This is suggested, among other things, by the fact that Christians and Jews had recourse to Sasanian judicial institutions.
A passage from the Mādayān ī Hazār Dādestān (The book of a thousand judgments) suggests that this work—the only Sasanian legal document preserved to date—is a compilation of Sasanian judicial cases and decisions going back to the pre-Islamic period. The compilation includes very few references to non-Zoroastrians. Among those is one particular regulation addressing the question of the property of an heirless deceased:
Non-believers [i.e., non-Zoroastrians] are not obliged to settle all [the debts of a deceased Zoroastrian head of household, as this must be done by his successors, just as] they also do not become his heirs. As regards non-believers—except for the fact that they shall not be appointed stūrs [persons upon whom is laid the obligation to provide a successor for a dead man who left no male issue], as well as for everything which comes, is due in line of direct family succession or [agnatic] kinship—[ … they ha]ve [?] decisions concerning everything else as the same as those for Zoroastrians.158
The regulation deals with non-Zoroastrian heirs in a Zoroastrian household. It stipulates that there is no obligation incumbent upon non-Zoroastrians to appoint a successor for an heirless male (a stūr-ship). A possible reason for this rule was an interest by the state religion in preventing the proliferation of non-Zoroastrian successors.159 For present purposes, of special interest is the final part of the regulation, indicating that non-Zoroastrians, except in matters pertaining to inheritance, are liable to the same decisions as Zoroastrians. This suggests that, at least partially, non-Zoroastrians fell under the same legal jurisdiction as their Zoroastrian neighbors.
Two other sources that suggest that non-Zoroastrians had access to Sasanian courts are: the Life of Mār Abā, the catholicos, patriarch of the East Syrian Church (fl. 540-52); and a legal treatise, Maktbānūtā d-‘al Dinē (A collection of judgments), written by the East Syrian cleric Išō‘bokt (eighth century; exact dates unknown).160 According to the Life of Mār Abā, the catholicos was originally a Zoroastrian who had converted to Christianity. As a result, he had to leave his official position in the Sasanian court, and he faced charges from his previous coreligionists: “As the king released him, the king announced: that you have trespassed our orders and came, we forgive you. But these four very heavy charges, which the Magians [mgušhē] bring against you, are as follows: that you have turned people away from the Magian religion and converted them to Christianity; that you did not permit your fellow people to take multiple wives; that you drew lawsuits from the Magian way to yourself; that you were first a heathen [ḥanpā] and later became a Christian.”161 A primary concern for the accusers of Mār Abā was the fact that he was drawing Christians away from the Sasanian judiciary, indicating that such recourse was an option.162
Išō‘bokt’s work may serve as further indication of Christian use of Sasanian courts. The treatise is an attempt to harmonize legislative measures that had already been established under the Sasanians and were applied later by the episcopal tribunal.163 Chapter 3 of the present study discusses the contents of Išō‘bokt’s compilation in greater detail. For now, it should suffice to note that his work refers to matters that fall under the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical as well as secular judges. As a Christian clergyman, Išō‘bokt sought to restrict Christians to the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical judge. Drawing from earlier materials that predated Islamic rule—most notably, from Zoroastrian law—Išō‘bokt was among the first ecclesiastical jurists to attempt to introduce a unified religious and civil corpus of ecclesiastical regulations to the Eastern Christian churches. His notion of a judiciary that embodied both legal realms, the religious and the secular, was likely to have been inspired by a Zoroastrian tradition. Indeed, ecclesiastical principles pertaining to civil law, such as questions of inheritance and marriage, had already emerged in the fifth century; yet the absence of an ecclesiastical civil jurisdiction could no longer be tolerated by the church.
In Išō‘bokt’s treatise and in the Life of Mār Abā, there is an attempt to draw Christians to ecclesiastical courts. The East Syrian Church, operating in Sasanian society, sought to create its own autonomous institutions.164 The reign of the Sasanian monarch Yazdegerd I (fl. 399-420) marked the beginning of an era of toleration toward non-Zoroastrian minorities in the Sasanian Empire. One expression of this Sasanian policy was a growing cooperation between rulers and local bishops.165 An immediate benefit to the church was its ability to organize itself and consolidate the authority of its leaders, despite their constant dependence on the whim of Sasanian rulers. The synod of 410 announced Yazdegerd’s “Edict of Toleration” to the East Syrian Church. The edict granted an autonomous standing to the church within the Sasanian Empire, thus reinforcing the position of its ecclesiastical leadership. Most important, “the king offered to support the bishops’ edicts and judicial decisions with the full coercive power of the monarchy.”166
The synod of 410 also marks the first official recognition of the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the catholicos, as head of the East Syrian Church.167 In his capacity, the catholicos would also serve as the supreme judicial authority of his church.168 By 424, the East Syrians were insisting that internal disputes not be settled through the intervention of external elements.169 Generally speaking, the fifth century marks the beginning of the organizational consolidation of the East Syrian Church with a permanent presence in Sasanian society. It is in this context that bishops functioned as judges and had their decisions enforced through the Sasanian state.170 Whereas the catholicos stood at the top of this legal order, East Syrian bishoprics, scattered over a wide territorial jurisdiction, were facilitating the judicial activities of local ecclesiastical judges.171
Another source of Christian judicial authority under Sasanian rule can be seen in the roles performed by East Syrian monastic communities. The Syriac treatise better known as the Liber Graduum, or The Book of Steps, is a fourth-century work outlining the structure and principles of an ideal Christian society.172 The work is thought by modern scholars to have been composed over a stretch of time in the context of a monastic community. It addresses two principal groups of Christians: the upright, kēnē; and the perfect, gmirē. The members of both groups are considered to have reached a high level of spirituality on “a road to salvation,” yet the different designations denote a hierarchy in which the perfect are superior to the upright in their spiritual achievements. Whereas the upright assume leadership within Christian communities, the perfect are depicted as homeless individuals who wander around, begging and mediating disputes among the believers. Chapter 4 of the Liber Graduum instructs the perfect one: “When you meet people who are at enmity with each other, say, Brothers, blessed are the peacemakers [‘ābday šlāmā], for they shall be called sons of God (Matt. 5:9). Now peacemakers are those who reconcile enemies who belong to other churches, away from their own.173 They make peace in the land of their Father, and are mediators [meṣ‘āyē] who reconcile people by imploring them, demonstrating lowliness to them, and admonishing them.”174
Jewish Judicial Institutions in the Sasanian Empire
Modern scholars generally agree that the history of the Jews during the later part of Sasanian rule is one of relative religious freedom and tranquillity.175 Part of this reality is attributed to the absence of an interest on the part of the Sasanians to draw converts.176 In contrast to the testimony of contemporary Christian martyrologies, the Babylonian Talmud mentions only sporadic cases in which Zoroastrian priests interacted with Jews.177
With regard to the nature of the Rabbanite leadership in Sasanian Babylonia, Jacob Neusner has argued that “the rabbis carried out crucial community responsibilities as judges and administrators.” As such, the rabbinic courts in
