the pre-islamic mazdak movement

The Pre-Islamic Mazdak Movement
Mazdak is the founding father of Iranian intellectual tradition of communalism and populism. His movement lasted about 30 years (494 - 524 A.D.), and his ideas were instrumental in inspiring many future movements that challenged the Arab rule in Iran and called for equality and justice. It has been said the creation of new ideas usually occurs at times of deep social and historical crisis. This is certaily true of the emergence of Mazdak's theology. The prevailing conditions prior to the emergence of Mazdak were marked by the Sassanids closed society of the caste system; by deep social inequities; by famine, wars, and defeat; and by Piruz's (the Sassanid king 459 - 484 A.D.) high taxation of the poor.
Mazdakism, a Gnostic religious movement, originated as an offshoot of Manichaeanism (Mani, the painter who rose as a prophet some 200 years ago), and there are lines of continuity in Mazdak's dualistic perception of the world that can be traced to Zoroaster. In contrast to unwordly and fatalistic character of Mani's religion, Mazdak's theology was more worldly and optimistic. Unlike Mani, Mazdak did notbelieve in predistination, and sought social solutions in overcoming "the forces of darkness". Mazdak asserted that the world consisted of 3 material elements - soil, water, and fire. Goodness and evil resulted from these elements. Like Mani, he valued spiritual enrichment over material wealth. Yet Mazdak, unlike Mani, preached enjoyment of the pleasure of life without harming others. He forbade a meat diet because he did not believe in bloodshed and slaughtering of animals (just look how far we have gone now today!!!). He preached removal of suffering, called for peace and corporation, and opposed war because he valued human life supremely.
Social issues was a radical move by him. Mazdak asserted that since most communal conflicts are either over property or over women, both of these must become public property to prevent unnecessary bloodshed. Inequality was created through force and violence. (A remark: the great contemporary scholar Ehsan Yarshater contends that Mazdak's call for the distribution of women was in response to the harems of the aristocracy and their acquistion of the wives and daughters of others.)
Kavad (Sassanid king 488 - 531 A.D.) joined his religion and passed new laws easing the tax on the poor and distributing the wheat among them. But soon, the clergy (mobadan) and the aristocracy (ashraf)soon mobilized themselves against Kavad, dethroning him and putting his brother, Jamasb, in power. Kavad fled from prison and musteredenough patronage to seize the crown again. This time, frightened by the increasing independent power of Mazdakis, he sided with mobadan against Mazdakis. When drought brought scarcity of wheat and threat of new famine was imminent, Mazdak encouraged his followers to loot the storage houses of the aristocracy. The nobility appealed to Kavad's son, Khosrou Anushiravan, who was known for his anti-Mazdaki sentiment, for help. Under the pretext of arranging a debate, Anushiravan gathered Mazdak and his followers in the royal garden and buried them alive.
Mazdakism did not die with Mazdak - it lasted for years after his death and inspired other movements for social equality and justice. Arabs came to Iran with this excuse. But perhaps you all heard of movements like Abu-Muslim Khorasani, Babak Khoramdin, and Sarbedaran in later years.