Mazdakism

[Zostrianos]

Doing a bit of searching online, I came across an interesting religious movement in late Antiquity: Mazdakism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazdakism#Ethical_and_social_principles), named after its founder Mazdak, a Zoroastrian Persian prophet who preached egalitarianism and equal sharing of resources - and it's been touted as an early form of Communism:

Two distinguishing factors of Mazdak's teaching were the reduction of the importance of religious formalities—the true religious person being the one who understood and related correctly to the principles of the universe—and a criticism of the strong position of mainstream Zoroastrian clergy, who, he believed, had oppressed the Persian population and caused much poverty.

Mazdak emphasized good conduct, which involved a moral and ascetic life, no killing and not eating flesh (which contained substances solely from Darkness), being kind and friendly and living in peace with other people.
In many ways Mazdak's teaching can be understood as a call for social revolution, and has been referred to as early "communism".
According to Mazdak, God had originally placed the means of subsistence on earth so that people should divide them among themselves equally, but the strong had wronged the weak, seeking domination and causing the contemporary inequality. This in turn empowered the Five Demons that turned men from Righteousness - these were Envy, Wrath, Vengeance, Need and Greed. To prevail over these evils, justice had to be restored and everybody should share excess possessions with his fellow men. Mazdak allegedly planned to achieve this by making all wealth common or by re-distributing them, although it is unclear how he intended to organize that in terms of regulations and to what extent his position has been caricatured by hostile sources.[ The sources mostly dwell on the alleged "sharing" of women, the resulting sexual promiscuity and the confusion of the line of descent. Since the latter is a standard accusation against heretical sects, its veracity has been doubted by researchers; it is likely that Mazdak took measures against the widespread polygamy of the rich and lack of wives for the poor.
.....
With the King's backing Mazdak could embark on a program of social reform, which involved pacifism, anti-clericalism and aid programs for helping the poor. Mazdak had government warehouses opened to help the poor. He also had all the Zoroastrian fire temples closed except the three major ones. The (largely hostile) sources also report that, despite the concepts of good conduct and pacifism, the followers of Mazdak raided the palaces and harems of the rich and seized the valuables to which they believed they had equal rights.

[Zealot]

I've heard of a few religious movements like this. It seems that most of the early primitive attempts at Communism (well, not Communism, but egalitarianism and reform) were religious in nature.

[Raúl Duke]

Perhaps in many historical eras, class struggle have had to carry a cloak of religion to be viable, acceptable, and widespread.

After all, throughout much of history monarchs and tyrants have alluded to "God's Will" or the "Will of the Heavens" as justification for their system. These religious movements take the same justification and invert it to support social reform, etc. In those eras, it seemed that kind of justification has had a lot of resonance. Not much anymore, in our secular age.

[pluckedflowers]

The sources mostly dwell on the alleged "sharing" of women, the resulting sexual promiscuity and the confusion of the line of descent.[/B][/I]

This also comes up in the sources on Sheikh Bedreddin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Bedreddin), who led a rebellion against the early Ottoman dynasty. The Turkish Poet Nazim Hikmet has a poem about Bedreddin (http://cetinbayramogluefsaneler.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/the-epic-of-sheik-bedreddin-nazim-hikmet/) in which he mentions this and recalls the Communist Manifesto: "The bourgeois sees his wife a mere instrument of production. He hears that the instruments of production are to be exploited in common, and, naturally, can come to no other conclusion that the lot of being common to all will likewise fall to the women."

[fabian]

THE FIFTEENTH SECTION GIVES AN ACCOUNT OF THE TENETS HELD BY THE FOLLOWERS OF MAZDAK.—Mazdak was a holy and learned man, contemporary with king Kobad; his religion was extensively diffused, but he was at last put to death by the illustrious Nushirvan; his tenets were as follow: from the commencement without beginning, the world had two creators; the agent of good, Yazdan, “God,” or “light;” and the agent of evil, Ahriman, or “darkness.” The supreme God is the author of good, and from him proceeds nothing but good; consequently, intelligences, souls, heavens, and stars are his creation, in all which Ahriman has no share whatever; the elements and their combina*tions are, in like manner, the productions of the Lord; the influence of fire imparts warmth to those stricken with cold; the breathing of the winds gives coolness and ease to those consumed by heat; the water satisfies those parched with thirst; the earth is the place of ambulation. In like manner, their combinations, such as gold and silver among minerals; the fruit-bearing trees among vegetables; the ox, horse, sheep, and camel, of animals; the pious and beneficent among mankind, are his creation: but the consuming of animals by fire; the destruction of living creatures by the sultry simoom (wind); the foundering of ships in floods; the cutting bodies asunder by iron, or their being pricked by thorns; rapacious and noxious animals, such as lions, tigers, scorpions, serpents, and the like, are all the works of Ahriman; and as he has no share in the empyreal heaven, they style it Behisht; but as he possesses a joint authority in the elemental world, opposition has consequently arisen, and no form subsisting in it is possessed of permanent duration. For exam*ple: the Almighty bestows life, and Ahriman puts to death; life is the creation of God, death that of Ahriman; God produced health, Ahriman, pain and disease; the Bestower of blessings created paradise, Ahriman, hell; the worship of the Lord is there*fore most meet, as his kingdom is immense; and Ahriman has no power, except in the elemental world; in the next place, the spirit of every one devoted to God ascends on high, but that of Ahri*man's servants abides in hell. Wisdom therefore requires the man of intelligence to separate himself from the Ahrimans; for although the author of evil may afflict such a person, yet on being delivered from the body, his soul ascends to Heaven, whither Ahriman has not the power of coming.

In some parts of the Desnad, Mazdak says: “Existence arises from two principles or sources, Shíd and Tár,” i. e.: ‘light’ and ‘darkness,’ which he afterwards interprets to mean God and Ahriman. He afterwards says: “The works of light result from choice, but those of darkness from accident; light is endued with knowledge and sensation, darkness is ignorant; the mixture of light and darkness is accidental, and the disengagement of light from darkness is also accidental, and not the result of choice; whatever is good in this world is an advantage emanating from light, whilst evil and corruption arise from darkness; when the parts of light are separated from dark*ness, the compound becomes dissolved, which means resurrection.” Again, he says in the same volume: “There are three roots, or principles: water, fire, and earth; when these are blended together, the tendency to good or evil arising from their mixture is also accidental; whatever results from their purest parts tends to good, and what*ever is derived from their grosser parts tends to evil.” He says in the same volume: “God is seated on a throne in the world, the source of all things, just as kings are on the throne of sovereignty in the lower world. In his presence are the four ener*gies, namely, Bázkushá, or ‘power of discrimina*tion;’ Yáddah, or ‘power of memory;’ Dáná, or ‘faculty of comprehension;’ and Surá, or ‘glad*ness;’ in like manner as the affairs of royalty turn on four persons: “the Supreme Pontiff, the principal Hírbud, the commander in chief of the forces, and the master of the revels. And these four persons conduct the affairs of the world through the agency of seven others, inferior to them in rank, namely, chieftain, administrator, Banúr, Dairván (head of a monastery), agent, Dostúr, and slave; which seven characters com*prehend under them the twelve Rawání, or ‘orbits’ of spirits, namely: the speaker, giver, taker, bearer, eater, runner, grazer, slayer, smiter, comer, goer, and abider. Whatever man unites in himself the four energies, the seven agents, and the twelve qualities, becomes in this lower world like a creator or protector, and is delivered from all kinds of embarrassment.”

It is also stated in the same volume: “Whatever is not according with the light and agrees with darkness, becomes wrath, destruction, and dis*cord. And whereas almost all contentions among mankind have been caused by riches and women, it is therefore necessary to emancipate the female sex and have wealth in common: he therefore made all men partners in riches and women; júst as they are of fire, water, and grass,” In the same volume we find: “It is a great injustice that one man's wife should be altogether beautiful, whilst another's is quite the contrary; it therefore becomes imperative, on the score of justice and true religion, for a good man to resign his lovely wife for a short time to his neighbour, who has one both evil and ugly; and also take to himself for a short time his neighbour's deformed con*sort.”

Mazdak has also said: “It is altogether repre*hensible and improper that one man should hold a distinguished rank, and another remain poor and destitute of resources: it is therefore incum*bent on the believer to divide his wealth with his coreligionist; and so taught the religion of Zar*dusht, that he should even send his wife to visit him, that he may not be deprived of female society. But if his coreligionist should prove unable to acquire wealth, or show proofs of extrava*gance, infatuation, or insanity, he is to be con*fined to the house, and measures adopted to pro*vide him with food, clothing, and all things requi*site: whoever assents not to these arrangements is consequently a follower of Ahriman's, and they get contributions from him by compulsion.

Farhád, Shíráb, and Ayin Hoshpúyár adopted this creed; besides these, Muhammed Kúlí the Kurd, Ismail Bég, the Georgian, and Ahmadai of Tiran (a village near Ispahan) possessed this faith. From them it has been ascertained, that the followers of Mazdak do not at present assume the dress of Gebers, but practise their religion secretly among the Muhammedans. They also showed the author the volume of Mazdak, called the Desnad, written in old Persian, which Ayin Shakib, the grandfather of Ayin Hosh, translated into popular Persian. Farhod was a man of great intelligence, and assumed the name of Muhammed Said Beg among the Muhammedans: Shirab went under the name of Shir Muhammed, and Ayin Hosh under that of Muhammed Akil; and as they were eminent in their peculiar science, they pos*sessed the volume called the Desnád. Such is the detailed account of the Parsi systems, agreeably to the promise made in the beginning of this work, into which not a single one has been admitted which has not either been taken from their own books, or heard from the followers of the respective creeds, as their enemies have, from hostile motives, falsely ascribed to them various erroneous doctrines.