Not only was it enjoined by Islam that the Christians and...

Not only was it enjoined by Islam that the Christians and Jews must be treated with fairness and consideration because of their being the “People of the Book,” but according to the clear directions of the Prophet the Zoroastrians were also to be treated at par with them, and hence entitled to the same privileges and concessions as enjoyed by the Muslims. All that was required of the non-Muslims was payment of a nominal poll-tax for the security they enjoyed under the Muslim rule.

In return they were exempted not only from the payment of zakat, the State tax which every Muslim had to pay, but also from military service. Those non-Muslims who entered the military service had not to pay the poll-tax. The conquest of Persia by the Arabs brought relief to the Christians.

Earlier, the Sassanid kings had fomented bitter struggles between the Jacobites and the Nestorians; they had also been persecuting the Christian sects within their domains because of the Christian aggression from abroad. King Khusrau II ordered a general persecution of the Christians as he had suffered a defeat at the hands of Heraclius, a Christian monarch. The masses also welcomed the new creed.

The Zoroastrian priests held in contempt the working classes­artisans, mechanics, laborers, agriculturists-who defiled fire, earth, and water in pursuance of their trades and professions. The laboring classes in the Zoroastrian society had the same miserable lot as the Sudras in the caste ­ridden Hindu society. In the new faith of the conquerors, the common man found a panacea to most of the social ills from which he had so terribly suffered.

Islam recognizes no distinctions of caste and occupation; it gives no preference to one class of individuals over another save on the basis of merit; and advocates a theory of human brotherhood which transcends geographical and political limits. With the downfall of the Sassanid dynasty, Zoroastrianism lost its powerful support. In the altered circumstances it found it extremely difficult to hold its own against the contending forces competing for supremacy.

To its spiritual bankruptcy may be added the social confusion for which its priests were chiefly responsible. The Zoroastrian masses welcomed the new faith because of its liberalism, dynamism, and absence of parochialism. They were also drawn towards it because of the many similarities between their faith and the new one.