CHRISTIANSdead; of baptizing converts; and of attributing the origin of snakes
and creeping things (the animal form of Magian demons) to a good
God. Yazdagerd II (438-57) is even said to have considered it a sin
to receive tribute from Christians.^1 But apart from those occasions
when the state was forced to intervene in ecclesiastical affairs by the
factionalism of the Christians themselves, which was interpreted as
persecution, the Sasanians tended to leave non-Persian Christians alone.
Individual Persian converts sometimes were imprisoned and executed
due to the initiative of their relatives or of the Magian priests; but in
the late Sasanian period mass persecutions and executions such as had
taken place in the reigns of Shapur II and Yazdagerd II in the fourth
and fifth centuries no longer occurred. The persecution of Persian
converts tended to coincide with periods of war with the Byzantines
when their loyalty was suspect.^2 The martyrdoms of St. Shirin in 559,
Mihramgushnasp in 614, and Ish6'sabhran in 620 occurred during
wars with the Byzantines.
But there was also a degree of official toleration in the late Sasanian
period. According to the terms of the treaty between the Sasanians
and Byzantines in 561, Christians living under Sasanian rule were to
be allowed to build churches, exercise their cult freely, and bury their
dead, in return for which they were not supposed to make converts
among the Magians.^3 The high point of toleration occurred in the
early part of the reign of Khusraw Parvlz after his restoration by the
Byzantine army. Out of friendship to Maurice, the Byzantine emperor,
Parviz permitted Christians to build churches, sound their wooden
gongs (Syr. naqqus), celebrate Easter, and make converts among any
group but the Magians. He also instructed his governors to treat them
well.^4 Evidence of his own personal patronage of Christians is to be
found in the golden votive cross he dedicated to the monastery of St.
Sergius at Rusafa while in exile, and the churches he built at Mada'in
and at Qasr-i Shirin for his two Christian wives.^5 The earliest account
1 J. s. Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino·Vaticana (Rome, 1728), IIl(2),
34, 193-94; Fiey, Assyrie chretienne, Ill, 69; Zaehner, Zurvan., p. 47.
2 Assemani, BO, III(2), 87-94; Stratos, Byzantium, p. 224.
3 Assemani, BO, IIl(2), 89; Devos, "Sainte Sirin," p. 102. The Chronicle of Si'irt
(Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," Illl], 125) claims that Qubadh I previously had given
Christians permission to build churches and monasteries.
4 TabarI, Ta'rtkh, I, 1000; Tha<alibI, Ghurar, p. 671.
5 Guidi, Chronica Minora I, I, 17; Il, 16; Nau, "A!J.oudemmeh," p. 53; P. Peeters,
"Les ex-voto de Khosrau Aparwez a Sergiopolis," AB 65 (1947), 18; Scher, "Histoire
nestorienne," Il(2), 455-67; Thomas of Margha, Governors, I, 47; Il, 80-82.