Note: Ahl Farsi (people of Persia) are obviously those who represent 900 YEARS of Sunni Persian history, not the last 500 YEARS of Safawi-Rafidism that was introduced by the Turkish-Azeri Safawi dinasty, for the Salaf witnessed Sunnah Persians ONLY. As for their praise:

فضل الفرس / اهل فارس

The Virtues of the Persians

(The People of Persia)

Excerpts by Shaykh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah

رحمه الله

more to download:

– Shorter Arabic Version – فضل الفرس

– Imam Muslim dedicated an entire chapter with the title:

‘فضل الفرس’ (The Virtues of the Persians)

– طبقات المحدثين باصبهان والواردين عليها  …

…  massive book, over 1000 pages, solely compiled to collect all the names of the Sunnah scholars from Persia and it’s heartland Isfahan. The giants of the Salaf and the later scholars who followed them used to be in such a massive number, that scholars considered it beneficial to write entire books just about the details of Isfahani scholars. Almost no Aqidah/Fiqh/Hadith book can be found without mentioning one of the thousands of Isfahani-Shirazi-Rai (old name for Tehran), Toos/Khorasani etc. Sunnah scholars.

It is said that Salman Al-Farisi and Ikrimah [from the major Salaf and Mawla of Ibn ‘Abbas) were both from Isfahan/Isbahan.Verlily the marks of Islam were found in Isbahan [Isfahan/Persia] more than in other places, which is why the Hafith Abdulqadir Al-Rahawi said,

‘I didn’t see a place after Baghdad with more Hadiths than Isbahan.’

[Shaykh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah in ‘Iqtidha Al-Sirat Al-Mustaqim li-mukhalifati Ashabi Al-Jahim’]