Non-Zoroastrian Women in Sasanian Court and Their Influence on Minority-Religion Policies in Iran

Authors

Assistant Professor of History, Azad University, Science and Research, Tehran

Abstract

By rising of the Sassanids, this empire attempted to create gradually a central government dominated by the integrity of religion and government, hence, despite of existence of an emerging religion such as Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism dominated in this government. Considering the attitude towards religious minorities during the Sassanid Empire, although there was some laxity during the reign of emperors such as Shapour the First, oppression and rigor was reported in certain periods of this dynasty which to some extent were provoked by Zoroastrian priests. On the other hand, based on the evidence from written historical references, despite of stressing on Zoroastrianism, the Sassanid emperors had some Jewish and Christian women in their seraglio. In the present study, it was assumed that most of these women were involved in the power. The main question was that who were these non-Zoroastrian women of the Sassanid court and did they play any role in the government’s policies towards the religious minorities of their age? To do this research, the descriptive-analytical method was used. The findings indicated that the presence of powerful non-Zoroastrian queens or the ones supporting religions other than Zoroastrianism on power top led to the improvement of the religious minorities’ situations in the Sassanid community. It seemed that these queens played an important role in improvement of the situation of their coreligionists or the followers of the religions they supported through imposing on emperors and dignitaries of the state.

Keywords

References

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