Anti-Persian sentiments

Anti-Persian sentiment (فارسی‌ستیزی also فارس‌ستیزی) refers to feelings of hostility, hatred, or prejudice towards Persian speakers and their cultural symbols.

Anti-Persian sentiments by Arabs

After the Islamic conquest of the Persian Empire, during the reign of the Ummayad dynasty, the Arab conquerors imposed Arabic as the primary language of the subject peoples throughout their empire. Hajjāj ibn Yusuf, who was not happy with the prevalence of the Persian language in the divan, ordered the official language of the conquered lands to be replaced by Arabic, sometimes by force. ["Cambridge History of Iran", by Richard Nelson Frye, Abdolhosein Zarrinkoub, et al. Section on "The Arab Conquest of Iran and its aftermath". Vol 4, 1975. London. p.46]

In Biruni's "From The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries" (الآثار الباقية عن القرون الخالية), for example it is written::وقتی قتبیه بن مسلم سردار حجاج، بار دوم بخوارزم رفت و آن را باز گشود هرکس را که خط خوارزمی می نوشت و از تاریخ و علوم و اخبار گذشته آگاهی داشت از دم تیغ بی دریغ درگذاشت و موبدان و هیربدان قوم را یکسر هلاک نمود و کتابهاشان همه بسوزانید و تباه کرد تا آنکه رفته رفته مردم امی ماندند و از خط و کتابت بی بهره گشتند و اخبار آنها اکثر فراموش شد و از میان رفت

:"When Qutaibah bin Muslim under the command of Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef was sent to Khwarazmia with a military expedition and conquered it for the second time, he swiftly killed whomwever wrote the Khwarazmian native language that knew of the Khwarazmian history, science, and culture. He then killed all their Zoroastrian priests and burned and wasted their books, until gradually the illiterate only remained, who knew nothing of writing, and hence their history was mostly forgotten." [Biruni. "From The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries" (الآثار الباقية عن القرون الخالية). p.35, 36, 48]

It is difficult to imagine the Arabs not implementing anti-Persian policies in light of such events, writes Zarrinkoub in his famous "Two Centuries of Silence", [Zarrinkoub, Abdolhossein,"Dū qarn-i sukūt : sarguz̲asht-i ḥavādis̲ va awz̤āʻ-i tārīkhī dar dū qarn-i avval-i Islām (Two Centuries of Silence)", Tihrān: Sukhan, 1379 (2000), OCLC|46632917] where he exclusively writes of this topic. Reports of Persian speakers being tortured are also given in al-Aghānī. [al-Aghānī (الاغانی). "Abū al-Faraj al-Isfahāni". Vol 4, p.423] The level of Anti-Persian sentiment amongst Arabs however is difficult to measure as Persians and Arab officials often fostered each others' cultures.

Anti-Persian sentiments in Afghanistan

In the last century anti-Persian sentiments is mostly seen in Afghanistan,dubious last being Khoram's suspending of three journalists for five days and fined them five days pay for using the Persian word for university ("daneshgah") instead of the Pashto word ("pohantoon") in their writings. [" [http://www.haaba.com/topic/media?q=node/92220 Poets, writers protest Afghan journalists' fine] ", Habaa Communications, 16 February 2008.] However it remains unclear whether such acts constitute Anti-Persian sentiment or merely administrative convenience.

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