits and madrassas of Qom,
Khomeini cried out against westernizing influences and against such immoral practices as
drinking alcohol, allowing women to dress as they chose, and tolerating loose moral codes of
sexual conduct. The mullah would frequently lambast the activities of Queen Farah, and all that
she represented, as a secular woman of independence and modernity.141 Khomeini was soon
hailed as the inspirer of the growing conservative opposition to the shah. Khomeini was
decisive in his convictions that “Islam is the religion of politics and politics is not separate
from Islam.”142 Another reason that Khomeini (and many other Shi’ite clergy) opposed the shah
was that he confronted their power and had tried to reduce their number and influence in the
political life of Iran.
In November 1964, the shah exiled this bitter and outspoken critic. A calculated decision was
made that it would be safer to expel Khomeini than to execute him and to make him a beloved
martyr. Other religious leaders were less fortunate. They were hunted down by SAVAK, as the
vice-grips of Iran’s police state became increasingly totalitarian.143 SAVAK was widely
condemned by worldwide human rights organizations because it relied on a vast range of
physical, sexual, and psychological methods of torture to destroy all opponents of the
regime.144 These barbaric injustices led to a flood of anger against the shah throughout the
common people of Iran. The nation’s economy also began to falter at the same time. A slump in
oil sales between 1975 and 1979 resulted in the dramatic deterioration of the economy, and
opposition forces organized protest demonstrations to demand sweeping economic and social
changes.
Iran in the 1970s had the second largest (behind Israel) military in the Middle East and was
known by supporters as an island of stability due to its cooperative relations with Europe,
Russia, and the United States. Parliament mandated that the shah be called the Arya-Mirh (the
Light of the Aryans). He ruled with few constitutional limitations, and it seemed that nothing
could restrain his authority.145 Things changed suddenly: In 1979, Shah Mohammed Reza
Pahlavi was deposed from power. Like his father, the shah had ruled with an iron hand, and
over 60 percent of the nation’s yearly budget throughout his reign had been plowed into the
coffers of the military and the police.146
Few funds were reserved for the national infrastructure or for rural education, and more than
half of the country, at the time of his departure, remained illiterate.147 One of the positive
legacies of the shah’s reign was sweeping land reform which had long been resentfully
opposed by the feudal aristocracy. This singular issue was a key reason that Iran had no less
than eighteen premiers in the first twenty-two years of the shah’s reign.
On January 16, 1979, the shah fled the country, and his departure was wildly celebrated
throughout Iran. He first went to the United States for medical treatment but soon shifted to
Egypt (where he died of cancer in 1980). Even in exile, his enemies sought the shah’s
destruction. The Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwah that Muslims in the United States should
hunt down the ailing exile: “I order all students and Muslims in the United States, including
Africans, Filipinos, and Palestinians, to drag him out of the hospital and dismember him.”148
A host of factors led to the shah’s undoing. His managerial and leadership style was
shortsighted, and he failed to focus on pressing political realities all around him. Instead, he
often chose to fixate on the intricate details of a distant international scene. The shah publicly
squandered exorbitant wealth on the private opulence of the royal court, while some of his
citizens floundered in unmitigated (and probably needless) poverty.149 The shah rarely even
crossed paths with ordinary Iranians as he flew by helicopter from one palace to another. He
feared (rightfully so) assassination attempts and watched obligatory military parades from a
bulletproof glass box. Myopic policy misjudgments abounded, leading to increasingly
inexorable structural flaws in his governance. Perhaps the shah failed primarily because he did
not learn the lessons of his father and was too reliant on the fickle hands of foreign nations. The
Iran of the shah was a rentier state which was addicted to foreign capital and was willing to
export oil, natural gas, and archaeological treasures to other countries in exchange for
unimaginable amounts of weaponry and wealth. Just as the shah had become out of touch with
Iran’s suffering people, he also eventually lost touch with the times in which he lived. His rule
ended—not at the hands of a foreign power—but by the assertions of zealous religious fervor
mixed with unfettered social frustrations.
NOTES
1. Yarshater, Ehsan, “The Persian Presence in the Islamic World” in The Persian Presence in
the Islamic World. Hovannisian, Richard G., and Georges Sabagh, editors. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1998, page 4.
2. The Prophet Muhammad died on June 8, 632. Shortly after his death, the new leaders of the
community set out to gain military and political control of their region. The defeat of Arab
warriors by the Persians at the Battle of the Bridge was one of very few early battles that the
Arabs experienced in their advance. In their counterattack and victory in 637, the Persian
forces of twenty thousand soldiers were decisively defeated by a far smaller Arab force at
Qadisiya. Large tracts of land, including the twin cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, fell into
Arab hands. The last Sasanian king, Yazdigerd III held out inside the empire until 641 when he
was defeated once again by the Arabs, this time at the battle of Nehavend. Yazdigerd fled to
Merv (Mary) where he lived in exile for another ten years until he was assassinated there in
651. This date is sometimes given as the end of the Sasanian Empire. The Persian capital of
Ctesiphon was also known as Mada’in. A hastily formulated Persian force was then defeated
in Jalula, and resistance continued for many years. Bernard Lewis in The Arabs in
History. New York: Harper Books, 1966 (1958), pages 53–54.
3. Territorial reunification of Persia did not begin again until 1491 when Shah Isma’il Safavi
began to reunify the various parts of the country that were then under Turkic, Iranian, and
Turko-Iranian dynasties.
4. Segal, Ronald. Islam’s Black Slaves: The Other Black Diaspora. New York: Farrar, Straus,
and Giroux, 2001, page 23.
5. The most famous Persian family given political power by the Arabs was the Barmakids who
ruled for a few generations until they were removed because they had become too powerful.
The most famous member of this surrogate ruling family was Jaffar who is popularized as the
Grand Vizier in the story of Aladdin and the Tales from A Thousand and One Nights.
6. Segal, 121. Black eunuchs became part of the royal courts of Isfahan, and some African
slaves even emerged in Persian culture to high political and military status. In 1717, Segal
reports that Yaqub Sultan, identified as a black slave, was appointed the governor of Bandar
Abbas, a principal port serving southern and central Iran (121). Christian Armenians,
Georgians, and citizens of the Caucusus were also sold into slavery as the Persian Empire
expanded to the west and north. Segal reports that in 1842 (which may serve as a typical year-
to-year number), about five thousand African slaves entered Iranian ports (125).
7. One can observe that the twelve major deities ( eyzads) of Zoroastrianism, for example, are
replaced by the veneration of the Twelve Imams.
8. The idea of a savior to come at the end of time was also part of Persian mythology, and the
occultation of the Twelfth Imam was known in Persia as Imam Zaman (The Lord of Time).
Persians were able to keep many of their ancient practices and beliefs when they embraced
Shi’a Islam. The structure of Shi’ite practice in Iran was based on Zoroastrian ritual
structures.
9. Zoroastrians were not originally seen to be “People of the Book,” but they were later added
in order to gain their financial tax contributions. Christian monks were excluded from having to
pay the poll tax.
10. Foltz, 2004, 37. British abolitionists put pressure on the Persian court at this time to curtail
slavery. The shah of Iran in 1846 initiated legislation which began to curtail the slave trade.
One census of Teheran from 1868 claimed that about 12 percent of the entire population was
black slaves and another 2 percent of the military, almost eight thousand soldiers, were African
slaves (Segal, 126).
11. Sufi Abu Yazid (also known as Bayazid) of Bistam (died in 874) was originally trained by
an Indian teacher from the Sindh. He led a group called “the intoxicated ones.” Another
Buddhist concept, the annihilation of the soul, became part of the doctrine of Sufis
called fana. Some nominal Shi’ites in Western Iran led by Ahl-e Haqq taught a belief in
reincarnation and agreed that the ultimate goal of faith was annihilation in God. There is one
passage in the Holy Qur’an (Surah 84) which is often used to support this idea.
12. Ghazan Khan, who had been born a Buddhist, and who had lived his life surrounded by
Buddhists, seemingly went out of his way to show his disdain for his native faith in his
systematic, cruel attacks.
13. One can see this assumption in the writings of John of Damascus. 14. Vine, 90.
15. Hodgson, 307. Zoroastrian magi, for example, came to express that the center for all
devotion was Ahura Mazda, who should be seen to serve as “a proper analogue to the Allah of
the Muslims. They bolstered this approach, of course, with theological metaphysics and
possibly even with reinterpretations of scripture.”
16. Zoroastrians who fled to India to avoid persecution first settled in the Gujarat state around
936 C.E. They also settled in Bombay. Over time, Parsees were not able to maintain contact
with Zoroastrians in Persia. A Society for the Amelioration of the Conditions of Zoroastrians
in Persia was founded in Bombay with British assistance in 1854, and this society sent a
legation to Persia where they discovered that the plight of their fellow religionists was
unthinkably abysmal. This group began to lobby Persia to repeal the poll tax for Zoroastrians
which the government agreed to do in 1882. Their plight improved and in 1906, the new
government allocated one seat in the parliament for the Zoroastrians. Since the shah of Iran
promoted a secular nation, Zoroastrians were able to become even more visible. A fire temple
was established in Teheran in 1908. Persian intellectual Sadeq Hedayat (1903–1951)
developed a keen interest in the religion, and some Iranians even converted to Zoroastrianism
because it was seen to be more authentically Persian. The first World Zoroastrian Congress
was held in Teheran in 1960 with representatives from India, Singapore, the United States, and
throughout Europe. Spetna University, a virtual Zoroastrian University, has been set up in Los
Angeles and has Zoroastrian students from all over the world, including Brazil and Venezuala.
There are only one or two Zoroastrian communities in Iran today, in Yazd and in Kerman,
while the largest population of Zoroastrians today is in Bombay, India. There are strong
communities in Delhi and other cities, and the large Tata Company is primarily owned by
Parsees.
17. A group of Persian Jews followed a man named Abu Isa Esfahani who claimed that he was
the messiah. They practiced vegetarianism and acted as if they were always in mourning for the
loss of the temple in Jerusalem. Abu Isa gained up to ten thousand followers. Another group of
Jews revolted against Jewish Talmudic laws. They were known as the Karaites. In 830, a
Persian Jew named Abu Amran taught that he was the Iranian Moses. Finally, in 1121, David
al-Ruy tried to establish a Jewish army from among the Jews of Azerbaijan and Iran in order to
march on Jerusalem and take back the holy city from the Christian Franks. He was not
successful.
18. The Persian monk John of Phenek wrote of the Arabs in the 690s: We should not think of
their advent as something ordinary, but as due to divine working. . . . How otherwise, apart
from God’s help, could naked men, riding without armor or shield, have been able to win? God
called them from the ends of the earth in order to destroy, through them, a sinful kingdom
(Amos 9:8) and to humiliate, through them, the proud spirit of the Persians. (Foltz, 2004, 90)
19. Christians reported as proof of this argument their claim that the Holy Qur’an had 1,666
verses.
20. A tax, called jizya, has been administered to non-Muslims in different ways and at different
times in Islamic history. There are some instances in Muslim history, including Persian history,
where the jizya tax was punitive and was probably designed to drive Christians into either
economic ruin or towards conversion to Islam.
21. This assertion is made by Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Is- lam: Conscience
and History in a World Civilization, Volume I: The Classical Age of Islam. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1974, page 91. 22. Vine, 93.
23. Al-Mansur’s library was called the Beyt al-Hikam ( The House of Wis- dom) . His idea
was to compile in one place all of the wisdom of the world and then translate it into Arabic.
Sasanian rulers had a similar intent when they established their royal library, also called The
House of Wisdom, in Gonde shapur, Khuzestan. The Gondeshapur library was still in existence
at the time of al-Mansur’s library.
24. Vine, 95.
25. Vine, 98.
26. The original Persian language of the Sasanians, known as Middle Persian or Parsi (Farsi),
had a number of linguistic limitations which led to the development of a more flexible dialect
called Dari. As Dari (or Parsi Dari, and then Farsi, as it came to be known) circulated, it
became the most widespread language of Persia. It is also called New Persian, and it was the
major dialect that was popularized by the Saffarid rulers. The Saffarids were followed by the
Samanids of Bukhara who carried on the practice of reviving the New Persian script for the
administration of their government. In addition to their support of the spread of the New
Persian language, the Samanids were also generous supporters of the arts and sciences. It was
under Samanid rule that Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the great physician and philosopher, came to the
foreground.
27. One notable exception was the Ziyarid Dynasty which seemed to be hostile to Islam and
expressed devotion to Zoroastrianism exemplified by their celebrations of Zoroastrian
festivals and the use of Zoroastrian symbols on their currency.
28. The Seljuks (Saljuqs) were part of the Oghuz Turkish tribal clan which was a loose
confederation of tribes who had previously hired out their mercenary services to various lords
in Transoxiana as they moved southward. These tribes unified once they captured the important
province of Khurasan. These nomads were forced to organize and become territorial
sovereigns. Before they unified they menaced most of Western Iran with their plundering. One
contingent of their number, known as the Ghuzz Turks, went down in Persian literary lore for
their raping and pillaging of all Persian communities in their path.
29. Waterfield, 39.
30. Previous to this time the term “Kurd” had been used by people traveling through the region
of northwest Azerbaijan, Luristan, and in the southern areas today known as Kurdistan (in Iraq)
to describe the people that they met there that spoke the Kurdish language.
31. Price (47) claims that their local religion had traces of Zoroastrianism, Islam, Mithraism,
and Manichaeism along with some possible Christian and Jewish influences, although these are
not specified. There is one religion among the Kurds called the Yazidi religion which mixes a
host of elements from many religions. There are still Yazidis who practice this faith among
Kurdish communities worldwide.
32. Price (284): “Religious affiliation also divided the Kurds. Although the vast majorities are
Sunni, they differ greatly in degree of their devotion and in their loyalty to orthodox Sunni
practices and rituals. The popularity of mystical sects, notably the Naqshbandi and Qaderi, and
loyalty to competing sheiks and various Shi’a marginal sects, in addition to secular Kurds,
created significant divisions as well.”
33. Waterfield, 48. Waterfield attributes the missive to the Mongol queen regent.
34. Vine, 143. Of the attack on Nishapur Vine wrote, “The Mongols spent fifteen days there,
during which time the city was practically demolished, and all the inhabitants were slain—
men, women, and children—with the exception of four hundred picked artisans who were
deported to Mongolia” (143).
35. H. Papazian, “Armenia and Iran” in the Encyclopedia Iranica. Volume II, edited by Ehsan
Yarshater. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986, page 469.
36. Hulugu, the first Mongol ruler, had a Christian wife. She vindictively “sought permission to
destroy the Saracens’ temples, and to prohibit the performance of solemnities in the name of
Muhammad, and caused the temples of the Saracens to be utterly destroyed, and to put the
Saracens into such slavery that they dared not show themselves any more” (Vine, 147). This
advice was not taken. Abagha (1265–1280), Hulugu’s successor, ordered that all government
officials be either Christians or Jews but not Muslims. Il-Khan Teguder (1280–1284) had been
a Christian, but he converted to Islam, and his name was changed to Ahmad. Because of this
decision, he was deposed. Another Christian Il-Khan, named Arghun (1284–1291), came to
power.
37. Arghun Khan appointed a Jewish physician, recently converted to Islam, named Sa’d al-
Dawla, to be the prime minister in the 1280s but had this vizier executed in 1291. In 1298,
another Jewish physician who had recently converted to Islam was appointed prime minister.
This man, Rashid al-din Fazullah, also fell out of favor and was executed in 1318 because of
political intrigues at the royal court.
38. Savory, Roger M. “Relations Between the Safavid State and Its NonMuslim
Minorities.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. Volume 14, number 4, October 2003
(435–58), page 437. Sa ‘d al-Dawla’s crime was that he appointed a number of his own family
members to high offices of the state.
39. The Il-Khan before Ghazan was a Christian named Gaikhatu who had ruled from 1291–
1295. After his death there were two claimants for the throne. One was Baidu, a half-hearted
Christian, and Ghazan, a devoted Muslim. His faith aroused the support of the people, and he
was able to come to power. The edict which Il-Khan Ghazan gave to attack Christians stated,
“The churches shall be uprooted, the altars overturned, and the celebration of the Eucharist
shall cease, and the hymns of praise and the sounds of calls to prayer shall be abolished, and
the heads of Christians and the heads of the congregations of the Jews, and the great men among
them shall be killed” (Vine, 154). The Il-Khan to follow Ghazan (who ruled from 1295 to
1304) were also Muslims, Uljaitu (1304–1316) and Abu Said (1316–1335). The Persian
Empire was in complete administrative and military disarray after the death of Abu Said.
Tamerlane, however, did not arrive in Persia until about 1380.
40. The conversion process for the Il-Khan happened in stages. First, at Lar on June 19, 1295,
he announced that he had become a Sunni Muslim. On November 3, 1295, he adopted the
Muslim name Mahmud. On November 2, 1297, Mahmud and his court formally adopted the
Muslim turban instead of the traditional Mongol broad-brimmed hat, which marked a break
from his Mongol ancestry.
41. Savory claims that Timur first arrived in Iran in 1381 (Savory, 439).
42. Tamerlane—referred to in European history as Tamburlaine or bloody Tamburlaine—was

actually known as Timur the Lame, which was a reference to his bad leg that was injured in a
riding accident.
43. He was born in Transoxiana, present-day Uzbekistan, and began his life in the service of a
local Mongol ruler. Later, he claimed that he was a direct descendant of Genghis Khan which
led to him gaining power. When he conquered a region, he took everything that could be
moved, including treasure, slaves, riding horses, pack and domestic animals, herds, and
household goods, to be given away freely in Central Asia.
44. Shah Rokh ruled most of the Timurid lands excepting Syria and modernday northern Iraq.
His base of operations was in Herat which he made a center for the art of miniature paintings
which he enthusiastically patronized when he was not fighting a series of wars against various
rebels who challenged his rule. The name Shah Rokh does not seem to have any connection
with the mythical Shahrokh of Persian literature. This “king of the birds” held many magical
powers and is frequently evoked in modern Iranian arts.
45. Quoted in Foltz, 2004, 57.
46. Foran, John, “The Long Fall of the Safavid Dynasty: Moving beyond the Standard Views,”
in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, New York: Cambridge University Press,
volume 24, 1992, pages 281–304, 281.
47. Shah Isma’il Safavi was a Turkish-speaking Shi’ite from Azerbaijan. It had been the first
time that Persia had been united since the time of the Arab invaders, and the shah also linked
religion closely with politics as a way to strengthen his leadership authority. Shah Isma’il
Safavi was immediately attacked by his neighbor, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I (known as Selim
the Grim) who reigned from 1512 until 1520. Persia remained a separate and rival state for the
Ottomans for the coming centuries. The threat of the Persians also forced the Ottomans to
curtail imperial designs to advance further into Europe. In the words of Bernard Lewis:
The Ottomans and the Persians continued to fight each other until the nineteenth century,
by which they no longer constituted a threat to anyone but their own subjects. At the same
time, the idea of a possible anti-Ottoman alliance between Christendom and Persia was
occasionally promoted, but to little effect. (Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong: The Clash
Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East. New York: Harper Collins, 2003,
page 9)
48. Azeri nationalists are proud of the Safavid Dynasty and see its rise as an important symbol
of Azerbaijani identity and shared history.
49. Shah Isma’il I was a descendant of a powerful Sufi master. He became the first military
head of a religious order in Persian history to be crowned a king.
50. ‘Ali Shariati is quoted in Abdo, Geneive, and Jonathan Lyons, Answer- ing Only to God:
Faith and Freedom in Twenty-First Century Iran. New York: Henry Holt and Company,
2003, page 243. Shariati, a strong advocate for the modernization of Shi’a Islam, felt that it
was being held captive by the primitive customs that the Safavids had introduced. He believed
that the Safavids “had bled Shi’ism of its power as a revolutionary ideology” and replaced
sound doctrine with “emotional ceremonies used to divert the people from discovering the
truth of Shi’ism and the Karbala revolution.” Shariati also called these festival rituals
“sensual” and “imitative” of Christian festivals.
51. Bradley, Mark. Iran and Christianity: Historical Identity and Present Relevance. New
York: Continuum Press, 2008, page 7. Bradley also notes:
With breathtaking confidence he claimed that ‘Ali when searching for a wife for his
second son, [Husayn], did not go to the Arabs. He went to the Iranians. And the girl he
found was none other than Shahrbanou, the daughter of the last Iranian Sasanian king,
Yazdigerd. With one alleged marriage Ismail achieves a lot for Iranian nationalism. First
of all by having ‘Ali come to the Iranians for his son’s wife he underlines the perception
that ‘Ali was more comfortable with the Iranians. Then with the actual marriage Ismail
combines two of the most revered genealogies in the popular Iranian mind: the Sasanian
and Muhammad’s family. And of course now all the imams after [Husayn] have Iranian
blood in their veins, so the Shia faith has in a way become an Iranian religion. (7–8)
52. Under the reign of Sultan Husayn of the Safavid era, Zoroastrians were forcibly converted
or were killed if they refused. Under the reign of Shah Abbas, many Zoroastrians were
relocated from Yazd and Kerman to work in the capital of Isfahan as weavers, carpet-makers,
gardeners, and laborers.
53. Savory, 441. The British traveler was Anthony Jenkinson, and he arrived in Persia in 1562.
54. Kazemi, Farhad. “Iran, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Balance” in Iran since the Revolution:
Internal Dynamics, Regional Conflict, and the Superpowers, edited by Barry M. Rosen. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1985, page 84.
55. Axworthy, 140.
56. In 1898, the Paris-based organization called the Alliance Israelite Universelle paid for and
arranged for the opening of a Hebrew school in Teheran and in other parts of the country after
that. In the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, Jews were granted one seat in the new
parliament. But Jews were often criticized in the press, and about one-third of all Jews in Iran
immigrated to Israel with the birth of the nation in 1948.
57. Father John Thaddeus arrived in Persia in 1619. Father Bernard de Sainte Therese brought
a printing press to Persia in the 1620s and gave it to the Armenians, since the Muslim court felt
that as a machine it was against their religion to use it. In 1632, Father John went to Rome to
be consecrated as the bishop of Isfahan, but he died suddenly in his native Spain when his mule
ran away from him on a mountain track, killing him. In 1638, a wealthy Genoese merchant
endowed the building of a large Catholic church in Isfahan where Father Bernard de Sainte
Therese was appointed bishop in 1640. In 1649, the Carmelite missionary Father Dimas tried
to begin a church among the Georgian Christians around Shiraz and Persepolis. Father
Dionysius of the Crown of Thorns established a Carmelite mission around Lake Urmiah in
1652. The Carmelites worked with other Catholic missionaries such as Father Aime Chezaud
and Father Francois Rigordi who were Jesuits who settled in Julfa in 1654 and 1655. In 1656,
the Capuchins, led by Father Raphael du Mans, established Capuchin houses in Isfahan and
Tabriz. In 1661, a Benedictine Monsignor Placid du Chemin was appointed the new bishop of
Isfahan but he never visited his diocese.
58. Shah Abbas II once asked a European ambassador if the king of his country was as
autocratic as he was. When the consular said that his king was not, Shah Abbas was said to
reply: “Well the difference is that they have men to rule, whereas I have untamed animals”
(Waterfield, 61).
59. Hunter, 119. The treatment of the Christian religion and the enactment of foreign policy is a
theme that begins with the Safavid rulers and carries through to the foreign policy decisions of
the last shah of Iran. This pattern is particularly pronounced during the Qajar Dynasty.
60. Gregory the Illuminator was a devout ascetic who undertook long fasts, slept in mud, ate
mostly vegetables, spent days in prayer, and died in solitude. Thortan monastery was built near
where he died.
61. Karabagh was one of the most thriving Armenian communities at that time (in contrast
Yerevan was an insignificant village) along with the Armenian village at Gumri (formerly
known as Kunairi in Armenian and in the eighteenth century by the Russian term
Alexandraopolis) and other larger communities. The word “Karabagh” is a combination of the
Turkish Kara, which means “black,” and the Persian Bagh, which means “city.” The present
term for the city, Nagarno, is a Russian word meaning “mountainous,” meaning that the region’s
name is one of the few place-names in the world composed of terms from three languages.
62. Waterfield (67) tells the following story:
It was the custom of the Armenians at Epiphany to conduct a solemn and gorgeous
ceremony of the Blessing of the Waters on the Zayandehrud River in Isfahan. Shah Abbas
often used to attend this ceremony; he was not exactly an easy or tactful guest, but he was
the shah and his presence was considered an honor. Gorgeous processions from all the
churches in Julfa converged on the river followed by most of the Catholic missionaries
and the King and his courtiers. In 1620, Shah Abbas took over the ceremonies, directing
the unfortunate Armenian clergy where to stand and what to do. When the ceremony was
over the king accompanied them back to Julfa and spent most of the day in religious
discussions with them. In the evening he asked to see some relics, which were reluctantly
shown to him. At first he treated them with respect, telling those who stood round to
behave reverently before such holy objects. Among the most sacred of the relics was a
bone of Saint Ripsima. The shah took it into his head to give some of it to Father John
Thaddeus, so he calmly took the relic and broke off a piece, wrapped it in paper and gave
it to the embarrassed Father John.
63. Savoy (447) quotes one account by the official Iskander Beg from 1621: “In the same way,
all the Armenian Christians who had been moved to Mazanderan were also forcibly converted
to Islam. Most people embraced Islam with sincerity, but some felt an aversion to making the
Muslim profession of faith. True knowledge lies with God! May God reward the Shah for his
action with long life and prosperity.”
64. Some of these converts inwardly retained their faith. Centuries later, some of them still
held to traditions that they could not explain, handed down from their ancestors. In one
community near Julfa it was the custom to make the sign of the cross before distributing the
bread for the evening meal.
65. Various historians describe the rule of Shah Abbas II in different ways when it comes to the
issue of persecution, but it should be acknowledged that foreign Christians were treated
differently than Persian Christians, and the attacks of this time focused only on Persian
Christians. The persecution of 1656 was launched by the Vizier Muhammad Beg who had risen
to that high rank in 1646. Roemer (volume 6, page 294) makes the claim that he believes
Muhammad Beg had actually been an Armenian from New Julfa and had converted to Islam as
a young man. Jews and Christians were targeted for attacks which lasted for two years. The
vizier explained: “According to our religion you are defiled and impure and yet you brush
against our bodies” (Savory, 450).
66. Waterfield, 73.
67. Waterfield, 63.
68. Price (72) cites this number, and I have not seen other historical accounts that verify this
high number. Both Georgians and Armenians were brought to Persia by the Azeri Safavids in
order to weaken the influence of Turkic peoples in the royal court. What is certain is that
Georgians gained more power in the royal court than any other ethnic minority. Shah Isma’il II
spent twenty years under virtual house arrest due to power gained by Georgians at the royal
court and in the royal harem.
69. A number, perhaps as many as twenty thousand of these ghullams were Georgians as of
1616.
70. Redgate, A. E. The Armenians. London: Blackwell Publishers, 1998, page 264.
71. Newman, Andrew J. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. London: I.B. Tauris,
2006, page 120.
72. Price, 71.
73. Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity: Reformation to the Present, Volume
II—1500–1975. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1975, page 902.
74. This number is cited in Arpee, Leon. A History of Armenian Christian- ity: From the
Beginning to Our Time. New York: The Armenian Missionary Association, 1946, pages 235–
36.
75. Arpee, 237.

76. Arpee, 237. Catholicos Alexander I (1706–1714) took notice of the miraculous Testament
and ordered that fees be paid to all the priests in the area instead of funds raised by pilgrims
going only to private entrepreneurs. Finally, in 1852, Bishop Thaddeus forbade all pilgrimages
to the miraculous Testament because he felt that it was idolatrous.
77. Nadir Shah was more of a military adventurer than an effective king. When Nadir invaded
India he plundered Delhi, the seat of the Mongol rulers, and brought back all of the Indian royal
treasures to Persia. These became the crown jewels of Iran, which are on display in a museum
in Teheran. The most famous of these jewels is the Peacock Throne, which came to symbolize
the wealth of the last Pahlavi rulers. On an unrelated note, Nadir Shah held to his own version
of Shi’a Islam, the Jaffari sect, named after the Seventh Imam, Jaffar al-Sadiq.
78. Waterfield, 76. Waterfield states that, in 1746, he extracted over 60,500
Tomans from the Armenian community after taking about that much in 1745.
79. Teheran did not become the capitol of Iran until 1789.
80. Axworthy (176) cites these numbers. Fath Ali Shah was known for his waist-long black
beard, his extravagant lifestyle, and his love of fine clothing bedecked with countless jewels.
81. The fact that the Qajars were also a Turkic people did not improve their relation with the
Ottoman Empire. The Qajars, however, did continue the policy, begun by Nadir Shah, to avoid
direct confrontation with Sunni Islam. Nadir Shah had been the first to ban the Safavid practice
of cursing the first three caliphs who are venerated by the Sunni. Nadir Shah also appointed a
permanent ambassador to the Ottoman Court, and this pattern was continued by the Qajars. All
of these overtures resulted in Shi’ite Muslims once again being allowed by Ottoman authorities
to make religious pilgrimages to the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.
82. Russia became interested in Iran during the reign of Ivan the Terrible who began to
establish commercial links with Iran. During the reigns of Peter the Great (1682–1725),
Catherine (1762–1796), and Nicholas I (1822–1855), extensive and successful military
campaigns were carried out against Iran. Peter took over the territories of Shirvan, Dagestan,
Gilan, Mazanderan, and Gorgan, as well as the city of Baku. Many of these territories were
returned to Iran. Catherine moved forces back into the Caucusus and conquered most of the
region. Georgia went back and forth but finally settled under Russian control. In 1825, Tsar
Nicholas I captured Gochka Lake and advanced toward Teheran. The Qajars were not able to
defend themselves and agreed to a treaty in 1828, which further strengthened Russia and gave
her more land from Iran. Russia then began to advance, with ease, into Central Asia and
captured Bukhara in 1868 and Merv in 1884. A Soviet-Persian peace treaty was signed on
February 26, 1921, once the Soviet Union came to power and had no desire to advance
southward into Iran. Both Soviet and Allied forces entered Iran in 1941.
83. Captain John Malcolm served in the Indian army and was sent to Persia by the governor
general of Bengal in hopes of negotiating a treaty with Persia over the power of an Afghan
leader named Zaman Shah.
84. This envoy from France arrived in Teheran in 1802. In 1807, Napoleon dreamed of
attacking India through Persia and signed a treaty with Iran, which offered to protect Persia
from both England and Russia in exchange for their cooperation.
85. Russia forged extensive ties with Azerbaijan at this time, and the Azeris had one of the
strongest economies because of this of any of the provinces in Persia. Azerbaijan also became
a center for political opposition against the Qajars, and many of the rebellious parties were
financially supported by Russia.
86. Approximately six hundred thousand to one million Armenians were able to successfully
flee the Ottoman Empire before the end of World War I.
87. In 1622, Pope Gregory XV had established the first Catholic mission organization that
became the forerunner for Pope Gregory XVI’s organization called the Propaganda
Fide (Society for the Propaganda of the Faith). This was to be a centralized mission
organization led from the Vatican. For political reasons, Rome preferred French missionaries
over Portuguese missionaries who often linked their activities with eventual imperial claims.
This fact encouraged mission interest in France. In 1663, Louis XIV approved of the Society of
Foreign Missions of Paris (Societe des Missions Estrangeres de Paris). The Capuchins were
formed at the same time, in 1622, and placed under the umbrella of the organization which later
became known as the Propaganda Fide. Pope Gregory XVI took his papal name in honor of
Pope Gregory XV’s commitment to world evangelization.
88. Bore was born in Algeria in 1809 and educated in Paris at the College Stanislaus, where
he became proficient in Arabic, Turkish, Armenian, Persian, Hebrew, and Syriac. In 1837, he
finally went to Persia on a scientific mission sponsored by the Academie des Inscriptions.
Bore was, first and foremost, a passionate Christian determined to spread the Catholic faith.
He enlisted financial support from family, friends, and the French government for his French-
language schools. He taught fourteen students, eleven Muslims and three Armenians, in Tabriz
in a French course that included comprehensive tests, gymnastics, and long walks with their
teacher. He left Persia in 1841
and turned over the work to the Lazarist Fathers of St. Vincent de Paul. When Bore left Persia
he went to Jerusalem and then to Constantinople before being ordained as a Lazarist Priest in
1850. He preached throughout the Levant for fifteen years until he returned to France in 1866 to
become the Secretary of the Order and then the Superior General in 1874. He died suddenly in
1878. 89. Previous to the efforts of the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, French missionary
Father Charles de Foucauld worked to establish leprosariums. He was their example. Four
sisters of this group, also affiliated with the Uniate Chaldean diocese in Persia, launched this
effort.
90. In 1933, Father Cyprian Rice (formerly a British diplomat in Persia) and Father Dominc
Blencowe came to Shiraz to found a Dominican house. Father Rice made a noted study on
Sufism and also translated a prayer book into Persian. In 1962, Father William Barden arrived
from Ireland. The first Silesian fathers, Father Streit and Brother Taliano, came to Iran in 1937.
Their initial work was with Italian immigrants. The Silesian Father del Mistro came to Iran in
1944 and opened a boys’ school at Now Shahr on the Caspian Sea. He also published a
Persian-Italian dictionary. Silesians also worked in the Khuzistan oil fields.
91. They opened a boys’ school in Teheran in 1866 and also began to build a church which
held its first mass on Christmas day in 1867. In 1892, a school for orphan boys was added to
the school in Teheran. The two were later combined to form the College St. Louis, which had
over six hundred students before it was closed in 1979. A school was also started in Tabriz at
the same time, but it had to close after a few years and was not able to reopen until 1901 under
the leadership of Pere Malaval and Pere Mas. Later, a girls’ school was also opened. The
Lazarists built a church in Tabriz in 1930. When the schools in Tabriz were forced to close in
1979, there were four hundred students at the boy’s school and over 450 students at the girls’
school. The Sisters of Charity arrived to establish a girls’ school in Teheran in 1875 and added
another school in another part of the city in 1896. At the time of the 1979 revolution, there
were 1,600 pupils attending Ecole Jeanne d’Arc.
92. Waterfield, 77.
93. Masliyah, Sadok. “Persian Jewry: Prelude to a Catastrophe,” in Judaism. Volume 29,
number 4, Fall 1980 (390–403), page 396. According to Masliyah, during the end of the
nineteenth century there were between twenty to fifty thousand Jews living in Iran. There were
four thousand Jews living in Teheran according to a census in that city in 1813. One of the
largest Jewish communities, consisting of about eight hundred families, was in Hamadan
because of the shrines there to Esther and Mordecai. A large Jewish community also existed in
Tabriz. In 1878 it was reported that eighty-five Jews lived in Kerman and about two thousand
Jews lived in Yazd which had long been a center for Jewish scholarship in Iran. There were
also small Jewish communities in Kermanshah, Burujird, Siakal, Sakis, and Savoj Bolak,
according to Western travelers (Masliyah, 391–92).
94. Price, 110.
95. Masliyah (395) cites the founding of the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Alliance
Israelite during the end of the nineteenth century to help Jewish communities in Persia launch
their own schools so that their children were not forced to attend Muslim schools or Christian
mission schools. Some of the financial aid for these schools came from British philanthropists
Sir Moses Montefiore and Baron von Rothschild.
96. Masliyah, 397. According to Masliyah, another twenty-four Jews died in a similar fire in
an unnamed community at about the same time. He reports that one Jew was publicly beheaded
and burned in Urmiah in 1836 and that another Jew was almost killed in Tabriz in 1888 after
being accused of trying to drink the blood of a Muslim child. Jews who willingly converted to
Islam immediately saw an end to attacks and also to their being required to pay the jizya. Some
of these former Jews were even appointed to serve as muezzin in local masjids. Many Jews
fled Mashad and other contexts of persecution by moving to Herat, Turkmenistan, Samarkand,
Bukhara, and some even were able to escape to Europe in the Qajar Era. In contrast to these
problems an interesting event took place in Isfahan in 1889 when the prime minister of the
nation at the time, Zill al-Sultan ordered the rebuilding of a synagogue that had been destroyed
in a riot. He also ordered that some of the mullahs in Hamadan who called for rioting should
be immediately fired.
97. According to Lord Curzon, 150 Jews in Teheran, one hundred Jews in Hamadan, fifty in
Kashan, and Jews in other communities joined the movement. More Jews converted to the
Baha’i Faith in the 1840s than all Jews who converted to Christianity throughout the entire
nineteenth century. Their message of tolerance to others was appealing, and the fact that they
did not require a formal conversion process was also attractive to some Jews. For some, the
decision to join the Baha’i Faith might have been something of a protest against the rigid
Judaism of Iran. There was no social advantage at all for any Jew to convert to still another
despised minority. For further discussion of this issue see Walter Fischel’s “The Baha’i
Movement and the Persian Jewry,” in The Jewish Review, 1934, page 52.
98. In one famous incident, an early female devotee of the Bab, named Fatemeh Begum
Baraghani Qazin (1814–1852), but better known as Qorrat alAyn (Solace to the Eyes), went to
a trial in a village called Badasht in northern Iran and spoke at the meeting while removing her
veil. This bold move spoke of Qorrat al-Ayn’s view that the old ways of the Islamic law had
been definitively abrogated by new revelations.
99. The National Baha’i Center in the United States is at 536 Sheridan Road in Willamette,
Illinois, 60091. The National Baha’i Centre in the United Kingdom is found at 27 Rutland
Gate, London, SW7 1PD. The National Baha’i Centre in Canada is at 7200 Leslie Street,
Thornhill, Ontario, Canada, L3T 6L8. And the National Baha’i Centre in Australia can be
found at P.O. Box 285, Mona Vale, Australia, NSW 2103.
100. One prayer from a Baha’i prayer book captures some of the spirit of the urgency of
prayer:
O God! O God! This is a broken-winged bird and his flight is very slow—assist him so
that he may fly towards the apex of prosperity and salvation, wing his way with utmost
joy and happiness throughout the illimitable space, raise his melody in Thy supreme
Name in all the regions, exhilarate the ears with this call, brighten the eyes by beholding
the signs of guidance. O Lord! I am single and lowly. For me there is no support save
Thee, no helper except Thee and no sustainer beside Thee. Confirm me in Thy service,
assist me with the cohorts of Thy angels, make me victorious in the promotion of Thy
Word and suffer to speak out Thy wisdom amongst Thy creatures. Verily, Thou art the
helper of the weak and the defender of the little ones, and verily Thou art the Powerful,
the Mighty and the Unconstrained. (Sheppherd, Joseph. The Elements of the Baha’i
Faith. Shaftesbury, England: Element Books, 1997, page 85.)
101. Seyyed Ali Mohammad was a young merchant who was called “the Bab,” or “the Gate,”
by his followers because listening to his words would bring you to the gate of truth. He was
born in 1819 and began his life as a very devout Shi’ite believer. After a pilgrimage to
Karbala, he returned to Shiraz in 1844 where he gained his first disciples. He taught that the
return of the Mahdi was imminent. In 1845, the Bab was arrested in Shiraz for blasphemy. He
was released and rearrested in Tabriz in 1848 both for blasphemy and for mental insanity.
During the trial, held in Azerbaijan, he announced that he was, in fact, the long-awaited Mahdi.
Numbers of converts grew, and Foltz cites that there were as many as one hundred thousand, or
over 2 percent of the entire population, that were followers of his teaching (Foltz, 2004, 147).
In order to quell these riots, the Qajar government executed the Bab in front of a firing squad in
Tabriz. After his death Foltz notes that of “at least twentyfive Babis who claim this identity,
two brothers emerged” (Foltz, 2004, 148). One of these, Mizra Husayn Ali, became known as
the Baha’u’llah and took leadership of the movement.
102. Baha‘u’llah’s given name was Mizra Husayn Ali. The title means the “Glory of God.” He
was born in Teheran, Persia, on November 12, 1817, into a wealthy family. He began teaching
in August 1852 while imprisoned in Teheran’s Black Pit ( Siyah-Chal). He was imprisoned
there because of the teaching of the first prophet, the Bab. It was in this prison that he received
his divine revelations. He was released after four months and sent into exile where he settled
first in Baghdad, Iraq, and then Istanbul, Adrianople, and finally in Acre, in Syria. He died on
May 29, 1892, at age seventy-five, while imprisoned in Acre. He wrote more than one hundred
volumes throughout his life and probably the most famous, which is called the Most Holy Book
or the Kitab-i-Aqdas, was written while he was imprisoned in Teheran. Baha’u’llah also
wrote the Kalimat-i-Maknuhih ( The Hidden Words) and the Chihar-Vad ( Four Valleys). He
was succeeded by his son, ‘Abdu’l Baha (1844–1921) who became the authorized interpreter
of his father’s writings.
103. Sheppherd, 17.
104. Baha’u’llah’s son and eventual successor, ‘Abdu’l Baha (1844–1921), taught the Baha’is
to be fiercely loyal to whatever government they found themselves under because their goals
were never to be misconstrued to be political and temporary. Missionaries were actively sent
out to many nations. One of the earliest successful Baha’i communities took root in Ashkabad
(Turkmenistan) where a beautiful temple was built in 1921. The Baha’i Faith reached the
United States through the missionary efforts of an Egyptian named Ibrahim George Kheiralla
who came to Chicago in 1894. By 1900 Kheiralla claimed to have won over two thousand
American converts to his religion. Dramatically, ‘Abdu’l Baha visited the United States
personally in 1912 and rebuked and disgraced Ibrahim George Kheiralla. The movement was
continued by the next leader, the Oxford University trained, Shoghi Effendi (1897–1957).
105. Algar is quoted in Spellman, Kathryn, Religion and Nation: Iranian Local and
Transnational Networks in Britain. New York: Berghahm Books, 2004, pages 156–57.
106. Foltz, 2004, 152.

107. Foltz, 2004, 154.
108. Reverend Howard Conklin Baskerville of Nebraska was only twentythree in 1907 when
he graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary and went to Tabriz to work as a school
teacher. When Cossack troops, in support of the new shah, Muhammad Ali, attacked
constitutionalist supporters in Tabriz he joined the military efforts of the rebels by saying, “The
only difference between me and these people is my place of birth and this is not a big
difference.” He was placed in charge of 150 defenders and was killed on April 19, 1909. Iran
regards Baskerville as their “Yankee Hero,” and in 2005 President Mohammad Khatami
unveiled a bust of Baskerville at the Constitutional House of Tabriz. “Iran’s Yankee Hero,” by
Farnaz Calafi, Ali Dadpay, and Pouyan Mashayekh, New York Times. April 18, 2009, A17.
109. Part of the urgency of this fuel need was the fact that the British Navy had shifted from
coal to oil because oil burned much more efficiently and was less bulky. While Britain had no
problem providing the coal it needed for the Royal Navy from within England, that was not the
case with oil. The oil reserves of Khuzistan, the first oil discovered in the Middle East (1908),
were vital for British national security.
110. Quoted in Spellman, 157.
111. Ghods, M. Reza. Iran in the Twentieth Century: A Political History. Boulder, Colorado:
Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1989, page 15. Ghods goes on to say of the Qajars (also on 15):
Their position as “supreme rulers” of the country was due entirely to their able exploitation of
Iran’s social fragmentation.”
112. Price (137) describes the problems of anti-shah sentiment at the end of the Qajar Dynasty
when the shah proposed a visit to Russia:
The clergy were outraged at the prospect of a Muslim king visiting a Christian territory.
He traveled to Russia but was forced to leave behind his favorite concubine and all other
female companions at the border in 1873. Under no circumstances would the clergy
permit Muslim women to visit Christian territory. Flyers circulated in the city proclaiming
that a Jew, Baron Reuter, was to be in charge of the country’s affairs and that a railroad
was to be built going through the holy shrine in south Teheran. Clergy proclaimed the new
railway to be the work of Satan, bringing corruption to Muslim lands.
What is certain is that Qajar rulers borrowed extensively from Europeans to take extravagant
trips around Europe. In exchange, European rulers demanded economic concessions. In 1901,
Nasir al-din Shah granted to William Knox D’Arcy, a British citizen, the sole right to drill oil
in southern Iran for sixty years.
113. Majd, Mohammad Gholi. The Great American Plunder of Persia’s An- tiquities, 1925–
1941. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2003, page 10.
114. Reza Shah consolidated his power gradually. The military coup he led was in February
1921. When he captured the capital he proclaimed a journalist as the new prime minister and
proclaimed himself the war minister. Finally, in 1923, he was appointed prime minister and
was proclaimed king in 1925.
115. Majd, 10.
116. Bradley, 54. This comment was in reference to a man named Sayyid Ghazanfaar who
claimed that he was the Twelfth Imam. Reza Shah was very aware of the example of Kemal
Ataturk in Turkey and he looked up to Ataturk as an exemplar and motivation for his decision
in 1935 to ban men from wearing turbans and beards and to ban women from wearing the veil.
When Shi’ite clerics protested in Mashad in 1936 to being forced to wear what was called the
Pahlavi caps because it stopped them from touching the ground with their foreheads, the shah
sent troops to the Mashad shrine and had them open fire on protestors. Over one hundred
people were killed in the incident. In 1926 Vita Sackville-West met Reza Shah and described
him in this way: “An alarming man, six feet three in height, with a sullen manner, a huge nose,
grizzled hair and a brutal jowl—there was no denying that he had a kingly presence (Bradley,
55–56).
117. Majd notes (11) the 1933 oil concession to Great Britain, the 1927 Caspian fisheries
concession and a number of agreements made with various American museums. Of this latter,
Majd writes, “Clearly there is part of this story to which museums have not been anxious to
draw attention” (15). The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago “descended on and
attacked such sites as Damghan, Ray, and Nishapur” with speed immediately after the passage
of the Iranian antiquities law of November 1930 (17). The Rockefeller Foundation had been
funding the “restoration and repair” of Persepolis and the Sasanian site of Isthakr since 1919,
but this work was far more than restoration and repair. Antiquities were smuggled from Iran,
sometimes in the American diplomatic pouch, with the assistance of government officials. The
two men most responsible were the renowned Professor Ernst E. Herzfield and Arthur Upham
Pope. The shah demanded the replacement of Professor Herzfield, claiming that he had stolen
antiquities when, in actual fact, the problem had been the professor’s outspoken attacks against
what Herzfield called “the Shah’s indescribable reign of terror” (21). Pope, the Advisory
Curator of Mohammedan Art of the Art Institute in Chicago went so far as to steal a 1,300-
year-old mirhab from a religious school in Isfahan (40), and he was involved for years in the
“systematic plunder of Iran’s mosques and shrines” until he left Iran shortly before the start of
World War II.
118. Reza Shah went to Turkey in 1934 to meet President Kemal Ataturk. Similar to Ataturk,
Reza Shah banned the veil and encouraged women to be educated. He also encouraged Iranian
men to follow Western dress styles as Ataturk had done in Turkey. He decreed that all Iranians
should wear bowler hats, fedoras, business suits, and ties. These initiatives were very
unpopular with many Iranian citizens. The most unpopular thing he did, however, was, in 1935,
to quell a riot inside the holy shrine precincts of Mashad by machine gun and tank fire.
119. This was an official declaration. The term had always been used interchangeably with
Persia. What the new declaration mandated was that all international correspondences should
now use the name Iran and that any government which related to the shah would not be
recognized unless it used the term Iran. Many were upset that many Europeans continued to
insist on using the Greco-Roman term Persia to describe the country. The other reason for
emphasizing the new name was to remind the people of the authority of the new government
and the legitimacy of the shah in relation to the past great kings of Iran. Symbolism abounded:
When Reza Shah had a coronation service, the crown that was made for the event was a copy
of a Sasanian crown that was on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
120. According to Axworthy (223–24), there were only 3,100 miles of paved road throughout
Iran in 1927; by 1938 there were over fifteen thousand miles of paved roads. In 1925, Iran only
had 150 miles of railway, but by 1938 there were over one thousand miles of railway track.
There were heavy investments in textile and steel industries and in the improvement of the
educational infrastructure of the country. In 1922, there were 55,131 children attending school
while in 1938 that number rose to 457, 236.
121. New Zoroastrian temples and libraries were opened up during the Pahlavi Era. By 1979,
there were between thirty and thirty-five thousand Zoroastrians in the country, which was an
increase in their numbers from the Qajar Era. Research institutions opened up in Iran and
around the world that focused on Zoroastrian culture and history.
122. In 1931, Reza Shah had elevated the marrying age for girls and boys both to eighteen from
fifteen. Under Islamic codes, girls as young as nine could be betrothed to be married. Women
were also given the right to initiate divorce, and the government sponsored women’s
organizations to promote the economic and social status of women within the society. In 1936,
Reza Shah, his wife, and his daughters attended a graduation ceremony at the Women’s
Teachers Training College in Teheran. Invitations to the event encouraged all women to follow
the example of the queen and her daughters and come unveiled. Unveiling was soon made
compulsory and some religious women felt assaulted when they were forced to walk unveiled
in public.
123. Missionary women at this time were forced not only to preach the gospel but also to
explain hat and hair styles to Persian women.
124. Morrison, S. A. Religious Liberty in the Near East. New York: World Dominion Press,
1948, page 27.
125. British, Russian, and American statements about Iran’s refusal to evict German residents
were simply a pretense. There were probably only between five hundred and six hundred
Germans in the entire country when Russian and British troops entered Iran in 1941. American
troops entered after the United States entered the war. The final British and American troops
did not leave Iran until 1946.
126. Mohammad Reza Shah had never been very close with his father, who treated his son as a
distant subordinate. The youth was educated in Switzerland in the 1930s and spent little time
with his father.
127. One area of the country that was of particular concern was Kurdistan. The Mahabad
Republic of Kurdistan had been formed as an independent nation in December of 1945, only to
collapse once Russian troops left the region in May of 1946. Independence had been declared
by the KDPI, then known as the Kurdish People’s Government in Mahabad. Once the
government of the shah returned to the area they burned Kurdish language bookstores and
banned the speaking of Kurdish. Many executions followed, including the public hanging of
Quiz Muhammad who had led the independent government. Other Kurdish rebels fled with the
Russian troops and continued terrorist operations from the Soviet Union.
128. The shah‘s father had prohibited certain public displays of festival devotion. Mullahs
reintroduced these public rituals during Muharraman and also, once again, returned to wearing
their traditional clothing. At this time, clerics also published anti-Christian and anti-Jewish
publications.
129. Braswell, George W. Jr. “The Case Study of an Iranian Young Man and Modernizing
Influences,” in Missiology: An International Review. Volume VII, number 2, April 1979 (195–
209), page 197.
130. Ansari, Ali M. Modern Iran since 1921: The Pahlavis and After. London: Pearson
Education, 2003, page 144.
131. Mohammad Mossadeq had spent his political life in opposition to colonial economic
hegemony over Iran’s oil fields. He was an accomplished lawyer and scholar who had studied
in Paris and Switzerland and had received a doctorate in law. In 1951, and at age seventy, he
was easily the most popular politician in Iran. On March 15, 1951, the Majles voted to
nationalize the oil industry, and Mossadeq was named prime minister on April 28, 1951.
British and American oil workers simply walked out, and the world boycotted Iranian oil.
When the shah tried to lead a coup against Mossadeq in 1953 it failed and the shah had to
leave the country in early August. This inspired the CIA and SIS coup that began on August 19
called Operation Ajax which ousted Mossadeq, ended the nationalization scheme, and returned
the shah to power. Many members of the Teheranian underworld led by Sha’ban Ja’fari
Bimokh (Sha’ban the Brainless) participated in the riots that led to the coup. Mossadeq was
convicted of treason by a military court and lived in house arrest until he died in 1967.
Mossadeq has always been a national hero.
132. One of the Americans active in the plot was Kermit Roosevelt, son of Theodore
Roosevelt, which is poignant given the jingoistic threats made by the president during the 1905
uproar over the Larabee killing.
133. One political incentive that the shah had in weakening the influence of the Soviet Union in
Iran was that, during World War II, when Russian troops were occupying the northern part of
the country, they were active in building the political infrastructure of the Tudeh Party, which
was communist and pro-Moscow. The Tudeh Party was able to gain, according to Morrison
(28), influence among the ancient Christian communities in the north, and one of the things that
the Tudeh Party did was discourage Iranians from having interactions with American and
British missionaries. Soviet propaganda, disseminated through the Tudeh Party, targeted the
Armenian community and heralded the Soviet Union’s safe haven for their ethnicity within the
Socialist Republic of Armenia. Some Armenians moved from Iran to Armenia because of this
influence. Those who left were forced to forfeit their Iranian citizenship and were not able to
return.
134. The decision of the shah to ease restrictions against the activities of the Baha’is stands in
sharp contrast to repressive measures against the Baha’is in other Muslim nations at the time.
In 1960, the Baha’is were banned in Egypt, and their activities in Iraq were banned in 1970.
135. Lloyd Miller, an LDS missionary in Teheran in 1975, had a radio program and
participated in a Mormon church that was already functioning in the city at that time. He played
a role in the conversion of Jamilah Zaifnejed Hagan who went to BYU and later organized an
LDS mission to Iran. This effort ended at the outset of the 1979 revolution. The LDS also sent
extensive humanitarian relief to Iran in 2004 after the Bam earthquake (see reports on
www.desertnews.com). Persia figures prominently in the revelations given to Joseph Smith
about a priest named Mordecai during the reign of King Cyrus. 136. The children were Jewish
orphans from throughout Poland including the Warsaw ghetto. They had first escaped to Russia
only to be interned in Siberia. Finally, because of international pressure, these children were
sent by train southward to the Caspian coast and entered Iran. They came to Teheran where
they were cared for by the Iranian Jewish community until they were able after the war to go to
Palestine.
137. When the war began, Sardari still had a large supply of blank passports. He began to
issue them to Persian Jews when they began to be rounded up in 1942. Sardari also worked to
secure assurances from the German government that Iranian citizens would not be harmed or
detained. About five hundred French Jews, with no connection to Iran, also came asking for his
assistance which he provided. When asked about what he had done to help these Jews who had
not been Iranians, he simply said, “That was my duty as a human being” (Axworthy, 231).
Sardari died in 1981 and was honored after his death with an award given by the Simon
Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles (2004).
138. The language that the Jews in Persia spoke was almost identical to Persian, being only
distinguishable by a unique accent. Jews in Iran also used the Hebrew script for writing
Persian. Before World War II, some local Iranian newspapers were supportive of the Nazi
movement in Germany and published anti-Semitic articles. Mainstream Iranian media did not
support these views and attacks against Jews were rare.
139. There was some anti-Jewish sentiment expressed freely by the clergy during the brief
reign of Prime Minister Mossadeq. Overall, however, Israel and Iran had very close ties. In
1957, the World Jewish Congress opened an office in Teheran. The population of Jews
actually grew in the country at this time. According to Price (266), there were sixty thousand
Jews in Iran in 1948 and eighty thousand Jews in Iran by 1979.
140. It is estimated that, between 1948 and 1953, as many as one third of all of the Jews of Iran
left for Israel. The Iranian government paid for the safe passage of Iraqi Jews, who had been
expelled from Iraq, to Israel.
141. These attacks increased when Queen Farah (Fara) Diba was officially nominated by the
Parliament to serve as a Regent since the crown prince was only a minor at the time. This was
the first time in Iranian history that a woman had achieved such a high status in the
government.
142. Madani, Jalal-Dine. The Islamic Revolution of Iran. Teheran, Iran: International
Publishing Company, 2002, page 280. Khomeini used the term marji’ al-taqlid to describe the
inseparable link between religion and politics.
143. SAVAK is the acronym for the Security and Information Organization of Iran ( Sazmani
Amniyyat wa Ittila’ati Kishwar). It was founded in 1957 and, by the end of the shah’s rule,
may have held more actual power than any other government organization.
144. Madani (227) quotes Amnesty International as saying,
The SAVAK executioners, in addition to use of electric shock and whipping, were also
indulging in other savageries. They used to spread broken bottles in prison cells, hang
heavy weights on their testes, or put helmets on their heads so that they are teased by the
cries of the men under tortures and the noise does not reach outside. For teasing their
victims the SAVAK had trained animals including bears. The SAVAK used not only
physical tortures against their victims but also relied on sexual abuses. Such
psychological tortures were particular under the circumstances when they had to gain
information from husbands or fathers. Madani cites the Times (London) in claiming that
between twenty-five to one hundred prisoners were under SAVAK control as of mid-1997
even though the shah claimed that there were only 2,200 political prisoners at that time
(229).
145. This declaration was made in 1971 at the 2,500-year anniversary celebration that took
place in front of the tomb of Cyrus near Persepolis. The ceremonies were an opportunity to
display the power of the nation and the relation of the shah to ancient Persian kings. In front of
the tomb of Cyrus, the shah declared, “Cyrus, rest assured, we are awake” (Price, 272).
146. Majd, 12.
147. In 1941, when his father left Iran, between 85 percent and 90 percent of Iranians were
illiterate. Forty years later, when his son left power there had been some progress, but at least
two-thirds of all Iranians remained illiterate (Majd, 12).
148. Haught, James A. Holy Horrors: An Illustrated History of Religious Murders and
Madness. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1990, page 200.
149. During the famous event in Persepolis in 1971, the catering was staged by Maxim’s of
Paris in three huge air-conditioned tents and fifty-nine smaller ones. The event used twenty-
five thousand bottles of the finest imported wines. The overall cost of the event was probably
over $200 million.

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The Rise of Islam and Non-Muslims in Persian Islam

THE ARAB CONQUEST

NON-MUSLIMS DURING THE SELJUK AND MONGOL ERA

THE SAFAVID EMPIRE (SIXTEENTH TO EIGHTEENTH CENTURY)

CATHOLIC AND ARMENIAN CHRISTIANITY DURING THE SAFAVID

NON-MUSLIMS DURING THE QAJAR DYNASTY (1794–1925)

CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN THE SAFAVID AND QAJAR DYNASTIES

JUDAISM IN THE QAJAR ERA

THE BIRTH OF THE BAHA’I MOVEMENT UNDER QAJAR RULE

myriad problems in their interactions with various Muslim groups.

THE INFLUENCE OF WAR AND EUROPEAN POWERS

NON-MUSLIMS UNDER REZA SHAH (1925–1941)

24. Vine, 95.

25. Vine, 98.

29. Waterfield, 39.

42. Tamerlane—referred to in European history as Tamburlaine or bloody Tamburlaine—was

45. Quoted in Foltz, 2004, 57.

55. Axworthy, 140.

62. Waterfield (67) tells the following story:

66. Waterfield, 73.

67. Waterfield, 63.

72. Price, 71.

75. Arpee, 237.

92. Waterfield, 77.

94. Price, 110.

103. Sheppherd, 17.

106. Foltz, 2004, 152.

107. Foltz, 2004, 154.

110. Quoted in Spellman, 157.

115. Majd, 10.

144. Madani (227) quotes Amnesty International as saying,

146. Majd, 12.

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