How was the Development of Christianity within the Persian

Empire different from the Development of Christianity within the Roman Empire?

Ikumi Kimura

Christianity and Persian authority

• Persia had never recognized Christianity as a state religion• No consistent religious policy! Persecution ←→ Protection

e.g. Yazdegerd I (reign: 399-420)

“Isdigirdes, King of the Persians, began to wage war against the churches… A certain bishop, Abdas by name, adorned with many virtues, was stirred with undue zeal and destroyed a Pyreum (Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Ecclesiastical History, V.38)”.

The establishment of a close, good relationship with the shah was the key for the development of Christianity!

Nestorian Characteristic

The Council of Ephesus

condemned Nestorianism (431)

Emperor Zeno closed

the School of Edessa(489)

The Roman Empire

Persia welcomed Nestorian refugees

Scholars transferred to

the School of Nisibis

The Persian Empire

Nestorian characteristic

610~Khosraw II

began patronizing miaphysites

Babai the Great’s adoption of an

extreme Dyophysitism

&Re-emphasis on

Nestorianism

Movement towards

weakening the Church of the

East

After the Arab Invasion ~ Marwanid Caliphate

Changes in the Empire’s capitalCtesiphon → Damascus → Baghdad

New Islamic policies

Christians were categorized as “second-class” citizens

Weakened the power of Catholicoi & its connection

with the authority

Christianity under the Abbasid Caliphate~

• Christians’ freedom of worship and missionaries were granted

• Some reclaimed political importance (e.g. Physicians, pharmacists, doctors)

→ But the Christianity became minority after the threat of Mongolia e.t.c…