Sasanian Court and the Christians: Tolerance or Prejudice

The Christians were the largest religious minorities in the Sasanian period. Considering Sasanians as a government originated from Zoroastrian religious basis, the relationship between Sassanian court and the Christians can be considered a matter of significance. Due to aforementioned historical facts, this article begins with a review of the early days of Christianity and its correlation with Iran during Parthian period and then it is followed by a glance at the spread of Christianity in Sasanian era. Furthermore, the main aim of this article is to review the facts such as formalization of Christianity in Roman Empire, independence of Persian church from Rome, conflicts in Persian church, while studying their influence on the relationship between Sasanian court and the Christians in Iran. This article is based on reports of Syriac and Early Christian chroniclers and is supported by available evidence in Medieval Islamic sources. The method used in this historical survey is to analyze the collected data of written sources with a descriptive-analytical approach.