Western Persian provinces Aramean in race and language

"In Persia the Gospel came into collision with an official religion which was strongly organized, Iranian Mazdaeism. The priests of this cult, who were attached in each village to the local Pyraeum, were governed by a kind of provincial bishop, the Mobed. The Mobeds (Magi) had a head, the Mobedan-mobed or Archimagus, one of the most important personages of the Persian State. In the western provinces, which were Aramaean in race and language, this hierarchy represented little more than a facade."