Contribution to Book
Minority Religions in the Sasanian Empire: Suppression, Integration and Relations with Rome
Sasanian Persia: Between Rome and the Steppes of Eurasia
(2017)
Abstract
Gauging the importance of religion to the exercise of political will in
the Sasanian world requires enormous care. It is all too easy to take
the Great Kings at their word as they championed the doctrines of
Zoroastrianism in their political pronouncements, especially as some
of them also persecuted Christianity. Whether or not such sentiments
were genuine, a closer analysis of the evidence suggests a more pragmatic
royal use of religion. The political realities on the ground
were more often the deciding factor in how the kings related to the
religious sectors of Sasanian society. This state of affairs sometimes
set the kings against the Zoroastrian clerics, whose agendas were
not always in alignment, and it explains why Christian persecutions
were usually motivated more by politics than doctrine. Moreover,
this dynamic also explains the prominence of the Christian church in
the later Sasanian period as kings employed it as a base of support,
much as they had the Zoroastrian hierarchy.
Keywords
- Sasanian Empire,
- Rome,
- Religion
Disciplines
Publication Date
2017
Editor
Eberhard Sauer
Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Citation Information
Lee E. Patterson. "Minority Religions in the Sasanian Empire: Suppression, Integration and Relations with Rome" EdinburghSasanian Persia: Between Rome and the Steppes of Eurasia (2017) p. 181 - 198 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/lee_patterson/12/