Do most Iranian have Arab ancestry!

Updated May 2014

 Introduction  

                                              

There is a misconception among Iranians that there is plenty of Arab blood in Iranian vanes. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

These rumors were spread by the Arab loving mullahs in last several centuries; as they have been trying to change the language by keep inserting Arabic words in Persian language and by mocking Persian names and Persian words.

The reason that today’s Iranians are darker than their ancestors; the story goes back much farther in history of Iran than the 7^th century AD Arab invasion.

Immigration of the Aryans

My research indicates that the first group of Aryans started moving eastward between 14,500 to 14,000 years ago when the Earth came out of the ice age just a few thousand years before.

According to Scientific American magazine; in 1993 a multinational scientific lab was built in Greenland. The scientists had inserted a cylinder, with ½ meter diameter, three kilometer deep into the frozen lake. They extracted the ice and cut it in small pieces and placed them in a building-size freezer and studied the Earth’s climate from the peak of the Ice Age, 20,000 years ago, to the present.

One of their finding was that for 500 years, from 14,500 to 14,000 years ago, the planet Earth had the most turbulent climate. There were constant heavy rains and floods. Strong hurricanes used to blow debris from Europe to other continents and sandstorm would blow sand from Africa to Europe and elsewhere.

In another unrelated archaeological research, reported in Scientific Americans; in early 2000s archaeologists had excavated agricultural, leather working, and tread weaving tools in Southern Mesopotamia close to the bank of river Euphrates. The carbon dating determined the age of those tools about twelve to 12,500 years ago. They also concluded that the people who found that civilization were none-Semitic people and they were the inventor of agriculture.

With above in mind, it makes sense to assume that the first group of Aryans had left Europe sometimes during that turmoil climate. Of course at that time people were hunters and gatherers. (Ferdowsi’s description of early Iranians is; hunters and gatherers).

Perhaps that was the starting point of migration. The migration was gradual and continued for several millenniums and from different routs. The last group of Aryans to immigrate eastward were the Scythians who immigrated to Eastern Siberia and then, perhaps around 750 B.C, one group moved to the present day Ukraine area. These barbarian nomads had massacred, brutalized, and pushed out the civilized Cimmerians, another Iranian stuck, to the present day Hungary.

                 Scythian shooting with bow and arrow.

                 4^th century BC (gold figurine)>

The remaining Scythian tribe that stayed in Eastern Siberia, due to their violent nature and their brutality toward the natives, was driven out of that area. In 128 BC they moved south to present day Systan and overpowered the natives and named their newly conquered land “Sokastan”. Sokastan gradually became Systan.

 

                           Gold Scythian neck-piece>

The Scythian (Sokaha) were described by a Chinese historian as; barbarian nomads, tall, with blue or green eyes and red beard. They used to make a drinking cup from their enemy’s skull. In their funeral sermons, both men and women used to make several cuts on their faces so the tears would mix with blood. Crying blood was a way of showing respect to the dead person.                                             

The Scythian, besides being superb warriors, they were also great strategists in war. One of their tactic was; a small group of horsemen used to approach the enemy troops, as soon as they were attacked by their enemy, they would retreat into the wood, where their main forces were waiting and then they would slaughter the enemy to the last soldier.

At one point the Scythian allied with the Ashurian against the Meds but eventually when the Meds defeated the Ashurian and with the fall of Nineveh, the Scythian also suffered a devastating defeat and retreated back to present day Ukraine area.

Both Cyrus and Darius The great had problem with the Scythians and finally they gave up on the idea of bringing the Scythians under The Persian Empire’s flag and the tribe stayed nomad for another militiamen. 

At the beginning

Perhaps the first group of Aryans settled in Mesopotamia which at that time had a very pleasant climate because; from 20,000 years ago when the ice age peaked the Earth temperature started rising about one degree Celsius every one hundred years and the sea level was rising about one meter per hundred years. The Earth’s temperature stabilized about 16,000 years ago and by about 14,000 years ago Mesopotamia came out of water and became a very fertile land with nice climate. Please see “Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and Ancient Near East” by Michael Roaf.

Also the five bodies of water (Panj-aap): The Mediterranean Sea, The Black Sea, The Caspian Sea, The Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea, along with three major rivers of Tigris, Ephrata, and Teasphon (dried out) had created fertile land with all kinds of wild fruit trees, Wild barley, wheat, legume, etc... Millenniums later the Sumerians called the area Garden of Eden which the term later-on was borrowed by the Abrahamites and was used in their sacred book. Please see “The Sumerians, their History, Culture, and… by Samuel N. Kramer.

 The vast area of Aryan migration and settlement >

         

Below is an excerpt from "Zoroastrian Heritage" page which indicates that the Aryans were hunters and gatherers during Kaiumars Shah's era. 

Age of Gaya Maretan

[Gaya means life and maretan means mortal. In some sources, Gaya Maretan is the first mortal or human being. The name Gaya Maretan evolved to Gayomard (Pahlavi), and then Kayomars or Kaiumars (Persian).]

Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, complemented by the Farvardin Yasht 13.87, recounts that Aryan prehistory started with Gaya Maretan, founder of the Aryan nation. The Shahnameh states that he was the first Aryan King and that during his reign, people lived in the mountains (also see Aryan homeland location:Mountains - Hara Berezaiti) and wore animal skins and leaves. They gathered fruits and other plant foods. Animals were first domesticated, and the herding of cattle began. 

The natives

When the newcomers moved in, they encountered with the natives, similar to those of the European immigration to the Americas. The natives, hunters and gatherers at that time, with a few exceptions in the Far East area, were all of Semitic race scattered in the area in hundreds of different tribes.

The natives could be categorized in major groups that later-on were known as Berbers, Hebrews, Syrians, Akkadian/Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, and a very small tribe, at that time, called Arabs. One must not mistake today’s Arab world with Arab tribes of those time. If Iranians did not have Ferdowsi and Shahnameh, today they would be called Arabs as well.

The branches of Aryans

The Aryans could be categorized in three major branches; the largest were the Casps that the present day Iranians are their descendants, the smallest were the Hittites that settled in Asia Minor, later-on known as Lydian, and the other branch marched toward the present day India.

The Casps, using different routs, gradually were scattered from Mesopotamia all the way to the Chinese border (present day Tajikistan). As time passed and they became sedentary, they gradually formed hundreds of different kingdoms, each with their own Shah. They named all the lands that were occupied by the Aryans “Aryan Zamin”. Gradually the name was shortened to Aran Zamin, then to Aran, and to Iran.

If a person would ask another person; are you Iranian, it meant are you Aryan. There was no country by the name of Iran at that time. Thousands of years later when more united countries were formed, the Meds created their empire in Hamadan area and later the Hakhamanesh clan formed country of Anshan (in present day Azerbaijan down close to Persian Gulf area, bordering country of Illam). Then in 550 BC Cyrus the great had annexed Med Empire and country of Parsua and named the new empire Parsa.  

Country of Ellam  which at one time was very advanced and strong, had gradually lost its power. Vulnerable to Babylonian advances, Ellam voluntarily joined the Persian Empire for protection. The Greek historians called Parsa “Parsis” and their language Persian. Consequently, internationally, the whole Achaemenid Empire became known as Persian Empire and their language as Persian. But Persian language is only one of many dialogs from Iranian branch of languages. Please read; Did Iranians ever had alphabet of their own : Click here:http://maziaraptin.blogspot.com/2012/02/did-iranians-have-ever-had-alphabet-of.html

The Casps named the great lake “Daryayeh Caspian” (Caspian Sea). Please read on this blog;

 The name is not Daryay Khazar.http://maziaraptin.blogspot.com/2012/02/name-is-not-daryay-khazar.html

The Casps also named the present day city of Ghazvin (Caspin) “Darvazehi Caspian” or (Caspian gate). Please refer to; “Persian Empire” by James Cook.

Reasons for today’s Iranians are darker than their Aryans ancestors

The natives of Aryan Zamin who were all of Semitic race were darker than the newcomer Aryans. Centuries before the Arab invasion of 634 A.D. Iranians had contact with Assyrian, Babylonians, Phoenicians, etc. and due to economic, political, and cultural reasons cross cultural and racial marriages were common. For that reason, at the time of Arab invasion, Iranians already had darker Skin than their ancestors.

The Arab era

When the Arabs invaded and conquered Iran, their numbers, in comparison to Iranians, were so small that after the conquest they could not afford to send their own army for the control of the vast territories such as; Iran, Egypt, and other areas. To govern their empire they were using the greedy local tribe-masters and later-on using the Turks, and Turkmens who centuries later had invaded Iran from the East.

After the Arabs conquered Iran, as it was the tradition in those days, the conqueror would take the citizens of the defeated nation as slaves. The Arabs, especially the Bany Ommayeh clan created a strict law for the slaves, called them “Moly” (meaning the slave in Arabic). One of the rules for Molies (Mavaly) was; all Arabs must be addressed to; “Sayed”(سید) meaning sir.

Consequently, because a very small numbers of present day Iranians are “sayeds” and they are the only ones that have an Arab blood in them we could conclude that, in general, most Iranians do not have an Arab ancestry and the sayeds are a very small minority that could be ignored.

Also one must know that at the present day in Iran all “Sayeds” claim to be the children of the prophet. That is not true. All Arabs in Iran, from any tribe related to Mohammed or not, used to have the title of “Sayed”.

 Bany Ommayeh ruled in Iran about 100 years, the Bany Abbas had ruled another 500 years. Prophet’s tribe was called Bany Hashem and that tribe never ruled in Iran.

Consequently, with six hundred years of Bani Abbas/Bani Ommayeh rules, we can say with great certainty that almost all present day Iranian sayeds are the descendants of Bani Abbas and Bani Ommayeh; the Sunni Muslims that is not appreciated in Shiia Iran.  Please read my article on this subject; “What is Wrong with us the Iranians”.http://maziaraptin.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-is-wrong-with-us-iranians.html. It shows how the majority Sunni Iranians became Shiia by the ax of Shah Ismail,

Either the present day Iranian sayeds are Abbasi, Ommayeh, or maybe even Hashemi, or from any other tribes is immaterial. If those Iranians want to call themselves Iranians they must get rid of the shameful “Sayed” title; it is nothing to be proud of because the Iranian women were impregnated by those Arabs through forced marriages or rapes.

Below; some related information from "Zoroastrian Heritage page:

Aryan Trade Routes - the Silk Roads

The Aryan trade routes would come to be known as the Silk Roads. Aryan trade extended from China in the east, to Asia Minor and Mesopotamia in the west, to the Iranian plateau and the Indus valley in the south. 

 Jamshidi Era Climate Change

The Vendidad and other texts also inform us that at the outset of the Jamshedi era, the weather in the Aryan homeland, Airyana Vaeja was fair and equitable, with the spring equinox heralding the start of spring and a renewal after the winter. However, a thousand two hundred years after the start of the Jamshedi era, there was a sudden climate chill (Vendidad 2.22-25) and a drastic cooling (also see Location of the Aryan homeland) and our page Aryan Prehistory - a mini Ice Age of sorts. 

This sudden cooling could have encouraged further Aryan migration to the warmer portions of the expanded Jamshidi lands

 Feridoon Era Federation of Kingdoms. First Aryan Empire. Transformation to Airan

According to the Poet Ferdowsi's epic, the Shahnameh, during the reign of legendary King Feridoon, the lands he ruled came to include what we know as the sixteen lands mentioned in the Vendidad. Feridoon decided to divide his sprawling empire the amongst his three sons. To his eldest son Tur, he gave the eastern lands with its capital in Turan - a nation that got its name from Tur. To his son Iraj, Feridoon gave Airan (the country that Airyana Vaeja had evolved into) and Hind (Hapta Hindu, the upper Indus lands). To his son Salm, Feridoon gave the western kingdoms. Tur, however, felt that as the eldest son he had been slighted, for the lands of Airan and Hind were the gems of the empire and the seat of its power. No sooner had Feridoon divided his kingdom between his sons, that the jealous and ambitious Tur persuaded Salm to join him in a plot to murder Iraj.

Within this legend is history. If we replace the Airan empire with the Airan people, this myth tells us that the Aryans had spread to present day Turkey in the west, the upper Indus valley in the south, to the borders of China in the east and the deserts of the north. Further, the wars between the different Aryan lands were internecine conflicts that punctuate Aryan history. By the time of Feridoon, the centre of the Aryan nation had move to Bakhdhi (Balkh or Bactria). (Also see our page on Turan.) 

Legend of Feridoon

Start of the Second Epic Cycle

We concluded our page on Aryan Prehistory with the legend of Jamshid, a legend that marked the end of part I of the Pishdadian dynasty as well as the first epic cycle in Aryan history. That phase of Aryan history came to an end with the overthrow of King Jamshid, or shall we say, the overthrow of line of Jamshidi kings by the evil foreign ruler Zahak (or Zahhak) called Azi Dahaka in the Avesta (see theAryan Prehistory page).

The history of Airyana Vaeja entered a second epic cycle when the Aryans were liberated from foreign rule by Thraetaona (also Thrita elsewhere in the Avesta and Feridoon in modern Persian), a descendant of the House of Jamshid and therefore a Pishdadian.

As with Jamshid, Thraetaona is mentioned in the Atharva Veda where he is called Trita. Elsewhere is he called Taritana. In both the Avestan and Vedic traditions, he is closely associated with healing and haoma.

First Aryan / Airanian Empire During the Reign of Feridoon (Av. Thraetaona / Thrita)

Airyana Vaeja Becomes Airan

During the Jamshidi era, Airyana Vaeja had grown considerably in size and included the passes to Hapta Hindu - the area that contained the seven northern Indus tributaries - and perhaps even some of the upper reaches. The expansion could have required a ruling system that included vassal states, making a Jamshidi king, a king of kings. If we are correct in this conclusion, then the Jamshidi governance structure was a forerunner of the first Aryan empire established during King Feridoon's reign - an empire that spread to include kingdoms from present day Turkey in the west to the northern Indus valley in the southeast.

It could be that home country of the foreign ruler Zahak was one of the countries west of Airyana Vaeja, a country that became part of the Aryan empire with Zahak's overthrow along with other states that Zahak had conquered. (There are the ruins of a structure called Zahak Citadel in East Azerbaijan, Iran which is said to have been inhabited from the second millennia BCE. In some literature, Zahak is also associated with Babylon and Assyria) We will call Feridoon's first Aryan empire the empire of Airan (Also see Aria / Ariana in our page on the location of Airyana Vaeja). The creation of this empire was also accompanied by a shift of the central Aryan kingdom westward towards Bakhdhi / Balkh.

Internecine Warfare - The Tragic Period

Feridoon decided to divide his sprawling empire the amongst his three sons. To his eldest son Tur, he gave the eastern lands with its capital in Turan - a nation that got its name from Tur. To his son Iraj, Feridoon gave Airan and Hind (the Indus lands. Previously, King Jamshid had expanded Airyana Vaeja southward into the upper Indus). To his son Salm, Feridoon gave the western kingdoms that stretched from Iran to present-day Eastern Turkey. The extent of the Airan empire during the Feridoon era was consistent with the Vendidad's list of sixteen nations.

Since the lands of Airan and Hind were the gems of the empire and the seat of its power, Tur felt that as the eldest son he had been slighted. No sooner had Feridoon divided his kingdom, that the jealous and ambitious Tur persuaded Salm to join him in a plot to murder Iraj. Iraj was killed but not before his wife was pregnant with their son Manuchehr who would later avenge the murder of his father.

This tragic period of Feridoon's rule would end with the rise of Manuchehr who would kill the murderous brothers Salm and Tur and sever their heads to be laid beside that of their brother Iraj.

The last of the Pishdadian kings was Garshasp who ruled for nine years and died just before an impending invasion of Airan by the Turanian Afrasiab.