Behafarid

Behāfarīd (Middle Persian: Weh-āfrīd, Persian: به‌آفرید‎‎, also spelled Bihāfarīd) was an 8th-century Persian Zoroastrian heresiarch[1] who started a religious peasant revolt with elements from Zoroastrianism and Islam. He believed in Zoroaster and upheld all Zoroastrian institutions. His followers prayed seven times a day facing the sun, prohibited intoxicants, and kept their hair long and disallowed sacrifices of cattle except when they were decrepit.[2] His revolt was quelled by the Abbasid general Abu Muslim, and he was executed by hanging. His followers, however, believed that he would descend again. Some of his followers joined the Ustadh Sis movement.

In a fairly detailed passage on the life and beliefs of Behāfarīd, Zarinkoob writes that Behāfarīd (d. 748-49) was born in Zozan, Khorasan. He further proposes that the reason for the short life of Behāfarīd’s movement was that it angered Muslims and Zoroastrians alike. It is said that when Abu Moslem arrived in Nayshāpūr, mobeds and hirbods assembled before him and complained that Behāfarīd had tainted their religion. Abu Moslem dispatched Abdullah b. Sho'ba to fight him. Behāfarīd was found in Badghays Mountain and was brought to Abu Moslem, who ordered him killed.[3]

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References

  1. ↑ Encyclopædia Iranica, BEHĀFARĪD, Zoroastrian heresiarch and self-styled prophet, killed 748-49
  2. ↑ Al-Bīrūnī: Father of Comparative Religion
  3. ↑ ʻAbdolhossein Zarrinkoob (2016). Two Centuries of Silence) translated by Avid Kamgar (1st ed. 2016 ed.). Bloomington, USA: AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-52462-253-4.pp.108–111
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