What was the significance of zoroastrianism

Rather, along with light, fire serves as an agent of purification and a symbol of the supreme deity. Three specific fires are named by Zoroastrian tradition and came to carry special cultic significance; these were the flames of Farnbag, Gushnasp, and Burzen-Mihr. The Farnbag fire was associated with the priesthood, and was first kept in Khwarezm. According to tradition it was transported a number of times since the sixth century BC, until it was moved to a permanent seat in the sanctuary of Kariyan in Fars this location has not been identified.

The Gushnasp fire was originally kept in Media as the fire of the magi, but in later centuries it became a symbol of monarchy. The fire altar on royal Sassanian coins included in this exhibit may depict the Gushnasp flame.

The last fire, the Burzen-Mihr, was associated with the peasantry, and was ranked lower than the others. Localized "branch" fires of these main three were maintained in temples, royal palaces and in villages.

It is possible that Zoroastrianism was carried by Iranian traders into East China as early as the sixth century BCE, and there may even be reason to believe that magi served in the court of the Western Zhou dynasty prior to the eighth century BCE.

It is generally believed by scholars that the ancient Iranian prophet Zarathustra known in Persian as Zartosht and Greek as Zoroaster lived sometime between and BC. Prior to Zarathustra, the ancient Persians worshipped the deities of the old Irano-Aryan religion, a counterpart to the Indo-Aryan religion that would come to be known as Hinduism. Zarathustra, however, condemned this practice, and preached that God alone — Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom — should be worshipped.

In doing so, he not only contributed to the great divide between the Iranian and Indian Aryans, but arguably introduced to mankind its first monotheistic faith. Zoroaster likely lived between and BC, but some scholarship suggests he may have been a contemporary of Persian emperors Cyrus the Great and Darius I Credit: Alamy. The concepts of Heaven and Hell, Judgment Day and the final revelation of the world, and angels and demons all originated in the teachings of Zarathustra, as well as the later canon of Zoroastrian literature they inspired.

Even the idea of Satan is a fundamentally Zoroastrian one; in fact, the entire faith of Zoroastrianism is predicated on the struggle between God and the forces of goodness and light represented by the Holy Spirit, Spenta Manyu and Ahriman, who presides over the forces of darkness and evil. While man has to choose to which side he belongs, the religion teaches that ultimately, God will prevail, and even those condemned to hellfire will enjoy the blessings of Paradise an Old Persian word.

Zoroastrianism may have been the first monotheistic religion, and its emphasis on dualities, such as heaven and hell, appear in Judaism, Christianity and Islam Credit: Alamy.

How did Zoroastrian ideas find their way into the Abrahamic faiths and elsewhere? According to scholars, many of these concepts were introduced to the Jews of Babylon upon being liberated by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great.

They trickled into mainstream Jewish thought, and figures like Beelzebub emerged. The Histories is a primary source of information on the early period of the Achaemenid era BCE , in particular with respect to the role of the Magi. According to Herodotus i.

The Magi appear to have been the priestly caste of the Mesopotamian-influenced branch of Zoroastrianism today known as Zurvanism, and they wielded considerable influence at the courts of the Median emperors. Darius I, and later Achaemenid emperors, acknowledged their devotion to Ahura Mazda in inscriptions as attested to several times in the Behistun inscription , and appear to have continued the model of coexistence with other religions.

A number of the Zoroastrian texts that today are part of the greater compendium of the Avesta have been attributed to that period. The religion would be professed many centuries following the demise of the Achaemenids in mainland Persia and the core regions of the former Achaemenid Empire—most notably Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and the Caucasus. In the Cappadocian kingdom whose territory was formerly an Achaemenid possession , Persian colonists who were cut off from their co-religionists in Iran proper continued to practice the Zoroastrianism of their forefathers.

As late as the Parthian period, a form of Zoroastrianism was without a doubt the dominant religion in the Armenian lands. The Sassanids aggressively promoted the Zurvanite form of Zoroastrianism, often building fire temples in captured territories to promote the religion.

During the period of their centuries long suzerainty over the Caucasus, the Sassanids made attempts to promote Zoroastrianism there with considerable successes. It was also prominent in the pre-Christian Caucasus especially modern-day Azerbaijan. Privacy Policy.