RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESon the Arabs, destroy their masjids, abolish the cult of the devs, re-
establish fire temples, defeat the Romans and Turks, and restore the
Sasanian empire. Still later, in the early eighth century, the millennium
of Zoroaster was expected to end when demons wearing black cloth-
ing, and carrying black weapons and banners, would invade Iran from
Khurasan. At that time Varhran Varjavand w()Uld be born in China
or India to a king of Kayan descent.^129
The formation and elaboration of Magian apocalyptic expectations
thus appear to have taken place from the late sixth until the early
eighth centuries. Although there would be later accretions and old
themes would be reapplied to later events, the predictions of the arrival
of a liberator from India or China may belong to the propaganda of
Sasanian restoration attempts. The 'Abbasi movement in Khurasan
also seems to have been given an apocalyptic significance by Magians.
These apocalypses also suggest how Magians felt about what had
happened to them. The theme of a world turned upside down was
used to describe conditions after the Islamic conquest when their social
order and values were overturned. Nobles would be reduced to poverty
and despair, separated from their families, and obliged to marry people
of low status. Nobles would be slaves and slaves would be nobles and
adopt the nobles' way of life. Lowly, ignoble, wicked people would
be preferred by the rulers; they would become rich, oppress and abuse
their former superiors, and marry their daughters. Many fires would
disappear and others would be established in secret; the hirbadhs
would be ashamed of their religion, would cease to recite the Yashts,
and would copy foreign customs. The treasures of the earth would be
taken by foreigners. It is no wonder that Magians saw this time of
injustice as a sign of the end of the millennium and of the imminent
arrival of a savior who would restore political independence, law, and
justice.13D
But the Sasanians were not restored and the structure built by Ma-
129 Boyce, History, p. 288; Bailey, Zoroastrian Problems, pp. 195-96; K. Czegledy,
"Bahram Cobin and the Persian apocalyptic literature," Acta Orient. Hung. 8 (1958):33-
34; de Menasce, Denkart, pp. 185-86,366; Dhabhar, Rivayats, pp. 457-97; Duchesne-
Guillemin, "Religion of Ancient Iran," pp. 343-54.
130 Dhabhar, Rivayats, pp. 461-65, 475, 484-88. These were not new ideas at all.
The theme of the overturning of the social order followed by the future arrival of a
savior-king who will drive out foreigners, end wrongdoing, and restore justice appears
during the First Intermediate Period in ancient Egypt (2200-2050 B.C.). See J. B.
Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton,
1955), pp. 444-46.