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| | Media, Persia, Parthia, & Iran |
 | | A much larger and more vigorous Zoroastrian community is found in the refuge of India, where it is still known by the Middle Persian word for Persian, "Parsi." The Parsis, however, do not accept converts, and the intermarriage of community members outside of India has resulted in a decline in their numbers. |
 | | While the official religion of Sassanid Persia was Zoroastrianism, there was also a Christian community, whose line of Patriarchs "of the East" continues to the present, and refugee pagans were accepted from the increasing intolerance of Christian Rome. |
 | | Most noteworthy in that respect were the last Scholarch of Plato's Academy, Damascius, and his colleague Simplicius, who fled after the Emperor Justinian closed the Academy in 529. |
| www.friesian.com /iran.htm (2645 words) |
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