Hi everyone,
If the Persians had won over the Arabs at, say, Qadissiyah, would
Iran have (at least eventually) evolved into a developed, democratic,
and industrialized country, assuming it remained Zoroastrian? I know
that the central tenet of Zoroastrianism is "good thoughts, good words,
good deeds", and so the Zoroastrians have followed that on an almost universal basis through with a high rate of literacy, hard work, etc., not unlike the Jews. For example, the Parsis in India are among the most educated and prosperous people in that country. So, would Iran have developed along the lines of, say, Israel or Japan (even though I know that it's such a long jump between Qadissiyah and now)?
Yosef