View source for Mazdakism

{{Short description|Ancient Iranian religion}}
{{Distinguish|Mazdaism}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Use shortened footnotes|date=September 2022}}
{{Zoroastrianism sidebar|expanded=History and culture}}

'''Mazdakism''' ([[Persian language|Persian]]: مزدکیه, romanized: mazdakīye) was an [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] religion, which was an offshoot of [[Zoroastrianism]].

The religion was founded in the early [[Sasanian Empire]] by [[Zaradust-e Khuragen]], a Zoroastrian [[mobad]] who was a contemporary of [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]] (d. 274).{{sfn|Crone|2012|p=22}} However, it is named after its most prominent advocate, [[Mazdak]], who was a powerful and controversial figure during the reign of Emperor [[Kavad I]] ({{reign|498|531}}),{{sfn|Daryaee|2014|pp=26-29}} until he was killed by Emperor [[Khusrau I]] ({{reign|531|579}}).{{sfn|Crone|1991|p=21}}

== Theology ==
{{See also|Religions influences on Zoroastrianism}}
Mazdakism was a [[dualism in cosmology|dualistic religion]] that emerged from Zoroastrian thought, teaching about principles of light and darkness, the mixture of which were said to have created the world.{{sfn|Crone|1991|p=27}} Mazdakites believed it was their duty to defeat the darkness and evil in the world.{{sfn|Crone|1991|pp=27-28}} 

Zaradust and Mazdak may have been influenced by [[Manichaeanism]], [[Gnosticism]], or [[Platonism]]; however, unlike many Manichaean or Gnostic sects, they eschewed asceticism and did not teach that the world or matter were evil or needed to be renounced.{{sfn|Crone|1991|p=27}} 

== Ethics ==
Mazdakism opposed war, and also opposed the eating of meat, except for potentially when an animal was already nearing its death of natural causes.{{sfn|Crone|1991|p=26}} During the period in which Kavad II was influenced by Zaradust's ideas, he tried to refrain from war and was lenient to his subjects, even enemies.{{sfn|Crone|1991|p=26}} However, Mazdak's followers did believe that it was permissible to use violence when in revolt against their enemies.{{sfn|Crone|1991|p=26}}

The movement also believed in [[religious communism|the holding of all things in common]] to reduce greed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Daryaee |first=Touraj |date=2022-11-03 |title=Mazdak and Late Antique ‘Socialism’ |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-socialism/mazdak-and-late-antique-socialism/983BB62BC084EB99AFFC28F60C8F2C5B |access-date=2024-07-24 |website=www.cambridge.org/core/ |quote="According to sources in Middle Persian of the late Sasanian Empire (AD 224–651), Mazdak promoted the sharing of women and property."}}</ref> This extended not just to property, but also to the communal sharing of women.{{sfn|Daryaee|2022}} Historical accounts differ on whether this belief amounted an intent to entirely abolish private property and marriage, or whether Mazdak simply intended to redistribute property from the wealthy to the poor and end the practice of [[polygamy]].{{sfn|Crone|1991|pp=26-27}} 

== See also ==
* [[List of Zoroastrianism sects]]

== Citations  ==
{{reflist|25em}}

== Cited sources ==
*{{cite book|last=Crone|first=Patricia | author-link = Patricia Crone |title=The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran: Rural Revolt and Local Zoroastrianism|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2012|isbn=9781139510769|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7k0hAwAAQBAJ&q=false|pages= 1–543}}
*{{cite journal | last = Crone | first = Patricia | title = Kavād’s Heresy and Mazdak’s Revolt | journal = Iran | volume = 29 | year = 1991 | pp=21–42 | url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/4299846 | doi = 10.2307/4299846 | jstor = 4299846| access-date = 29 March 2025| url-access = subscription }}
* {{cite book | title = Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire | year = 2014 | publisher = I.B.Tauris | last = Daryaee| first = Touraj | author-link = Touraj Daryaee | pages = 1–240 | isbn = 978-0857716668 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LU0BAwAAQBAJ }}
*{{cite book|last=Kreyenbroek|first=Philip G.| author-link = Philip G. Kreyenbroek | year=2012|chapter=IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (1) Pre-Islamic|title=Encyclopaedia Iranica|chapter-url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-ix1-religions-in-iran-pre-islamic|volume=XIII/4|pages=432–439|access-date=14 December 2021}}
*{{cite book |last1=Yarshater |first1=Ehsan | author-link = Ehsan Yarshater |title=Cambridge history of Iran The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods |date=1983 |publisher=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-24693-4}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book | title = Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices | year = 2001 | publisher = Psychology Press | last = Boyce | first = Mary | author-link = Mary Boyce | pages = 1–252 | isbn = 9780415239028 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=a6gbxVfjtUEC&q=false }}
* {{cite journal|first=L.|last=Eichenberger|title=Communist, Heretic, Rebel. Mazdak and the History of Religion|journal=Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft|volume=28|issue=2|year=2020|pages=237–258|doi=10.1515/zfr-2019-0029 |s2cid=226223689 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/zfr/28/2/article-p237.xml?tab_body=abstract|url-access=subscription}}
* {{citation|last=Frye|first=R. N.|title=The political history of Iran under the Sasanians|chapter=Chapter 4|series=[[The Cambridge History of Iran]]|volume=3|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1983|isbn=978-0-521-20092-9 | issue=1}}
* {{cite book | title = The History of Ancient Iran | year = 1984 | publisher = C.H.Beck | last = Frye | first = Richard Nelson | author-link = Richard Nelson Frye | pages = 1–411 | isbn = 9783406093975 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0y1jeSqbHLwC&q=false }}

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[[Category:Iranian religions]]
[[Category:Religion in Iran]]
[[Category:Religion in the Sasanian Empire]]
[[Category:Religions that require vegetarianism]]
[[Category:Zoroastrianism]]
[[Category:Zoroastrianism sects]]