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144-449: Avestan angra mainyu "seems to have been an original conception of Zoroaster 's." In the Gathas , which are the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and are attributed to Zoroaster, angra mainyu is not yet a proper name. In the one instance in these hymns where the two words appear together, the concept spoken of is that of a mainyu ("mind", "spirit" or otherwise an abstract energy etc.) that

288-412: A dental consonant ) should have Avestan zarat- or zarat̰- as a development from it. Why this is not so for zaraθuštra has not yet been determined. Notwithstanding the phonetic irregularity, that Avestan zaraθuštra with its -θ- was linguistically an actual form is shown by later attestations reflecting the same basis. All present-day Iranian-language variants of his name derive from

432-479: A grammatically neuter noun). Although the details of the origin and development of Zurvanism remain murky (for a summary of the three opposing opinions see § Ascent and acceptance below), it is generally accepted that Zurvanism was: Zurvanism enjoyed royal sanction during the Sasanian Empire (226–651 CE) but no traces of it remain beyond the 10th century. Although Sasanian-era Zurvanism

576-493: A Prophet and describe the expressions of the all-good Ahura Mazda and evil Ahriman as merely referring to the coexistence of forces of good and evil enabling humans to exercise free will. Manichaeism considered Zoroaster to be a figure in a line of prophets of which Mani (216–276) was the culmination. Zoroaster's ethical dualism is—to an extent—incorporated in Manichaeism's doctrine which, unlike Mani's thoughts, viewed

720-496: A Zoroastrian account of creation completed in the 12th century has much to say about Ahriman and his role in the cosmogony. In chapter 1.23, following the recitation of the Ahuna Vairya , Ohrmuzd takes advantage of Ahriman's incapacity to create life without intervention. When Ahriman recovers, he creates Jeh , the primal seductress who afflicts women with their menstrual cycles. In Bundahishn 4.12, Ahriman perceives that Ohrmuzd

864-500: A branch brought by Zoroaster from Paradise and to have stood in today's Kashmar in northeastern Iran and to have been planted by Zoroaster in honor of the conversion of King Vishtaspa to Zoroastrianism. According to the Iranian physicist and historian Zakariya al-Qazwini , King Vishtaspa had been a patron of Zoroaster who planted the tree himself. In his ʿAjā'ib al-makhlūqāt wa gharā'ib al-mawjūdāt ('The Wonders of Creatures and

1008-410: A curse upon Zoroaster, causing him to suffer Leprosy , and exiling him. Zoroaster later moved to a place of modern-day Azerbaijan which ruled by Bashtaasib ( Vishtaspa ), governor of Nebuchadnezzar, and spread his teaching of Zoroastrianism there. Bashtaasib then followed his teaching, forces the inhabitants of Persia to convert to Zoroastrianism and killed those who refused. Ibn Kathir has quoted

1152-494: A date around 1000 BC to be the most likely, others still consider a range of dates between 1500 and 500 BC to be possible. Classical scholarship in the 6th to 4th century BC believed he existed 6,000 years before Xerxes I 's invasion of Greece in 480 BC ( Xanthus , Eudoxus , Aristotle , Hermippus ), which is a possible misunderstanding of the Zoroastrian four cycles of 3,000 years (i.e. 12,000 years). This belief

1296-415: A faithful community, and married three times. His first two wives bore him three sons, Isat Vâstra, Urvatat Nara, and Hvare Chithra, and three daughters, Freni, Thriti, and Pouruchista. His third wife, Hvōvi, was childless. Zoroaster died when he was 77 years and 40 days old. There are conflicting traditions on Zoroaster's manner of death. The most common is that he was murdered by a karapan (priest of

1440-600: A fixed period and the historicization surrounding him may be a part of a trend from before the 10th century AD that historicizes legends and myths. Zoroaster's name in his native language, Avestan , was probably Zaraθuštra . His translated name, "Zoroaster", derives from a later (5th century BC) Greek transcription, Zōroastrēs ( Ζωροάστρης ), as used in Xanthus 's Lydiaca (Fragment 32) and in Plato 's First Alcibiades (122a1). This form appears subsequently in

1584-455: A late date for Zoroaster's life have fallen out of vogue with some Zoroastian communities, who see the prospect of their faith having more ancient roots than previously thought as a welcome development. The birthplace of Zoroaster is also unknown, and the language of the Gathas is not similar to the proposed north-western and north-eastern regional dialects of Persia. It is also suggested that he

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1728-432: A late dating to the 7th and 6th centuries BC, based on the indigenous Zoroastrian tradition, and an early dating, which places his life more generally in the 15th to 9th centuries BC. Some scholars propose a period between 7th and 6th century BC, for example, c.  650–600 BC or 559–522 BC. The latest possible date is the mid 6th century BC, at the time of Achaemenid Empire's Darius I , or his predecessor Cyrus

1872-426: A new interpretation of Yasna  30.3; he argued that the good "twin" in that passage should not be regarded as more or less identical to Ahura Mazda, as earlier Zoroastrian thought had assumed, but as a separate created entity, Spenta Mainyu. Thus, both Angra Mainyu and Spenta Mainyu were created by Ahura Mazda, and should be regarded as his respective 'creative' and 'destructive' emanations. Haug's interpretation

2016-401: A reaction to the liberalization of the late Achaemenid -era form of the faith. Another view proposes that Zurvan existed as a pre-Zoroastrian divinity that was incorporated into Zoroastrianism. The third view is that Zurvanism is the product of the contact between Zoroastrianism and Babylonian – Akkadian religions (for a summary of opposing views see Boyce ). Certain however is that by

2160-518: A rejection of rituals and of worship of entities other than the supreme deity. These new ideas were subsequently disseminated as a Parsi interpretation, which eventually reached the west and so in turn corroborated Haug's theories. Among the Parsis of the cities, who were accustomed to English language literature , Haug's ideas were more often repeated than those of the Gujarati language objections of

2304-549: A sect of the Medes that considered Space/Time to be the primordial "father" of the rivals Oromasdes "of light" and Arimanius "of darkness". The principal evidence for Zurvanite doctrine occurs in the polemical Christian tracts of Armenian and Syriac writers of the Sasanian period (224–651 CE). Indigenous sources of information from the same period are the 3rd century Kartir inscription at Ka'ba-ye Zartosht and

2448-672: A supersensible Being, would incarnate into an earthly form, some little time after our present earthly existence, in fact in the third post-Christian millennium . The Opus Sanctorum Angelorum , a debated group inside the Roman Catholic Church , defines Ahriman as a "demon in the Rank of Fallen Powers". It says his duty is to obscure human brains from the Truth of God. Zoroaster Zarathushtra Spitama , more commonly known as Zoroaster or Zarathustra ,

2592-465: A thousand years. Towards the end of this period, androgyne Zurvan began to doubt the efficacy of sacrifice and in the moment of this doubt Ohrmuzd and Ahriman were conceived: Ohrmuzd for the sacrifice and Ahriman for the doubt. Upon realizing that twins were to be born, Zurvan resolved to grant the first-born sovereignty over creation. Ohrmuzd perceived Zurvan's decision, which He then communicated to His brother. Ahriman then preempted Ohrmuzd by ripping open

2736-590: A vision of the seven Amesha Spenta , and his teachings were collected in the Gathas and the Avesta . Eventually, at the age of about 42, Zoroaster received the patronage of queen Hutaosa and a ruler named Vishtaspa , an early adherent of Zoroastrianism (possibly from Bactria according to the Shahnameh ). According to the tradition, he lived for many years after Vishtaspa's conversion, managed to establish

2880-475: A worm, is so much associated with darkness and old age, that he perishes in the end." Chapter 4.3 recalls the grotesque legend of Tahmurasp (Avestan: Taxma Urupi) riding Angra Mainyu for thirty years (cf. Yasht 15.12, 19.29) and so preventing him from doing evil. In chapter 7, Jamasp explains that the Indians declare Ahriman will die, but "those, who are not of good religion, go to hell." The Bundahishn ,

3024-609: A zealous minority that busied itself with defining what they considered the Prophet's true message to be; there must have been an 'orthodox' party within the 'Church'. This minority, concerned now with theology no less than with ritual, would be found among the Magi , and it is, in fact, to the Magi that Aristotle and other early Greek writers attribute the fully dualist doctrine of two independent principles – Oromasdes and Areimanios. Further,

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3168-405: Is aša ), creation (that is aša ), existence (that is aša ), and as the condition for free will. The purpose of humankind, like that of all other creation, is to sustain and align itself to aša . For humankind, this occurs through active ethical participation in life, ritual, and the exercise of constructive/good thoughts, words, and deeds. Elements of Zoroastrian philosophy entered

3312-586: Is angra ("destructive", "chaotic", "disorderly", "inhibitive", "malign" etc., of which a manifestation can be anger ). In this single instance – in Yasna 45.2 – the "more bounteous of the spirits twain" declares angra mainyu to be its "absolute antithesis ". A similar statement occurs in Yasna 30.3, where the antithesis is however aka mainyu , aka being the Avestan language word for "evil". Hence, aka mainyu

3456-458: Is "redolent of Gnosticism or – still better – of Indian cosmology". The parallels between Zurvan and Prajapati of Rig Veda 10.129 had been taken by Widengren to be evidence of a proto-Indo-Iranian Zurvan, but these arguments have since been questioned. Nonetheless, there is a semblance of Zurvanite elements in Vedic texts, and, as Zaehner puts it, "Time, for the Indians, is the raw material,

3600-407: Is Angra Mainyu said to be the creator of the daeva s or their father." Zurvanism – a historical branch of Zoroastrianism that sought to theologically resolve a dilemma found in a mention of antithetical "twin spirits" in Yasna 30.3 – developed a notion that Ahura Mazda ( MP : Ohrmuzd) and Angra Mainyu (MP: Ahriman) were twin brothers, with the former being the epitome of good and the latter being

3744-427: Is a fatalistic religious movement of Zoroastrianism in which the divinity Zurvan is a first principle (primordial creator deity ) who engendered equal-but-opposite twins , Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu . Zurvanism is also known as "Zurvanite Zoroastrianism", and may be contrasted with Mazdaism . In Zurvanism, Zurvan was perceived as the god of infinite time and space and also known as "one" or "alone." Zurvan

3888-453: Is a term coined by Zaehner to denote the movement to explain the inconsistency of Zoroaster's description of the "twin spirits" as they appear in Yasna 30.3–5 of the Avesta. According to Zaehner, this "Zurvanism proper" was genuinely Iranian and Zoroastrian in that it sought to clarify the enigma of the twin spirits that Zoroaster left unsolved. As the priesthood sought to explain it, if

4032-453: Is also the last direct evidence of Zurvan as a First Principle. There is no hint of any worship of Zurvan in any of the texts of the Avesta , even though the texts (as they exist today) are the result of a Sasanian era redaction. Robert Charles Zaehner proposed that this is because the individual Sasanian monarchs were not always Zurvanite and that Mazdean Zoroastrianism just happened to have

4176-494: Is clear that Ahriman is a non-entity" but "at the resurrection Ahriman will be destroyed and thereafter all will be good; and [change?] will proceed through the will of God." In the Sad Dar , the world is described as having been created by Ohrmuzd and become pure through his truth. But Ahriman, "being devoid of anything good, does not issue from that which is owing to truth." (62.2) Book of Jamaspi 2.3 notes that "Ahriman, like

4320-508: Is not necessarily a violation of orthodox Zoroastrian tradition, since the divinity Vayu is present in the middle space between Ormuzd and Ahriman, the void separating the kingdoms of light and darkness. Ascetic Zurvanism, which was apparently not as popular as the materialistic kind, viewed Zurvan as undifferentiated Time, which, under the influence of desire, divided into reason (a male principle) and concupiscence (a female principle). According to Duchesne-Guillemin , this division

4464-488: Is our main quarrel with the Magians (Zoroastrians). They say there are two Gods: the creator of good and the creator of evil. Show me good without evil – then I will admit there is a God of evil and a God of good. This is impossible, for good cannot exist without evil. Since there is no separation between them, how can there be two creators? Rudolf Steiner , who founded the esoteric spiritual movement Anthroposophy , used

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4608-697: Is primarily proposed on linguistic similarities between the Old Avestan language of the Zoroastrian Gathas and the Sanskrit of the Rigveda ( c.  1700 –1100 BC), a collection of early Vedic hymns. Both texts are considered to have a common archaic Indo-Iranian origin. The Gathas portray an ancient Stone - Bronze Age bipartite society of warrior-herdsmen and priests (compared to Bronze tripartite society ; some conjecture that it depicts

4752-718: Is recorded by Diogenes Laërtius , and variant readings could place it 600 years before Xerxes I, somewhere before 1000 BC. However, Diogenes also mentions Hermodorus 's belief that Zoroaster lived 5,000 years before the Trojan War , which would mean he lived around 6200 BC. The 10th-century Suda provides a date of 500 years before the Trojan War. Pliny the Elder cited Eudoxus which placed his death 6,000 years before Plato, c.  6300 BC . Other pseudo-historical constructions are those of Aristoxenus who recorded Zaratas

4896-521: Is said to have been good until it was corrupted by Ahriman and the dev s. In the Pahlavi texts of the 9th–12th century, Ahriman (written ʼhl(y)mn ) is frequently written upside down "as a sign of contempt and disgust." In the Book of Arda Viraf 5.10, the narrator – the 'righteous Viraf' – is taken by Sarosh and Adar to see "the reality of God and the archangels, and the non-reality of Ahriman and

5040-474: Is superior to himself, and so flees to fashion his many demons with which to conquer the universe in battle. The entire universe is finally divided between the Ohrmuzd and the yazad s on one side and Ahriman with his dev s on the other. Ahriman slays the primal bull , but the moon rescues the seed of the dying creature, and from it springs all animal creation. But the battle goes on, with mankind caught in

5184-407: Is the "evil spirit" or "evil mind" or "evil thought," as contrasted with spenta mainyu , the "bounteous spirit" with which Ahura Mazda conceived of creation, which then "was". The aka mainyu epithet recurs in Yasna 32.5, when the principle is identified with the daeva s that deceive humankind and themselves. While in later Zoroastrianism, the daevas are demons, this is not yet evident in

5328-417: Is the original form, it may mean 'with old/aging camels', related to Avestic zarant- ( cf. Pashto zōṛ and Ossetian zœrond , 'old'; Middle Persian zāl , 'old'): The interpretation of the -θ- ( /θ/ ) in the Avestan zaraθuštra was for a time itself subjected to heated debate because the -θ- is an irregular development: as a rule, *zarat- (a first element that ends in

5472-456: Is uncertain. His life is traditionally dated to sometime around the 7th and 6th centuries BC, making him a contemporary of Cyrus the Great , though most scholars, using linguistic and socio-cultural evidence, suggest a dating to somewhere in the second millennium BC. Zoroastrianism eventually became Iran's most prominent religion from around the 6th century BC, enjoying official sanction during

5616-540: Is why the world is created." Ahriman has no such omniscience, a fact that Ohrmuzd reminds him of ( Bundahishn 1.16). In contrast, in Manichaean scripture, Mani ascribes foresight to Ahriman. Some Zoroastrians believed Ahriman "created dangerous storms, plagues, and monsters during the struggle with Ahura Mazda" and that the two gods were twins . In 1862, Martin Haug proposed a new reconstruction of what he believed

5760-730: The Zurwaniya and the Zaradushtiya , among which Al-Shahrastani asserts that only the last of the three were properly followers of Zoroaster. As regards the recognition of a prophet, Zoroaster has said: "They ask you as to how should they recognize a prophet and believe him to be true in what he says; tell them what he knows the others do not, and he shall tell you even what lies hidden in your nature; he shall be able to tell you whatever you ask him and he shall perform such things which others cannot perform." (Namah Shat Vakhshur Zartust, .5–7. 50–54) The Ahmadiyya Community views Zoroaster as

5904-602: The Mēnōg-i Khrad and the Selections of Zādspram (both 9th century ) reveal a Zurvanite tendency. The latter, in which the priest Zādspram chastises his brother's un-Mazdaean ideas, is the last text in Middle Persian that provides any evidence of the cult of Zurvan. The 13th century Zoroastrian Ulema-i Islam ( [Response] to Doctors of Islam ), a New Persian apologetic text , is unambiguously Zurvanite and

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6048-543: The 9th century BC or before was suggested by Silk Road Seattle, using its own interpretations of Victor H. Mair 's writings on the topic. Mair himself guessed that Zoroaster could have been born in the 2nd millennium BC. Almut Hintze , the British Library , and the European Research Council have dated Zoroaster to roughly 3,500 years ago, in the 2nd millennium BC. Traditions favoring

6192-465: The Abrahamic religions , including Judaism , Christianity , and Islam . He spoke an Eastern Iranian language , named Avestan by scholars after the corpus of Zoroastrian religious texts written in that language . Based on this, it is tentative to place his homeland somewhere in the eastern regions of Greater Iran (perhaps in modern-day Afghanistan or Tajikistan ), but his exact birthplace

6336-456: The Avesta ; Geti and Mainyu (middle Persian: menog ) are terms in Mazdaist tradition, where Ahura Mazda is said to have created all first in its spiritual, then later in its material form. But the material Zurvanites redefined menog to suit Aristotelian principles to mean "that which did not (yet) have matter", or alternatively, "that which was still the unformed primal matter". Even this

6480-620: The Bahá'í Faith as a " Manifestation of God ", one of a line of prophets who have progressively revealed the Word of God to a gradually maturing humanity. Zoroaster thus shares an exalted station with Abraham , Moses , Krishna , Jesus , Muhammad , the Báb , and the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh . Shoghi Effendi , the head of the Bahá'í Faith in the first half of the 20th century, saw Bahá'u'lláh as

6624-514: The Chaldeaean to have taught Pythagoras in Babylon , or lived at the time of mythological Ninus and Semiramis . According to Pliny the Elder, there were two Zoroasters. The first lived thousands of years ago, while the second accompanied Xerxes I in the invasion of Greece in 480 BC. Some scholars propose that the chronological calculation for Zoroaster was developed by Persian magi in

6768-555: The Malevolent Spirit (lit: Angra Mainyu ) and the Benevolent Spirit ( Spenta Mainyu , identified with Ahura Mazda ) were twins, then they must have had a parent, who must have existed before them. The priesthood settled on Zurvan – the hypostasis of (Infinite) Time – as being "the only possible 'Absolute' from whom the twins could proceed" and which was the source of good in the one and the source of evil in

6912-406: The Sasanian Empire (226–651), the divinity "Infinite Time" was well established, and – as inferred from a Manichaean text presented to Shapur I, in which the name Zurvan was adopted for Manichaeism's primordial " Father of Greatness " – enjoyed royal patronage. It was during the reign of Sasanian Emperor Shapur I (241–272 CE) that Zurvanism appears to have developed as a cult and it

7056-661: The Yaz culture ), and that it is thus implausible that the Gathas and Rigveda could have been composed more than a few centuries apart. These scholars suggest that Zoroaster lived in an isolated tribe or composed the Gathas before the 1200–1000 BC migration by the Iranians from the steppe to the Iranian Plateau . The shortfall of the argument is the vague comparison, and the archaic language of Gathas does not necessarily indicate time difference. Another possible date from

7200-532: The leontocephalic deity of the Roman Mithraic Mysteries as a representation of Zurvan. Zaehner later acknowledged this mis-identification as a "positive mistake", due to Franz Cumont 's late 19th century notion that the Roman cult was "Roman Mazdaism" transmitted to the west by Iranian priests. Mithraic scholars no longer follow this so-called 'continuity theory', but that has not stopped

7344-419: The materia prima of all contingent being." The doctrine of Limited Time (allotted to Ahriman by Zurvan) implied that nothing could change this preordained course of the material universe, and the path of the astral bodies of the 'heavenly sphere' was representative of this preordained course. It followed that human destiny must then be decided by the constellations, stars and planets, who were divided between

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7488-425: The old religion ) named Brādrēs, while performing at an altar. The Dēnkart , and the epic Shahnameh , ascribe his death to a Turanian soldier named Baraturish, potentially a spin on the same figure, while other traditions combine both accounts or hold that he died of old age . The Cypress of Kashmar is a mythical cypress tree of legendary beauty and gargantuan dimensions. It is said to have sprung from

7632-536: The "Father of Time" (not to be confused with the Titan Cronus , father of Zeus ) whom the Greeks equated with Oromasdes , i.e. Ohrmuzd / Ahura Mazda. The classic Zurvanite model of creation, preserved only by non-Zoroastrian sources, proceeds as follows: In the beginning, the great God Zurvan existed alone. Desiring offspring that would create "heaven and hell and everything in between", Zurvan sacrificed for

7776-612: The (Parthian or) Middle Persian form, which the Armenians took over ( Zaradušt or the like), was merely metathesized to pre-Arm . *Zuradašt ". There is no consensus on the dating of Zoroaster. The Avesta gives no direct information about it, while historical sources are conflicting. Some scholars base their date reconstruction on the Proto-Indo-Iranian language and Proto-Indo-Iranian religion , while others use internal evidence. While many scholars today consider

7920-659: The 4th century AD. The traditional Zoroastrian date originates in the period immediately following Alexander the Great 's conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BC. The Seleucid rulers who gained power following Alexander's death instituted an "Age of Alexander" as the new calendrical epoch. This did not appeal to the Zoroastrian priesthood who then attempted to establish an "Age of Zoroaster". To do so, they needed to establish when Zoroaster had lived, which they accomplished by (erroneously, according to Mary Boyce some even identified Cyrus with Vishtaspa) counting back

8064-539: The 4th century BC, and as the early Greeks learned about him from the Achaemenids, this indicates they did not regard him as a contemporary of Cyrus the Great, but as a remote figure. Some later pseudo-historical and Zoroastrian sources (the Bundahishn , which references a date "258 years before Alexander") place Zoroaster in the 6th century BC, which coincided with the accounts by Ammianus Marcellinus from

8208-607: The Arda Viraf , which is titled 'Ahriman', the narrator sees the "Evil spirit, ... whose religion is evil [and] who ever ridiculed and mocked the wicked in hell." In the Zurvanite Ulema-i Islam (a Zoroastrian text, despite the title), "Ahriman also is called by some name by some people and they ascribe evil unto him but nothing can also be done by him without Time." A few chapters later, the Ulema notes that "it

8352-489: The Avestan form of the name. However, the modern Iranologist Rüdiger Schmitt rejects Andreas's assumption, and states that the older form which started with *zur- was just influenced by Armenian zur ('wrong, unjust, idle'), which therefore means that "the name must have been reinterpreted in an anti-Zoroastrian sense by the Armenian Christians". Furthermore, Schmitt adds: "it cannot be excluded, that

8496-827: The Book" cannot apply in light of the Zoroastrian assertion that their books were destroyed by Alexander. Citing the authority of the 8th-century al-Kalbi , the 9th- and 10th-century Sunni historian al-Tabari (I, 648) reports that Zaradusht bin Isfiman (an Arabic adaptation of "Zarathushtra Spitama") was an inhabitant of Israel and a servant of one of the disciples of the prophet Jeremiah . According to this tale, Zaradusht defrauded his master, who cursed him, causing him to become leprous (cf. Elisha 's servant Gehazi in Jewish scripture). According to Ibn Kathir , Zoroaster came into conflict with Jeremiah which resulted in angry Jeremiah cast

8640-515: The Creator (of the good creation). Similarly, no explicitly Zurvanite elements appear to have survived in modern Zoroastrianism. Dhalla explicitly accepted a modern Western version of the old Zurvanite heresy, according to which Ahura Mazda himself was the hypothetical 'father' of the twin Spirits of Y 30.3 ... Yet though Dhalla thus, under foreign influences, abandoned the fundamental doctrine of

8784-556: The Gathas: Zoroaster stated that the daevas are "wrong gods" or "false gods" that are to be rejected, but they are not yet demons. Some have also proposed a connection between Angra Mainyu and the sage Angiras of the Rigveda. If this is true, it could be understood as evidence for a religious schism between the deva-worshiping Vedic Indo-Aryans and early Zoroastrians. In Yasna 32.3, these daevas are identified as

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8928-458: The Great . This date gains credence mainly from attempts to connect figures in Zoroastrian texts to historical personages; thus some have postulated that the mythical Vishtaspa who appears in an account of Zoroaster's life was Darius I 's father, also named Vishtaspa (or Hystaspes in Greek). However, if this was true, it seems unlikely that the Avesta would not mention that Vishtaspa's son became

9072-660: The Greek and Achaemenid sources about the 6th and 5th century BC Eastern Iran. The Vendidad contain 17 regional names , most of which are located in north-eastern and eastern Iran. However, in Yasna 59.18, the zaraθuštrotema , or supreme head of the Zoroastrian priesthood, is said to reside in 'Ragha' ( Badakhshan ). In the 9th- to 12th-century Middle Persian texts of Zoroastrian tradition, this 'Ragha' and with many other places appear as locations in Western Iran. While

9216-595: The Latin Zōroastrēs , and, in later Greek orthographies, as Ζωροάστρις , Zōroastris . The Greek form of the name appears to be based on a phonetic transliteration or semantic substitution of Avestan zaraθ- with the Greek ζωρός , zōros (literally 'undiluted') and the BMAC substrate -uštra with ἄστρον , astron , ' star '. In Avestan, Zaraθuštra is generally accepted to derive from an Old Iranian *Zaratuštra- ; The element half of

9360-535: The Marvels of Creation'), he further describes how the Al-Mutawakkil in 247 AH ( 861 AD ) caused the mighty cypress to be felled, and then transported it across Iran, to be used for beams in his new palace at Samarra . Before, he wanted the tree to be reconstructed before his eyes. This was done in spite of protests by the Iranians, who offered a very great sum of money to save the tree. Al-Mutawakkil never saw

9504-766: The Middle Iranian variants of Zarθošt , which, in turn, all reflect Avestan's fricative -θ- . In Middle Persian, the name is 𐭦𐭫𐭲𐭥𐭱𐭲 , Zardu(x)št , in Parthian Zarhušt , in Manichaean Middle Persian Zrdrwšt , in Early New Persian Zardušt , and in modern (New Persian ), the name is زرتشت , Zartosht . The name is attested in Classical Armenian sources as Zradašt (often with

9648-473: The Prophet's message so dualistically that their God was made to appear very much less than all-powerful and all-wise. As reasonable as it might have appeared from a purely intellectual point of view, such an absolute dualism had neither the appeal of a real monotheism nor any mystical element with which to nourish its inner life." Another possible explanation postulated by Boyce is that Mazdaism and Zurvanism were divided regionally; that is, with Mazdaism being

9792-702: The Sasanian period, Zaehner asserted that [There must] have been a party within the Zoroastrian community which regarded the strict dualism between Truth and the Lie, the Holy Spirit and the Destructive Spirit, as being the essence of the Prophet's message. Otherwise the re-emergence of this strictly dualist form of Zoroastrianism some six centuries after the collapse of the Achaemenian Empire could not be readily explained. There must have been

9936-527: The Tedzen Delta in present-day Turkmenistan . Sarianidi considered the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex region as "the native land of the Zoroastrians and, probably, of Zoroaster himself." Boyce includes the steppes to the west from the Volga . The medieval "from Media" hypothesis is no longer taken seriously, and Zaehner has even suggested that this was a Magi-mediated issue to garner legitimacy, but this has been likewise rejected by Gershevitch and others. The 2005 Encyclopedia Iranica article on

10080-434: The Very Holy thus spoke to the Evil One: "Neither our thoughts nor teachings nor wills, neither or words nor choices nor acts, not our inner selves nor our souls agree." A literal, anthropomorphic "twin brother" interpretation of these passages gave rise to a need to postulate a father for the postulated literal "brothers". Hence Zurvanism postulated a preceding parent deity that existed above the good and evil of his sons. This

10224-420: The West through their influence on Judaism and Platonism and have been identified as one of the key early events in the development of philosophy. Among the classic Greek philosophers, Heraclitus is often referred to as inspired by Zoroaster's thinking. In 2005, the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy ranked Zoroaster as first in the chronology of philosophers. Zoroaster's impact lingers today due in part to

10368-651: The Yasna (e.g. Yasna 57.17), the two principles are said to have created the world, which seems to contradict the Gathic principle that declares Ahura Mazda to be the sole creator and which is reiterated in the cosmogony of Vendidad 1. In that first chapter, which is the basis for the 9th–12th-century Bundahishn , the creation of sixteen lands by Ahura Mazda is countered by the Angra Mainyu's creation of sixteen scourges such as winter, sickness, and vice. "This shift in

10512-518: The Zoroastrian orthodoxy of the Sasanian period is nearer to the spirit of Zoroaster than is the thinly disguised polytheism of the Yashts . Thus – according to Zaehner – while the direction that the Sasanians took was not altogether at odds with the spirit of the Gathas, the extreme dualism that accompanied a divinity that was remote and inaccessible made the faith less than attractive. Zurvanism

10656-661: The Zoroastrian religion. The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies comments that the Islamic conquest of Persia caused a huge impact on the Zoroastrian doctrine. After the Islamic conquest of Persia and the migration of many Zoroastrians to India and after being exposed to Islamic and Christian propaganda, the Zoroastrians, especially the Parsis in India, went so far as to deny dualism and consider themselves completely monotheists. After several transformations and developments, one of

10800-536: The absolute evil (the Devil) in contrast to Iblis (Satan) who represents an original noble being still under God's power. Although the divs , the creations of Ahriman in Zorastian beliefs, entered Islamic literature, to the point of being identified with the demons of Islamic religion, Ahriman is mostly a stylistic device to refute the idea of absolute evil. Rumi denies the existence of Ahriman completely: This

10944-431: The absolute separation of good and evil, his book still breathes the sturdy, unflinching spirit of orthodox Zoroastrian dualism. Zurvanism begins with a heterodox interpretation of Zarathushtra's Gathas : Yes, there are two fundamental spirits, twins which are renowned to be in conflict. In thought and in word, in action they are two: the good and the bad. Then shall I speak of the two primal Spirits of existence, of whom

11088-570: The age of 30, Zoroaster experienced a revelation during a spring festival; on the river bank he saw a shining being, who revealed himself as Vohu Manah (Good Purpose) and taught him about Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord) and five other radiant figures. Zoroaster soon became aware of the existence of two primal spirits, the second being Angra Mainyu (Destructive Spirit), with opposing concepts of Asha (order) and Druj (deception). Thus he decided to spend his life teaching people to seek Asha . He received further revelations and saw

11232-540: The birthplace of Zoroaster. There are many Greek accounts of Zoroaster, referred usually as Persian or Perso-Median Zoroaster; Ctesias located him in Bactria , Diodorus Siculus placed him among Ariaspai (in Sistan ), Cephalion and Justin suggest east of greater Iran whereas Pliny and Origen suggest west of Iran as his birthplace. Moreover, they have the suggestion that there has been more than one Zoroaster. On

11376-501: The blood of a slaughtered wolf, they bear it forth into a sunless place and cast it away.” And the Dēnkard (p. 182.6) says: “The perverted, devilish, unrighteous rite of the ‘mystery of the sorcerers’ consists in praising Ahriman, the destroyer.” Such a cult must have passed to the mysteries of Mithra, where dedications are found Deo Arimanio. The possibility of statues of Ahriman will be discussed below. In Islamic discourse, Ahriman embodies

11520-412: The concept of Ahriman to name one of two extreme forces which pull humanity away from the centering influence of God. Steiner associated Ahriman, the lower spirit, with materialism , science , heredity , objectivity , and soul-hardening. He thought that contemporary Christianity was subject to Ahrimanic influence, since it tended towards materialistic interpretations. Steiner predicted that Ahriman, as

11664-569: The cosmological myths of the Bundahishn ). And the story of Ahriman's creation of the peacock suggests that Zurvanite ideology perceived Ahriman to be a creator figure like Ormazd. This is significantly different from what is found in the Avesta (where Mazda's stock epithet is dadvah , "Creator", implying Mazda is the Creator), as well as in Zoroastrian tradition where creation of life continues to be exclusively Mazda's domain, and where creation

11808-617: The cypress, because he was murdered by a Turkic soldier (possibly in the employ of his son) on the night when it arrived on the banks of the Tigris. Athanasius Kircher identified Zoroaster with Ham . The French figurist Jesuit missionary to China Joachim Bouvet thought that Zoroaster, the Chinese cultural hero Fuxi and Hermes Trismegistus were actually the Biblical patriarch Enoch . The Encyclopædia Iranica indicates that

11952-522: The demons" as described by the German philologist and orientalist Martin Haug , whose radical interpretation was to change the faith in the 19th century (see "In present-day Zoroastrianism" below). This idea of "non-reality" is also expressed in other texts, such as the Denkard , a 9th-century "encyclopedia of Mazdaism", which states Ahriman "has never been and never will be." In chapter 100 of Book of

12096-405: The distinctive features of the Zoroastrian religion gradually faded away and almost disappeared from modern Zoroastrianism This provides an explanation of why a number of parallels have been drawn between Zoroastrian teachings and Islam. Such parallels include the evident similarities between Amesha Spenta and the archangel Gabriel , praying five times a day, covering one's head during prayer, and

12240-486: The doctrinal incompatibilities were not so extreme "that they could not be reconciled under the broad aegis of an imperial church". More likely is that the two sects served different segments of Sasanian society, with dispassionate Zurvanism primarily operating as a mystic cult and passionate Mazdaism serving the community at large. Following the fall of the Sasanian Empire in the 7th century, Zoroastrianism

12384-439: The early 4th-century edict of Mihr-Narseh , the mowbadān-mowbad or high priest under Yazdegerd I , the latter being the only native evidence from the Sasanian period that is frankly Zurvanite. The post-Sasanian Zoroastrian Middle Persian commentaries are primarily Mazdean and with only one exception (the 10th century Denkard  9.30 ) do not mention Zurvan at all. Of the remaining so-called Pahlavi books , only two,

12528-429: The end of this period, Zurvan began to doubt the efficacy of sacrifice and in the moment of this doubt Ohrmuzd and Ahriman were conceived: Ohrmuzd for the sacrifice and Ahriman for the doubt. Upon realizing that twins were to be born, Zurvan resolved to grant the first-born sovereignty over creation. Ohrmuzd perceived Zurvan's decision, which he then communicated to his brother. Ahriman then preempted Ohrmuzd by ripping open

12672-593: The end, the worst existence shall be for the deceitful' ( Y. 30.4)." Yasna 19.15 recalls that Ahura Mazda's recital of the Ahuna Vairya invocation puts Angra Mainyu in a stupor. In Yasna 9.8, Angra Mainyu creates Aži Dahaka , but the serpent recoils at the sight of Mithra 's mace ( Yasht 10.97, 10.134). In Yasht 13, the Fravashis defuse Angra Mainyu's plans to dry up the earth, and in Yasht 8.44 Angra Mainyu battles but cannot defeat Tishtrya and so prevent

12816-401: The epitome of evil. This mythology of twin brotherhood is only explicitly attested in the post- Sassanid Syriac and Armenian polemic such as that of Eznik of Kolb . According to these sources the genesis saw Zurvan as an androgynous deity, existing alone but desiring offspring who would create "heaven and hell and everything in between." Zurvan then sacrificed for a thousand years. Towards

12960-523: The era of the Sasanian state in ancient Persian that refer to the Zoroastrian doctrine do not match the sources that appeared after the collapse of the state, such as the Pahlavi source and others. The reason is that because of the fall of the Sasanian state, the Zoroastrian clerics tried to save their religion from extinction through modifying it to resemble the religion of Muslims to retain followers in

13104-626: The faith. Zurvan may be cognate with Sanskrit sarva , in which case the Sarvāstivāda , an early Buddhist school , is a continuation and reflects the etymology of both Zoroaster and Zurvan. The earliest evidence of the cult of Zurvan is found in the History of Theology , attributed to Eudemus of Rhodes (c. 370–300 BCE). As cited in Damascius 's Difficulties and Solutions of First Principles (6th century CE), Eudemus describes

13248-554: The fall of the Persian Empire, the south and west were relatively quickly assimilated under the banner of Islam, while the north and east remained independent for some time before these regions too were absorbed. This could also explain why Armenian/Syriac observations reveal a distinctly Zurvanite Zoroastrianism, and inversely, could explain the strong Greek and Babylonian connection and interaction with Zurvanism (see § Types of Zurvanism below). "Classical Zurvanism"

13392-532: The fallacy (which Zaehner also attributes to Cumont ) from proliferating on the Internet. No evidence of distinctly Zurvanite rituals or practices have been discovered, so followers of the cult are widely believed to have had the same rituals and practices as Mazdean Zoroastrians did. This is understandable, inasmuch as the Zurvanite doctrine of a monist First Principle did not preclude the worship of Ohrmuzd as

13536-470: The first proponents of the theory that Zurvanism was the state religion of the Sasanians, suggested that the rejection of Zurvanism in the post-conquest epoch was a response and reaction to the new authority of Islamic monotheism that brought about a deliberate reform of Zoroastrianism that aimed to establish a stronger orthodoxy. Zaehner is of the opinion that the Zurvanite priesthood had a "strict orthodoxy which few could tolerate. Moreover, they interpreted

13680-499: The founder of the Magian order was now said to be Zoroaster himself. The fall of the Achaemenian Empire , however, must have been disastrous for the Zoroastrian religion, and the fact that the Magi were able to retain as much as they did and restore it in a form that was not too strikingly different from the Prophet's original message after the lapse of some 600 years proves their devotion to his memory. It is, indeed, true to say that

13824-521: The fulfillment of a post-Sassanid Zoroastrian prophecy that saw a return of Sassanid emperor Bahram ; Effendi also stated that Zoroaster lived roughly 1000 years before Jesus. In the Gathas , Zoroaster sees the human condition as the mental struggle between aša and druj . The cardinal concept of aša —which is highly nuanced and difficult to translate—is at the foundation of all Zoroastrian doctrine, including that of Ahura Mazda (who

13968-532: The good (the signs of the Zodiac) and the evil (the planets): Ohrmazd allotted happiness to man, but if man did not receive it, it was owing to the extortion of these planets. Fatalistic Zurvanism was evidently influenced by Chaldean astrology and perhaps also by Aristotle's theory of chance and fortune. The fact that Armenian and Syrian commentators translated Zurvan as "Fate" is highly suggestive. In his first manuscript of his book Zurvan , Zaehner identified

14112-470: The hands of fate (an omnipotent deity), the cult of Zurvan distanced itself from the most sacred of Zoroastrian tenets: that of the efficacy of good thoughts, good words and good deeds. That the Zurvanite view of creation was an apostasy even for medieval Zoroastrians is apparent from the 10th century Denkard , which in a commentary on Yasna 30.3–5 turns what the Zurvanites considered the words of

14256-813: The historical present, he notes that "under Chosrau II ( r. 590–628) and his successors, all kinds of superstitions tend to overwhelm the Mazdean religion, which gradually disintegrates, thus preparing the triumph of Islam." Thus, "what will survive in popular conscience under the Muslim varnish is not Mazdeism: it is Zervanite fatalism , well attested in Persian literature". This is also a thought expressed by Zaehner , who observes that Ferdowsi , in his Shahnameh , "expounds views which seem to be an epitome of popular Zervanite doctrine". Thus, according to Zaehner and Duchesne-Guillemin , Zurvanism's pessimistic fatalism

14400-531: The history of Zoroastrianism summarizes the issue with "while there is general agreement that he did not live in western Iran, attempts to locate him in specific regions of eastern Iran, including Central Asia, remain tentative". Zoroaster is recorded as the son of Pourushaspa of the Spitama family, and Dugdōw, while his great-grandfather was Haēčataspa. All the names appear appropriate to the nomadic tradition. His father's name means 'possessing gray horses' (with

14544-631: The land of Media does not figure at all in the Avesta (the westernmost location noted in scripture is Arachosia ), the Būndahišn , or "Primordial Creation", (20.32 and 24.15) puts Ragha in Media (medieval Rai ). However, in Avestan, Ragha is simply a toponym meaning 'plain, hillside.' Apart from these indications in Middle Persian sources that are open to interpretations, there are a number of other sources. The Greek and Latin sources are divided on

14688-499: The late 18th-century century conclusion that Infinite Time was the first Principle of Zoroastrianism and Ohrmuzd was therefore only "the derivative and secondary character". Ironically, the fact that no Zoroastrian texts contained any hint of the born-of-Zurvan doctrine was considered to be evidence of a latter-day corruption of the original principles. The opinion that Zoroastrianism was so severely dualistic that it was, in fact, ditheistic or even tritheistic would be widely held until

14832-565: The late 19th century. According to Zaehner, the doctrine of the cult of Zurvan appears to have three schools of thought, each to a different degree influenced by alien philosophies, which he calls These are described in the following subsections. Zaehner proposes that each of three arose out of the classical Zurvanism. Materialist Zurvanism was influenced by the Aristotelian and Empedoclean view of matter , and took "some very queer forms". While Zoroaster's Ormuzd created

14976-545: The length of successive generations, until they concluded that Zoroaster must have lived "258 years before Alexander". This estimate then re-appeared in the 9th- to 12th-century Arabic and Pahlavi texts of Zoroastrian tradition, like the 10th century Al-Masudi who cited a prophecy from a lost Avestan book in which Zoroaster foretold the Empire's destruction in 300 years, but the religion would last for 1,000 years. In modern scholarship, two main approaches can be distinguished:

15120-608: The mention of Thamud and Iram of the Pillars in the Quran . The Sabians , who believed in free will coincident with Zoroastrians , are also mentioned in the Quran 22:17. Like the Greeks of classical antiquity, Islamic tradition understands Zoroaster to be the founding prophet of the Magians (via Aramaic, Arabic Majus , collective Majusya ). The 11th-century Cordoban Ibn Hazm (Zahiri school) contends that Kitabi "of

15264-526: The middle, whose duty it remains to withstand the forces of evil through good thoughts, words and deeds. Other texts see the world created by Ohrmuzd as a trap for Ahriman, who is then distracted by creation and expends his force in a battle he cannot win. ( The epistles of Zatspram 3.23; Shkand Gumanig Vichar 4.63–4.79). The Dadistan denig explains that Ohrmuzd, being omniscient, knew of Ahriman's intent, but it would have been against his "justice and goodness to punish Ahriman before he wrought evil [and] this

15408-636: The name ( -uštra- ) is thought to be the Indo-Iranian root for 'camel', with the entire name meaning 'he who can manage camels'. Reconstructions from later Iranian languages—particularly from the Middle Persian (300 BC) Zardusht , which is the form that the name took in the 9th- to 12th-century Zoroastrian texts—suggest that *Zaratuštra- might be a zero-grade form of *Zarantuštra- . Subject then to whether Zaraθuštra derives from *Zarantuštra- or from *Zaratuštra- , several interpretations have been proposed. If Zarantuštra

15552-485: The offspring, not of Angra Mainyu, but of akem manah , "evil thinking". A few verses earlier it is however the daebaaman , "deceiver" – not otherwise identified but "probably Angra Mainyu" – who induces the daevas to choose achistem manah – "worst thinking." In Yasna 32.13, the abode of the wicked is not the abode of Angra Mainyu, but the abode of the same "worst thinking". "One would have expected [Angra Mainyu] to reign in hell, since he had created 'death and how, at

15696-416: The original narrative was borrowed from Tabari's record of the "History of Jerusalem". He also mentioned that Zoroastrian was synonymous with Majus . Sibt ibn al-Jawzi instead stated that some older narration said that Zoroaster was a former disciple of Uzair . Al-Tabari (I, 681–683) recounts that Zaradusht accompanied a Jewish prophet to Bishtasb/Vishtaspa. Upon their arrival, Zaradusht translated

15840-619: The other hand, in post-Islamic sources Shahrastani (1086–1153), an Iranian writer originally from Shahristān, in present-day Turkmenistan , proposed that Zoroaster's father was from Atropatene (also in Medea) and his mother was from Rey . Coming from a reputed scholar of religions, this was a serious blow to the various regions which all claimed that Zoroaster originated from their homelands, some of which then decided that Zoroaster must then have then been buried in their regions or composed his Gathas there or preached there. Arabic sources of

15984-477: The other. The Zurvanite "twin brother" doctrine is also evident in Zurvanism's cosmogonical creation myth ; the classic form of the creation myth does not contradict the Mazdean model of the origin and evolution of the universe, which begins where the Zurvanite model ends. It may well be that the Zurvanite cosmogony was an adaptation of an antecedent Hellenic Chronos cosmogony that portrayed Infinite Time as

16128-477: The position of Ahura Mazda, his total assimilation to this Bounteous Spirit [Mazda's instrument of creation], must have taken place in the 4th century BC at the latest; for it is reflected in Aristotle 's testimony, which confronts Areimanios with Oromazdes (apud Diogenes Laertius, 1.2.6)." Yasht 15.43 assigns Angra Mainyu to the nether world, a world of darkness. So also Vendidad 19.47, but other passages in

16272-466: The predominant tendency in the regions to the north and east ( Bactria , Margiana , and other satrapies closest to Zoroaster's homeland), while Zurvanism was prominent in regions to the south and west (closer to Babylonian and Greek influence). This is supported by Manichaean evidence that indicates that 3rd century Mazdean Zoroastrianism had its stronghold in Parthia , to the northeast. Following

16416-458: The priests, with the result that Haug's ideas became well entrenched and are today almost universally accepted as doctrine. While some modern scholars have theories similar to Haug's regarding Angra Mainyu's origins, many now think that the traditional "dualist" interpretation was in fact correct all along and that Angra Mainyu was always considered to be completely separate and independent from Ahura Mazda. According to Plutarch , Zoroaster taught

16560-496: The prophet into Zoroaster recalling "a proclamation of the Demon of Envy to mankind that Ohrmuzd and Ahriman were two in one womb". The fundamental goal of "classical Zurvanism" to bring the doctrine of the "twin spirits" in accord with what was otherwise understood of Zoroaster's teaching may have been excessive, but (according to Zaehner) it was not altogether misguided. In noting the emergence of an overtly dualistic doctrine during

16704-515: The rains. In Vendidad 19, Angra Mainyu urges Zoroaster to turn from the good religion by promising him sovereignty of the world. On being rejected, Angra Mainyu assails Zoroaster with legions of demons, but Zoroaster deflects them all. In Yasht 19.96, a verse that reflects a Gathic injunction, Angra Mainyu will be vanquished and Ahura Mazda will ultimately prevail. In Yasht 19.46ff, Angra Mainyu and Spenta Mainyu battle for possession of khvaraenah , "divine glory" or "fortune". In some verses of

16848-572: The ruler of the Persian Empire, or that this key fact about Darius's father would not be mentioned in the Behistun Inscription . It is also possible that Darius I's father was named in honor of the Zoroastrian patron, indicating possible Zoroastrian faith by Arsames . Scholars such as Mary Boyce (who dated Zoroaster to somewhere between 1700 and 1000 BC) used linguistic and socio-cultural evidence to place Zoroaster between 1500 and 1000 BC (or 1200 and 900 BC). The basis of this theory

16992-513: The sage's Hebrew teachings for the king and so convinced him to convert (Tabari also notes that they had previously been Sabis ) to the Magian religion. The 12th-century heresiographer al-Shahrastani describes the Majusiya into three sects, the Kayumarthiya (an otherwise undocumented sect that – per Sharastani – seems to have had a stronger doctrine of Ahriman's "non-reality"),

17136-550: The same chapter (19.1 and 19.44) have him dwelling in the region of the daeva s, which the Vendidad asserts is in the north. There (19.1, 19.43–44), Angra Mainyu is the daevanam daevo , " daeva of daeva s" or chief of the daeva s. The superlative daevo.taema is however assigned to the demon Paitisha ("opponent"). In an enumeration of the daeva s in Vendidad 1.43, Angra Mainyu appears first and Paitisha appears last. "Nowhere

17280-403: The same period and the same region of historical Persia also consider Azerbaijan as the birthplace of Zarathustra. By the late 20th century, most scholars had settled on an origin in eastern Greater Iran. Gnoli proposed Sistan , Baluchistan (though in a much wider scope than the present-day province) as the homeland of Zoroastrianism; Frye voted for Bactria and Chorasmia ; Khlopin suggests

17424-417: The stories of Zoroaster's life were distorted by quoting stories from Christianity and Judaism and attributing them to Zoroaster, but the most quotations were from Islam after the entry of Muslims into Persia, as it was a means for the Zoroastrian clergy to strengthen their religion. The orientalist Arthur Christensen in his book '' Iran During The Sassanid Era'' , mentioned that the sources dating back to

17568-473: The system of religious ethics he founded called Mazdayasna . The word Mazdayasna is Avestan and is translated as 'Worship of Wisdom/Mazda' in English. The encyclopedia Natural History (Pliny) claims that Zoroastrians later educated the Greeks who, starting with Pythagoras , used a similar term, philosophy, or "love of wisdom" to describe the search for ultimate truth. Zurvanism Zurvanism

17712-565: The term would come to be a derogatory term for ' atheist ' or ' materialist '. The term also appears – in conjunction with other terms for skeptics – in Denkard 3.225 and in the Skand-gumanig wizar where "one who says god is not, who are called dahari , and consider themselves to be delivered from religious discipline and the toil of performing meritorious deeds". A surviving Zurvanist myth describes him as "both male and female" and

17856-682: The time of the Sassanid Empire , until the 7th century AD, when the religion itself began to decline following the Arab-Muslim conquest of Iran . Zoroaster is credited with authorship of the Gathas as well as the Yasna Haptanghaiti , a series of hymns composed in Old Avestan that cover the core of Zoroastrian thinking. Little is known about Zoroaster; most of his life is known only from these scant texts. By any modern standard of historiography, no evidence can place him into

18000-400: The universe with his thought, materialist Zurvanism challenged the concept that anything could be made out of nothing. This challenge was a patently alien idea, discarding core Zoroastrian tenets in favor of the position that the spiritual world – including heaven and hell, reward and punishment – did not exist. The fundamental division of the material and spiritual is not altogether foreign to

18144-428: The upper hand during the crucial period that the canon was finally written down. In the texts composed prior to the Sasanian period, Zurvan appears twice, as both an abstract concept and as a minor divinity, but there is no evidence of a cult. In Yasna  72.10 Zurvan is invoked in the company of Space and Air ( Vata-Vayu ) and in Yasht  13.56, the plants grow in the manner Time has ordained according to

18288-636: The variant Zradešt ). The most important of these testimonies were provided by the Armenian authors Eznik of Kolb , Elishe , and Movses Khorenatsi . The spelling Zradašt was formed through an older form which started with *zur- , a fact which the German Iranologist Friedrich Carl Andreas (1846–1930) used as evidence for a Middle Persian spoken form *Zur(a)dušt . Based on this assumption, Andreas even went so far to form conclusions from this also for

18432-526: The will of Ahura Mazda and the Amesha Spentas . Two other references to Zurvan are also present in the Vendidad , but although these are late additions to the canon, they again do not establish any evidence of a cult. Zurvan does not appear in any listing of the Yazatas . The origins of the cult of Zurvan remain debated. One view considers Zurvanism to have developed out of Zoroastrianism as

18576-471: The womb to emerge first. Reminded of the resolution to grant Ahriman sovereignty, Zurvan conceded, but limited kingship to a period of 9,000 years, after which Ohrmuzd would rule for all eternity. Christian and Manichaean missionaries considered this doctrine to be exemplary of the Zoroastrian faith and it was these and similar texts that first reached the west. Corroborated by Anquetil-Duperron 's "erroneous rendering" of Vendidad  19.9, these led to

18720-543: The womb to emerge first. Reminded of the resolution to grant Ahriman sovereignty, Zurvan conceded, but limited kingship to a period of 9000 years, after which Ohrmuzd would rule for all eternity. Eznik of Kolb also summarizes a myth in which Ahriman is said to have demonstrated an ability to create life by creating the peacock. The story of Ahriman's ripping open the womb to emerge first suggests that Zurvanite ideology perceived Ahriman to be evil by choice, rather than always having been intrinsically evil (as found, for example, in

18864-489: The word aspa meaning 'horse'), while his mother's means 'milkmaid'. According to the tradition, he had four brothers, two older and two younger, whose names are given in much later Pahlavi work. Zoroaster's training for priesthood probably started very early around seven years of age. He became a priest probably around the age of 15, and according to Gathas, gaining knowledge from other teachers and personal experience from traveling when he left his parents at age 20. By

19008-465: The world as being locked in an epic battle between opposing forces of good and evil. Manicheanism also incorporated other elements of Zoroastrian tradition, particularly the names of supernatural beings; however, many of these other Zoroastrian elements are either not part of Zoroaster's own teachings or are used quite differently from how they are used in Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster appears in

19152-459: The worship of Ahriman. The Encyclopedia of Iran claims: there existed Ahriman worshippers is attested by Plutarch and in a Dēnkard passage. The former ( Isis and Osiris , 46) says that Zoroaster taught the Persians to sacrifice to Areimanios “offerings for averting ill, and things of gloom. For, pounding in a mortar a herb called omomi, they invoke Hades and darkness; then having mingled it with

19296-415: Was Zoroaster's original monotheistic teaching, as expressed in the Gathas – a teaching which he believed had been corrupted by later Zoroastrian dualistic tradition as expressed in post-Gathic scripture and in the texts of tradition . For Angra Mainyu, this interpretation meant a demotion from a spirit coequal with Ahura Mazda to a mere product of Ahura Mazda. Haug's theory was based to a great extent on

19440-489: Was a formative influence on the Iranian psyche, paving the way (as it were) for the rapid adoption of Shi'a philosophy during the Safavid era. According to Zaehner and Shaki, in Middle Persian texts of the 9th century, Dahri (from Arabic–Persian dahr , time, eternity) is the appellative term for adherents of the Zurvanite doctrine that the universe derived from Infinite Time. In later Persian and Arabic literature,

19584-425: Was an Iranian religious reformer who challenged the tenets of the contemporary Ancient Iranian religion , becoming the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism . Variously described as a sage or a wonderworker ; in the oldest Zoroastrian scriptures, the Gathas , which he is believed to have authored, he is described as a preacher and a poet-prophet. He also had an impact on Heraclitus , Plato , Pythagoras , and

19728-501: Was an obvious usurpation of Zoroastrian dualism , a sacrilege against the moral preeminence of Ahura Mazda. The pessimism evident in fatalistic Zurvanism existed in stark contradiction to the positive moral force of Mazdaism, and was a direct violation of one of Zoroaster 's great contributions to religious philosophy: his uncompromising doctrine of free will . In Yasna 30.2 and 45.9, Ahura Mazda "has left to men's wills" to choose between doing good and doing evil. By leaving destiny in

19872-631: Was born in one of the two areas and later lived in the other area. Yasna 9 and 17 cite the Ditya River in Airyanem Vaējah (Middle Persian Ērān Wēj ) as Zoroaster's home and the scene of his first appearance. The Avesta (both Old and Younger portions) does not mention the Achaemenids or of any West Iranian tribes such as the Medes , Persians , or even Parthians . The Farvardin Yasht refers to some Iranian peoples that are unknown in

20016-434: Was certainly influenced by Hellenic philosophy, any relationship between it and the Greek divinity of Chronos "Time" has not been conclusively established. Non-Zoroastrian accounts of typically Zurvanite beliefs were the first traces of Zoroastrianism to reach the west, leading European scholars to conclude that Zoroastrianism was a monist religion, an issue of controversy among both scholars and contemporary practitioners of

20160-411: Was gradually supplanted by Islam. The former continued to exist but in an increasingly reduced state, and by the 10th century the remaining Zoroastrians appear to have more closely followed the orthodoxy as found in the Pahlavi books (see also § The legacy of Zurvanism below). Why the cult of Zurvan vanished, while Mazdaism did not, remains an issue of scholarly debate. Arthur Christensen , one of

20304-548: Was gratefully received by the Parsis of Bombay, who at the time were under considerable pressure from Christian missionaries (most notable amongst them John Wilson ) who sought converts among the Zoroastrian community and criticized Zoroastrianism for its alleged dualism as contrasted with their own monotheism. Haug's reconstruction had also other attractive aspects that seemed to make the religion more compatible with nineteenth-century enlightenment , as he attributed to Zoroaster

20448-403: Was portrayed as a transcendental and neutral god without passion; one for whom there was no distinction between good and evil. The name Zurvan is a normalized rendition of the word, which in Middle Persian appears as either Zurvān , Zruvān or Zarvān . The Middle Persian name derives from Avestan ( Avestan : 𐬰𐬭𐬎𐬎𐬁𐬥 , romanized:  zruuān , lit.   'time',

20592-420: Was presumably in this period that Greek and Indic concepts were introduced to Zurvanite Zoroastrianism. It is however not known whether Sasanian-era Zurvanism and Mazdaism were separate sects, each with their own organization and priesthood, or simply two tendencies within the same body. That Mazdaism and Zurvanism competed for attention has been inferred from the works of Christian and Manichaean polemicists, but

20736-401: Was then truly heretical only in the sense that it weakened the appeal of Zoroastrianism. Nonetheless, that Zurvanism was the predominant brand of Zoroastrianism during the cataclysmic years just prior to the fall of the empire, is, according to Duchesne-Guillemin , evident in the degree of influence that Zurvanism (but not Mazdaism) would have on the Iranian brand of Shi'a Islam . Writing in

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