Chapter 13
PAGANS AND GNOSTICS
PAGANS IN SASANIAN IRAQ
Although paganism was declining in Sasanian Iraq, ancient indig-
enous Mesopotamian religious traditions survived in several important
ways. Since the great temple complexes of the neo-Babylonian, Hel-
lenistic, and Parthian periods had virtually disappeared by the end of
Sasanian rule, it is impossible to describe any regular cult or priest-
hood. But the old gods and demons were remembered in private sac-
rifice, magic, and folklore. Pagan demonology and magic also survived
among Jews and Christians. Chaldaean astrology was caught up, via
syncretism, in the fabric of Magianism and in local syncretistic gnostic
sects.
Long-haired, idol-worshiping, animal-sacrificing pagans were still
to be found all over Iraq in the late Sasanian period. There were pagan
Aramaeans in the towns and villages of the Sawad and in upper Iraq.1
The pastoral Arabs in upper Mesopotamia and along the southwestern
border of Iraq remained pagan until the middle of the sixth century
when Monophysites began to convert them.^2 The Banii Lakhm who
ruled Hira were pagans until the conversion of an-Nu'man ibn al-
Mundhir in 593. Dev-worshiping Persian peasants were settled in Iraq
in the sixth century. Sun-worshipping Kurds lived in the mountains
of northern Iraq in the fifth century,3 and early seventh-century ref-
erences describe the worship of the sun and the sacrifice of an ox at
the village of Beth Kartewaye in Adiabene and Kurds who sacrificed
to demons in Beth Nuhadhra.^4 lt is important to note that there were
mixed villages, where pagans lived with Magians, Jews, or Christians.
Some type of shrine with images seems to have survived until the
late Sasanian period, but it was no longer the monumental institution
of antiquity. The temples of Ba'al-Shamen at Hatra, of Inanna at
Nippur, or of Ishtar at Babil did not survive the Parthian period. There
may have been temples of Bel at Babel and of Nabu at Burs as late
1 Budge, Rabban H6rmfzd, I, 181; n, 275; Chabot, "Chastete," pp. 20,243; Hoff-
mann, Persischer Miirtyrer, p. 93.
2 Peeters, "'Abd al-Masih," p. 282.
3 Hoffmann, Persischer Miirtyrer, p. 75.
4 Budge, Rabban H6rmfzd, I, 173; lI, 263; Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," lI(2), 516.