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RELIGIONS of IRAN from Prehistory to the Present

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RELIGIONS of IRAN from Prehistory to the Present RELIGIONS OF IRAN from prehistory to the present Richard Foltz RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd iii 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM A Oneworld book Published by Oneworld Publications 2013 Copyright © Richard Foltz 2013 The right of Richard Foltz to be identifi ed as the Author of this work has been asserted by him For Manya in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved Copyright under Berne Convention A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library Parts of Chapters 15 and 19 previously appeared in an article entitled “Zoroastrians in Iran: What Future in the Homeland?”, Middle East Journal 65/1 (2011): 73-84. 978-1-78074-307-3 (hardback) 978-1-78074-308-0 (paperback) 978-1-78074-309-7 (ebook) Typeset by Cenveo Publishing Services, India Printed and bound in the US by Lake Book Manufacturing Inc. Oneworld Publications 10 Bloomsbury Street London WC1B 3SR England RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd iv 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd v 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM A Oneworld book Published by Oneworld Publications 2013 Copyright © Richard Foltz 2013 The right of Richard Foltz to be identifi ed as the Author of this work has been asserted by him For Manya in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved Copyright under Berne Convention A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library Parts of Chapters 15 and 19 previously appeared in an article entitled “Zoroastrians in Iran: What Future in the Homeland?”, Middle East Journal 65/1 (2011): 73-84. 978-1-78074-307-3 (hardback) 978-1-78074-308-0 (paperback) 978-1-78074-309-7 (ebook) Typeset by Cenveo Publishing Services, India Printed and bound in the US by Lake Book Manufacturing Inc. Oneworld Publications 10 Bloomsbury Street London WC1B 3SR England RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd iv 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd v 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM Contents Preface ix A Note on Transliteration xvii Historical Timeline xix List of Illustrations xxi part 1 ancient iranian religions 1 1 The Origins of Iranian Religion 3 2 Mithra and Mithraism 19 3 In Search of Zoroaster 32 4 Mazda and His Rivals 44 5 Iranian Goddesses (Manya Saadi-nejad) 56 part 2 foreign religions in iran 75 6 Judaism 77 7 Buddhism 94 8 Christianity 106 9 Mandaeism 125 part 3 challenges to sasanian zoroastrianism 135 10 Manichaeism 137 11 Undercurrents of Resistance: Mazdak and His Successors 153 12 Islam 164 part 4 islamic iran 179 13 Persian Sufi sm 181 14 Shi‘ism 192 15 Zoroastrianism After Islam 207 16 Two Kurdish Sects: The Yezidis and the Yaresan 218 RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd vi 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd vii 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM Contents Preface ix A Note on Transliteration xvii Historical Timeline xix List of Illustrations xxi part 1 ancient iranian religions 1 1 The Origins of Iranian Religion 3 2 Mithra and Mithraism 19 3 In Search of Zoroaster 32 4 Mazda and His Rivals 44 5 Iranian Goddesses (Manya Saadi-nejad) 56 part 2 foreign religions in iran 75 6 Judaism 77 7 Buddhism 94 8 Christianity 106 9 Mandaeism 125 part 3 challenges to sasanian zoroastrianism 135 10 Manichaeism 137 11 Undercurrents of Resistance: Mazdak and His Successors 153 12 Islam 164 part 4 islamic iran 179 13 Persian Sufi sm 181 14 Shi‘ism 192 15 Zoroastrianism After Islam 207 16 Two Kurdish Sects: The Yezidis and the Yaresan 218 RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd vi 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd vii 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM viii Religions of Iran part 5 the impact of modernity 229 17 The Bábí Movement and the Bahá’í Faith 231 18 The Islamic Republic 247 19 Iranian Zoroastrians Today 256 Conclusion: The Ever-Expanding Pool of Iranian Religion 269 Preface Endnotes 271 Bibliography 297 Index 309 his book emerged from a desire to build and expand upon my earlier work, Spirituality in the Land of the Noble: How Iran TShaped the World’s Religions, which appeared in 2004. The primary aim of that book was to spark the interest of the general reader in Iran’s contributions to world history; it was therefore deliberately concise in its use of the available data, while aiming for a certain accessibility of style. The present volume, twice the length of that earlier work, seeks to probe more deeply and widely, devoting ten new chapters to various aspects of Iranian religious history while revising and expanding the original nine. In the years since the publication of Spirituality, my interest in exploring Iran’s place in the history of religions has not waned. During this time much new research has appeared, fresh questions have been raised, longstanding notions revised. Nevertheless, the importance of Iran remains for the most part sadly underestimated in the history of religions. What I offer here is an attempt to provide an enriched introductory resource for those interested in trying to rectify this imbalance. Another issue I hope to redress is the oft-seen tendency, shared by those who study Iran and Iranians themselves, to divide Iran’s history into two distinct periods, with the Arab invasions of the mid-seventh century serving as the watershed. I believe this division is a somewhat artifi cial one, obscuring a considerable degree of cultural continuity. The Islamization of Iran surely represents an important transformation, but it was hardly sudden (it took at least three centuries), and over the long term it invigorated Iranian culture more than it damaged it. Iranian history, moreover, is full of transformations, some of which were arguably just as momentous. Many were instigated by similar traumas infl icted by foreign armies— Macedonian, Turkish, Mongol—yet over time became just as productive.1 This book is presented fi rst and foremost as a gesture of love and appreciation to the Iranian people and the rich culture they have engendered over the past three thousand years. My own immersion in this culture dates back only a little over a quarter century and was both unplanned RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd viii 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd ix 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM viii Religions of Iran part 5 the impact of modernity 229 17 The Bábí Movement and the Bahá’í Faith 231 18 The Islamic Republic 247 19 Iranian Zoroastrians Today 256 Conclusion: The Ever-Expanding Pool of Iranian Religion 269 Preface Endnotes 271 Bibliography 297 Index 309 his book emerged from a desire to build and expand upon my earlier work, Spirituality in the Land of the Noble: How Iran TShaped the World’s Religions, which appeared in 2004. The primary aim of that book was to spark the interest of the general reader in Iran’s contributions to world history; it was therefore deliberately concise in its use of the available data, while aiming for a certain accessibility of style. The present volume, twice the length of that earlier work, seeks to probe more deeply and widely, devoting ten new chapters to various aspects of Iranian religious history while revising and expanding the original nine. In the years since the publication of Spirituality, my interest in exploring Iran’s place in the history of religions has not waned. During this time much new research has appeared, fresh questions have been raised, longstanding notions revised. Nevertheless, the importance of Iran remains for the most part sadly underestimated in the history of religions. What I offer here is an attempt to provide an enriched introductory resource for those interested in trying to rectify this imbalance. Another issue I hope to redress is the oft-seen tendency, shared by those who study Iran and Iranians themselves, to divide Iran’s history into two distinct periods, with the Arab invasions of the mid-seventh century serving as the watershed. I believe this division is a somewhat artifi cial one, obscuring a considerable degree of cultural continuity. The Islamization of Iran surely represents an important transformation, but it was hardly sudden (it took at least three centuries), and over the long term it invigorated Iranian culture more than it damaged it. Iranian history, moreover, is full of transformations, some of which were arguably just as momentous. Many were instigated by similar traumas infl icted by foreign armies— Macedonian, Turkish, Mongol—yet over time became just as productive.1 This book is presented fi rst and foremost as a gesture of love and appreciation to the Iranian people and the rich culture they have engendered over the past three thousand years. My own immersion in this culture dates back only a little over a quarter century and was both unplanned RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd viii 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM RICHARD-FOLTZ -130602_FM.indd ix 8/17/2013 9:59:13 AM x Religions of Iran Preface xi and unforeseen. The experience has taught me, among other things, a very TAXONOMY AND HISTORICAL APPROACH Iranian respect for the vagaries of life and the ultimate ineluctability of Fate. The human mind inevitably circumscribes reality in order to conceptualize I have learned much during the past twenty-six years from my Iranian it. To process an idea we have to fi t it into a framework, although in teachers, friends, acquaintances, colleagues and students. But for getting doing so we necessarily forfeit the big picture.
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