Christianity in the late Sasanian period
heyday
During the last part of the long-term rule of the Sassanids, Christianity went through a relatively quiet period and was allowed to grow and develop both qualitatively and quantitatively. This calmness can have two reasons; One is that the Iranian Church was separated from the Church of Rome (Eastern Rome or Byzantium) in this period, both in terms of organization and in terms of principles; Another thing is that the country’s leaders may have come to the conclusion that it is better for Iranian Christians to feel safe inside the country than to look to the West for their security.
Anyway, the freedom and privilege that Yazdgerd I had given to Christians was more or less respected. However, there are sporadic persecutions and harassments. These persecutions usually happened when there was a war with Rome. In such periods, religious leaders did not hesitate to incite political leaders to harm the followers of a religion that was considered a staunch opponent of Zoroastrian religion. During this period, we witness the emergence of worthy leaders such as Mar Abay I. Christianity was established in different regions of the Iranian plateau and more people than Zoroastrians converted to Christianity, although there is no information about their number.
Maraba I, a different patriarch
The background of Maraba
In the year 540, a different person was elected to the Patriarchate, who is a shining point in the Church of Iran in his holiness, knowledge, sufficiency and resourcefulness. This person’s name was “Mar Abba”, he was a Persian and a Zoroastrian, and due to his education and knowledge, he soon occupied important positions in the court of the ruler of one of the states. The description of his conversion to Christianity is interesting.
They say that one day he planned to cross the Tigris river by boat; He saw that a Jew named Yusuf was in the boat. He ordered to expel him. The boat started but could not move forward due to the onset of a strong storm, so it was forced to return, this was repeated twice. Maraba felt that the storm might be caused by the violence that he had done to the Jewish man. So he said to put him in the boat and the boat reached the other side of the river safely.
There, Maraba realized that the person was a Christian. He was so affected by that event and the gentleness, humility and politeness of that person that he left his position, believed and was baptized. After converting to Christianity, he went to Alexandria and Egypt to study theology. Then he went to Nasibin and accepted Nestorian beliefs there. He decided to leave the world there and become a monk, but with the encouragement of the bishop of that city, he started studying theology. The reputation of his purity and knowledge spread so much that in 540 he was unanimously elected to the patriarchate of the Sassanid Church without any objections.
The actions of the serpent Abba
Maraba immediately traveled to different places and visited the churches to resolve the differences and bitterness of the past and bring order to the situation. He was very successful in this, and he was able to restore the morals of the church, which had deteriorated greatly due to the chaotic situation of the leadership. In this way, he successfully fought against the luxuriousness and moral corruption of the church leaders, especially the custom of marriage with polygamists, which was common among Zoroastrians and had also influenced Christians.
During his travels in different regions, he realized how ignorant the Christian public is about the principles of their faith. Therefore, he immediately began compiling the “Confession of Faith”, which in a very simple language recounted the basic beliefs of Christianity. It became obligatory for all Christians to learn and memorize this confession. He also reorganized and revived the theological seminary that had been established in Tisophon under the patriarch Akassius as the Nusaybin Theological School. In addition, he succeeded in establishing new churches around Tisophon, on the island of Hormuz, and in the city of Edessa. .
Finally, Marabba
Since Maraba was able to establish a close relationship with the Sassanid king, Khosrow I, nicknamed Anushirvan, Mobadan’s jealousy was aroused and they started to plot against China. Finally, the king had to send him to Azerbaijan and imprison him there. It was suggested to him that if he stopped calling Zoroastrians to Christianity, they would give him his freedom back. But he preferred prison to this freedom.
After some time, they allowed him to stay in a house under observation. From this place, he also dealt with church matters and guidance of Christians. This plan failed until the priests commissioned a converted Christian to kill him. Meanwhile, a rebellion broke out in Khuzestan led by one of Anushirvan’s sons who was born to a Christian woman.
Mobdan considered Christians and Maraba personally responsible for this riot. In order to prove his loyalty to the king and the country, Maraba took the initiative to go to Khuzestan and calm the rebellion, and he did so, but due to the pressures that had been put on him for many years, he died at the same time, that is, in 552. All in all, Maraba did a great and effective service in consolidating the Nestorian Church of Iran. His piety and knowledge were so deep and original that he even aroused the admiration of Catholic researchers and writers.
Controversy with the Monophysites
In the second half of the 6th century, following some events, Monophysite beliefs spread in the Sasanian territory. In 571, a theologian named Hanana was appointed as the head of the Nusaybin Theology School. As a result of his studies, he was attracted to the Monophysite beliefs that had been spread by a person named “Yaqub Bar Edai” in the Syrian regions some time before.
At the same time, Gabriel, Khosrow Parvez’s doctor, joined the Monophysite faith from his Nestorian faith to cover up his immoral actions, and in the course of this, Shirin, the Armenian and Christian wife of Khosrow Parvez, also made a story with himself. The Sassanid court also preferred that the Christians of their territory had differences among themselves and did not promote Christianity among the Zoroastrians. The fight against Monophysite beliefs took a lot of energy and time from the Nestorian Church of Iran.
At the end of the Sasanian work
The history of the game is strange! When we flip through its pages, we sometimes wonder how the stupidity, egotism, hypocrisy, and stubbornness of those who are at the top of the power due to the game of time determine the destiny of a nation. Khosrow II, known as Khosrow Parviz, is one of them. He spent about 25 years of his reign at war with Rome (Byzantium). This war not only changed the fate of Iran, but if it is not an exaggeration, it set the fate of the world on a new path.
As a result of these fruitless wars, the two superpowers of the time, Iran and Byzantium, became so weak that they did not have the strength to stand against the newly emerging power, the power of the Islamic armies. In such a situation, when the two superpowers of the time, i.e. Iran and Rome, were weakened by these wars and had to be busy compensating for internal losses, it emerged as a third force that did not see any obstacles in the way of its progress.
This renewed force, empowered by a new faith, conquered the entire civilized world of that time from the Arabian Peninsula. The Islamic army from 633 destroyed the 400-year-old, decadent and internally rotten Sassanid empire within a short period of time. Yazdgerd III, the last Sassanid king, was killed by a miller while fleeing in 651 in Merv, and the Sassanid empire was dismantled.
Labor says: “It is not surprising that the Christians did not help the Sasanians against their enemies. The Syriac speakers of Mesopotamia had been used to being dependent on the dominant nations for centuries; Achaemenians, Seleucids, Parthians, and Sasanians had exploited them without any pity. Now it was the turn of the Arabs to continue this tradition. It doesn’t matter to a slave which master he serves!”
The scope of the Nestorian Church of Iran
Evidence shows that Christianity in the Sassanid Empire was concentrated mainly in the fertile valley of the Tigris and Euphrates (Mesopotamia where Tisophon was also located) and the western regions of modern Iran (Khuzestan, Ilam, Kurdistan and Azerbaijan). Our information about the central and eastern regions of Iran is unfortunately very incomplete.
A period of consolidation, development and prosperity
Christianity in Sassanid territory finally managed to stand on its feet to a certain extent after enduring several centuries of conflict and oppression and pressure and restrictions. It is during this period that we witness the flourishing of Christianity in Sassanid Iran. Finally, prominent leaders such as Maraba, Ibrahim Ezla, and Mar Babaei Kabir appeared on the Iranian Christian scene.
Of course, the existence of such prominent people is not the reason that the moral and spiritual weakness that we mentioned in the previous chapters has been removed. According to the peace treaty concluded between Khosrow I and the Byzantine government in 562, we know that mutual religious preaching between Zoroastrians and Christians was prohibited. This indicates that the evangelistic activities of Christians among Zoroastrians were so great that to prevent them from converting to Christianity, it was necessary to include it in a peace treaty as a political guarantee.
In this period of Iran’s history, especially since the time of Khosrow Anushirvan, the relationship between the government and the church began to improve. Even at that time, Christians were “Dhimma people”. They were considered second-class citizens and had no influence in political and social affairs except among their fellow believers. According to the law, they were never considered equal to Zoroastrian citizens. According to some documents, Christians even had to wear special clothes to distinguish themselves from Zoroastrians. It is interesting to note that this policy was followed later in the Islamic period as well.
Christians mostly formed the middle class of society, even if they became rich because of their profession. The profession of Christians was mostly civil affairs, commerce or industry. The medical profession was almost exclusively available to Christians. Few of them were big landowners. But none of the Christians were ever assigned to the military authorities. Meanwhile, leaving Zoroastrianism and converting to Christianity was considered apostasy, and according to Sasanian law, the punishment for this action was death.
The first Christian writings in Middle Persian, about which there are strong evidences, belong to the end of the fifth century AD. According to these evidences, Patriarch Akassios translated a summary of the principles of Christian beliefs from Syriac to Persian to present to the presence of Qabad I.
At the same time, Maneh Shirazi, the bishop of Rio-Ardeshir (Bushehr), composed hymns, speeches and religious texts in Persian language. The only Christian document that exists in Middle Persian is a part of the translation of the psalms found in the ruins of the Nestorian monastery located in Shuipang near the city of Bulaiq in the Turfan desert in Turkestan, China. What seems certain to this day is that the Persian language did not have a major and important place in church ceremonies and rituals during the Sasanian era, and the Syriac language has always remained the dominant language.
The proof of this claim is that the Zoroastrians who converted to Christianity and reached high positions in the church chose a Syriac name for themselves and adopted Syriac culture. Maraba is a clear example of this. However, there is no doubt that in this period of Christian history, the church started using the Persian language.
Today in the article : Ali Vahidi: A summary of the book History of Christianity in Iran (Chapter Five) We reviewed useful information about the Bible and the way of Jesus. If you wish, you can view other articles of Ali Vahidi about Christianity
