Tell me please if can use the preposition to after the preposition welcoming in the following sentence.
The Abbasids kept the idea of a hereditary monarchy, but they moved the capital of the empire to Baghdad, and they were much more welcoming (to) of other non-Arab muslims in positions of power.
This is from Crash Course World History. It is at 5 minute and 12 second. The use of the preposition of sounds strange to me. I have looked it up the adjective in a few dictionaries, and I have not find the examples of it used with of. Would it not be better to use the preposition to.
Best Answer
They are both correct and both commonly used. Remember that dictionaries give you definitions, but not complete descriptions of how words are used.
This US English speaker actually thinks "welcoming of" sounds better - it was certainly more common for most of the last hundred years. The idea in the sentence is not that the Abbasids gave a specific welcome to non-Arab Muslims in positions of power, but that they had a welcoming attitude about non-Arab Muslims in positions of power.