After Arabs were unified under Islam, conquests immediately began. Subsequently the two super powers of the era, the Roman & Persian Empires were invaded with Persia getting completely collapsed while Rome suffered major territorial loss in north Africa and north western Arabia.
Persians were living in complete luxury when Islamic conquest initiated. For that reason, some historians argue that Islamic values were not well received in the hearts of many of its citizens. Persia despised the emerging Islamic state and tried to ruin it internally.
After the assassination of Caliph Omar at the hands of Abu Lu'lu'a the Persian, called by modern day Shiites baba shoja al-Din (father brave religion), what followed was great Persian involvement in the schism caused in the days of Caliph Othman and the following splits.
This spite for conquering Arabs continues in Persians to this present day. al-Ihqaqi, a modern day Iranian scholar, states, "And this is the reason why Shiites despise Omar, because he destroyed Persia. In the Persian city of Kashan, in Fairozi street, there is a shrine dedicated Abu Lu'lu'a the Majoosi, the assassin of Omar." (1) The mentioned site is not an actual grave, just a symbolic shrine.
al-Ihqaqi continues, "And this Majoos is called baba Shoja al-Din, and they mourn his death and self flog on the occasion of his death. Moreover, they claim that Allah will forgive their sins on that day. Two things can be surmised from being called baba shoja al-Din, that he is the spiritual leader of the 12th movement, or that Majoosism is their true religion."
Al-Ihqaqi further argues, "We find the same reason why they glorify the descendants of Hussein rather than the descendants of Hasan because the descendants of Hussein are maternally related to the Persia through Hussein's wife, Shaharbano bint Yizdajrid."(2)
Muhammad Ali Amir Mazi, an Iranian researcher, states, "Indeed, the basic understanding from Zoroastrianism entered into Shiisim even in the tiniest tenets. The actual marriage of Hussein to the daughter of the last kings of Sasan, the symbol of old Iran, manifested into this girl to be the mother of their nation. The knot had been tied through her between Shiisim, and old Iran."
Reference
(1) Mirza Hassan al-Ha'iri al-Ihqafi, Letter of Faith. pp 323. (1991)
(2) Majlisi, Seas of Lights. pp 329. (1982)
Night of destitution, http://64.227.87.39/books/karbala/SA_karbala_07.htm. Last Accessed March 2, 2006.
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