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DOWNFALL OF THE SASANIANS, AND THE AFTERMATH

world. Sects and heresies had sprung up in consequence. Several of these flourished in Iran for centuries after the downfall of the Persian empire. Shahristani (A.D. 1086–1153) in his Book of Sects attests the existence of some of these in his times. The more prominent of these were the Mazdakites, Zarvanites, and the Gayomarthians. The latter sect, about which we hear for the first time, evidently derived its name from Gayomard, the primeval man. The followers of this sect, we are told, believe in an eternal being who is called Yazdan. This first principle, it is said, existed when there was nothing beside him; he entertained a thought in his mind on the probability of the origin of an adversary. This evil thought originated Ahriman, the spirit of darkness. Ever since the manifestation of this evil one, there goes on a fierce war between the powers of light and darkness.[1]

This appears to be still another attempt to palliate dualism which has ever been the crux of Zoroastrianism. The question comes up time after time and was the cause of many sectarian divisions among the believers. Mohammed strongly urges the unity of God. He preaches rigid monotheism. Iblis or satan, in his system, is a fallen angel and, unlike Ahriman, owes his existence to God. Worshipping two gods must have been the taunt hurled at the doctors of the Zoroastrian Church by the Moslem divines. Those among the Mazdayasnians who seem to have viewed dualism as a flaw in their religious system apparently endeavoured to give it a monistic form by declaring that Yazdan originated Ahriman.

The Zoroastrian author of the Ulama-i Islam, a controversial treatise in Persian, written in about the fourteenth century, acquaints us with the different opinions held in his own day, to account for this ever-recurring problem. Himself a Zarvanite, the author attests the existence of several different sects, who variously held that both Ormazd and Ahriman have originated from Time, or that Ormazd himself permitted evil to exist in order that his goodness might be better appreciated, or that Ahriman was a reprobate angel who revolted from Ormazd.[2]

A Persian treatise entitled Siwar-i Akalim-i Sab'ah, or

  1. ↑ Haarbrucker, Religionspartheien und Philosophenschulen, 1, p. 276, 277, Halle, 1850.
  2. ↑ Tr. Vullers, p. 52, Bonn, 1831; tr. Blochet, p. 22, Paris, 1898.
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