# Master Zoroastrian History in 3 Hours

An episode of [Human History ASMR](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6793196842), 10 Oct 2026, 2 h 51 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75561050/master_zoroastrian_history_in_3_hours_human_voiced_no_ads.mp3



## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: On the plains of ancient Iran, three thousand years ago,
[0:05] Speaker 1: a single voice rang out to challenge the old gods
[0:09] Speaker 1: and proclaim a new vision of truth. That was the
[0:14] Speaker 1: voice of Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra, the reformer and prophet,
[0:21] Speaker 1: who founded one of the world's oldest monotheistic faiths. His ideas,
[0:27] Speaker 1: a single wise god, A cosmic struggle between good and evil,
[0:33] Speaker 1: and a crescendo of a final judgment, echo through history,
[0:38] Speaker 1: and of course, have influenced later religions. But who exactly
[0:43] Speaker 1: was Zoroaster? That remains a fascinating puzzle to solve. Little's
[0:51] Speaker 1: known for certain about his life, shrouded as mystery as
[0:56] Speaker 1: it is in myth and time. But what we'll try
[0:59] Speaker 1: to do today is explore Zoroaster's story from his legendary
[1:04] Speaker 1: birth and early struggles as much as we can tell it.
[1:08] Speaker 1: We'll go through his teachings and philosophy, and then we'll
[1:12] Speaker 1: finish off talking about his lasting impact. We'll journey through
[1:17] Speaker 1: chronologically in this video, grounding our narrative in the closest
[1:22] Speaker 1: sources to the time. And of course, we'll be looking
[1:25] Speaker 1: at them critically and examining their reliability. I think by
[1:30] Speaker 1: the end you'll see how a Bronze Age priest from
[1:33] Speaker 1: Persia became a towering figure in world religious history. But
[1:38] Speaker 1: allow me to welcome you to the channel. Where are
[1:41] Speaker 1: my manners? They're right here. Hello, everyone. And it's good
[1:46] Speaker 1: to meet any newcomers. If you've not done so yet,
[1:49] Speaker 1: I invite you to hit the subscribe button and perhaps
[1:52] Speaker 1: tell me where you're listening from down in the comments.
[1:55] Speaker 1: It's always interesting to see the breadth of reach that
[1:59] Speaker 1: this channel gets so with that being said let's all
[2:03] Speaker 1: get nice and relaxed then we can begin the life
[2:08] Speaker 1: of Zoroaster as much as we can tell it and
[2:14] Speaker 1: so with introductions out of the way we know exactly
[2:19] Speaker 1: where and somewhat when Zoroaster was born but to understand
[2:25] Speaker 1: Zoroaster We first need to picture the context of the
[2:29] Speaker 1: world that he was born into. Ancient Iran, at a
[2:34] Speaker 1: time when the region's people followed an old Indo-Iranian religion.
[2:40] Speaker 1: This was a polytheistic faith, with many gods, but only
[2:44] Speaker 1: deities of sun, moon, fire, etc. Ritual sacrifices, and even
[2:51] Speaker 1: an interesting sacred intoxicant called Halma. Society was largely pastoral
[2:59] Speaker 1: and nomadic, pretty normal for the time. People tended to
[3:04] Speaker 1: herd cattle and camels on the steppes of Central Asia.
[3:09] Speaker 1: Zoroaster himself grew up in a pastoral culture. Notably, his
[3:14] Speaker 1: very name is actually linked to camels. In the old
[3:18] Speaker 1: Iranian language, avestan, ustra, actually means camel. That's an interesting
[3:24] Speaker 1: little fact for you. Of course, this all hints that
[3:29] Speaker 1: camels were certainly important in his community's life. The young Zoroaster,
[3:35] Speaker 1: or Zarathustra, as he called himself in his own language,
[3:40] Speaker 1: was born into the Spitama clan, a family of priests.
[3:45] Speaker 1: His father was Porushaspa, and his mother Dugadova. As a boy,
[3:53] Speaker 1: Zoroaster would have been taught the traditional rituals and hymns
[3:56] Speaker 1: of his time, In fact, evidence from Zoroaster's own hymns,
[4:01] Speaker 1: the Garthas, suggest he became a zaotar or priest. Thus
[4:06] Speaker 1: he was educated in religious rites and lore from a
[4:10] Speaker 1: very early age. So when and where did Zoroaster live?
[4:18] Speaker 1: Of course, one of the first puzzles is pinning down
[4:21] Speaker 1: when Zoroaster lived. Now, he did say 3,000 years ago, but...
[4:28] Speaker 1: You gotta take that with a bit of grain of salt.
[4:31] Speaker 1: Historians and ancient sources do not agree on this date.
[4:37] Speaker 1: Later religious traditions in Persia, recorded centuries after his life,
[4:41] Speaker 1: by the way, claim that Zoroaster lived 258 years before
[4:46] Speaker 1: Alexander the Great, and that would place him around 600 B.C.,
[4:51] Speaker 1: since Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 330 B.C. This
[4:56] Speaker 1: would make him a contemporary of the later Persian kings. However,
[5:01] Speaker 1: a lot of people today find this date to be
[5:04] Speaker 1: somewhat unlikely. Linguistic clues in Zoroaster's own writings and comparisons
[5:10] Speaker 1: with the ancient Hindu Rigveda suggest that he lived even earlier,
[5:15] Speaker 1: roughly around 1000 BC, but we'll have to give or
[5:19] Speaker 1: take a century. In other words, I suppose we can
[5:24] Speaker 1: put it, that Zoroaster probably lived in the late 2nd
[5:28] Speaker 1: millennium BCE, perhaps even 1200 BCE, making him a Bronze
[5:35] Speaker 1: Age figure rather than an Axial Age 6th century prophet.
[5:42] Speaker 1: So by contrast, some Greek authors in antiquity assigned fantastically
[5:49] Speaker 1: old dates to Zarathustra. Of course they would. The Greeks,
[5:53] Speaker 1: sometimes especially Herodotus and earlier writers, seem to blow things
[5:57] Speaker 1: out of proportion a little bit. One Greek historian, for example,
[6:01] Speaker 1: Xanthus of Lydia, claimed that Zoroaster lived 6,000 years before
[6:06] Speaker 1: Xerxes' invasion of Greece. One philosopher, Plutarch, wrote that Zoroaster
[6:12] Speaker 1: lived 5,000 years before the Trojan War. Now, I'm sure
[6:19] Speaker 1: your eyebrows raised somewhat. The ancient estimates were clearly not historical,
[6:26] Speaker 1: but they reflect mythic chronology or perhaps a misunderstanding. The
[6:32] Speaker 1: consensus of modern scholarships leans towards Zoroaster being much older
[6:37] Speaker 1: than 600 BC. But 1000 BC seems to stay the
[6:43] Speaker 1: reasonable estimate. Now as for where he lived, the clues
[6:47] Speaker 1: point to eastern Iran or perhaps central Asia. His hymns
[6:52] Speaker 1: mention places and rivers that fit the region of ancient Bactria, Sogdia,
[6:57] Speaker 1: or Khorasmia, around modern Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, or Uzbekistan. The dialect
[7:03] Speaker 1: of the Avesta Zoroastrian scripture is an Eastern Iranian language,
[7:10] Speaker 1: reinforcing this geographic context. Later Persian legends sometimes place Zoroaster
[7:16] Speaker 1: in Western Iran, at the time Media or Azerbaijan. but
[7:23] Speaker 1: those are considered a little less reliable. So, for the
[7:28] Speaker 1: sake of continuity, envision Zoroaster as an Eastern Iranian holy man,
[7:36] Speaker 1: wandering among herding tribes on the Central Asian steppes. Of course,
[7:45] Speaker 1: we've mentioned that we lack written records from Zoroaster's own lifetime,
[7:50] Speaker 1: but later Zoroastrian texts preserve legendary accounts of his early life.
[7:56] Speaker 1: These stories, though recorded many centuries afterwards in Middle Persian,
[8:01] Speaker 1: also called Pahlavi books, paint a pretty dramatic picture of
[8:06] Speaker 1: a child destined for greatness, a prodigy. According to these
[8:13] Speaker 1: later traditions, extraordinary omens surrounded Zoroaster's birth, It is said
[8:18] Speaker 1: that his mother, Dugdova, glowed with an uncanny light before
[8:22] Speaker 1: giving birth, as if fire radiated from her body. When
[8:28] Speaker 1: the child was born, the first thing he did was
[8:31] Speaker 1: laugh out loud. An astonishing laugh, instead of a cry
[8:37] Speaker 1: of a newborn. The priests explain this marvel. by saying
[8:42] Speaker 1: that the archangel Vohu Mana, Good Mind, entered the infant
[8:48] Speaker 1: at birth and filled him with divine joy. Of course,
[8:54] Speaker 1: such a prestigious child frightened the evil forces at the time.
[8:58] Speaker 1: A local sorcerer named Durasrav is said to have been
[9:03] Speaker 1: alarmed by the child's laughter, fearing that this child would
[9:07] Speaker 1: grow up and destroy the demonic powers he wielded. And so,
[9:14] Speaker 1: Dudusrav and another wicked priest, Bratrokresh, became archenemies of the
[9:20] Speaker 1: infant Zoroaster. The legends describe how these evildoers persuaded Zoroaster's
[9:26] Speaker 1: own father to attempt to kill the child. But each
[9:30] Speaker 1: attempt failed miraculously. For example, the baby Zoroaster was left
[9:37] Speaker 1: in a fire, yet he came out completely unharmed by
[9:41] Speaker 1: the flames. On another occasion, he was placed in the
[9:46] Speaker 1: path of stampeding cattle, and later among wild horses, but
[9:51] Speaker 1: neither the oxen nor the horses would trample over him.
[9:56] Speaker 1: In another vivid tale, the infant was abandoned. in a
[10:00] Speaker 1: den of hungry she-wolf, whose cubs had been killed, so
[10:05] Speaker 1: that the furious wolf might devour the child. But instead,
[10:11] Speaker 1: divine intervention came and saved him. The archangel Vohumana caused
[10:17] Speaker 1: Zoroaster to smite the she-wolf, and a gentle ewe was
[10:21] Speaker 1: sent to the cave to nurse the child. When his
[10:26] Speaker 1: mother came searching, she found that her child was alive
[10:31] Speaker 1: and suckling on the ewe safe and sound. These are
[10:36] Speaker 1: pretty miraculous stories, don't you think? The laughing baby, the
[10:40] Speaker 1: thwarted assassination attempts, the wolf that did not dare eat him.
[10:45] Speaker 1: All of it established Zoroaster in legend as a protected
[10:50] Speaker 1: figure chosen by the divines. Scholars note that such motives,
[10:56] Speaker 1: an evil king or priest tries to kill a special
[10:59] Speaker 1: child who is saved by miracles, are pretty common in
[11:02] Speaker 1: myths of great founders and prophets around the world. You'll
[11:06] Speaker 1: see a lot of it. While the Zoroastrian version likely
[11:11] Speaker 1: developed over centuries of oral storytelling before being written down
[11:14] Speaker 1: in the 9th century CE, While these tales are not
[11:19] Speaker 1: historical facts, in fact we can't really prove them, they
[11:24] Speaker 1: are important in understanding how later devotees perceived the Prophet
[11:30] Speaker 1: as someone marked from birth by a divine mission, surviving
[11:35] Speaker 1: against all the odds. And we should keep in mind
[11:38] Speaker 1: a bit of the bias of these sources, Pallavi texts
[11:41] Speaker 1: compiled by Zoroastrian priests long after Zoroaster's time, full of hagiography,
[11:47] Speaker 1: this saintly legend. They provide a lot of drama and colour.
[11:53] Speaker 1: But perhaps I'll leave it up to you as to
[11:58] Speaker 1: how literally you're going to take them. Let's not ruin
[12:02] Speaker 1: the fun. Well, now we get to the real juicy
[12:08] Speaker 1: part of the story, the divine revelation at age 30.
[12:14] Speaker 1: Sitting aside legend, and returning to what we can glean
[12:18] Speaker 1: from earlier sources, we find that Zoroaster is now a
[12:22] Speaker 1: young adult, following his father's profession as a priest. For
[12:28] Speaker 1: the first few decades of his life, he likely performed
[12:30] Speaker 1: rituals and worshipped the traditional gods of his people. Pretty normal.
[12:36] Speaker 1: Nothing interesting yet. But then, at the age of thirty,
[12:42] Speaker 1: everything changed. Zoroastrian tradition and later scripture holds that Zoroaster
[12:49] Speaker 1: had a profound divine vision at about 30 years old.
[12:55] Speaker 1: He encountered Ahura Mazda, the wise lord, who would eventually
[13:01] Speaker 1: become the one single god of Zoroastrianism. One account says
[13:07] Speaker 1: Zoroaster was participating in a purification ritual in a river
[13:11] Speaker 1: when a shining being, the archangel Vohumana, appeared and led
[13:16] Speaker 1: him into the presence of Ahura Mazda and five other
[13:19] Speaker 1: radiant divine figures, the Amesha Spentas. In this moment, Zoroaster
[13:25] Speaker 1: received a revelation of a new religious truth. He realized
[13:31] Speaker 1: that Ahura Mazda was indeed the supreme creator. the source
[13:36] Speaker 1: of all goodness, and that many, quote, gods, unquote, that
[13:42] Speaker 1: the people worshipped were either lesser beings or, in some cases,
[13:47] Speaker 1: even demons who had just tricked the people into worshipping them.
[13:53] Speaker 1: Of course, this was a radical departure from the prevailing polytheism.
[13:59] Speaker 1: Armed with this revelation, Zoroaster felt compelled to preach his truth. Asha,
[14:05] Speaker 1: in his language, to all the people he could find.
[14:09] Speaker 1: He believed he was appointed as a messenger of Ahura Mazda,
[14:13] Speaker 1: to guide others on to the right and noble path. However,
[14:18] Speaker 1: prophets often face a bit of resistance in their homelands,
[14:23] Speaker 1: and Zoroaster was not going to be an exception. He
[14:29] Speaker 1: soon discovered that telling people that their old gods were
[14:32] Speaker 1: false and that there was only really one true god,
[14:36] Speaker 1: Ahura Mazda, was not really a way to win friends.
[14:41] Speaker 1: According to Zoroaster's own hymns, the Garthas, when he first
[14:45] Speaker 1: started teachings, his words fell on deaf ears. His fellow
[14:50] Speaker 1: countrymen did not listen, and the ones who were on
[14:54] Speaker 1: the other spectrum were openly hostile. In one verse, Zoroaster
[14:59] Speaker 1: laments his solitude and lack of resources. I know wherefore
[15:04] Speaker 1: I am lacking in vigour, O wise one. It is
[15:07] Speaker 1: on the account of the scantiness of my cattle stock,
[15:11] Speaker 1: and because I am one of few men only. Now,
[15:17] Speaker 1: just to explain it in this line, he notes two problems.
[15:21] Speaker 1: One was he was poor, which is a big problem.
[15:26] Speaker 1: He had very few cattle, which was a measure of wealth,
[15:30] Speaker 1: and he had very few followers. We can imagine Zoroaster
[15:35] Speaker 1: as a, let's say, a lonely reformer, perhaps seen as
[15:40] Speaker 1: a troublemaking upstart by the established priestly class, who are
[15:45] Speaker 1: called Karpans in his text. Indeed, Zoroaster, his teachings threaten
[15:52] Speaker 1: the livelihood and the traditions of the existing order of
[15:55] Speaker 1: priests and chiefs. Some of these old priests, whom Zoroaster
[15:59] Speaker 1: labels Karpans and Kavis, derogatory terms in the Garthas, by
[16:03] Speaker 1: the way, strongly opposed him. But of course they would.
[16:09] Speaker 1: There are hints in the Garthas that certain powerful figures
[16:13] Speaker 1: publicly denounced Zoroaster. Later sources identify some of these opponents
[16:19] Speaker 1: by name. For example, an antagonist named Grahma or Grakma
[16:24] Speaker 1: is mentioned, accused of promoting wrong rituals that destroy the truth.
[16:31] Speaker 1: truth being Diana in their language. Another named Bendva is
[16:38] Speaker 1: noted as a wealthy man who supports a, quote, deceitful
[16:42] Speaker 1: teacher leading people astray. It seems Oroasta's reforms, perhaps condemning
[16:49] Speaker 1: the excessive ritualism animal sacrifices and the use of the
[16:52] Speaker 1: hallucinogenic haoma drink, angered the traditional priests who benefited from
[16:59] Speaker 1: these rituals. But beyond theology, there were likely economic interests
[17:06] Speaker 1: at play too. Zoroaster favoured the poor and righteous over
[17:11] Speaker 1: the rich and corrupt, and that upset the social hierarchy. So,
[17:17] Speaker 1: as tradition claims, for about ten years, Zoroaster struggled to
[17:23] Speaker 1: win converts in his homeland. In fact, the early records
[17:26] Speaker 1: say only one person initially accepted his message. That was
[17:31] Speaker 1: his cousin, Madioi Manna. Apart from his cousin and perhaps
[17:37] Speaker 1: a few family members, Zoroaster was one of few men
[17:43] Speaker 1: only on his side. Facing growing hostility from all sides,
[17:49] Speaker 1: Zoroaster eventually left his home in search of a more
[17:52] Speaker 1: receptive audience. And that was the turning point. The prophet
[17:59] Speaker 1: Zoroaster became essentially a religious exile on one hand, and
[18:04] Speaker 1: a missionary on the other. And so, Zoroaster's fortunes changed
[18:13] Speaker 1: dramatically when he found patronage under a local king. He
[18:18] Speaker 1: travelled until he reached the court of King Vishtaspa. Vishtaspa
[18:25] Speaker 1: was a chieftain, or king in a region of eastern Iran,
[18:29] Speaker 1: possibly Bactria. This encounter likely occurred after many years of wandering,
[18:36] Speaker 1: when Zoroaster was no longer a young man but in
[18:38] Speaker 1: his forties. Winning over a king was crucial. It could
[18:43] Speaker 1: provide protection, and even a platform for wider acceptance of
[18:47] Speaker 1: the religion. But conversion of a king was no simple task.
[18:54] Speaker 1: Zoroastrian texts and later legends describe it as a high-stakes drama.
[19:01] Speaker 1: At first, King Vishtapa's court was sceptical of the stranger
[19:04] Speaker 1: preaching a new faith. The established priests and wise men
[19:08] Speaker 1: of the court viewed Zoroaster as a threat. According to
[19:13] Speaker 1: later accounts, they subjected Zoroaster to debates and trials. For
[19:18] Speaker 1: three days, Zoroaster answered rapid-fire questions about his doctrine in
[19:23] Speaker 1: front of the king and the council of learned priests.
[19:26] Speaker 1: He held firm to his message of one god, Ahura Mazda,
[19:32] Speaker 1: and the rejection of the old gods, whom he labelled
[19:35] Speaker 1: devas or demons. The debates were intense and mostly hostile
[19:42] Speaker 1: from the other side, as the court sages tried to
[19:44] Speaker 1: find contradictions or heresy in Zoroaster's words. But after this examination,
[19:52] Speaker 1: the vested interests at court were not satisfied. High priests
[19:57] Speaker 1: felt their power threatened, and conspired to sabotage the prophet's influence.
[20:04] Speaker 1: One popular legendary account from later tradition is relates that
[20:07] Speaker 1: these jealous priests accuse Zoroaster of performing magic and treason,
[20:13] Speaker 1: a sorcerer, a charlatan and a trickster. They convinced the
[20:18] Speaker 1: king that Zoroaster was dangerous, and as a result, King
[20:24] Speaker 1: Vishtaspa had Zoroaster thrown in prison and subjected to harsh conditions.
[20:31] Speaker 1: The prophet was put in chains, given minimal food and water,
[20:35] Speaker 1: Thirty-one tortures in all, according to one text. But remarkably,
[20:41] Speaker 1: it is said that Zoroaster withstood all of his torments,
[20:45] Speaker 1: without any pain or harm, protected by his divine patron,
[20:51] Speaker 1: Ahura Mazda. These trials in prison further convinced King Vishtaspa
[20:57] Speaker 1: that Zoroaster was no ordinary man. The decisive miracle, however,
[21:03] Speaker 1: involved the king's beloved horse. As the story goes, the
[21:07] Speaker 1: king's favorite horse suddenly became paralyzed, all four legs mysteriously frozen.
[21:13] Speaker 1: The court priests failed to cure the animal, and desperation grew. Thus,
[21:21] Speaker 1: Zoroaster offered a deal. He would heal one leg of
[21:26] Speaker 1: the horse for each wish or condition the king fulfilled. Well,
[21:31] Speaker 1: the king didn't have much of a choice, didn't he?
[21:34] Speaker 1: May as well try. So he agreed. At the first leg,
[21:38] Speaker 1: Zoroaster asked that the king accept Ahura Mazda and the
[21:42] Speaker 1: new faith. The second condition was that the king's son
[21:46] Speaker 1: also embrace Zoroaster's teachings. The third was that the queen
[21:50] Speaker 1: do the same. The fourth and final condition was dramatic.
[21:55] Speaker 1: Zoroaster demanded that the evil priests who had slandered him
[22:00] Speaker 1: be executed. That escalated quickly, didn't it? With each agreement,
[22:07] Speaker 1: one of the horse's legs was healed. Sure, the evil
[22:12] Speaker 1: priests watching on were getting increasingly nervous when all conditions
[22:16] Speaker 1: were met and the corrupt priests taken care of. The
[22:22] Speaker 1: horse stood up, fully cured. King Vishtaspa was astonished, and
[22:28] Speaker 1: now he was completely convinced of Zoroaster's divine power and truthfulness.
[22:33] Speaker 1: Moved by this miracle, Vishtaspa publicly declared his conversion to
[22:38] Speaker 1: the religion of the worship of Ahura Mazda. Whether this
[22:44] Speaker 1: exact sequence happened or not, the essence is that Zoroaster
[22:48] Speaker 1: finally gained a royal patron, and that is a big deal. Historically,
[22:53] Speaker 1: we know from Zoroaster's own Garthas that Vishtaspa, referred to
[22:58] Speaker 1: as Kavi, meaning king, was indeed a patron and a
[23:02] Speaker 1: follower of Vishtaspa's name is praised as a righteous supporter
[23:06] Speaker 1: in Zoroastrian scripture. With the king and queen on his side,
[23:11] Speaker 1: Zoroaster's faith now had the backing of political power. Vishtaspa's court,
[23:17] Speaker 1: including nobles like Jamaspa, the king's relatives and ministers, also Fraschaustra,
[23:25] Speaker 1: also converted and became devout supporters. In fact, Zoroaster forged
[23:32] Speaker 1: family alliances here, He got married, too, to one of
[23:36] Speaker 1: Fraschaustra's daughters in some accounts, and he gave his own
[23:41] Speaker 1: daughter in marriage to Jamaspa. By becoming kin to the
[23:46] Speaker 1: king's closest advisors, Zoroaster had cemented his influence. The remaining
[23:52] Speaker 1: years of Zoroaster's life were spent in Vishtaspa's domain, organizing
[23:57] Speaker 1: the new community of believers. With royal endorsement, the prophet's
[24:02] Speaker 1: teachings spread among the people. The kingdom likely underwent a
[24:06] Speaker 1: religious reformation, turning away from the old polytheistic cults and
[24:11] Speaker 1: embracing the worship of Ahura Mazda. According to later sources,
[24:16] Speaker 1: Vishtaspa's realm even had to fight wars against neighbouring peoples
[24:20] Speaker 1: who resisted this religious change. An epic struggle is described
[24:25] Speaker 1: between Vishtaspa's people, now Zoroastrian, and the hostile Turanian tribes
[24:31] Speaker 1: under a leader named Arjasp, who remained loyal to the
[24:35] Speaker 1: old gods, and we can't have that, can't we? Zoroaster, though,
[24:41] Speaker 1: by now an elderly spiritual leader, purportedly encouraged Vishtaspa's armies
[24:48] Speaker 1: and prophesied their victory. And so, after a life of preaching, controversy,
[24:58] Speaker 1: and finally triumph in spreading his doctrine. How did the
[25:02] Speaker 1: story of Zoroaster really end? Well, no one really knows
[25:08] Speaker 1: for sure. The sources can divert between legend and likelihood.
[25:16] Speaker 1: Zoroastrian tradition holds that Zoroaster lived to the age of
[25:19] Speaker 1: 77 and met a violent end in a final attack
[25:23] Speaker 1: on Vishtaspa's land. An enemy raider, sometimes identified as that
[25:28] Speaker 1: sorcerer Bratrokresh from his childhood, infiltrated the sanctuary where Zoroaster
[25:34] Speaker 1: was tending the sacred fire. This attacker murdered Zoroaster in
[25:40] Speaker 1: cold blood while he was praying, killing him right there
[25:43] Speaker 1: on the spot. Thus, in the lore, Zoroaster becomes a martyr,
[25:49] Speaker 1: dying in defense of his faith. However, it's interesting that
[25:54] Speaker 1: unlike some other religions, Zoroastrians did not traditionally observe a
[25:59] Speaker 1: morning holiday for Zoroaster's martyrdom. This fact has led some
[26:03] Speaker 1: scholars to suggest that perhaps Zoroaster did not die a
[26:07] Speaker 1: dramatic martyr's death, but rather passed away peacefully in old age.
[26:12] Speaker 1: I hope for Zoroaster's sake it was certainly that way.
[26:17] Speaker 1: Had his death been a pivotal, tragic event, we might
[26:20] Speaker 1: expect annual commemorations, don't you think? The absence of early
[26:24] Speaker 1: widespread martyr traditions does raise the possibility that the tale
[26:28] Speaker 1: of being slain by an enemy could be a later embellishment,
[26:33] Speaker 1: a fitting heroic end, added as a footnote to his biography.
[26:40] Speaker 1: But in any case, by the time of his death,
[26:43] Speaker 1: whether it was by natural causes or extreme blunt force trauma,
[26:49] Speaker 1: Zoroaster had laid the foundation for a religion that would
[26:53] Speaker 1: endure for a millennia. It still does in some places.
[26:59] Speaker 1: We'll get to that later. He left behind disciples, including
[27:04] Speaker 1: his own children. Zoroastrian texts say that Zoroaster had three
[27:08] Speaker 1: sons and three daughters, who likely carried on his lineage
[27:12] Speaker 1: and faith. The faith of Zoroastrianism, or the Good Religion
[27:17] Speaker 1: as believers called it, would soon spread across the Iranian plateau.
[27:24] Speaker 1: So before moving on to discuss Zoroaster's teachings in detail,
[27:27] Speaker 1: let's pause and consider some of the sources we have
[27:30] Speaker 1: for his life, because it's very, very important that we
[27:33] Speaker 1: do so. Much of the biography we've recounted, the Epistasper story,
[27:38] Speaker 1: the Miracons, etc., comes from the later religious texts, compiled
[27:44] Speaker 1: long after Zoroaster. This isn't unique to Zoroastrianism. This happens
[27:50] Speaker 1: quite a lot in a lot of religious figures, but
[27:52] Speaker 1: we still need to mention it. and these include parts
[27:55] Speaker 1: of the Avesta, completed in written form during the Persian
[27:59] Speaker 1: Empire or later, and Pahlavi books, written in the early
[28:04] Speaker 1: medieval period, 9th-10th century CE, that gathered our older oral
[28:10] Speaker 1: traditions together and finally put pen to paper. These sources
[28:15] Speaker 1: obviously have a devotional bias. They want to glorify the
[28:19] Speaker 1: Prophet and show divine validation of his mission. And that's
[28:23] Speaker 1: why we see so many miracles and cosmic interventions. In contrast,
[28:28] Speaker 1: the primary sources closest to Zoroaster are the Garthas, 17
[28:32] Speaker 1: hymns believed to be composed by Zoroaster himself. The Garthas
[28:39] Speaker 1: are embedded in the Avesta and are poetically dense and elusive.
[28:45] Speaker 1: They don't narrate events like a history book, rather they're
[28:48] Speaker 1: pretty much meditations, prayers and sermons. Through them, Zoroaster addresses
[28:55] Speaker 1: Ahura Master, pleads for help against his foes and celebrates
[28:59] Speaker 1: the friends who support him. We extracted clues from the Garthas,
[29:04] Speaker 1: like mentions of Vistaspa and hostility from the Karpans, to
[29:09] Speaker 1: sketch these rough events of his life. As we said
[29:13] Speaker 1: at the start of the video, we do our best
[29:16] Speaker 1: with what we have. The Garthas being primary are more
[29:21] Speaker 1: reliable about Zoroaster's ideas than the later legends, but they
[29:25] Speaker 1: require interpretation. By critically comparing these various sources, the hymns,
[29:30] Speaker 1: the primary sure, but a little bit cryptic, and the
[29:33] Speaker 1: later narratives, which are detailed but somewhat idealized, we just
[29:38] Speaker 1: have to attempt... to reconstruct Zoroaster's life and message in
[29:43] Speaker 1: the best way that we can I think we did
[29:46] Speaker 1: a decent job of it now having followed Zoroaster's journey
[29:51] Speaker 1: from birth to death let's explore what he taught that
[29:54] Speaker 1: was so revolutionary of course he had to have some
[29:57] Speaker 1: good ideas if they caught on right What did he
[30:01] Speaker 1: preach that won him so many devoted followers and also
[30:05] Speaker 1: bitter enemies? The Teachings and Philosophy of Zoroaster His teachings
[30:16] Speaker 1: mark a turning point in the history of religion and spirituality.
[30:21] Speaker 1: He is often credited as one of the first, if
[30:24] Speaker 1: not the first, monotheist and as a pioneer of moral dualism.
[30:30] Speaker 1: So let's unpack the key elements of his philosophy as
[30:33] Speaker 1: gleaned from the Garthas and the other earlier texts, always
[30:36] Speaker 1: noting that these were later understood and sometimes expanded by
[30:39] Speaker 1: his followers. The first is one god above all, Ahura Mazda.
[30:47] Speaker 1: That is the core of Zoroaster's message, this worship of
[30:51] Speaker 1: Ahura Mazda, meaning the wise lord. In an age when
[30:57] Speaker 1: his contemporaries worshipped a pantheon of gods, Zoroaster elevated Ahura
[31:01] Speaker 1: Mazda as the supreme and singular creator. He taught that
[31:06] Speaker 1: Ahura Mazda is the source of all that is good,
[31:09] Speaker 1: the creator of the heavens and the earth. This god
[31:12] Speaker 1: was not distant or indifferent. No, Ahura Mazda is depicted
[31:18] Speaker 1: as being part of perfect wisdom and justice, and he
[31:22] Speaker 1: interacts with humanity through revelation. Zoroaster didn't necessarily deny the
[31:31] Speaker 1: existence of other spiritual beings, but he did insist that
[31:35] Speaker 1: only those aligned with Ahura Mazda's goodness were worthy of reverence.
[31:42] Speaker 1: Lesser gods, as in the old Indo-Iranian deities, who he
[31:46] Speaker 1: called Devas, meaning demons or false gods, would be rejected
[31:52] Speaker 1: if they embodied evil or lied. In Zoroaster's view, many
[31:57] Speaker 1: of the traditional gods followed the lie and were thus
[32:01] Speaker 1: unworthy of worship. Instead of a pantheon of competing gods,
[32:06] Speaker 1: Zoroaster presented a kind of heavenly hierarchy under the one god.
[32:11] Speaker 1: Ahura Master works through a host of abstract divine qualities,
[32:16] Speaker 1: later personified as the Amesha Spentas, meaning the holy immortals,
[32:22] Speaker 1: in the Garthas. Zoroaster often refers to concepts like Asha,
[32:27] Speaker 1: the truth or right order, Vohumana, good mind, and Shathra, dominion,
[32:34] Speaker 1: as both virtues and divine presences. Eventually, these came to
[32:40] Speaker 1: be seen as archangel-like figures, I suppose, emanations of Ahura Master,
[32:47] Speaker 1: manifestations of different qualities, for example, Asha Vahishtha, is the
[32:53] Speaker 1: highest truth and righteousness. Vohumana is the good mind that
[32:58] Speaker 1: inspires good thoughts. Spenta Armaiti embodies holy devotion or serenity.
[33:08] Speaker 1: These are seven of the key divine aspects, including also
[33:11] Speaker 1: Spenta Mainyu, the Holy Spirit of a Vohuda Master, Haurvatat, wholeness, perfection,
[33:20] Speaker 1: and Amaretat, immortality. Zoroaster taught these represent both Ahura Master's
[33:26] Speaker 1: nature and virtues that humans should cultivate. Pretty important stuff. Notably,
[33:33] Speaker 1: this ties to the divine realm, to the ethical realm too.
[33:38] Speaker 1: The same qualities that divine God, truth, good thinking, righteousness,
[33:43] Speaker 1: are expected of normal, everyday human beings. An emulation of
[33:49] Speaker 1: the highest order. A scholar neatly summarizes, The gods and
[33:55] Speaker 1: humankind are both bound to observe the same ethical principles.
[34:00] Speaker 1: And it was profoundly an ethical religion, not just a
[34:03] Speaker 1: set of rituals. In Zoroaster's theology, God is good, and
[34:10] Speaker 1: nothing evil comes from Ahura Mazda. But this raises a
[34:15] Speaker 1: classic question, don't you think? If God is wholly good,
[34:20] Speaker 1: what is the origin of evil in the world? Zoroaster's
[34:25] Speaker 1: answer introduces the second major pillar of his teaching, the
[34:30] Speaker 1: concept of dualism between good and evil. Zoroaster preached that
[34:39] Speaker 1: the world is a battlefield of sorts, in a spiritual sense. Asha, truth,
[34:46] Speaker 1: order and good, and Druj, the lie, chaos and evil,
[34:51] Speaker 1: are always at each other's throats. He personified this conflict
[34:56] Speaker 1: in two primal forces or spirits. In a famous passage
[35:00] Speaker 1: from the Garthas, he describes how two primal spirits were
[35:04] Speaker 1: revealed to him, one benevolent and one malevolent. These twin
[35:10] Speaker 1: forces are sometimes called Spentamenu, the bounteous spirit representing the good,
[35:15] Speaker 1: pretty much the creative spirit of Ahura Mazda, and Angramenu,
[35:21] Speaker 1: the hostile or destructive spirit, pretty much representing everything that's evil.
[35:28] Speaker 1: Just think of God and the devil. It's kind of
[35:31] Speaker 1: like that. The same sort of idea. Good guy, bad guy.
[35:37] Speaker 1: Later texts would name Angra Mainu as Ahriman, the evil one.
[35:42] Speaker 1: Zoroaster teaches that each human being, indeed each soul, must
[35:47] Speaker 1: choose which of these spirits to follow. As one translation
[35:51] Speaker 1: of Jasnah 30, a Gothic hymn, puts it, Hear with
[35:55] Speaker 1: your ears the best things. Reflect with a clear mind,
[36:00] Speaker 1: each one for himself, upon the two choices of decision,
[36:04] Speaker 1: being alert to declare yourselves for the right side before
[36:06] Speaker 1: the great judgment. If we put it into other words,
[36:12] Speaker 1: we're presented with the fundamental choice of morals, to ally
[36:16] Speaker 1: with the good spirit, or to ally with the evil spirit.
[36:21] Speaker 1: Of course, this is an exercise of free will, another
[36:24] Speaker 1: crucial aspect of Zoroaster's philosophy. A later summary of his
[36:29] Speaker 1: doctrine says that from the beginning, the good and evil
[36:33] Speaker 1: spirits were free to choose life or not life. The
[36:39] Speaker 1: good chose life. The evil chose not life. By this
[36:44] Speaker 1: act of choice, the universe got split into two camps,
[36:48] Speaker 1: the kingdom of justice and truth, and the kingdom of
[36:51] Speaker 1: the lie, the druge. Zoroaster identified Ahura Mazda with the
[36:58] Speaker 1: good spirit and Ahriman with the evil one. Though intriguingly,
[37:03] Speaker 1: in Zoroaster's original hymns, Angra Mainyu is not given equal
[37:08] Speaker 1: status to Ahura Mazda. He is a powerful hostile spirit, sure,
[37:14] Speaker 1: but not an independent god. Later tradition made them more
[37:18] Speaker 1: on dualistic equal terms. The important point. For Zoroaster, was
[37:26] Speaker 1: it evil, was it choice? It's the result of a
[37:31] Speaker 1: spirit choosing the wrong path. And likewise, humans commit evil
[37:37] Speaker 1: by choosing the worst purpose instead of the righteous path.
[37:42] Speaker 1: The Davers, demons who were actually the old pagan gods,
[37:47] Speaker 1: are said to have not chosen rightly. They were deceived.
[37:52] Speaker 1: by the evil spirit and rushed into fury and violence.
[37:56] Speaker 1: Humans must avoid that fate by choosing the truth. This
[38:01] Speaker 1: cosmic dualism was not an eternal stalemate in Zoroaster's view.
[38:06] Speaker 1: Goodwill can ultimately triumph over evil. Zoroaster taught a hopeful eschatology.
[38:14] Speaker 1: There will be a great requital or judgment where those
[38:19] Speaker 1: who chose good will be rewarded and those who chose
[38:23] Speaker 1: evil will face the consequences. He spoke of a final
[38:28] Speaker 1: renewal of the world, when all wrong things are finally righted.
[38:34] Speaker 1: In the Garthas, he describes how, at the end of time,
[38:39] Speaker 1: the worst existence shall be for the wicked, the house
[38:43] Speaker 1: of best purpose shall be for the just man. Here
[38:47] Speaker 1: we see a clear reference to a form of heaven
[38:50] Speaker 1: and hell, the just, who embodied good purpose and truth,
[38:54] Speaker 1: would enjoy the house of best purpose, essentially paradise, in
[38:59] Speaker 1: the presence of Ahura Mazda, while the wicked, those who
[39:03] Speaker 1: embraced the lies and harmed others with the Druj, would
[39:08] Speaker 1: experience the worst, miserable fate, which Zoroastrian texts later equate
[39:15] Speaker 1: with a hellish condition. This was As you can see,
[39:20] Speaker 1: a moral universe. Your choices in life directly determine what
[39:25] Speaker 1: happens after it. In fact, one of Zoroaster's most interesting
[39:30] Speaker 1: concepts was his final idea of a victory over evil.
[39:37] Speaker 1: He did not preach an eternal dualism of two co-equal
[39:40] Speaker 1: gods locked in conflict forever. Rather, evil is powerful, but
[39:46] Speaker 1: ultimately temporary. In later Zoroastrian doctrine, elaborating on Zoroaster's ideas,
[39:53] Speaker 1: history is divided into two epics. And at the end
[39:56] Speaker 1: of the current age, evil will be completely destroyed by
[40:00] Speaker 1: Ahura Master's power. A saviour figure, called the Saoshant, meaning
[40:06] Speaker 1: future benefactor, who according to tradition will be a future-born
[40:11] Speaker 1: descendant of Zoroaster, will lead humanity in the final battle
[40:16] Speaker 1: against falsehood. resurrect the dead, and renew creation, making it
[40:22] Speaker 1: perfect and deathless. Zoroaster himself set this expectation that truth
[40:28] Speaker 1: would ultimately win, giving his followers both a personal ethical
[40:32] Speaker 1: directive along with a cosmic hope to cling to. And so,
[40:41] Speaker 1: with the spiritual stage set, one good god one evil god,
[40:49] Speaker 1: and the humans in between with free will. Zoroaster began
[40:54] Speaker 1: to drill down to everyday ethics. How does one act
[41:00] Speaker 1: in a good manner? The fundamental ethical principle of Zoroastrianism
[41:04] Speaker 1: can be summed up in the simple motto, good thoughts,
[41:08] Speaker 1: good words, good deeds. This phrase in the Avestan language, humata, hukta, huvashta,
[41:17] Speaker 1: is a later slogan, but it pretty much sums up
[41:21] Speaker 1: Zoroaster's teachings. To align with Ahura Mazda, the good spirit,
[41:27] Speaker 1: a person must discipline their mind, speech and actions toward goodness.
[41:32] Speaker 1: Zoroaster emphasized truthfulness, charity, justice and the reverence for creation.
[41:39] Speaker 1: He also condemned the lies and ritual excesses of the
[41:43] Speaker 1: corrupt priests, urging sincerity and religiosity instead. Caring for the
[41:51] Speaker 1: cattle and tilling the land was considered meritorious, whereas violence,
[41:56] Speaker 1: theft and deceit were abominations, allied with the evil spirit,
[42:03] Speaker 1: and you don't want to be on Angra Menu's side.
[42:07] Speaker 1: One aspect of Zoroaster's ethics is how positive and life-affirming
[42:12] Speaker 1: it is. In contrast to some ascetic or world-renouncing religious leaders,
[42:18] Speaker 1: Zoroaster did not ask his followers to withdraw from the world. Instead,
[42:22] Speaker 1: he taught that life is a blessing. In fact, spentamenu
[42:26] Speaker 1: literally means bounteous or increasing spirit, and that enjoying the
[42:30] Speaker 1: good things of creation, as long as one does so righteously,
[42:35] Speaker 1: is just all part of the divine plan. Farming, raising
[42:40] Speaker 1: healthy children, and prospering through honest work, were seen as
[42:45] Speaker 1: fulfilling the will of Ahura Mazda. The only caveat was
[42:50] Speaker 1: to do these things justly and with a pure heart.
[42:55] Speaker 1: Zoroaster also reformed religious ritual practices to reflect his new theology.
[43:01] Speaker 1: The old Indo-Iranian religion involved animal sacrifices, but it seems
[43:07] Speaker 1: that Zoroaster put less emphasis on blood offerings. Though later
[43:11] Speaker 1: Zoroastrians did practice some sacrifices, the Garthas themselves don't glorify
[43:17] Speaker 1: animal sacrifice. Instead, they had a different symbol, one that
[43:25] Speaker 1: is a lot cooler. Fire. That became a central figure
[43:31] Speaker 1: in Zoroastrian worship. It was seen as the symbol of Asha,
[43:37] Speaker 1: the truth and light of Ahura Mazda. Zoroaster likely encouraged
[43:41] Speaker 1: the veneration of fire, not as a deity, but as
[43:45] Speaker 1: a pure element representing God's presence. He also sanctified the
[43:49] Speaker 1: elements of nature, as earth and water, and especially fire,
[43:54] Speaker 1: would be kept pure. This also gave rise to practices
[44:00] Speaker 1: like maintaining sacred fires in temples and ritual prayers facing
[44:05] Speaker 1: a source of light. Zoroastrians to this day pray in
[44:10] Speaker 1: the presence of a fire, a tradition that could be
[44:12] Speaker 1: traced back to Zoroaster's emphasis on inner and outer purity.
[44:18] Speaker 1: Another reform attributed to Zoroaster is the discouragement of the
[44:22] Speaker 1: ritual use of that hallucinogenic hauma, known as soma in India,
[44:28] Speaker 1: by the way, which is where they got, uh, I'm
[44:32] Speaker 1: sure you've read Aldous Huxley's work Brave New World. Soma
[44:36] Speaker 1: is the, uh, Not the hallucinogen, rather the kind of
[44:40] Speaker 1: like the opioid that they take in that book. It's
[44:45] Speaker 1: not a good thing. So this Halma was a sacred
[44:51] Speaker 1: drink offered to the gods and consumed by priests in
[44:55] Speaker 1: the old religion. Zoroaster's silence or negative hints about the
[45:00] Speaker 1: Halma cult, which may have involved trance and possibly sacrifice,
[45:06] Speaker 1: suggests that he was trying to steer people away from
[45:08] Speaker 1: what he saw as superstitious at best and demonic at worst. Instead, prayer,
[45:17] Speaker 1: ethical living, and symbolic offerings like the burning of incense
[45:22] Speaker 1: or the sacred fire took precedence. Zoroaster also taught about
[45:27] Speaker 1: the afterlife in ethical terms. He introduced the idea of
[45:31] Speaker 1: a judgment for each soul after death, Upon death a
[45:35] Speaker 1: person's soul would cross the Chinvat bridge, that bridge of judgment.
[45:41] Speaker 1: If you'd lived righteously, the bridge would be wise and
[45:44] Speaker 1: easy to cross, leading you to the abode of Song,
[45:48] Speaker 1: a heaven of eternal bliss. But if you had been wicked,
[45:53] Speaker 1: if you were on the naughty list, the bridge would
[45:56] Speaker 1: become as narrow as a razor's edge, and you would
[46:00] Speaker 1: fall into the house of lies. A hellish realm of
[46:04] Speaker 1: eternal torment. Which one do you want to go to? However,
[46:12] Speaker 1: unlike some later doctrines of eternal hell, Zoroaster's followers believed
[46:17] Speaker 1: these punishments or rewards were not necessarily forever. They were
[46:21] Speaker 1: part of the cosmic drama until the final resolution. In
[46:26] Speaker 1: the end, when evil is destroyed, even the damned would
[46:31] Speaker 1: be purified. and reunited in a restored world. Now it
[46:38] Speaker 1: is worth noting just how just and optimistic Zoroaster's moral
[46:42] Speaker 1: vision was for its time. This is really something incredible.
[46:46] Speaker 1: He essentially taught that everyone, regardless of their social status,
[46:50] Speaker 1: has the ability and responsibility to choose good, and that
[46:54] Speaker 1: in the eyes of God, a humble, truthful person of
[46:58] Speaker 1: any status is far superior to a powerful lyre. This
[47:04] Speaker 1: was a challenge to the old order, and it was
[47:07] Speaker 1: perhaps where a lot of the nobility and priesthood automatically
[47:11] Speaker 1: conferred spiritual goodness. Zorro has to turn that on its head. Asha,
[47:18] Speaker 1: the truth, righteousness, that was the only standard now, and
[47:24] Speaker 1: even a poor cattle herder could be an exemplar of virtue.
[47:29] Speaker 1: while a wealthy priest could be in league with demons
[47:33] Speaker 1: if he was corrupt. Zoroaster's philosophy also encompasses a kind
[47:41] Speaker 1: of cosmology, an understanding of the world's creation and the
[47:45] Speaker 1: role of humans within it. He taught that Ahura Mazda
[47:49] Speaker 1: created the world as essentially good, furnishing it with all
[47:54] Speaker 1: that we need to live well, that being the water,
[47:57] Speaker 1: the sun, plants, animals useful to man, cattle, dogs, etc., and,
[48:07] Speaker 1: of course, plenty of good humans to take care of
[48:09] Speaker 1: his creation. And everything in creation belongs either to the
[48:14] Speaker 1: good side or the evil side. For example, useful, beneficent
[48:20] Speaker 1: animals like dogs, cows, and birds were considered creatures of
[48:24] Speaker 1: Ahura Mazda, while harmful creatures like snakes, ants, and in
[48:31] Speaker 1: one extreme case, water rats, were seen as a spawn
[48:35] Speaker 1: of evil, angromenu. This led Zoroastrians to practice ritual purity laws.
[48:43] Speaker 1: One should not pollute water or fire, which are sacred elements,
[48:47] Speaker 1: and one should dispose of corpses in a way that
[48:50] Speaker 1: doesn't defile the pure elements, hence the practice of sky burial.
[48:56] Speaker 1: leaving bodies to be consumed by vultures, originated to avoid
[49:01] Speaker 1: contaminating the earth or fire with decay. Fighting evil included
[49:07] Speaker 1: practical aspects, like killing destructive pests, considered creations of Ahriman,
[49:14] Speaker 1: the other name for Angramenu. Every aspect of life thus
[49:19] Speaker 1: became moral. charged, from how you farmed to how you
[49:22] Speaker 1: maintained cleanliness and order. So you see, humans, in Zoroaster's view,
[49:28] Speaker 1: are allies of Ahura Mazda, and they're all in the fight, together,
[49:33] Speaker 1: against chaos, by choosing good thoughts, good words and good deeds.
[49:39] Speaker 1: A person literally helps Ahura Mazda in the cosmic struggle
[49:43] Speaker 1: to give him strength. Conversely, when someone lies, cheats or
[49:48] Speaker 1: destroys unjustly, Angra Menyu gets stronger. This gives human life
[49:55] Speaker 1: immense dignity and responsibility. We're not just playthings of capricious gods.
[50:01] Speaker 1: We're all soldiers in a moral war with genuine freedom
[50:06] Speaker 1: to choose our side. and genuine consequences. Zoroaster even saw
[50:12] Speaker 1: the potential for humans to achieve spiritual excellence by aligning
[50:15] Speaker 1: with the Amesha Spentas, the divine virtues. In a sense,
[50:20] Speaker 1: a person who embodies the good mind, truth and devotion
[50:23] Speaker 1: in life becomes godlike in themselves. It's pretty remarkable how
[50:30] Speaker 1: rational and ethical Zoroaster's religion was compared to many of
[50:34] Speaker 1: its contemporaries. And to be honest, It sounds pretty good.
[50:40] Speaker 1: Maybe we should bring it back in full force. Sacrifice
[50:44] Speaker 1: and ritual took a back seat to the moral state
[50:47] Speaker 1: of the individual. Prayer in Zoroastrianism often takes the form
[50:51] Speaker 1: of affirmations of faith and pledges to good conduct, rather
[50:56] Speaker 1: than just praise or requests. For instance, Zoroastrian confession of
[51:01] Speaker 1: faith includes the lines, I profess myself a worshipper of Mazda,
[51:07] Speaker 1: a follower of Zarathustra, opposing the Devas, accepting the Ahuric doctrine.
[51:14] Speaker 1: It's a conscious choice being declared. Because Zoroaster's teachings were oral,
[51:21] Speaker 1: as was pretty much everything in that era, they were
[51:25] Speaker 1: memorized and passed down by disciples. Over time they were
[51:29] Speaker 1: written in the Avesta, and then translated and interpreted by priests.
[51:35] Speaker 1: As with any long-transmitted tradition, there's going to be evolutions
[51:40] Speaker 1: and aggressions. Centuries later, in the era of the Persian
[51:44] Speaker 1: Achaemenid Empire, that being 550 to 330 BCE, Zoroastrianism likely
[51:51] Speaker 1: changed somewhat from what Zoroaster directly taught. But it seems
[51:56] Speaker 1: that the core was still intact. Intriguingly, the Persian kings
[51:59] Speaker 1: like Darius, Xerxes and others mention Ahura Mazda prominently in
[52:04] Speaker 1: their royal inscriptions, indicating that Zoroaster's god had become the
[52:09] Speaker 1: chief deity of the realm. However, by the later Achaemenid period,
[52:16] Speaker 1: the Persians also acknowledged other gods alongside Mazda, that being
[52:21] Speaker 1: Mithra and Anaeta, showing their strictly monotheistic Zoroastrianism had shifted
[52:28] Speaker 1: towards a more inclusive worship, no doubt under royal influence.
[52:34] Speaker 1: But even so, the spirit of Zoroaster's reforms focusing on truth,
[52:38] Speaker 1: moral dualism, and Uhura Mazda's supremacy continued to guide the
[52:43] Speaker 1: Persians for some time to come. So to conclude our
[52:49] Speaker 1: talk on who was Zoroaster, I suppose we can sum
[52:55] Speaker 1: it up like this. He was a religious innovator, who
[52:59] Speaker 1: courageously challenged the norms of his society. He transformed the
[53:04] Speaker 1: religion of ancient Iran from a polytheistic nature-worshipping one to
[53:09] Speaker 1: focus on one transcendent God and the ethical struggle between
[53:13] Speaker 1: good and evil, and in doing so, he became one
[53:17] Speaker 1: of the first figures in history to articulate ideas of
[53:20] Speaker 1: moral dualism, judgment after death, heaven and hell, and the
[53:25] Speaker 1: eventual triumph of good concepts that have become cornerstones of
[53:30] Speaker 1: many religions today. Historically, his teachings have become a guiding
[53:35] Speaker 1: light of the mighty Persian civilization, and later influenced thinkers
[53:40] Speaker 1: and prophets beyond Persia's borders. Spiritually, his emphasis on personal righteousness, truth,
[53:46] Speaker 1: and the constant choice between good and evil gives his
[53:49] Speaker 1: message a timeless and universal quality. Unlike mythic heroes, Zoroaster
[53:57] Speaker 1: was a real person, and most scholars do agree on
[54:00] Speaker 1: his historicity. Yet around him has grown a rich tapestry
[54:04] Speaker 1: of myth and devotion. And that's why we've had to
[54:09] Speaker 1: examine these sources critically, recognizing where they serve religious purposes,
[54:15] Speaker 1: and where they might preserve a kernel of historic truth.
[54:19] Speaker 1: The biases of later priests didn't stop us from seeing
[54:22] Speaker 1: the essence, and that's a man of deep conviction. who
[54:26] Speaker 1: experienced what he believed was communion with the divine, and
[54:29] Speaker 1: set out to bring a new enlightenment to humanity. Today,
[54:35] Speaker 1: the number of Zoroaster's followers is pretty small, but his
[54:39] Speaker 1: legacy is far larger than the Zoroastrian community itself. It
[54:44] Speaker 1: lives on in the cultural memory of humanity. We see
[54:48] Speaker 1: it in literature, from ancient Greek texts to modern writings.
[54:52] Speaker 1: in art as illustrated by Raphael's Renaissance fresco where Zoroaster
[54:57] Speaker 1: holds the celestial globe, right up there next to Aristotle
[55:01] Speaker 1: and Plato, by the way, and in ongoing academic interest.
[55:05] Speaker 1: You're watching this now, aren't you? And scholars still study
[55:09] Speaker 1: the Garthas in Avistan to tease out the authentic voice
[55:14] Speaker 1: of Zoroaster. Still marvelling at how a Bronze Age poet
[55:19] Speaker 1: could conceive such advanced theological ideas. And so, in closing,
[55:26] Speaker 1: Zoroaster's life story, once properly introduced as we has done,
[55:32] Speaker 1: is as dramatic and inspiring as that of any religious founder.
[55:36] Speaker 1: A lone prophet, who laughed in the face of danger bravely,
[55:40] Speaker 1: preached truth to power, converted kings through wisdom and miracles,
[55:46] Speaker 1: and envisioned a future where the world was perfected by goodness.
[55:51] Speaker 1: All that makes him a figure of endless fascination, Who
[55:56] Speaker 1: was Zoroaster? I suppose we can answer. He was the
[56:02] Speaker 1: messenger of Mazda, the man who changed the Persian religion,
[56:07] Speaker 1: the teacher whose influence stretched across continents and era, a
[56:11] Speaker 1: voice that still speaks to us today through echoes as
[56:13] Speaker 1: we find in later faiths, and a continuing devotion of
[56:16] Speaker 1: those who still call themselves Zoroastrians. In a very real sense,
[56:22] Speaker 1: the fire that Zoroaster lit in the world never really
[56:26] Speaker 1: died out, is the flame of conscience, urging humanity towards
[56:32] Speaker 1: good thoughts and good words and good deeds. In Persepolis,
[56:41] Speaker 1: the capital of ancient Persia, a scene unfolds in a temple.
[56:47] Speaker 1: The air is filled with the fragrance of burning frankincense.
[56:51] Speaker 1: In the center stands a sacred fire on an altar,
[56:54] Speaker 1: flames dancing. casting flickering light on the polished stone reliefs,
[56:59] Speaker 1: while a circle of robed priests chant hymns in an
[57:02] Speaker 1: ancient tongue. At the front, the King of Kings himself
[57:08] Speaker 1: raises his hand towards the fire, calling upon Ahura Mazda,
[57:14] Speaker 1: the Wise Lord, to bless his empire. In that moment,
[57:20] Speaker 1: fire and faith unite the gathering. The flame symbolizes truth,
[57:25] Speaker 1: and divine light, embodying the gods' presence among them. This was, perhaps,
[57:33] Speaker 1: a scene that could have taken place during the height
[57:35] Speaker 1: of the Achaemenid or Sasanian Empire, eras often hailed as
[57:40] Speaker 1: the golden ages of Zoroastrianism. And so with the scene set,
[57:47] Speaker 1: I welcome you to a journey through time, back to
[57:50] Speaker 1: the 6th century BCE. and all the way forward to
[57:53] Speaker 1: the 7th century CE, when Zoroastrianism was not a religion
[57:58] Speaker 1: practiced by a small minority as it is today, but
[58:03] Speaker 1: simply the beating heart of two of history's greatest empires.
[58:09] Speaker 1: Prepare to hear stories of emperors and priests, battles and rituals,
[58:14] Speaker 1: tolerance and zeal. We'll explore how an ancient faith guided
[58:19] Speaker 1: kings and shaped laws, how its principles of truth and
[58:22] Speaker 1: righteousness became a moral compass for mighty emperors, and how
[58:27] Speaker 1: its sacred fires burned in the temples of Mesopotamia to
[58:30] Speaker 1: Central Asia. We will begin with a brief refresher on
[58:36] Speaker 1: the origins of the faith, for those who have not
[58:39] Speaker 1: watched the first video, Who is Zarathustra?, which I will
[58:42] Speaker 1: link for those interested, and his revolutionary message, And then
[58:48] Speaker 1: we will delve into the Achaemenid Empire and the Sasanian Empire,
[58:51] Speaker 1: the two grand dynasties under which Zoroastrianism thrived and reached
[58:55] Speaker 1: unparalleled influences. We'll also hear words from outsiders too, Greek historians,
[59:03] Speaker 1: baffled and impressed by Persian customs, a people who refused
[59:09] Speaker 1: to defend water or fire, and thought telling a lie
[59:14] Speaker 1: was the worst sin of all. We'll walk through the
[59:18] Speaker 1: corridors of time, to the Sasanian era, and see those
[59:22] Speaker 1: powerful high priests who could make and break kings. and
[59:27] Speaker 1: when libraries of Zoroastrianism's scriptures were compiled for the ages, some,
[59:34] Speaker 1: or most, lost to time. Through archaeological evidence, primary texts,
[59:42] Speaker 1: and even legends passed down, I'll try to illuminate this
[59:46] Speaker 1: golden age of Zoroastrianism. So, close your eyes, think of
[59:52] Speaker 1: that eternal flame, and let's step back into the ancient world,
[59:58] Speaker 1: But first, let me welcome you. If you want to
[1:00:01] Speaker 1: learn everything there is to know about Zoroastrianism, or anything
[1:00:06] Speaker 1: else about history, you're in the right place. You're on
[1:00:09] Speaker 1: the right channel at the right time. So, for those
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: who have not done so yet, hit the subscribe button,
[1:00:17] Speaker 1: and tell me where you're listening from down below in
[1:00:19] Speaker 1: the comments. And with that in mind, let's get nice
[1:00:23] Speaker 1: and relaxed, and begin. As mentioned, we will begin with
[1:00:29] Speaker 1: a brief refresher on Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, and we will
[1:00:36] Speaker 1: then go on to a more chronological historical approach. If
[1:00:40] Speaker 1: you have already watched the first video on this and
[1:00:43] Speaker 1: want to skip this section, refer to the timestamps. So
[1:00:48] Speaker 1: our story begins long before the rise of Imperial Persia.
[1:00:52] Speaker 1: It begins with Zarathustra Spitama, known to the Greeks as Zoroaster.
[1:00:58] Speaker 1: a priest-prophet who likely lived sometime between 1500 and 1000
[1:01:03] Speaker 1: BC on the steppes of Central Asia or northeast Iran.
[1:01:08] Speaker 1: The exact date and place are shrouded in mystery and legend,
[1:01:11] Speaker 1: of course. Later tradition even fancifully claimed he lived 6,000
[1:01:16] Speaker 1: years before Plato, which is frankly ridiculous, but what does
[1:01:20] Speaker 1: matter is the message that he proclaimed. According to Zoroastrian tradition,
[1:01:26] Speaker 1: he received a divine vision around the age of thirty.
[1:01:29] Speaker 1: In that vision he beheld Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom,
[1:01:34] Speaker 1: who revealed to him a profound truth, that Ahura Mazda
[1:01:38] Speaker 1: is the singular Supreme God, creator of all things that
[1:01:44] Speaker 1: are good. Of course, this was a bold departure from
[1:01:47] Speaker 1: the polytheistic traditions of Iranian religion at the time, worshipping
[1:01:51] Speaker 1: many gods, the Devas and the Yazatas, and involve rituals
[1:01:56] Speaker 1: not unlike those of Vedic Indians. Zarathustra preached that life
[1:02:03] Speaker 1: is a moral battlefield between Asha, truth and order, and Druj,
[1:02:08] Speaker 1: lies and chaos. On one side stands Ahura Mazda, the
[1:02:15] Speaker 1: source of all goodness and truth, opposed by the evil
[1:02:19] Speaker 1: spirit Angra Menyu, also called Ariman. who embodies darkness and falsehoods,
[1:02:26] Speaker 1: the good guy and the bad guy. Every human being
[1:02:31] Speaker 1: thus had their role in this cosmic struggle by exercising
[1:02:35] Speaker 1: their free will to choose good thoughts, good words, and
[1:02:39] Speaker 1: good deans, the triple moral precept of Zoroastrian ethics. In fact,
[1:02:45] Speaker 1: good thoughts, good words, good deans, Humata, Huqta, and Hvarshta,
[1:02:52] Speaker 1: became the creed by which Zoroastrians sought to live. It's
[1:02:56] Speaker 1: a pretty easy one to remember, too. Not too complicated.
[1:03:01] Speaker 1: The key teachings of the Prophet will be quickly summarised
[1:03:04] Speaker 1: as follows. First, we have monotheism and dualism. Let a
[1:03:08] Speaker 1: single benevolent god or a master who is worthy of worship,
[1:03:13] Speaker 1: in perpetual conflict with the evil force of Angra Mainyu,
[1:03:17] Speaker 1: humans must side with good against evil. Then we have
[1:03:22] Speaker 1: Asha versus Druj, the truth versus the lie. The world
[1:03:26] Speaker 1: operating on Asha, divine truth and order. To lie or
[1:03:30] Speaker 1: commit injustice is to support Druj, which means that you
[1:03:33] Speaker 1: are effectively aiding the evil spirit. Telling a lie was
[1:03:38] Speaker 1: the most disgraceful act in Persian culture. Number three, we
[1:03:43] Speaker 1: have moral responsibility. This is the idea that humans are
[1:03:47] Speaker 1: not passive. Each person's ethical choices contribute to the triumph
[1:03:51] Speaker 1: of good, or the triumph of evil. Thus, virtue is
[1:03:57] Speaker 1: a duty, from honesty and charity, to respect for the
[1:04:01] Speaker 1: natural elements. And then we have sacred elements too. Fire,
[1:04:07] Speaker 1: as a pure creation of Ahura Mazda, and water and
[1:04:11] Speaker 1: earth must be kept free of pollution. Fire, in particular,
[1:04:15] Speaker 1: became a symbol of divine light and truth. and it
[1:04:18] Speaker 1: was kept burning continuously in temples as a sign of
[1:04:22] Speaker 1: the eternal presence of Ahura Mazda's wisdom. Well, of course,
[1:04:29] Speaker 1: initially Zarathustra's message was met with resistance and criticism. Imagine
[1:04:36] Speaker 1: walking from village to village challenging the priests who worshipped
[1:04:39] Speaker 1: the old gods and performed blood sacrifices. But the breakthrough
[1:04:44] Speaker 1: became when he found a powerful patron. According to later
[1:04:48] Speaker 1: Zoroastrian tradition, Zarathustra won the support of a local king, Vishtaspa,
[1:04:54] Speaker 1: by debating opponents and even performing miracles. Stoicosity cured the
[1:04:59] Speaker 1: king's favorite horse. Of course, there was the deal. He
[1:05:03] Speaker 1: would only cure him if the king would become one
[1:05:06] Speaker 1: of his new followers. And then the king's wife and
[1:05:09] Speaker 1: sons and all of the old priests and sorcerers would
[1:05:12] Speaker 1: be thrown out In fact, he wanted them executed. Whether
[1:05:17] Speaker 1: or not that happened, well, I'm not sure if that's
[1:05:21] Speaker 1: feeding Angra Mainu or not. But either way, by the
[1:05:25] Speaker 1: cusp of the 6th century BCE, Zoroastrianism, or Mazdayasna, the
[1:05:31] Speaker 1: worship of Mazda, had taken root among the Iranian tribes. Now,
[1:05:37] Speaker 1: hold on, it wasn't the only religion. Many variations and
[1:05:42] Speaker 1: local cults surely persisted. It was extremely hard to keep
[1:05:45] Speaker 1: track of them, but its ethos was becoming influential. And
[1:05:50] Speaker 1: it set the stage for what happened next. A Persian
[1:05:54] Speaker 1: tribe from the region called Pars, led by a dynasty
[1:05:57] Speaker 1: claiming descent from an ancestor named Achaemenes, rises to conquer
[1:06:02] Speaker 1: the known world. They carry with them their cultural values
[1:06:06] Speaker 1: and beliefs. And as we move into the era of
[1:06:10] Speaker 1: the Achaemenid Empire... Keep in mind those core Zoroastrian ideals
[1:06:15] Speaker 1: of truth, moral choice, and the sacredness of elements. They
[1:06:21] Speaker 1: might shine through in how these emperors justified their rule
[1:06:25] Speaker 1: and administered their diverse empires. The Achaemenid Empire Zoroastrian ideals
[1:06:35] Speaker 1: in the first Persian Empire from 6th to the 4th
[1:06:39] Speaker 1: century BCE The Achaemenid Empire, from 550 to 330, was
[1:06:47] Speaker 1: the first of the great Persian empires, and under rulers
[1:06:50] Speaker 1: like Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes, it became the largest empire
[1:06:54] Speaker 1: that the world had yet seen. During this period, Zoroastrianism
[1:07:00] Speaker 1: may not have been a formal state religion, at least
[1:07:04] Speaker 1: in the way that we think of it in later times,
[1:07:06] Speaker 1: but Zoroastrian beliefs deeply informed the royal ideology and practices.
[1:07:13] Speaker 1: the Achaemenid kings saw themselves as chosen by Ahura Mazda
[1:07:18] Speaker 1: and strove, at least in ideal, to rule by the
[1:07:21] Speaker 1: principles of justice, Asha, and to suppress the falsehood of Druj.
[1:07:27] Speaker 1: So let's explore how all this played out, historically and politically.
[1:07:33] Speaker 1: And what better place to start with Cyrus the Great
[1:07:37] Speaker 1: in the seeds of a golden age. So Cyrus II,
[1:07:43] Speaker 1: reigning from 559 to 530 BC, is famed for founding
[1:07:47] Speaker 1: the Achaemenid Empire by uniting the Persians and Medes in
[1:07:51] Speaker 1: conquering lands from Asia Minor to Babylon. Cyrus's reign is
[1:07:56] Speaker 1: often associated with tolerance and enlightened rule, hence the name Great.
[1:08:04] Speaker 1: While direct evidence of Cyrus's personal religious beliefs is pretty scant,
[1:08:08] Speaker 1: later tradition and indirect clues suggest suggests that he honoured
[1:08:12] Speaker 1: the Zoroastrian god. Cyrus' legacy of tolerance, allowing captive peoples
[1:08:19] Speaker 1: like the Jews to return home and rebuild their temples,
[1:08:22] Speaker 1: fits him pretty well with Zoroastrian ethics of respecting truth
[1:08:25] Speaker 1: and justice for all peoples. The Cyrus Cylinder, a clay
[1:08:30] Speaker 1: charter buried under Babylon's walls, has Cyrus declaring that he
[1:08:34] Speaker 1: restored some temples and repatriated displaced peoples. though it credits
[1:08:39] Speaker 1: the Babylonian god Marduk for Cyrus' victory, which is pretty understandable,
[1:08:44] Speaker 1: since it was addressed to a Babylonian audience. Cyrus' actions
[1:08:49] Speaker 1: of mercy could be seen as influenced by a Persian
[1:08:52] Speaker 1: worldview that despised oppression and lies. Indeed, the Greek historian
[1:08:59] Speaker 1: Xenophon later said, depicted Cyrus as an ideal, just monarch
[1:09:03] Speaker 1: in his work Chiropedia, reflecting how even outsiders imagined Persian
[1:09:09] Speaker 1: kingship in moral terms. An anecdote often told is that
[1:09:14] Speaker 1: when Cyrus entered Babylon in 539 BC, he did so peacefully.
[1:09:20] Speaker 1: and was thus welcomed as a liberator. We might envision
[1:09:24] Speaker 1: a magus Zoroastrian priest standing beside Cyrus as he pays
[1:09:29] Speaker 1: respect to the city's chief deity, showing a bit of benevolence.
[1:09:35] Speaker 1: That ought to make him look good in front of
[1:09:36] Speaker 1: the crowds. In fact, Cyrus understood that to rule an
[1:09:42] Speaker 1: empire of many nations, tolerance was strength. This attitude resonates
[1:09:49] Speaker 1: with the Zoroastrian concept of Asha, which included the idea
[1:09:53] Speaker 1: of Arta, justice in royal conduct. By not forcing the
[1:09:58] Speaker 1: Persian religion on others, Cyrus was perhaps following the tenet
[1:10:02] Speaker 1: that religion should convince by righteousness, not by compulsion. If
[1:10:11] Speaker 1: Cyrus planted the scenes, it was Darius I or Darius
[1:10:15] Speaker 1: the Great, 522-486, who explicitly linked kingship with the Zoroastrian faith.
[1:10:25] Speaker 1: Early in his reign, Darius faced a kind of a crisis,
[1:10:30] Speaker 1: a series of rebellions across his empire and a challenge
[1:10:32] Speaker 1: to his throne by a usurper. According to Darius' own inscriptions,
[1:10:38] Speaker 1: a mage-priest named Gaumata had falsely taken his throne by
[1:10:43] Speaker 1: impersonating Bardia, also called Samertes, one of Cyrus's sons. Darius
[1:10:50] Speaker 1: asserts that Gaumata, the Magian, lied, saying, I am Smerdus,
[1:10:56] Speaker 1: son of Cyrus, and seized power until Darius and the
[1:11:00] Speaker 1: loyal Persians killed the imposter. This event, often called the
[1:11:06] Speaker 1: false Smerdus episode, has a striking religious undertone. The pretender
[1:11:12] Speaker 1: is labelled a liar, a deceiver, essentially. an agent of Druzh,
[1:11:19] Speaker 1: an agent of Angremenu. To cement his legitimacy and recount
[1:11:26] Speaker 1: his early struggles, Darius commissioned a monumental trilingual inscription, carved
[1:11:31] Speaker 1: high on a cliff face at Beistun in western Iran.
[1:11:37] Speaker 1: In this Beistun inscription, Darius proclaims his lineage and right
[1:11:42] Speaker 1: to rule, and crucially, He attributes his success to Ahura Mazda.
[1:11:48] Speaker 1: Listen to him in his own words. This is from
[1:11:51] Speaker 1: a carved stone, still in 520 BC. By the grace
[1:11:57] Speaker 1: of Ahura Mazda, am I king. Ahura Mazda has granted
[1:12:02] Speaker 1: me the kingdom. Well, you can't argue with that, can't you?
[1:12:08] Speaker 1: He continues to emphasize that it was Mazda's aid that
[1:12:11] Speaker 1: helped him defeat his enemies. and brought the rebels to justice.
[1:12:17] Speaker 1: Toward the conclusion of the inscription, Darius makes a moral
[1:12:21] Speaker 1: statement that sounds kind of like a Zoroastrian sermon. It
[1:12:25] Speaker 1: goes like this. As to these provinces which revolted, lies
[1:12:30] Speaker 1: made them revolt. But then Ahura Master delivered them into
[1:12:35] Speaker 1: my hand, and I did unto them according to my will.
[1:12:39] Speaker 1: He urges future kings to punish the liars and uphold truth,
[1:12:43] Speaker 1: so that the country— would be secure. Through Dreyza's testimony,
[1:12:49] Speaker 1: we see an Emperor consciously casting himself as a champion
[1:12:52] Speaker 1: of Arsha. He literally credits Truth and the Huda master
[1:12:58] Speaker 1: for his victories and blames the rebellions on lies. This
[1:13:04] Speaker 1: alignment of royal duty with the cosmic battle of Truth
[1:13:07] Speaker 1: versus falsehood is a pretty stunning hallmark of Zoroastrian influence.
[1:13:14] Speaker 1: In essence, Darius used religion to legitimize his rule. He
[1:13:19] Speaker 1: was a king because the supreme god chose him to
[1:13:22] Speaker 1: be the king, and because he stood on the side
[1:13:25] Speaker 1: of justice and truth quelling the chaos. But Darius did
[1:13:29] Speaker 1: not stop at proclamations. He organized an empire with strong
[1:13:33] Speaker 1: emphasis on law and justice. Records show he standardized laws
[1:13:37] Speaker 1: and coinage. and facilitated communication, i.e. the royal road and
[1:13:43] Speaker 1: the postal system, all of which can be seen as
[1:13:46] Speaker 1: attempts to impose cosmic order on the earthly realm, mirroring
[1:13:50] Speaker 1: the role of Ahura Master's truth bringing order to the world.
[1:13:55] Speaker 1: While these administrative feats have practical reasons, it's fascinating to
[1:14:00] Speaker 1: consider that Darius may have seen good governance as simply
[1:14:04] Speaker 1: part of his religious duty. But how did outsiders view this,
[1:14:13] Speaker 1: especially the Greeks? While the Persian kings left important clues,
[1:14:19] Speaker 1: some of our understanding of Zoroastrian practice has to come
[1:14:23] Speaker 1: from outsiders, especially in Achaemenid times. Herodotus, the Greek historian
[1:14:29] Speaker 1: writing in the 5th century BC, gives a famous account
[1:14:32] Speaker 1: of Persian customs and, indirectly perhaps, their religious practices, though
[1:14:38] Speaker 1: not a Persian himself. Herodotus interviewed people who had travelled
[1:14:42] Speaker 1: or lived in the empire, and his generally respectful description
[1:14:47] Speaker 1: seems to corroborate many Zoroastrian features. So according to Herodotus,
[1:14:54] Speaker 1: the Persians, I quote, have no images of the gods,
[1:14:58] Speaker 1: nor temples, nor altars, and consider the use of them
[1:15:02] Speaker 1: a sign of folly. Their want is to ascend the
[1:15:07] Speaker 1: summits of the loftiest mountains, and there to offer sacrifices
[1:15:11] Speaker 1: to Zeus, which is the name they give to the
[1:15:13] Speaker 1: whole circle of the firmament. Now, you heard the word Zeus, right? Well,
[1:15:20] Speaker 1: by Zeus Herodotus means the Persian's highest god, clearly Ahura Mazda,
[1:15:26] Speaker 1: whom he interprets as a sky god. This description matches
[1:15:31] Speaker 1: the anaconic, that is, no idol, worship in Zoroastrianism, rather
[1:15:37] Speaker 1: than statues. The Persians worshipped in nature, under the open sky.
[1:15:45] Speaker 1: Fire altars on hilltops or mountain shrines were their equivalent
[1:15:49] Speaker 1: of temples. Herodotus even notes that later on, the Persians
[1:15:54] Speaker 1: adopted the worship of an additional deity, Urania, whom he
[1:15:58] Speaker 1: equates with a goddess the Persians called Mithra. Here is
[1:16:04] Speaker 1: likely referencing Mithra, the Zoroastrian Yazadda, of covenant and light,
[1:16:11] Speaker 1: showing that by his time Persians honoured Mithra and a
[1:16:14] Speaker 1: goddess of fertility, Anahita, alongside Mazda, and only syncretism within
[1:16:19] Speaker 1: the Zoroastrian framework. But Herodotus... See, I'm merging Zoroaster and
[1:16:27] Speaker 1: Herodotus together there, aren't I? Herodotus, rather, also describes Persian sacrifice.
[1:16:37] Speaker 1: He describes it like this. There is no altar, like
[1:16:40] Speaker 1: no fire, poor no libations. There is no sound of
[1:16:45] Speaker 1: the flute. But the man who wishes to sacrifice brings
[1:16:49] Speaker 1: the victim to a pure spot of ground and calls
[1:16:53] Speaker 1: upon the name of God. This absence of altars and
[1:16:57] Speaker 1: fire in sacrifices might seem a little bit odd, given
[1:17:00] Speaker 1: that Zoroastrians do use fire in ritual. But likely Herodotus
[1:17:05] Speaker 1: means that they did not use altars separately from a
[1:17:09] Speaker 1: natural setting, nor did they make bloody sacrifices on flaming
[1:17:13] Speaker 1: pyres like the Greeks did. Instead, a magus is required
[1:17:18] Speaker 1: to be present and chant hymns during the sacrifice. Reuters
[1:17:23] Speaker 1: says again, it is not lawful to offer sacrifice unless
[1:17:28] Speaker 1: there is a magus present. It shows the importance of
[1:17:32] Speaker 1: the magi, the hereditary priestly class, who were by then
[1:17:37] Speaker 1: the guardians of the religious rites. They chanted prayers, probably
[1:17:42] Speaker 1: verses of the Avesta or similar during ceremonies. Herodotus makes
[1:17:47] Speaker 1: other fascinating observations, aligning with Zoroastrian norms. He says that
[1:17:52] Speaker 1: the Persians celebrate their birthdays lavishly, and that they value
[1:17:57] Speaker 1: truth above all. He says the most disgraceful thing in
[1:18:02] Speaker 1: the world, they think, is to tell a lie, and
[1:18:06] Speaker 1: that even knowing debt is bad because the debtor is
[1:18:10] Speaker 1: obliged to tell lies. This reverence for truth-telling is exactly
[1:18:15] Speaker 1: what we expect from followers of a religion exalting the truth.
[1:18:20] Speaker 1: He also notes that they do not urinate or wash
[1:18:23] Speaker 1: in rivers to avoid polluting water which they sacredly regarded.
[1:18:29] Speaker 1: And actually, quite intriguingly, he mentions the funerary practice. Persians,
[1:18:35] Speaker 1: or at least the Magi, exposed dead bodies to be
[1:18:37] Speaker 1: torn by birds or dogs before burial. And this is
[1:18:42] Speaker 1: a clear reference to the Zoroastrian practice of sky burial.
[1:18:46] Speaker 1: They believed a dead body is nasu, or unforgiven. and
[1:18:51] Speaker 1: must not taint earth or fire so naturally it's left
[1:18:56] Speaker 1: out to the scavengers a bit of a horrific sight
[1:19:01] Speaker 1: I suppose for modern sensibilities but that's just the way
[1:19:04] Speaker 1: they did it I suppose those who were Out there
[1:19:10] Speaker 1: having their sky burials probably didn't have much to say
[1:19:13] Speaker 1: about it. To add to Herodotus, another geographer, Strabo in
[1:19:18] Speaker 1: the 1st century BC, noted that in Cappadocia, that is Anatolia,
[1:19:23] Speaker 1: where many Persians had settled, there were fire temples called Pyretheia,
[1:19:30] Speaker 1: that is firehouses with altars of eternal flame, and magi
[1:19:35] Speaker 1: tending them. who wore tall hats covering their mouths so
[1:19:39] Speaker 1: as not to pollute the fire with breath. Strabo says
[1:19:42] Speaker 1: that these magi would sing incantations before the fire every day,
[1:19:46] Speaker 1: holding a bundle of sacred twigs. He also observes that
[1:19:51] Speaker 1: Persians made sacrifices by striking the animal instead of cutting,
[1:19:56] Speaker 1: to avoid spilling blood on fire or earth directly, and
[1:20:01] Speaker 1: that whenever Persians wanted to sacrifice to any god, They
[1:20:04] Speaker 1: first prayed to fire. All these accounts paint a pretty
[1:20:10] Speaker 1: consistent picture of Zoroastrianism worship in the Achaemenid period. It
[1:20:14] Speaker 1: is aniconic. It is fire-centered, purity-conscious, truth-oriented. The Greeks, accustomed
[1:20:23] Speaker 1: to their statues and temples, found the Persian approach noteworthy
[1:20:30] Speaker 1: and perhaps in some ways admirably austere. From Darius onward,
[1:20:39] Speaker 1: Achaemenid kings regularly emphasize their relationships with the god Ahura Master.
[1:20:45] Speaker 1: Many royal inscriptions often begin with phrases such as Xerxes
[1:20:50] Speaker 1: the king says by the favor of Ahura Master I
[1:20:53] Speaker 1: built this, or something along the lines of may Ahura
[1:20:56] Speaker 1: Master protect me in my kingdom. For instance, at Persepolis,
[1:21:01] Speaker 1: Xerxes I, that is Darius' son by the way, left
[1:21:05] Speaker 1: inscriptions on his building projects, such as Xerxes the Great
[1:21:10] Speaker 1: King says, What has been built by me here, all
[1:21:14] Speaker 1: that by the favour of Ahura Mazda I built. Me
[1:21:18] Speaker 1: may Ahura Mazda together with the gods protect, and my kingdom. Notice,
[1:21:25] Speaker 1: together with the gods. The Achaemenids acknowledge the other good
[1:21:30] Speaker 1: deities too, like Mithra and Anahita as helpers of Ahura Mazda.
[1:21:35] Speaker 1: reflecting an inclusive henotheism rather than a strict monotheism. A
[1:21:42] Speaker 1: significant religious declaration by Xerxes appears in what scholars call
[1:21:45] Speaker 1: the Daiva inscription. Xerxes recounts that when he became king,
[1:21:51] Speaker 1: there were certain regions in his realm where people formerly
[1:21:55] Speaker 1: worshipped the demons, Daivas. Xerxes claims, Afterwards, by the favour
[1:22:01] Speaker 1: of Ahura Mazda, I destroyed that place of the Daivas.
[1:22:06] Speaker 1: And I proclaimed, the Daivas shall not be worshipped any longer. Now,
[1:22:12] Speaker 1: this is pretty remarkable, don't you think? It sounds like
[1:22:15] Speaker 1: an official act of religious reform, or even suppressions of
[1:22:19] Speaker 1: cults deemed to be demonic. The term Daiva, in Zoroastrian context,
[1:22:26] Speaker 1: refers to the false gods or demons, the very entities
[1:22:29] Speaker 1: that Zoroaster denounced. So, Xerxes is basically saying that he
[1:22:35] Speaker 1: uprooted demon worship somewhere in his empire. We're not entirely
[1:22:41] Speaker 1: sure what the event this corresponds to historically. Some people
[1:22:45] Speaker 1: think it may refer to Xerxes suppressing a rebellion in Babylon,
[1:22:49] Speaker 1: or perhaps quelling unrest in Egypt. But Xerxes framed it
[1:22:53] Speaker 1: in any case on spiritual terms. He portrays himself not
[1:22:58] Speaker 1: just as a king, but as a defender of the
[1:23:01] Speaker 1: true faith. stamping out the worship of false deities in
[1:23:04] Speaker 1: favour of Ahura Mazda. So from this we gather that
[1:23:09] Speaker 1: by the 5th century BCE, Persian kings were confident enough
[1:23:12] Speaker 1: to enforce a sort of centralisation of religious policy, at
[1:23:18] Speaker 1: least in some cases. It was likely pragmatic. Rebellions often
[1:23:23] Speaker 1: coalesced around local temples and priesthoods. But the language used, well,
[1:23:28] Speaker 1: it shows the Zoroastrian mindset. Good things destroy the cult
[1:23:33] Speaker 1: of demons. Yet, we should note that the Achaemenids generally
[1:23:38] Speaker 1: remained tolerant of a myriad of religions within their vast domain.
[1:23:43] Speaker 1: They are known to have patronized or allowed the gods
[1:23:46] Speaker 1: of the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and others. Darius and Xerxes
[1:23:51] Speaker 1: themselves funded the restoration of temples in Egypt for Egyptian gods,
[1:23:55] Speaker 1: for example. How to reconcile that with Zoroastrian beliefs? Well,
[1:24:01] Speaker 1: the likely answer is that Achaemenid policy distinguished between loyalty
[1:24:06] Speaker 1: to the empire and personal beliefs. You see, as long
[1:24:11] Speaker 1: as subject peoples paid tribute and didn't cause any trouble,
[1:24:17] Speaker 1: the kings were content to let them honour their own gods.
[1:24:21] Speaker 1: The empire was simply just too huge and diverse to
[1:24:24] Speaker 1: impose one religion everywhere. It was just not going to work.
[1:24:29] Speaker 1: The kings and their Persian core, however, maintained their devotion
[1:24:34] Speaker 1: to Mazda and the Zoroastrian ethos. It's kind of like
[1:24:38] Speaker 1: the royal family considered Ahura Mazda the universal god, hence
[1:24:43] Speaker 1: their mission to uphold truth everywhere, while recognizing other gods
[1:24:47] Speaker 1: as either local manifestations or perhaps minor beings. One later
[1:24:54] Speaker 1: Kaiminid king took an interesting religious turn, Artaxerxes II, reigning
[1:24:59] Speaker 1: 404-359 BCE, explicitly invoked not only Ahura Mazda, but also
[1:25:06] Speaker 1: Mithra and Anahita in his inscriptions. In fact, Artaxerxes II
[1:25:13] Speaker 1: encouraged the cult of Anahita, the goddess of water's fertility
[1:25:18] Speaker 1: and wisdom, and reportedly had statues of her erected in
[1:25:21] Speaker 1: various cities. And this is curious because earlier Persians, as
[1:25:25] Speaker 1: Herodotus said, shunned idols. Artaxerxes' introduction of statuary for a
[1:25:32] Speaker 1: deity might represent a kind of syncretic shift, possibly under
[1:25:37] Speaker 1: influence from conquered peoples or a loosening of strict iconoclasm.
[1:25:43] Speaker 1: It could also hint at Zurvanism or other sub-sects developing
[1:25:49] Speaker 1: by that time. In any case, the mainstream remained very
[1:25:54] Speaker 1: loyal to Ahura Mazda, Mithra, and Anahita as a divine triad,
[1:26:00] Speaker 1: and Atazerxes II's reign shows how Zoroastrianism was flexible enough
[1:26:04] Speaker 1: to adapt and incorporate new elements, while still maintaining the core. So,
[1:26:14] Speaker 1: during this golden age, as we are going to call it,
[1:26:18] Speaker 1: under the Achaemenids, How might an ordinary Persian experience Zoroastrianism?
[1:26:25] Speaker 1: You see, we talked about kings and inscriptions and all that.
[1:26:28] Speaker 1: It's only natural. That's the sources that we have. But
[1:26:34] Speaker 1: what about daily life and culture? What was that like? Well,
[1:26:40] Speaker 1: we'll do our best, as usual. Every Persian family was
[1:26:44] Speaker 1: expected to tend a household hearth fire, keeping it clean.
[1:26:50] Speaker 1: keeping it alive, a microcosm of the eternal fires. They
[1:26:55] Speaker 1: likely prayed at dawn, noon, and dusk to the rising sun,
[1:27:00] Speaker 1: midday sun, and evening glow, respectively, as later Zoroastrians do,
[1:27:05] Speaker 1: since sunlight was venerated as the pure light of Odor Mazda.
[1:27:10] Speaker 1: Major festivals punctuated that year. One key festival was Nodrus,
[1:27:15] Speaker 1: the new year at the spring equinox, and that's still
[1:27:17] Speaker 1: celebrated in Iran today. Norus in Achaemenid times was probably
[1:27:23] Speaker 1: a grand affair. It coincided with spring and symbolized renewal.
[1:27:29] Speaker 1: The king at Persepolis received visitors and tribute from across
[1:27:32] Speaker 1: the empire around this time, as depicted in the famous
[1:27:36] Speaker 1: Apadana reliefs of tribuned bearers. While the Achaemenid inscriptions don't
[1:27:42] Speaker 1: mention Norus by name, later tradition ascribes its celebration to them.
[1:27:48] Speaker 1: We can imagine on Nowruz that Persians might clean their homes,
[1:27:53] Speaker 1: light lamps, feast, and perhaps the Magi would recite prayers
[1:27:57] Speaker 1: for the year's prosperity, invoking Asha to prevail in the
[1:28:01] Speaker 1: coming year. Another likely observance was Mithra's festival in autumn
[1:28:09] Speaker 1: and winter solstice celebrations, what is now Yalda night in
[1:28:14] Speaker 1: Persian custom, by the way. the reverence of natural cycles,
[1:28:18] Speaker 1: seasonal changes, harvest time, and the sun's cause, well, they
[1:28:22] Speaker 1: all fit the Zoroastrian view of an orderly cosmos. Children
[1:28:27] Speaker 1: will be taught at a young age the importance of truthfulness.
[1:28:31] Speaker 1: There's a famous quote attributed to a Achaemenid era education.
[1:28:36] Speaker 1: Persian boys were, quote, taught to ride. shoot the bow,
[1:28:42] Speaker 1: and speak the truth. Herodotus also mentions this, that the
[1:28:46] Speaker 1: Persians educate their sons from age 5 to 20 in horsemanship, archery,
[1:28:50] Speaker 1: and truth-telling. It reflects the martial society alongside the ethical emphasis.
[1:28:57] Speaker 1: But of course, when Persians died their relatives would also
[1:29:01] Speaker 1: observe the proper rites to avoid polluting the elements. Likely,
[1:29:05] Speaker 1: as Herodotus noted, the corpse would be exposed, perhaps in
[1:29:11] Speaker 1: a secret place or on a mountaintop, until the flesh
[1:29:14] Speaker 1: was gone, and then the bones were collected and entombed.
[1:29:19] Speaker 1: This practice continued into later times, and it's a distinctly
[1:29:24] Speaker 1: Zoroastrian one. But the Achaemenid Golden Age of Zoroastrianism met
[1:29:33] Speaker 1: a violent destruction in the late 4th century BCE, when
[1:29:38] Speaker 1: Alexander of Macedon overthrew the Persian Empire. Zoroastrian tradition remembers
[1:29:46] Speaker 1: Alexander not as great, but as Alexander the Accursed. Why
[1:29:53] Speaker 1: were they so angry? That's a pretty poor review, isn't it?
[1:29:57] Speaker 1: because Alexander's conquest had devastating consequences for the Zoroastrian religion.
[1:30:03] Speaker 1: Macedonian troops looted and burned royal palaces, and most tragically,
[1:30:09] Speaker 1: Persepolis was set aflame, according to some Greek sources, because
[1:30:14] Speaker 1: all the Macedonians had just gotten drunk and lost control
[1:30:18] Speaker 1: of themselves. Later Zoroastrian writings accuse Alexander of burning their
[1:30:24] Speaker 1: sacred texts, and destroying the fire temples. It is said
[1:30:29] Speaker 1: that the original Avesta manuscripts, which were, by legend, Darius
[1:30:34] Speaker 1: had written on cow hides in gold ink and kept
[1:30:37] Speaker 1: in royal archives, lost in those fires. It is no
[1:30:43] Speaker 1: wonder that they do not call him Alexander the Great.
[1:30:49] Speaker 1: While some of these accounts are likely exaggerated or symbolic, i.e.
[1:30:53] Speaker 1: blaming the foreign conqueror for absolutely every loss. Well, there
[1:30:58] Speaker 1: is a bit of truth that the religious infrastructure suffered.
[1:31:03] Speaker 1: Many magi were killed, many temples desecrated, and with the
[1:31:08] Speaker 1: patronage of the Persian kings gone, Zoroastrianism lost its state sponsorship.
[1:31:16] Speaker 1: And the Seleucid Greeks, who followed, and then the Parthian Empire,
[1:31:22] Speaker 1: Another Persian dynasty later reigned in power from 247 BCE,
[1:31:26] Speaker 1: but it was less centralized. The faith survived, but in
[1:31:29] Speaker 1: a less organized form. Local priesthood kept the flame alive
[1:31:35] Speaker 1: in villages, and families or old traditions preserved the hymns
[1:31:40] Speaker 1: and prayers, but there was no single imperial authority enforcing
[1:31:44] Speaker 1: orthodoxy or supporting large temple complexes along the region. Thus,
[1:31:52] Speaker 1: The fall of the Achaemenid Empire marks the end of
[1:31:56] Speaker 1: the First Golden Age. Yet, the religion itself persisted among
[1:32:03] Speaker 1: the people of Iran. For some five centuries after Alexander,
[1:32:08] Speaker 1: Zoroastrianism was practiced, all without an empire, a testament on
[1:32:13] Speaker 1: how deeply rooted it was in Iranian culture. But then,
[1:32:19] Speaker 1: in the 3rd century CE, a new Persian empire arose
[1:32:24] Speaker 1: that not only rivaled the Achaemenids in power, but also
[1:32:28] Speaker 1: actively revived Zoroastrianism and took it to new heights. Enter
[1:32:35] Speaker 1: the Sasanian Empire. All right, so let's talk about the
[1:32:42] Speaker 1: Sasanian Empire. If you're still watching at this point, how
[1:32:45] Speaker 1: about you click that subscribe button and the like button,
[1:32:48] Speaker 1: it helps me in the algorithm. Now with the begging
[1:32:51] Speaker 1: out of the way, After centuries of Hellenistic and Parthian rule,
[1:32:56] Speaker 1: Iran was reunited by a dynasty that deliberately sought to
[1:33:00] Speaker 1: restore the glory of ancient Persia. The Sasanian Empire, 224-651 CE,
[1:33:09] Speaker 1: was founded by the ardent Zoroastrians that made their faith
[1:33:14] Speaker 1: a core pillar of statecraft. If one were to name
[1:33:18] Speaker 1: a true golden age of Zoroastrianism, Well, the Sasanian era
[1:33:24] Speaker 1: is probably it. You see, it's a little different from before.
[1:33:29] Speaker 1: Here we see a formalization of the religion, the compilation
[1:33:33] Speaker 1: of sacred texts, a powerful clergy influencing the government, and
[1:33:38] Speaker 1: the faith's expansion and defense amid a changing world of
[1:33:42] Speaker 1: the new religions. Think of Manichaeism, Christianity. All these challenged
[1:33:50] Speaker 1: its supremacy in Persia. So let's dive into this epic
[1:33:54] Speaker 1: with stories of visionary kings and formidable priests of reforms
[1:33:58] Speaker 1: and also religious zeal that sometimes turned persecution of dissent.
[1:34:05] Speaker 1: This was an age where the sacred fire burned brighter
[1:34:08] Speaker 1: than ever in the royal courts, when the priests wore
[1:34:12] Speaker 1: badges of office and wielded sceptres of sacred wood, and
[1:34:17] Speaker 1: when the Zoroastrian worldview influenced everything from the justice system
[1:34:23] Speaker 1: even to the calendar. The story begins with Ardashir I,
[1:34:30] Speaker 1: the founder of the Sasanian dynasty, ranging from 224 to 241.
[1:34:35] Speaker 1: Ardashir was, notably, the son, or perhaps the grandson, of
[1:34:40] Speaker 1: a Zoroastrian high priest named Sasan. In fact, the name
[1:34:44] Speaker 1: Sasanian comes from Sasan. Legend has it that Sasan was
[1:34:49] Speaker 1: the custodian of a fire temple in the province of Persis, Fars,
[1:34:55] Speaker 1: and Ardashir inherited both royal ambition and devout faith from
[1:34:59] Speaker 1: his lineage. Under the last Parthian king, Artabanus IV, Ardashir
[1:35:06] Speaker 1: was a feudal lord who rose in rebellion. He systematically
[1:35:11] Speaker 1: conquered neighboring regions of Iran. rallying not just his warriors,
[1:35:16] Speaker 1: but also Magi and Zealots, who were eager to throw
[1:35:19] Speaker 1: off what they saw as the impious rule of the Parthians. Now, remember,
[1:35:25] Speaker 1: the Parthians, though they were Iranian, were, let's say, they
[1:35:29] Speaker 1: were relatively lax in religious manners, and they were more
[1:35:35] Speaker 1: on the Greek side of things. In 224, Ardashir defeated
[1:35:42] Speaker 1: Artabanus in the Battle of Hormozdgan, and declared himself the Shahanshah,
[1:35:48] Speaker 1: the King of Kings. And then, the Persian Empire was
[1:35:54] Speaker 1: effectively restored, in a true Persian sense. But what is
[1:35:59] Speaker 1: fascinating is how Ardashir immediately set about reviving the old
[1:36:03] Speaker 1: ways as the ideological backbone of his new empire. He
[1:36:08] Speaker 1: is said to have received the Divine Far, that royal glory,
[1:36:15] Speaker 1: in Zoroastrian concept, and justified his rebellion by claiming the
[1:36:20] Speaker 1: support of a Hura master. Think about how in Chinese
[1:36:23] Speaker 1: tradition you have the mandate of heaven. Kind of like that.
[1:36:28] Speaker 1: A Middle Persian document known as the Letter of Tansar,
[1:36:32] Speaker 1: Tansar being a chief priest who supported Ardashir, provides a
[1:36:35] Speaker 1: little insight into this. In this letter, addressed to a
[1:36:39] Speaker 1: local ruler, the priest Tansar explains and justifies Ardashir's reforms.
[1:36:45] Speaker 1: unifying the faith, codifying laws, and purifying the Zoroastrian practice.
[1:36:52] Speaker 1: Although compiled later, it likely echoes the real policies Ardashir undertook.
[1:36:57] Speaker 1: He centralized the Zoroastrian church, elevated a single mobadan mobed,
[1:37:04] Speaker 1: that is, the chief priest, and worked together the scattered
[1:37:08] Speaker 1: holy texts. Ardashir's efforts are confirmed by later histories, too.
[1:37:14] Speaker 1: He made Zoroastrianism the state religion, and he and his priest, Tansar,
[1:37:20] Speaker 1: accredited with collecting the holy texts and finally establishing a
[1:37:25] Speaker 1: unified doctrine. So imagine the scene at Ardashir's court in Tessiphon,
[1:37:31] Speaker 1: the new capital on the Tigris River. Ardashir invites herbads
[1:37:35] Speaker 1: and dastuls as scholarly priests from all provinces, with great
[1:37:41] Speaker 1: ceremony perhaps in a grand fire temple. They recite from
[1:37:45] Speaker 1: memory the ancient prayers and hymns. Scribes, using a newly
[1:37:49] Speaker 1: developed Avistan alphabet, derived from the Aramaic characters, write down
[1:37:55] Speaker 1: these verses for the first time. Now that would have
[1:37:59] Speaker 1: been an enormous undertaking, turning an entirely oral tradition into
[1:38:04] Speaker 1: written scripture. According to tradition, it wasn't fully completed until
[1:38:09] Speaker 1: a later king's reign, but Ardashir began the process. By
[1:38:14] Speaker 1: fixing the canon of the Avesta, the Sasanians ensured the
[1:38:19] Speaker 1: preservation of Zoroaster's teachings beyond the variability of oral transmission. Indeed,
[1:38:26] Speaker 1: many of these texts are written in what we have
[1:38:29] Speaker 1: today as the Zend Avesta. Ardashir's reign set the tone,
[1:38:35] Speaker 1: that's for sure. Zoroastrian clergy gained prestige and state support,
[1:38:41] Speaker 1: unprecedented since Darius's time. One anecdote indicates that Ardashir's close
[1:38:46] Speaker 1: relationship with the faith At his investiture, he is depicted
[1:38:51] Speaker 1: in a rock relief, receiving the royal diadem from Ohura
[1:38:55] Speaker 1: Mazda himself, who mirrors the king's stance. In this relief,
[1:39:01] Speaker 1: Arashia's predecessor lies trampled under the king's horse, and the
[1:39:06] Speaker 1: evil spirit Ariman lies trampled under Ohura Mazda's horse. That
[1:39:12] Speaker 1: sounds pretty cool, huh? It is a powerful visual metaphor.
[1:39:16] Speaker 1: that Ardashir's victory over the Parthians was like a victory
[1:39:21] Speaker 1: over Angremenu, casting the former regime as aligned with darkness,
[1:39:28] Speaker 1: and the new aligned with Ahura Mazda. And so, to
[1:39:32] Speaker 1: consolidate his empire, Ardashir was not general to dissenters. Some
[1:39:37] Speaker 1: sources say he was less tolerant than the Achaemenids had been.
[1:39:40] Speaker 1: At first, non-Zoroastrians, like certain Manichean sects or Hindu minorities
[1:39:47] Speaker 1: faced restrictions. Yet perhaps recalling the old imperial wisdom, Ardashir's son,
[1:39:54] Speaker 1: Shapur I, would relax this, adopting a more stance of inclusion.
[1:40:02] Speaker 1: In any case, by Ardashir's death in 241, Zoroastrianism had
[1:40:08] Speaker 1: become deeply embedded in the imperial structure. from coinage, where
[1:40:13] Speaker 1: kings now commonly had a fire altar depicted, and titles
[1:40:17] Speaker 1: like Mazda worshipper, all the way to administration. The religion
[1:40:23] Speaker 1: was not just a personal matter, it was a matter
[1:40:27] Speaker 1: of state. Shapur I, reigning 241 to 272, inherited a
[1:40:36] Speaker 1: strong empire and took it to new heights, not just militarily,
[1:40:42] Speaker 1: but culturally. He is famous for his conflicts with the
[1:40:45] Speaker 1: Roman Empire, defeating three Roman emperors, and he even managed
[1:40:49] Speaker 1: to capture one alive, that being Valerian, which was an
[1:40:54] Speaker 1: unprecedented humiliation for Rome. On his triumphal inscription at Nazca-e-Rustam,
[1:41:01] Speaker 1: Shapur calls himself Mazda-worshipping, divine Shapur, king of kings of
[1:41:06] Speaker 1: Iran and non-Iran of divine lineage. proudly affirming Ahura Mazda's faith.
[1:41:13] Speaker 1: He also refers to his father as the Mazda-worshipping divinity Ardashir,
[1:41:20] Speaker 1: indicating that Ardashir was deified upon death. Under Shapur I,
[1:41:26] Speaker 1: the Zoroastrian clergy's influence grew further, and no one man
[1:41:30] Speaker 1: exemplifies this more than Kartir, a Magus who rose to
[1:41:35] Speaker 1: become the Empire's chief priest. In fact, Katir's own inscriptions survive,
[1:41:41] Speaker 1: and they're pretty damn good. He served not only Shapur I,
[1:41:46] Speaker 1: but also Shapur's successors for several decades, accumulating titles and powers.
[1:41:52] Speaker 1: Katir recounts how Shapur established many fire altars, called Atash
[1:41:58] Speaker 1: Bahram Fires, by the way, across the empire and made
[1:42:01] Speaker 1: the Magi prosperous. As Katir's authority increased, especially under King
[1:42:07] Speaker 1: Baran II, he took on the role of a virtual
[1:42:11] Speaker 1: Grand Inquisitor of the Faith. In his inscription on the
[1:42:17] Speaker 1: Kabaye Zartosht, a cube-shaped stone structure at Naqsh-es-Ritam, Khatir declares,
[1:42:26] Speaker 1: a made prominent and revered Mazda Yasnian religion, excuse me,
[1:42:34] Speaker 1: And the heretical and ill-prepared persons who did not follow
[1:42:38] Speaker 1: a proper ordinance of the religion, I punished them with
[1:42:40] Speaker 1: corporal punishment and rebuked them. Many who had become unfaithful,
[1:42:46] Speaker 1: I made faithful again. There were many who followed the
[1:42:49] Speaker 1: doctrines of the demons. By my effort they abandoned those
[1:42:53] Speaker 1: doctrines and accepted the teachings of the gods. These words
[1:42:59] Speaker 1: give us a pretty vivid picture. Cotillot is basically boasting
[1:43:02] Speaker 1: about quashing the heretics and deviant cults, forcing people back
[1:43:07] Speaker 1: to orthodoxy, now that there was an orthodoxy to be
[1:43:10] Speaker 1: forced back to. And the term heretical men possibly refers
[1:43:16] Speaker 1: to the Manichaeans or other sects, labelled doctrines of the Davers,
[1:43:22] Speaker 1: for any religion not aligned with master worship. Katyr even
[1:43:26] Speaker 1: claims to have established many new fire temples and instituted
[1:43:30] Speaker 1: proper religious services and festivals throughout the empire One specific
[1:43:35] Speaker 1: target of Zoroastrian ire was the prophet Mani, who during
[1:43:39] Speaker 1: Shapur's first reign founded a new syncretic religion, of course
[1:43:44] Speaker 1: Manichaeism drawing from Christianity, Buddhism and Zoroastrian ideas. Shapur, being
[1:43:50] Speaker 1: relatively tolerant and interested in new ideas, had permitted Mani
[1:43:54] Speaker 1: to preach for a while. They even invited him to
[1:43:57] Speaker 1: the court for a debate. However, after Shapur's death, Mani
[1:44:04] Speaker 1: had lost his protector, and Baram I, with Katia's urging,
[1:44:09] Speaker 1: Mani was arrested and brutally executed. In fact, some say
[1:44:15] Speaker 1: that he was flayed alive and his skin stuffed with straw.
[1:44:21] Speaker 1: Manichaeans were labelled heretics, and persecution of them continued. Katia
[1:44:27] Speaker 1: doesn't mention Mani by name in his inscription, possibly because
[1:44:31] Speaker 1: Mani's execution was widely known. but he does take credit
[1:44:34] Speaker 1: for purifying the land of false teachings. Cartier's extraordinary influence
[1:44:39] Speaker 1: indicates a church-state fusion. He was given governmental powers, judge
[1:44:45] Speaker 1: of the empire, master of ceremonies, things like this. And
[1:44:49] Speaker 1: he even had honorific titles, like Cartier, soul-saver of King Bahram.
[1:44:57] Speaker 1: Never before had a priest in Iran wielded such temporal
[1:45:00] Speaker 1: authority before. This was indeed a golden age for the
[1:45:06] Speaker 1: magi caste. The status was only second to the king.
[1:45:11] Speaker 1: Zoroastrian doctrine was enforced as law in many respects. One
[1:45:17] Speaker 1: example being Katya mentioning that he promoted many kin marriages.
[1:45:23] Speaker 1: This refers to the Zoroastrian practice of next-of-kin marriages. He
[1:45:28] Speaker 1: is effectively saying that that he encouraged the faithful to
[1:45:31] Speaker 1: follow even controversial practices strictly, demonstrating zeal for every aspect
[1:45:37] Speaker 1: of the tradition. However, not all Sasanian rulers were as
[1:45:43] Speaker 1: intolerant as Cartier. Shapur himself had a pretty open mind.
[1:45:48] Speaker 1: He even allowed a Greek philosophy school to flourish on
[1:45:52] Speaker 1: Gon de Shapur, and didn't force any conversions at all.
[1:45:58] Speaker 1: After Khatir's heyday, there was a bit of pullback from theocracy.
[1:46:02] Speaker 1: In the late third century, there was even a movement
[1:46:05] Speaker 1: or sect within Zoroastrianism known as Zurvanism, which viewed time, Zurvan,
[1:46:12] Speaker 1: as the primordial god who gave birth to Ahura Mazda
[1:46:16] Speaker 1: and Ahriman. While the orthodox magi, of course, frowned on
[1:46:21] Speaker 1: the Zurvanite doctrine, It showed that there was theological diversity
[1:46:25] Speaker 1: and debate during this golden age. So the everyday practice
[1:46:34] Speaker 1: of Zoroastrianism under the Sasanians began to become more standardized.
[1:46:41] Speaker 1: Fire temples, known as Atashkade, were established in urban centers
[1:46:46] Speaker 1: and holy sites. Three great fires acquired legendary status as
[1:46:51] Speaker 1: the highest great fires in the empire— each associated with
[1:46:55] Speaker 1: one of three classes of society. The first is Anu-Adur-Farmbagh,
[1:47:00] Speaker 1: the fire of the priests, reportedly located in Paris, that is,
[1:47:04] Speaker 1: Persia proper. We have Adur-Gushnasp, the fire of the warriors,
[1:47:10] Speaker 1: located in Kazaka, in Media, modern-day Azerbaijan. The fire was
[1:47:15] Speaker 1: highly esteemed by Sasanian monarchs, who were of the warrior class,
[1:47:20] Speaker 1: by the way. It would visit there for its blessings
[1:47:22] Speaker 1: and was said to symbolize the empire's military glory. In fact,
[1:47:27] Speaker 1: legends say that Adur-Gushnasp had burned since the dawn of
[1:47:31] Speaker 1: time and that miraculous healings were associated with it. And
[1:47:36] Speaker 1: then there is Adur-Burzen-Mir, the fire at the farmers or
[1:47:40] Speaker 1: the common folk in Parthia, northeast Iran. Pilgrimage to these
[1:47:46] Speaker 1: great fires was part of a royal ritual. For example,
[1:47:49] Speaker 1: it's recounted that kings would go to Adul-Gushnasb after coronations
[1:47:54] Speaker 1: or victories to give thanks. There is one story, perhaps
[1:47:58] Speaker 1: apocryphal but worth telling, of the final Sasanian emperor, Yastigar
[1:48:04] Speaker 1: III's father, visiting Adul-Gushnasb and going on foot out of
[1:48:09] Speaker 1: reverence as he approached the sanctuary. Even if legendary, it
[1:48:14] Speaker 1: shows a bit of reverence accorded to these holy sites.
[1:48:18] Speaker 1: Zoroastrian priests in this area. era were organized in a hierarchy.
[1:48:22] Speaker 1: At the top was the mobedan mobed, chief of chiefs
[1:48:27] Speaker 1: of the magi, kind of like an archbishop. Below him
[1:48:32] Speaker 1: were the mobeds, district priests, herbads, learned priests and teachers,
[1:48:39] Speaker 1: and magi serving at local temples. They maintained the fire
[1:48:43] Speaker 1: rituals meticulously, tending the flame day and night, feeding it
[1:48:48] Speaker 1: with dry wood and frankincense, straining the air as they
[1:48:53] Speaker 1: breathed through a cloth to keep impurities out, and reciting
[1:48:57] Speaker 1: the avistan prayers for hours a day. The liturgy for
[1:49:02] Speaker 1: each day, month and year was defined, yasna, sacrificial liturgy
[1:49:08] Speaker 1: in temples, and seasonal Gahambar festivals to mark the creation's
[1:49:13] Speaker 1: six stages throughout the year. The reason why for this
[1:49:16] Speaker 1: is Zoroastrians believed the world was created in six steps,
[1:49:20] Speaker 1: each celebrated a seasonal festival. Kings participated in these festivals
[1:49:25] Speaker 1: as pious Zoroastrians. Sasanian law was heavily influenced by religious doctrine.
[1:49:33] Speaker 1: The courts often deferred to the dastur, religious jurists. on
[1:49:38] Speaker 1: matters of family law, purity laws, and even criminal punishment.
[1:49:43] Speaker 1: Sin and crime were somewhat blurred. A serious sin, like
[1:49:49] Speaker 1: consorting with demons by practising sorcery, while that was also
[1:49:53] Speaker 1: a state crime, it was somewhat frowned upon. The Zoroastrian
[1:49:59] Speaker 1: emphasis on cleansing of sin found legal form in fines
[1:50:03] Speaker 1: and penances. Texts like the Vendidad a section of the Avesta,
[1:50:10] Speaker 1: enumerate purification rituals and penalties for various offences. These were
[1:50:15] Speaker 1: consulted in Sasanian jurisprudence. If somebody killed an otter, considered
[1:50:20] Speaker 1: a sacred animal in Zoroastrianism, by the way, as it
[1:50:23] Speaker 1: was thought to fight evil creatures in the water, the
[1:50:27] Speaker 1: Vendidad says it's a grievous sin. And if a person's
[1:50:32] Speaker 1: dog died due to their neglect, heavy penance would do,
[1:50:37] Speaker 1: Dogs were sacred animals, too. The Sasanian court, guided by priests,
[1:50:44] Speaker 1: would enforce such codes, which to an outsider might seem unusual,
[1:50:48] Speaker 1: especially at the time. But to a Zoroastrian, they were
[1:50:52] Speaker 1: essential to maintaining the cosmic and social order. Culturally, the
[1:50:57] Speaker 1: Zoroastrian worldview permeated literature and education. Literature and education, rather.
[1:51:03] Speaker 1: Why did I say it like that? The Sasanian period
[1:51:07] Speaker 1: saw the gathering of ancient legends and epic tales of
[1:51:10] Speaker 1: kings and heroes, many of which carried Zoroastrian moral themes
[1:51:15] Speaker 1: into what was later compiled the Book of Lords, and
[1:51:20] Speaker 1: ultimately distilled in the great epic Shahnameh many centuries later.
[1:51:27] Speaker 1: These stories, like those of Rostam or of the early
[1:51:31] Speaker 1: mythical kings, often illustrate the triumphs of Asha over the Druj,
[1:51:36] Speaker 1: feature wise sages, often depicted as magi, guiding kings on
[1:51:41] Speaker 1: all sorts of matters. One charming anecdote from the Sasanian
[1:51:45] Speaker 1: period involves King Shapur II in his youth. Now, the
[1:51:50] Speaker 1: story goes that Shapur was actually crowned in utero, as
[1:51:55] Speaker 1: in his father died while his mother was pregnant, so
[1:51:59] Speaker 1: they symbolically crowned the unborn child to thwart court intrigues.
[1:52:05] Speaker 1: But later as a boy, Shapur was educated by magi.
[1:52:09] Speaker 1: He became devout and earned the nickname Dul Akhtaf, he
[1:52:14] Speaker 1: who pierces shoulders. Because of his zeal, he unpunished unruly
[1:52:20] Speaker 1: Arab nomads by pinning their shoulders, a harsh measure attributed
[1:52:25] Speaker 1: to his strictness in defending Iran and its faith. While
[1:52:30] Speaker 1: this anecdote might be coloured by later legend, it's suggested
[1:52:34] Speaker 1: by the 4th century that Persian kings were expected to
[1:52:37] Speaker 1: be guardians of not just the realm, but the religion,
[1:52:41] Speaker 1: even from childhood. However, the Sasanian Golden Age was not
[1:52:46] Speaker 1: without its challenges. New rivals in faith emerged, Christianity spread
[1:52:52] Speaker 1: in the western provinces, and many Persians became Christians, which
[1:52:57] Speaker 1: put them in a delicate position. Whenever Persia fought with
[1:53:00] Speaker 1: the Christian Roman or Byzantine Empire, Some Sasanian kings, like
[1:53:05] Speaker 1: Yazdegerd I, initially showed tolerance or even friendliness towards Christians,
[1:53:11] Speaker 1: ending in the scorn of Magi, who dubbed him Yazdegerd
[1:53:15] Speaker 1: the Sinful for favouring non-Zoroastrians. Later, when the Roman Emperor
[1:53:21] Speaker 1: Constantine declared himself a protector of Christians in Persia, Shapur
[1:53:26] Speaker 1: II reacted by increasing pressure on Persian Christians, fearing they'd
[1:53:31] Speaker 1: be a fifth column for Rome. This led to episodes
[1:53:35] Speaker 1: of persecution of Christians. Many Persian Christian martyrs date to
[1:53:40] Speaker 1: Shapur II's time. Have a read through Fox's Book of Martyrs.
[1:53:45] Speaker 1: He talks a bit about that. Interesting piece of work.
[1:53:50] Speaker 1: So while Zoroastrianism was supreme, it had to jostle with
[1:53:54] Speaker 1: these growing minorities. Unlike under the Achaemenids, now Zoroastrianism had
[1:53:59] Speaker 1: a formalized clergy and scripture system. making it perhaps less
[1:54:03] Speaker 1: pluralistic in attitude. The magi often demanded conformity, but the
[1:54:10] Speaker 1: kings had to balance that with the practical reality of
[1:54:14] Speaker 1: how diverse their subjects were. Too much conformity. You might
[1:54:20] Speaker 1: have a rebellion on your hands. One such balancing act
[1:54:23] Speaker 1: actually occurred under Khosrow I in 531-579 BC, Now that
[1:54:29] Speaker 1: is Khosrow I Anushirvan, often regarded as the epitome of
[1:54:35] Speaker 1: a philosopher king in Iran. Khosrow's reign is sometimes called
[1:54:39] Speaker 1: the second golden age of Sasanian culture. He reformed the bureaucracy,
[1:54:44] Speaker 1: promoted scholarship, even welcoming Greek philosophers fleeing Justinian's Christianization of
[1:54:50] Speaker 1: the Eastern Roman Empire, and patronized translations of texts from Greek,
[1:54:56] Speaker 1: Sanskrit and Syriac into Middle Persian. He is said to
[1:55:00] Speaker 1: have completed the writing down of the Avesta and its
[1:55:03] Speaker 1: extensive Zand commentaries, ensuring that the canon was securely preserved.
[1:55:11] Speaker 1: Khosrow was an orthodox Zoroastrian, but he also enjoyed learned debates.
[1:55:17] Speaker 1: Under him the academy of Gundishapur flourished, blending Greek, Persian
[1:55:21] Speaker 1: and Indian knowledge. Ah, I ought to be in a
[1:55:25] Speaker 1: place like that. One can only imagine it. One famous
[1:55:30] Speaker 1: anecdote about Cosro combines his devotion and ruthlessness. The story
[1:55:35] Speaker 1: of Mazdak. So who was Mazdak? He was a reformer,
[1:55:41] Speaker 1: a preacher, in the late 5th century, and Cosro's father, Kavad,
[1:55:47] Speaker 1: who taught a radical social creed of communal wealth and
[1:55:50] Speaker 1: even communal marriages, almost like a proto-communist vision grounded in
[1:55:55] Speaker 1: a mix of Zoroastrianism and perhaps even Manichean ideas. Mazdak
[1:56:01] Speaker 1: argued that eliminating greed and inequality by sharing property and
[1:56:05] Speaker 1: even spouses would eliminate violence, thus helping the cause of
[1:56:09] Speaker 1: good in the cosmic struggle. Now initially that won King
[1:56:14] Speaker 1: Kabat's support as a way to curb the aristocracy, but
[1:56:21] Speaker 1: of course the aristocracy itself and the Magi were frankly
[1:56:25] Speaker 1: horrified by this idea. When Khosrow I took power, he
[1:56:29] Speaker 1: sided with the Orthodox establishment against the Mazdakites. According to legend,
[1:56:35] Speaker 1: Khosrow invited Mazdak and his followers to a garden where
[1:56:39] Speaker 1: he had pits dug and the men were buried alive
[1:56:42] Speaker 1: upside down with only their legs sticking out before executing
[1:56:47] Speaker 1: Mazdak as well. That's a pretty grisly tale. While perhaps embellished,
[1:56:53] Speaker 1: it symbols how the Sasanians quashed deviations that threatened the
[1:56:57] Speaker 1: social order. Khosrow thereafter reasserted traditional Zoroastrian values and social norms,
[1:57:05] Speaker 1: earning him the epithet Anushirvan the Just. Under Khosrow I,
[1:57:14] Speaker 1: and briefly his grandson Khosrow II in the early 7th century,
[1:57:18] Speaker 1: the Sasanian Empire reached a zenith in territory, prosperity and
[1:57:23] Speaker 1: cultural output. Zoroastrian symbolism was everywhere. The royal crown bore
[1:57:30] Speaker 1: a winged crescent, possibly representing the Fra Vahar or divine glory.
[1:57:37] Speaker 1: Coins showed the ever-burning fire flanked by attendants, and rock
[1:57:41] Speaker 1: relief showed kings receiving investiture from Ahura Mazda or attending
[1:57:46] Speaker 1: fire altars. The sense that king and priest were twin
[1:57:51] Speaker 1: pillars of society was never before stronger than this. One
[1:57:57] Speaker 1: might even say their relationship was the king protects the
[1:58:01] Speaker 1: faith and the priest preserves the king's soul. But of course,
[1:58:09] Speaker 1: when you climb to the top, of the mountain, the
[1:58:12] Speaker 1: only way to go is down. By the 7th century,
[1:58:17] Speaker 1: storm clouds had gathered. The long wars with the Eastern
[1:58:21] Speaker 1: Roman Empire weakened both great powers. Meanwhile, in Arabia, a
[1:58:28] Speaker 1: new faith was born. Islam and the Arab tribes unified
[1:58:34] Speaker 1: by fervour swept out in conquest. The fall of the
[1:58:38] Speaker 1: Sasanian Empire to the Arab Muslim armies in the 630s
[1:58:42] Speaker 1: to 50s was swift and dramatic. The last emperor, Yazdegerd III,
[1:58:50] Speaker 1: was unable to rally a fractured nobility. He became a
[1:58:54] Speaker 1: fugitive and was killed in 651, marking the end of
[1:59:01] Speaker 1: 400 years of Sasanian rule. How did it all happen?
[1:59:08] Speaker 1: It couldn't have been that easy, right? Well, in the
[1:59:13] Speaker 1: next part of the video, we're going to discuss the
[1:59:16] Speaker 1: fall of Zoroastrianism, and the fall of those empires in
[1:59:21] Speaker 1: which it flourished. Well, for Zoroastrianism, this whole event was
[1:59:29] Speaker 1: even greater than the upheaval of Alexander's conquest. For Islamic
[1:59:33] Speaker 1: rulers over the next century gradually supplanted Zoroastrian institutions. Fire
[1:59:38] Speaker 1: temples were extinguished or converted into mosques. The Magi lost
[1:59:43] Speaker 1: their state support. Many had to flee or go into hiding,
[1:59:47] Speaker 1: or worse. Over time, the majority of Persians adopted Islam,
[1:59:54] Speaker 1: and Zoroastrianism dwindled into a minority faith Some communities persisted
[2:00:00] Speaker 1: in Iran, especially in the Yazd and Kerman region, and
[2:00:05] Speaker 1: many emigrated to India, forming the Parsi community. The once
[2:00:10] Speaker 1: grand libraries of Avistan literature were largely lost, and only
[2:00:16] Speaker 1: a fraction of texts survived in the priestly memory to
[2:00:20] Speaker 1: be written down later. Thus, the end of the Sasanian
[2:00:24] Speaker 1: Golden Age marks the sunset. of Zoroastrian dominance in its homeland.
[2:00:31] Speaker 1: But that is something that we'll talk about next time,
[2:00:35] Speaker 1: because there is certainly a lot to talk about with it.
[2:00:39] Speaker 1: For today, as we extinguish our imaginative duo, we'll conclude
[2:00:45] Speaker 1: by emphasizing a few thoughts. The lessons we've learned, the
[2:00:50] Speaker 1: melding of spiritual values with governance, can certainly elevate a civilization,
[2:00:56] Speaker 1: but It requires wisdom and balance, and if that balance
[2:01:00] Speaker 1: goes out of, well, you know what happened. The story
[2:01:05] Speaker 1: of Zoroastrianism's golden ages is thus both an inspiration, seeing
[2:01:10] Speaker 1: how a powerful moral vision can shape history, and a
[2:01:13] Speaker 1: poignant reminder of the ebb and flow of human fortunes.
[2:01:17] Speaker 1: The flame that once lit those halls of Persepolis, Persepolis rather,
[2:01:21] Speaker 1: and Cessiphon, now burns quietly in small temples. but its
[2:01:26] Speaker 1: light has not lost a history. It shines in the
[2:01:30] Speaker 1: ideals of truth and righteousness that remain very much a
[2:01:33] Speaker 1: part of our shared human heritage, and I certainly hope
[2:01:38] Speaker 1: they will remain to do so. So as a brief refresher,
[2:01:45] Speaker 1: without retreading old ground, let's just have a quick reminder
[2:01:49] Speaker 1: about Zoroastrianism at its zenith. To understand the fall, we
[2:01:54] Speaker 1: must recall how things were. So from the 3rd to
[2:01:59] Speaker 1: the 7th century CE, under the Sasanian Empire, Zoroastrianism reigned
[2:02:05] Speaker 1: as the imperial religion across Iran and its sphere. The
[2:02:10] Speaker 1: Sasanian kings called themselves Mazato Worshipping Majesty and closely allied
[2:02:16] Speaker 1: with the Zoroastrian priesthood. Holy fires burned in grand temples,
[2:02:22] Speaker 1: supported by the state, and one such temple, the Adur-Gushnasp,
[2:02:28] Speaker 1: reportedly blazed for centuries, a symbol of Persia's eternal glory.
[2:02:35] Speaker 1: The high priest Kartir, a prominent third-century cleric, left inscriptions
[2:02:40] Speaker 1: boasting of expanding the good religion's influence and suppressing rival creeds.
[2:02:47] Speaker 1: By the early 600s, Zoroastrianism was deeply entrenched, not only
[2:02:52] Speaker 1: in Persia proper, but also in Central Asia, Sogdia, Bactria,
[2:02:59] Speaker 1: and even in communities along the Silk Road. The faith's
[2:03:03] Speaker 1: presence extended into Armenia and the Caucasus, and the Zoroastrian
[2:03:08] Speaker 1: diaspora had reached as far as Arabia, and perhaps India
[2:03:13] Speaker 1: through traders. Yet this prominence masked vulnerabilities. The Sasanian Empire
[2:03:22] Speaker 1: was in a state of complete exhaustion after decades of
[2:03:25] Speaker 1: war with Byzantium, that being the Western Roman Empire, and
[2:03:30] Speaker 1: internally things weren't much better. Some subjects resented the strict
[2:03:35] Speaker 1: religious hierarchy. In the mid-seventh century, the new political force,
[2:03:43] Speaker 1: the Arab armies of Islam, burst onto the scene, and
[2:03:48] Speaker 1: as we shall see, the confrontation between Zoroastrian Persia and
[2:03:53] Speaker 1: the nascent Islam would prove to be a turning point.
[2:03:58] Speaker 1: But it is crucial to note that not all Zoroastrianism
[2:04:04] Speaker 1: simply vanished overnight with a single battle, nor has it
[2:04:08] Speaker 1: vanished completely from the world. There's plenty of them still left.
[2:04:12] Speaker 1: But the decline was a gradual process, with several stages
[2:04:18] Speaker 1: and regional variations And with that in mind, and being
[2:04:23] Speaker 1: somewhat refreshed on the situation, let us now begin the
[2:04:28] Speaker 1: decline of Zoroastrianism. The Final War The Last Stand of
[2:04:38] Speaker 1: Sasanian Persia In the year 636, on the dusty plains
[2:04:46] Speaker 1: in Mesopotamia of Al-Qadisiyah, The Persian and Arab forces clashed
[2:04:52] Speaker 1: in a battle that many chroniclers mark as the beginning
[2:04:55] Speaker 1: of the end. According to Muslim historian Al-Tabari, ill omens
[2:05:02] Speaker 1: abounded for the Persians. The legendary banner of Persia, the Derafsh-e-Kavian,
[2:05:09] Speaker 1: was said to be captured, and the elephant corpse panicked.
[2:05:15] Speaker 1: The Persian general Rustam fell ill. and the road to
[2:05:18] Speaker 1: the imperial capital lay completely open. A few years later,
[2:05:24] Speaker 1: in 642, the decisive battle of Nahavand in Media sealed
[2:05:30] Speaker 1: Persia's fate. Arab and Sasanian armies met in what Persians
[2:05:35] Speaker 1: later remembered as a catastrophe. A summary describes Nahavand as
[2:05:41] Speaker 1: a major turning point in Iranian history. The Sasanian army
[2:05:46] Speaker 1: was lured out of a fortified position and massacred in
[2:05:51] Speaker 1: a mountain defile. Later Islamic sources dubbed the victory Fath al-Futuh,
[2:05:58] Speaker 1: the victory of victories, because never again would the Zoroastrian
[2:06:04] Speaker 1: Persians field an imperial army capable of resisting the Muslim caliphate.
[2:06:13] Speaker 1: After Nahaband, the young Sasanian emperor, Yazdegerd III, became a fugitive,
[2:06:19] Speaker 1: desperately trying to salvage what was left of his empire.
[2:06:23] Speaker 1: As Arab columns advanced, Yazdegerd fled east, from province to province,
[2:06:30] Speaker 1: from Kirman to Isfahan to Sistan, and onward to Merv
[2:06:35] Speaker 1: in Central Asia. One Zoroastrian tradition, holds that priests carry
[2:06:41] Speaker 1: the embers of sacred fires alongside the fleeing courtiers, determined
[2:06:46] Speaker 1: to keep the flame of faith alive, even in flight.
[2:06:52] Speaker 1: Yazdegerd sought aid from distant allies. He appealed to the
[2:06:56] Speaker 1: Turkic Khans and the Chinese court of the Tang dynasty.
[2:07:02] Speaker 1: Chinese chroniclers do record envoys from the last Persian shah
[2:07:06] Speaker 1: seeking refuge, but tangible help never arrived in time. In
[2:07:14] Speaker 1: 651 CE, according to multiple Islamic chronicles, Yazdegerd met a
[2:07:20] Speaker 1: prosaic and tragic end. He was murdered at a mill
[2:07:25] Speaker 1: in Merv, betrayed by a local miller for the king's
[2:07:30] Speaker 1: purse and clothes. Al-Tabari relates that the accursed miller presented
[2:07:36] Speaker 1: the slain monarch's signet ring to Arab authorities only to
[2:07:41] Speaker 1: be executed himself for regicide, a grim irony to the tale.
[2:07:48] Speaker 1: With Yazdegerd's death, the 2,500-year-old tradition of Iranian kingship was extinguished,
[2:07:56] Speaker 1: and with it the Zoroastrian temple. lost its patronage. As
[2:08:04] Speaker 1: one modern historian succinctly puts it, with the death of
[2:08:08] Speaker 1: Yazdegerd III, the Zoroastrian faith, which had been the state
[2:08:13] Speaker 1: of religion for more than a thousand years, was deposed.
[2:08:18] Speaker 1: Islam took its place as the national religion of Persia.
[2:08:22] Speaker 1: And thus, the first step down into the basement of history.
[2:08:32] Speaker 1: The fall of the Sasanian Empire marks the symbolic fall
[2:08:36] Speaker 1: of Zoroastrianism, at least as a political force. But of course,
[2:08:42] Speaker 1: the story is not over yet. the early Islamic era
[2:08:49] Speaker 1: in Iran. In the immediate aftermath after conquest, Zoroastrianism did
[2:08:56] Speaker 1: not just disappear, rather it entered a new phase under
[2:09:01] Speaker 1: Muslim rule. The Arab conquerors, coming from the different religious background,
[2:09:06] Speaker 1: had to decide what they were going to do with
[2:09:11] Speaker 1: the fire worshippers, whom they called al-Majus. There was no
[2:09:17] Speaker 1: explicit mention of Zoroastrians in the Quran's list of peoples
[2:09:22] Speaker 1: of the book. They weren't Jews. They weren't Christians. What
[2:09:27] Speaker 1: were they going to do with them? Practical governments compelled
[2:09:33] Speaker 1: a solution. Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet Muhammad himself
[2:09:38] Speaker 1: had a precedent for this. He reportedly accepted jizya, that
[2:09:43] Speaker 1: is a tribute tax from the Zoroastrians of Hayyar which
[2:09:47] Speaker 1: is Bahrain, during his lifetime. Following that model, the second caliph,
[2:09:52] Speaker 1: Umar ibn al-Khattab, eventually granted Zoroastrians protection status, disdima, allowing
[2:10:00] Speaker 1: them to continue their religion in exchange for paying the
[2:10:03] Speaker 1: tax and acknowledging Muslim authority. Early Muslim historians, like al-Baladuri,
[2:10:11] Speaker 1: even mentioned Persian Zoroastrians in Yemen and elsewhere submitting and
[2:10:15] Speaker 1: paying the tax rather than being forced to convert. However,
[2:10:22] Speaker 1: this formal tolerance on the surface came with a few
[2:10:25] Speaker 1: strings attached. As a teamies, Zoroastrians were subject to social
[2:10:32] Speaker 1: and legal restrictions and disabilities. Contemporary accounts and later chronicles
[2:10:39] Speaker 1: describe a pattern of increasing pressure. A ninth-century Zoroastrian chronicle
[2:10:45] Speaker 1: Biddley notes that after the Arab conquest, the Empire of
[2:10:49] Speaker 1: Iran was given over to the Davers of Wrath, a
[2:10:54] Speaker 1: reference to the demons, and the adherents of Mazda were scattered.
[2:11:00] Speaker 1: Muslim sources acknowledge episodes of persecution and resistance themselves. For example,
[2:11:08] Speaker 1: when the city of Istakar, near Persepolis, rebelled against Arab
[2:11:12] Speaker 1: rule around 650 AD, It faced a retribution that was ruthless.
[2:11:19] Speaker 1: Arab forces massacred thousands of its inhabitants and destroyed the
[2:11:24] Speaker 1: fire temples. One local tradition cited Islamic era historians recounts
[2:11:30] Speaker 1: how in Estaka the defeated Persians were slaughtered until the
[2:11:34] Speaker 1: plain was covered with the dead. In Gurgan, by the Caspian,
[2:11:41] Speaker 1: an Arab general, al-Mulhalab, is said to have literally carried
[2:11:46] Speaker 1: out a gory vow. He had so many Persian captives
[2:11:50] Speaker 1: decapitated that their blood ran a watermill for an entire day.
[2:11:58] Speaker 1: While numbers are likely exaggerated, some sources speak of a
[2:12:01] Speaker 1: hundred thousand slain at a single battle. Such accounts, even
[2:12:06] Speaker 1: if propagandistic, reflect the trauma collective memory of conquest. But
[2:12:13] Speaker 1: more common than mass violence was the slow grind of
[2:12:17] Speaker 1: the wheels of conversion, either by incentive or attrition. We
[2:12:24] Speaker 1: hear in the history of Bukhara that in newly conquered cities,
[2:12:28] Speaker 1: Arab governors offered gold to any Zoroastrian who was willing
[2:12:32] Speaker 1: to embrace Islam. Many Persians superficially converted to obtain economic benefits.
[2:12:40] Speaker 1: or avoid the jizya and other indignities. One Persian scholar
[2:12:46] Speaker 1: later remarked of this wave of conversions. Many converted to
[2:12:52] Speaker 1: escape the systematic abuse. Others accepted Islam because their employment
[2:12:59] Speaker 1: in industrial work involved defiling fire, which their old faith forbade. Indeed,
[2:13:09] Speaker 1: traditional Zoroastrian purity laws made certain occupations, smithing, for instance,
[2:13:15] Speaker 1: which risks polluting fire, somewhat religiously problematic. So converting to
[2:13:21] Speaker 1: Islam could ironically free one to pursue a livelihood without guilt.
[2:13:28] Speaker 1: Over generations, these pragmatic conversions only accumulated. By the late
[2:13:35] Speaker 1: 8th century, the once dominant faith was visibly shrinking in
[2:13:39] Speaker 1: major urban centres. Zoroastrians were often relegated to quarters outside
[2:13:45] Speaker 1: the main city or to rural enclaves. A Muslim geographer,
[2:13:50] Speaker 1: writing in the 9th century, observed that Zoroastrians had largely
[2:13:55] Speaker 1: evacuated from their cities and retreated to villages or specific towns,
[2:14:00] Speaker 1: being deemed Najis, ritually impure, by their Muslim neighbors. Zoroastrians
[2:14:08] Speaker 1: began to dress distinctively to avoid harassment. Some sources mention
[2:14:14] Speaker 1: sumptuary laws requiring them to wear colored patches or belted garments.
[2:14:20] Speaker 1: Their fire temples, lacking state support, were often abandoned or
[2:14:25] Speaker 1: repurposed by the invaders. Many fire shrines simply decayed. Others
[2:14:32] Speaker 1: were outright converted. Archaeological and written evidence shows that in
[2:14:36] Speaker 1: places like Bukhara and Istakar, fire temple ruins became the
[2:14:40] Speaker 1: foundations of newly built mosques. Often a mihrab niche was
[2:14:48] Speaker 1: plastered onto the wall, where the sacred fire had once burned,
[2:14:53] Speaker 1: orienting the structure toward Mecca, and thus transforming it into
[2:14:57] Speaker 1: a mosque. One such example is the Magokiatari Mosque in Bukhara.
[2:15:02] Speaker 1: which archaeological studies suggest was constructed on top of an
[2:15:06] Speaker 1: earlier Zoroastrian temple. The very name, Magoki, implies an underground,
[2:15:13] Speaker 1: perhaps hidden, fire shrine that predated the mosque. But it
[2:15:20] Speaker 1: would be wrong to think that the Zoroastrians went swiftly
[2:15:23] Speaker 1: or quietly. Pockets of resistance and resilience persisted for centuries
[2:15:28] Speaker 1: within the Islamic realm, in the province of Fars, the
[2:15:33] Speaker 1: old Persian homeland. Bagram and other nobles briefly tried to
[2:15:38] Speaker 1: rally around local Zoroastrian princelings in the 650s, though these
[2:15:43] Speaker 1: attempts were short-lived. The rugged region of Tabaristan and the
[2:15:49] Speaker 1: Caspian coast remained independent under a Zoroastrian princely line the
[2:15:54] Speaker 1: Dabriids well into the 8th century. defiantly outside the caliph's control.
[2:16:03] Speaker 1: Even after Tabaristan's eventual subjugation in 760, elements of the
[2:16:08] Speaker 1: old religion persisted in secret for a time. Throughout the
[2:16:13] Speaker 1: 8th and 9th centuries, a series of Persian revolt movements
[2:16:17] Speaker 1: had distinctly Zoroastrian or syncretic overtones. For instance, the rebellion
[2:16:23] Speaker 1: of Sunbad in 755 who claimed to avenge a Persian hero,
[2:16:29] Speaker 1: or the uprising of Babak Khurramdin in Azerbaijan, 816-837, whose followers,
[2:16:36] Speaker 1: the Khurramis, practiced a blend of the Persian and heterodox
[2:16:41] Speaker 1: Islamic beliefs. While these revolts were crushed by the opposite caliphate,
[2:16:50] Speaker 1: they demonstrate that the memory of the old faith could
[2:16:53] Speaker 1: still inspire resistance among the Persians. long after the fall.
[2:17:01] Speaker 1: By the 10th century, Islam was firmly dominant in Iran,
[2:17:06] Speaker 1: but the Zoroastrians were still there in pockets. In fact,
[2:17:10] Speaker 1: medieval Islamic writers give us surprising evidence of the faith's continuance,
[2:17:14] Speaker 1: albeit it had a diminished footprint. The eminent 10th century
[2:17:19] Speaker 1: Arab historian, al-Masudi, writing around 956 CE from Baghdad, noted
[2:17:25] Speaker 1: that Zoroastrianism, for the time being, continued to exist in
[2:17:30] Speaker 1: many parts of Iran. He goes on to list regions
[2:17:34] Speaker 1: in almost all the Iranian provinces. The Margins venerate many
[2:17:39] Speaker 1: fire temples in Iraq, Fars, Kirman, Sistan, Kurdistan, Tabaristan, Al-Jabal, Azerbaijan,
[2:17:46] Speaker 1: and Aran. Alma should even add, that traces of the
[2:17:51] Speaker 1: faith were present beyond Iran, in places like Sindh, an
[2:17:55] Speaker 1: Indian subcontinent. This account is corroborated by medieval geographers. The
[2:18:01] Speaker 1: 10th century writer Istaqri found the desert city of Yaz
[2:18:05] Speaker 1: was still largely Zoroastrian, and Al-Masudi Makhtisi, around 985, noted
[2:18:13] Speaker 1: that Kirman province had many Magians. One Abbasid-era anecdote relates
[2:18:21] Speaker 1: the Caliph al-Mustasim, reigning 833-42, who learned of an overzealous
[2:18:28] Speaker 1: local Muslim leader who destroyed a Zoroastrian fire temple. The
[2:18:33] Speaker 1: Caliph allegedly punished that official and even allowed the Magians
[2:18:37] Speaker 1: to rebuild their shrine. Now, why would this happen? Well,
[2:18:42] Speaker 1: it suggests that at times central authorities preferred to keep
[2:18:47] Speaker 1: the Zoroastrians paying taxes rather than provoke them into a
[2:18:52] Speaker 1: rebellion by extreme persecution. Makes sense. Still, the overall trend
[2:18:59] Speaker 1: was one of decline. The old Zoroastrian clergy, having lost
[2:19:04] Speaker 1: their fire temples and endowments, dwindled in number. Many priests
[2:19:09] Speaker 1: likely converted or left for friendlier lands. The sanctity of
[2:19:14] Speaker 1: fire itself was sometimes hard to maintain in hostile surroundings.
[2:19:19] Speaker 1: Zoroastrian texts from the early Islamic times, like the Dengar
[2:19:23] Speaker 1: or Rivayats, lament the loss of knowledge and the scattering
[2:19:27] Speaker 1: of the holy texts. A tradition in the Dengar compares
[2:19:32] Speaker 1: the state of the Zoroastrian religion after the Arab conquest
[2:19:37] Speaker 1: to a throne. without its legs, tottering and unstable. Some
[2:19:43] Speaker 1: devout communities, however, resolved to preserve what they could, however
[2:19:47] Speaker 1: they could. We hear of family clans in Fars and
[2:19:51] Speaker 1: Kerman that kept the fires burning in secret. The village
[2:19:56] Speaker 1: of Kam in Fars, for example, maintained a hidden sanctuary
[2:20:00] Speaker 1: of fire for generations. In the Persian heartland, two regions
[2:20:06] Speaker 1: emerged as bastions of the embattled faith, Yazd and Kerman.
[2:20:13] Speaker 1: Isolated in the central deserts and mountains, these areas were
[2:20:16] Speaker 1: relatively tolerant, or at least removed from the full force
[2:20:20] Speaker 1: of the Caliph's cultural pressures. By the 11th and 12th centuries,
[2:20:26] Speaker 1: travellers described Yazd as a haven for Zoroastrians. The Venetian
[2:20:31] Speaker 1: traveller Marco Polo, passing through Persia in 1272, called Yazd
[2:20:36] Speaker 1: a good and noble city, and noted that Zoroastrians, as
[2:20:41] Speaker 1: he called them fire-worshippers, were still present there, keeping the
[2:20:46] Speaker 1: old ways well and truly alive. He recounted an especially
[2:20:51] Speaker 1: vivid anecdote near the village of Saba. Locals told him
[2:20:56] Speaker 1: three ancient tombs housed the bodies of the three magi,
[2:21:01] Speaker 1: the wise men from the east of Christian nativity lore. Skeptical,
[2:21:07] Speaker 1: Polo pressed for more information, and after a three days'
[2:21:11] Speaker 1: journey away, he found a place called Kala Ataperistan, meaning
[2:21:17] Speaker 1: Castle of the Fire Worshippers, and the name is rightly applied,
[2:21:22] Speaker 1: he writes, for the people there do worship fire. This
[2:21:27] Speaker 1: primary account by Polo, essentially a foreigner stumbling upon a
[2:21:32] Speaker 1: surviving Zoroastrian community, is a poignant illustration of how fragmented
[2:21:37] Speaker 1: and localized Zoroastrianism had become by the 13th century. These
[2:21:42] Speaker 1: remnant communities were pockets of the old faith in a
[2:21:47] Speaker 1: vastly changed world. Indeed, by the late medieval period, Zoroastrians
[2:21:54] Speaker 1: in Iran were small minorities, often impoverished and frequently marginalized.
[2:22:01] Speaker 1: During the Mongol and Timurid invasions, That's the 13th, 14th
[2:22:05] Speaker 1: centuries roundabout. They suffered alongside the other Persians. Some local
[2:22:10] Speaker 1: Muslim rulers, like the Safavids in the 16th century, later
[2:22:15] Speaker 1: imposed strict Shia Islamic norms that further pressured non-Muslims. There
[2:22:21] Speaker 1: are recorded instances in Safavid times of Zoroastrians being forced
[2:22:25] Speaker 1: to wear a distinctive badge, to shout out disclaimers when
[2:22:29] Speaker 1: walking in the rain. that is, so a Muslim would
[2:22:32] Speaker 1: not inadvertently touch the same wet ground and be polluted,
[2:22:36] Speaker 1: example of extreme social stigma, reminiscent of the untouchables of India,
[2:22:41] Speaker 1: this kind of thing. By the 18th and 19th centuries,
[2:22:46] Speaker 1: observers describe Zoroastrians of Yazd and Gurman as a downtrodden lot,
[2:22:53] Speaker 1: heavily taxed, forced to live in segregated neighbourhoods, periodically facing
[2:22:59] Speaker 1: forcible conversions, Yet remarkably they endured. A Persian Zoroastrian proverb
[2:23:06] Speaker 1: from those dark times says, Our state is like the
[2:23:10] Speaker 1: cypress tree, ever green, but ever bending under the storm.
[2:23:15] Speaker 1: It captures the resilience of a community determined to keep
[2:23:21] Speaker 1: the flame of Vohumana good mind alive at all costs.
[2:23:29] Speaker 1: While Iran was the heartland, Zoroastrianism's decline played out in
[2:23:34] Speaker 1: other regions too, and often in quite unique ways, particularly
[2:23:40] Speaker 1: in Central Asian regions such as Transoxania, modern-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan,
[2:23:47] Speaker 1: and also Khorasan. Zoroastrianism had coexisted with Buddhism and the
[2:23:53] Speaker 1: local pagan cults before Islam had came along. The Sogdian
[2:23:58] Speaker 1: cities like Samarkand and Bukhara had fire temples and a
[2:24:02] Speaker 1: class of priests, and they too met the challenges of
[2:24:05] Speaker 1: the Islamic expansion. The Arab general Qutayba ibn Muslim conquered
[2:24:12] Speaker 1: Bukhara and Samarkand in the early 8th century. Initially, the
[2:24:17] Speaker 1: new rulers faced resistance and slow conversions. The history of
[2:24:21] Speaker 1: Bukhara by Narshaki provides a fascinating glimpse of this transitional period.
[2:24:28] Speaker 1: According to that work, when Godava first took Bukhara, he
[2:24:33] Speaker 1: ordered that half of every household's property be given to
[2:24:36] Speaker 1: the Arab settlers. The wealthy locals complied by moving out
[2:24:41] Speaker 1: of the city and building new villas outside the walls.
[2:24:46] Speaker 1: Some of these estates were specifically known as the Village
[2:24:49] Speaker 1: of the Magians. Suburban enclaves, where Zoroastrians continued to live
[2:24:55] Speaker 1: and worship, Narashaki writes that in those Magian villas, there
[2:25:01] Speaker 1: were many fire temples of the Magians in this district,
[2:25:04] Speaker 1: with fine and pleasant gardens. So this suggests that even
[2:25:09] Speaker 1: after the Arab conquest of Bukhara, around 709 CE, the
[2:25:14] Speaker 1: Zoroastrian gentry maintained their religion on the outskirts for some time.
[2:25:20] Speaker 1: Over the 8th and 9th centuries, though, these communities gradually dwindled.
[2:25:24] Speaker 1: Narashaki later notes, that by the mid-10th century, those once
[2:25:29] Speaker 1: valuable Magian estates had fallen into ruin, and nobody wanted
[2:25:33] Speaker 1: to buy them, because of oppression and lack of clemency
[2:25:37] Speaker 1: towards the Magians. An even earlier perspective on Central Asia
[2:25:43] Speaker 1: comes from the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang, who travelled throughout
[2:25:48] Speaker 1: the region in the 630s, just before Islam's arrival. Xuanzang
[2:25:53] Speaker 1: found that in places like Samarkand, Buddhism was in decline,
[2:25:58] Speaker 1: and people mostly followed what he as a Buddhist termed
[2:26:02] Speaker 1: the way of demons, likely referring to Zoroastrian or local
[2:26:07] Speaker 1: pre-Islamic practices. One incident recorded in his biography tells of
[2:26:12] Speaker 1: Xuanzang intervening to save the lives of two Buddhist monks
[2:26:15] Speaker 1: in Samarkand who had run afoul of the local religion.
[2:26:20] Speaker 1: He could not bear to see them mutilated, and he
[2:26:23] Speaker 1: convinced the king to spare them The monks' intended punishment,
[2:26:29] Speaker 1: mutilation for offending local custom, hints at the intolerance of
[2:26:33] Speaker 1: the Sogdian fire worshippers toward the Buddhist icons, implying Zoroastrian
[2:26:38] Speaker 1: zeal at the time. Thus, on the eve of Islam,
[2:26:43] Speaker 1: Zoroastrianism in Central Asia was robust enough to persecute its rivals. Ironically,
[2:26:50] Speaker 1: soon after, those same fire temples would be extinguished or converted,
[2:26:54] Speaker 1: under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, as Islam became dominant.
[2:27:01] Speaker 1: By the 9th and 10th centuries, Central Asia's Zoroastrians had
[2:27:06] Speaker 1: mostly either been converted to Islam, or had simply left.
[2:27:12] Speaker 1: A number likely fled eastward to China, where a Sogdian
[2:27:15] Speaker 1: diaspora had established itself in Tang Dynasty cities. Chinese historical
[2:27:20] Speaker 1: records Indicated by the 8th century, there were active Zoroastrian
[2:27:25] Speaker 1: or Xianjiao temples in Chang'an and Luoyang, Chang'an being the
[2:27:31] Speaker 1: old name for Xi'an, which is still a quite nice
[2:27:34] Speaker 1: city in China to this day. They were primarily serving
[2:27:38] Speaker 1: Persian and Sogdian merchants. communities. The cosmopolitan Tang dynasty generally
[2:27:44] Speaker 1: tolerated foreign religions, referring to Zoroastrianism as one of the
[2:27:50] Speaker 1: Persian religions. However, in 845, the Tang emperor Wu Zong
[2:27:57] Speaker 1: instigated a notorious persecution of foreign faiths, mostly directed at Buddhism. Yes,
[2:28:04] Speaker 1: Buddhism is a foreign faith to China. It comes from India.
[2:28:09] Speaker 1: Imperial edicts that year also targeted Zoroastrians and Christians. One
[2:28:15] Speaker 1: edict concerning the Zoroastrians was quite blunt, declaring, As for
[2:28:21] Speaker 1: the Syrian or Persian Zoroastrian forms of worship, since Buddhism
[2:28:26] Speaker 1: has already been cast out, These heresies alone must not
[2:28:30] Speaker 1: be allowed to survive. People belonging to these are compelled
[2:28:34] Speaker 1: to return to the world, i.e. secular life. As for
[2:28:39] Speaker 1: foreigners practicing these rites, let them be returned to their
[2:28:42] Speaker 1: own countries. The edict ordered Zoroastrian priests in China to
[2:28:48] Speaker 1: discard their sacred robes and cease their ceremonies. Temples were closed.
[2:28:55] Speaker 1: In Chang'an, the sites of two prominent fire altars were
[2:28:58] Speaker 1: confiscated by the state. After 845, Zoroastrianism in China virtually vanished.
[2:29:06] Speaker 1: The remaining Persian families either assimilated or eventually left. It's
[2:29:12] Speaker 1: likely that from the mid-9th century onward, Central Asia and
[2:29:16] Speaker 1: East Asia harbored no organized Zoroastrian communities. aside from a
[2:29:22] Speaker 1: few pockets that might have quietly persisted for a generation
[2:29:25] Speaker 1: or two. An ancient faith that had once spanned continents
[2:29:30] Speaker 1: was now largely confined to a few isolated enclaves in Iran,
[2:29:35] Speaker 1: and a budding expatriate community in India, which we will
[2:29:39] Speaker 1: turn to next. Of course, one of the most consequential
[2:29:46] Speaker 1: outcomes of the fall of Zoroastrianism in Iran was was
[2:29:50] Speaker 1: the migration of Persian Zoroasts to India, where they would
[2:29:54] Speaker 1: be known as the Parsis, meaning, of course, Persians. According
[2:30:00] Speaker 1: to their own traditional epic, the story of Sanjan, composed
[2:30:04] Speaker 1: in 1599 by a priest relaying much older oral history,
[2:30:08] Speaker 1: a group of Zoroastrian refugees fled Iran by sea, sometime
[2:30:12] Speaker 1: during the 8th and 10th centuries, to escape religious persecution.
[2:30:18] Speaker 1: The saga is rich in symbolic narrative. It recounts how
[2:30:22] Speaker 1: these exiles, led by a dastur, or priest, carrying the
[2:30:26] Speaker 1: sacred fire Atash Bahram, landed on the shores of Gujarat
[2:30:31] Speaker 1: in western India. The local Hindu ruler, often named as Jadirana,
[2:30:37] Speaker 1: was initially suspicious of the newcomers. As the Kisar relates,
[2:30:42] Speaker 1: the king sent the Zoroastrians a brimming bowl of milk,
[2:30:46] Speaker 1: a wordless message, that his land was full and had
[2:30:50] Speaker 1: no room for others. In response, the Zoroastrian priest gently
[2:30:55] Speaker 1: stirred a spoonful of sugar into the milk, which dissolved
[2:30:59] Speaker 1: without overflowing, thus sweetening it. This clever demonstration conveyed, we
[2:31:05] Speaker 1: will blend into your society, just like sugar in milk,
[2:31:10] Speaker 1: enriching it without displacing anyone. It's pretty good, huh? Impressed
[2:31:16] Speaker 1: by this gesture, The king granted them asylum, but he
[2:31:20] Speaker 1: set conditions that the Persians adopt the local dress and language,
[2:31:26] Speaker 1: that they lay down their arms, and that they only
[2:31:28] Speaker 1: marry within their community, conditions to which the Zoroastrians agreed,
[2:31:34] Speaker 1: swearing to abide by local laws while keeping their faith intact.
[2:31:39] Speaker 1: Sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn't it? And I
[2:31:42] Speaker 1: love that milk and sugar analogy. and so began the
[2:31:47] Speaker 1: Parsi presence in India. They established a settlement at Sanjan,
[2:31:51] Speaker 1: named after the city in Iran they reportedly came from,
[2:31:55] Speaker 1: and true to their promise, gradually adopted the regional language,
[2:32:00] Speaker 1: that being Gujarati, and many of the local customs. Yet, internally,
[2:32:07] Speaker 1: they preserved their Zoroastrian religion with fervor. The Kisa-i-Sanjan details
[2:32:14] Speaker 1: how they enthroned the sacred fire, called Iranshah, in a
[2:32:20] Speaker 1: new fire temple at Sanjan, kindling it with embers bored
[2:32:24] Speaker 1: from their homeland's fire. This fire, tended by priests, became
[2:32:31] Speaker 1: the living link to the lost world of Sasanian glory.
[2:32:35] Speaker 1: Over time, the passes spread to other towns, Nausari, Uduada, Bombay, Mumbai,
[2:32:43] Speaker 1: but they remained a close-knit community, cherishing the Avesta scriptures
[2:32:48] Speaker 1: and the memory of Iranshah. Notably, while Zoroastrianism was waning
[2:32:54] Speaker 1: in Iran, in India it found not only refuge, but
[2:32:58] Speaker 1: a chance for revival. Though direct contemporary records from the
[2:33:04] Speaker 1: earliest days of the Parsi, migrations are pretty scarce, apart
[2:33:08] Speaker 1: from the later Kisa and some oral traditions. there are
[2:33:12] Speaker 1: references from travellers that corroborate their early presence. In the
[2:33:16] Speaker 1: 11th century, the Arab traveller Al-Biruni mentioned the land of
[2:33:21] Speaker 1: Hind having people of the Magian religion, likely an allusion
[2:33:26] Speaker 1: to the Parsis in western India. Much later, in 1322,
[2:33:31] Speaker 1: a Christian monk, Jordanus, encountered fire worshippers on the island
[2:33:36] Speaker 1: of Thane near Mumbai, which were probably Parsis too. These
[2:33:42] Speaker 1: instances indicate that by the late Middle Ages, India had
[2:33:47] Speaker 1: become the chief sanctuary of the Zoroastrians. Indeed, today the
[2:33:52] Speaker 1: largest Zoroastrian population in the world is in India, thanks
[2:33:56] Speaker 1: to these early refugees and their descendants. But one fascinating
[2:34:03] Speaker 1: aspect of the Indo-Persian-Zoroastrian connection is that the scattered Zoroastrians
[2:34:09] Speaker 1: did not entirely lose contact with each other From the
[2:34:13] Speaker 1: 15th century onwards, there are letters, known as rivayats, exchanged
[2:34:19] Speaker 1: between the Parsis of India and the dwindling Zoroastrians of
[2:34:23] Speaker 1: Yazd and Karman in Iran. In these correspondences, the Parsis
[2:34:29] Speaker 1: often ask their Iranian co-religionists for advice on ritual practices
[2:34:34] Speaker 1: and calendrical calculation, implicitly acknowledging Iran as the original source
[2:34:40] Speaker 1: of authority. the Iranians or Austrians, flattered and heartened that
[2:34:46] Speaker 1: their faith lived on abroad, responded with detailed answers, and
[2:34:50] Speaker 1: occasionally even dispatched priests or texts to India. And these
[2:34:56] Speaker 1: letters point a poignant picture. The once major religion, surviving
[2:35:01] Speaker 1: in two marginal refuges, separated by the Arabian Sea, each
[2:35:06] Speaker 1: encouraging each other, to hold fast to the Mazdean religion,
[2:35:12] Speaker 1: Din e Mazdeyasna. One could say that the aftermath of
[2:35:20] Speaker 1: the fall of Zoroastrianism was a diaspora that ensured the
[2:35:25] Speaker 1: faith itself did not completely perish. Stripped of their empire
[2:35:30] Speaker 1: and power, the Zoroastrians reinvented themselves as a minority religion
[2:35:35] Speaker 1: of traders and migrants in India, and as tenacious underground
[2:35:40] Speaker 1: traditions in Iran. The passes went on to prosper under
[2:35:45] Speaker 1: subsequent Indian dynasties and later British colonial rule. By the
[2:35:50] Speaker 1: 19th century, they were an affluent, educated community, producing notable
[2:35:56] Speaker 1: figures in industry and philanthropy, thus arguably sweetening their homelands,
[2:36:04] Speaker 1: milk with that legend promised. Meanwhile, the impoverished Zoroastrians in
[2:36:10] Speaker 1: Iran received aid from their Indian cousins, and gradually they
[2:36:16] Speaker 1: improved their lot in the 19th to 20th centuries, especially
[2:36:21] Speaker 1: after the Islamic restrictions began to ease off a little bit.
[2:36:30] Speaker 1: And so we arrive at the conclusion of The fall,
[2:36:35] Speaker 1: if we can call it that, of Zoroastrianism from imperial
[2:36:39] Speaker 1: dominance to near obscurity is quite a complex historical phenomenon.
[2:36:45] Speaker 1: As we have seen, it was not a simple case
[2:36:48] Speaker 1: of one religion supplanting another overnight. It involved complicated conquest,
[2:36:54] Speaker 1: social transformation, and the agency of Zoroastrians themselves choosing whether
[2:37:00] Speaker 1: to resist, convert, flee. Primary sources vividly illustrate this progression.
[2:37:08] Speaker 1: Early Arab historians like Tabari and Baladuri recount the clashes
[2:37:13] Speaker 1: and negotiations that determined the fate of the fire worshippers.
[2:37:18] Speaker 1: Treaties where fire temples were spared or destroyed. Debates over
[2:37:23] Speaker 1: whether Magians counted as people of the book or just pagans.
[2:37:30] Speaker 1: and instances of both clemency and cruelty. Zoroastrian sources, though few,
[2:37:38] Speaker 1: expressed the anguish of a people who saw their sacred
[2:37:41] Speaker 1: fires quenched and their scriptures endangered. The Zandi-Wachman-Yasin A Pallavi
[2:37:49] Speaker 1: apocalyptic text, likely compiled after the conquest, prophesies in thinly-veiled
[2:37:54] Speaker 1: terms the coming of a devastating foreign rule. The sovereignty
[2:38:00] Speaker 1: will come to those of the wrong faith, the fire
[2:38:04] Speaker 1: temples will be ruined, and the righteous will be scattered.
[2:38:09] Speaker 1: Such passages, albeit couched in symbolic language, they mirror the
[2:38:14] Speaker 1: real experiences that we have traced today. Geographically, we went
[2:38:21] Speaker 1: all over the place, didn't we? We went beyond Persia,
[2:38:25] Speaker 1: to India, Central Asia, showing that the end of the
[2:38:30] Speaker 1: Zoroastrian dominance in Iran was not the end of the Zoroastrians.
[2:38:37] Speaker 1: In Central Asia, the religion flickered out in similar pressures,
[2:38:41] Speaker 1: as the Tang Chinese Edict of 845 shows for the
[2:38:45] Speaker 1: far east of the Iranian world diaspora. In India, conversely,
[2:38:52] Speaker 1: Zoroastrianism found a new life, demonstrating a remarkable adaptability. Separated
[2:38:59] Speaker 1: from the Sasanian state and the social hierarchy, the priests
[2:39:03] Speaker 1: and nobles, ordinary Zoroastrians managed to transplant their faith to
[2:39:09] Speaker 1: foreign soil, keeping it alive through oral tradition and communal effort.
[2:39:16] Speaker 1: From a critical perspective, We should avoid painting the fall
[2:39:19] Speaker 1: of Zoroastrianism as an oversimplistic decline and fall terms with
[2:39:26] Speaker 1: excessive romantic bias. Some earlier nationalist histories in Iran portrayed
[2:39:32] Speaker 1: it as a titanic clash of good Persia versus evil Arabia,
[2:39:39] Speaker 1: but the reality is a little bit more nuanced than that.
[2:39:42] Speaker 1: While there were atrocities, forced conversions in some instances, there
[2:39:48] Speaker 1: were also periods of coexistence and cultural exchange. Persian language
[2:39:52] Speaker 1: and culture ultimately survived the Islamic conquest. Iran never became
[2:39:57] Speaker 1: Arabized like some other regions did. And arguably, elements of
[2:40:04] Speaker 1: Zoroastrian ethical philosophy filtered into the emerging Islamic Persian literature.
[2:40:09] Speaker 1: Festivals like No Roots, the Persian New Year with Zoroastrian Roots,
[2:40:15] Speaker 1: continued to be celebrated by Iranians of all faiths, a
[2:40:20] Speaker 1: testament to how deeply ingrained the old tradition really was,
[2:40:24] Speaker 1: surviving even in the change of official religion. In Central Asia, too,
[2:40:30] Speaker 1: you'll find many pre-Islamic customs persisting under new guises. And so,
[2:40:35] Speaker 1: in recounting the final chapter of the days of Zoroastrianism's prominence,
[2:40:41] Speaker 1: we relied on many eyewitness and contemporary accounts, the mournful
[2:40:45] Speaker 1: reflections of Masudi, the practical observations of Narsaki, the travel
[2:40:51] Speaker 1: diaries of Marco Polo, and the community lore of the Kisa-i-Sanjan,
[2:40:57] Speaker 1: among others. These sources animate the historical analysis, allows us
[2:41:03] Speaker 1: to paint a picture that scenes of a Zoroastrian dastur
[2:41:07] Speaker 1: bargaining with an Indian Raja, or a weary group of
[2:41:11] Speaker 1: magi tending a flame in a hidden mountain shrine, while
[2:41:14] Speaker 1: the new faith's minarets rise in the town below. The
[2:41:19] Speaker 1: fall of Zoroastrianism was a centuries-long saga, a story of decline,
[2:41:26] Speaker 1: but also one of survival against the odds. By around
[2:41:30] Speaker 1: the year 1000, Zoroastrianism had effectively fallen from its highest state,
[2:41:37] Speaker 1: yet its aftermath is a story of cultural and resistance,
[2:41:41] Speaker 1: illuminating how faith communities respond to existential challenges. Today, though
[2:41:49] Speaker 1: small in number, Zoroastrians continue to practice their religion in Iran, India,
[2:41:56] Speaker 1: and in diaspora communities all over the world, proudly maintaining
[2:42:00] Speaker 1: the rituals and tenets that once guided kings and empires.
[2:42:05] Speaker 1: In a sense, this fall of Zoroastrianism as a state
[2:42:10] Speaker 1: religion allowed it to rise in a new form, a global,
[2:42:15] Speaker 1: diasporic faith, cherished for its historical significance and philosophical depth.
[2:42:21] Speaker 1: The enduring flame in fire temples of Yazd and Mumbai,
[2:42:25] Speaker 1: and the very celebration of spring with the Nodrits across
[2:42:28] Speaker 1: Central and South Asia, are the living legacies of our
[2:42:32] Speaker 1: journey throughout Zoroastrian history. And so, in conclusion, the fall
[2:42:38] Speaker 1: was a transformative epic that reshaped the religious map of Eurasia,
[2:42:44] Speaker 1: By focusing on first-hand narratives today, we've gained intimate insights
[2:42:49] Speaker 1: on how the people at the time perceived these upheavals,
[2:42:53] Speaker 1: whether as conquerors enforcing a new world order, or those
[2:42:56] Speaker 1: faithful souls witnessing the end of their world, striving to
[2:43:00] Speaker 1: kindle a new future somewhere else. And as any good
[2:43:05] Speaker 1: lecture must conclude, the story of the Fall is not
[2:43:09] Speaker 1: merely about an ancient religion's decline, but it's about the
[2:43:13] Speaker 1: endurance of human belief. an identity in the face of
[2:43:16] Speaker 1: overwhelming change. And so as the flame of Ahura Mazda,
[2:43:21] Speaker 1: though dimmed, was never fully extinguished, it survived in its
[2:43:25] Speaker 1: glowing embers, carried by devoted hands across the sea in generations.
[2:43:31] Speaker 1: Who knows? Perhaps one of the listeners will be the
[2:43:34] Speaker 1: one to light it again into a raging fire. And
[2:43:42] Speaker 1: with that we reach the end of our talk for today.
[2:43:46] Speaker 1: I hope that you have enjoyed it. We certainly learned
[2:43:51] Speaker 1: a lot, didn't we? I'm going to thank my top
[2:43:56] Speaker 1: dear patrons. Dark, Kimberly, Christine, Sally, Amber, Cameron, Legitmus, Gary, Charlene,
[2:44:04] Speaker 1: Linda Rees, Katiana, Nicholas, Ulf Edneer, Alexander, Charles, Christine, Dr. Neuronerd, Aaron, Jaden, Jim, Jeffrey, Jessica, Madeline, Melissa,
[2:44:16] Speaker 1: where am I? I scrolled too far down. Ah, there
[2:44:20] Speaker 1: we go. Orthodox Review, Scott, Stark Factory, Cheryl, Wendy, Josie, Sarah, Videoman, Ryan, Thor, Cameron, Stefan, Kevin, HMS, HH,
[2:44:33] Speaker 1: Crystal and Towdry. Thank you very much. And I will
[2:44:41] Speaker 1: see you in the next video. As always, thank you
[2:44:46] Speaker 1: so much for listening. I do appreciate it. And I
[2:44:49] Speaker 1: will see you, I don't know, tomorrow. Oh, I already
[2:44:52] Speaker 1: said that. I must be tired. Good night, everyone. Lots
[2:44:57] Speaker 1: of love to you all.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.