All in all, a great, simple introduction to the texts and beliefs of Zoroastrian. If you are looking for a more in-depth examination and discussion, I would recommend books by Jenny Rose and Mary Boyce. Mostly I would notice the elements of rodeo clown personality in preachings of the first prophet on the need to find grass to preserve the order of the all-knowing one.
The early scriptures have the form of prayer, even in the desire to win against hostilities. In later inscriptions, Yasna 43, I quote: I now see you at the rebirth of the new existence, as when you established, for the first time, actions as fee-earning, as well as the words that are to be uttered, and established a bad reward for the bad and a good one for the good p.
I absolutely disagree with C. This is a great book. If by controversy he means scientific method vs blind religious belief, there is not much to say about his comment. A great book, easy to read for both beginners and more experienced. If you are familiar with the works of Professor Skjaervo you know you wont be disappointed. See all 9 reviews. Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. The Spirit of Zoroastrianism. Set up a giveaway. Customers who viewed this item also viewed.
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Centered on the worship of Ahura Mazda, the All-knowing Ruler, Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest religions, though it is not among the best understood. Centered on the worship of Ahura Mazda, the All-knowing Ruler, Zoroastrianism follows the practices and rituals set out by the prophet Zarathustra, according to the indigenous tradition.
As one of the world's great religions, Zoroastrianism has a heritage rich in texts and cultic practices. Paperback , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
To ask other readers questions about The Spirit of Zoroastrianism , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Spirit of Zoroastrianism. Lists with This Book. Nov 10, Grady McCallie rated it liked it. This book has I think received high marks within the field as a collection of translations of Zoroastrian texts from different eras in the development of that faith.
I sought it out with high hopes. Unfortunately, for a couple reasons, this is a problematic text for a lay person, and I'm giving up my effort to read it straight through. Professor Skjaervo includes an introduction that provides some explanation of his interpretive approach, but I suspect you'd have to already be familiar with the academic debates to get much out of it.
Second, rather than reproducing full texts a great help to a lay reader who doesn't already have a sense of what a sacred text looks like in this tradition , this book is more of a digest -- it excerpts short selections from diverse texts from different eras that share a common theme -- 'creation', or 'eschatology', or 'ethics' - and groups those together. Unfortunately, the publisher's description of the book doesn't explain the structure - the closest it comes is to say, "this volume That's not false, but it's rather less than complete - it's not the texts that have been chosen, but excerpts from various texts.
The Arabs adopted the Sassanid tax-system, both the land-tax levied on land owners and the poll-tax levied on individuals, [46] called jizya , a tax levied on non-Muslims i. In time, this poll-tax came to be used as a means to humble the non-Muslims, and a number of laws and restrictions evolved to emphasize their inferior status. Under the early orthodox caliphs , as long as the non-Muslims paid their taxes and adhered to the dhimmi laws, administrators were enjoined to leave non-Muslims "in their religion and their land.
Under Abbasid rule, Muslim Iranians who by then were in the majority increasingly found ways to taunt Zoroastrians, and distressing them became a popular sport. In the 10th century, on the day that a Tower of Silence had been completed at much trouble and expense, a Muslim official contrived to get up onto it, and to call the adhan the Muslim call to prayer from its walls.
This was made a pretext to annex the building. Such baiting, which was to continue down the centuries, was indulged in by all; not only by high officials, but by the general uneducated population as well. Though subject to a new leadership and harassment, the Zoroastrians were able to continue in their former ways. But there was a slow but steady social and economic pressure to convert. Two decrees in particular encouraged the transition to a preponderantly Islamic society.
Thus, a bonded individual owned by a Zoroastrian could automatically become a freeman by converting to Islam. The other edict was that if one male member of a Zoroastrian family converted to Islam, he instantly inherited all its property. In time, a tradition evolved by which Islam was made to appear as a partly Iranian religion.
The Spirit of Zoroastrianism by Prods Oktor Skjærvø
One example of this was a legend that Husayn , son of the fourth caliph Ali and grandson of Islam's prophet Muhammad , had married a captive Sassanid princess named Shahrbanu. This "wholly fictitious figure" [52] was said to have borne Husayn a son , the historical fourth Shi'a imam , who claimed that the caliphate rightly belonged to him and his descendants, and that the Umayyads had wrongfully wrested it from him.
The alleged descent from the Sassanid house counterbalanced the Arab nationalism of the Umayyads, and the Iranian national association with a Zoroastrian past was disarmed. Thus, according to scholar Mary Boyce, "it was no longer the Zoroastrians alone who stood for patriotism and loyalty to the past. With Iranian especially Persian support, the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads in , and in the subsequent caliphate government—that nominally lasted until —Muslim Iranians received marked favor in the new government, both in Iran and at the capital in Baghdad.
This mitigated the antagonism between Arabs and Iranians, but sharpened the distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims. The Abbasids zealously persecuted heretics , and although this was directed mainly at Muslim sectarians , it also created a harsher climate for non-Muslims.
Despite economic and social incentives to convert, Zoroastrianism remained strong in some regions, particularly in those furthest away from the Caliphate capital at Baghdad. In Bukhara in present-day Uzbekistan , resistance to Islam required the 9th-century Arab commander Qutaiba to convert his province four times. The first three times the citizens reverted to their old religion. Finally, the governor made their religion "difficult for them in every way", turned the local fire temple into a mosque, and encouraged the local population to attend Friday prayers by paying each attendee two dirhams.
The 9th century came to define the great number of Zoroastrian texts that were composed or re-written during the 8th to 10th centuries excluding copying and lesser amendments, which continue for some time thereafter. All of these works are in the Middle Persian dialect of that period free of Arabic words , and written in the difficult Pahlavi script hence the adoption of the term "Pahlavi" as the name of the variant of the language, and of the genre, of those Zoroastrian books.
If read aloud, these books would still have been intelligible to the laity. Many of these texts are responses to the tribulations of the time, and all of them include exhortations to stand fast in their religious beliefs. Some, such as the " Denkard ", are doctrinal defenses of the religion, while others are explanations of theological aspects such as the Bundahishn 's or practical aspects e. About sixty such works are known to have existed, of which some are known only from references to them in other works.
In Khorasan in the northeastern Iran, a 10th-century Iranian nobleman brought together four Zoroastrian priests to transcribe a Sassanid-era Middle Persian work titled Book of the Lord Khwaday Namag from Pahlavi script into Arabic script. This transcription, which remained in Middle Persian prose an Arabic version, by al-Muqaffa , also exists , was completed in and subsequently became the basis for Firdausi 's Book of Kings. It became enormously popular among both Zoroastrians and Muslims, and also served to propagate the Sassanid justification for overthrowing the Arsacids i.
Among migrations were those to cities in or on the margins of the great salt deserts, in particular to Yazd and Kerman , which remain centers of Iranian Zoroastrianism to this day. Yazd became the seat of the Iranian high priests during Mongol Il-Khanate rule, when the "best hope for survival [for a non-Muslim] was to be inconspicuous.
The descendants of that group are today known as the Parsis —"as the Gujaratis , from long tradition, called anyone from Iran" [55] —who today represent the larger of the two groups of Zoroastrians. The struggle between Zoroastrianism and Islam declined in the 10th and 11th centuries. Local Iranian dynasties, "all vigorously Muslim," [55] had emerged as largely independent vassals of the Caliphs.
In the 16th century, in one of the early letters between Iranian Zoroastrians and their co-religionists in India, the priests of Yazd lamented that "no period [in human history], not even that of Alexander , had been more grievous or troublesome for the faithful than 'this millennium of the demon of Wrath '. Zoroastrianism has survived into the modern period, particularly in India, where it has been present since about the 9th century.
Zoroastrianism
Today Zoroastrianism can be divided in three different sects or dominions: Traditionalists or isolationists are almost solely Parsis and accept, beside the Gathas and Avesta, also the Middle Persian works called 'Nasks of the Sassanians'. They generally do not allow conversion to the faith. Therefore, for someone to be a Zoroastrian, they must be born of Zoroastrian parents. Some traditionalists recognize the children of mixed marriages as Zoroastrians.
From the 19th century onward, the Parsis gained a reputation for their education and widespread influence in all aspects of society. They played an instrumental role in the economic development of the region over many decades; several of the best-known business conglomerates of India are run by Parsi-Zoroastrians, including Tata , Godrej , Wadia families, and others. Though the Armenians share a rich history affiliated with Zoroastrianism that eventually declined with the advent of Christianity , reports indicate that there were Zoroastrian Armenians in Armenia until the s.
A comparatively minor population persisted in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Persia, and an expatriate community has formed in the United States some from India , and to a lesser extent in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Many of these are titled restorationists, progressives or "reformists". Progressives generally accept the Yashts and the Visperad texts of the Avesta as obligatory, along with the Gathas. Restorationists refer only to the compositions of Zoroaster, and thus only consider the Gathas , the other texts only having value as far as they elaborate on some Gathic point and do not contradict the Gathic teaching.
At the request of the government of Tajikistan , UNESCO declared a year to celebrate the "th anniversary of Zoroastrian culture", with special events throughout the world. In the Tehran Mobeds Anjuman announced that for the first time in the history of Iran and of the Zoroastrian communities worldwide, women had been ordained in Iran and North America as mobedyars, meaning women mobeds Zoroastrian priests.
Some scholars believe [64] that key concepts of Zoroastrian eschatology and demonology influenced the Abrahamic religions.
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The religion of Zoroastrianism is closest to Vedic religion. Some historians believe that Zoroastrianism, along with similar philosophical revolutions in South Asia were interconnected strings of reformation against a common Indo-Aryan thread. Many traits of Zoroastrianism can be traced back to the culture and beliefs of the prehistorical Indo-Iranian period, that is, to the time before the migrations that led to the Indo-Aryans and Iranics becoming distinct peoples.
Zoroastrianism consequently shares elements with the historical Vedic religion that also has its origins in that era. They are descended from a common Proto-Indo-Iranian religion. Vedic religious texts are replete with people from far flung countries practising or leaving Aryan teachings. Zoroastrianism is often compared with Manichaeism. Nominally an Iranian religion, it has its origins in Middle-Eastern Gnosticism.
Superficially such a comparison seems apt, as both are dualistic and Manichaeism adopted many of the Yazatas for its own pantheon. Gherardo Gnoli, in The Encyclopaedia of Religion , [71] says that "we can assert that Manichaeism has its roots in the Iranian religious tradition and that its relationship to Mazdaism, or Zoroastrianism, is more or less like that of Christianity to Judaism".
They are however quite different. Zoroastrianism, on the other hand, rejects every form of asceticism, has no dualism of matter and spirit only of good and evil , and sees the spiritual world as not very different from the natural one the word "paradise", or pairi. Manichaeism's basic doctrine was that the world and all corporeal bodies were constructed from the substance of Satan, an idea that is fundamentally at odds with the Zoroastrian notion of a world that was created by God and that is all good, and any corruption of it is an effect of the bad.
From what may be inferred from many Manichean texts and a few Zoroastrian sources [ citation needed ] , the adherents of the two religions or at least their respective priesthoods despised each other intensely. Many aspects of Zoroastrianism are present in the culture and mythologies of the peoples of the Greater Iran , not least because Zoroastrianism was a dominant influence on the people of the cultural continent for a thousand years.
The Avesta is the religious book of Zoroastrians that contains a collection of sacred texts. The history of the Avesta is found in many Pahlavi texts. According to tradition, Ahura Mazda created the twenty-one nasks which Zoroaster brought to Vishtaspa. Here, two copies were created, one which was put in the house of archives, and the other put in the Imperial treasury. During Alexander's conquest of Persia, the Avesta was burned, and the scientific sections that the Greeks could use were dispersed among themselves. During the Sassanid Empire , Ardeshir ordered Tansar, his high priest , to finish the work that King Valax had started.
Shapur I sent priests to locate the scientific text portions of the Avesta that were in the possession of the Greeks. The compilation of these ancient texts was successfully established underneath the Mazdean priesthood and the Sassanian emperors. Only a fraction of the texts survive today.
The later manuscripts all date from this millennium, the latest being from , years after the fall of the Sassanian Empire. The texts that remain today are the Gathas , Yasna , Visperad and the Vendidad. Along with these texts is the communal household prayer book called the Khordeh Avesta , which contains the Yashts and the Siroza. The rest of the materials from the Avesta are called "Avestan fragments". Middle Persian and Pahlavi works created in the 9th and 10th century contain many religious Zoroastrian books, as most of the writers and copyists were part of the Zoroastrian clergy.
All Middle Persian texts written on Zoroastrianism during this time period are considered secondary works on the religion, and not scripture. Nonetheless, these texts have a strong influence on the religion. Zoroastrianism was founded by Zoroaster or Zarathustra , later deemed a prophet, in ancient Iran. The precise date of the founding of Zoroastrianism is uncertain.
Zoroaster was born in either Northeast Iran or Southwest Afghanistan. He was born into a culture with a polytheistic religion, which included animal sacrifice [75] and the ritual use of intoxicants, quite similar to early forms of Hinduism in India. Zoroaster's birth and early life are little documented. What is known is recorded in the Gathas —the core of the Avesta, which contains hymns thought to be composed by Zoroaster himself. Born into the Spitama clan, he worked as a priest.
He had a wife, three sons, and three daughters. Zoroaster rejected the religion of the Bronze Age Iranians, with their many gods and oppressive class structure , in which the Karvis and Karapans princes and priests controlled the ordinary people. He also opposed animal sacrifices and the use of the hallucinogenic Haoma plant possibly a species of ephedra in rituals, but held the rooster as a "symbol of light" [76] and associated it with "good against evil" [77] because of his heraldic actions.
The Spirit Of Zoroastrianism
According to Zoroastrian belief, when Zoroaster was 30 years old, he went into the Daiti river to draw water for a Haoma ceremony; when he emerged, he received a vision of Vohu Manah. After this, Vohu Manah took him to the other six Amesha Spentas, where he received the completion of his vision. Zoroaster believed in one creator God, teaching that only one God was worthy of worship. Some of the deities of the old religion, the Daevas Devas in Sanskrit , appeared to delight in war and strife. Zoroaster said these were evil spirits, workers of Angra Mainyu. Zoroaster's ideas were not taken up quickly; he originally only had one convert: Many did not like Zoroaster's downgrading of the Daevas to evil spirits.
After 12 years of little success, Zoroaster left his home. In the country of King Vishtaspa in Bactria , the king and queen heard Zoroaster debating with the religious leaders of the land and decided to accept Zoroaster's ideas as the official religion of their kingdom. Zoroaster died in his late 70s. Very little is known of the time between Zoroaster and the Achaemenian period, except that Zoroastrianism spread to Western Iran. By the time of the founding of the Achaemenid Empire, Zoroastrianism was already a well-established religion.
In Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda is the beginning and the end, the creator of everything that can and cannot be seen, the Eternal, the Pure and the only Truth. In the Gathas , the most sacred texts of Zoroastrianism thought to have been composed by Zoroaster himself, the prophet acknowledged devotion to no other divinity besides Ahura Mazda. Daena din in modern Persian is the eternal Law, whose order was revealed to humanity through the Mathra-Spenta "Holy Words".
Daena has been used to mean religion, faith, law, and even as a translation for the Hindu and Buddhist term Dharma , to which it is related. Daena should not be confused with the fundamental principle asha Vedic rta , the equitable law of the universe, which governed the life of the ancient Indo-Iranians.
For these, asha was the course of everything observable—the motion of the planets and astral bodies; the progression of the seasons; and the pattern of daily nomadic herdsman life, governed by regular metronomic events such as sunrise and sunset. All physical creation geti was thus determined to run according to a master plan—inherent to Ahura Mazda—and violations of the order druj were violations against creation, and thus violations against Ahura Mazda.