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Zandik () is a
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...
term conventionally interpreted as
heretic Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Christianity, Judai ...
in a narrow sense, or, in a wider sense, for a person with any belief or practice that ran contrary to
Sassanid The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...
-mediated Zoroastrian
orthodoxy Orthodoxy () is adherence to a purported "correct" or otherwise mainstream- or classically-accepted creed, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical co ...
. The
Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...
term engendered the better-attested Arabic زنديق '' zindiq'', with the same semantic field but related to Islam rather than Zoroastrianism. In the Islamic world, including Islamic-era Iran, the term was also variously assigned to
Manichaean Manichaeism (; in ; ) is an endangered former major world religion currently only practiced in China around Cao'an,R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 found ...
s, Mandaeans,
Mazdakite Mazdakism (Persian: مزدکیه) was an Iranian religion, which was an offshoot of Zoroastrianism. The religion was founded in the early Sasanian Empire by Zaradust-e Khuragen, a Zoroastrian mobad who was a contemporary of Mani (d. 274). H ...
s, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Christians, and free-thinkers in general, including Muslims.. Whether ''zandik'' was also used in any of these ways in Zoroastrian times is unknown; in that context, the term is only attested in three texts (two from the same author), and in all three appears as a
hapax legomenon In corpus linguistics, a ''hapax legomenon'' ( also or ; ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to ''hapax'', plural ''hapaxes'') is a word or an Fixed expression, expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written re ...
used in a pejorative way, but with no additional hints from which to infer a meaning. In several now-obsolete studies related to Zoroastrianism, the word was also speculated to be the proper name of a particular (but hypothetical) priestly tradition that embraced
Zurvanite Zurvanism is a fatalistic religious movement of Zoroastrianism in which the divinity Zurvan is a first principle (primordial creator deity) who engendered equal-but-opposite twins, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. Zurvanism is also known as "Zu ...
doctrine.


Lexicology

The conventional translation as 'heretic' was already common in the 19th century when Christian Bartholomae (1885), derived ''zandik'' from
Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...
''zanda'', which he treated as a name of certain heretics. Zindīq () or Zandik () was initially used to negatively denote the followers of the
Manichaeism Manichaeism (; in ; ) is an endangered former major world religion currently only practiced in China around Cao'an,R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 found ...
religion in the
Sasanian Empire The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...
. By the time of the 8th-century
Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...
, however, the meaning of the word zindīq and the adjectival ''zandaqa'' had broadened and could loosely denote many things:
Gnostic Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...
Dualists as well as followers of Manichaeism,
Agnostics Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
&
Atheists Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
. Early examples of Arabic ''zindiq'' denoting Manichaeans, and this possibly being the meaning of the term in the early attested use in Middle Persian (see
below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname * Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general * Fred Belo ...
), led A. A. Bevan ''apud'' to derive Middle Persian ''zandik'' from Syriac ''zaddiq'' 'righteous' as a Manichaean technical term for 'listeners' (i.e. lay persons, as contradistinguished from the Manichaean elite). Bevan's derivation was widely accepted until the 1930s, especially amongst scholars of Semitic languages, but was discredited following a comprehensive review of both Arabic and Iranian usage by H. H. Schaeder (1930). Schaeder pointed out that the substantive was ''zand'', not ''zandik'' (an etymology would thus have to explain ''zand'', not ''zandik''), as ''-ik'' was merely a regular
Middle Iranian The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian language ...
adjectivizing suffix. An alternative interpretation that explains both 'Manichaean' and 'heretic' derives the substantive in ''zandik'' from
Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...
''zan'' 'to know, to explain', which is also the origin of Middle Persian ' zand' (a class of exegetical commentaries) and '
Pazand Pazend () or Pazand (; ) is one of the writing systems used for the Middle Persian language. It was based on the Avestan alphabet, a phonetic alphabet originally used to write Avestan, the language of the Avesta, the primary sacred texts of Zor ...
' (a writing system). In this explanation, the term ''zandik'' came to be applied to anyone who gave greater weight to human interpretation than to scripture (perceived to be divinely transmitted). Prior to Schaeder's review, the term was commonly assumed to first explain 'Manichaean', and to then have developed a meaning of 'heretic' as a secondary development. In that model, the term referred to Manichaeans because of their disposition to interpret and explain the scriptures of other religions in accordance with their own ideas.


In inscriptions

Under the Sassanids (224-651 CE), the previously informal indigenous Iranian religious tradition now known as 'Zoroastrianism' was mediated and formalized into the systemized configuration with which it survives today. The ''
Denkard The ''Dēnkard'' or ''Dēnkart'' (Middle Persian: 𐭣𐭩𐭭𐭪𐭠𐭫𐭲 "Acts of Religion") is a 10th-century compendium of Zoroastrian beliefs and customs during the time. The ''Denkard'' has been called an "Encyclopedia of Mazdaism" an ...
'', a 9th-11th century work of Zoroastrian tradition, attributes this systemization of doctrine—in which certain beliefs and traditions were seen as definite while others were considered unacceptable—to an initiative by Tansar, high priest under
Ardashir I Ardashir I (), also known as Ardashir the Unifier (180–242 AD), was the founder of the Sasanian Empire, the last empire of ancient Iran. He was also Ardashir V of the Kings of Persis, until he founded the new empire. After defeating the last Par ...
, the founder of the dynasty. The development of a particular orthodoxy is also indicated by other sources, such as the ''
Letter of Tansar The Letter of Tansar () was a 6th-century Sassanid propaganda instrument that portrayed the preceding Arsacid period as morally corrupt and heretical (to Zoroastrianism), and presented the first Sassanid dynast Ardashir I as having "restored" the f ...
'', which additionally suggests that the systemization of the Zoroastrian church was part of a greater state-sponsored "revival" of Iranian values, apparently as a Sassanian reaction to the perceived cultural "corruptions" of the preceding (likewise Iranian, but Hellenistic) Arsacid Parthian dynasts. The Arsacids were probably not as culturally " un-Iranian" as Tansar's/Ardashir's propagandistic justification to overthrow them indicates, and it isn't even clear whether the systemization had any effect on the general populace in Sassanid times itself (or whether this first occurred in the post-Sassanian period). However, literary and epigraphic evidence from the third century onwards indicates that Sassanid-era priests in positions of authority persecuted individuals who held beliefs that were in not in accord with their (Sassanid-mediated) brand of Zoroastrianism. Among this epigraphic evidence are the 3rd/4th-century inscriptions of
Kartir Kartir (also spelled Karder, Karter and Kerdir; Middle Persian: 𐭪𐭫𐭲𐭩𐭫 ''Kardīr'') was a powerful and influential Zoroastrian priest during the reigns of four Sasanian kings in the 3rd century. His name is cited in the inscriptions ...
, Tansar's successor and high priest under three of Ardashir I's successors. In his own inscription on the
Ka'ba-ye Zartosht Kaaba, Ka'ba-ye Zartosht (), also called the Kaaba or Cube of Zoroaster, is a rectangular stepped stone structure in the Naqsh-e Rustam compound beside Zangiabad, Fars, Zangiabad village in Marvdasht county in Fars province, Fars, Iran. The Naqs ...
, Kartir states (''KKZ'' 8–9) that he persecuted "Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins, Nasoreans (Judeo-Christians), Christians, 'Maktaks' (Mandaeans, Manichaeans?) and ''zandiks''." Kartir's inscription is the earliest epigraphic evidence of the word ''zandik''. Although the precise meaning of ''zandik'' is not evident from Kartir's use of the term, it is commonly assumed to mean 'heretic', or 'unorthodox' in relation to Kartir's ideology.cf. However, none of Kartir's inscriptions actually define the contents of his orthodoxy. From this inscription and another at Sar Mashad, it appears that the only doctrine that Kartir was concerned with was the belief in a hereafter, a heaven and a hell, with one or the other as the final destination of the soul as reward or punishment for deeds in this life. Nonetheless, in 1920s-1960s scholarship, Kartir's silence on the subject precipitated an '' ex silencio'' view that the 'heresy' in question must have been
Zurvanism Zurvanism is a fatalistic religious movement of Zoroastrianism in which the divinity Zurvan is a first principle (primordial creator deity) who engendered equal-but-opposite twins, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. Zurvanism is also known as "Zu ...
, a now-extinct branch of Zoroastrianism influenced by Hellenistic and/or Babylonian notions of the hereafter. The word ''zandik'' was even speculated to be the proper name of a particular (unattested) priestly school that embraced Zurvanite doctrine, to which a number of unappealing aspects of Zoroastrian religious praxis were then attributed. Modern Iranian scholarship is much less inclined to wild speculation, and these hypothetical constructs are no longer followed today. Noticeably absent from Kartir's list is any immediately identifiable mention of Manichaeans, who were intermittently persecuted by the Sassanid establishment, also by Kartir, who is explicitly named as one of Mani's persecutor's in Manichaean sources. There are three suggested reasons to explain this anomaly: a) The conventional view is that Kartir includes them under the term 'Maktak'; b) an alternate position is that Kartir's text dates from the early period of Bahram I's rule when Mani still had Shapur I's and Hormizd I's protection; c) the third view is that Manichaeans are included in 'zandik'.


In tradition

The term ''zandik'' appears once in the 9th/10th-century texts of Zoroastrian tradition (the so-called
Pahlavi books Middle Persian literature is the corpus of written works composed in Middle Persian, that is, the Middle Iranian dialect of Persia proper, the region in the south-western corner of the Iranian plateau. Middle Persian was the prestige dialect dur ...
). In this one instance, in '' Daedestan i Menog-i Khrad'' 36.16, the term appears as an abstract noun ('zandikih') and is explained to be the thirteenth most heinous crime.


References

{{Reflist Zoroastrian terminology Heresy ar:زندقة