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<\/a>Rep\u00adre\u00adsen\u00adta\u00adtion of the Far\u00adava\u00adhar<\/em>, a sym\u00adbol of Zoroas\u00adtri\u00adan\u00adism, at Persepolis.<\/p><\/div>\n I\u2019ve been read\u00ading some things, such as this book, about Per\u00adsian reli\u00adgion before Islam. What fol\u00adlows is based as much on Paul Kriwaczek\u2019s In Search of Zarathus\u00adtra<\/em> [item 15183] as on this book, as well as on ear\u00adlier read\u00ading [Mary Boyce Zoroas\u00adtri\u00adans: Their Reli\u00adgious Beliefs<\/em> and Prac\u00adtices<\/em>; M. J. Ver\u00admaseren Mithras, the Secret God<\/em>, the Zoroas\u00adtrian scrip\u00adtures, and many books on ancient Per\u00adsia and on the dual\u00adist Chris\u00adt\u00adian here\u00adsies of the mid\u00addle ages. The more I look at it, the more I\u2019m con\u00advinced that an under\u00adstand\u00ading of ancient Per\u00adsian his\u00adtory is essen\u00adtial to putting togeth\u00ader an intel\u00adli\u00adgi\u00adble pic\u00adture of the ancient world. The more I read about the Zoroas\u00adtrian tra\u00addi\u00adtion, the more I come to see it as smack dab in the cen\u00adter of a con\u00adtin\u00aduum of cul\u00adture between India and Mediter\u00adranean. I was look\u00ading for evi\u00addence of con\u00adsular insti\u00adtu\u00adtions, either in reli\u00adgious or sec\u00adu\u00adlar bod\u00adies, but the evi\u00addence is too frag\u00admen\u00adtary and ambigu\u00adous to per\u00admit any secure state\u00adments. This dri\u00adves me crazy, because just one or two clear-cut exam\u00adples would but\u00adtress my instinc\u00adtive belief that urban and trib\u00adal con\u00adsular insti\u00adtu\u00adtions oper\u00adated in pret\u00adty much the same way across the con\u00adtin\u00aduum. In oth\u00ader words, thou\u00adsands of name\u00adless and for\u00adgot\u00adten \u201crepublics\u201d, con\u00adfed\u00adera\u00adcies, oli\u00adgarchies and monar\u00adchies strug\u00adgling with the same issues as the Indi\u00adan and Greek ones, scat\u00adtered every\u00adwhere. But how to prove it, when only two regions pro\u00advide us with any kind of doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adta\u00adtion? You can\u2019t infer it from the archaeology.<\/span><\/p>\n But one thing became obvi\u00adous to me, while search\u00ading. Zoroas\u00adtri\u00adan\u00adism was an incred\u00adi\u00adble dri\u00adving force, and we have tremen\u00addously under\u00ades\u00adti\u00admated its impact on Chris\u00adtian\u00adity, Judaism, and Bud\u00addhism. For one thing, I don\u2019t see Zoroas\u00adtri\u00adan\u00adism, in any of its phas\u00ades from the time of the Gathas<\/em> to the Sas\u00adsanids, as being \u201cdual\u00adis\u00adtic\u201d in the sense that it is usu\u00adally described by Euro\u00adpean his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans. Mod\u00adern Zoroas\u00adtri\u00adans reject such an inter\u00adpre\u00adta\u00adtion, and Zoroas\u00adtrian prac\u00adtice, both ancient and mod\u00adern, con\u00adforms to a monothe\u00adis\u00adtic inter\u00adpre\u00adta\u00adtion. Ahri\u00adman, the force of evil in the Zoroas\u00adtrian scrip\u00adtures, is con\u00adsis\u00adtently pre\u00adsented as with\u00adout fore\u00adknowl\u00adedge, and doomed to fail\u00adure. He is no more the equal of Ahu\u00adra Maz\u00adda than Satan is to God in the Chris\u00adt\u00adian tra\u00addi\u00adtion.. What you had, I think, was a monothe\u00adis\u00adtic reli\u00adgion that layed out the for\u00admula that Chris\u00adtian\u00adity lat\u00ader adopt\u00aded. There are so many details that match up, that I con\u00adclude that ear\u00adly Chris\u00adtians pat\u00adterned most of their beliefs on the norms well estab\u00adlished in the Zoroas\u00adtrian faith that dom\u00adi\u00adnated the mid\u00addle east at the time. It\u2019s esti\u00admated that a large per\u00adcent\u00adage of the pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion in Per\u00adsia dur\u00ading the Achaemenid, Seleu\u00adcid, Parthi\u00adan, and Sas\u00adsanid peri\u00adods were Jews, and an equal\u00adly large per\u00adcent\u00adage in the last three peri\u00adods were Chris\u00adtians. Peri\u00adods of mul\u00adti-faith tol\u00ader\u00adance alter\u00adnated with peri\u00adods of state repres\u00adsion. The Per\u00adsian Sas\u00adsanid Empire, in which the Zoroas\u00adtrian faith was the state reli\u00adgion and the largest sin\u00adgle faith, also con\u00adtained a large per\u00adcent\u00adage of the world\u2019s Chris\u00adtians dur\u00ading the crit\u00adi\u00adcal, for\u00adma\u00adtive peri\u00adod of Chris\u00adtian\u00adity. A strong influ\u00adence of the for\u00admer on the lat\u00adter should not sur\u00adprise us.<\/span><\/p>\n His\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans empha\u00adsize a dual\u00adist inter\u00adpre\u00adta\u00adtion of Zoroas\u00adtri\u00adan\u00adism because they con\u00adflate Zoroas\u00adtrian belief with the relat\u00aded faiths and here\u00adsies that co-exist\u00aded with Zoroas\u00adtri\u00adan\u00adism. Manicheanism and Maz\u00addak\u00adism are the best known of these. These hereti\u00adcal move\u00adments act\u00aded with\u00adin the Zoroas\u00adtrian world in much the same way that the dual\u00adis\u00adtic here\u00adsies did in Chris\u00adtian\u00adity. Ortho\u00addox Zoroas\u00adtri\u00adans, how\u00adever, reject\u00aded them just as firm\u00adly. In fact, some of these dual\u00adis\u00adtic move\u00adments trav\u00adeled back and forth between the Chris\u00adt\u00adian and Zoroas\u00adtrian zones. Dual\u00adism often appeals to the most oppressed and the dis\u00aden\u00adfran\u00adchised, pre\u00adsum\u00adably because it is eas\u00adier for them to con\u00adclude that life sucks and the world is dom\u00adi\u00adnated by evil. Some of the Euro\u00adpean dual\u00adis\u00adtic here\u00adsies fol\u00adlowed the same course as the Per\u00adsian ones, com\u00ading to the con\u00adclu\u00adsion that the world we see is the cre\u00adation of the evil force, not of the good God.<\/span><\/p>\n Anoth\u00ader curi\u00adous phe\u00adnom\u00ade\u00adnon is Mithraism, a faith wide\u00adspread in the Roman Empire which shows some con\u00adnec\u00adtions with Per\u00adsia [Mithra<\/em> is cog\u00adnate with both the Vedic and Iran\u00adian Mitra<\/em>, some Roman texts refer to the faith as \u201ccom\u00ading from Per\u00adsia\u201d, and one of the ranks of ini\u00adti\u00ada\u00adtion was des\u00adig\u00adnated as \u201cPer\u00adsian\u201d]. How\u00adever, the descrip\u00adtions of Mithra\u00adic rites and cus\u00adtoms don\u2019t much resem\u00adble those of the reli\u00adgion found\u00aded by Zoroast\u00ader, nor do the artis\u00adtic motifs. While Mitra appears in the old Indo-Aryan pan\u00adtheon, and was incor\u00adpo\u00adrated into Zoroaster\u2019s struc\u00adture of angels and man\u00adi\u00adfes\u00adta\u00adtions of the divine, but he is not cen\u00adtral to the faith. He does, how\u00adever loom large in Maz\u00addak\u00adism, with cen\u00adters of wor\u00adship in pre-Chris\u00adt\u00adian Arme\u00adnia. The cen\u00adters of Mithra\u00adic wor\u00adship seem to have been in the west\u00adern Empire, in Rome itself, in Britain, along the Ger\u00adman fron\u00adtier, and in Mau\u00adri\u00adta\u00adnia. No Mithra\u00adic sites have been found in Per\u00adsia. How\u00adever the god made his way in the west, it seems to have been by a con\u00advo\u00adluted path.<\/span><\/p>\n There are lit\u00ader\u00adally hun\u00addreds of known Mithra\u00adic sites, called mithraea<\/em> (sin\u00adgu\u00adlar: mithraeum<\/em>), so the faith was evi\u00addently quite pop\u00adu\u00adlar. It is esti\u00admated that there were as many as sev\u00aden hun\u00addred mithrae <\/em>in the imme\u00addi\u00adate area of the city of Rome. There are some well-pre\u00adserved ones in Eng\u00adland. The mithraea <\/em>were noth\u00ading like clas\u00adsi\u00adcal tem\u00adples, but they bore a strong resem\u00adblance to ear\u00adly Chris\u00adt\u00adian church\u00ades (an altar fac\u00ading three par\u00adal\u00adlel aisles, in which the con\u00adgre\u00adga\u00adtion shared a sacred meal). Yet despite this wide\u00adspread pop\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adity, the faith seems to have shriv\u00adeled to noth\u00ading and van\u00adished in an extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnar\u00adily brief time. For some\u00adthing that was pre\u00adsum\u00adably its most sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant com\u00adpeti\u00adtor for adher\u00adents, Mithraism does not seem to have trig\u00adgered much con\u00adcern among Chris\u00adtians. The ear\u00adly church fathers loud\u00adly denounce every tiny pagan sect, but they are strange\u00adly silent about Mithraism. This is most pecu\u00adliar. Reli\u00adgions with mass fol\u00adlow\u00adings don\u2019t usu\u00adally dis\u00adap\u00adpear overnight, qui\u00adetly, with\u00adout conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n I have a feel\u00ading that many Mithra\u00adic con\u00adgre\u00adga\u00adtions were absorbed into Chris\u00adtian\u00adity by mor\u00adph\u00ading into it, with\u00adout any dra\u00admatic con\u00adflict, and that the pre-exis\u00adtence of a net\u00adwork of Mithraist com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adties, from Syr\u00adia to Hadrian\u2019s wall, is what allowed Chris\u00adtian\u00adity to sud\u00addenly emerge in the lead\u00ading posi\u00adtion. But even that hypoth\u00ade\u00adsis leaves unan\u00adswered questions.<\/span><\/p>\n An inter\u00adest\u00ading fea\u00adture of Mithraism is that the con\u00adgre\u00adga\u00adtion took its sacred meal reclined, like Greek and Roman ban\u00adqueters. Now, this way of eat\u00ading, in Roman soci\u00adety, was con\u00adfined to the upper class\u00ades. It would have been an extreme trans\u00adgres\u00adsion for a com\u00admoner or a slave to engage in this activ\u00adity. Yet we know for a fact that many par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpants in the cult of Mithra were ordi\u00adnary sol\u00addiers, com\u00admon\u00aders and slaves. We have inscribed ded\u00adi\u00adca\u00adtions in the tem\u00adples to con\u00adfirm it. This means that the Mithra\u00adic cult was mak\u00ading a strong state\u00adment about human equal\u00adity, at least in a spir\u00adi\u00adtual sense. Com\u00adpare this to the old Jew\u00adish tra\u00addi\u00adtion of tak\u00ading the sad\u00ader meal reclined, \u201cto demon\u00adstrate that we are not slaves\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n I think we\u2019ll even\u00adtu\u00adally come to think of a sin\u00adgle \u201cClas\u00adsi\u00adcal World\u201d, from India to Ire\u00adland, where ideas and insti\u00adtu\u00adtions trav\u00adeled rapid\u00adly from one end to the oth\u00ader, and can\u2019t be dis\u00aden\u00adtan\u00adgled or com\u00adpart\u00admen\u00adtal\u00adized. Poor doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adta\u00adtion from the mid\u00addle por\u00adtion just cre\u00adates an illu\u00adsion of an east-west dichoto\u00admy that did not real\u00adly exist. Hope\u00adfully, when Iran comes out of its present iso\u00adla\u00adtion, there will be a new wave archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgists, his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans and philol\u00ado\u00adgists ready to fill in the gap.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been read\u00ading some things, such as this book, about Per\u00adsian reli\u00adgion before Islam. What fol\u00adlows is based as much on Paul Kriwaczek\u2019s In Search of Zarathus\u00adtra [item 15183] as on this book, as well as on ear\u00adlier read\u00ading [Mary \u2026<\/p>\n