Noruz,
Also spelled NO RUZ, in Zoroastrianism and Parsiism, the New Year festival. Among the Parsis, the Noruz ("New Day") is a celebration that arrants the performance of five prescribed liturgies: the Afringan, prayers of love or praise; the Baj, prayers honouring yazatas ("ones worthy of worship") or fravashis ("preexistent souls"); the Yasna, a rite which includes the sacrifice of the sacred liquor, haoma; the Fravartigan, or Farokhshi, prayers commemorating the dead; and the Satum, prayers recited at funeral feasts. Throughout the day, Parsis greet one another with the rite of hamazor, in which the right hand of one person is passed between the palms of the one greeting him. Words of greeting and good wishes are then exchanged.
Parsi,
Also spelled PARSEE, member of a group of followers in India of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster. The Parsis, whose name means "Persians," are descended from Persian Zoroastrians who immigrated to India to avoid religious persecution by the Muslims. They live chiefly in Bombay and in a few towns and villages mostly to the north of Bombay, but also at Karachi (Pakistan) and Bangalore (Karnataka, India). Although they are not, strictly speaking, a caste, since they are not Hindus, they form a well-defined community.
The exact date of the Parsi migration is unknown. According to tradition, the Parsis initially settled at Hormuz on the Persian Gulf, but finding themselves still persecuted they set sail for India, arriving in the 8th century. The migration may in fact have taken place as late as the 10th century, or in both. They settled first at Diu in Kathiawar but soon moved to Gujarat, where they remained for about 800 years as a small agricultural community.
With the establishment of British trading posts at Surat and elsewhere in the early 17th century, the Parsis' circumstances altered radically, for they were in some ways more receptive of European influence than the Hindus or Muslims and they developed a flair for commerce. Bombay came under the control of the East India Company in 1668, and, since complete religious toleration was decreed soon afterward, the Parsis from Gujarat began to settle there. The expansion of the city in the 18th century owed largely to their industry and ability as merchants. By the 19th century, they were manifestly a wealthy community, and from about 1850 onward they had considerable success in heavy industries, particularly those connected with railways and shipbuilding.
Contact of the Parsis with their fellow countrymen appears to have been almost completely severed until the end of the 15th century, when, in 1477, they sent an official mission to the remaining Zoroastrians in Iran, a small sect called Gabars by the Muslim overlords. Until 1768, letters were exchanged on matters of ritual and law; 17 of these letters (Rivayats) have survived. As a result of these deliberations, in which the Parsis' traditions were in conflict with the purer raditions of the Gabars, the Parsis, in the 18th century, split into two sects on questions of ritual and calendar. See also Zoroastrianism.
Rashnu,
In Zoroastrianism, the deity of justice, who with Mithra, the god of truth, and Sraosha, the god of religious obedience, determines the fates of the souls of the dead. Rashnu is praised in a yasht, or hymn, of the Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism; the 18th day of the month is sacred to Rashnu.
The name Rashnu originally may have referred to Ahura Mazda, the supreme Iranian god, and to Mithra, in their capacities as judges. Rashnu eventually took over their functions and now stands on the Bridge of the Requiter (Rashnu himself), where, assisted by Mithra and Sraosha, he weighs on his golden scales the deeds of the souls that wish to pass in order to determine their futures. The divine triad may attempt to intercede for souls and obtain forgiveness for their sins.
Saoshyans,
In Zoroastrian eschatology, final saviour of the world and quencher of its evil; he is the foremost of three saviours (the first two are Oshetar and Oshetarmah) who are all posthumous sons of Zoroaster. One will appear at the end of each of the three last millennia of the world, miraculously conceived by a maiden who has swum in a lake where Zoroaster's seed was preserved. After 57 years Saoshyans, aided by 30 great persons of the departed who have remained linked with bodily existence, will break the demonic power and resurrect the bodies of the dead. Saoshyans and six helpers will then lead the work in the seven zones of the world, communicating with each other miraculously. When all souls have been cleansed, including those of the damned, Saoshyans will prepare for them white haoma--the ritual drink of the Zoroastrians--which will bestow eternal perfection on their bodies.
Spenta Mainyu,
In Zoroastrianism, the Holy Spirit, created by the Wise Lord, Ahura Mazda, to oppose the Destructive Spirit, Angra Mainyu.
Spenta Mainyu is an aspect of the Wise Lord himself. Through the Holy Spirit, Ahura Mazda creates life and goodness. According to Zoroastrian belief, Spenta Mainyu protects and maintains many realms and creatures-the sky, water, earth, plants, and children yet to be born.
Sraosha,
in Zoroastrianism, divine being, messenger of Ahura Mazda; embodiment of the divine word. His name, related to the Avestan word for "hearing," signifies man's obedient hearkening to Ahura Mazda's word, and also for Ahura Mazda's omnipresent listening. Sraosha is the medium between man and God. Zoroastrians believe that no ritual is valid without his presence, and he has a very prominent place in Zoroastrian liturgy. Depicted as a strong and holy youth whose eavenly abode is a thousand-pillared house, he has, in addition, a protective role. It is Sraosha that Ahura Mazda sends to chastise the demons that harass men. Thrice nightly he descends to earth to combat them, crushing their skulls. His strongest weapon is prayer. In the end of time, he will be the agent of the final extermination of evil. Sraosha also leads the righteous soul through the ordeal of judgment three days after its body's death.
Verethraghna,
Also called BAHRAN, in Zoroastrianism, the spirit of victory. Together with Mithra, the god of truth, Verethraghna shares martial characteristics that relate him to the Vedic war-god Indra. In Zoroastrian texts, Verethraghna appears as an agent of Mithra and Rashnu, the god of justice, and as the means of vengeance for Mithra in his capacity of god of war.
Verethraghna was an especially popular deity in Sasanian Iran, where five kings bore his name. The 14th yasht, or hymn, of the Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism, is dedicated to Verethraghna, and the 20th day of the month is named for him.
Vohu Manah
(Avestan: "Good Mind"), in Zoroastrianism, one of the six amesha spentas ("beneficent immortals") created by Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord, to assist him in furthering good and destroying evil. According to Zoroastrian doctrine, because the prophet Zoroaster was, in a vision, conducted into the presence of Ahura Mazda by Vohu Manah, any individual who seeks to know the Wise Lord must approach him through this immortal.
Since Vohu Manah is the closest of the amesha spentas to Ahura Mazda, the second month of the Zoroastrian calendar is dedicated to him. His sacred animal is the cow, symbol of the goodness that nourishes.
yazata,
In Zoroastrianism, member of an order of angels created by Ahura Mazda to help him maintain the flow of the world order and quell the forces of Ahriman and his demons. They gather the light of the Sun and pour it on the Earth. Their help is indispensable in aiding man to purify and elevate himself. They teach him to dispel demons and free himself of the future torments of hell. Persons who remember the yazata through ritual offerings receive their favour and prosper. oroaster prayed to them to grant him strength for his mission.
The principal yazatas are mostly ancient Iranian deities reduced to auxiliary status: Atar (Fire), Mithra, Anahita, Rashnu (The Righteous), Sraosha, and Verethraghna.
Yima,
In ancient Iranian religion, the first man, the progenitor of the human race, and son of the sun. Yima is the subject of conflicting legends obscurely reflecting different religious currents.
According to one legend, Yima declined God's (Ahura Mazda's) offer to make him the vehicle of the religion and was instead given the task of establishing man's life on earth. He became king in a golden age in which need, death, disease, aging, and extremes of temperature were banished from the earth because of his virtue. The golden age ended, says one tale, when Ahura Mazda told Yima of a terrible winter to come. He was instructed to build an excellent domain under the earth, lit by its own light, and take in it the best individuals from each species to preserve their seed. There they should dwell through the winter's destruction, then emerge and repopulate the earth.
Zoroastrian tradition dislodged Yima as the first man, replacing him with the figure of Gayomart. In later Persian literature Yima is the subject of many tales under the name Jamshid.
dakhma
(Avestan: "tower of silence"), Parsi funerary tower erected on a hill for the disposal of the dead according to the Zoroastrian rite. Such towers are about 25 feet (8 m) high, built of brick or stone, and contain gratings on which the corpses are exposed. After vultures have picked the bones clean, they fall into a pit below, thereby fulfilling the injunction that a corpse must not suffer contact with either fire or earth.
Zoroastrianism and Parsiism
Post-Islamic Iranian Zoroastrianism.
Islam won a decisive victory at al-Qadisiyah in 635 over the armies of Yazdegerd III, the last Sasanid. Islam, in principle, tolerated the ancient religion, but conversions by persuasion or force were massive in many provinces. Zoroastrianism fomented rebellion and brought persecutions upon itself. There were pockets of survival, notably in Persis, the ancient centre of the Achaemenian and Sasanian empires. Books were produced to save the essentials of the religion from a threatened disaster. The disaster did occur but exactly why and how is not known. Zoroastrians, called Gabars by the Muslims, survived in Iran as a persecuted minority in small enclaves at Yazd and Kerman.
Ancient Middle Eastern Religions
Ancient Iranian religions
The religions of ancient Iran are the diverse beliefs and practices of a culturally and linguistically related group of peoples who inhabited the Iranian Plateau and its borderlands as well as areas of Central Asia from the Black Sea to Khotan (modern Ho-t`ien, China). The northern Iranians (referred to generally as Scythians [Saka] in classical sources), who occupied the steppes, differed significantly from the southern Iranians. In religion and culture both the northern and southern Iranians had much in common with the ancient Indo-Aryans, although there was much borrowing from Mesopotamia as well, especially in western Iran. From at least the time of the rise of the Median empire, Iranian religion and culture has had a profound influence upon the Middle East, as also the Middle East upon Iran. This account will take the conquest of the Achaemenian Empire by Alexander the Great as a somewhat arbitrary date for the close of the period of ancient Iranian religion, even though these influences have continued through later history and some forms of Iranian religion have persisted to the present day. It will also treat ancient Iranian religion, insofar as possible, apart from Zoroastrianism. Unless otherwise indicated, all spellings of Iranian names and terms are given in reconstructed forms that often differ from the Avestan spellings of the Zoroastrian canon.
For a full account of that religion, see ZOROASTRIANISM AND PARSIISM. For historical background, see IRAN: History.
Ancient Middle Eastern Religions
SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE
Modern understanding of ancient Iranian religion is impeded by the limitations of the available sources, which are inevitably of two sorts: textual and material. [Image]
Textual sources are both indigenous and foreign, the latter being primarily Greek, although for purposes of historical reconstruction the ancient Indian Vedic literature is indispensable. The main problem with the Greek sources, the most important of which is Herodotus, is that the information they contain is not always very reliable, either because it is outright erroneous or because it is based on misunderstandings. The main indigenous sources are the Achaemenian royal inscriptions in the Old Persian language (with Akkadian, Elamite, and Aramaic translations) and the Avesta, the sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism, in a language called Avestan. The royal inscriptions, especially those of Darius (522-486 BC) and his son Xerxes (486-465 BC), for the most part eloquent pieces of propaganda, are rich in references to religion. In addition to the information they contain, they have the great advantage of being fixed in time and place. Matters are quite otherwise in the case of the Avesta, which is the principal source of knowledge of ancient Iranian religions.
Like the Bible, the Avesta is a collection of a variety of texts composed over what appears to be a considerable span of time by different authors, which has endured editing and redaction at several points during the history of its development. The text that is now extant represents only a fragment of what remained in the 9th century of the late Sasanian Avesta compiled under the direction of Khosrow I (AD 531-579). Summaries of the contents of the Sasanian Avesta show that it was an enormous collection containing texts in Avestan as well as in--and predominantly so-- Pahlavi, the language of Sasanian Zoroastrianism. In spite of the relatively recent date of the existing Avesta, it contains matter of great antiquity, of which the Gathas (or "Songs" of Zoroaster) and much of the Yashts are among the oldest. The Gathas contain expressions of Zoroaster's religious vision which, in many ways, is a complicated reinterpretation of inherited Iranian religious ideas. The Yashts are collections of verses dedicated to the various deities. Most of the Yashts, though touched up with Zoroastrian terminology and ideas, have little to do with anything specifically Zoroastrian. The gods invoked are essentially the gods of pre-Zoroastrian Iran. Unfortunately, there is little agreement as to when Zoroaster lived, though most scholars agree that he lived some time between about 1200 and 600 BC. It does not seem possible to date the Yashts much more precisely, except to believe that their redaction (not necessarily composition) may have first taken place in the 5th century BC.
As mentioned above, the earliest religious texts of the closely related Indo-Aryans (principally the Rigveda) are indispensable for making historical reconstructions of the development of Iranian religion. The Rigveda, a collection of more than 1,000 hymns to various deities, can be dated to a period from approximately 1300 to 900 BC. Apart from the Achaemenian inscriptions, there is no secure evidence that religious compositions were reduced to writing until the late Arsacid or early Sasanian periods. Thus, unlike the other religions of the Middle East, the Iranian religions had no written texts in the ancient period. All religious "literature" was oral, in both composition and transmission.
Material sources are much more limited and are, for the most part, restricted to western Iran. The remains of Achaemenian architecture and art, by far the most important of the material sources, provide abundant evidence of imperial articulation of religious symbols and show a thorough dependence on Middle Eastern precedents.
ORIGIN AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
During the second half of the 2nd millennium two groups of culturally and linguistically related peoples who called themselves " Arya" migrated from the steppes down into the Middle East, the Iranian Plateau, and the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. One group, the Indo-Aryans, settled in Anatolia and in India. The other, the Iranians, settled in greater Iran. These people were originally seminomadic pastoralists whose chief economic base was cattle, primarily bovines but also sheep and goats. They bred horses which they used for riding and pulling chariots in warfare and sport. It is not at all clear how rigidly their society was originally segmented. There were specialists in religious matters, and men who could afford horses and chariots were reckoned as warriors and leaders. By the Achaemenian period there developed a more rigid division of society into four basic classes: priests, nobles, farmers/herdsmen, and artisans. Society generally was patriarchal, and male dominance was strongly reflected in the religion. Like the ancient Israelites, as the Iranians occupied the land they became increasingly dependent upon agriculture and settled in villages and towns. During this process they were certainly influenced by the indigenous populations, of whose religion almost nothing is known, except by inference from elements of Iranian religion that have no reflex in the Veda or among other Indo-Europeans.
Owing to their common origin, Iranian and Indo-Aryan religions are very similar. From a comparative study of both groups, it is possible to reconstruct, in general features, the early forms of Iranian religion for which there is no direct documentation. The pantheon, similar to those of other Indo-European peoples, embraced a large number of deities, both female and, predominantly, male. Some of these were personifications of natural phenomena, others of social norms or institutions. There appear to have been two major groups of deities, the daivas and the ahuras. Daiva (literally "heavenly one"; Vedic deva, Latin deus) is derived from the common Indo-European word for "god," and this is the meaning it has in the Vedas. Among many Iranians and in Zoroastrianism the daivas were regarded as demons, but this belief was not pan-Iranian. The ahuras ("lords"; Vedic asura) were certain lofty sovereign deities, in contradistinction to the other deities called bagha (Vedic bhaga, "the one who distributes") and yazata ("the one to be worshiped"). At the head of the pantheon stood Ahura Mazda, who was particularly connected with the principle of cosmic and social order and truth called arta in Vedic (Avestan asha). Closely associated with him was another ahura named Mithra (Vedic Mitra), the god who presided over covenants. In Iran there were two gods with martial traits quite similar to those of Vedic Indra, Mitra, and Vrthraghna. Among female deities the Earth, Spanta Aramati, and the sacred river, Ardvi Sura, were most prominent. A sacrificial ritual yazna (Avestan yasna, Vedic yajña) was performed in which fire and the sacred drink hauma (Avestan haoma, Vedic soma) played an important part. The principal officiant at the sacrifice was the zautar (Vedic hotar).
As with other ancient religions, the cosmological dichotomy of chaos and cosmos figured in both myth and worldview. The most prominent and unique feature of ancient Iranian religion was the development of dualism, primarily expressed in the opposition of Truth (arta) and Falsehood (drug, drauga). Originally confined to ideas of social and natural order opposed by disorder and chaos, a dualistic ideology came to permeate all aspects of life. The pantheon was divided between the gods and demons. Especially under the influence of the Magi, members of a priestly tribe of Median origin, the animal kingdom was divided up between beneficent animals and noxious creatures. Even in vocabulary there developed a system of "ahuric" and "daivic" words for such things as body parts: for example, the word zasta was used for the hand of a righteous person, and gava for the hand of an evil person. It is important to note that this was not a Gnostic system, like those that flourished in the Middle East during the early centuries of the Common era, as there was no myth of evil matter coming into being through the corruption and fall of a spiritual being.
Except for a mostly legendary line of eastern Iranian kings, the kavis, the last of whom was Zoroaster's patron Vishtaspa (Greek Hystapes), the only historical information on the relation of religion to political authority comes from the Achaemenian period in western Iran. The ideology of kingship was closely tied to the supreme deity, Ahura Mazda, through whose will the kings ruled. The Achaemenian kings had to contend with the power of the Median priesthood, the Magi. Their origin is unclear, but according to classical sources they presided at all religious ceremonies where they chanted "theogonies." That they were deeply involved in politics is seen from the attempt of the magus Gaumata to seize the throne upon the death of Cambyses II. Although Darius persecuted the Magi, they remained powerful and eventually became the official priesthood of the empire. They were probably responsible for articulating a thoroughly dualist ideology and contributing to Zoroastrianism its zealous preoccupation with ritual purity. In addition, they were famous throughout the ancient world as wonder-workers.
HUMAN NATURE
In the Zoroastrian formulation of the myth of creation, humans are created for the noble purpose of aiding in the repulsion of the Evil Spirit. Whether or not this concept is pre-Zoroastrian, it shows that in Iranian religion human nature was held to be essentially good, in the sense that there was no myth about the baseness of the human condition such as that found in Babylonian mythology (for example, in the Enuma elish). Humans have free will and determine their own destinies as a result of their ethical choices.
In addition to the body (tanu), it was held that an individual consisted of a number of spiritual elements that loosely fall under the category of souls. These are (1) the animating force (ahu), (2) the breath of life (vyana), (3) mind/spirit (manah), (4) the soul (ruvan; Avestan urvan), (5) the protective spirit (fravarti; Avestan fravashi), and (6) the spiritual double (daina; Avestan daena). In Zoroastrianism, where belief in the day of judgment is central, it is the ruvan that is held accountable for a person's actions during life and that suffers reward or punishment in the life to come. At the time of judgment the ruvan encounters the daina, which is an embodiment of the sum of its deeds during life, manifested as either a beautiful maiden or an ugly hag. Depending on how these deeds are weighed, the soul either crosses safely the Chinvat Bridge to the other world or falls into the abyss. The fravarti is a deity who acts as a protective spirit of each individual and is also an ancestor spirit; together all the fravartis form a warrior band, similar in some ways to the Vedic Maruts.
MAJOR DEITIES
Ahura Mazda.
Ahura Mazda ("Wise Lord") was probably the chief god of the pre-Zoroastrian pantheon. In both the religion of Zoroaster and that of Darius and Xerxes, he was worshiped as the supreme god, almost to the exclusion of all others. First of all he is the creator of the universe and the one who establishes and maintains the cosmic and social order, arta. Darius proclaims him as "the great god . . . who created this earth, who created yonder heaven, who created man, who created happiness for man, who made Darius king." Throughout his inscriptions, Darius speaks not only of the source of the authority of the kingship as deriving from Ahura Mazda, but also makes it clear that his own establishment of political stability over the chaos of rebellion and his maintenance of order through law imitates the divine model set by the Creator. Using the ancient Indo-European poetic device of interrogative discourse, Zoroaster asks, "Who is the original father of arta? Who established the paths of the sun and the stars? Who is it through whom the moon now waxes now wanes? Who supports the earth below and (keeps) the heavens (above) from falling down? Who yokes the two steeds to the wind and the clouds? . . . Who fashioned honoured Devotion together with Dominion? Who made . . . a son respectful of his father?"
In neither the Avesta nor the Achaemenian inscriptions is Ahura Mazda identified with a natural phenomenon. Since, however, in the hymn to the goddess Rti (Reward), Ahura Mazda is identified as her father and Spanta Aramati (Earth) as her mother, it is implied that he has taken over, to some extent, the role of the Indo-European Father Heaven (*Dieus Pater, Vedic Dyaus Pitar), who is mythologically paired with Mother Earth. Furthermore, the Greek historian Herodotus seems to have made this identification when he wrote, "Zeus, in their (the Persians') system, is the whole circle of the heavens." Other Greek sources commonly equate Zeus with Oromazes (Ahura Mazda), because of Ahura Mazda's position as father and chief god of the pantheon. As his name implies, he seems to have been sought by his worshipers for wisdom and insight, and, to judge by the intense experiences of Darius (whether or not his professions are genuine) and of Zoroaster, he was probably the object of a personal devotion that appears to have been lacking with other deities.
Mithra.
Beside Ahura Mazda, Mithra is the most important deity of the ancient Iranian pantheon and may have even occupied a position of near equality with him. In the Achaemenian inscriptions Mithra, together with Anahita, is the only other deity specifically mentioned. Although the ancient pantheon contained an individual sun god, Hvar Khshaita, in the eastern Iranian traditions reflected in the Avesta, Mithra has a hint of connection with the sun, more specifically with the first rays of dawn as he drives forth in his chariot. In western Iran, the identification was complete, and the name Mithra became a common word for "sun." In spite of his connection with the sun, Mithra functioned preeminently in the ethical sphere. The word mithra was a common noun that meant "covenant, contract, treaty" and, as such, Mithra was the god Covenant, the celestial deity who oversaw all solemn agreements that people made among themselves and who severely punished anyone who broke the terms of a covenant, whether it was between individuals or between countries or other sociopolitical entities. In his capacity to find out the covenant breaker, he is described as sleepless, ever-waking, having 1,000 ears, 10,000 eyes, and a wide outlook. He is portrayed as a great warrior brandishing his mace while driving in his chariot to battle, where he intervenes on behalf of those faithful to treaties by throwing the treaty-breakers (mithra-drug) into panic and defeat. As a sovereign deity, Mithra bore the standing epithet varu-gavyuti, meaning "one who (presides over) wide pasture lands"--i.e., one who keeps under his protection (another of his epithets was payu, "protector") the territories of those who worship him and abide by their covenants. It should be mentioned that Mithra gave his name to a mystery religion, Mithraism, which was popular throughout the Roman Empire, but whose Iranian origins are difficult to trace.
Anahiti.
One of the longest Avestan Yashts is to the powerful goddess whose full name is given as Ardvi Sura Anahita, literally "the damp, strong, untainted." In fact, the long name seems to combine two originally separate names and, hence, two deities. First, Ardvi Sura is the Iranian name of the heavenly river goddess who in the Rigveda is called Sarasvati. In this role, she brings fresh water to the earth, filling streams, rivers, and seas as she flows from Mount Hukarya to the Varu-Karta sea. Second, Anahiti is a separate goddess of uncertain origin whose cult seems to have been popular originally in northeastern Iran. The name probably meant "untaintedness, purity (both moral and physical)." It is interesting that the Greek Anaitis (' ) preserves the Old Iranian form of the name, while Anahit(a), of the Avestan and Old Persian, shows a more recent linguistic form. Unlike any other Iranian deity, she is described in great detail in the Yashts, especially in respect to her clothing and ornamentation, to such an extent that one assumes a dressed cult image must be the source of the description. This is confirmed by the fact that Artaxerxes II mentions her. Then, too, the Babylonian historian Berosus reports that this king had many images of her made and distributed. Since the Iranians did not traditionally make images, it may be assumed that Anahiti's cult borrowed heavily from Mesopotamian models. The Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar probably provided the clearest model, though the details of Anahiti's dress, her beaver coat, for example-show significant differences. There were other striking similarities: Ishtar was the goddess of war and patroness of the palace, while the greater part of Anahiti's Yasht is devoted to her martial traits and her patronage of Iranian heroes and legendary rulers (in post-Achaemenian Iran Anahiti was intimately conn