The same historical victory can be legitimately claimed by opposing national narratives

Evidence

The Iraqis, for example, made great play with the Battle of Qadisiyya, fought in the early days of Islam when, in Iraqi terms, an Arab army defeated a Persian army, thus setting an example to be followed by their remote descendants at the present time. From the Iranian point of view, of course, this was an Islamic army defeating a pagan army, and thus a blessed event, preparing the way for the Islamization of pagan Iran. Both sides claimed the same victory; both sides did so justly. I was reminded of my school days in England when the Battle of Hastings was taught as having been won by the Normans over the Anglo-Saxons and we as Britons were taught to identify with both. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1607

Categorization

• XREF: Corroborates the constructed, contestable nature of national origin narratives central to Said-adjacent scholarship on how regions are made legible through selective history.
• CANDY: The Battle of Qadisiyya being claimed simultaneously by Iraq and Iran as their own victory is a compact, memorable illustration of how history serves nationalism.