Journal of history of Iran)

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

SBU

Abstract

Fars, homeland and religious stronghold of Sasanians was conquered by the Arab Muslims in the mid th century AD. This episode marked the beginning of a new era in the religious and social history of this 7 region. Historical and geographical sources of the 4th/10th century however, provide rich evidence about Islamic traditions in Fars more than 300 years after dominance the survival of Zoroastrianism and Pre of Islam. Since 5th/11th century however, Fars lost its status as the stronghold of Zoroastrianism and no mention of its previous situation is found in |Later historical resources. Concurrently, Yazd and Kerman replaced Fars as the main bases for collecting and copying Zoroastrian religious texts. The present paper first provides a comprehensive review about the presence of Zoroastrianism and Pre Islamic traditions in the 4th/10th century Fars based on the aforementioned sources and then turn to the main question of why this condition declined almost suddenly since the 5th/11th century. Investigating Samadiah, Morshediyah fi Asrar al accounts recorded in a Persian historical text known as Ferdaws al it seems that a significant change in the social and religious history of Fars had occurred at this time. Zoroastrian It is concluded that most likely this transformation took place as the result of rising anti movements and the growth of Sufi orders such Kazaruniyeh or Morshediyeh in this period. This finally caused a great number of Zoroastrians to convert or immigrate from Fars to the neighboring provinces of Yazd or Kerman and finally to India, probably during and after the 5th/11th century.

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