Zoroastrianism—and he was suspected of professing it.

Al-Muʿtaṣim rewarded the secretary with gold and warned, “If you utter a single word, I shall kill you.” (1)

Ibn Abī Dāwūd relates: “I entered upon the Caliph while he was weeping and distraught. He said to me, ‘A man on whom I have lavished two million dinars now wants to assassinate me?! I have given ten million dirhams in charity; take them and distribute them.’” (2)

Afshīn had already sent money ahead to his homeland of Ushrūsana (3) and was preparing to flee there. He then arranged a banquet at which he meant to poison al-Muʿtaṣim and his commanders; if the Caliph did not attend, he would poison the commanders, escape to Armenia, and from there to Ushrūsana. The plot failed. Al-Muʿtaṣim arrested him and his son Ḥasan, and Māzyār was brought in chains. (4)

It is said that he, Afshīn, the mobadh of the king of Soghd, and Marzuban were all presented before al-Muʿtaṣim. Two of them were produced and stripped; the flesh had been flayed from their flanks.

Ibn al-Zayyāt asked Afshīn, “O Ḥaydar, do you recognize these two?”

He replied, “Yes. This one is a muezzin and that one an imam. They built a mosque in Ushrūsana, so I had each of them flogged a thousand lashes, for I have a pact with the kings of Soghd to leave every people to its own religion. These two stormed the idol-house of Ushrūsana, toppled the idols, and turned it into a mosque—so I beat them.”

Ibn al-Zayyāt then said, “And what of the book you gilded and studded with jewels that contains outright unbelief?”

He answered, “It is a volume I inherited from my father, filled with the etiquette and wisdom of the Sasanian kings; I consult it only for lessons in refined conduct,”