Sexual Communism: the Rebellion of Mazdak

Sexual Communism: A New Look at the Rebellion of Mazdak


For the Sasanian Empire of Iran (224-650 CE), early 6th century CE marked a critical point. This era, the reign of Kawād I and Xosrō I, started with a major rebellion and concluded with fundamental changes in the administration of the Sasanian Empire. These changes were so significant that they are often seen by scholars as forming a major break-point in the Sasanian history and obscuring our view into the world that preceded it.

The rebellion that was the initial cause of these reforms is commonly attributed to a certain Mazdak, a neo-Manichean reformer who preached a 'religion' of social equality. What made Mazdak's ideas particularly important is that he initially managed to convert the newly crowned Emperor, Kawād I, into his religion, an incident that enraged the established nobility and the Zoroastrian priesthood. The affects of this conversion and eventual re-conversion that signaled the beginning of socio-political reforms of Kawād and his son Xosrō are beyond the scope of the present work.

This paper will try to concern itself with one particular aspect of Mazdakite 'communism', notably the issue of sexual communism or communal sharing of partners. This is a feature of Mazdak's religion that put it most significantly at odds with the norms of the society in which it appeared. Sexual Communism of the Mazdakite religion made it most easy for its enemies, the established Zoroastrian clerical system and the nobility, to discredit the whole movement.

As we will see, Mazdakism and its later post-Islamic reincarnations, is particularly interesting since it is only known through the writings of its enemies and no first hand account of the religion has survived to our day. This paper will study various Sasanian, and early Islamic accounts of Mazdakism, as well as Byzantine and modern interpretations of it, and try to show that 'sexual communism' was indeed not an inbuilt feature of this movement and was rather attributed to Mazdakism in order to discredit the religion in the eyes of the public and the administration.