Zoroastrianism (History)

The Colonial Public and the Parsi Stage is the first comprehensive study of the Parsi theatre, colonial South and Southeast Asia’s most influential cultural phenomenon and the precursor of the Indian cinema industry. By providing extensive, unpublished information on its first actors, audiences, production methods, and plays, this book traces how the theatre—which was one of the first in the Indian subcontinent to adopt European stagecraft—transformed into a pan-Asian entertainment industry in the second half of the nineteenth century. Nicholson sheds light on the motivations that led to the development of the popular, commercial theatre movement in Asia through three areas of investigation: the vernacular public sphere, the emergence of competing visions of nationhood, and the narratological function that women served within a continually shifting socio-political order. The book will be of interest to scholars across several disciplines, including cultural history, gender studies, Victorian studies, the sociology of religion, colonialism, and theatre.

This article investigates the relationship between historical/religious memory and the perception of power in the early Sasanian period, and analyses how dynastic reflexes are formulated by religion/tradition in the new system within the context of Ardashir, Kerdir and Mani. It asserts that we can discover the relationship between the Sasanian elites and religion if we understand the factors that mobilised and remodelled their historical memories. Based on these factors, it proposes that the natural relationship established by the Sasanian dynasty during the state-building phase was fuelled by historical/traditional factors rather than by conscious political factors. Thus, the inherent links between the representatives of power and the religious tradition in the reign of Ardashir, founder of the Sasanian state, have been consciously politicised since the reign of Shapur I.

Deyoces (708- 665), hijo de Fraortes, unificó las “tribus” medas: busas (en Ecbátana), paractenos (en Isfahán capital), estrucates (en Markazi), arizantos (en Kashan, N de Isfahán), budios (en Markazi) y magos; Fraortes estableció Ecbátana como capital, expulsó a los asirios y fijó una legislación; su hijo Fraortes (665- 663) sometió a los persas y murió bajo Asurbanipal; su hijo Ciaxares (663- 549) reinó sobre Medos, Persas, Partos y Sagartios, enfrentó a Lidia que había dado refugio a unos escitas opositores, es el Asuero bíblico?; su hijo Astíages o Istuvegü (549- 539) se tuvo por mal gobernante, encargó a Hárpago dar muerte a su nieto Ciro, hijo de Mandana, pero Hárpago lo entregó a un pastor cuya esposa no cumplió la orden sino que lo cambió por su hijo muerto.

Review of Eliz Sanasarian. Religious Minorities in Iran (Cambridge Middle East Studies, 13), xx, 228 pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 69, No. 1, February 2006, pp. 151-153.

In the present chapter I would like to offer a brief, critical survey
of some of Geo Widengren’s early writings, published between 1938 and
1955. A part of them were conceived as a sequential series under the
title “King and Saviour” (henceforth KS). Here, one finds the workshop
where his most influential contributions were shaped, namely those on
sacral kingship and apocalyptics. On the one hand, I am interested to
investigate his first contribution to the field of the history of
Iranian religions, the 1938 monograph on the high gods. On the other
hand, I propose to provide a fresh review of the ‘King and Saviour’
series, which follows two main lines of inquiry: the integration of
the (then) newly discovered Manichaean literature and his approach to
Near East kingship, with a particular focus on whether it paved the
path to the understanding of Iranian kingship.

The word which means 'a demon' in Persia, means quite the contrary in India, and that radical difference is just a proof of the two systems being independent of one another. Kleuker pointed out the incorrectness of the statement; but, being unable to account for the identity of the words, he flatly denied it. Kleuker was more successful in the field of philology: he showed, as Anquetil had done, that Zend has no Arabic elements in it, and that Pahlavi itself, which is more modern than Zend, does not contain any Arabic, but only Semitic words of the Aramean dialect, which are easily accounted for by the close relations of Persia with Aramean lands in the time of the Sassanian kings. He showed, lastly, that Arabic words appear only in the very books which Parsi tradition itself considers modern. Another stanch upholder of the Avesta was the numismatologist Tychsen, who, having begun to read the book with a prejudice against its authenticity, quitted it with a conviction to the contrary. 'There is nothing in it,' he {p. xix} said, 'but what befits remote ages, and a man philosophising in the infancy of the world. Such traces of a recent period as they fancy to have found in it, are either understandings, or belong to its later portions. On the whole there is a marvellous accordance between the Zend-Avesta and the accounts of the ancients with regard to the doctrine and institutions of Zoroaster. Plutarch agrees so well with the Zend books that I think no one will deny the close resemblance of doctrines and identity of origin. Add to all this the incontrovertible argument to be drawn from the language, the antiquity of which is established by the fact that it was necessary to translate a part of the Zend books into Pahlavi, a language which was obsolete as early as the time of the Sassanides. Lastly, it cannot be denied that Zoroaster left books, which were, through centuries, the groundwork of the Magic religion, and which were preserved by the Magi, as shown by a series of documents from the time of Hermippus. Therefore I am unable to see why we should not trust the Magi of our days when they ascribe to Zoroaster those traditional books of their ancestors, in which nothing is found to indicate fraud or a modern hand. Two years afterwards, in 1793, was published in Paris a book which, without directly dealing with the Avesta, was the first step taken to make its authenticity incontrovertible. It was the masterly memoir by Sylvestre de Sacy, in which the Pahlavi inscriptions of the first Sassanides were deciphered for the first time and in a decisive manner. De Sacy, in his researches, had chiefly relied on the Pahlavi lexicon published by Anquetil, whose work vindicated itself--better than by heaping up arguments--by promoting discoveries. The Pahlavi inscriptions gave the key, as is well known, to the Persian cuneiform inscriptions, which were in return to put beyond all doubt the genuineness of the Zend language. Tychsen, in an appendix to his Commentaries, pointed [1. 'Commentatio prior observationes historico-criticas de Zoroastre ejusque et placitis exhibens.' Goettingen, in the Novi Comment. Soc. Reg. 1791.] {p. xx} to the importance of the new discovery: 'This,' he writes, 'is a proof that the Pahlavi was used during the reign of the Sassanides, for it was from them that these inscriptions emanated, as it was by them--nay, by the first of them, Ardeshîr Bâbagân--that the doctrine of Zoroaster was revived. One can now understand why the Zend books were translated into Pahlavi. Here, too, everything agrees, and speaks loudly for their antiquity and genuineness.' About the same time Sir William Jones, then president of the Royal Asiatic Society, which he had just founded, resumed in a discourse delivered before that Society the same question he had solved in such an off-hand manner twenty years before. He was no longer the man to say, 'Sied-il à un homme né dans ce siècle de s'infatuer de fables indiennes?' and although he had still a spite against Anquetil, he spoke of him with more reserve than in 1771. However, his judgment on the Avesta itself was not altered on the whole, although, as he himself declared, he had not thought it necessary to study the text. But a glance at the Zend glossary published by Anquetil suggested to him a remark which makes Sir William Jones, in spite of himself, the creator of the comparative grammar of Sanskrit and Zend. 'When I perused the Zend glossary,' he writes, 'I was inexpressibly surprised to find that six or seven words in ten are pure Sanscrit, and even some of their inflexions formed by the rules of the Vyácaran[1], as yushmácam, the genitive plural of yushmad. Now M. Anquetil most certainly and the Persian compiler most probably, had no knowledge of Sanscrit, and could not, therefore, have invented a list of Sanscrit words; it is, therefore, an authentic list of Zend words, which has been preserved in books or by tradition; it follows that the language of the Zend was at least a dialect of the Sanscrit, approaching perhaps as nearly to it as the Prácrit, or other popular idioms, which we know to have been spoken in India two thousand years ago [2]. 'This conclusion, that Zend is a Sanskrit dialect, was incorrect, the connection assumed being too close; but it was a great [1. The Sanskrit Grammar. 2 Asiatic Researches, II, § 3.] {p. xxi} thing that the near relationship of the two languages should have been brought to light. In 1798 Father Paulo de St. Barthélemy further developed Jones's remark in an essay on the antiquity of the Zend language [1]. He showed its affinity with the Sanskrit by a list of such Zend and Sanskrit words as were least likely to be borrowed, viz. those that designate the degrees of relationship, the limbs of the body, and the most general and essential ideas. Another list, intended to show, on a special topic, how closely connected the two languages are, contains eighteen words taken from the liturgic language used in India and Persia. This list was not very happily drawn up, as out of the eighteen instances there is not a single one that stands inquiry; yet it was a happy idea, and one which has not even yet yielded all that it promised. His conclusions were that in a far remote antiquity Sanskrit was spoken in Persia and Media, that it gave birth to the Zend language, and that the Zend-Avesta is authentic: 'Were it but a recent compilation,' he writes, 'as Jones asserts, how is it that the oldest rites of the Parsis, that the old inscriptions of the Persians, the accounts of the Zoroastrian religion in the classical writers, the liturgic prayers of the Parsis, and, lastly, even their books do not reveal the pure Sanskrit, as written in the land wherein the Parsis live, but a mixed language, which is as different from the other dialects of India as French is from Italian?' This amounted, in fact, to saying that the Zend is not derived from the Sanskrit, but .that both are derived from another and older language. "The Carmelite had a dim notion of that truth, but, as he failed to express it distinctly, it was lost for years, and had to be re-discovered. The first twenty-five years of this century were void of results, but the old and sterile discussions as to the authenticity of the texts continued in England. In 1808 John Leyden regarded Zend as a Prakrit dialect, parallel to Pali; Pali being identical with the Magadhi dialect and Zend with the [1. 'De antiquitate et affinitate linguae samscredamicae et germanicae,' Rome, 1798.] {p. xxii} Sauraseni [1]. In the eyes of Erskine Zend was a Sanskrit dialect, imported from India by the founders of Mazdeism, but never spoken in Persia [2]. His main argument was that Zend is not mentioned among the seven dialects which were current in ancient Persia according to the Farhang-i Jehangiri[3], and that Pahlavi and Persian exhibit no close relationship with Zend. In Germany, Meiners had found no followers. The theologians appealed to the Avesta in their polemics [4], and Rhode sketched the religious history of Persia after the translations of Anquetil[5]. Erskine's essay provoked a decisive answer [6] from Emmanuel Rask, one of. the most gifted minds in the new school of philology, who had the honour of being a precursor of both Grimm and Burnouf. He showed that the list of the Jehangiri referred to an epoch later than that to which Zend must have belonged, and to parts of Persia different from those where it must have been spoken; he showed further that modern Persian is not derived from Zend, but from a dialect closely connected with it; and, lastly, he showed what was still more important, that Zend was not derived from Sanskrit. As to the system of its sounds, Zend approaches Persian rather than Sanskrit; and as to its grammatical forms, if they often remind one of Sanskrit, they also often remind one of Greek and Latin, and frequently have a special character of their own. Rask also gave the paradigm of three Zend nouns, belonging to different declensions, as well as the right pronunciation of the Zend letters, several of which had been incorrectly given by Anquetil. This was the first essay on Zend grammar, and it was a masterly one. [1. Asiatic Researches, X. 3. A large Persian dictionary compiled in India in the reign of Jehangir. 4. 'Erläuterungen zum Neuen Testament aus einer neueröffneten Morgenländischen Quelle, {Greek I?dou` ma'goi a?po` a?natolw^n},' Riga, 1775. 5. 'Die Heilige Sage . . . des Zend-Volks,' Francfort, 1820. 6. 'Ueber das Alter und die Echtheit der Zend-Sprache und des Zend Avesta' (übersetzt von F. H. von der Hagen), Berlin, 1826. Remarks on the Zend Language and the Zend-Avesta (Transactions of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, III, 524).] The essay published in 1831 by Peter von Bohlen on the origin of the Zend language threw the matter forty years back. According to him, Zend is a Prakrit dialect, as it had been pronounced by Jones, Leyden, and Erskine....

In the mid-nineteenth century, Parsis reestablished ties with Zoroastrians in Iran that had languished due to decades-long internal unrest in Iran. In 1854 reformists in India established the Society for the Amelioration of Conditions in Iran and sent a representative to Iran- Maneckji Hataria. Hataria was charged with eliminating the onerous non-Muslim tax owed by the Zoroastrians ( the jaziyeh). Hataria also organized the Iranian Zoroastrian community, and funded a variety of community projects. He also brought Parsi reformist ideas to Iran, and attempted to reshape Iranian religious practice and belief along Parsi lines. This article explores the effects of Parsi reformist ideas on Iran, and Hataria's own writings concerning Zoroastrianism and its relationship to Iranian national identity.

Many commentators consider that the Ancient Persians did not have much to do with slavery, indeed that their concept of The Truth would have forbade it. Certainly they may have developed one of the first ethical systems which possibly was applied to everyone.

Le cours commencera par aborder la place de l'anthropologie politique au sein de l'histoire générale de la discipline, tout en évoquant les spécificités de la réflexion anthropologique en ce domaine. Nous envisagerons ainsi, également, quelques moments-clés de sa construction, en commençant par porter un regard sur ceux qui en ont été les précurseurs, tout en considérant les interrelations avec d'autres champs de l'anthropologie et, notamment, avec le religieux. Une attention particulière sera portée au cas de l'Inde depuis l'Indépendance, qui sera aussi l'occasion de mettre en évidence les échelles du Politique. Nous achèverons notre parcours en nous demandant comment la mondialisation vient renouveler l'étude du politique en anthropologie.

Pers mitolojisi ve efsaneleriyle ilgili elde edilen en eski bilgiler MÖ. 15. yüzyıla kadar gitmektedir. Arkeolojik verilerin dışında İran’ın tarihi ve dini inançları ile ilgili en eski bilgiler ise Rîg Vedâ ve Avestâ’da yer almaktadır.
Zerdüştlük, açığa çıkarılan dünya dinleri arasında en eskilerinden birisidir. Bundan dolayı da  insanlık üzerinde büyük bir etki bırakarak, Batı dinlerinin de gelişmesinde önemli rol  oynamıştır. Zerdüştler köken olarak Hint-Avrupa ailesinin torunları olan Proto Hint-İran halkının torunlarıdır. Zerdüştlük dini, tarihte önemli bir güç olan Akhaimenid İmparatorluğu (M.Ö. 550-330) tarafından benimsenmiş ve devlet dini haline getirilmiştir. Dünya çapında 200.000'den az takipçisi olduğu düşünülen Zerdüştlük dinin, İran coğrafyasında ortaya çıktığı  düşünülmektedir. Zerdüştlük dininin peygamberi olan Zerdüşt’ün yaşadığı tarih tartışmalı bir  konu olup, inancını 5 temel ilkeye dayandırmaktaydı. Zerdüşt, kötülük güçlerine karşı bir savaş ilan etmişti; iyi dini seçen her kişiyi kötülerle savaşmaya ve dünyayı kötülerden temizlemeye çağırıyordu. Zerdüşt’ün kutsal kitabı olan Avestâ, farklı dönemlerde kaleme alınmış ve en eski bölümünü Gathalar oluşturmaktaydı. Pers mitolojisi İslamiyet öncesi inanç, efsane ve özellikle de zerdüştlüğün düalist yapısı ile birçok tanrı ve olağanüstü yaratıkların hikayesini taşımaktadır. Pers mitolojisinde yer alan karakterler güçlü bir şekilde iyi ve kötü olanlar olmak üzere ikiye ayrılmıştır. Söz konusu olan iyi ve kötü anlayışı Pers mitolojisinde efsane, hikâye, figür ve motiflerde de sıkça karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Aynı zamanda İran kralları da kötülük ve ölüm güçleriyle savaşıp, İyiliğin kazanmasında önemli katkılarda bulunmaktaydılar. Bu konuda Pers imparatoru 1. Kserkses (M.Ö. 485-465) imparatorluk genelinde Daevaların tapımını yasaklamaktaydı. Özetle bir Mazdeist, Ahura Mazda’yı seçerken kötüye karşı iyiyi, Daevaların dinine karşı hakikat dinini de seçmiş olur. Bundan dolayı da her Mazdeist kötülüğe karşı savaşmalıdır. İyi ve kötü arasındaki bu çekişme Pers mitolojisinde yaratılışın başlangıcında yaratılan Spenta Mainyu (Yardımsever Ruh) ve onun ikizi olan Angra Mainyu (Yıkıcı Ruh) arasındaki mücadeleden kaynaklanmaktaydı. Zerdüşt dininin en önemli tanrısı olan Ahura Mazda ışığın ve iyiliğin sembolü iken onun tam karşıtı olan Angra Mainyu öfke, kıskançlık, kötülük ve karanlıkla özdeşleştirilmekteydi. Kutsal ateşi yaratan Ahura Mazda “Ameşa Spenta” ismi verilen melekleri yönetirken, külleri yaratan Angra Mainyu ise “Daeva” ismi verilen şeytanları yönetmektedir. Angra Mainyu’nun bildiği tek şey Ahura Mazda’nın oluşturduğu düzeni ve yaratığı güzel şeyleri yıkmaktı. Bu yüzden kötücül güçlerin veya şeytanların lideri olarak tanımlanmaktaydı. Bu araştırmada, öncelikle Pers imparatorluğunun tarihi çağları elle alınmış, Zerdüşt dini ve Avestâ hakkında bilgi verilip, Pers mitolojisindeki iyi ve kötü güçler  arasındaki mücadelelerin Pers mitolojisindeki yeri ve yansımaları anlatılacaktır. Sonrasında  araştırmanın ana konusunu oluşturan Pers mitolojisindeki kötücül güçler tanımlanmaya  çalışılacaktır.

palais par le roi, fit passer son propre frère, lui aussi mage, pour Smerdis, le second fils de Cyrus assassiné par son frère Cambyse, et il le mit sur le trône de Perse. Cambyse, qui se trouvait alors en Égypte, marcha contre eux. Mais, s'étant blessé avec sa propre épée en montant à cheval, il mourut sans héritier. Le faux Smerdis aurait pu régner à son tour longtemps si sept nobles Perses, parmi lesquels se trouvait Darius, n'avaient à leur tour ourdi un nouveau complot au cours duquel ils assassinèrent le mage, puis excitèrent le peuple à tuer tous les mages. Dans ses inscriptions, Darius nous donne le nom du mage usurpateur, Gaumata, et il nomme Bardiya 3 celui-là même qu'Hérodote appelle Smerdis. On a pu ainsi supposer que les mages étaient déjà, sous les règnes de Cyrus et de Cambyse, des sectateurs du zoroastrisme et que le meurtre des mages, appelé par les Grecs magophonia, a été une réaction contre l'emprise des prêtres mazdéens, raison pour laquelle il n'est jamais question du culte mazdéen dans les inscriptions achéménides. Ce qu'Hérodote nous apprend par ailleurs sur les Perses de l'époque achéménide se trouve généralement en contradiction avec les préceptes de Zoroastre. "Les Perses, écrit-il (I, 131-132), observent les usages suivants. Ils n'érigent ni statues, ni temples, ni autels ; ils traitent d'insensés ceux qui en élèvent parce que, selon moi, ils ne croient point, comme les Grecs, que les dieux participent de la nature humaine. Ils ont coutume de faire des sacrifices à Zeus (Ahura-Mazda) sur les cimes des monts, et ils appellent Zeus le cercle entier du ciel. Ils sacrifient encore au soleil, à la lune, à la terre, au feu, à l'eau, aux vents ; dans l'origine ils n'avaient point d'autres sacrifices ; mais depuis, ils ont appris des Assyriens et des Arabes à sacrifier à Aphrodite Céleste, que les Assyriens nomment Mylitta, les Arabes Alitta et les Perses Mithra. "Voici comment les Perses sacrifient à ces divinités : ils n'ont point d'autels, ils n'allument point de feu, ils ne font usage ni de libations, ni de flûtes, ni de bandelettes, ni d'orge [10] sacrée. Celui qui veut offrir un sacrifice conduit la victime en un lieu pur, où il invoque la divinité, presque Nous savons que les rois achéménides et leurs contemporains se faisaient ensevelir dans des tombes, de véritables mausolées pour les rois et les grands du royaume, ce qui est, en effet, en contradiction avec les prescriptions avestiques, selon lesquelles les morts devaient être abandonnés aux chiens et aux oiseaux charognards. Il ressort du texte d'Hérodote que les mages apparaissent comme des étrangers, une tribu "mède" comme il est dit par ailleurs, qui se sont imposés auprès des Perses. Seraient-ils déjà mazdéens ? Il est remarquable qu'Hérodote nous prévienne qu'on "raconte en secret" qu'ils abandonnent les cadavres à la dent des chiens (et des oiseaux) et qu'une partie du peuple les imite. C'est là une prescription de l'Avesta qui semble avoir été interdite par les rois achéménides. Cependant, aussi bien les inscriptions achéménides que les auteurs grecs du V è siècle avant J.-C. ignorent le nom de Zarathoustra, ce qui pose la question de l'origine du fondateur du mazdéisme et de l'époque où il a vécu. Platon, au IV è siècle, est le premier à citer le nom de Zoroastre dans son premier Alcibiade, dialogue dont l'authenticité reste douteuse. Zarathoustra et le mazdéisme Le mazdéisme est la religion d'Ahura-Mazda devenu dieu créateur unique. Cette réforme et "moralisation" de l'ancienne religion iranienne est due à un personnage quasiment mythique, appelé Zarathoustra, le Zoroastre des auteurs grecs. Ce que nous savons de Zoroastre reste dans l'ensemble hypothétique. D'une époque très tardive, soit après la conversion des Iraniens à l'islam, datent les ouvrages qui prétendent conserver les traditions de la vie du prophète : Tavarikh ShahNameh, Tchanorégateh-Nameh, et surtout le ZarâthushtNameh, dans lequel Zarathushtî Bahrâm î-Pazdû réunit, vers 1278, les éléments épars de la légende zoroastrienne. Ce ne sont cependant, dans l'ensemble, qu'un ramassis de légendes de caractère hagiographique qui ne peut être utilisé qu'avec la plus grande circonspection. C'est dans les traditions plus anciennes et dans l'Avesta elle-même qu'il convient de chercher les éléments [12] les plus autorisés concernant Zarathoustra. Les dates de sa vie restent inconnues. Pline le Naturaliste, qui a vécu au Ier siècle de notre ère, nous dit qu'Eudoxe plaçait ce "philosophe" six mille ans Nous ne savons précisément comment mourut Zarathoustra ni à quel âge. Selon une tradition il aurait atteint près de quatre-vingts ans, soixantedix-sept précisément. Il se trouvait à Bactres alors que Vîstâçpa avait emmené son armée dans une campagne dans le Séistan. Profitant de cette absence, les Hayonas (ou Hunus) touraniens vinrent mettre le siège devant Bactres, prirent la ville et en massacrèrent la population. Zarathoustra aurait été poignardé par un guerrier ennemi nommé Touri Brâtarcakhvch. La tradition parsie nous donne même la date de 563 avant J.-C. pour ce siège mémorable, ce qui ferait de Zarathoustra l'aîné d'à peine deux générations de Cyrus, fondateur de l'Empire perse achéménide. L'Avesta Jusqu'au XVIII e siècle les Européens ont ignoré l'existence de l'Avesta, le livre sacré des anciens Persans et de leurs héritiers, les Parsis 6. Ces derniers avaient fui la Perse à la suite des persécutions des musulmans devenus les maîtres de l'ancien empire des Sassanides, et ils s'étaient établis dans leur majorité dans la région de Bombay. En 1700 un Anglais, Thomas Hyde, publie à Oxford un ouvrage sur l'histoire de la religion des anciens Perses et des mages. C'est la première étude sur le mazdéisme, écrite à partir de sources arabes et persanes. Un peu plus de deux décennies plus tard, un Anglais, George Bourchier, puis un Écossais, Frazer, rapportent de Surat des ouvrages rédigés en "zend" comme on dit à l'époque, et en particulier un exemplaire du Vendidad Sadé. Mais personne n'est capable de traduire ces textes. C'est alors qu'intervient Anquetil-Duperron, le "Champollion" de l'ancien perse. Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron était né en 1731, dans une famille de commerçants. Garçon particulièrement doué, il avait entrepris très jeune l'étude de l'hébreu et ensuite [16] de l'arabe et du persan. En 1754 il eut l'occasion de voir à Paris le calque de quatre feuillets du Vendidad Sadé 6 Il convient cependant de signaler le premier essai en "trois livres" sur l'ancienne religion des Perses, De regio persarum principatu libri tres (Paris, 1595, 1606), dû à un jurisconsulte, avocat général du parlement de Paris, Barnabé Brisson (1531-1591), ainsi que l'ouvrage publié à Londres en 1630 de H. Lord, Display of Foreign Sects in East India... of the Sect of the Parsees, qui fit connaître les Parsis mais n'eut guère de répercussions. Tel qu'il se présente généralement et suivant la traduction de Harlez, les textes constituant l'Avesta se succèdent dans l'ordre suivant : 1/ Vendidad, nom traditionnel, mais dont le titre réel est Vidêvdât, ce qui signifie "Loi contre les Dévas (dénions)". C'est un code religieux, un ensemble de lois et de règles, dans lequel sont insérées quelques légendes. Il est divisé en 22 fargards. 2/ Vispered, nom signifiant "Tous les seigneurs". C'est un recueil de lois et de textes liturgiques divisés en 26 chapitres. 3/ Yaçna. Ce sont des hymnes d' "adoration" (selon le sens du mot yaçna) constituant l'essentiel du rituel du culte mazdéen. Ils sont au nombre de 72 (mais la traduction de Harlez n'en compte que 70), y compris les Gâthâs qui sont insérés dans cet ensemble. Les Gâthâs, mot qui signifie "chant", sont les plus anciens hymnes de l'Avesta et on s'accorde pour attribuer à Zoroastre lui-même la majorité de ces chants religieux. Au nombre de 17, ils se répartissent entre les Yaçna XXVIII à XXXIV et de XLIII (42 dans la traduction de Harlez) à LIII (52 de Harlez). 4/ Yeshts, "Adorations", sont des cantiques adressés à la louange de diverses divinités, chantés au cours de sacrifices. Ils constituent un recueil de 22 cantiques. Ils étaient 30 à l'origine. Ces Yeshts appartiennent à ce qu'on appelle par ailleurs le Khorda Avesta ("Petit Avesta"). Dans certaines éditions modernes de l'Avesta sont encore inscrits de courts textes, sous prétexte qu'ils sont rédigés en langue avestique : Nirangestân, code rituel, Agêmodâçâ, "Antique Liturgie funèbre", Hadôxt Nask, description du voyage de l'âme dans le ciel. Harlez ne les a pas insérés dans sa traduction, mais, en revanche, il a donné la traduction de quelques autres textes avestiques 5/ Nyayishs, prières de louange et de bénédiction de caractère privé, au nombre de 5. [18] 6/ Afrîgans, qui sont des afrîns ("bénédictions") au nombre de 3. 7/ Gahs, prières à réciter aux gahs (divisions du jour), au nombre de 5. 8/ Sirozah "Trente Jours", prière composée de trente invocations adressées aux génies qui présidaient aux trente jours du mois et leurs donnaient leurs noms. 9/ Fragments divers. L'avestique est un dialecte vieil iranien, différent du vieil-iranien occidental qui est la langue des inscriptions achéménides. Le plus archaïque des dialectes avestiques est celui des Gâthâs qui devait être la langue dans laquelle s'exprimait Zarathoustra. Ces Gâthâs qui constituent la partie la plus ancienne de l'Avesta, sont, comme je l'ai déjà dit, dus sans doute pour la plupart à Zarathoustra lui-même. Les Yeshts sont rédigés dans une langue aussi archaïque que celle des Gâthâs, mais qui présente des variantes lexicales. À ces divers dialectes utilisés dans l'Antiquité a succédé la langue parlée par les Parthes, le pehlevi. Ce nom dériverait de pahlav "héros", ou encore ce serait le nom d'une province, Pahlava, identique au pays d'origine des Parthes, Parthva. En pehlevi sont rédigés divers ouvrages complétant la doctrine développée dans l'Avesta. Les plus importants d'entre eux sont : Bundahishn (ou Boudahesh),...

This essay’s aim is to show that monotheism is not a useful means of understanding Zoroastrianism, particularly in a historical sense, and that if any term is to be used polytheism is far more applicable.

Author's Note:
Let me make it clear that I consider Zoroastrians who identify as monotheists as being Zoroastrians and that Zoroastrian theology is more complex in its multi-tendency fashion than this paper has the capacity to explore. For now, as long as we use these terms in our academic and lay vocabulary, I am against using monotheism and instead stand for its "opposite" especially when it comes to Pre-Modern expressions of Zoroastrianism.

This dissertation explores the ways in which the ethnic identity of South Asia's Parsis was forged through litigation in the British colonial courts. The Parsis were Zoroastrians who fled to India after the seventh-century conquest of Persia by Arab Muslims. Under British rule, they became an elite of intermediary traders and professionals. Around 1900, a series of lawsuits erupted on the admission of ethnic outsiders into the Parsi community through intermarriage, conversion, and adoption. This dissertation is a study of the most extensive of these cases, the Privy Council appeal of Saklat v Bella (1914-25). The case erupted when an Indian orphan named Bella was adopted by Parsis in Rangoon, initiated into the Zoroastrian religion, and taken into the Rangoon fire temple, a space arguably desecrated by the presence of ethnic outsiders. Through an examination of case papers and judges' notebooks from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (London) and the Bombay High Court (Mumbai), the dissertation explores competing visions of Parsi identity that were promoted by reformist and orthodox Parsis as litigants, witnesses, lawyers, judges, and journalists. Bella's case highlights two sorts of displacement. First, a patrilineal definition of Parsi identity was overtaken in this period by a more exclusive, eugenics-based racial model. As anxieties over communal extinction peaked with the advent of the census, orthodox Parsis clung to the notion of Persian racial purity, excluding Indian, Burmese, and European outsiders with renewed tenacity. Second, the colonial legal system's reconfiguration of Parsi religious institutions as trusts unravelled the authority of Zoroastrian priests as arbiters of religious doctrine. On a larger scale, Saklat v Bella illustrates how a "centripetal jurisprudence" contributed to the creation of a unitary "legal India" and an empire of common law. It is also a story about legal pluralism and the rise of a non-European legal profession in the colonial context. Parsis rose to prominence as lawyers and judges in this period, and used their legal influence to carve out a space for Zoroastrian legal identity.

Курс лекций по истории Древнего Востока охватывает основные исторические события и процессы в странах Азии и Египте с IV тыс. до н.э. до первых веков н.э. Основной упор сделан на синтез политической, экономической, социальной и духовной истории. Курс предназначен для студентов, обучающихся по направлению подготовки «Зарубежное регионоведение 41.03.01».

This article discusses the early Indo-Iranian Aryan religious schisms and how Zarathustranism was born from early Rig Vedic religion. The comparative analysis of pre-Vedic and post Vedic religion shows how close they were in their theologies.

The monotheistic ideology that Darius imposed on the nascent Achaemenid state resulted in a religious revolution with far reaching effects, as it reverberated on two different levels. At the top level, the imposition of an omnipotent abstract god, Ahura Mazda,created a sharp reaction that led to the general massacre of the opposition termed as Magophonia by Herodotus. Several centuries of doctrinal development led to Zoroastrianism, a religion marked by the art of compromise and virulent rhetoric. While the Zoroastrian influence on Abrahamic religions has mainly been investigated in respect to borrowed concepts such as Paradise or Day of Judgment, its influence on the art of compromise and rhetoric has been neglected. So has been the influence of its underground opposition, organized as brotherhood. The underground opposition affected early Christianity, while the Iranian clergy influenced the Judaic priesthood. Together, they ended up affecting Islam.

the verb abāz-handāxtan is used in Dēnkard IV. Different definitions of the verb caused
two divergent interpretations of the history of the Zoroastrians scriptures during
Sasanian era. This article does not attempt to provide a third category of meaning, but
tries to suggest a kind of modification to the traditionally accepted meaning of ‘to
collate’. The new proposed meaning is derived from New Persian texts, which include
similar usage of the verb and were written not much later than Middle Persian ones.
The suggested meaning is ‘to (re-)measure’.

Perslere (Akhaimenidler) Medlerden aktarılmış olduğu bilinen Ateş Kültü’nün, Anadolu’da MÖ 546’da başlayan Akhaimenid egemenliği sırasında kurumsallaşmaya başlamış olduğu düşünülebilir. Bu süreçte Erken Zerdüşt Dini’nin en güçlü ritüel ögesi olan Ateş Kültü, arkaik Ermenilerin de inanç pratiğinde yer almış ve dinin mimari boyut kazanmasına neden olmuş gibi görünmektedir. MÖ 6. yüzyılda Medlerle birlikte Doğu Anadolu insanlarının gündelik hayatlarına giren Erken Zerdüşt Dini, arkaik Ermenilerin MS 4. yüzyıl başlarında Hıristiyanlığa geçmeye başlamasına değin bölgenin baskın inancı olmuştur. Erken Zerdüşt Dini’nin Doğu Anadolu’da birçok yerel ögeyi içine alarak arkaik Ermenilere özgü bir forma dönüştüğü düşünülebilir. Bu bağlamda, bir üst kimlik olarak yaklaşık 1000 yıllık bir tarihsel süreçte, Doğu Anadolu ve İran arasında ortak bir dinin paylaşılmış olduğu anlaşılmaktadır.
Mevcut bulgular arkaik Ermeni toplumunu oluşturan mikro toplulukların Erken Zerdüşt Dini temelinde ortak bir inanç değeri oluşturduğu ve millet olma yolu girdiklerini göstermektedir. Bu süreçte bölgede yaşanmaya başlanan Zerdüşt Dini’nin birçok yerli elementi içine aldığı gözlenmektedir. Tanrıça Anahit’e büyük saygı duyan arkaik Ermenilerin Erken Zerdüşt Dini’ni özgün biçimiyle yaşamaya başlamış olsalar bile Urartuların devamı olan Alarodlar gibi çok sayıdaki mikro toplumun geleneklerinin etkisiyle bu inancın orijinal yapısından uzaklaştıkları anlaşılmaktadır. Arkaik Ermenilerin Zerdüşt Dini’nin özgünlüğü değiştirilmiş bir formuna sahip olduklarını ve bunu Ateş Kültü temelinde yaşadıklarını, güçlü Anahit ve Nane kültlerinin varlığı kanıtlamaktadır.
Hıristiyanlık öncesi (arkaik) Ermeniler’in Zerdüştî bir kimlik içinde ateşperest pratikleri olduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Arkaik Ermenilerin Medlerle başlayan Zerdüşt Dini’ne mensup olma süreçlerinin Pers (Akhaimenid) İmparatorluğu sürecinde devam ettiği görülmektedir. Aramazd, Anahit, Nane ve Mihr gibi tanrı ve tanrıçaların varlığı, arkaik Ermeni tapınaklarının kült heykelleri barındırmış olduklarına işaret etmektedir. Bu yönü ile Zerdüşt Ermenilerin anikonizmi benimsemedikleri anlaşılmaktadır. Arkaik Ermenilerin inancının Zerdüşt Dini görünümünde olmasının en önemli nedeni tapınaklarının önemli bir unusuru olan ateşgede ve kutsal ateşti.

It can be thought that the Cult of Fire, which is known to have been transferred to the Persians (Achaemenids) from the Medes, started to be institutionalized during the Achaemenid rule in Anatolia beginning in 546 BC. In this process, the Cult of Fire, the most powerful ritual element of the Early Zoroastrianism, seems to have taken part in the practice of the faith of the Armenians and caused the religion to gain an architectural dimension. The Early Zoroastrianism, which entered the daily lives of the Eastern Anatolian people with the Medes in the 6th century BC, was the dominant belief in the region until the archaic Armenians began to convert to Christianity in the early 4th century AD. It can be thought that the Early Zoroastrianism has transformed into a form specific to archaic Armenians by including many local elements in Eastern Anatolia. In this context, it is understood that a common religion was shared between the Eastern Anatolia and Iran in a historical period of about 1000 years as a superordinate identity.
The present evidence show that the micro communities forming the archaic Armenian society formed a common belief system on the basis of the Early Zoroastrianism and entered the path of becoming a nation. It is observed that the Zoroastrianism, which started to be practiced in the region during this period, included many indigenous elements. It is understood that the archaic Armenians, who revered the goddess Anahit, had begun to practice the Early Zoroastrianism in its original form while distancing themselves from the original tenets of this religion with the influence of the traditions of numerous micro societies such as the Alarods, who were the continuation of the Urartians. The existence of powerful Anahit and Nane (Nana) cults proves that Archaic Armenians worshipped a modified form of the Zoroastrianism and practiced this on the basis of the Cult of Fire. It is understood that the pre-Christian (archaic) Armenians had fire worshipping practices in a Zoroastrian identity. It seems that the archaic Armenians continued their Zoroastrianism affinities throughout the Persian (Achaemenid) Imperial process. The presence of gods and goddesses such as Aramazd, Anahit, Nane and Mihr indicates that the archaic Armenian temples housed cult sculptures. With this aspect it seems that the Zoroastrian Armenians had not embraced the aniconism. The most important reason why the belief of the Archaic Armenians had the appearance of the Zoroastrianism was the atashkadeh and sacred fire, which was an important element of their temples.

The contribution of Oluz Höyük to the Iron Age of the Halys Basin has taken a religious turn. The evidence and the small finds uncovered in layers 2B (425-300 BC) and 2A (300-200 BC) present important data regarding early Zoroastrianism and the earlier periods of the Fire Cult, a topic where unknown data far surpasses what is known. The remains started to be uncovered in 2017 with the discovery of a sacred fire pit, understood to belong to a fire temple, and a sanctuary. Thereby the presence of monotheistic people in Oluz Höyük who worshipped or revered fire and had no belief in figurines of deities was attested. It is
understood that these people, who concretised their beliefs by building an atashkadah (fire temple), a sanctuary and a sacred road (Persian Road) leading to them between 425 and 200 BC were Persian in origin and created one of the first communities of Early Zoroastrianism. When the historical process of Zoroastrianism is taken into account, fire burning preserved outdoors in the earlier period (5th century BC) seems to be the central practice of the new religion institutionalised in Oluz Höyük.
The presence of the rituals and practices that constituted early Zoroastrianism in the Early and Middle Achaemenid periods shows that North-Central Anatolia (Pontica Cappadocia) and Cappadocia should be evaluated within the sacred geography of the Avesta.

Seyitömer Höyük that is studied through the salvage excavations comes to the fore with the presence of the Achaemenid finds there. According the stratigraphy formed by Nejat Bilgen who implemented long lasting excavations in the site, IIIB and IIIA phases of the Period III dates to the Achaemenid Period (500-334 BC). While in the Achaemenid finds of Seyitömer, architecture and pottery does not show characteristic properties, Achaemenid bowls and clay bullae are quite remarkable. The finds and the location of Seyitömer Höyük proves that this site is not an important settlement for the Persians. Even though they lack inscriptions, Achaemenid Period bullae from Seyitömer Höyük seem to have been used for the postal purposes. In the same context we can assume that Seyitömer Höyük had seen Achaemenid postal activity and most probably had a messengers’ staging station. Thus, Seyitömer bullae that can be dated to the 5th century BC, can be considered to belong to a staging station on the road to the important Satrapy center of Daskyleion.