Iranian Religious Tolerance

If the Iranian Empire under the Sassanian Emperor Khosrow I (531 - 579) had an official religion, it would be Zoroastrianism. In fact, Khosrow's older brother was deemed unsuitable to succeed their father as emperor because he supported an offshoot of Zoroastrianism (called Mazdakism after its chief proponent).Khosrow's interest in accepting "the good" in other cultures extended to tolerance of other religions. (Unless, of course, it was the "heretical" Mazdakism.) Sassanians were aware of other religions and their prominence in different parts of the East, and treated them as mard/zan ī šahr ("man/woman citizen" (of the Empire). So long as they adhered to the laws of Iran/Persia, they were fine.Christian and Jewish scholars had even been employed in a formal debate along with Zoroastrians to slander Mazdak.The Christian "Church of the East" (aka Nestorian Church, aka Assyrian Church) had a leader who was called Catholicos of Iran. During Khosrow's reign this was Mar Abba the Great.…