Few Persians and fewer Westerners today know the period between Darius and the Islamic conquests well, about their region’s Christian past. I will simply share some broader strokes to encourage curious investigation.

Persia received the faith early through the apostles Thomas, Thaddeus and Bartholomew, but when the Roman empire crowned Christianity in purple, the Persian empire stained it with blood and Persian Christendom thrived and suffered under Zoroastrian and Islamic ascendancy.

In the 2nd century, Eusebius described thriving communities in places like Nisibis and Seleucia-Ctesiphon where Thaddeus’ disciples like Saint Mari baptized converts along and beyond the Tigris, founding the Church of the East, the national church of Sasanian Perisa. These seeds spread to India (the Syro-Malabar tradition), Mongolia and China (brought by Alopen in the 7th century).

Martyrs under Shapur II

After Constantine’s conversation, Persian leadership came to consider Christianity as a Roman movement and the later part of Shapur II’s rule (309-379 AD) saw perhaps 16,000 Christians martyred, remembered by Catholic feast days on April 6th, 22nd and May 9th. We can only mention a few, saints Bademus, Miles, Acepsimas, Barbasceminus, Daniel & Verda, Jonas & Barachisius.

Nestorian Academies

Yet by the grace of God, persecution could not squash the embers of faith and suffering became scholarship. Driven away by Eastern Roman persecution and welcomed by Khosrau I, Greek & Syriac Nestorian scholars brought their libraries, founding and flourishing in great academies farhan = knowledge, farhanestán = place of knowledge in Nisibis, Gundeshapur (Beth Lapat) etc. where for a time they translated manuscripts into Middle Persian and taught in Syriac (which would remain the language of medicine for some time).

When Caliph al Ma’mún expanded Baghdad’s house of wisdom in 832, he staffed it with Gondeshapur’s graduates emulating its methods, translating vast volumes of Greek learning into Arabic.

Mongolians

Before Genghis, the Keraite and Naiman tribes converted to Nestorianism and ruled much of Central Asia until Genghis’ conquests. Under the Mongol empire and Ilkhanate, Doquz Khatun had Christians spared (e.g. in Baghdad) and churches patronized. Monks like Bar Sauma and Patriarch Yahballaha III visited Rome as envoys for the Khan, seeking to reunite the church (though Eastern bishops rejected it).

Armenians

Armenia and Persia have had ties since 515 BC, suffering under Shapur’s persecutions (where e.g. the Etchmiadzin Cathedral was destroyed.)

Shah Abbas I (1587–1629) brought Armenians into modern Iran in great numbers to seed his new capital of Esfahan in the New Julfa quarter, whose churches challenge the minarets. Armenians thrived here as merchants, scribes and artisans. The Vank Cathedral marries Safavid splendor and Christian devotion—frescoes of Eden beside Persian arabesques. They keep their community and faith today.

Sampsonia Teresa

Circasian Orthodox, born to Shah Abbas the Great’s brother in law, Ismail Khan, and married an English adventurer. They traveled Europe together, meeting the Grand Duke of Muscovy, the Pope, the King of Poland, Holy Roman Emperor and countless others. After his death, the Pope received her in Rome where she spent the her last 30 years.

Some believe she was (daughter of) a slave, purchased from Crimean traders, growing up in the harem.

Until Today

By the Qajar era, Western missionaries, Catholic and Protestant, came but failed to convert many. The Armenians and Nestorians, once mighty, clung to life, but faded with emigration and changing tides. Yet in their churches, liturgies and stubborn memory, they bore witness to a faith that outlived emperors and caliphs alike.

During WWI, the Ottomans massacred Assyrians, who fled to Tehran or refugee camps in British-held Mesopotamia. The 117th Patriarch Benyamin XXI was killed by Kurdish warlord Simko Shikak.

Some Pictures:

Here is the Black Church, built in 66 AD, in modern Iran.

The Church of St. Thomas in Western Iran, dates to the 5th century.

The Anikova dish, made by Sogdians, was found in Perm, Russia, depicting the Siege of Jerricho:

Here is Moses before the Pharoah in a Syriac Syriac is a later form of Aramaic, the written language of the Achaemenid Persian empire. bible:

Here is a 10th century Christian Sogdian text:

Here is the Gospel of Matthew in Persian (1312, by Mas’ud ibn Ibhrahim), with a curious section crossed out:

St. Stepanos Armenian monestary in Julfa, Iran:

St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church in Tehran:

N.b. “Nestorian” is a flawed concept. Researching the Nestorian split, I believe Nestorius’ Christokolos was synonymous with Theotokos, but cultural misunderstandings and semantics got in the way. At minimum, Nestorians followed the Nicene Creed and the Assyrian Church practices open communion. The Assyrian Church of the East seems in no way heretical and practices open communion. With the Catholic Church, it declared:

As heirs and guardians of the faith received from the Apostles as formulated by our common Fathers in the Nicene Creed, we confess one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten of the Father from all eternity who, in the fullness of time, came down from heaven and became man for our salvation

But far from constituting “one and another”, the divinity and humanity are united in the person of the same and unique Son of God and Lord Jesus Christ, who is the object of a single adoration.

We both recognize the legitimacy and rightness of these expressions of the same faith and we both respect the preference of each Church in her liturgical life and piety.

Here is a gorgeous, musical Our Father in Aramaic: