A literary history of Persia

168 THE SASANIAN PERIODthe East took place, as is well known, during the early'Abbasid period, especially during the reign of Harunu'r-Rashfd's son al-Ma'mun (A.D. 813-833), but it isexceedinglyprobable (though, owing to the loss of the great bulk ofPahlawi literature, especially the non-religious portion, itcannot be proved) that already in the sixth century, duringthe reign of Nushirwan, this importation had begun, and thatthe beginnings of the Sufi doctrines, as of somany others, mayin reality go back beyond the Muhammadan to the Sasaniantimes. As regardsthe Christians, Nushirwan's contempt fortheir pacific doctrines and vexation at the rebellious behaviourof his son Anusha-zadh (see p. 136 supra] did not prevent himfrom according certain privilegesto the dangerous and oftendisloyal Monophysites, 1 or from accepting in one of his treatieswith the Byzantine Emperor certain stipulations in favour ofthe Catholics 2; nay,it was even asserted by Euagrius andSebeos J that he was privately baptized before his death, whichstatement, though certainly false, shows that he was generallyregarded as favourably disposed towards the Christians, who,as Noldeke remarks, gave a touching proof of their gratitudefor his favours a century laterwhen they would not suffer theremains of his unfortunate descendant Yazdigird III, the lastruler of the House of Sasan, to lie unburied. Such toleration,however, was always subject to considerations of the safety ofthe State and the order of social life,both of which werethreatened by the doctrines of the communist Mazdak, ofwhom we shall now speak.The evidence which has come down to us concerning thisremarkable man has been carefully collected by Noldeke 3 in1See Noldeke, Gesch, d. Sasaniden, p. 162 ad calc.a Gibbon, op. cit., p. 305, n. 52 ad calc.s See also a more popular account by the same scholar in the DeutscheRundschau for February, 1879, pp. 284 et seqq.The most ancient and authentic notices of, or references to, Mazdakare as follows :