'Persia was the centre of some mighty dynasties over the millennia, including the far-flung Achaemenid Empire that Cyrus the Great establi­shed in the 6th century BC. It wasn’t until Muslim Arabs defeated a later Persian dynasty, the Sassan­ians, in AD 651, that Persians were forced to adopt Islam and abandon their fiery state religion, Zoroastrianism.

'As in all conquests that force cultural change, it wasn’t entirely successful. The Persian­s bitterly resented their new overlords and pockets of Zoroastrianism remain today, though followers are now estimated at fewer than 190,000 worldwide. Yet it was the Persians, long a highly literate people, who codified Arab­ic grammar and made the language the cornerstone of classical Islamic culture.' (Introduction)