A Survey of Causes of Formation of Mazdak's Revolutionary Idealism and its Effects on the Failure of Political Movements in Sassanid Era

Most of the studies conducted on Mazdak’s movement and his acts consider the class structure of Iranian society in Sassanid era as the main cause of the formation of this radical movement; a movement which is seen to have been intensified by the inefficiency of the contemporary social context. In the same vein, they tend to represent it as a logical and real movement. This research, however, aimed to show that the class structure of the ancient Iranian society which was deeply rooted in the realities of Iranian society, not only was not the cause of instability and public discontent, but also it was the most important factor regarding stability and potency of social context and structure as well as consolidation and power continuity and wealth generation. Mazdak's ideas are mostly the result of the thoughts influenced by idealist philosophers of ancient Greece, which were formed in Gnosis discourse of western Asia contemporary with Sassanid period or a bit earlier, and thus had non-Iranian and bizarre roots different from socio-geographical realities in Iran. Therefore, this movement was not successful in absorbing the elite class and in forming and offering a new structure of society and government. Its revolutionary and idealistic effects resulted in the failure of many riots and movements.