MAGIANSZurvanism also tends to be associated with a form of atheistic
materialism that asserted the eternity of the material universe. The
Mazdaean Kartir claims to have combatted Zandlks, who denied the
existence of Heaven and Hell, rewards and punishments. This denial
is usually linked to a denial of creation. Later Mazdaean literature
identifies materialists (Dahrts) as atheists who deny the existence of
Heaven and Hell, of Ohnnazd the Creator, or of anything spiritual;
who believe that virtue is unrewarded and sin unpunished; who believe
that Infinite Time is the first principle and that everything is material;
and who do not observe religious duties and make no attempt to
perform good deeds.72
Clearly there was no doctrinal unity among Magians in the Sasanian
period. The Arta Wraf Namak speaks of many false doctrines and
beliefs. Paul of Persia, at the court of Khusraw Aniishirvan, said that
there were those who believed in one God and others who said that
He was not the only God; those who said that God had opposing
qualities and others who denied it; those who considered God to be
omnipotent and others who denied that He had power over everything;
those who believed that the world and everything in it was created
and others who denied that everything was created; those who believed
that the world had been created out of nothing and others who said
it had been drawn out from preexisting matter. The lack of an ideology
to unify the ruling group may well have been a disadvantage for
Magians when they found themselves in conflict with the members of
other religions.^73 But the existence and interaction of several doctrinal
positions provide evidence of an active intellectual life in the Sasanian
period, which continued among Magians for several centuries after
the Islamic conquest. In this respect the significance of Zurvanism lies
in its affinities to Babylonian astral fatalism and in the issues it raised.
CULT AND CUSTOM
Most doctrinal differences could be accommodated as long as the
cult was observed. All Iranians were expected to be Magians but
Mazdaeans excluded anyone who worshiped demons. Div worshipers
believed in the sovereignty of Ahriman and that the head of a house-
hold was his own priest. They were sorcerers who invoked the demons,
72 De Menasce, Dinkart, p. 225, Duchesne-Guillemin, "Religion of Ancient Iran,"
p. 349; Mas'iidi, Muriij, I, 292; Zaehner, Dawn and Twilight, pp. 185-86, 197; idem,
Zurvan, pp. 38, 267; idem, "Postscript to Zurvan," BSOAS 17 (1955), 234-35.
13 Zaehner, Dawn and Twilight, p. 191.