The Limits of Tolerance: Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and Others in the Sasanian Empire
Abstract
There are many reports on periodic persecution of religious groups from the 3rd century CE, until the end of the Sasanian empire in the 7th century. However, we do know that Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Manichaeans, and others lived and, at time thrived, under a Zoroastrian king. So how can one explain the relation between the state and the religious minorities that existed in late antique Iran? This paper takes issue with both those who regard the Sasanian empire as an intolerant polity bent on persecuting religious minorities, and those who believe the Sasanians allowed religious groups to expand without opposition. I would rather suggest that the Sasanian empire practiced a “rough tolerance,” in order to control the multicultural and multireligious Sasanian world.
Citation
Daryaee, Touraj. "The Limits of Tolerance: Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and Others in the Sasanian Empire," Contextualizing Iranian Religions in the Ancient World - 14th Melammu Symposium. February 20, 2020.
About the Speaker
Touraj Daryaee
University of California, Irvine
Touraj Daryaee holds the Maseeh Chair in Persian Studies and is the Director of the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of several works, including Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire (IB Tauris 2012). He serves as editor of the Oxford Handbook of Iranian History (Oxford UP 2014), and Iran and its Histories (Otto Harrassowitz 2021). He is also the series editor for the Ancient Iran Series (Brill) and as a co-editor of Sasanian Studies (Harrassowitz Verlag).