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Persecution of Zoroastrians is the religious persecution inflicted upon the followers of the
Zoroastrian faith. The persecution of Zoroastrians occurred throughout the religion's history. The
discrimination and harassment began in the form of sparse violence and forced conversions. Muslims
are recorded to have destroyed fire temples. Zoroastrians living under Muslim rule were required to
pay a tax called jizya.[1]

Zoroastrian places of worship were desecrated, fire temples were destroyed and mosques were built
in their place. Many libraries were burned and much of their cultural heritage was lost. Gradually an
increasing number of laws were passed which regulated Zoroastrian behavior and limited their ability
to participate in society. Over time, the persecution of Zoroastrians became more common and
widespread, and the number of believers decreased by force significantly.[1]

Most were forced to convert due to the systematic abuse and discrimination inflicted upon them by
followers of Islam. Once a Zoroastrian family was forced to convert to Islam, the children were sent to
an Islamic school to learn Arabic and study the teachings of Islam, as a result some of these people
lost their Zoroastrian faith. However, under the Samanids, who were Zoroastrian converts to Islam, the
Persian language flourished. On occasion, the Zoroastrian clergy assisted Muslims in attacks against
those whom they deemed Zoroastrian heretics.[1]

Persecution of Zoroastrians by Muslims[edit]

Islamic conquest[edit]
Until the Arab invasion and subsequent Muslim conquest, in the mid 7th century Persia (modern-day
Iran) was a politically independent state, spanning from Mesopotamia to the Indus River and
dominated by a Zoroastrian majority.[2][3][4] Zoroastrianism was the official state religion of four pre-
Islamic Persian empires,[5] the last being the Sassanian empire that passed a decree solidifying this in
224 CE.[3][6][6] The Arab invasion abruptly brought to an end the religious domination of
Zoroastrianism in Persia and instituted Islam as the official religion of the state.[7][8][9]

Yemen's Zoroastrians who had the jizya imposed on them after being conquered by Muhammad are
mentioned by the Islamic historian al-Baladhuri.[10]

After the Muslim conquest of Persia, Zoroastrians were given dhimmi status and subjected to
persecutions; discrimination and harassment began in the form of sparse violence.[11] Those paying
Jizya were subjected to insults and humiliation by the tax collectors.[12][13][14] Zoroastrians who were
captured as slaves in wars were given their freedom if they converted to Islam.[12]

Many fire temples, with their four axial arch openings, were usually turned into mosques simply by
setting a mihrab (prayer niche) on the place of the arch nearest to qibla (the direction of Mecca).
Zoroastrian temples converted into mosques in such a manner could be found in Bukhara, as well as
in and near Istakhr and other Persian cities.[15][full citation needed] Urban areas where Arab governors
made their quarters were most vulnerable to such religious persecution, great fire temples were turned
into mosques, and the citizens were forced to conform or flee.[16] Many libraries were burnt and much
cultural heritage was lost.[17]

Gradually there were increased number of laws regulating Zoroastrian behavior, limiting their ability to
participate in society, and made life difficult for the Zoroastrians in the hope that they would convert to
Islam.[17] Over time, persecution of Zoroastrians became more common and widespread, and the
number of believers decreased significantly. Many converted, some superficially, to escape the
systematic abuse and discrimination by the law of the land.[12] Others accepted Islam because their
employment in industrial and artisan work would, according to Zoroastrian dogma, make them impure
as their work involved defiling fire.[18] According to Thomas Walker Arnold, Muslim missionaries did
not encounter difficulty in explaining Islamic tenants to Zoroastrians, as there were many similarities
between the faiths. According to Arnold, for the Persian, he would meet Ahura Mazda and Ahriman
under the names of Allah and Iblis.[18]

Once a Zoroastrian family converted to Islam, the children had to go to Muslim religion school and
learn Arabic and the teachings of the Quran and these children lost their Zoroastrian identity.[12] These
factors continued to contribute to increasing rates of conversion from Zoroastrianism to Islam.[19] A
Persian scholar commented, "Why so many had to die or suffer? Because one side was determined to
impose his religion upon the other who could not understand."[20]

However, Sir Thomas Walker Arnold doubts the entire narrative of the forced conversions of the
Zoroastrians, citing many examples of tolerance that were shown by the Muslim overlords concluding
that "in the face of such facts, it is surely impossible to attribute the decay of Zoroastrianism to violent
conversions made by the Muslim conquerors".[21] Arnold suggests that the conversions of the former-
Zoroastrians were actually sincere citing the similarities between the two religions as a motivation for
the conversions.[22] Stepaniants also (like Arnold) declares that some historians have said that the
conversions to Islam were sincere citing the fact that Islam offered a broader door of brotherhood,
unlike the restrictive criteria of Zoroastrianism.[23] Nevertheless, Sir Thomas Arnold does acknowledge
that the persecution of Zoroastrians did take place later on.[24] Stepaniants states that the real
persecution took place during the reign of the Abbasids, and around that time was when the Parsi
exodus took place.[25]. But regardless, both Arnold and Stepaniants say that the Islam is not to blamed
(entirely, according Stepaniants alone, although she does defend Islam by stating that persecution of
Zoroastrians isn't found within the Islamic teachings) for the decline of Zoroastrianism.[26][27]
Furthermore, the population of the city of Nishapur, even after the event of conquest (despite
conversions to Islam taking place almost immediately) there still remained sizeable Zoroastrian
populations, along with the Jews and Nestorian Christians as well.[28] Fred Donner says that the
northern were hardly penetrated by the "believers" for a century or the, the Iranian nobility who reside
in that area made terms with the believers winning virtually complete autonomy over the region in
return of a tribute-tax or jizyah. Donner also acknowledges that Zoroastrians continued to exist in large
numbers even after the rise of Islam in these regions.[29]

642 to 10th century[edit]

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In the 7th century CE Persia succumbed to the invading Arabs.[9] With the death of Yazdegerd III, who
was treacherously slain in 651 after being defeated in battle, the Sassanid line came to an end and the
Zoroastrian faith, and Islam took its place as the national religion of Persia.[8]

In the following centuries, Zoroastrians faced much religious discrimination and persecution,
harassments, as well as being identified as najis (polluted) and impure to Muslims, making them unfit
to live alongside Muslims, and therefore forcing them to evacuate from cities and face major sanctions
in all spheres of life. Zoroastrians have been subject to public humiliation through dress regulations, to
being labeled as najis and to exclusion in the fields of society, education and work.[30]

Rashidun Caliphs (642–661)[edit]

Under the first four Caliphs, Persia remained predominantly Zoroastrian. Zoroastrians were awarded
the status of People of the Book or dhimmi status by the Caliph Umar, although some practices
contrary to Islam were prohibited.[17][31]

When the Persian capital of Ctesiphon in province of Khvârvarân (today known as Iraq) fell to the
Muslims during the Islamic conquest of Persia in 637 under the military command of Sa'ad ibn Abi
Waqqas during the caliphate of Umar, the palaces and their archives were burned. According to a
17th-century account cited by Georgie Zeidan, the Arab Commander Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas wrote to
Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab asking what should be done with the books at Ctesiphon. Umar wrote
back: "If the books contradict the Qur'an, they are blasphemous. On the other hand, if they are in
agreement, they are not needed, as for us Qur'an is sufficient."[32] Thus, the huge library was
destroyed and the books, the product of the generations of Persian scientists and scholars were
thrown into fire or the Euphrates.[33] However, it is doubted whether libraries where actually burned or
desecrated.[34][35] Nearly 40,000 captured Persian noblemen were taken as slaves and sold in Arabia.
The Arabs called the Persians 'Ajam' meaning foreign. The first voice of protest came from Piruz
Nahavandi, an enslaved Persian artisan, who assassinated Umar.[36] When the city of Estakhr in the
south, a Zoroastrian religious center,[37][38] put up stiff resistance against the Arab invaders, 40,000
residents were slaughtered or hanged.

The Umayyads (661–750)[edit]

The Umayyads who ruled from Syria followed the Caliphs. The Umayyads who ruled from Syria
followed the Caliphs. The persecution increased in the 8th century, during the reign of the late
Umayyad Caliphs, whose dynastic predecessors had conquered most of the last Zoroastrian state by
652.[39][40] Jizya tax was imposed upon Zoroastrians, and the official language of Persia became
Arabic instead of the local Persian.[41] In 741, the Umayyads officially decreed that non-Muslims be
excluded from governmental positions.[42].

The Iranian Muslims at this time started a new tradition, which made Islam appear as a partly Iranian
religion. They pointed out that an Iranian, Salaman-I-Farsi had a great influence on Muhammad, the
prophet. Another myth was created that Husayn, the son of the fourth Caliph had married a Sassanian
princess, named Shahr-Banu, the Lady of the Land, whose son became the fourth Muslim Imam (and
started the Shia branch of Islam).[43] The Iranian Muslims thus believed that Shia Islam was derived
from Sassanian Royalty.[43][44] These two beliefs made it easier for Zoroastrians to convert. An
instance of religious oppression is recorded when an Arab governor appointed a commissioner to
supervise the destruction of shrines throughout Iran, regardless of treaty obligations.[45] One of the
Umayyad Caliphs was quoted saying, "milk the Persians and once their milk dries, suck their blood".
[46]

Yazid-ibn-Mohalleb, a general under the Umayyads, was appointed the head of a great army to lead
the Mazandaran expedition.[47] On the way to Mazandaran, the general ordered captives to be hanged
at the two sides of the road so that the victorious Arab army pass through. The attack on Tabarestan
(present-day Mazandaran) failed, but he established his control in Gorgan.[47] By the orders of Yazid-
ibn-Mohalleb so many Persians were beheaded in Gorgan that their blood mixed with water would
energize the millstone to produce as much as one day meal for him, as he had vowed.[48][49] The
extent of his brutality represented itself by running watermills by people's blood for three days and he
fed his army with the bread made from that very bloody flour.[47] But, Tabarestan remained invincible
until the majority of Zoroastrians migrated towards India and the rest converted to Islam gradually.[47]

Although the Umayyad's were harsh when it came to defeating their Zoroastrian adversaries, claiming
responsibility for many of the atrocities towards the Zoroastrian population during warfare,[50] but they
did however offer protection and relative religious tolerance to the Zoroastrians who accepted their
authority.[51] As a matter of fact, Umar II was reported to have said in one of his letters commanding
not to "destroy a synagogue or a church or temple of fire worshippers(meaning the Zoroastrians) as
long as they have reconciled with and agreed upon with the Muslims".[52] As a matter of fact Fred
Donner says that Zoroastrians in the northern parts of Iran were hardly penetrated by the "believers"
winning virtually complete autonomy in-return for tribute-tax or jizyah.[53] As a matter of fact, Donner
goes on to say that "... Zoroastrians continued to exist in large numbers in northern and western Iran
and elsewhere for centuries after the rise of Islam, and indeed, much of the canon of Zoroastrian
religious texts was elaborated and written down during the Islamic period...".[54]

The Abbasids (752–804)[edit]

The Umayyads were followed by the Abbasid dynasty which came to power with the help of Iranian
Muslims. The persecution of Zoroastrians increased significantly under the Abbasids, temples and
sacred-fire shrines were destroyed.[55] Also during Abbasid rule, the status of Zoroastrians in Persian
lands was reduced from zimmi (or dhimmi, people who were protected by the state and generally
considered 'People of the Book') to 'kafirs' (non-believers).[55][56] As a result, Zoroastrians were not
granted the same rights and status as Jews and Christians.[56] Iranian Muslims were welcomed to the
court, but not Zoroastrians.[44] Zoroastrians were denied access to bathhouses on the grounds that
their bodies were polluted.[56]

Hardly any Zoroastrian family was able to avoid conversion to Islam when employed by the Abbasids.
[57] Because of their harshness towards unbelievers, and due to their lavish patronage of Persian
Muslims, the Abbasids proved to be deadly foes of Zoroastrianism.[58] According to Dawlatshah,
Abdollah-ibn-Tahir, an Arabicized Persian,[59] and governor of Khorasan for the Abbasid caliphs,[60]
banned publication in Persian and by his order all the Zoroastrians were forced to bring their religious
books to be thrown in the fire.[33][57] As a result, many literary works written in Pahlavi script
disappeared.[57] During the Abbasid reign the Zoroastrians, for the first time became a minority in Iran.

Nevertheless, there were many cases of toleration during the Abbasid era, particularly under the reign
of Al-Mu'tasim who flogged an imam and muezzin for destroying a fire-temple and replacing it with a
mosque.[18] As a matter of fact, Al-Mu'tasim even allowed rebuilding and the establishment of
Zoroastrian fire temples in many places within the borders of the Abbasid Caliphate.[61]. It was
reported that there were still a significant amounts of strongholds of the Zoroastrian communities in
places such as Kerman, Qom, Sistan, Fars and more that were thriving under the Abbasid regime.
This is a fact that is not only attested by European explorers of later times, but also the Muslim
historians who were present.[62]

The Saffarids (869–903)[edit]

The Abbasids were followed by the Saffarids. Zoroastrians lived under the leadership of their High
Priest, since they had no king. In Iraq, the political center of the Sassanian state, Zoroastrian
institutions were viewed as appendages of the royal government and family, and suffered much
destruction and confiscation.[56] Closely associated with the power structures of the Persian Empire,
Zoroastrian clergy quickly declined after it was deprived of the state support.[63][64]

The Samanids (819–999)[edit]

The Samanids were of Zoroastrian theocratic nobility who voluntarily converted to Sunni Islam. During
their reign, approximately 300 years after the Arab conquest, fire temples were still found in almost
every province of Persia including Khorasan, Kirman, Sijistan[18] and other areas under Samanid
control. According to Al-Shahrastani, there were fire-temples even in Baghdad at the time. The
historian Al-Masudi, a Baghdad-born Arab, who wrote a comprehensive treatise on history and
geography in about 956, records that after the conquest:

Zorastrianism, for the time being, continued to exist in many parts of Iran. Not only in countries
which came relatively late under Muslim sway (e.g., Tabaristan) but also in those regions
which early had become provinces of the Muslim empire. In almost all the Iranian provinces,
according to Al Masudi, fire temples were to be found – the Madjus he says, venerate many
fire temples in Iraq, Fars, Kirman, Sistan, Khurasan, Tabaristan, al Djibal, Azerbaijan and
Arran.

He also added Sindh and Sin of the Indian subcontinent (Al-Hind) to the list. This general statement of
al Masudi is fully supported by the medieval geographers who make mention of fire temples in most of
the Iranian towns.[1]

10th to 20th century[edit]

Migration to India[edit]

A Parsi wedding portrait, 1948

The Zoroastrians moved to India in successive migrations in the Islamic period. The initial migration
following the conquest has been characterized as a religious persecution by invading Muslims.
According to the account, the Zoroastrians suffered at their hands and in order to protect themselves
and safeguard their religion, fled first to northern Iran, then to the island of Hormuz and finally to India.
This generally accepted narrative of migration emphasises Muslim persecution while identifying Parsis
as religious refugees. Recently, scholars have questioned this explanation of Iranian origins. There is a
scarcity of sources about the migration. Historians are forced to rely exclusively on Qissa-i Sanjan
written in 1599 by a Parsi Priest and Qissah-ye Zartushtian-e Hindustan written more than 200 years
later. This is complicated by the fact that there were already Zoroastrians in India in the Sasanian
period.[65] According to the legend, at the beginning of the 10th century a small group of Zoroastrians
living around the town of Nyshapour and Fort of Sanjan in the province of (greater) Khorasan, decided
that Iran was no longer safe for Zoroastrians and their religion. The refugees accepted the conditions
and founded the settlement of Sanjan (Gujarat), which is said to have been named after the city of
their origin (Sanjan, near Merv, in present-day Turkmenistan).[66]

Iranian Zoroastrians are known to have been trading with India for centuries before the dates
calculated for arrival of Parsis per Qissa-i Sanjan. Ruksana Nanji and Homi Dhalla while discussing
archaeological evidence for 'The Landing of Zoroastrians at Sanjan', conclude that the most likely date
for the migration at the start of the middle phase of their chronology, namely the early-to-mid-eighth
century. Nevertheless, they express their general skepticism about the Qissa-i Sanjan account.[67]
Scholar Andre Wink has theorized that Zoroastrian immigrants to India, both before and after the
Muslim conquest of Iran, were primarily merchants, since evidence suggests it was only some time
after their arrival that religious experts and priests were sent for to join them. He argues that the
competition over trade routes with Muslims may also have contributed to their immigration.[65]
Although historically unsubstantiated, the story of how Zoroastrians gained permission to step on the
shores of Gujarat continues to be critical to the self-identity of the group. Per the commonly told
narrative, the Rajah of Sanjan, summoned them and demanded to know how they wouldn't be a
burden on or a threat to the indigenous communities. Replying to their request of practising their
religion and till the land, he showed them a jug full of milk, saying Sanjan like it was full. In one version,
a dastur added a coin to the milk, saying like the coin, no one would be able to see that they were
there but they would enrich the milk nonetheless. In another version, he added sugar instead and
claimed that like it, they would sweeten lands of Sanjan. In both of them their settlement is approved
by the Rajah who addresses certain conditions for it: they would explain their religion, promise not to
proselytise, adopt Gujarati speech and dress, surrender their weapons and only conduct their rituals
after nightfall.[68]

One of the dates that can be fixed with certainty is the arrival of Parsees in Navsari when a mobed
named Kamdin Zarthost arrived there in 1142 AD to perform religious ceremonies for Zoroastrians
settled there. Traditionally, the Parsee settlers had named it Navsari after Sari in Iran. However this
was considered wrong by the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency who noted that the town was
already shown in Ptolemy's map.[69]

Apart from two accounts of confrontation in the Qissa, Parsi lore presents a smooth integration into the
local culture of first their Hindu, and then Muslim neighbors.[70] The community still exists in western
India, and it currently contains the largest concentration of Zoroastrians in the world.[71] "Parsi legends
regarding their ancestors' migration to India depict a beleaguered band of religious refugees escaping
the harsh rule of fanatical Muslim invaders in order to preserve their ancient faith."[72][73] The epic
poem Qissa-i-Sanjan (Story of Sanjan) is an account of the early years of Zoroastrian settlers on the
Indian subcontinent. It is only in recent times that Parsis have become aware of the extent of the
oppression that their ancestors in Iran had to endure.[30]

The Safavids (1502–1747)[edit]

Zoroastrians had difficult time during the Safavid period and faced repeated persecution and forced
conversion.[74] Safavid kings sought to compel them to accept Shia Islam, Sunnis too were forced to
convert to Shia or were persecuted, imprisoned, exiled, or killed.[75][76][77] Zoroastrians were also
branded as impure, in addition to being infidels.[78] As earlier in the century, so this period also
witnessed sporadic campaigns for the conversion of Armenians and Zoroastrians, focusing blame for
economic and other ills on these and other minorities whose involvement in the spice export, for
example, was well known.[79]

In the early 16th century the great Safavid king, Shah Abbas I settled a number of Zoroastrians in a
suburb of his new capital, Isfahan. The suburb of Isfahan where the Zoroastrians lived was called
Gabr-Mahal, Gabristan or Gabrabad, derived from the word Gabr.[citation needed] Europeans who
visited his court left accounts of the 'Gabars' or 'Gabrs', (an insulting term used for Zoroastrians by the
Muslims[citation needed]), agree on the poverty and simplicity of their lives.[80] Fearing desecration by
Muslims, Zoroastrians hid the sacred fires, and conversed in a newly invented dialect called Dari.
[citation needed] Later Safavid kings were not as tolerant as Shah Abbas. Muhammad Baqir Majlisi
persuaded Sultan Husayn (1688–1728 CE) to decree the forcible conversion of Zoroastrians,[81] those
who refused were killed.[citation needed]
The accounts in Mino Khirad, written during the Savafid period, demonstrate that the Zoroastrians
were subjected to harassment by the Shi'ite majority, their places of worship were under a constant
threat of being destroyed.[82] By 1707, when Le Bruyn visited Isfahan, the Zoroastrians were no longer
able practice their religion freely. He notes that the most deprived Zoroastrians had been brought to
Isfahan, and had been forced to become Muslim three years earlier.[83] In 1821, Ker Porter visiting
Isfahan notes that there were hardly any Zoroastrians left in Isfahan and Gabrabad was in ruins.[citation
needed]

Qajar Dynasty (1796–1925)[edit]

A Zoroastrian family in Qajar Iran, circa 1910

A Zoroastrian astrologer named Mulla Gushtasp predicted the fall of the Zand dynasty to the Qajar
army in Kerman. Because of Gushtasp's forecast, the Zoroastrians of Kerman were spared by the
conquering army of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar. Despite the aforementioned favorable incident, the
Zoroastrians during the Qajar dynasty remained in agony and their population continued to decline.
Even during the rule of Agha Mohammad Khan, the founder of the dynasty, many Zoroastrians were
killed and some were taken as captives to Azerbaijan.[84] Zoroastrians regard the Qajar period as one
of their worst.[85]

Many foreign visitors to Iran of the time had commented on their pitiful situation.[85][86] Traveller A.V.W.
Jackson noted that Zoroastrians lived in constant fear of persecution by Muslim extremists and their
lives were in danger whenever the fanatical spirit of Islam broke out, such as the one witnessed by him
in Yazd.[87] According to Edward Browne, the wall of Zoroastrian houses had to be lower than that of
the Muslims and prohibited from marking their houses with distinctive signs.[88] Zoroastrians were
forbidden from erecting new houses and repairing old ones.[86][89]

Various methods were used to proselytize the minorities. According to a law, if any member of family
converted to Islam, he/she was entitled to all inheritance.[86][89][90] They were forbidden from taking up
lucrative occupations.[86] The community was regarded as outcast, impure and untouchable.[86] The
Zoroastrians and their food was considered impure[85][86] and many public places refused to serve
them. When they shopped in the bazaar, they were not allowed to touch any food or fruits.[77] They
were threatened with forced conversions, beaten up and fleeced,[citation needed] and their religious
sanctuaries were regularly desecrated.[86] Harassments and persecution were the norms of daily life.
[91] Zoroastrians were often attacked and beaten by Muslims in the streets.[77] The murders of
Zoroastrians were not punished.[86] At times, Zoroastrian girls were kidnapped and forcefully
converted and married to Muslims and brought to town in fanfare.[90]

Zoroastrians were subjected to public discrimination through dress regulations[85][86] – not allowed to
wear new or white clothes,[86] and compelled by enactments to wear the dull yellow raiment already
alluded to as a distinguishing badge.[14][86][89] They were not allowed to wear overcoats but were
compelled to wear long robes called qaba and cotton geeveh on their feet even in winter.[77] Wearing
eyeglasses,[85] long cloak, trousers, hat, boots,[77] socks, winding their turbans tightly and neatly,[92]
carrying watch or a ring,[93] were all forbidden to Zoroastrians. During the rainy days they were not
allowed carry umbrellas[85] or to appear in public, because the water that had run down through their
bodies and cloths could pollute the Muslims. Zoroastrian men in Yazd would carry a large shawl that
they would place under their feet when visiting a Muslim's home so as to prevent the carpet from being
polluted.[77] Forbidden from riding horses[14][86][88][89] and only allowed to ride mules or donkeys,[85]
[86] upon facing a Muslim they had to dismount.[92] Not until 1923, was the general proscription against
Zoroastrians' riding horses and donkeys lifted by Reza Shah.[94]

On top of all the misery the Zoroastrians had to pay a heavy religious tax known as Jizya.[85]
Zoroastrian sources record the method of extracting this as designed to humiliate the dhimmi, the
taxed person, who was compelled to stand while the officer receiving the money sat on a high throne.
Upon receiving the payment, the officer gave the dhimmi a blow on the neck and drove him roughly
away. The public was invited to watch the spectacle.[95] Arab tax collectors would mock Zoroastrians
for wearing Kushti and would rip it off, hanging the cord around the necks of the beleaguered faithful.
[96]Due to corruption of the tax officials, at times twice and even three times the official figure would be
collected, because every intermediary had to receive his share. If the families could not afford paying
the Jizya, their children were beaten and even tortured and their religious books were thrown in fire.
That is how the term "the bookless" came about. Under the woeful conditions, some had to convert
and there were those who declared themselves Muslims, picked up Islamic names, but in secret
continued Zoroastrian practices. Today the latter group among the Zoroastrians is known as Jaddid. In
response to persecution and segregation policies, the Zoroastrians community became closed,
introverted, and static.[85]

Zoroastrian massacres did not cease during the Qajar rule. The last two are recorded at the villages
surrounding the city of Boarzjan and Turkabad near Yazd. Today, the village of Maul Seyyed Aul near
Borazjan, among the local people is known as "killing site" (Ghatl-Gauh),[84] and Zoroastrian surnames
of Turk, Turki, Turkian and Turkabadi reflect lineage to the survivors of Turkabad. In the 1850s, Comte
de Gobineau, the French Ambassador to Iran wrote: "Only 6000 of them are left and just a miracle
may save them from extinction. These are the descendants of the people who one day ruled the
world."[97]

Due to the extent of oppression, and destitution, many Zoroastrians ventured to the hazardous journey
to India. Those who could not afford the voyage aboard the ships, risked their lives by crossing the
hostile desert on donkeys or even on foot.[33] In India, they were recognized for Sedreh and Kushti
and were sheltered by their Parsi brethren. There, they formed the second major Indian Zoroastrian
community known as the Iranis.

Emissaries to Iran[edit]

When the news of their plight reached the Parsis, who by this time had become quite prosperous,
Parsi funds were set up to help the Iranian Zoroastrians and emissaries were dispatched to Iran.[33] A
Parsi philanthropist, Maneckji Limji Hataria, was sent to help them. He found only 7711 Zoroastrians in
Kerman, Yazd and Tehran (now the capital of Iran). Using his influence with the British government he
managed to get some of the repression against Zoroastrians removed. Jizya was paid by the
Zoroastrian minority until 1882,[98] when it was removed by pressure on the Qajar government from
the Persian Zoroastrian Amelioration Fund.[99]

The Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe (ZTFE), also attempted to alleviate the conditions of their
Iranian brethren. Both Dadabhai Naoroji and Mancherjee Bhownagree, as presidents of the ZTFE and
Members of Parliament addressed the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on the issue of the
persecution of Zoroastrians in Iran. On the six occasions, Shah Naser al-Din Shah Qajar visited
London; Parsi delegations from the ZTFE were present to advocate for their Iranian co-religionists
suffering the intense persecution of the Qajar dynasty.[100]

Islamic Republic of Iran (1979-Present)[edit]

The 1979 Islamic Revolution was equally traumatic for the remaining Zoroastrians, and their numbers
reduced drastically.[101][102] Immediately after the revolution, during Bazargan's premiership, Muslim
revolutionaries "walked into the main Zoroastrian fire temple in Tehran and removed the portrait of the
Prophet Zoroaster and replaced it with one of [Ayatollah] Khomeini".[103]

The Iranian government is regarded by the United Nations and other non-governmental organizations
as among the world's worst offenders against freedom of religion —alongside Saudi Arabia and
Sudan. Members of religious minorities are, by law and practice, barred from being elected to a
representative body (except to the seats in the Majles reserved for minorities, as provided for in the
Constitution) and from holding senior government or military positions. They also suffer discrimination
in the legal system, receiving lower awards in injury and death lawsuits, and incurring heavier
punishments, than Muslims. Muslim men are free to marry non-Muslim women but marriages between
Muslim women and non-Muslim men are not recognized.[104][105]

Persecution of minority Zoroastrian groups by other

Zoroastrians[edit]
Mazdakism was viewed by the Zoroastrian hierarchy as a heresy and its followers were persecuted by
Zoroastrian Sassanian leaders. The Sassanian ruler Khosrau I launched a campaign against the
Mazdakis in 524 or 528, culminating in a massacre which killed most of them, including Mazdak
himself and restored orthodox Zoroastrianism as the state religion.[106]

Various accounts specify the way of death: e.g. the Shahnameh states that the three thousand
Mazdakis were buried alive with the feet upwards in order to present Mazdak with the spectacle of a
"human garden", whereas Mazdak himself was hanged upside down and shot with countless arrows;
other stories specify other torturous methods of execution. In any case, Anushiravan then proceeded
to implement his own far-reaching social and administrative reforms.[107] Mazdakism almost
disappeared after the massacre.[108] Later, there were instances in which Zoroastrian clergy were
assisted by Muslims against Zoroastrians whom the Zoroastrian clergy considered to be heretics or
separatists.[1]

Persecution of Zoroastrians by Christians[edit]

According to Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians living under Christian rule in Asia Minor were noted to have
undergone hardship,[109] notably during the long conflict between the Roman Empire and Persia.
Christians living in Sassanian-held territory were noted to have destroyed many fire-temples and
Zoroastrian places of worship.[110] Christian priests deliberately extinguished the sacred fire of the
Zoroastrians and characterized adherents as "followers of the wicked Zardusht (Zoroaster), serving
false gods and the natural elements."[110]

See also[edit]
Parsis of India
Iranis of India
Qissa-i Sanjan (Story of Sanjan)
Conversion of non-Muslim places of worship into mosques
History of Bukhara

References[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Houtsma 1936, p. 100, Volume 2
2. ^ Lapidus 2002, p. 6
3. ^ Jump up to: a b Khanbaghi 2006, p. 6
4. ^ Khanbaghi 2006, p. 15
5. ^ Sanasarian 2000, p. 48
6. ^ Jump up to: a b Stepaniants 2002, p. 1
7. ^ Khanbaghi 2006, p. 17
8. ^ Jump up to: a b Jackson 1906, p. 27
9. ^ Jump up to: a b Bleeker & Widengren 1971, p. 212
10. ^ Lecker, Michael (January 1998). Jews and Arabs in pre-Islamic Arabia. p. 20.
ISBN 9780860787846.
11. ^ Stepaniants 2002, p. 163
12. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Boyce 2001, p. 148
13. ^ Lambton 1981, p. 205
14. ^ Jump up to: a b c Meri & Bacharach 2006, p. 878
15. ^ Hillenbrand
16. ^ Boyce 2001, p. 147
17. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Under Persian rule". BBC. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
18. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Arnold 1896, pp. 170–180
19. ^ Choksy 1987, pp. 28–30
20. ^ Shojaeddin Shaffa, p. 443
21. ^ Arnold 1896,The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith, pp. 177-
180
22. ^ ibid
23. ^ Marietta Stepaniants, Philosophy East and West Vol. 52, No. 2 (Apr., 2002), pp. 164-165
24. ^ Arnold 1896,The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith, pp. 179
25. ^ Marietta Stepaniants, Philosophy East and West Vol. 52, No. 2 (Apr., 2002), pp. 163
26. ^ Marietta Stepaniants, Philosophy East and West Vol. 52, No. 2 (Apr., 2002), pp. 159
27. ^ Arnold 1896,The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith, pp. 177-
180
28. ^ Bulliet 1972, The Patricians of Nishapur, pp. 15
29. ^ Donner 2010, Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, pages 110–111
30. ^ Jump up to: a b Hinnells 1996, p. 303
31. ^ Gordon 2005, p. 28
32. ^ Zeidan, pp. 42–47
33. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Dr. Rustom Kevala. "Religion After the Fall of the Sassanians". ZAMWI.
Archived from the original on 7 February 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2009.
34. ^ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1990/09/27/the-vanished-library-2/
35. ^ Fred M Donner, Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, pp. 110–111
36. ^ Gordon 2005, p. 30
37. ^ Boyce 1975, pp. 95–99
38. ^ "Estakr, a Zoroastrian religious centre". Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved 20 October 2009.
39. ^ Hinnells 1996, p. 3
40. ^ Boyce 2001, p. 145
41. ^ Spuler 1994, p. 41
42. ^ Khanbaghi 2006, p. 19
43. ^ Jump up to: a b Boyce 2001, p. 151
44. ^ Jump up to: a b "History of Zoroastrians in Islamic Iran". FEZANA Religious Education. Archived
from the original on 5 May 2008. Retrieved 20 October 2009.
45. ^ Boyce 2001, p. 150
46. ^ al-Tabari, p. 171, quoting Soleiman ibn-e Abdolmaleck
47. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Tabarestan Remains Invincible". Iranian History. Retrieved 20 October 2009.
48. ^ Dr. Daryush Jahanian. "The History of Zoroastrians After Arab Invasion". European Centre for
Zoroastrian Studies. Archived from the original on 14 April 2009. Retrieved 20 October 2009.
49. ^ Ibn Esfandiar 1941, p. 120
50. ^ Marietta Stepaniants, Philosophy East and West Vol. 52, No. 2 (Apr., 2002), pp. 163
51. ^ ibid
52. ^ Recorded by Ibn Abu Shayba in Al-Musanaf and Abu 'Ubaid Ibn Sallam in his book Al-Amwal,
pp.123
53. ^ Fred M Donner,Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam,(May 2010), pp. 110-111
54. ^ ibid
55. ^ Jump up to: a b Stepaniants 2002, p. 166
56. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Berkey 2003, p. 100
57. ^ Jump up to: a b c Khanbaghi 2006, p. 29
58. ^ Boyce 2001, p. 152
59. ^ "IRAN ii. IRANIAN HISTORY (2) Islamic period – Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org.
Retrieved 23 September 2014.
60. ^ "Abdollah ibn Tahir". Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved 20 October 2009.
61. ^ The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism, eds. M. Stausberg & Y. S.-D. Vevaina, 2015,
pp. 110
62. ^ ibid
63. ^ Lewis 1984, p. 17
64. ^ Stillman 1979, p. 27
65. ^ Jump up to: a b Ringer 3011, pp. 25–26
66. ^ Hodivala 1920, p. 88
67. ^ Williams 2009, pp. 205–206
68. ^ Becci 2013, p. 75
69. ^ Paymaster 1954, p. 19
70. ^ Rose 2011, p. 194
71. ^ Writer 1989, p. 130
72. ^ Maneck 1997, p. 15
73. ^ Paymaster 1954, pp. 2–3
74. ^ Price 2005, p. 73
75. ^ The Cambridge illustrated history of the Islamic world. Francis Robinson, p. 72.
 76. ^ Iraq: Old Land, New Nation in Conflict. William Spencer, p. 51.
77. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Ramazani 2002, p. 40
78. ^ Abisaab 2004, p. 104
79. ^ Newman 2006, p. 106
80. ^ Bleeker & Widengren 1971, p. 213
81. ^ Lapidus 2002, p. 243
82. ^ Khanbaghi 2006, p. 100
83. ^ Khanbaghi 2006, p. 101
84. ^ Jump up to: a b Shahmardan, p. 125
85. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Price 2005, p. 111
86. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m Selbie 1914, p. 150
87. ^ Jackson 1906, p. 376
88. ^ Jump up to: a b Lambton 1981, p. 207
89. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Karaka 1884, p. 78
90. ^ Jump up to: a b Browne 1893, p. 372
91. ^ Browne 1893, p. 371
92. ^ Jump up to: a b Browne 1893, p. 370
93. ^ Jackson 1906, p. 377
94. ^ Ramazani 2002, p. 41
95. ^ Ramazani 2002, pp. 38–39
96. ^ Ramazani 2002, p. 38
97. ^ Comte de Gobineau 1869
98. ^ Sanasarian 2000, p. 49
99. ^ "The Zoroastrians who remained in Persia (modern Iran) after the Arab–Muslim conquest (7th
century CE) had a long history as outcasts. Although they purchased some toleration by paying
the jizya (poll tax), not abolished until 1882, they were treated as an inferior race, had to wear
distinctive garb, and were not allowed to ride horses or bear arms."Gabars, Encyclopædia
Britannica. 2007. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 29 May 2007.
100. ^ Ballard, Roger (1994). Desh Pardesh: The South Asian Presence in Britain.
ISBN 9781850650928.
101. ^ Sanasarian 2000
102. ^ Amighi 1990
103. ^ Fischer 2003, p. 229
104. ^ U.S. Department of State, Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, Released by the
Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Washington, DC, 5 September 2000.
105. ^ Boyle & Sheen 1997
106. ^ Wherry 1896, p. 66
107. ^ Yarshater, p. 1022
108. ^ Houtsma 1936, p. 432, Volume 2
109. ^ Boyce 2001, p. 119
110. ^ Jump up to: a b Nigosian 1993, p. 37

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