Historical Roots of Discrimination about Mawali during Caliphs’ Era

With the advent and spread of Islam, in addition to Arabs, people from other races and nations turned to Islam. Prejudices, ethnic and tribal affiliations, and blood ties among the pre-Islamic Arabs, on the one hand and on the other hand, the advent of Islam among Arabs brought about this idea among the Arabs after Islam that it appears that Arab Muslims were superior and first-class citizens while Non-Arab or Ajam people were inferior and second-class citizens. This opinion that was manifested in some Muslims’ behavior even during the prophet’s lifetime, posed a lot of problems for the Non-Arab Muslims. Several factors, some being more effective than the others, were involved to intensify this opinion; it, however, has been neglected to some extent in the contemporary studies. The paper attempts to have a deeper analysis of the problem and to point out to the Non-Arab Muslims’ situation, especially to Iranians’.