A literary history of Persia

MAZDAK 171we have already seen (p. 169 n. I ad calc.\strongly objected also appears in the religionof Mazdak inthe prohibition of shedding blood and eating meat. Indeed, asto the Zoroastriantheologians Mazdak was par excellence " the ungodlyAshemaogha who does not eat."For political reasons, of which, according to Noldeke's view,the chief was a desire to curb the excessive power of the priestsand nobles, King Kawadh (or Qubad) favoured theSeVazdakltf new Doctrine > an action which led to his temporarydeposition in favour of his brother Jamasp. Thisuntoward event probably produced a considerable alteration inhis feelings towards the new sect, and the balance of testimonyplaces in the last years of his reign that wholesaleMassacre of the'. . . . .Mazdak-ites (A.D. slaughter of the Mazdakites with which, in thepopular legend, Khusraw the First is credited, andby which he is said to have earned his title of Nushfrwan(Anushafcruban, "Of Immortal Spirit"). According to thecurrent account (given in its fullest form in the SiyAsat-nAma ofthe Nidhamu'1-Mulk (ed. Schefer, pp. 166-181 ;transl. pp. 245-266), Prince Nushirwan, after exposing the evil designs andjuggler's tricks of Mazdak to his father King Kawadh, deceivedthe heresiarch by a feigned submission, and fixed a day when, inpresence of all the Mazdakites, he would make formal andpublic profession of the new doctrine. Invitations were issuedto the Mazdakites to a great banquet which the prince wouldprovide in one of the royal gardens but as;each group enteredthe garden they were seized by soldiers who layin wait forthem, slain,feet protruding.and buried head downwards in the earth with theirWhen all had been thus disposed of, N ushirwaninvited Mazdak, whom he had himself received in privateaudience, to take a walk with him through the garden beforethe banquet, and to inspect the "produce thereof. On enteringthe" garden, Behold," said the prince, pointing to the upturnedfeet of the dead" heretics, the crop which your evil doctrines"have brought forth ! Therewith he made a sign, and Mazdak