![]() He stands above a pair of wings that are outstretched from a circle representing eternity.įire is another important symbol of Zoroastrianism, as it represents light, warmth and has purifying powers. ![]() It depicts a bearded man with one hand reaching forward. The Faravahar is an ancient symbol of the Zoroastrian faith. Today there are about 60,000 Parsi in India and 1,400 in Pakistan. The Parsi are an ethnic minority in India and Pakistan. According to Parsi tradition, a group of Iranian Zoroastrians emigrated from Persia to escape religious persecution by the Muslim majority after the Arab conquest.Įxperts speculate that the group sailed across the Arabian Sea and landed in Gujarat, a state in western India, sometime between 785 and 936. Parsi are followers of Zoroastrianism in India. Over time, most Iranian Zoroastrians converted to Islam. The Arab invaders charged Zoroastrians living in the Persia extra taxes for retaining their religious practices and implemented laws to make life difficult for them. 633 and 651 led to the fall of the Sassanian Persian Empire and the decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Iran. The Muslim conquest of Persia between A.D. ![]() Some scholars say that tenets of Zoroastrianism helped to shape the major Abrahamic religions-including Judaism, Christianity and Islam-through the influence of the Persian Empire. The beliefs of Zoroastrianism were spread across Asia via the Silk Road, a network of trading routes that spread from China to the Middle East and into Europe. He ruled by the Zoroastrian law of asha (truth and righteousness) but didn’t impose Zoroastrianism on the people of Persia’s conquered territories. By most accounts, Cyrus was a tolerant ruler who allowed his non-Iranian subjects to practice their own religions. It was the state religion of three major Persian dynasties.Ĭyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, was a devout Zoroastrian. Zoroastrianism shaped one of the ancient world’s largest empires-the mighty Persia Empire. The temple dates to the second millennium B.C., making it the earliest known site associated with Zoroastrianism. In the 1990s, Russian archaeologists at Gonur Tepe, a Bronze Age site in Turkmenistan, discovered the remains of what they believed to be an early Zoroastrian fire temple. Zoroaster began teaching followers to worship a single god called Ahura Mazda. This religion was likely similar to early forms of Hinduism.Īccording to Zoroastrian tradition, Zoroaster had a divine vision of a supreme being while partaking in a pagan purification rite at age 30. He may have lived in a tribe that followed an ancient religion with many gods (polytheism). Zoroaster is thought to have been born in what is now northeastern Iran or southwestern Afghanistan. Some scholars believe he was a contemporary of Cyrus the Great, a king of the Persian Empire in the sixth century B.C., though most linguistic and archaeological evidence points to an earlier date-sometime between 15 B.C. It’s unclear exactly when Zoroaster may have lived. Most of what is known about Zoroaster comes from the Avesta-a collection of Zoroastrian religious scriptures. The prophet Zoroaster (Zarathrustra in ancient Persian) is regarded as the founder of Zoroastrianism, which is arguably the world’s oldest monotheistic faith.
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