Michael G. Morony, "Religious Communities in Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Iraq," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 17 (1974), 113-35.
|
Michael G. Morony, "Religious Communities in Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Iraq," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 17 (1974), 113-35.
|
This
article focuses on religious communities in the Middle East, and their role as a
distinguishing characteristic that separated early Islamic society from
Hellenistic society. The author
delineates several criteria which point to the existence of religious
communities in the late Sasanian period: the spread of a religious existence of
Jews and Christians; the tendency of this kind of existence to make groups
insular; and the recognition of these groups by the Sasanians that crystallized
their structure. The author points
out the parallels between “church and state” correspondence, provinces, and
nomenclature.
After the Muslim conquest, the lines of communication between church and state clearly were blurred, if not obliterated. Although there was no official recognition of non-Muslim religions, there was not an overt stifling of it either. For example, “… apart from the Muslim attack on the official aspects of Magianism, there was no interference in private matters. Individual Magians were allowed to pay tribute along with everyone else, and Magian religious and social traditions were preserved in the private practice of upper-class Magian families …” (pp. 121-2). The article also examines related Monophysite and Nestorian traditions in the period.
Consequences
of early Muslim leadership included: the fact that they favored literal
interpretation of the Quran; this paradigm contributed to a community of faith;
and the “scrupulous regard for the rights of non-Muslims” (p. 133).