Iranian Zoroastrian History and Central Asia and Caucasus Area Research Papers (original) (raw)

We gain a clear understanding of Islamic eschatology when we are able to observe how the prophecies regarding the Dajjal's first appearance in Khorasan may be tied to Zoroastrianism. Because the last remnant of Zoroastrianism fled Khorasan before migrating to India in the 7th century, Khorasan becomes the focal point regarding a resurgence of Zoroastrianism in Iran. During the Muslim conquest of Persia from 637 - 651, the Arab armies drove out the remaining Zoroastrians before converting the remaining Persian population to Islam. Over the years under many attempts by outside forces to resist Islam in Iran, the majority of Iranians nonetheless remained Muslim. The Arab influence during this Islamicization of Persia/Iran and the fact that Islam is tied to Arab identity did not curtail the spread of Islam throughout Persia, nor did it discount the fact that much of the scholarship surrounding the schools of thought which are prevalent today is very much centered around Persian intellectual discourse.

It is known to very few, that five hundred years ago, before the arrival of the Mughals, the demographics of the northern regions comprising Pakistan were much different. There existed a substantial and well established Tajik (Persian) farming population here from ancient times in the lush valleys of Peshawar and Swat (the Gandhara region). These areas formed part of a kingdom, ruled since Ghori times by a family of Muslim Tajiks known as Gibaris (also Swati and Jehangiri) who were converts from Zoroastrianism. They were the Sultans of the Kingdom of Swat or “Pakhli Sarkar” as it was known – which later became a dependency of the Sultanate of Kashmir founded by their kinsmen. Kashmir in turn was a “provincial sultanate” of the renowned Delhi Sultanate.
The violent displacement from Kabul of the Yusufzai Pashtuns by the Timurids resulted in their migration to the Swat Kingdom, and both this and the subsequent Timurid (Mughal) conquests of India brought about the fall of both the Delhi and Swat Sultanates. Although the Delhi Sultanate is world famous, that of Swat is shrouded in mystery. It is the objective of this paper to apprise the reader of that history, as well as explain why it has been obscured.

- by Arif H . Akhundzada
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- History, Forensic Anthropology, Population Genetics, Iranian History

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... more

- by Pablo Vazquez
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- Religion, History, Theology, History of Religion
- by Michael Shenkar
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- Zoroastrianism, Silk Road, Ancient Iranian Religion, Archaeology of Central Asia
- by Andrea Piras
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- Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, Young Avestan, Kushan art and architecture

Disgusted with ISIS, some Kurds turned away from Islam following the fall of Mosul in 2014. Many became atheists, while others sought comfort in Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism, according to converts, was the “original” religion of the Kurds before they embraced Islam. In 2015, two Zoroastrian centers opened in Sulaimani, both of which are recognized by the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq. Notably, neither has tried to recreate Zoroastrianism the way it is currently and has been historically practiced in Iran and South Asia. Instead, they have created their own versions of Zoroastrianism, which is nationalist, postmodern, and liberal. Kurdish Zoroastrians argue that the reason Kurds are “backward” is Islam. They seek to rectify the present situation through a Kurdish “authenticated” and “original” form of Zoroastrianism. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at these two centers, the present article examines this new religious movement in Sulaimani, an important city in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. It analyses the rise and distinctiveness of Kurdish Zoroastrianism looking at how Zoroastrian Kurds articulate their views on Islam, women’s rights, human rights, and Kurdish independence.

- by Edith Szanto
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- Religion, New Religious Movements, Comparative Religion, Cultural History

This article narrates the history of the Indo-Iranian tribe of Pasru and Medes and over time the rise and fall of various Persian Empires. After invasion of Arabs the Zoroasterian community of Persian fled Iran and arrived in India. The Parsee of India is a model community and an example of Indian exceptionalism. Dedicated followers of Prophet Zarathustra, an earlier Indo- Iranian Sage, they have added to richness of Indian culture and their members have played decisive roles in Indian history.

- by Bipin Shah
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- Ancient History, Zoroastrianism, Ancient Near East, Zoroastrianism (History)

The article provides a literary analysis of three Middle Persian tales: the Story of Jōišt ī Friyān, the Memorial of Zarēr, and the Explanation of Chess and the Invention of Backgammon. Similar to most works of Zoroastrian narrative literature, composed in the late Sasanian and early Islamic era, they are based on oral traditions and contain numerous references to personalities and events also familiar from other Iranian sources. But, different from comparable stories belonging to the same context and time, they are thematically closely interwoven with the Zoroastrian cosmological myth. The reason for this striking intertextual connection is sought in their authors' intent to provide didactic narratives for religious instruction to an audience hoping for eschatological deliverance from social oppression and spiritual evil.

- by matthias weinreich
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- Orality-Literacy Studies, Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, History of Iran
- by Michael Stausberg and +1
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- Bahái, Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, History of Religions
- by Aleksandr Naymark
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- Iranian Archaeology, Zoroastrianism, Silk Road, Silk Road Studies
- by Şevket Dönmez
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- History, Ancient History, Cultural History, Archaeology
- by Adriano Rossi
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- Persian Literature, Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, Persian Language

Selected essays on Iranian subjects dealing with philology, linguistic, cultural studies, literature, ethnology and anthropology, art, numismatic, history of religions (Mazdeism, Manichaeism, Mazdakism, Hinduism, Islam, Kurdish beliefs,... more

- by Andrea Piras and +2
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- Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, Indo-Iranian Linguistics, Zoroastrianism (Literature)
- by Burzine Waghmar
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- Iranian Archaeology, Iranian Studies, Afghanistan, Central Asian Studies
- by Michael Shenkar
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- Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrianism (History), Sogdian Archaeology, Sogdian
- by Shamsaddin Megalommatis
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- Russian Studies, Iranian Studies, History of Iran, Post-Soviet Politics

It has long been recognised that the pre-eleventh century narrative popularly called Old Tibetan Chronicles is a patchwork composed of originally independent quasi-historical stories interwoven with folk narratives. Moreover, scholars agree that foreign topoi likewise found their way into the final composition as it has been handed down to us. Previous research has demonstrated that motifs from classical Chinese literature were well-known to the composers of the Old Tibetan Chronicles and at least one of them was faithfully paraphrased there. In this paper I attempt to trace one more, heretofore not considered, source from which the composers might have drawn inspiration: Iranian religious traditions. I put forward the hypothesis that four passages from the Old Tibetan Chronicles were influenced by the Zoroastrian Mithraic tradition transferred most probably via Sogdian Buddhist literature. I argue that the misplaced occurrence of the passages in the discource, the otherwise unfamiliar metaphors used therein, and the non-native Tibetan rhythm of the verses, all speak for their foreign provenance.

- by Joanna Bialek
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- Tibetan Studies, Zoroastrianism, Silk Road, Silk Road Studies
- by Christopher Buck
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- Religion, New Religious Movements, Comparative Religion, History

The Manichaean religion was characterized by a diffused medical symbolism, because of its practical concerns of salvation. Mani introduced himself with the epiteth of “physician”, in order to explain his charismatic power of healing, especially for the soul but also with signi cant references the dieseases of the body (fever, tremors, madness). Thus, many doctrinal aspects were imbued with a medical-surgical imagery, to describe within Manichaean texts the process of separation and purification of the Light from the Darkness, of the Soul from the Matter, and the final achievement of the redemption.

- by Andrea Piras
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- Gnosticism, Iranian Studies, History of Religions, Coptic Studies

In this short article published in the journal Interphases (n°4, 2016) the relationship between the (Zoroastrian) Iranians and their immediate environment (cycles of time, animals and plants, mountains, the elements) is presented, with... more

- by Chams Bernard
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- Environmental Studies, Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, History of Iran

This paper deals with Zoroastrian Iconography on copper coins

- by Touraj Daryaee
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- Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, Iranian History, Zoroastrianism (History)

In southern Central Asia, the Iron Age saw the almost-complete disappearance of burial (Sine Sepulchro period covering the Yaz I-III sequence, ca. 1500-330 BCE), a fact generally interpreted as an evidence of excarnation.
This paper intends to present an exceptional discovery of a set of human bones made by the DAFA (Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan) at the site of Tepe Zargaran, Bactra, in Afghanistan. It groups human bones including calvaria, elements of the torso and long bones- belonging to several individuals of different ages and both sexes. This discover is well dated in the second half of the 4th c.
BCE, at the end of the Achaemenid period. It is compared to similar atypical burial pits of the Iron Age, which indicates a very long socio-cultural tradition of nearly a millennium, involving handling of the corpses, shifting of part of the bodies from a first deposit, and reoccupation of ancient storage structures.

- by BENDEZU-SARMIENTO Julio C. and +2
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- Zoroastrianism, Funerary Archaeology, Funeral Practices, Central Asia

Humanity begins with a single individual (Gayōmard) according to Zoroastrian myth, whom the Creator intended to be immortal, but whom the Evil Spirit intended to destroy. While Ahriman succeeded in killing Gayōmard, this did not put an end to humanity. Rather, human unity and individual immortal were transformed into diversity, sexual reproduction, and the immortality of the species. Texts in the Sasanian Avesta and in later Pahlavi literature detailed the offspring descended from Gayōmard, the geographic regions to which they scattered, their distinctive qualities, and their hierarchic ranking. Such discussions provided a means to theorize the alterity of peoples, while asserting the superiority of the Iranian people compared to all others. A late addition to this tradition, found in Greater Bundahišn 14B.1-3 is a particularly denigrating account of African origings.

- by Bruce Lincoln
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- Zoroastrianism, Creation myths, History of Zoroastrianism, Mythes De Création
- by Şevket Dönmez and +5
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- History, Ancient History, Military History, Cultural History

Abstract: Generally, what ancient Iranian scholars knew since the Zoroaster life era (the ages of Kay Luhrasp and Kay Vishtasp) and also those additional knowledge of the Successors of them, gave rise to Magicians knowledge. The present research has made effort, in a systematic and documental way, to answer these questions that what has been the sketch of this knowledge, when it has been started and who have transferred that. In present research, it was observed that there is a considerable temporal relationship between the formation of roots of Greek and Iranian knowledge and cosmology.
Key words: Magi, Zoroaster, Otsanes, Zaratras, Greek Philosophy, Pythagoras.

- by Şevket Dönmez
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- Religion, History, Ancient History, Cultural History

In southern Central Asia, the Iron Age saw the almost-complete disappearance of burial (Sine Sepulchro period covering the Yaz I-III sequence, ca. 1500-330 BCE), a fact generally interpreted as an evidence of excarnation. This paper intends to present an exceptional discovery of a set of human bones made by the DAFA (Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan) at the site of Tepe Zargaran, Bactra, in Afghanistan. It groups human bones -including calvaria, elements of the torso and long bones- belonging to several individuals of different ages and both sexes. This discovery is well dated in the second half of the 4th c. BCE, at the end of the Achaemenid period. It is compared to similar atypical burial pits of the Iron Age, which indicates a very long socio-cultural tradition of nearly a millennium, involving handling of the corpses, shifting of part of the bodies from a first deposit, and reoccupation of ancient storage structures.

- by BENDEZU-SARMIENTO Julio C. and +2
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- Hellenistic History, Zoroastrianism, Afghanistan, Bactria (Archaeology)

The article reflects on the idea of both calendric time and its material supports used by the Zoroastrians of Iran in reference to the identity of the group. The qualitative analysis of the data collected during the fieldwork among the Zoroastrian community has shown that a distinctive time-reckoning system plays the role of an important marker that strengthens the community’s Zoroastrian identity in the face of Muslim domination. In the post-Revolutionary Iran, the calendar is one of the key pillars of the Zoroastrians’ collective self-awareness—both as an idea of a specific time-reckoning system designating ritual activities, and as a material subject that acts as a medium to promote specific values and ideas.

- by Paulina Niechciał
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- Zoroastrianism, Anthropology of Time, Zoroastrianism (History), Calendars
- by Şevket Dönmez
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- Religion, History, Ancient History, Cultural History
- by Aleksandr Naymark
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- Iranian Archaeology, Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, Central Asian Studies

Seguendo l’etimologia della parola araba tradotta comunemente con il termine ‘religione’ si percorre un lungo viaggio a ritroso nel tempo fino a ritrovare l’antica immagine femminile della più bella delle belle, la daēnā persiana, da cui sembra che derivino le famose settanta vergini del paradiso coranico. Ma, a differenza di loro, la fanciulla persiana appare come l’immagine interna dell’uomo ‘giusto’, non il suo premio post mortem. Immagine interna che, tristemente, si è poi progressivamente disincarnata seguendo le sorti della psyche greca di cui forse la daēnā è la più antica matrice.

- by Fabio Della Pergola
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- Zoroastrianism, Islamic Studies, Islam, Storia delle Religioni

“A Millennium of History” contains new research on 1000 years of history by international scientists. The Iron Age is framed by two major cultural changes: the end of Bronze Age urban civilizations and their huge cemeteries and the conquest of Central Asia by Alexander the Great. The integration of the region into the Achaemenid Persian Empire lies at its core. Radical social changes in settlements, technology, networks and spiritual life may be connected to the roots of the Avesta and the Zoroastrian religion, which became official in the Persian Empire. A new look at texts and archaeology demonstrates full integration of Bactria and Sogdia into Achaemenid Empire during the 6th Century BC.

- by Johanna Lhuillier
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- Pottery (Archaeology), Zoroastrianism, Archaeology of Central Asia, Iron Age
- by matteo compareti
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- Afghanistan, Sogdian art, Buddhist art and architecture, Bamiyan / Afghanistan