Middle+Ages+of+Iran+by+Sam+Phillips

Religion Wars in Iran

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**Long ago, the province that we now call Iran was called Persia, or the Persian Empire. There have always been wars on religion going on in the Middle Eastern region of the world these days. From the Holy Crusades that started in 1118 A.D, to the Islamic revolution in the eighties, to the violence happening between Israel and Palestine right now. In this page you will learn about how the wars in the Middle East are different but the same in many different ways. ** ======

**Back in 642 CE the Persian Empire was a mostly Zoroastrian province. Zoroastrianism is a religion taught by the prophet Zoroaster, and was once the largest most widespread religion in the world. The neighboring countries to the East of Persia didn't like the idea of Zoroastrianism so they started the Arab Invasion. They did the opposite of what Alexander the Great did. Alexander only wanted to conquer the persian region and occupy it for a short time before moving on to Egypt. The Arab Invasion wanted to come into Persia and make laws that made it hard to be Zoroastrian. The goal of the Arab Invasion was to conquer and spread Islam throughout the middle eastern and Eastern European countries. They succeeded because the laws were to harsh for the Zoroastrians. The taxes were higher for them and if the didn't pay they could be enslaved, imprisoned, or even killed. This reminds me of the Islamic revolution in the graphic novel Persepolis. The people of Iran didn't really know why their government became religious and it became law to do all of these formal proper wearings and rituals. For example when Marji said, "We didn't really like to wear the veil, especially since we didn't understand why we had to." (page #3). **