Mazdak
Mazdak | |
---|---|
مزدک | |
Execution | |
Nationality | Iranian |
Citizenship | Sasanian Empire |
Occupation | Mobad |
Years active | c. 480s - 520s |
Known for | Mazdakism |
Religion | Zoroastrianism |
Mazdak (
Mazdakism
Mazdak was the chief representative of a religious and philosophical teaching called
Origins
Some sources claim that the original founders of this sect lived earlier than Mazdak. These were another mobad, Zaradust-e Khuragen[5] (distinct from the founder of Zoroastrianism, Zoroaster, Middle Persian Zardusht) and/or a Zoroastrian philosopher known as Mazdak the Elder, who taught a combination of altruism and hedonism: "he directed his followers to enjoy the pleasures of life and satisfy their appetite in the highest degree with regard to eating and drinking in the spirit of equality, to aim at good deeds; to abstain from shedding blood and inflicting harm on others; and to practise hospitality without reservation".[1] This doctrine was further developed by the much better-known Mazdak the Younger, son of Bāmdād.
At later stages the conservative Zoroastrian opposition accused Mazdak's followers of heresy and with abhorrent practices such as the sharing of women, for which scholars have found no evidence. Mazdak's followers are considered to be the first real socialists in human history by their emphasis on community property and community work with benefits accruing to all.[6][7]
Theological tenets
Like both Zoroastrianism (at least as practised at the time) and
In addition, Mazdakism is reported, in one late work, to have distinguished three elements (Fire, Water, Earth), and four Powers (Discernment, Understanding, Preservation and Joy), corresponding to the four chief officials of the Sassanid state – the Chief Mobad (Mobadan Mobad), the Chief Herbad, the Commander of the Army and the Entertainment Master), seven Viziers and twelve Spiritual Forces. When the Four, the Seven and the Twelve were united in a human being, he was no longer subject to religious duties.[clarification needed] In addition, God was believed to rule the world through letters, which held the key to the Great Secret that should be learned. This description suggests that Mazdakism was, in many ways, a typical Gnostic sect.[8]
Ethical and social principles
Two distinguishing factors of Mazdak's teaching were the reduction of the importance of religious formalities—the true religious person being the one who understood and related correctly to the principles of the universe—and a criticism of the strong position of mainstream clergy, who, he believed, had oppressed the Persian population and caused much poverty.
Mazdak emphasised good conduct, which involved a moral and ascetic life, no killing and vegetarianism (considering meat to contain substances derived solely from Darkness), being kind and friendly and living in peace with other people. In many ways Mazdak's teaching can be understood as a call for social revolution, and has been referred to as early "communism".[7]
According to Mazdak, God had originally placed the means of subsistence on earth so that people should divide them among themselves equally, but the strong had coerced the weak, seeking domination and causing the contemporary inequality. This in turn empowered the "Five Demons" that turned men from Righteousness—these were Envy, Wrath, Vengeance, Need and Greed. To prevail over these evils, justice had to be restored and everybody should share excess possessions with his fellow men. Mazdak allegedly planned to achieve this by making all wealth common or by re-distributing the excess,
Followers
Mazdak's teaching acquired many followers, to the point when even King
With the King's backing Mazdak could embark on a program of social reform, which involved pacifism, anti-clericalism and aid programs for helping the poor. Mazdak had government warehouses opened to help the poor. He also had all the Zoroastrian fire temples closed except the three major ones.
Opposition to and purge of Mazdak's adherents
Fear among the
Jewish tradition
A Jewish tradition relates a slightly different story. The
Historicity
The
Legacy
A few Mazdakites survived and settled in remote areas. Small pockets of Mazdakite societies are said to have survived for centuries after the Muslim conquest of Persia. Their doctrines probably mixed with radical currents of Shia Islam, influencing them and giving rise to later powerful revolutionary-religious movements in the region. The cult of al-Muqanna‘, who claimed to be the incarnation of God and had followers among the Mubaiyyidah sect of Zoroastrianism and even some Turks, upheld the laws and institutes of Mazdak.[18] In the 9th century, the Khurramites, an egalitarian religious sect possibly originating from Mazdakism, led a revolt under the leadership of Babak Khorramdin against the Abbasid Caliphate and successfully defended large territories against the Caliphate's forces for some twenty years.[19] The Batiniyya, Qarmatians and other later revolutionary currents of Islam may also be connected to Mazdakism and were often equated with it by contemporary authors.[20]
Turkish scholar
The author of the Dabestan-e Mazaheb, writing as late as the 17th century, claims to have met individual adherents of Mazdakism who practised their religion secretly among the Muslims and preserved the Desnad, a book in Middle Persian containing the teachings of Mazdak.[23][24]
Philosopher and poet Muhammad Iqbal, who inspired the Pakistan Movement in British India, termed Karl Marx as the modern reincarnation of Mazdakite thought.[25] In the poem Ibless ki Majlis-e-Shura, he drew similarities between Marxism and Mazadak thought of redistribution of excess, reduction of the importance of religious formality, emancipation of love and social revolution. Iqbal describes Karl Marx as reincarnation of the soul of Mazdak. These views penned in 1936, when Russian Revolution was still fledgling, remained skeptical if Mazdakite logic of Marxism was the solution of problems of the poor and the downtrodden. Iqbal devotes a chapter on Mazdak in his PhD thesis with Munich University on The Development of Metaphysics in Persia.
See also
- List of Persian figures in the Sasanian era
- Mandaeism
- Proto-Indo-Iranian religion
- Yazdânism
Notes
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-24693-4.
- ^ a b Shaki, Mansour. 1985. The cosmogonical and cosmological teachings of Mazdak. Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce, Acta Iranica 25, Leiden, 1985, pp. 527–43.
- .
- ^ Shaki, Mansour (1978). "The social doctrine of Mazdak in the light of middle Persian evidence". Archiv Orientální. 46 (4): 289–306.
- ISBN 978-0-19-512558-0.
- OCLC 1159025.
- ^ a b c Wherry, Rev. E. M. (1882). A Comprehensive Commentary on the Quran comprising Sale's translation and Preliminary Discourse. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. p. 66.
- ^ Yarshater 1983, pp. 1007–1008
- ^ Crone, Patricia (1991). "Kavad's Heresy and Mazdak's Revolt" (PDF). Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies. 29: 21–40. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-11-02. Retrieved 2013-01-02.
- ^ a b Yarshater 1983, pp. 999–1000
- ISBN 978-0-521-59185-0.
- ^ Khanam, R. 2005. Encyclopaedic ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia: A–I: Volume 1. P.441
- ^ Yarshater 1983, p. 994
- ^ Yarshater 1983, p. 1022
- ^ "Babylonia", Encyclopaedia Judaica
- ^ Shahbazi 2005.
- ^ a b c d e f Shayegan 2017, p. 809.
- ^ Al-Bīrūnī: Father of Comparative Religion
- ^ Yarshater 1983, pp. 1003–1004
- ^ Yarshater 1983, pp. 1022–1023
- Kizil-Bash", Online Edition 2005
- ^ Morgan David. 2007. The Mongols. p. 145
- ^ M.N. Dhalla: History of Zoroastrianism (1938), part 5.
- ^ Dabestan-e Mazaheb
- ^ Armaghan-e-Hijaz, see poem "The Devil's Conference, p12 Lahore (1941)
References
- L. Eichenberger: "Communist, Heretic, Rebell. Mazdak and the History of Religion" In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft 28, 2020, p. 237-258. Online
- H. Börm: Prokop und die Perser. Untersuchungen zu den römisch-sasanidischen Kontakten in der ausgehenden Spätantike. Stuttgart 2007, p. 230–233.
- A. Christensen: Le règne du roi Kawadh et le communisme Mazdakite. Kopenhagen 1925.
- P. Crone: "Kavad’s heresy and Mazdak’s revolt". In: Iran 29, 1991, p. 21–42.
- H. Gaube: "'Mazdak: Historical reality or invention?" In: Studia Iranica 11, 1982, pp. 111–122.
- G. Gnoli: "Nuovi studi sul Mazdakismo". In: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Hrsg.), La Persia e Bisanzio [Atti dei convegni Lincei 201]. Rom 2004, pp. 439–456.
- Z. Rubin: "Mass Movements in Late Antiquity". In: I. Malkin/Z. Rubinsohn (Hrsg.), Leaders and Masses in the Roman World. Studies in Honor of Zvi Yavetz. Leiden/New York 1995, pp. 187–191.
- W. Sundermann: "Neue Erkenntnisse über die mazdakitische Soziallehre". In: Das Altertum 34, 3, 1988, pp. 183–188.
- Josef Wiesehöfer: Kawad, Khusro I and the Mazdakites. A new proposal. In: P. Gignoux u. a. (Hrsg.): Trésors d'Orient. Paris 2009, pp. 391–409.
- Yarshater, Ehsan (1983). "Mazdakism". Cambridge History of Iran: The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Vol. 2. Cambridge. pp. 991–1024.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Shahbazi, A. Shapur (2005). "Sasanian dynasty". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition.
- Shayegan, M. Rahim (2017). "Sasanian political ideology". In Potts, Daniel T. (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran. Oxford University Press. pp. 1–1021. ISBN 9780190668662.