تفسير : (the romans have been defeated) the romans, who were people of the book, were defeated by the persians who were worshippers of fire.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : the byzantines — who are among the people of the scripture — have been vanquished; the persians vanquished them, and they are not people of a scripture, but worship graven images. the meccan disbelievers rejoiced in this [defeat of the byzantines] and said to the muslims, ‘we shall vanquish you as the persians vanquished the byzantines’;
