The faith of ancient Iran, taught by the priest-poet Zoroaster, whose hymns call people to choose between truth and the lie and to worship Ahura Mazda. It was the religion of three Persian empires; after the Arab conquest it shrank to Yazd and Kerman and to the Parsis of India, and lives on in a worldwide diaspora.
Sogdian merchants carried their faith east along it; there were Zoroastrian fire temples in Chang'an by the early 7th century, until the ban of 845.
Symbol meaning
Faravahar
A winged disc bearing the upper body of a man, carved on Achaemenid monuments such as Persepolis. What it first meant is unknown. Zoroastrians today read it as the fravashi, the guardian spirit of each person, and its three rows of wing feathers as good thoughts, good words and good deeds.
Timeline
16 places in order of arrival: when the first believers came, from where and how; when it became the main faith there, and when it faded.
c. 1000 BCE, until 900 CE · Bactria (Bactra)
Zoroaster taught in eastern Iran; later tradition places his patron, King Vishtaspa, at Balkh, and his hymns, the Gathas, open the Avesta.
c. 650 BCE, until 1000 · Media (Ecbatana)
The faith spread west among the Iranian peoples; the Magi, a priestly tribe of the Medes, whose capital was Ecbatana, became its priests.
from Bactra · by mission
c. 550 BCE, main faith 522 BCE – 900 CE, until 1100 · Persis (Pasargadae)
Cyrus the Great built Pasargadae in Persis; under Darius I (522 to 486 BCE), whose inscriptions credit his rule to Ahura Mazda, it was the faith of the Achaemenid kings.
from Ecbatana · by mission
c. 500 BCE, main faith from 247 BCE, until 900 CE · Parthia (Nisa)
Parthava held the faith under the Achaemenids; at Nisa, an early seat of the Arsacid kings, wine-store receipts are dated by the Zoroastrian calendar.
from Bactra · by mission
c. 500 BCE, until 301 CE · Armenia (Armavir)
Under Iranian rule the Armenians took up the worship of Aramazd (Ahura Mazda), Anahit and Mihr, until King Tiridates III adopted Christianity in 301.
from Ecbatana · by mission
c. 500 BCE, until 1000 · Sogdiana (Samarkand)
The Sogdians kept their own form of the faith, with fire temples and ossuaries for the bones of the dead, until Islam replaced it after the Arab conquest.
from Bactra · by mission
c. 500 BCE · Carmania (Kerman)
Kerman, in the old province of Carmania, kept a Zoroastrian community through the Islamic centuries, one of the faith's two refuges in Iran with Yazd.
from Pasargadae · by mission
c. 141 BCE, main faith from 226 CE, until 637 CE · Mesopotamia (Ctesiphon)
Ctesiphon was a Parthian royal seat and from 226 the Sasanian capital, where the faith became a state church; the Arab conquest of 637 ended it.
from Nisa · by conquest
c. 470 CE · Yazd
Yazd's sacred fire is said to have burned since about 470; after the Arab conquest the city and its villages became the heart of Zoroastrian Iran.
from Pasargadae · by mission
c. 621 CE, until 845 CE · Chang'an
Sogdian merchants built fire temples in the Tang capital and other Chinese cities; the Huichang persecution of foreign faiths closed them in 845.
from Samarkand · by trade and migration
c. 785 CE · Gujarat (Sanjan)
Zoroastrians leaving Muslim Iran landed at Sanjan, where a Hindu king let them settle, as the Qissa-i Sanjan tells; they became the Parsis of Gujarat.
from Pasargadae · by migration
c. 1670 · Bombay
Parsi merchants from Gujarat moved to Bombay after the East India Company took it in 1668; the city became the centre of Parsi life and wealth.
from Sanjan · by migration
c. 1850 · Tehran
Zoroastrians from Yazd and Kerman moved to the capital from the later 19th century, helped by Parsi envoys such as Manekji Limji Hataria.
from Yazd · by migration
1861 · London
Parsi merchants and students in Britain founded the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe in 1861, the oldest Asian religious body in the country.
from Bombay · by migration
1971 · Canada (Toronto)
Parsis from India and Pakistan and, after 1979, Zoroastrians from Iran settled in Canada; the Zoroastrian Society of Ontario was founded in Toronto in 1971.
from Bombay · by migration
c. 1980 · Los Angeles
Zoroastrians who left Iran after the revolution of 1979 settled in southern California, where the California Zoroastrian Center serves them.
from Tehran · by migration
Trade routes that carried it
Routes on the atlas that its missionaries, merchants and pilgrims travelled. The map above draws them in the years they ran.
Sogdian merchants carried their faith east along it; there were Zoroastrian fire temples in Chang'an by the early 7th century, until the ban of 845.
Symbol meaning
Faravahar
A winged disc bearing the upper body of a man, carved on Achaemenid monuments such as Persepolis. What it first meant is unknown. Zoroastrians today read it as the fravashi, the guardian spirit of each person, and its three rows of wing feathers as good thoughts, good words and good deeds.
Timeline
16 places in order of arrival: when the first believers came, from where and how; when it became the main faith there, and when it faded.
c. 1000 BCE, until 900 CE · Bactria (Bactra)
Zoroaster taught in eastern Iran; later tradition places his patron, King Vishtaspa, at Balkh, and his hymns, the Gathas, open the Avesta.
c. 650 BCE, until 1000 · Media (Ecbatana)
The faith spread west among the Iranian peoples; the Magi, a priestly tribe of the Medes, whose capital was Ecbatana, became its priests.
from Bactra · by mission
c. 550 BCE, main faith 522 BCE – 900 CE, until 1100 · Persis (Pasargadae)
Cyrus the Great built Pasargadae in Persis; under Darius I (522 to 486 BCE), whose inscriptions credit his rule to Ahura Mazda, it was the faith of the Achaemenid kings.
from Ecbatana · by mission
c. 500 BCE, main faith from 247 BCE, until 900 CE · Parthia (Nisa)
Parthava held the faith under the Achaemenids; at Nisa, an early seat of the Arsacid kings, wine-store receipts are dated by the Zoroastrian calendar.
from Bactra · by mission
c. 500 BCE, until 301 CE · Armenia (Armavir)
Under Iranian rule the Armenians took up the worship of Aramazd (Ahura Mazda), Anahit and Mihr, until King Tiridates III adopted Christianity in 301.
from Ecbatana · by mission
c. 500 BCE, until 1000 · Sogdiana (Samarkand)
The Sogdians kept their own form of the faith, with fire temples and ossuaries for the bones of the dead, until Islam replaced it after the Arab conquest.
from Bactra · by mission
c. 500 BCE · Carmania (Kerman)
Kerman, in the old province of Carmania, kept a Zoroastrian community through the Islamic centuries, one of the faith's two refuges in Iran with Yazd.
from Pasargadae · by mission
c. 141 BCE, main faith from 226 CE, until 637 CE · Mesopotamia (Ctesiphon)
Ctesiphon was a Parthian royal seat and from 226 the Sasanian capital, where the faith became a state church; the Arab conquest of 637 ended it.
from Nisa · by conquest
c. 470 CE · Yazd
Yazd's sacred fire is said to have burned since about 470; after the Arab conquest the city and its villages became the heart of Zoroastrian Iran.
from Pasargadae · by mission
c. 621 CE, until 845 CE · Chang'an
Sogdian merchants built fire temples in the Tang capital and other Chinese cities; the Huichang persecution of foreign faiths closed them in 845.
from Samarkand · by trade and migration
c. 785 CE · Gujarat (Sanjan)
Zoroastrians leaving Muslim Iran landed at Sanjan, where a Hindu king let them settle, as the Qissa-i Sanjan tells; they became the Parsis of Gujarat.
from Pasargadae · by migration
c. 1670 · Bombay
Parsi merchants from Gujarat moved to Bombay after the East India Company took it in 1668; the city became the centre of Parsi life and wealth.
from Sanjan · by migration
c. 1850 · Tehran
Zoroastrians from Yazd and Kerman moved to the capital from the later 19th century, helped by Parsi envoys such as Manekji Limji Hataria.
from Yazd · by migration
1861 · London
Parsi merchants and students in Britain founded the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe in 1861, the oldest Asian religious body in the country.
from Bombay · by migration
1971 · Canada (Toronto)
Parsis from India and Pakistan and, after 1979, Zoroastrians from Iran settled in Canada; the Zoroastrian Society of Ontario was founded in Toronto in 1971.
from Bombay · by migration
c. 1980 · Los Angeles
Zoroastrians who left Iran after the revolution of 1979 settled in southern California, where the California Zoroastrian Center serves them.
from Tehran · by migration
Zoroastrianism, also called Mazdayasna and Behdin, is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation of his name, Zoroaster (Ancient Greek: Ζωροάστρις, romanized: Zōroastris). Among the world's oldest organized faiths, its adherents exalt an uncreated, benevolent, and all-wise deity known as Ahura Mazda (Avestan: 𐬀𐬵𐬎𐬭𐬀⸱ 𐬨𐬀𐬰𐬛𐬁, lit. 'Lord of Wisdom'), who is hailed as the supreme being of the universe.
In the foundational hymns of Zoroastrianism, the Gathas, the primary dualism is ethical and psychological rather than cosmic, centred on the choice between Asha (truth, order, and cosmic progress) and Druj (chaos, distortion, and the lie). Within this early theological framework, Ahura Mazda is the supreme, transcendent Creator who stands above the conflict. The direct opposition exists between the Twin Mentalities (Mainyu): Spenta Mainyu (the progressive, constructive spirit) and Angra Mainyu (the destructive, regressive spirit), both of whom exercised free will at the beginning of creation.
The concept of a strict, symmetrical cosmic dualism—wherein Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) is elevated to a co-equal, primordial adversary of Ahura Mazda himself—is a later development prominent in non-canonical Middle Persian (Pahlavi) texts like the 9th-century Bundahishn. Furthermore, rather than predicting a passive apocalypse where God single-handedly destroys evil, the Gathas emphasize Frashokereti (the "making fresh" or renovation of the world), a collaborative, evolutionary process achieved through the progressive thoughts, words, and actions of humanity.
Opinions vary among scholars as to whether Zoroastrianism is monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, or a combination of all three. Prominent modern Iranologists and linguists heavily reject the flat imposition of 'monotheism' on early Zoroastrianism. Prods Oktor Skjærvø explicitly excludes monotheism, admitting both ethical dualism and polytheism into the Gathic framework. Furthermore, Almut Hintze and Jean Kellens have documented how using Judeo-Christian parameters to label the faith creates a false, inadequate binary, masking the reality of a multi-divinity henotheistic system where other Gods (Yazatas) are naturally revered alongside the supreme Creator.
Originating from Zoroaster's reforms of the ancient Iranian religion, Zoroastrianism began during the Avestan period (possibly as early as the 2nd millennium BCE), but was first recorded in the mid-6th century BCE. For the following millennium, it was the official religion of successive Iranian polities, beginning with the Achaemenid Empire, which formalized and institutionalized many of its tenets and rituals, and ending with the Sasanian Empire, which revitalized the faith and standardized its teachings. In the 7th century CE, the rise of Islam and the ensuing Muslim conquest of Persia marked the beginning of the decline of Zoroastrianism. The persecution of Zoroastrians by the early Muslims in the nascent Rashidun Caliphate prompted much of the community to migrate to the Indian subcontinent, where they were granted asylum and became the progenitors of today's Parsis.
Once widely practiced in pre-Islamic Iran, with adherents numbering in the millions, Zoroastrianism now has a comparatively small population concentrated in India, Iran, and diaspora communities, particularly in North America. A demographic survey conducted in 2012 by the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) estimated the worldwide Zoroastrian population at between 111,691 and 121,962, depending on the population figure used for Iran. According to the 2011 census of India, there were 57,264 Parsis and Zoroastrians in India. The FEZANA survey estimated 14,405 Zoroastrians in the United States and 6,442 in Canada. Scholarly estimates for Iran's historical Zoroastrian communities have ranged from approximately 11,000 to 25,000. Low birth rates, population ageing and emigration have contributed to demographic decline within established Zoroastrian communities.
The central beliefs and practices of Zoroastrianism are contained in the Avesta, a compendium of sacred texts assembled over several centuries. Its oldest and most central component is the Gathas, purported to be the direct teachings of Zoroaster and his account of conversations with Ahura Mazda. These writings are part of a major section of the Avesta called the Yasna, which forms the core of Zoroastrian liturgy. Zoroaster's religious philosophy divided the early Iranian gods of Proto-Indo-Iranian paganism into emanations of the natural world—the ahura and the daeva; the former class consisting of divinities to be revered and the latter class consisting of divinities to be rejected and condemned. Zoroaster proclaimed that Ahura Mazda was the supreme creator and sustaining force of the universe, working in gētīg (the visible material realm) and mēnōg (the invisible spiritual and mental realm) through the Amesha Spenta, a class of seven divine entities that represent various aspects of the universe and the highest moral good. Emanating from Ahura Mazda is Spenta Mainyu (the Holy or Bountiful Spirit), the source of life and goodness, which is opposed by Angra Mainyu (the Destructive or Opposing Spirit), who is born from Aka Manah (evil thought). Angra Mainyu was further developed by Middle Persian literature into Ahriman (Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭧𐭫𐭬𐭭𐭩), Ahura Mazda's direct adversary. The two terms are synonymous.
Zoroastrian doctrine holds that, within this cosmic dichotomy, human beings have the choice between Asha ('truth', 'cosmic order'), the principle of righteousness or "rightness" that is promoted and embodied by Ahura Mazda, and Druj ('falsehood', 'deceit'), the essential nature of Angra Mainyu that expresses itself as greed, wrath, and envy. Thus, the central moral precepts of the religion are good thoughts (humata), good words (hukhta), and good deeds (huvarshta), which are recited in many prayers and ceremonies. Many of the practices and beliefs of ancient Iranian religion can still be seen in Zoroastrianism, such as reverence for nature and its elements, such as water (aban). Fire (atar) is held by Zoroastrians to be particularly sacred as a symbol of Ahura Mazda himself, serving as a focal point of many ceremonies and rituals, and serving as the basis for Zoroastrian places of worship, which are known as fire temples.
Etymology
The name Zoroaster (Ζωροάστηρ) is a Greek rendering of the Avestan name Zarathustra. He is known as Zartosht and Zardosht in Persian and Zaratosht in Gujarati. The Zoroastrian name of the religion is Mazdayasna, which combines Mazda- with the Avestan word yasna, meaning "worship, devotion". In English, an adherent of the faith is commonly called a Zoroastrian or a Zarathustrian. An older expression still used today is Behdin, meaning "of the good religion", deriving from beh < Middle Persian weh 'good' + din < Middle Persian dēn < Avestan daēnā". In the Zoroastrian liturgy, this term is used as a title for a lay individual who has been formally inducted into the religion in a Navjote ceremony, in contrast to the priestly titles of osta, osti, ervad (hirbod), mobed and dastur.
The first surviving reference to Zoroaster in English scholarship is attributed to Thomas Browne (1605–1682), who briefly refers to Zoroaster in his 1643 Religio Medici. The term Mazdaism () is an alternative form in English used as well for the faith, taking Mazda- from the name Ahura Mazda and adding the suffix -ism to suggest a belief system.
Theology
The theological category of Zoroastrianism is hard to define. The reasons are the difficulties in assigning precise dates to the principal texts and the fact that many contain much older material. Furthermore, Zoroastrianism shaped only slowly over time and was not complete even by the time of the Muslim conquest of Persia. Polytheistic, monotheistic, and dualistic strands can be identified in the wider Zoroastrian tradition, with dualism being the dominant tendency. The major difference to Manichaeism lies in the insistence of good in the creation account.
Zoroastrians treat Ahura Mazda as the supreme god, but believe in lesser divinities known as yazatas ("beings worthy of worship"), who share some similarities with the angels in Abrahamic religions. These yazatas include Anahita, Sraosha, Mithra, Rashnu, and Tishtrya. Historian Richard Foltz has put forth evidence that Iranians of the pre-Islamic era worshipped all these figures; especially the gods Mithra and Anahita.
Some scholars believe Zoroastrianism started as an Indo-Iranian polytheistic religion: according to Yujin Nagasawa, "like the rest of the Zoroastrian texts, the Old Avesta does not teach monotheism". By contrast, Md. Sayem characterizes Zoroastrianism as being one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world.
Prods Oktor Skjærvø states Zoroastrianism is henotheistic, and "a dualistic and polytheistic religion, but with one supreme god, who is the father of the ordered cosmos". Brian Arthur Brown states that this is unclear, because historic texts present a conflicting picture, ranging from Zoroastrianism's belief in "one god, two gods, or a best god henotheism". Economist Mario Ferrero suggests that Zoroastrianism transitioned from polytheism to monotheism due to political and economic pressures.
In the 19th century, through contact with Western academics and missionaries, Zoroastrianism experienced a massive theological change that still affects it today. The Rev. John Wilson led various missionary campaigns in India against the Parsi community, disparaging the Parsis for their "dualism" and "polytheism" and as having unnecessary rituals while declaring the Avesta to not be "divinely inspired". This caused mass dismay in the relatively uneducated Parsi community, which blamed its priests and led to some conversions towards Christianity. However, the arrival of the German orientalist and philologist Martin Haug led to a rallied defence of the faith through Haug's reinterpretation of the Avesta through Christianized and European orientalist lens. Haug postulated that Zoroastrianism was solely monotheistic with all other divinities reduced to the status of angels while Ahura Mazda became both omnipotent and the source of evil as well as good. Haug's thinking was subsequently disseminated as a Parsi interpretation, thus corroborating Haug's theory, and the idea became so popular that it is now almost universally accepted as doctrine (though being re-evaluated in modern Zoroastrianism and academia). It has been argued by Almut Hintze that this designation of monotheism is not wholly perfect and that Zoroastrianism instead has its "own form of monotheism" which combines elements of dualism and polytheism. Farhang Mehr asserts that Zoroastrianism is principally monotheistic with some dualistic elements.
Lenorant and Chevallier assert that Zoroastrianism's concept of divinity covers both being and mind as immanent entities, describing Zoroastrianism as having a belief in an immanent self-creating universe with consciousness as its special attribute, thereby putting Zoroastrianism in the pantheistic fold sharing its origin with Indian Hinduism.
Nature of the divine
Zoroastrianism contains multiple classes of divine beings, typically organized into tiers and spheres of influence.
Ahuras
The class of divine beings known as Ahuras was inherited from the concept of the asura in prehistoric Indo-Iranian religion. In the Rig Veda, the asuras are the "older gods" who ruled over the primordial chaos of the universe. This includes figures such as "Father Asura", Varuna, and Mitra.
Ahura Mazda
Ahura Mazda, also known as Oromasdes, Ohrmazd, Ormazd, Ormusd, Hoormazd, Harzoo, Hormazd, Hormaz, and Hurmz, is the creator deity and the supreme god in Zoroastrianism. Ahura Mazda stands for the dual deity Mitrāˊ-Váruṇā of the Hindu holy book known as the Rigveda.
According to scholars, Ahura Mazda is an uncreated, omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent God who has created the spiritual and material existences from infinite light and maintains the cosmic law of Asha. He is the first and most invoked spirit in Yasna, is unrivaled, has no equals, and presides over all creation. In Avesta, Ahura Mazda is the only true God, and the representation of goodness, light, and truth. He conflicts with the evil spirit Angra Mainyu, the representation of evil, darkness, and deceit. Angra Mainyu's goal is to tempt humans away from Ahura Mazda. Notably, Angra Mainyu is not a creation of Ahura Mazda but an independent entity. The belief in Ahura Mazda, the "Lord of Wisdom" who is considered an all-encompassing Deity and the only existing one, is the foundation of Zoroastrianism.
Yazata
The Yazata (Avestan: 𐬫𐬀𐬰𐬀𐬙𐬀) are divine beings worshiped by song and sacrifice in Zoroastrianism, in accordance with the Avesta. The word yazata is derived from 'Yazdan', the Old Persian word for 'god', and literally means "divinity worthy of worship or veneration". As a concept, it also contains a wide range of other meanings, though generally signifying (or used as an epithet of) a divinity.
The origins of Yazata are varied, with many also featured as gods in Hinduism and other Iranian religions. In modern Zoroastrianism, the Yazata are considered holy emanations of the creator, always devoted to him and obeying the will of Ahura Mazda. While subject to repression by the Islamic Caliphate, the Yazata were often framed as "angels" to counter accusation of polytheism (shirk). According to the Avesta The Yazata assist Ahura Mazda in his battle against the evil spirit, and are hypostases of moral or physical aspects of creation. The yazatas collectively are "the good powers under Ahura Mazda", who is "the greatest of the yazatas".
Mitra, or Mithra – was originally an Indo-Iranian god of "covenant, agreement, treaty, alliance, promise." Mitra is considered a being worthy of worship and is "characterized by riches".
Yazatas are further divided into Amesha Spentas, their "ham-kar" or "Collaborators" who are Lower Ranking divinities, and also certain healing plants, primordial creatures, the fravashis of the dead, and certain prayers that are themselves considered holy.
The Amesha Spentas and their "ham-kar" or "collaborator" Yazatas are as follows:
In Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda is the beginning and the end, the creator of everything that can and cannot be seen, the eternal and uncreated, the all-good and source of Asha. In the Gathas, the most sacred texts of Zoroastrianism thought to have been composed by Zoroaster himself, Zoroaster acknowledged the highest devotion to Ahura Mazda, with worship and adoration also given to Ahura Mazda's manifestations (Amesha Spenta) and the other ahuras (Yazata) that support Ahura Mazda.
Daena (din in modern Persian and meaning "that which is seen") is representative of the sum of one's spiritual conscience and attributes, which through one's choice Asha is either strengthened or weakened in the Daena. Traditionally, the manthras (similar to the Hindu sacred utterance mantra) prayer formulas, are believed to be of immense power and the vehicles of Asha and creation used to maintain good and fight evil. Daena should not be confused with the fundamental principle of Asha, believed to be the cosmic order which governs and permeates all existence, and the concept of which governed the life of the ancient Indo-Iranians. For these, asha was the course of everything observable—the motion of the planets and astral bodies; the progression of the seasons; and the pattern of daily nomadic herdsman life, governed by regular metronomic events such as sunrise and sunset, and was strengthened through truth-telling and following the Threefold Path.
All physical creation (getig) was thus determined to run according to a master plan—inherent to Ahura Mazda—and violations of the order (druj) were violations against creation, and thus violations against Ahura Mazda. This concept of asha versus the druj should not be confused with Western and especially Christian notions of good versus evil, for although both forms of opposition express moral conflict, the asha versus druj concept is more systemic and less personal, representing, for instance, chaos (that opposes order); or "uncreation", evident as natural decay (that opposes creation); or more simply "the lie" (that opposes truth and goodness). Moreover, in the role as the one uncreated creator of all, Ahura Mazda is not the creator of druj, which is "nothing", anti-creation, and thus (likewise) uncreated and developed as the antithesis of existence through choice.
In this schema of asha versus druj, mortal beings (both humans and animals) play a critical role, for they too are created. Here, in their lives, they are active participants in the conflict, and it is their spiritual duty to defend Asha, which is under constant assault and would decay in strength without counteraction. Throughout the Gathas, Zoroaster emphasizes deeds and actions within society and accordingly extreme asceticism is frowned upon in Zoroastrianism but moderate forms are allowed within.
Humata, Huxta, Huvarshta (Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds), the Threefold Path of Asha, is considered the core maxim of Zoroastrianism especially by modern practitioners. In Zoroastrianism, good transpires for those who do righteous deeds for its own sake, not for the search of reward. Those who do evil are said to be attacked and confused by the druj and are responsible for aligning themselves back to Asha by following this path. There is also a heavy emphasis on spreading happiness, mostly through charity, and respecting the spiritual equality and duty of both men and women.