Ab Rayhn-e Birun and the Problem of Iranian Identity

Arab conquest of Iran had conspicuous effects on Iranian identity and in some caseschanged it radically. As a matter of fact, following this event some constitutiveelements of Iranian identity such as “homeland/geography”, “Persian state”, and evenmore important one, i.e. “religion” -a crucial element of ancient Persian identitysufferedfundamental changes. Iranian confrontation with this identity crisiscrystallized in different forms which might classify to three general categories: pro-Iranians, pro-Islamic Iranians, and Islamic-Iranians. In this paper we will enumeratethe “pro-Islamic” group’s main characteristics and then, we will give an analyticalsurvey of Ab Rayhn’s ideas about “identity” and will examine his “Islamic identity”according to his works.