The complexion or face of this Muslim world was changing as a result of this
influx of non-Arabs into the empire. This "cataclysmic shift in the demographic
balance of power" succeeded in remodeling the political and social institutions
of the Islamic empire and inner spirit of Islamic culture on the model of
Sassanian (Indo-European) institutions and values.
It also succeeded in constructing the new Arab identity. As the late Ronald
Segal (Anti-apartheid activist, writer and editor who founded the Penguin
African Library) points out:
"increasing intermarriage (between Arabs and non-Arabs) served to submerge
the original distinctions, and increasing numbers of the conquered, having
adopted the religion and language of the conquerors, took to assuming the
identity as if Arabs themselves’’
What About Islamic Sources?
Many Companions related that the Prophet narrated the Hadith below. This
would include;
Hudhaifa ibn Al-Yamaan,
Anas Ibn Maalik,
Sumra ibn Jundab,
Abdullah ibn 'Amrru,
and Abdullah ibn Qais.
َُ ْ ُ
َ ً
َّثم ، َيفِرُّ ون ال أُسْ دا ليَصِ يرُنَّ ثم ، العجم مِن أَ ْيدِيكم لتمْ ألَن
َ ِ َ َ ْ َّ ُ
َ
َّ ُ
ُ َ َ ُْ َ
َّف ْي َئكم ول َيأْكلُنَّ ، أَعْ َناقكم ل َيضْ ربُن
ِ َ َُْ
‘Your hands will become full with the Persians. Then after a while they will
become like a lion, not fleeing. Then after awhile they will strike your necks and
ravish your treasure.’