The second Muslim caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, once reportedly exclaimed, ‘I do not know how to treat Zoroastrians!’ He and other Muslims encountered Zoroastrians during the conquest of Arabia but struggled to formulate a consistent policy toward the adherents of a religion that was neither biblical nor polytheistic. Some Muslims saw Zoroastrians as pagans and sought to limit interaction with them. Others found ways to incorporate them within the empire of Islamic law. Andrew D. Magnusson describes the struggle between advocates of inclusion and exclusion, the ultimate accommodation of Zoroastrians, and the reasons that Muslim historians have subsequently buried the memory of this relationship.

Andrew Magnusson provides an insightful narrative of the relationship between the Zoroastrian population of the former Sasanian Empire and that of the new Muslim Caliphate who became their master in the seventh century CE. He wonderfully demonstrates that the early Muslims position toward the Zoroastrians was much more nuanced and moves beyond the old binary of "tolerance" and "intolerance," in describing their relationship. Magnusson suggests that the early Muslims by necessity accommodated the Zoroastrian community by giving them their own space and privileges. -- Touraj Daryaee, Maseeh Chair in Persian Studies & Culture University of California, Irvine

Andrew D. Magnusson is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Central Oklahoma.