Mazdakism...Early Socialism?

[Hexen]

I was looking through wikipedia about the religion/philosophy of Ancient Persia and I found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazdakism

So it seems like the ideals of socialism has always existed and there's any opinions about it?

[Andropov]

Interesting.
Ive heard similar arguements for the likes of Brehon law which contained a form of communal ownership.

[Hoxhaist]

These groups can be collectivist but socialism and communism are both defined in liberation from capitalism and exploitation

[ComradeOm]

I tend to agree with the above post. These, and similar, movements can best be described as 'proto-socialist' as they do share some similarities with modern socialist thought. However the latter is, well, modern with socialism as a political movement, which is no more than two centuries old, being largely concerned with capitalist relations

[gilhyle]

Engels has some comments somewhere about the moslem sect in the 9th century (cant remember their name) which advocated communal ownership and links it to the cyclical struggle between town and country - havent got the reference but the basic approach has to be right : namely political - and relgious ideas - have to be understood not on the basis of formal similarity in their propositions, but by reference to the social context which produced them.