However, unlike his father, who had returned to the policy of religious tolerance which had been practiced during the reign of first two shahs, Ardashir I () and Shapur I (), Hormizd persecuted the Manicheans who had lived peacefully during the reign of his father. Hormizd reportedly founded the rural district of Kurang (or Wahisht-Hormozd) near Izeh in the Khuzistan province. Hormizd tried to improve Sasanian relations with Armenia, which had recently under Tiridates III of Armenia declared Christianity as its state religion; he gave his daughter Hormizddukht in marriage to a Mamikonian prince named Vahan.