RELIGIOUS COMM"UNITIEScontinued to act towards their new rulers in the same way that they
had towards the Sasanians. This was assisted by the way the conflict
between the monastic and aristocratic parties over the control of the
church, which centered on the election or appointment of the cathol-
icos, was institutionalized'in coenobitic monasticism and at the school
of Nasibin. The problems of patronage and the factional pattern of
behavior persisted in the Islamic period because the institutions and
the people associated with them survived: the Nestorian Church or-
ganization with its clergy, the monasteries with the monks, the landed
Persian aristocracy whose interest in the Nestorian church was in-
creased by the conquest, and the school at Nasibin. The way the lay
aristocractic party continued to provoke state intervention was the
single most effective reason for the reestablishment of the conditions
of the late Sasanian period under Islamic rule. In fact, there was hardly
any break at all in this respect. This pattern appears as early as 640
at Nasibin immediately after the fall of the city to the Muslims. It was
in full operation by the reign of Mu'awiya, and the process was
completed as part of the Marwani restoration. The refusal of al-I:Jajjaj
to allow the election of a catholicos meant that government permission
had-again become necessary. This marks the first real intervention of
the Islamic state in the internal affairs of the Nestorians. AI-I:Jajjaj did
exactly what Khusraw Parviz had done for similar reasons, and the
entire episode provides a further indication of the reintroduction of
the principles and methods of Sasanian statecraft by the end of the
seventh century.
Otherwise, the Islamic conquest removed some of the problems that
had complicated the condition of Nestorians in Iraq. No longer was
there any problem about baptism, burial, or the conversion of Magiari
Persians to Christianity (conversion of Muslims was out of the ques-
tion), nor were the Nestorians affected by the consequences of Muslim-
Byzantine warfare. Indeed, it is difficult to find any example of "per-
secution" of Nestorians under the Muslims in the seventh century that
was either not associated with the conquest itself or brought on by
the internal squabbling of the Nestorians among themselves.
THE FORMATION OF THE NESTORIAN COMMUNITY:
DOCTRINE AND IDENTITY
Relations between Christians and their rulers in Iraq have been
discussed so far in terms of the church as an ecclesiastical organization.