RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESHowever, the Sasanian state did not initiate proceedings for apos-
tasy. Mar Abii was denounced as an apostate by leading Magians,
Shirin by her father, Golinduch by her husband, and Mihriimgushnasp
by his personal enemy Gabriel of Sinjar. Ish6'sabhran was denounced
by his brother to the judge of a neighboring village and then by the
Magians to the rad of Hazza.ll3 Apostates were turned over to the
state, interrogated, imprisoned, and urged to recant for the sake of
their souls. Only if they proved obstinate were they executed.l14 Shirin
underwent a series of trials and imprisonment. At Hulwan the chief
magians and court dignitaries tried to dissuade her, and she was finally
strangled in prison at Mada'in in 559. Male apostates were usually
crucified, as were several bishops in the time of Mar Abii. Mihriim-
gushnasp was crucified in the straw market of Veh-Artakhshatr in
615, 115 and Ish6'sabhran was crucified in 620.^116
The defection of aristocratic Persians from Magianism in Iraq stands
as a countertrend to the efforts to spread Magianism among the Persian
population in the late Sasanian period. The measures that were taken
to deal with it reveal how serious the threat was considered to be,
how insecure the Magians really were in Iraq, and how important the
support of the state was for their position there.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CONQUEST
The fall of the Sasanian state to the conquering Muslims drastically
and permanently changed Magians from rulers to subjects. The prop-
erty of fire temples was confiscated in Iraq at the time of the conquest,
along with the rest of the Sasanian government's property.117 There
is no evidence for the survival of the Magian cult, priesthood, or
organization in early Islamic Iraq. Some places preserved a memory
of past conditions, such as the village of Atesh Gah ("place of fire")
east of Badhibin in lower Iraq, or the village of Beth Magoshe in
113 Chabot, "Jesus-Sabran," pp. 489, 492, 516-17; Devos, "Sainte Sirin," pp. 89-
90; Peeters, "Sainte Golindouch," p. 82; Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," Il(1), 158-59.
J. Labourt, Le Christianisme dans l'Empire perse sous la Dynastie sassanide (Paris,
1904), p. 196, 234, made the rad responsible for denouncing apostates and gave the
cases of ShlrIn and Ishirsabhran as examples, but this is not substantiated in either
case.
114 Boyce, Tansar, p. 42; Casartelli, Philosophy, p. 175.
115 Chabot, "Chastete," pp. 36, 255; idem, Synodicon, p. 634; Devos, "Sainte Sirin,"
pp. 90, 96, 108; Guidi, "Chronica Minora I," I, 23; 11, 20--21; Hoffmann, Persischer
Miirtyrer, pp. 110, 115; Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," Il(l), 160.
116 Chabot, "Jesus-Sabran," p. 501.
117 TabarI, Ta'rikh, I, 2371.