The Spread of Zoroastrian Religion across the Arabian Peninsula and the relationship of the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) with Zoroastrians

After the institution of Zoroastrian teachings over the Iranian Plateau, the religion was officially supported by Sassanid government. Evangelical religion, Zoroastrian became prominent religion across the Sassanid territory and partly the neighboring areas such as Arabian Peninsula (especially Yemen and Bahrain). Since the settlement of Iranian Zoroastrian in southern and eastern parts of the Peninsula, Arab neighbor tribes gradually tended to communicate with Zoroastrians and eventually accepted the new religion. Based on the current evidence, the spread of Zoroastrian religion across the peninsula was mostly through the commercial relationships as well as the presence of Sasanid guards in eastern borders of peninsula in order to control the rebellious Arab tribes. The present article is aimed to answer two questions: How did Zoroastrian religion spread across the southern and eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula? And what was the relationship of the Prophet (pbuh) and Zaroastrians in the Peninsula? Applying explanatory-interpretative method and employing historical sources, this research reached to these conclusions The spread of Zoroastrian religion across the peninsula initially was the result of military actions and deploying troops in southern parts, while in eastern regions the spread was due to the proximity to Iran, commercial trips and also the presence of Sassanid guards in the borders. The interaction between the Prophet and Zoroastrians initially began by sending letters and continued with no military involvement. No evidence of compulsory abandonment of Zaroastrian religion or forceful submission to Islam exists at these communications. Zoroastrians had to pay Islamic ransom to get permission to live safe inside the Islamic territory.