A Reflection on the Representation of the Mazdak Religious-Social Movement in the Historiographies of the First Centuries AH

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Researcher of the history of ancient Iran

2 Department of iranology & history,Meynod University,Meybod,Meybod, Iran

10.22081/hiq.2023.63960.2261

Abstract

Iranian-Islamic historiographical texts of the first centuries AH, in order to use the written sources of the late Sassanid era, contain information and data in the form of narrations and reports about some changes of this period. One of the historical events of the Sassanid era that has a significant place in this type of history is the deconstructive religious-social uprising of Mazdak. At first glance, the negative representation of the Mazdak movement in Iranian-Islamic history may seem normal, but given the emergence of numerous movements and uprisings in Iranian society in the first centuries of Islam against the Abbasid caliphate, such narratives can be analyzed in other ways. If we accept that the main special work of historiographical texts has been modeling or shaping the political and ideological mentality of the elites of the society and the political rulers of the society and Their goal was not to report such a historical event simply, but to create a historical and empirical model for politicians and the general public to prevent them from joining the contemporary movements of their time. The purposefulness of such narratives is evident in Islamic historiographical texts. This purpose of the historical theological approach based on the heretical reading of the Mazdak social-religious movement is quite evident in the reports of Iranian-Islamic historians.
Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to explain why and how the Mazdak uprising is represented in the historiography of the first centuries with the hypothesis that various aspects of this l,

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