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Mazdakism, Manichaeism and

Zoroastrianism: in Search of Orthodoxy
and Heterodoxy in Late Antique Iran
Khodadad Rezakhani
Published online: 23 Oct 2014.

To cite this article: Khodadad Rezakhani (2014): Mazdakism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism:
in Search of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in Late Antique Iran, Iranian Studies, DOI:
10.1080/00210862.2014.947696
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Iranian Studies, 2014

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2014.947696

Khodadad Rezakhani

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Mazdakism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism: in Search of Orthodoxy

and Heterodoxy in Late Antique Iran

This paper argues that the designation of heterodoxy for the socio-religious movements of
late antique Iran such as Mazdakism is a misnomer. It suggests that the designation of
Mazdakism and similar movements as heterodoxies is in fact the product of an early
Islamic assessment of post-Sasanian Zoroastrian attempts to create a Zoroastrian
orthodoxy which did not exist under Sasanian rule. Pressured by the Abrahamic
religions surrounding them, the followers of Weh Dn in this period felt the need to
demarcate and clarify their beliefs, and to make their own beliefs comprehensible to
their neighbors and rulers. What was then left out of this attempt was labeled a
deviation, and heterodoxy, whose fundamental disagreement with Zoroastrian
orthodoxy was then reected back in time.
Introduction
In the history of Sasanian kingship, there often exists a dichotomy between monarchs
who, according to Middle Persian and Arabic historiographies, are depicted as straying
from the path of the Good Religion at the hands of evil advisors, versus others who are
praised as its upholders thanks to virtuous counselors. Perhaps the most glaring
example of this dichotomy is the one between the kings Kavad I (48896 and
498531 CE) and his son Khusrow I Anushirvan (53179): while the former is portrayed as the worst guided of all the Sasanian monarchs, even being stripped of royal
glory and exiled for two years as a result of his ties to the Mazdakite heresy, the latter
king is rendered as the prototype for the righteous king who is devoted to the promotion of the Good Religion.1 Indeed, it must be kept in mind that the Middle
Persian and Arabic writings which contain negative historiographical attitudes
Khodadad Rezakhani is in the Department of Economic History, London School of Economics. Khodadad Rezakhani wishes to thank Michael Morony, Touraj Daryaee, and Arash Zeini for their suggestions
on a draft of this essay which greatly improved some of the arguments. He would also like to express his
gratitude to his dear friends and colleagues, David Bennett and Philip Wood, for many hours of enlightening discussion on religion, dualism, and history which initiated his interest in the subject. Any mistakes
or misunderstandings are of course solely the authors responsibility.
1

See Touraj Daryaee, Sasanian Persia (London, 2009), 268. It is curious that in none of the sources is
Kavads restoration said to be a direct result of him actually giving up his heterodox beliefs; rather it is
supposed to be an outcome of his outright re-conquest of his kingdom (ibid., 27). It seems that the
2014 The International Society for Iranian Studies

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2 Rezakhani

towards Kavad, often produced or edited centuries after his reign, were propagandistically driven, occasionally at the instigation of his heir who sought to control his
fathers legacy. Kavads reputation as a Mazdakite sympathizer is, therefore, clouded
by the lateness and ideological motivations of the later authors, a fact which skews
scholars historical reconstructions about the socio-religious movement. In a way,
the literary opposition between Sasanian monarchs who follow the truth versus
those who do not is a post-Sasanian invention retroactively imposed so as to create
a strong line of demarcation between the so-called orthodox goals of the Zoroastrian
righteous kings over against the presence of heterodox sects such as Manichaeism
and Mazdakism. By surveying the key sources on Mazdakism, this article will
explore the late and problematic dichotomy between orthodoxy and heterodoxy as
it relates to Mazdakism.
Mazdakism: A Case in Zoroastrian Heterodoxy?
As attested in Arabic, Middle Persian, and Byzantine sources, Mazdakism was a socioreligious movement in the late fth and sixth centuries which in some way deviated
from the ofcial or mainstream forms of Zoroastrianism that the Sasanian authorities
endorsed. A former Zoroastrian priest named Mazdak produced a cosmography based
on the dichotomy between light and dark, in some ways similar to Manichaean cosmology.2 Challenging the structures of Sasanian society, Mazdakism sought to redistribute land and other property among members of the society regardless of their social
rank. Mazdak also promoted a form of sexual communalism.3 In the literature,
Kavads downfall is attributed to his afliation with Mazdakism, the preaching of
which brought havoc to the Sasanians rule of state. For their part, medieval Islamic
historians, especially al-T abar, depict Mazdakism and its offshoots as heresies that
should be uprooted.4 For the medieval Muslim heresiologists and historians, who
religion was hardly involved in the affair, although the devotional historiography often appears to suggest
that the exile was a period of cleansing, or rather of Kavad realizing the error of his ways.
2
See W. Sundermann, Cosmogony and Cosmology IV: in the Mazdakite Religion, Encyclopaedia
Iranica (hereafter, EIr). The authoritative new study on Mazdakite traditions, beliefs, and historiography
is P. Crone, The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran (Cambridge, 2012).
3
Sexual communalism might have been no more than a regular charge of slander. The charge seems to
have been a standard one, even attributed to the Su revolutionary of the early fteenth century, Sheikh
Badreddin, who acted against the Ottomans: Michel Balivet, Islam mystique et rvolution arme dans les
Balkans ottoman: Vie du cheykh Bedreddn, le Hallj des Turcs (Istanbul, 1995). For the case of Mazdak, it
might have carried some symbolic truth though, as I have argued in an unpublished paper, Sexual Communism and the Revolution of Mazdak: Problems in Sasanian Succession. The charge, in this sense,
might have been an exaggeration by Khusrow I to justify the removal of his older brother, Kawus,
from the line of succession for his Mazdakite tendencies, and his dubious parentage, as he was supposedly
born during the time that Kavad was a follower of Mazdak, and thus not in full possession of his wife,
Kawus mother. See now Crone, Nativist Prophets, 391ff.
4
Muh ammad b. Jarr al-T abar, Trkh al-rusul wa-al-mulk (Beirut, 1407/1986), I: 4212; and
Balam, Trkh-i Balam, ed. M.T. Bahr and M. Parvn Gonbdi (Tehran, 1341/1962, reprint:
Tehran, 1386/2008), 8447; but also see al-Shahrastn, al-Milal wa-al-nihal, ed. Ahmad Fahmi

Mazdakism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism 3

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often relate Mazdakism with Manichaeism,5 Mazdaks ideas apparently posed a critical
danger to central authority.6 As Kreyenbroek writes in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Arabic
sources describe Mazdak as
a Zoroastrian herbed interpreting the religion on the basis of the Zand, whom circumstances caused to emphasize the importance of righteousness (Aa) in the form
of social justice. With the exception of the (improbable) charges of advocating the
common possession of goods and womenwhich is unlikely to have been met with
the widespread positive response that was accorded to Mazdakthese ideals are
found in mainstream Zoroastrian teaching, although surviving Manichean ideas
may also have been inuential.7
In general, one can see how this depiction of Mazdakism as a form of heterodoxy
appealing to various social protestors was in circulation in the early Islamic period.
This prompts many Islamic historians to associate Mazdakism with the movements
that followed the death of Ab Muslim.8
In addition to Muslim writers, the Zoroastrian priests in the early Islamic period
who compiled earlier Zoroastrian traditions portray Mazdakism as one of the major
enemies of the Good Religion.9 In Zoroastrian literature, Mazdakisms worst
offense is that it breaks up the social classes and mixes people who should remain separated,10 which demonstrates that they emphasized a social element to Mazdakism.
Lastly, although composed from a different vantage point, Byzantine sources from
Mazdaks era also considered his religion to be a heresy.11 For the Byzantine outsiders,
Mazdaks sexual communalism and lack of social order was intolerable.12 In sum, the
main sources from the Sasanian and Islamic periods about the Mazdakites tend to
Muhammad (Beirut, 1992), 2757, who seems not to be as harsh as others, although he is largely confusing matters, it seems. On al-Shahrastns account, see Crone, Nativist Prophets, 193ff.
5
As in al-Shahrastn, al-Milal wa-al-nihal.
6
Al-Brn, al-thr al-bqiyah, ed. C.E. Sachau (Leipzig, 1923), 29; al-T abar, Trkh al-rusul wa-almulk, I: 422, who is quite hostile.
7
P.G. Kreyenbroek, Iran ix. Religions in Iran (1) Pre-Islamic (1.1), EIr.
8
Al-Shahrastn, on the Khurraminiyyah and other Zandiqs. Also al-Isfarn lists the Khurramdniyyah as a Majs school: Tabsr al-dn, ed. el-H t (Beirut, 1983), 150. On this, now see Crone, Nativist
Prophets.
9
See Jean de Menasce, ed., Le troisime livre du Dnkart (Paris, 1973), 229; references to Dnkart
outside of Book 3 are to the book, chapter and paragraph numbers in M.J. Dresden, Dnkart: A
Pahlavi Text (Wiesbaden, 1966).
10
Dresden, Dnkart, V.31.30.
11
Procopius, History of the Wars, vols. III (Persian Wars), trans. H.B. Dewing (Cambridge, MA,
1914), I: 5, or pseudo-Joshua Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite, trans. Frank R. Trombley and
John. W. Watt (Liverpool, 2000), 23 (pp. 2021); notice that none of the sources supposed to be contemporary with the events of the reign of Kavad ever mention the name Mazdak, although others related
to the heresy are mentioned, namely Zaradusht son of Khurrag; see further below.
12
Procopius, Wars, I: vxi. but also Theophanes the Confessor, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor,
ed. and trans. Cyril Mango and Roger Scott (Oxford, 1997), AM 5943 and AM 6016, who seems most
concerned with the social ills caused by Mazdakism.

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4 Rezakhani

portray them as opponents and heretics who in some way deviated from state-sponsored forms of Zoroastrianism and who challenged the societal order.
This conventional understanding of the main features of the Mazdakites stems from
the literary sources, which are in fact difcult to use for the writing of social history. To
the extent that none of these sources about Mazdakism can make any claim to represent
Mazdakites own internal points of view, the study of Mazdakism is quite taxing and
controversial for modern scholars. The historical context of its rise as a socio-religious
movement was clearly more complicated than such external descriptions attest. Much of
what is attributed to the movement in the hostile Zoroastrian and Islamic sources in fact
appear to be literary topoi rather than historically grounded criticism of the theological
or ritualistic aspects of the movement as it existed. The general dearth of sources about
Mazdak has led scholars to frequently reconstruct Mazdakism.13 Contrary to how
diverse sources and scholars portray it, Mazdakism was a composite, not unlike Manichaeism, and thus was not merely a heterodox sect. Indeed, academic debates over the
Mazdakite movement, which began with Nldeke and continue until today, have seen
their share of controversy.14 For example, an ex-Soviet school of scholars brazenly cast
Mazdakite beliefs and goals in the mold of proto-communismi.e. arguing that this
Sasanian gures revolutionary ideals sought to subvert the aristocratic and class-based
social model of the Sasanian Empire.15 From this point of view of Soviet scholarship,
Mazdakism represented a proto-Marxist cosmography and a type of social movement
favorable to a Plekhanovian emerging state.16
In light of these past analytical aws, for the rest of this article I shall explore the
ways in which Zoroastrian authors and Muslim historians depictions of Mazdkism as
heretical and heterodox are problematic as historical sources since they are tainted by
early Islamic proclivities to retroject their orthodox perspectives on a past that was far
more complex. Starting with Nldekes commentary on al-T abar and continuing to
recent publications on the subject,17 scholarly opinion remains divided on what
13
E.g. M. Shaki, The Cosmogonical and Cosmological Teachings of Mazdak, Papers in Honour of
Professor Mary Boyce, Acta Iranica 25 (Leiden, 1985), 52743.
14
T. Nldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden (Leiden, 1879). A. Christensen,
Le rgne du roi Kawdh I. et le communisme mazdakite (Copenhagen, 1925), was a truly ground-breaking
work dedicated to this matter, as was that of O. Klima, Mazdak. Geschichte einer sozialen Bewegung im
sasanidischen Persien (Prague, 1957). For a full historiography, see E. Yarshater, Mazdakism, in Cambridge History of Iran III/2 (Cambridge, 1983), 9911024; more recently, see Crone, Nativist Prophets.
As will become clear, the issue has continued to occupy a central place in the historiography of the Sasanian period.
15
N. Pigulevskaja, Les villes de ltat iranien aux poques parthe et sassanide (Paris, 1963) is a notable
example, but see also J. Modi, Mazdak the Iranian Socialist, in Dastur Hoshang Memorial Volume
(Bombay, 1918), 11631 for a more native take on the issue. Extreme cases even go as far as describing
Mazdak as a Bolshevik a good 1400 years before the Russian political party was founded. See Paul Luttinger, Mazdak, The Open Court 11 (1921): 66485.
16
G.V. Plekhanov, The Materialist Conception of History (London, 1976). See Ameen F. Rihani, The
Descent of Bolshevism (Boston, 1920), where Mazdakism is put as chapter I on the ancestors of the
modern political party. Also Luttinger, Mazdak.
17
For a useful summary, see Yarshater III/2, but now see Crone, Nativist Prophets.

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Mazdakism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism 5

precisely the movement stood for and, even more crucially, in what ways it affected
late Sasanian and early Islamic society and religious culture. This article helps to
clarify the ties between Mazdakism and Zoroastrianism in the Sasanian and early
Islamic eras, paying particular attention to the concepts of orthodoxy and heterodoxy,
which are misnomers.
Oddly, when one examines more closely the classical age of Mazdakism in the fth
and sixth centuries, one nds precious little evidence of its existence. As mentioned,
there are virtually no sources from this time period which include Mazdaks
name;18 nor is there a movement attributed to a single religious reformer, as
Mazdak is later portrayed. For instance, the sixth-century Monophysite chronicler
John Malalas presents a certain Boundos, a purported Manichaean originally living
in Rome, to have been responsible for establishing the movement.19 Later Zoroastrian
and Islamic authors, most notably al-T abar, also mention an immediate forerunner of
Mazdak, a certain Zaradusht Khurragan, as the original initiator of what came to be
known as Mazdakism.20 Interestingly, the person most associated with the movement
appears to be the emperor Kavad I, whose deposition from the monarchy in 496 due
to his initial embrace of Mazdakite beliefs was just over three decades removed from
the year of Mazdaks execution by Kavads successor, Khusrow I, circa 530. In light of
the difculties of such dates, scholars have been obliged to reconsider the source
material regarding the chronology of Mazdakism. Crone has suggested that the
initial problems in Kavads reigni.e. the kings removal in 496 and subsequent restoration in 498were Kavads own heresy, whereas the troubles in the late 520 s
which resulted in Khusrows drastic measures were more directly connected with
the person of Mazdak himself.21 The inherent problems with the chronology confused
the Islamic historians, and despite the convenient solution provided by Crone, continue to perplex scholars today. The long reign of Kavad, with the life of Mazdak straddling both ends, requires an explanation, since if Kavad had indeed repented and was
restored to his throne in 498, how can we have a resurfacing of the same culprit in the
520s? Muslim historians appear to have solved this problem by claiming the existence
of two Mazdaks: i.e. Mazdak the Elder, who was the less zealous gure, and Mazdak
the Younger, who the chief troublemaker persecuted by Khusrows drastic measures.22
18
Theophanes the Confessor, the ninth-century compiler of a major Byzantine chronicle, who seems
to be aware of the Khurramidiniya as well, is the rst Byzantine source who uses the name of Mazdak.
19
F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Mazdak und Porphyrios, La nouvelle Clio 5 (1953): 35676; J. Malalas:
Ioannis Malalae, Chronographia, ed. Ludwig Dindorf (Bonn, 1831), 30910. On the interpretation of
this evidence in Malalas, see Yarshater, Mazdakism, 995.
20
Al-T abar, Trkh al-rusul wa-al-mulk, : 421; Pseudo-Joshua refers to the socio-religious controversy as the deplorable beliefs of Zaratushtakan (the original Syriac, zrttkana, suggesting a plural, and
not purely a Syriac rendering of the Middle Persian patronymic). Procopius similarly considers the whole
thing to be related more to Zaradusht Khurragan and never mentions the name of Mazdak. The same is
true for the continuators of Procopius history, Agathias and Menander Protector; see Yarshater, Mazdakism, 99596.
21
P. Crone, Kavads Heresy and Mazdaks Revolt, Iran 29 (1991): 2142 and Zoroastrian Communism, Comparative Studies in Society and History 36, no. 3 (1994): 44762.
22
Ibn al-Nadm, al-Fihrist (Tehran, 1971), 406.

6 Rezakhani

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This Islamic narrative, which may stem from an originally Middle Persian (MP)
version of the story,23 conveniently solves the chronological inconsistencies presented
by the rst reign of Kavad. Lastly, in another important article on Mazdakism, Gaube
offers a radical solution to the problem of Mazdaks historicitynamely that this
person never existed.24 According to this argument, Mazdak is a creation of the historians of the Islamic period who needed a scapegoat on whom to blame socio-religious upheavals.25 If Gaube is correct, then the depiction of the Mazdakite
movement as a socio-religious rebellion at the end of the fth and beginning of the
sixth centuries was only centuries thereafter attributed to the gure of Mazdak.
A Zoroastrian Orthodoxy?
In the so-called salvation histories of the Arabic historians or Zoroastrian priests of the
early Islamic era, the Sasanian kings of kings, from Ardashir I to Yazdgerd III, are portrayed
as protectors and upholders of the Good Religion.26 For instance, in al-T abar, the founder
of the Sasanian dynasty, Ardashir, is given a sacred genealogy that establishes him as the
upholder of the Good Religion (weh dn) and the descendant of the elusive Sasan.27
Additionally, a letter by Ardashirs supposed high priest Tansar, included in a thirteenth
century work of regional history called the History of Tabaristan,28 afrms not only the
true beliefs of Zoroastrianism, but also the antiquity of the ofce of the high priest (mowbedn mowbed) and its close bond with the Sasanian kingship. Most importantly, the pro23
ThiswouldmainlybeacertainMazdak-Nmag,anon-extantMiddlePersianromancewhichreportedly
wasusedbytheMuslimhistorianstowritethehistoryofMazdak(Yarshater,Mazdakism,9945).
24
H. Gaube, Mazdak: Historical Reality or Invention?, Studia Iranica 11 (1982): 11122.
25
Indeed, it is interesting to note that the same line of reasoning can be developed for Zoroastrianism
as well in that the name Zarathushtra is rarely mentioned in the early sources pointing to the religion.
This would mean that the religion, which only later, and externally, came to be associated with the
name of a prophet called Zarathushtra was in fact never credited to him in the Achaemenid through
to the Sasanian periods. Exceptions to this, showing Zarathushtra as the gurehead of Mazda-worship
do exist, as in Y. 12.1: frauuarn mazdaiiasn zarautri I profess myself a Mazda-worshiper, a follower
of Zarautra... I wish to thank my friend and colleague, Arash Zeini, for this point.
26
See in particular Book 4 of the Dnkart.
27
Al-T abar (I/38889) considers Sasan, Ardashirs supposed grandfather, to have been the caretaker
(Ar. mutawwali) of the temple of Anahita in Istakhr. The undetermined status of Sasan has been discussed before, including the fact that none of the Sasanian primary sources (e.g. Shapur Kaabeh-i
Zardusht (KZ)) call him a grandfather of Ardashir. On the connections of Sasan with a Semitic god,
see M. Schwartz, Sesen: A Durable East Mediterranean God in Iran, in Proceedings of the Third European Conference of Iranian Studies held in Cambridge, 11th to 15th September 1995, ed. N. Sims-Williams
(Wiesbaden: Reichert 1998), 1: 913. Other evidence from the Sasanian period exists as well. The coins
of Ardashir and his successors, up to the fth century, identify the king of kings as a mazdsn, a Mazda
Worshipping Lord (MP bay); see Robert Gbl, Sasanian numismatics (Braunschweig, 1971), now largely
superseded by Michael Alram and Rika Gyselen, Sylloge Nummorum Sasanidarum, vol. I (Vienna, 2003)
and vol. II (Vienna, 2012), as well as Nikolaus Schindel, Sylloge Nummorum Sasanidarum, vol. III
(Vienna, 2004).
28
This letter is quoted in the thirteenth century History of Tabaristan by Ibn Isfandiyar. The letter was
edited and published by M. Monovi and translated based on that edition by Mary Boyce, (trans.)
M. Minovi, ed., The Letter of Tansar, trans. Mary Boyce (Rome, 1968).

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Mazdakism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism 7

minent inscriptions of the high priest Kerdr,29 carved during the latter half of the third
century CE, discusses the true religion and rail against heresy. In his inscriptions, Kerdr
boasts about persecuting the Jews, Christians, and heretics.30 Later tomes, such the semimystical work of Ardaviraz, evidently a fth century priest,31 show the continuation of
the efforts to protect the positions of the Good Religion seen in earlier centuries. This
effort of striving towards orthodoxy also compelled Adurbad Mahrspandan, another high
priest, to undergo trial by molten lead in order to show the righteousness of his interpretation of Zoroastrianism and its validity within the contemporary religious tradition in
which he was working.32 Arda Wirf, who took a journey to the other world, is also commemorated with legends and histories from later centuries which are relevant for understanding Zoroastrianism.33 Although these sources each distinctively purport to represent
already existing Zoroastrian beliefs and practices in the Sasanian period, they collectively
demonstrate that in both the priestly and imperial sources Zoroastrian leaders sought to construct the boundaries of their orthodox theologies and rituals which the empire used as the
basis of its social organization. Mazdaks differing interpretation of the religion, with its
social dimension in tow, thus challenged the priestly and imperial boundaries. In the end,
it is the Zoroastrianism as represented by these Sasanian-era traditions from which Mani
and Mazdak purportedly deviated, causing the infamous social upheaval in Iran.34 Moreover,
Mazdaks goals of reform were countered by Khusrow I, the Sasanian monarch made famous
by his own institutional reforms of the empire that centered on, among other things, matters
of justice as a means of satisfying public needs,35 albeit unsuccessfully.36
29
E. Honigmann and Andr Maricq, Recherches sur les Res gestae divi Saporis (Bruxelles, 1953); Zeev
Rubin, Res Gestae Divi Saporis: Greek and Middle Iranian in a Document of Sasanian Anti-Roman
Propaganda, in Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language Contact and the Written Word, ed. J.N.
Adams, Mark Janse and Simon Swain (Oxford, 2002), 26797.
30
See Philippe Gignoux, Les quatre inscriptions du mage Kirdr: textes et concordances (Paris, 1991),
especially 6970 for reference to the persecution of Jews and other religious minorities.
31
P. Gignoux, Le livre dArda Viraz (Paris, 1984).
32
Greater Bundahishn; Dnkard (in ed. J. de Menasce, Le Troisime livre du Denkart (Paris, 1973),
20810); A. Tafazzoli, durbd Mahrspandn, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. 1, 1983. The presence
of Adurbd is of course only veriable through references to him in the early Islamic encyclopaedic
works such as Dnkard and Bundahin or through Hamzah al-Isfahn and other Muslim historians:
see Tafazzoli, Adrbd Mahrspandn.
33
Arda Wirafs adventures are told in a ninthtenth century book called Ardaviraz Namag, edited by
P. Gignoux (Le livre dArda Viraz). His journey to the other world is apparently a Zoroastrian literary and
religious topos; see P.O. Skjrv, Kirdirs Vision: Translation and Analysis, Archologische Mitteilungen
aus Iran 16 (1983): 269206, and P. Gignoux, La signication du voyage extra-terrestre dans leschatologie mazdenne, in Mlanges offerts a Ch.-H. Puech (Paris, 1974), 6389.
34
In the Dnkard, the evil words of Mani are set directly opposite the good advice and utterances of
Adurbd Mahrspandn, in order to clearly demonstrate the contrast.
35
Of course, this has been the subject of many studies and speculations, most of which also do point
out that the reforms start with Kavad, although they take the name of Khusrow. See Zeev Rubin, The
Reforms of Khusro Anushirwan, The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East 3 (1995): 22797. For a
classic study, see F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Finanzgeschichte der Sptantike, with contributions from
R. Gbl and H.W. Haussig (Frankfurt/M, 1957).
36
Assuming that one of the major targets of the Mazdakite revolt was to break the back of the nobility
and its inheritance of property and privilege, we can observe that it succeeded in fact in that aspect, as we

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8 Rezakhani

Underlying all the arguments regarding Mazdakism is the assumption that ancient
Zoroastrianism, before but more so after the Islamic conquests, strove towards
orthodoxy, for lack of a more precise term (see discussion below).37 Viewing the
Zoroastrian belief system from the vantage point of Abrahamic religions, the supposition is that this religion also possessed a theological mainstream represented by a
text (in this case the Zand-Avesta) and a clerical structure conforming to a single
interpretation in its administration of the imperial institutions (e.g. the mowbeds
who acted as judges and ritual priests, among other jobs). In the Zoroastrian historiography, the version of the Avesta that is available today is imagined as a segment of
a greater body of works which contained not only the pillars of the religion, but also
all related matters of theology, cosmology, and ritual.38 From within these series of
texts, the clerical establishment of the religion sought an original set of guidelines
used to establish proper conduct, laws, and other cultural expectations.39 As Boyce
argues, Zoroastrian authors were sometimes responding to the presence of monotheism, in particular after the Islamic conquests, by framing the Good Religion as an
originally monotheistic one, even though Sasanian religious culture was more
diverse and heterodox.40 At the heart of these arguments lies the Gathas, the linguistically most ancient section of the Yasnas, and their attribution to Zarathushtra
himself. Much like the books of Moses, or the Qurn, the Gathas were seen as
the pure expression of the Zoroastrian faith, the ultimate yardstick of correct
belief within the religion.41 The strength of this eagerness to uphold the Gathas
as the original expressions of faith, and the only reliable reections of the orthodoxy, has resulted in much controversy within the religion itself, continuing even
to this day.42
When used in reference to the Zoroastrianism of this time period, the term orthodoxy is problematic. The major issue, as suggested by scholars and afrmed here, is
that we have come to think of Zoroastrianism in terms of a religion, as the
are not to hear of them much after this point. Some have hypothesized that the problem might lie elsewhere: P. Pourshariati, Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire (London, 2008). The case of Wahram
Cbin (VI) might have been an exception: A. Christensen, Romanen om Bahram Tchobin (Copenhagen,
1907).
37
On this, again see the case of Adurbd Mahrspandn whose trial serves to show a continuity of his
religious tradition of which he was a caretaker.
38
Dnkart, Book VIII; M. Shaki, The Dnkard Account of the History of the Zoroastrian Scriptures, Archv Orientaln 49 (1981): 11425. For a discussion of the historicity of this claim, see
Harold Bailey, Zoroastrian Problems in the Ninth-century Books (Oxford, 1971).
39
For an accessible translation of the Gathas, see Helmut Humbach and Pallan Ichaporia, The Heritage of Zarathustra, A New Translation of his Gathas (Heidelberg, 1998).
40
Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (London, 2007), 1920.
41
See the discussion in W. Malandra, Gathas II: Translations, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2000. See the
issues involved with the matters of authorship of the Gathas, central to the discussion, in J. Kellens and
E. Pirart, Les textes vieil-avestiques, 3 vols. (Wiesbaden, 198889). Richard Foltz, Spirituality in the Land
of the Noble (Oxford, 2004), 22ff. for a general summary of the traditional history of Zoroastrianism.
42
Michael Stausberg, Die Religion Zarathustras, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 2002), particularly volume II for the
state of the study, and the continuing debates about the Zoroastrian cosmography.

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Mazdakism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism 9

concept is dened based on the criteria for the Abrahamic religions.43 The case is comparable to the history of the formation of Hinduism as a product of colonial British
scholarship.44 In that instance, the various belief systems and cosmographies, and their
related or sometimes independent ritualistic activities, which existed in parallel in
Indian society were lumped together by nineteenth and twentieth century scholars
of European descent into a single religion called Hinduism. Similar belief systems,
most importantly Sikhism and Jainism, which could boast an identiable founder,
were given independent status and occasionally even called offshoots of the mainstream Hinduism.45 The actual case, as we now know from the better studies of
the various belief systems of South Asia, was that a single religion called Hinduism
never existed. Instead, a series of ritual behaviors, with devotions to various deities
that could be elevated or lowered in rank, depending on the situation, formed the religious atmosphere of the non-Muslim population of South Asia. In fact, the roots of
the nomenclature Hindu to refer to the adherents of these henotheistic belief systems
went back to the pre-colonial period, when the title, taken from the Persian word
Hind, was used for all those who were not Muslim.46
Indeed, revisionist historians of religion and philologists have pointed out the essential problems with imagining the antiquity of an Ahura Mazda-centered orthodoxy
within Zoroastrianism, particularly during the Sasanian period.47 There was considerable multiplicity within the faith, and, as Shaked and others have noted, most of the
sources which point to the presence of a mainstream and state-sponsored form of religion during the Sasanian period are written many years, indeed centuries, after the fall

For various critiques of this, see Kellens works, including J. Kellens, Characters of Ancient Mazdaism, History and Anthropology 3 (1987): 23962; on Zoroastrianisms ritual character, see Clarisse Herrenschmidt and Jean Kellens, La Question du rituel dans le mazdisme ancien et achmnide, Archives
de sciences sociales des religions (1994): 4567.
44
Geoffrey A. Oddie, Imagined Hinduism: British Protestant Missionary Constructions of Hinduism,
17931900 (New Delhi, 2006).
45
On a collection of texts which show the gradual process through which this was done, see J. Marshall,
ed., The British Discovery of Hinduism in the 18th Century (Cambridge, 1970).
46
This was in fact done as early as the eleventh century, when al-Brn was writing his treatise on
India: Kitb Tahqq m lil-Hind, ed. C.E. Sachau (London, 1887).
47
Boyces re-telling of the history is quite close to the traditional Zoroastrian one: Boyce, Zoroastrians.
Problems with the narrative were spotted early on, with Nyberg taking the position that the prophet of
the religion, Zarathushtra, was nothing but a shaman of a nomadic pagan cult: Henrik S. Nyberg, Die
Religionen des alten Irans (Leipzig, 1938). This was of course famously debunked, along with Herzfeld,
by that giant of Iranian studies W.B. Henning in his Zoroaster: Politician or Witchdoctor (Oxford,
1951). Revisionism, in the denial of the existence of Zoroaster and hypothesizing the composition of
the Gathic corpus by a group of poets (or poet-sacricers) has come in the form of Jean Kellens Les
textes veiel-avestiques I (Wiesbaden, 1988), and is supported by his articles, including the translation of
them by his most prominent promoter in the Anglophone world, P.O. Skjrv: J. Kellens, Essays on Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism, trans. and ed. Prods Oktor Skjrv (Costa Mesa, CA, 2000); Skjrv
himself is of course a major gure of the revisionist trend on whose ideas part of this essay is based: P.
O. Skjrvo, The State of Old Avestan Scholarship, Journal of the American Oriental Society (1997):
10314, among many other works.
43

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10 Rezakhani

of the Sasanians themselves.48 Mainly deduced from the Middle Persian commentaries
as well as encyclopedic collections written by Zoroastrian priests in the early centuries
of Islam, these sources have obvious anachronistic tones to them. Contributing to this
problem, the oldest manuscript of the Avesta dates to the thirteenth century, despite
the antiquity of its composition.49 Manuscripts of most Middle Persian commentaries
and collections also belong to the same period and later. However, philological studies
suggest that major collections such as Bundahishn or Denkard belong to the eighth to
tenth centuries CE, and were mainly composed in Kerman, Yazd, and Fars, locales
with a high concentration of Zoroastrian communitiessome of which continue
even to this day.50 Other texts, including the important law collection from the
seventh century called the Mdayn Hazr Ddestn, as well as a number of
works of legend and history, originated in the late Sasanian period, with nal editions
having been made again in the Islamic period to reach us in the current form.51
Contemporary to these sources is a set of works written by Muslim historians,
which provide occasional details about the religious environment of the Sasanian
realm, with reference to Mazdakisms ties to the state religion. Among these are the
works of al-T abar, al-Masd, al-Brn, Hamzah al-Isfahn, and Dnawar. In less
ideological works such as that of al-Masd or Hamzah al-Isfahn, modern historians
nd fascinating references to the wonders witnessed by the author himself. These
include archives and records of old families, the doyens of dehqn families like Ab
Mansr (see below), who have guarded them jealously, revealing them only to
careful and trustworthy historians.52 Through the lens of Hamzah or al-Masd,
48
Shaked, Dualism in Transformation. See also W. Malandra, Zoroastrianism i: Historical Review,
under sources. The dominant narrative easily leads one to reconstruct the events, even when a source
such as the letter of Tansar belongs to the thirteenth century!
49
The arguments about the age of the Avestan corpus abound. The earliest parts, the Gathas, might
have been composed as early as 1200 BCE, while the Younger Avestan texts belong to the later periods,
but most likely no later than the Achaemenid one. An easy summary is J. Kellens, Avesta, EIr. 1987;
more discussion of the issues of the composition of the text can be found in Bailey, Zoroastrian Problems,
and Skjrv, The State of Old Avestan Studies.
50
Admittedly, the oldest Dnkard MS seems to have been composed in Baghdad, and Adurfarnba
Farrukhzdn, its composer, was a contemporary of the Abbasid caliph al-Mamn: J.P. de Menasce,
Une encyclopdie mazdenne, le Dnkart (Paris, 1958). From the testimonies of Hamzah al-Isfahn
and others, however, we know of the major Zoroastrian communities in Fars/Persis Kerman, Yazd,
and indeed Sistan. The Bundahin, despite its patchy structure, seems to be more comfortable with
eastern Iranian geography, and its authorship is also closely related to that of the Dnkard: D. Niel MacKenzie, Bundahin, EIr, 1989; see C. Cereti, Middle Persian Geographic Literature: The Case of the
Bundahin, in R. Gyselen, ed., Contributions lhistoire et la gographie historique de lempire sassanide,
Res Orientales 16 (2004), 1134 and part II of the same article in Res Orientales 17 (2007) for a study of
the geography of the Bundahin.
51
M. Macuch, Mdayn Hazr Ddestn, EIr, 2005, and of course Macuchs own Rechtskasuistik
und Gerichtspraxis zu Beginn des siebenten Jahrhunderts in Iran: Die Rechtssammlung des Farrohmard i
Wahrmn (Wiesbaden, 1993).
52
See Hamzah al-Isfahns tales of his exclusive access to several otherwise lost histories of the Sasanian kings, including an illustrated one: Hamzah al-Isfahn, Tarkh sin mulk al-ard wa-al-anbiy
(Cairo, nd), 38ff.

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Mazdakism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism 11

the modern historian gazes upon the archives that are missing and tries to record as
much as possible about the details of the life and rule of the Sasanians.53 These narrative histories similarly provide us with a picture of the Sasanian kings as divinely
appointed rulers of the Iranian realm (rnahr) whose role was to protect the
realm against foreign enemies, uphold the Good Religion, and keep order among its
citizens by ruling justly and according to the principles of Good Religion.54 In
addition, one of the richest sources that attests to the existence of a state-sponsored
Zoroastrianism during the Sasanian period is the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi.55 Ferdowsis work was based on a collection made by Ab Mansr Abd al-Razzq, a local governor of Ferdowsis hometown, who himself belonged to an old dehqn family of the
region, probably tracing their ancestry to the Sasanian period.56 In the Shahnameh, the
Sasanian state, and indeed all those before it, carry the responsibility of protecting and
upholding a certain kind of religious-ethical orthodoxy. In Ferdowsis work, the divine
favor is bestowed by god and god alone, in the form of the farrox,57 which the kings
need to possess, with gods blessing, in order to rule.58
In sum, we can see how Zoroastrian priestly writings and Islamic historians are of a
similar mind about the Sasanian rulers ties to the Good Religion. The Krnmag and
al-T abar both agree, for instance, that Ardashir was divinely appointed and sanctioned through the bestowing of the farrox. Moreover, both Dnawar and the
Dnkard portray Shapur I as a true Mazdsn who was led astray by Mani, while alT abar, Masd, and others claim that Kavad was a heretic for following Mazdak.
These types of parallels reafrm the validity of past research which argues that Zoroastrian and Muslim authors in the rst centuries of Islamic rule were working from a
shared tradition, and perhaps also similar sources or narrative strands. Indeed, past
research shows how Islamic histories of the Sasanians are based on a set of Middle
Persian historical compositions, now missing, that were prevalent and widely available
in the early Islamic period,59 especially the Khwady-Nmag, which included a legendary history of pre-Islamic Iran, including the role of the Sasanians.60 Noticing the
bewildering variety of details in the narratives presented by various Muslim historians,
53

Al-Masd, al-Tanbh wa-al-ishrf, trans. A. Payandeh (Tehran, 1970), 106.

Hamzah again is quite adamant about this, and most of the sources to which he refers are apparently
composed or preserved by Mbeds of various kinds.
55
The standard edition, with the most reliable inclusion or exclusion of problematic verses, is now Jall
Khliq Mutlaq, ed., Shahnameh (Costa Mesa, CA, 19882009).
56
M.A. Riahi, Sarcheshmehaa-ye Ferdowsi Shenasi (the Sources of the Study of Ferdowsi) (Tehran, 1382/
2004), 138ff.
57
Richard N. Frye, The Charisma of Kingship in Ancient Iran, Iranica Antiqua 6 (1964), 3654.
58
Ibid.
59
It is often assumed that some manner of a Khwaday-Namag text was hidden behind all of the early
Islamic historiographical works about Iran. See A.C.S. Peacock, Early Persian Historians and the Heritage of Pre-Islamic Iran, in Early Islamic Iran, vol. V, Idea of Iran, ed. E. Herzig and S. Stewart (London,
2012), 61. The curious disappearance of this text (or texts) or any sort of direct Arabic translation
(including that of Ibn Muqaffa) is among the mysteries of Islamic historiography.
60
E. Yarshater, Iranian National History, in Cambridge History of Iran III/1 (Cambridge, 1983),
366.
54

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12 Rezakhani

some have further suggested that the Khwady-Nmag was not in fact the name of a
text or texts, but rather the name of a genre of legendary history writing.61 Whatever
the case might be, scholars take for granted that these narratives existed, some of which
were translated into Arabic by Ibn Muqaffa.62 In this characterization of the original
source, it is natural that texts written in the late Sasanian period would reect a sort of
Sasanian moral code, including that of the orthodox-striving Zoroastrianism prevalent
at the court of kings such as Khusrow I Anushirvan. In fact, the composition of the
earliest versions of many of the extant Middle Persian treatises is attributed to the
court of this very king, making their historical dating to the late Sasanian period relatively plausible.63 Khusrow I is applauded in a wide range of texts as the ultimate
restorer of the Good Religion, after his elimination of Mazdak and the Mazdakites,
and thus was thought of as the perfect ruler to sponsor such orthodox versions of
Sasanian history.64 This can perhaps also be seen as yet another natural conclusion
from the narrative presented in the early Islamic Middle Persian commentaries,65
the authors of which were attempting to preserve what was left of their religious
laws and codes from the late Sasanian era.66 After the state and Zoroastrian clergy
cooperated in destroying the Mazdakite menace, Zoroastrianism was consolidated
and transformed into the morals and values presented in the extant historical narratives in the aforementioned sources and the Khwady-Nmag. The religious commentaries, and judicial rulings, that form the bulk of the Middle Persian textual output of
61

For an updated discussion of the Khwady-Nmag genre, and the research associated with it, see
A. Shapur Shahbazi, Tarikh-e Sasanian [Sasanian history] (Tehran, 1389/2010), 7281.
62
J. Derek Latham, Ebn Moqaffa, EIr; also Peacock, Early Persian Historians, 61, 64 (on
Hamzahs claims to have Ibn Muqaffa as his source). Also Shabazi, Tarikh, 8191 for a study of the
Arabic sources that are based on Sasanian sources, including the Khwady-Nmag. However, Shahbazi
also assumes the existence of the Khawady-Nmag as a text, although he calls it khoday-nmeh-h
(Khwady-Nmags, in plural) thus suggesting implicitly that there was not one single text: Shahbazi,
Tarikh-e Sasanian, 73.
63
Mary Boyce, Middle Persian Literature, Hdb. d. Orientalistic, 2. Absch., Literature (Leiden, 1968),
3166. Some of the surviving Middle Persian texts, most prominently Khusraw- Kawdn ud Rdak,
obviously hearken back to the time of Khusrow I. Even the completion of a denitive corpus of the
Avesta itself is associated with Khusrow I: Bailey, Zoroastrian Problems, 173.
64
Ibn Balkhi, Frsnme, ed. G. Lestrange and R.A. Nicholson (Cambridge, 1921, reprint Tehran,
1385/2006), 8993. Of course, the same praise is bestowed upon him by all other historians of the
period, earning him the nickname of del (Per. Ddgar), the Just, evidently for exposing the deviant
ways of his father under Mazdaks inuence. This is an achievement that obviously makes Khusrow
wiser than his father and more worthy of the throne, prompting Kavad to abdicate the throne and
become an ascetic to repent his sins! (Frsnme, 878).
65
As mentioned before, almost all Muslim historians, in some manner or another, refer to a Mbed as
the author or the protector/archivist of the text to which they are referring (e.g. al-Masd, al-Tanbh,
61). In the introduction to the Shahnameh, Ferdowsi attributes the collection of the stories which he is
making into verse to a Degn-zdeh (son/descendant of the Dihgns, Sasanian gentry, for whom see
Zakeri, Sasanid Soldiers, 2231), the aforementioned Abd al-Razzq. However, even his sources are
Mbeds who have come together to relate the oral and textual stories that they possess.
66
For a possibly more nuanced assessment of the state of affairs, and the environment in which these
texts are being composed, see P. Huyse, Late Sasanian Society Between Orality and Literacy, in
V. Sarkhosh Curtis and S. Stewart, eds., The Sasanian Era, vol. III, Idea of Iran (London, 2008), 14057.

Mazdakism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism 13

the early Islamic centuries were, therefore, meant to reect the late Sasanian environment and literary productions, and, indeed, to be based on the texts produced during
the same period.

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Sasanian Zoroastrianism as a Product of the Early Medieval World

The authors of the narratives described above present heresies such as Manichaeism
and Mazdakism as gross trespasses against the Good Religion and diluters of righteousness in the Land of the r.67 Of all the evidence which demonstrates the Zoroastrian
goals for orthodoxy in the late Sasanian era, the best is the existence of a clerical class
that the Sasanians put in charge of preserving the Good Religion through institutional
life. Based on MP and Syriac sources, historians assume that a clerical establishment,
headed by a high priest (mowbedn mowbed), began sometime in the early Sasanian
period and continued to its collapse.68 Many Islamic sources mention a mowbed as
the major advisor to the king, often in situations where a lesson in morality is
needed.69 We have also seen the thirteenth century evidence for the presence of a
Tansar as the mowbedn mowbed under Ardashir I, although no contemporary evidence for this is available and it might be best treated as a later invention, at best
in the late Sasanian period.70
One of the best pieces of historical evidence which bears out the role of the Zoroastrian priesthood in the institutionalization of state-sponsored forms of
Zoroastrianism is the set of inscriptions left by the high priest Kerdr, a man who
introduces himself as the mwbedn mwbed of the court of Wahram II (27593
CE).71 In his inscriptions, Kerdr claims to have enjoyed a high position at the
court from the time of Shapur I (24071 CE), lasting through the reigns of his
sons, Hormizd I (27173) and Wahram I (27375). Despite admitting that he was
only elevated to the highest position under Wahram I and II,72 Kerdr makes great
claims to power and presents himself as a high ofcial of the court, including
having been given a kamar ud kulaf (belt and cap, symbolic attire of a high position
in society) by Wahram. This gure carries the titles of Herbed and Mwbed from the
The idea of the Sasanian Empire as matching the ideal domain of the r, as opposed to that of the
An-r, was reected as early as the third century in the inscription of Kerdr (KKz). For a discussion of
this, see G. Gnoli, The Idea of Iran (Rome, 1989).
68
W.W. Malandra, Zoroastrianism i: Historical Review, EIr, 2005.
69
Al-Masd in the story of Wahram II: Murj al-dhahab (Beirut, 1985), 2458.
70
For the letter of Tansar, a long exegesis in the genre of advice-literature or Frstenspiegel, see Boyce
and Minovi, Letter of Tansar. The letter is most likely a late Sasanian composition, although one commonly sees it taken as evidence for the existence of a Hirbd/Mbed of the same name as the chief priest
of Ardashir I (e.g. Malandra in EIr).
71
The inscriptions have been published by P. Gignoux, Les quatre inscriptions du mage Kirdr (Leuven,
1991).
72
Kerdr Kaaba Zardusht (KKZ), paragraph 9, when he mentions that Wahram I gave him the rank
of Grandee: D. Neil MacKenzie, Kerdirs inscription, Iranische Denkmler, fasc. 13 (1989): 3572.
67

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14 Rezakhani

time of Shapur I73 and describes his persecution of the members of other faiths such as
Christians, Jews, and Manicheans,74 as well as his founding many res. If the inscriptions are to be believed, Kerdr was a powerful government ofcial in the early Sasanian period. While the placement of these inscriptions, above that of Shapur I himself
in Kaba- Zardsht and next to that of Ardashir and Shapur in Naqsh- Rajab, shows
Kerdrs high position, the historical situation may not accord exactly to how this man
portrays himself in his writings. Kerdr, no doubt, was a powerful gure at the court of
Wahram II. He is depicted individually as part of the relief programs of Naq- Rajab
and has copies of his inscriptions at other localities such as Sar Mahad.75 As the
internal evidence conrms, all the inscriptions were carved during the reign of
Wahram II (27493 CE). One could argue that, considering this fact, the placement
of the inscriptions say little about Kerdrs position at the earlier courts of Shapur,
Hormizd, or Wahram I. In fact, the only mention of Kerdr available to us outside
his own words is the reference to a Mu Kerdr in the aforementioned inscription
of Shapur (KZ), among the names of many other ofcials, sandwiched between
Abdagash, the son of the fortress master and Rastak, the Satrap of Weh Ardashir.76 Otherwise, even conrming his existence independently of his own words
would have been an impossible task. More importantly, we see that Kerdr is never
mentioned again, effectively leaving no legacy as the original founder of a Sasanian
Zoroastrian church, as his own words might lead us to believe.77 Thus, historians
should not rely on Kerdrs lone presentation of his resume as substantiating evidence
for the existence of an organized clerical establishment in the early Sasanian period.
Interestingly, based on what we know, Kavads deposition, which is tied to his heretical beliefs in Mazdakism, appears to have been performed by nobles and not the
clergy.78 Except for Dnawar, no other Arabic historian suggests that Kavad was
forced to formally denounce his Mazdakite beliefs or take any oath of protecting
Zoroastrian orthodoxy in order to retake the throne.79 Even after Khusrow Is massacre of the Mazdakites,80 we do not see a close association of the king with this supposed church. Even forgetting the fact that no synod, no authoritative body or person
T. Daryaee, Katbe-ye Kertr dar Naqe Rajab, Nme-ye rn-e Bstn (NIB) I, no. 1 (1380/2001): 8.
KKZ 11.
75
MacKenzie, Kerdirs Inscription, 45ff.
76
KZ 47.
77
Like his later successor, Adurbad- Mahrspandn, Kerdr has to prove his righteousness and the
orthodoxy of his beliefs, even at the height of his poweran effort that seems to foreshadow literary
elements of the later journey of the Arda Wiraf: Skjrv, Kirdirs Vision.
78
It seems that the nobility were unhappy with Kavad forcing them to share their wives with others,
and thus lose track of their noble lineage, and they therefore removed the king (Frsnme, 845). Balam
suggests that the Mbeds sided with the nobility to advise Kavad not to follow Mazdak (Balam,
Mazhdak), but does not specify a religious instrumental in his removal, rather a general rebellion of
the nobility who were fed-up: Balam, 846.
79
Dnawar, Akhbr al-tiwl, trans. M.M. Dghn (Tehran, 1992), 95.
80
Ibn Balkhi makes the whole thing sound like a conspiracy, pre-mediated by Khusrow to prevent the
followers of Mazdak, who were evidently in power at the time, from diverting the plans: Frsnme,
8991.
73
74

Mazdakism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism 15

representing the ofcial position of the orthodoxy in question, are ever mentioned,
one cannot but notice the heterodoxy of the kings themselves. For example, the presence of different deities on the Sasanian reliefs demonstrates the fact that there is
hardly a single form of Zoroastrian belief, as does the existence of Zurvanism,
which may or may not be fairly characterized as a sect.81

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Conclusion
I have tried to demonstrate that, despite its representation in the literature, Mazdakism was historically not a deviation from some ofcial or orthodox Zoroastrianism
but, ironically, ended up helping to establish one. Modern scholarly discourse about
Mazdakism and other Sasanian religious trends as heterodoxies, which are often
based on the anachronistic and ideologically motivated literary portrayals in the
Arabic and Middle Persian corpora, is problematic. Rather, Christianity and Islam,
among other religious groups, were undergoing internal transformations and sought
to establish orthodoxies on their own. This phenomenon has been well-documented
in the case of the Christian world, such as the centuries-old debate between Miaphysites and Chalcedonian Christians in Byzantium. In Persian territories, including in
Nisibis, synods and church councils also express similar trends towards orthodoxy.
Moreover, centuries later, conicts among Islamic sects provoked an inclination to
codied orthodoxy. Under pressure from the Abrahamic religions, the followers of
the Good Religion in this period similarly felt the need to be accepted by others, to
demarcate and clarify their beliefs, and to make their own beliefs understandable
and comprehensible to their neighbors and rulers. The study of late antique Zoroastrianism itself is worthy of many books, though scholarly output is minimal compared
to that on Christianity or Judaism during the same period. As a non-universal religion,
it is considered too limited in scope to be worth studying, as its life depends on the
survival of its protective state-system (namely the Sasanians) whose demise in fact
made their belief system irrelevant. A consequence of this assumption is the supercial
understanding of the other religious strands within the same society which bore close
afnities with that supposed state religion. As an example of this, Mazdakism, however
dened, is not considered within its full social, religious, and political contexts, but
81
For example, Ardashir I is invested with a diadem by the god Ahura Mazda, similarly mounted on a
horse, and at the same height as Ardashir himself; see Dalia Levit-Tawil, The Sasanian Rock Relief at
DarabgirdA Re-Evaluation, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 51 (1992): 16180. In contrast, other
deities appear: e.g. Anahita, the goddess of purity, is stands opposite Nars (293302 CE), and
Mithras is present in the relief of Shapur II and Ardashir II; on this, see D.N. MacKenzie, The Sasanian
Rock Reliefs at Naqsh-i Rustam, Iranische Denkmler (Berlin, 1989), and Katsumi Tanabe, Date and
Signicance of the So-called Investiture of Ardashir II and the Images of Shahpur II and III at Taq-i
Bustan, Orient 21 (1985): 10221. For 200 years after these monarchs, there is no other Sasanian
relief until the beginning of the seventh century when Khusrow II is anked by two gods at his relief
in Taq- Bostn reliefs (next to Shapur II and Ardashir IIs reliefs). Here, Khusrow is standing on a platform, above the level of the two gods who are anking him, Ahura Mazda and Anahita, on which see
Daryaee, Sasanian Persia, 34.

16 Rezakhani

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rather from a limited scope of its effect on its often polemical surroundings. The same
would stand true for other religious and social movements of the same period. It is
only with a wider scope for the study of the orthodoxies and heterodoxies and the
greater religious scene of the Sasanian realm that we might hope to understand
better the situation of these belief systems in late antiquity and beyond.