Zoroastrian Religion, History and Tradition

Williams, Alan, Sarah Stewart & Almut Hintze (eds.). 2016. Zoroastrian flame: Exploring religion, history and tradition. London: I.B. Tauris.

For many centuries, from the birth of the religion late in the second millennium BC to its influence on the Achaemenids and later adoption in the third century AD as the state religion of the Sasanian Empire, it enjoyed imperial patronage and profoundly shaped the culture of antiquity. The Magi of the New Testament most probably were Zoroastrian priests from the Iranian world, while the enigmatic figure of Zarathushtra (or Zoroaster) himself has exerted continual fascination in the West, influencing creative artists as diverse as Voltaire, Nietzsche, Mozart and Yeats. This authoritative volume brings together internationally recognised scholars to explore Zoroastrianism in all its rich complexity. Examining key themes such as history and modernity, tradition and scripture, art and architecture and minority status and religious identity, it places the modern Zoroastrians of Iran, and the Parsis of India, in their proper contexts. The book extends and complements the coverage of its companion volume, The Everlasting Flame.

• Philip Kreyenbroek: „Looking to the Past in the Gāthās and in later Zoroastrianism“
• Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina: „Knowledge, Power and Positionally across the Insider-Outsider Divide in the Study of Zoroastrianism“

Part II: Antiquity and Tradition

• Alberto Cantera: „The ‚Sacrifice‘ to Mazdā: Its Antiquity and Vareity“
• Almut Hintze: „A Zoroastrian Vision“
• Daster Firouze M. Kotwal: „Continuity, Controversy and Change: A Study of the Ritual Practice of the Bhagaria Parsis of Navsari“
• Antonio Panaino: „Betten Astral Cosmology and Astrology: The Mazdean Cycle of 12,000 Years and the Final Renovation of the World“
• Touraj Daryaee: “Refashioning the Zoroastrian Past: From Alexander to Islam“

Part III: Tradition and Culture

• James R. Russel: „On the Image of Zarathustra“
• Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis: „Ancient Iranian Motifs and Zoroastrian Iconography“
• Franz Grenet: „Extracts from a Calendar of Zoroastrian Feasts: A New Interpretation of the ‚Soltikoff‘ Bactrian Silver Plate in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris“
• Albert de Jong: „The Dēnkard and the Zoroastrians of Baghdad“
• Jamsheed K. Choksy: „Friendship in the Pahlavi Books“
• Ashk Dahlén: „Literary Interest in Zoroastrianism in tenth-Century Iran: The Case of Daqiqi’s Account of Goshtāsp and Zarathustra in the Shāhnāmeh“

Part IV: Modernity and Minorities

• Shernaz Cama: „The Sacred Armour of the Sudreh-Kusti and its Relevance in a Changing World“
• Jenny Rose: „Riding the (Revolutionary) Waves between Two Worlds: Parsi Involvement in the Transition from Old to New“
• Richard Foltz: „Co-opting the Prophet: The Politics of Kurdish and Tajik Claims to Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism“
• Khojaste P. Mistree: „Collision, Conflict and Accommodation: A Question of Survival and the Preservation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Identity“
• Sarah Stewart: „Ideas of Self-Definition among Zoroastrians in Post-Revolutionary Iran“