ABSTRACT
This chapter gives a survey of certain trends in the development of religion in the Sasanian Empire. Right from the start, the Sasanian kings made it clear that they saw their realm as a Zoroastrian empire. The core notion of their imperial programme was that of a single king to rule all Zoroastrians with the support of Ohrmazd, who had put the king on his throne. The early Sasanians made a huge investment in spreading this ideology throughout the empire. For this, they used epigraphy, art, coinage, and narratives. Once established, such material information begins to disappear, and we only encounter Sasanian Zoroastrianism and its priesthood through the often hostile eyes of Jewish and Christian inhabitants (or neighbours) of the Sasanian Empire. The chapter attempts to see how we can best deal with these internal and external data and with the clear evidence for a pervasive process of transformation that took place in late Sasanian times and which is known chiefly because it has informed living Zoroastrianism ever since.
