ABSTRACT
The Islamic conquests of the Near East 1 in the decade following the death of the prophet Muḥammad are usually seen as a major and decisive break in the history of the area. Nowhere is this more evident than in the history of the elites and elite culture. A new Arab-Muslim elite apparently takes over from the old Greek-speaking Christian leaders of local society and there are few, if any signs of continuity or connection between the two. This seems to be much less true of the Iranian world, where important elements of the pre-Islamic aristocracy, and of its culture, are incorporated in the new order.
