ABSTRACT
In medieval Persia, the Umayyad Caliphate was an absolute monarchy with policies based on Pan-Arabism and Arabization. Unlike its predecessors and based on their political experiences, the Abbasids did not marginalize the non-Arab peoples and did not attempt to seize the Byzantine domains and its capital. The decline of the Persian position in the Middle East and foreign dependence since the early nineteenth century was simply due to a lack of intelligence on the part of the Qajar monarchs and their inability to secure the territorial integrity. Survival of an independent Iran during the ideological rulers, such as Shah Esmail I, was directly due to the intense rivalry with the Ottoman or other rivals. Ideology was the main instrument for political survival and internal unity. Unquestionably, the Iran-Iraq War and economic sanctions had devastating impacts on the political economy of the Islamic Republic, leading to a change in economic policies and the regional priorities during the post-war.
