Details about Zoroaster (real name Zarathushtra Spitama) have been debated and analyzed for centuries but the facts don't matter as much as his influence on that part of the world. The story as it exists today is that he became a priest at 15, left his parents at 20 to wander and preach, and at 30 saw a shining figure on a river bank who revealed himself as Vohu Manah (Good Purpose) and taught him about Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord). Zoroaster learned the concepts of Asha and Druj, Order and Deception. He then voted his life to teaching Asha.
Eventually receiving the patronage of a queen, he continued to spread his ideas until he died at the age of 77. One story says he was killed by a priest of the traditional Iranian religion while Zoroaster was performing a ceremony. Another story says a Turanian soldier killed him. There is also the belief that he died of old age.
The teaching of Zoroastrianism are in the Gathas, an account of conversations between Zoroaster and Ahura Mazda. In them we learn that Ahura Mazda has an enemy, Angra Mainyu, (Destructive Spirit). Human beings have a choice between Asha and Druj, these two opposing forces being promoted by Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. (There is of course much more to it than that.)
The illustration above is of the Faravahar, a prominent symbol of Zoroastrianism, whose interpretation varies, but seems to be a representation of a person's spirit.
Zoroastrianism did not reach Western Europe, but it did interact with other subjects of this blog. The 10th Abbasid caliph, al-Mutawwakil ala Allah, did not follow the religious tolerance of his predecessor. In Kashmar there was an enormous cypress tree, supposedly 1400 years old, sacred to Zoroastrianism because it came from a. branch brought by Zoroaster from Paradise. al-Mutawwakil had it cut down to provide beams for his new palace. Despite protests, the destruction was carried out in 861CE. Zoroastrians might think that a curse was placed on the act, since al-Mutawwakil was assassinated by a soldier the night that the wood arrived via river and never saw the wood he wanted so desperately.
The 6th century CE saw clashes between Zoroastrianism and the Nestorian Church that was pushing to the East because it was so thoroughly rejected by the West. The dualistic nature of Zoroastrianism—that Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu were equally powerful forces—clashed with the Christian view that God was omnipotent.
As Muslim caliphates conquered the lands where Zoroastrians practiced, there was slow pressure to convert, despite being given dhimmi ("protected") status as a minority.
A 17th-century Jesuit scholar named Athanasius Kircher reconciled Zoroastrianism with the Bible by identifying Zoroaster with Noah's son Ham. In the current t era, Zoroastrians number fewer than 150,000, and are found among Indian parses and Iranian Zoroastrians.
This post got me thinking about Noah and Ham. Ham was used to explain and (sadly) to dehumanize dark-skinned people. But what did the Middle Ages make of the story of Noah? On the one hand he was the father of humanity, but first he oversaw its destruction. Was that a problem? Hmmm.
