Quote: (07-18-2012 12:47 AM)basilransom Wrote:
I stand corrected - Persians are not Semites, though Arabs are. And I don't think Persians are big fans of Arabs either. Arab or Persian though, there are plenty of big noses to go around.
Not sure if Persians are widely considered Caucasian - that term has a technical meaning that no one really adheres to. Although when geneticists or others split the people of the world into major races, Arabs and Persians are lumped in with Europeans.
Also, 'Iran' is equivalent to 'Aryan' - it means 'land of the Aryans.' The Aryans were a group thought to originate in India.
The major racial classifications apply to facial features, not skin tone. Granted, for the most part, these terms are anachronistic and only somewhat useful as genetic classifications.
Also, Hindu texts indicate the Aryans came from the north, but it's not entirely certain where they are from. It's better to think of the term as being something akin to a warrior-nobility that brings civilization to a given place. This was a major component of anti-liberal movements in the early 20th century, and is why Nazis also used the term. In Persia, there was a similar kind of movement. In fact, the country was in some ways unofficially an Axis ally. After the commencement of the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, the Allies conquered Iran, mostly due to their giving material assistance to Axis powers. The country was under military occupation I believe well into the 1950s, but somehow the Shah was reinstated. For some reason, they kept the name Iran and still do to this day. The really curious thing though is after the 1979 revolution, they still kept the name.
I've often wondered about this because Islam is in many ways quite liberal in terms of defining human nature, i.e. people are equal and so on. Note, I am using the word "liberal" in the Enlightenment philosophical context, not hippies, feminists, etc. I would think the very concept of an Aryan elite runs rather contrary to their beliefs. Ah well...
