While the Zoroastrian population’s swift embrace of Islam was primarily for social and economic reasons, with genuine acceptance of the faith of Islam following only later, we can only presume the same with regards to the other religions of the country. It is true that we hear only very little of them, firstly because of the small number of people following them, but also because it is not always clear in the Arabic sources which religion the converts came from, and finally because the reports of the faiths themselves are mostly missing. At least we have the Christian testimonies, which | speak of a trend to apostasy in Fars as well as elsewhere, and of ‘seducers’ who gained importance around 700. However, these sources do not give any particular reasons for apostasy. Even so, such causes are obvious: economic considerations and the possibility for social advancement would certainly have played a role here, too, and in addition there was occasionally the necessity to evade punishment. The Christians in Fars soon saw a complete collapse in their religion and their Christian communities vanished without a trace (Source: Iran in Early Islamic Era).
Persian Reception of Islam: Beginning of a Cultural Construction
