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Persecution of Zoroastrians was the religious persecution inflicted upon the followers of the Zoroastrian faith. The persecution of Zoroastrians occurred throughout its history. The discrimination and harassment began in the form of sparse violence and forced conversions. Both Muslims^[1] and Christians^[2] are recorded to have destroyed fire temples. Zoroastrians living under Muslim rule were required to pay a tax called Jizya.^[3]

Zoroastrian places of worship were desecrated, fire temples were destroyed and mosques built in their place. Many libraries were burned and much cultural heritage was lost. Gradually there were increased number of laws regulating Zoroastrian behavior, limiting their ability to participate in society. Over time, persecution of Zoroastrians became more common and widespread, and the number of believers decreased significantly.^[3]

Many converted, some superficially, to escape the systematic abuse and discrimination by the law of the land. Once a Zoroastrian family converted to Islam, the children had to go to Islamic school and learn Arabic and the teachings of the Quran and these children lost their Zoroastrian identity, although under the Samanids, who were Zoroastrian converts to Islam, the Persian language flourished. On occasion, the Zoroastrian clergy assisted Muslims against who they deemed as Zoroastrian heretics.^[3]

At other times, Zoroastrians persecuted other Zoroastrians, in what were deemed heretical Zoroastrian sects. According to Hinnells, persecution is pivotal to Zoroastrians' sense of identity, and as the Jewish communities cannot be understood without an appreciation of the reality of anti-Semitism, so too the Zoroastrian experience of exclusion must be taken into account.^[4]

Persecution of Zoroastrians by Muslims[link]

Arab Invasion[link]

Until the Arab invasion, in the mid 7th century Persia (modern-day Iran) was a politically independent state, spanning from the Aegean Sea to the Indus River^[5] and dominated by a Zoroastrian majority.^[5][6][7][8] Zoroastrianism was the state religion of four pre-Islamic Persian empires,^[9] the last being the Sassanian empire that passed a decree in 224 CE.^[7][10] .^[10] The Arab invasion brought abrutly to an end the religious domination of Zoroastrianism in Persia and instituted Islam as the official religion of the state.^[11][12][13] When asked by Yazdegerd, about the reasons for the unwarranted Arab aggression against Persians, an Arab soldier replied, "Allah commanded us, by the mouth of His Prophet, to extend the dominion of Islam over all nations." ^[14]

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 and forced conversions.^[5][15][16] Zoroastrians were made to pay an extra tax called Jizya, failing which they were either killed, enslaved or imprisoned. Those paying Jizya were subjected to insults and humiliation by the tax collectors.^[17][18][19] Zoroastrians who were captured as slaves in wars were given their freedom if they converted to Islam.^[17][20]

Zoroastrian places of worship were desecrated, fire temples were destroyed^[16] and mosques built in their place.^[21] 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.^[1] Urban cities 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.^[22] Many libraries were burnt and much cultural heritage was lost.^[23]

Gradually there were increased number of laws regulating Zoroastrian behavior, limiting their ability to participate in society, and make life difficult for the Zoroastrians in the hope that they would convert to Islam.^[23] Any political, military, or economic resistance by Zoroastrians was unfeasible or violently suppressed by the government.^[20][24][25]

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.^[17] 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.^[26] 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.^[26]

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.^[17] Those who had converted just for the convenience could not revert back to Zoroastrianism because the penalty for renouncing Islam was death.^[20] These factors continued to contribute to increasing rates of conversion from Zoroastrianism to Islam.^[27] 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."^[28] The contempt for the Arabs that brought forth Islam on to the Persian populace was famously captured in the following verse from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Iran's national epic:^[29]

Damn this world, damn this time, damn this fate,
That uncivilized Arabs have come to make me Muslim.

642 CE to 10th Century[link]

In the 7th century CE Persia succumbed to the invading Arabs.^[13] With the death of Yazdegerd III, who was treacherously slain in that year after being defeated in battle, the Sasanid line came to an end and the Zoroastrian faith, which had been the state religion for more than a thousand years, was deposed, and Islam took its place as the national religion of Persia.^[12]

In the following centuries, Zoroastrians faced much religious discrimination and persecution, including forced conversions, harassments, as well as being identified as najis (polluted) and impure to Muslims, making them unfit to live alongside Muslims 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.^[4]

The Caliphs (642–661 CE)[link]

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.^[23][30] Before this took place, however, thousands of Zoroastrian priests were executed, hundreds of temples destroyed, and religious texts burned, and the use of the ancient Avestan as well as Persian languages was prohibited.^[31] Umar did not take the jizya from the "Magian infidels" (Zoroastrians) until he heard a testimony that Muhammad had taken the jizya from the Magians of Hajar.^[32]

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 an account in Tarikh al-Tabari by Al-Tabari, the Arab Commander Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas wrote to Caliph Umar ibn al-Khatta-b 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."^[33] 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.^[34] Nearly 40,000 captured Persian noblemen were taken as slaves and sold in Arabia.^[35] The Arabs called the Persians 'Ajam' meaning mute. The first voice of protest came from Firooz, an enslaved Persian artisan, who assassinated Umar.^[36]

Muslim chronicles state that, in the Battle of Ullais seeing no opening, no weakening of the Persian resistance, the Arab commander in chief Khalid ibn al-Walid, tired, angry, and frustrated prayed to Allah: "O Lord! If You give us victory, I shall see that no enemy warrior is left alive until their river runs with their blood!". After the battle, Khalid ibn al-Walid ordered all the prisoners of war be decapitated.^[37] In the river Khaseef the blood was still not flowing, as Khalid had pledged, until on the advice of Qa'qa ibn Amr one of the commanders of the Muslim army, Khalid ordered the dam on the river to be opened. The river then flowed with blood, and it became known as the River of Blood.^[38] When the city of Estakhr in the south, a Zoroastrian religious center,^[39][40] put up stiff resistance against the Arab invaders, 40,000 residents were slaughtered or hanged.^[41]

The Umayyads (661–750 CE)[link]

The Umayyads who ruled from Syria followed the Caliphs. The persecution increased in the 700s, during the reign of the late Umayyad Caliphs, whose dynastic predecessors had conquered most of the last Zoroastrian state by 652.^[42][43] Jizya tax was imposed upon Zoroastrians, and the official language of Persia became Arabic instead of the local Persian.^[44] While Muslim Persians readily learned the new language, the Zoroastrians hated it, and avoided it as the language of Muslims, and thus were left out of all government positions.^[20] In 741, the Umayyads officially decreed that non-Muslims be excluded from governmental positions.^[45]

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 Zoroastrian, 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).^[46] The Iranian Muslims thus believed that Shia Islam was derived from Sassanian Royalty.^[20][46] 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 fire temples throughout Iran, regardless of treaty obligations.^[47] One of the Umayyad Caliphs was quoted saying, "milk the Persians and once their milk dries, suck their blood".^[48]

Yazid-ibn-Mohalleb, a general under the Umayyads, was appointed the head of a great army to lead the Mazandaran expedition.^[49] 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. Upon arrival, he massacred 12,000 civilians and took 6,000 as slaves.^[49][50] The attack on Tabarestan (present-day Mazandaran) failed, but he established his control in Gorgan.^[49] 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.^[50][51] 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.^[49] But, Tabarestan remained invincible until the majority of Zoroastrians migrated towards India and the rest converted to Islam gradually.^[49]

The Abbasids (752 – 804 CE)[link]

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.^[52] 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).^[52][53] As a result, Zoroastrians were not granted the same rights and status as Jews and Christians.^[53] Iranian Muslims were welcomed to the court, but not Zoroastrians.^[20] Zoroastrians were denied access to bathhouses on the grounds that their bodies were polluted.^[53]

Hardly any Zoroastrian family was able to avoid conversion to Islam when employed by the Abbasids.^[54] Because of their harshness towards unbelievers, and due to their lavish patronage of Persian Muslims, the Abbasids proved to be deadly foes of Zoroastrianism.^[55] According to Dawlatshah, Abdollah-ibn-Tahir, Governor of Khorasan for the Abbasid caliphs,^[56] banned publication in Persian and by his order all the Zoroastrians were forced to bring their religious books to be thrown in the fire.^[34][54] As a result many literary works written in Pahlavi script disappeared.^[54] During the Abbasid reign the Zoroastrians, for the first time became a minority in Iran. Nevertheless, there were instances 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.^[26]

The Saffarids (869 – 903 CE)[link]

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.^[53] Closely associated with the power structures of the Persian Empire, Zoroastrian clergy quickly declined after it was deprived of the state support.^[57][58]

The Samanids (819 – 999 CE)[link]

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^[26] 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.^[3]

10th to 20th century[link]

Migration to India[link]

A Parsi wedding portrait, 1948

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,^[59] and decided to emigrate to India. They traveled to the island of Hormazd in the Persian Gulf, and after three years' preparation set sail for India. They landed on Diu Island of the coast of Gujarat in the year 936 CE. There they lived for about 20 years in great difficulty. They learned the local language and presented their case to Jadi Rana, the Hindu king of that region.^[60]

Jadi Rana in return for some promises of behavior, allowed them to settle in his kingdom. 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),^[59] that they had left behind in Iran nearly 30 years earlier. They consecrated their first Atash Behram fire within five years of coming to Sanjan (Gujarat).

This attracted other Zoroastrians from Iran and also some Zoroastrians who had individually come over the years and settled in various parts of western India. This first group was followed by a second group, also from Greater Khorasan, within five years of the first, and this time having religious implements with them (the alat). In addition to these Khorasanis or Kohistanis – mountain folk, as the two initial groups are said to have been initially called ^[61] – at least one other group is said to have come overland from Sari (in present-day Mazandaran, Iran).^[62] After that, there were several smaller migrations from different parts of Iran into the same region of India, with each wave bringing with them their own ways of performance of Zoroastrian ceremonies and rituals.

This was the start of the Parsis in India. They have since lived in peace with the Hindus and their relationship with Hindus is full of accord and amity.^[63] The community still exists in western India, and it currently contains the largest concentration of Zoroastrians in the world.^[64] "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." ^[65][66] 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.^[4]

The Safavids (1502–1747 CE)[link]

Zoroastrians had difficult time during the Safavid period and faced repeated persecution and forced conversion.^[67] Safavid kings sought to compel them at sword point to accept Islam and rivers ran red with the blood of those who refused.^[16][68] Zoroastrians were also branded as impure, in addition to being infidels.^[69] 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.^[70]

In the early 16th century the great Safavid king, Shah Abbas 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.^[71] Europeans who visited his court left accounts of the 'Gabars' or 'Gabrs', (an insulting term used for Zoroastrians by the Muslims^[71]), agree on the poverty and simplicity of their lives.^[71][72] Fearing desecration by Muslims, Zoroastrians hid the sacred fires, and conversed in a newly invented dialect called Dari.^[16] Later Safavid kings were not as tolerant as Shah Ababas. Al-Majlisi persuaded Shah Husayn (1688–1728 CE) to decree the forcible conversion of Zoroastrians,^[16][73] those who refused were killed.^[16]

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.^[74] 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.^[75] In 1821, Ker Porter visiting Isfahan notes that there were hardly any Zoroastrians left in Isfahan and Gabrabad was in ruins.^[16]

Qajar Dynasty (1796–1925 CE)[link]

A Zarthusti astrologer named Mulla Gushtasp predicted the fall of the Zand dynasty to the Qajar army in Kerman. Because of Gushtasp's forecast, the Zarthustis 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.^[76] Zoroastrians regard the Qajar period as one of their worst.^[77][78]

Many foreign visitors to Iran of the time had commented on their pitiful situation.^[77][79] 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.^[80] 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.^[81] Zoroastrians were forbidden from erecting new houses and repairing old ones.^[79][82]

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.^[79][82][83] They were forbidden from taking up lucrative occupations.^[79] The community was regarded as outcast, impure and untouchable.^[79] The Zoroastrians and their food was considered impure^[77][79] and many public places refused to serve them. When they shopped in the bazaar, they were not allowed to touch any food or fruits.^[68] They were threatened with forced conversions, beaten up and fleeced,^[78] and their religious sanctuaries were regularly desecrated.^[78][79] Harassments and persecution were the norms of daily life.^[84] Zoroastrians were often attacked and beaten by Muslims in the streets.^[68] The murders of Zoroastrians were not punished.^[79] At times, Zoroastrian girls were kidnapped and forcefully converted and married to Muslims and brought to town in fanfare.^[83]

Zoroastrians were subjected to public discrimination through dress regulations^[77][79] – not allowed to wear new or white clothes,^[79] and compelled by enactments to wear the dull yellow raiment already alluded to as a distinguishing badge.^[19][79][82] 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.^[68] Wearing eyeglasses,^[77] long cloak, trousers, hat, boots,^[68] socks, winding their turbans tightly and neatly,^[78][85] carrying watch or a ring,^[86] were all forbidden to Zoroastrians. During the rainy days they were not allowed carry umbrellas^[77] 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.^[68] Forbidden from riding horses^{[19][78][79][81][82]} and only allowed to ride mules or donkeys,^[77][79] upon facing a Muslim they had to dismount.^[85] Not until 1923, was the general proscription against Zoroastrians' riding horses and donkeys lifted by Reza Shah.^[87]

On top of all the misery the Zoroastrians had to pay a heavy religious tax known as Jizya.^[77] Zoroastrian sources record the method of extracting this as designed to humiliate the dhimmi, the taxed person, who was compeleed 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.^[88] Arab tax collectors would mock Zoroastrians for wearing Kusthi and would rip it off, hanging the cord around the necks of the beleaguered faithful.^[89] 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.^[77]

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),^[76] 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."^[90]

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.^[34] 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.

Islamic Republic of Iran (1979-Present CE)[link]

The 1979 Islamic Revolution was equally traumatic for the remaining Zoroastrians, and their numbers reduced drastically.^[91][92] 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 Khomeini".^[93]

Iran is regarded by the UN and other NGOs 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.^[94][95]

Emissaries to Iran[link]

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.^[34] 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,^[96] when it was removed by pressure on the Qajar government from the Persian Zoroastrian Amelioration Fund.^[97]

Persecution of minority Zoroastrian groups by other Zoroastrians[link]

Mazdakism was viewed by the Zoroastrian hierarchy as a heresy and consequently persecuted by Zoroastrian Sassanian leaders. The Sassanian ruler, Khosrau I launched a campaign against the Mazdakis in 524 or 528, culminating in a massacre killing most of the adherents, including Mazdak himself and restored orthodox Zoroastrianism as state religion.^[98]

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.^[99] Mazdakism almost disappeared after the massacre.^[100] Later, there were instances in which Zoroastrian clergy were assisted by Muslims against whom the Zoroastrian clergy deemed as Zoroastrian heretics or separatists.^[3]

Persecution of Zoroastrians by Christians[link]

According to Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians living under Christian rule in Asia Minor were noted to have undergone hardship,^[101] 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.^[102] 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."^[102]

See also[link]

• 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[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

• History of Zoroastrians in Islamic Iran, FEZANA Religious Education.

Kurds

1st row: Saladin • Sharaf Khan Bidlisi • Nizami Ganjavi[1] • Mustafa Barzani 2nd row: Massoud Barzani • Jalal Talabani • Leyla Zana • Bahman Ghobadi
Total population
estimated 30[2] to 38 million[3][4]
Regions with significant populations
Asia    Turkey 13.4-18.6 million (2011) 18–25% [2][3] [4]    Iran 6.5–7.9 million (2011) 7–10% [2][3]    Iraq 6.2–6.5 million (2011) 15–23% [2][3]    Syria 1.75-2.2 million (2011) 6-9% [3][5][6]    Afghanistan 200.000 [7]    Azerbaijan 150,000-180,000 [8][9]    Lebanon 80,000 [8]    Armenia 50,000 [9]    Georgia 40,000-60,000 [7][9]    Turkmenistan 50,000 [9] Europe    Germany 750,000 [8]    France 135,000 [8]    Sweden 90,000 [8]    United Kingdom 90,000 [8]    Netherlands 75,000 [8]    Switzerland 65,000 [8]    Austria 55,000 [8]    Belgium 12,500 [8]
Languages
Kurdish and Zazaki–Gorani In their different forms: Sorani, Kurmanji Fayli Southern Kurdish, Laki, Dimli, Kurmanjki, Bajalani, Gorani
Religion
Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, Sufi, Yazidism, Yarsan, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Agnosticism, Atheism
Related ethnic groups
other Iranian peoples (Talysh • Armenians • Gilak • Lurs • Persians)
Footnotes
All population numbers are estimates by 3rd parties. Turkey, Iran and Syria do not track or provide population statistics.

The Kurdish people, or Kurds (Kurdish: کورد Kurd), are an Iranic people^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]} native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They speak the Kurdish language, which is a member of the Iranian branch of Indo-European languages.^[17] The Kurds number about 30 million, the majority living in the Middle East, with significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey, in Armenia, Georgia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Russia, Lebanon and, in recent decades, some European countries and the United States. The Kurds are an indigenous^[18] ethnic minority in countries where the Kurdistan region is located, although they have enjoyed partial autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991. An irredentist movement pushes for the creation of a Kurdish nation state.

Etymology[link]

The exact origins of the name, "Kurd", are unclear.^[19] Reynolds believes that the term Kurd is most likely related to the ancient term Qardu. The common root of Kurd and Qardu is first mentioned in a Sumerian tablet from the third millennium B.C. as the "land of Kar-da." Qardu is etymologically related to the Assyrian term Urartu corresponding to Ararat.^[20] According to Asatrian, the most reasonable explanation of this ethnonym is its possible connections with the Cyrtii (Cyrtaei)^[21]

Yet another theory^[22] proposes that the etymology is rooted in the name Carduchi, mentioned by Xenophon as the tribe who opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand through the mountains north of Mesopotamia in the 4th century BC. According to G. Asatrian, the word Kurd was first written in sources in the form of Kurt(kwrt-) in the Middle Persian treatise (Karnamak Ardashir Papakan and the Matadakan i Hazar Dastan), used to describe a social group or tribes that existed before the development of the modern ethnic nation.^[23] The term was adopted by Arabic writers of the early Islamic era and gradually became associated with an amalgamation of Iranian and Iranicized nomadic tribes and groups in the region^[24][25][26] Sherefxan Bidlisi states that there are four division of Kurds: Kurmanj, Lur, Kalhor and Guran, each of which speak a different dialect or language variation. Of these, according to Ludwig Paul, only Kurmanji and possibly the Kalhuri correspond to the Kurdish language, while Luri and Gurani are linguistically distinct. Nonetheless, Ludwig writes that linguistics does not provide a definition for when a language becomes a dialect, and thus, non-linguistic factors contribute to the ethnic unity of some of the said groups, namely the Kurmanj, Kalhur, and Guran.^[27]

Language[link]

Kurdish area in the Middle East (2007)

The Kurdish language (Kurdish: Kurdî or کوردی) collectively refers to the related dialects spoken by the Kurds.^[28] It is mainly spoken in those parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey which comprise Kurdistan.^[29] Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, and in Armenia as a minority language.

The Kurdish languages belong to the north-western sub-group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family.

Most Kurds are either bilingual or multilingual, speaking the language of their respective nation of origin, such as Arabic, Persian, and Turkish as a second language alongside their native Kurdish, while those in diaspora communities often speak 3 or more languages. Kurdish Jews and some Kurdish Christians (not be confused with ethnic Assyrians) usually speak Aramaic (for example: Lishana Deni) as their first language. Aramaic is a Semitic language related to Hebrew and Arabic rather than Kurdish.

According to Mackenzie, there are few linguistic features that all Kurdish dialects have in common and that are not at the same time found in other Iranian languages.^[30]

The Kurdish dialects according to Mackenzie are classified as:^[31]

• Northern group (The Kurmanji dialect group.)
• Central group (Part of the Sorani dialect group)
• Southern group (Part of the Sorani dialect group) including Kermanshahi, Ardalani and Laki language

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, The Kurdish language has two main groups:^[32]

• The Kurmanji dialect group.
• The Sorani dialect group.

and several sub-dialects:

• Kermanshahi/Feyli
• Laki language
• Gorani language
• Zazaki language^[33]

Although specialized sources consider Zaza–Gorani ^{[34][31][35][36]} to be separate languages which share a large number of words with Kurdish, the general term Kurd has, nevertheless, historically been used to designate also these groups.

Commenting on the differences between the "dialects" of Kurdish, Kreyenbroek clarifies that in some ways, Kurmanji and Sorani are as different from each other as English and German, giving the example that Kurmanji has grammatical gender and case-endings, but Sorani does not, and observing that referring to Sorani and Kurmanji as "dialects" of one language is supported only by "their common origin...and the fact that this usage reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity of the Kurds."^[37]

Population[link]

The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at 26-34 million, with another one or two million living in diaspora. Kurds are the fourth largest ethnicity in the Middle East after Arabs, Persians, and Turks.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Kurds comprise 18% of the population in Turkey,^[38] 15-20% in Iraq, 9% in Syria,^[39][40] 7% in Iran and 1.3% in Armenia. In all of these countries except Iran, Kurds form the second largest ethnic group. Roughly 55% of the world's Kurds live in Turkey, about 18% each in Iran and Iraq, and a bit over 5% in Syria.^[41]

McDowall has estimated that in 1991 the Kurds comprised 19% of the population in Turkey, 23% in Iraq, 10% in Iran, and 8% in Syria. The total number of Kurds in 1991 was in this estimate placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, and 4% in Syria.^[42]

History[link]

Origins[link]

Two Kurds with a Catholic priest. From Les Costumes Populaires De La Turquie, 1873, taken by French photographer Pascal Sebah at the universal exposition in Vienna, 1873.

The Kurds as an ethnic group appear in the medieval period. The Kurdish people are believed to be of heterogenous origins^[43] combining a number of earlier tribal or ethnic groups^[34] including Median^{[34][43][44][45]}, Lullubi,^[46] Guti,^[46] Cyrtians,^[47] Carduchi^[48]. They have also absorbed some elements from Semitic,^{[34][49][50][51][52]} Turkic^{[53][54][55][56]} and Armenian^{[34][57][58][59][60][61]}.

According to Minorsky there is an "ethno-geographical identification" of present day Kurds as descendent of ancient Medes, an idea based on his "historical, linguistic, and philological" arguments.^[62] This was further advanced by I. Gershevitch who provided first "a piece of linguistic confirmation" of Minorsky's identification and then another "sociolinguistic" argument. Those works of Minorsky were the base of yet another and different approach by Mackenzie. He argued that in contrast to Minorsky (and precisely Gershevitch's advancement) the evolution of the present day Kurdish language as a North Western Iranian language was to "lean more toward Persian" and in turn "marked off from Median".^[62] These disagreements of scholars caused bitter reactions.^[62] Dandamaev considers Carduchi (who were from the upper Tigris near the Assyrian and Median borders) less likely than Cyrtians as ancestors of modern Kurds.^[63] However according to McDowall, the term Cyrtii was first applied to Seleucid or Parthian mercenary slingers from Zagros, and it is not clear if it denoted a coherent linguistic or ethnic group.^[64] Gershevitch and Fisher consider the independent Kardouchoi or Carduchi as the ancestors of the Kurds, or at least the original nucleus of the Iranian-speaking people in what is now Kurdistan.^[48]

Medieval period[link]

In the 7th century, the Arabs possessed the castles and fortifications of the Kurds. The conquest of the cities of Sharazor and Darabaz took place in 643 CE. In 838 CE, Mir Jafar one of the leaders of the Kurds in Mosul revolted against the Caliph Al-Mu'tasim who sent the commander Itakh to combat against him. Itakh won this war and killed many of the Kurds. The Kurds revolted again in 903 CE, during the period of Almoqtadar. Eventually Arabs conquered the Kurdish regions and gradually converted the majority of Kurds to Islam. In the second half of the 10th century, the Kurdish area was shared among four big Kurdish principalities. In the north were the Shaddadid (951–1174) in parts of present-day Armenia and Arran, and the Rawadid (955–1221) in Tabriz and Maragheh. In the east were the Hasanwayhids (959–1015) and the Annazid (990–1117) in Kermanshah, Dinawar and Khanaqin. In the west were the Marwanid (990–1096) of Diyarbakır. After these, the Ardalan dynasty (14th century to 1867) were established in present-day Khanaqin, Kirkuk and Sinne.

Kurdish costumes, 1873.

The best-known Kurdish leaders to establish political domain in the region were the Ayyubid in 1171, first under the leadership of Kurdish sultan, Saladin. Born in the city of Tikrit in present-day Iraq, Saladin's ancestry was of a Kurdish tribe who originated in the city of Dvin in northern Armenia.^[65] The Ayyubids went on to rule the Diyarbakir plains, Syria and Egypt and Saladin led Muslims to recapture the city of Jerusalem from the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin. The Ayyubids dynasty lasted until 1341 when the last Ayyubid sultanate fell to Mongolian invasions.

Ottoman period[link]

When Sultan Selim I, after defeating Shah Ismail I in 1514, annexed Armenia and Kurdistan, he entrusted the organisation of the conquered territories to Idris, the historian, who was a Kurd of Bitlis. He divided the territory into sanjaks or districts, and, making no attempt to interfere with the principle of heredity, installed the local chiefs as governors. He also resettled the rich pastoral country between Erzerum and Erivan, which had lain in waste since the passage of Timur, with Kurds from the Hakkari and Bohtan districts.

The Ottoman centralist policies in the beginning of the 19th century aimed to remove power from the principalities and localities, which directly affected the Kurdish emirs. Bedirhan Bey was the last emir of the Cizre Bohtan Emirate after initiating an uprising in 1847 against the Ottomans to protect the current structures of the Kurdish principalities. Although his uprising is not classified as a nationalist one, his children played significant roles in the emergence and the development of Kurdish nationalism through the next century.^[66]

The first modern Kurdish nationalist movement emerged in 1880 with an uprising led by a Kurdish landowner and head of the powerful Shemdinan family, Sheik Ubeydullah, who demanded political autonomy or outright independence for Kurds as well as the recognition of a Kurdistan state without interference from Turkish or Persian authorities.^[67] The uprising against Qajar Persia and the Ottoman Empire was ultimately suppressed by the Ottomans and Ubeydullah, along with other notables, were exiled to Istanbul.

20th century[link]

Provisions of the Treaty of Sèvres for an independent Kurdistan (in 1920).

Kurdish nationalism emerged after World War I with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire which had historically successfully integrated (but not assimilated) the Kurds, through use of forced repression of Kurdish movements to gain independence. Revolts did occur sporadically but only in 1880 with the uprising led by Sheik Ubeydullah were demands as an ethnic group or nation made. Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid responded by a campaign of integration by co-opting prominent Kurdish opponents to strong Ottoman power with prestigious positions in his government. This strategy appears successful given the loyalty displayed by the Kurdish Hamidiye regiments during World War I.^[68]

The Kurdish ethnonationalist movement that emerged following World War I and end of the Ottoman empire was largely reactionary to the changes taking place in mainstream Turkey, primarily radical secularization which the strongly Muslim Kurds abhorred, centralization of authority which threatened the power of local chieftains and Kurdish autonomy, and rampant Turkish nationalism in the new Turkish Republic which obviously threatened to marginalize them.^[69]

Kurdish Cavalry in the passes of the Caucasus mountains (The New York Times, January 24, 1915).

Jakob Künzler, head of a missionary hospital in Urfa, has documented the large scale ethnic cleansing of both Armenians and Kurds by the Young Turks during World War I.^[70] He has given a detailed account of deportation of Kurds from Erzurum and Bitlis in winter of 1916. The Kurds were perceived to be subversive elements that would take the Russian side in the war. In order to eliminate this threat, Young Turks embarked on a large scale deportation of Kurds from the regions of Djabachdjur, Palu, Musch, Erzurum and Bitlis. Around 300,000 Kurds were forced to move southwards to Urfa and then westwards to Aintab and Marasch. In the summer of 1917, Kurds were moved to the Konya region in central Anatolia. Through this measures, the Young Turk leaders aimed at eliminating the Kurds by deporting them from their ancestral lands and by dispersing them in small pockets of exiled communities. By the end of World War I, up to 700,000 Kurds were forcibly deported and almost half of the displaced perished.^[71]