Persecution of Zoroastrians

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Zoroastrians have faced much religious discrimination including forced conversions, harassments, as well as being identified as najis and impure to Muslims, making them unfit to live alongside Muslims therefore forcing them to evacuate from cities and face major sanctions in all senses. These persistent persecutions have overall resulted in the ruling class Zoroastrian community which had much influence over the pre-Islamic era Persian empires to become one of the smallest religious minorities in the world.

Persecution of Zoroastrians have mainly taken place in their own homeland Persia, modern day Iran.[1] The history of persecution of Zoroastrians started from the Arab conquest of Persia and fall of the Sassanid Empire.

Contents

[edit] Economical penalties

The Zoroastrian community has faced many different types of economic penalties often varied under different ruling dynasties.

[edit] Jizya

Maneckji Limji Hataria
Maneckji Limji Hataria
Main article: Jizya

In the Sassanid Persian empire before the Arab conquest Zoroastrianism was the state religion and therefore Zoroastrians faced little or no persecution. However after the fall of the Sassanid empire, Zoroastrians soon faced persecution through different ways which also started the decline of Zoroastrianism through gradual conversions of Persians to Islam.

After the Arab conquest of Persia, the Arabs took over the Sassanian tax-system and introduced the new Jizya which was a special tax for the non-muslims (unbelievers).[2]

“ "If a province or people recieve you, make an agreement with them and keep your promise. Let them be governed by their laws and established customs, and take tribute from them as is agreed between you. Leave them in their religion and their land."[3]
Caliph Abu Bakr		 ”

The jizya was finally abolished in 1882 over 1200 years later after it was first used on Zoroastrians in Iran. This came about after much efforts by Maneckji Limji Hataria who was sent by the Society for the Amelioration of the Conditions of the Zoroastrians in Persia which was established in 1850s in Bombay by son of an Iranian-Parsi couple.[2]

[edit] Migrations

In order to escape religious discrimination and save their religion and culture, there have been at least two major wave of migration of Persian Zoroastrians from their original home land, Persia (modern day Iran) to India.

The first major wave of migration of Zoroastrian Persians from Iran was in the seventh century. The migration by founding fathers of the current Parsi community in India, took place from Khorasan. They travelled to the port of Hormuzd on the Persian Gulf where according to Parsi traditions they travelled to island of Div (Diu) near the coast of Kathiawar, where they stayed for 19 years before going to Gujarat where major Parsi communities are found today.[2]

[edit] Qissa-i Sanjan

Main article: Qissa-i Sanjan

According to the Qissa-i Sanjan "Story of Sanjan", the only existing account of the early years of Zoroastrian refugees in India and composed at least six centuries after the tentative date of arrival, the immigrants originated from Khorasan. After arrival, they were granted asylum by the local ruler Jadi Rana on the condition that:

  1. They adopt the local language (Gujarati)
  2. Their women adopt local dress (the Sari)
  3. They henceforth cease to bear arms.[4]

The refugees accepted the conditions and founded the settlement of Sanjan, which is said to have been named after the city of their origin (Sanjan, near Merv, in present-day Turkmenistan). In addition to the Khorasanis or Kohistanis (mountain folk, as the Sanjan group was initially called), other groups also migrated to India, at least one of which is known to have come overland from Sari (in present-day Mazandaran, Iran). This latter group would subsequently found the Indian city of Navsari[citation needed].

Although the Sanjan group are believed to have been the first permanent settlers, the precise date of their arrival is a matter of conjecture. All estimates are based on the Qissa, which is vague or contradictory with respect to some elapsed periods. Consequently, three possible dates - 936 CE, 765 CE and 716 CE - have been proposed as the year of landing, and the disagreement has been the cause of "many an intense battle ... amongst Parsis".[5]

[edit] Mongol invasion

The Mongol invasion of Persia was devastating for all communities as the death toll was huge. Number of books including every copy of the Sassanian Avesta were destroyed. Most major fire temples were most probably demolished at that time. Main cities that escaped the worst of the destruction were those around oasis cities of Pars including Yazd and Kerman where even today the major Iranian Zoroastrian communities are found.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Malcolm Minoo Deboo (2002), Seth Maneckji Limji Hataria: The Martin Luther King of Zoroastrianism & The Struggle for Zoroastrian Civil Rights in Iran
  2. ^ a b c d Mary Boyce, "Zoroastrians, Their Religious Beliefs and Practices": Under the Caliphs (2001)
  3. ^ Tritton, A.R, The Caliphs and their non-Muslim Subjects: a Critical Study of the Covenant of Umar (1930). cit. 137
  4. ^ Shahpurshah Hormasji Hodivala, Studies in Parsi History (Bombay, 1920, pp. 94-117.)
  5. ^ S. Taraporevala, Zoroastrians of India (Parsis: A Photographic Journey), (2000).
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