But these followers of an ancient faith are not insulated from the tribulations of their country. Zoroastrianism is named after its founder, the prophet Zarathustra -- or Zoroaster , as he came to be known in the West -- who preached sometime between and B.
Zoroaster spoke of humans siding with God called Ahura Mazda, or the Wise Lord against the devil called Angra Mainyu, or the Angry Spirit and fighting for all that is right. In time, those concepts became central to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
So did Zoroastrian beliefs that each soul faces judgment after death before entering heaven, limbo or hell, and that all of humanity will experience resurrection, final judgment and heaven on Earth.
Jamsheed K. Ancient Persian kings like Cyrus and Darius followed their faith's basic tenet of doing good by freeing Israelites from the Babylonian Exile and supporting construction of the Second Temple at Jerusalem. Zoroastrianism's clergymen, or magi, are known around the world as the wise men in attendance at the nativity of Jesus. Until Arabs conquered Iran during the seventh century, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians there could practice their own devotions unhindered.
Thereafter, they became minorities who were persecuted and largely converted to Islam. When the Islamic revolution occurred in , fundamentalist Shiites stormed the fire temple at Tehran. There, Zoroastrians worship in front of a blazing fire, as a symbol of God's grace, just like Christians face a cross and Muslims turn to a qibla pointing toward Mecca.
The portrait of Zoroaster was tossed down, a photograph of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was put up in its place, and the congregation was warned not to remove the image of Iran's new leader. Only months later could the prophet's picture be mounted upon an adjacent wall. Their schools and classrooms began to be covered with images of Supreme Leaders Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and with verses of the Quran that denounce non-Muslims. Those who do well academically nonetheless find no openings within state-controlled universities.
When the bloody war with Iraq raged from to , young Zoroastrians were involuntarily drafted for suicide missions in the Iranian army. Zoroastrianism is an ancient Persian religion that may have originated as early as 4, years ago.
Zoroastrianism was the state religion of three Persian dynasties, until the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century A. Zoroastrian refugees, called Parsis, escaped Muslim persecution in Iran by emigrating to India.
Zoroastrianism now has an estimated , to , worshipers worldwide, and is practiced today as a minority religion in parts of Iran and India. Most of what is known about Zoroaster comes from the Avesta—a collection of Zoroastrian religious scriptures. Some scholars believe he was a contemporary of Cyrus the Great, a king of the Persian Empire in the sixth century B. Zoroaster is thought to have been born in what is now northeastern Iran or southwestern Afghanistan. He may have lived in a tribe that followed an ancient religion with many gods polytheism.
This religion was likely similar to early forms of Hinduism. According to Zoroastrian tradition, Zoroaster had a divine vision of a supreme being while partaking in a pagan purification rite at age Zoroaster began teaching followers to worship a single god called Ahura Mazda.
In the s, Russian archaeologists at Gonur Tepe, a Bronze Age site in Turkmenistan, discovered the remains of what they believed to be an early Zoroastrian fire temple. The temple dates to the second millennium B. It was the state religion of three major Persian dynasties. By most accounts, Cyrus was a tolerant ruler who allowed his non-Iranian subjects to practice their own religions. The beliefs of Zoroastrianism were spread across Asia via the Silk Road , a network of trading routes that spread from China to the Middle East and into Europe.
Some scholars say that tenets of Zoroastrianism helped to shape the major Abrahamic religions—including Judaism , Christianity and Islam —through the influence of the Persian Empire. Zoroastrian concepts, including the idea of a single god, heaven, hell and a day of judgment, may have been first introduced to the Jewish community of Babylonia , where people from the Kingdom of Judea had been living in captivity for decades.
When Cyrus conquered Babylon in B. Many returned home to Jerusalem , where their descendants helped to create the Hebrew Bible. Over the next millennia, Zoroastrianism would dominate two subsequent Persian dynasties—the Parthian and Sassanian Empires—until the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century A. The Muslim conquest of Persia between and A. The Arab invaders charged Zoroastrians living in the Persia extra taxes for retaining their religious practices and implemented laws to make life difficult for them.
Over time, most Iranian Zoroastrians converted to Islam. Parsi are followers of Zoroastrianism in India. According to Parsi tradition, a group of Iranian Zoroastrians emigrated from Persia to escape religious persecution by the Muslim majority after the Arab conquest. Experts speculate that the group sailed across the Arabian Sea and landed in Gujarat, a state in western India, sometime between and A.
The Parsi are an ethnic minority in India and Pakistan. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. The obscure religion that shaped the West.
Share using Email. By Joobin Bekhrad 6th April It has influenced Star Wars and Game of Thrones — and characters as diverse as Voltaire, Nietzsche and Freddie Mercury have cited it as an inspiration.
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