Create account Log in Article Talk Read View source View history Search Zoroastrianism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss Main page these issues on the talk page. Contents The neutrality of this article is disputed. (March 2012) Featured content This article may contain previously unpublished synthesis of Current events published material that conveys ideas not attributable to the Random article original sources. (March 2012) Donate to Wikipedia This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often Interaction accompanies biased or unverifiable information. (March 2012) Help Part of a series on About Wikipedia Zoroastrianism /ˌzɒroʊˈæstriənɪzəm/, also called Mazdaism Zoroastrianism Community portal and Magianism, is an ancient Iranian religion and a religious Recent changes philosophy. It was once the state religion of the Achaemenid, Contact page Parthian, and Sasanian empires. Estimates of the current number of Zoroastrians worldwide vary between 145,000 and Toolbox 2.6 million.[1] Print/export In the eastern part of ancient Persia more than a thousand The Faravahar, believed to be a depiction of a fravashi years BCE, a religious philosopher called Zoroaster simplified Languages Primary topics the pantheon of early Iranian gods[2] into two opposing forces: Afrikaans Ahura Mazda Ahura Mazda (Illuminating Wisdom) and Angra Mainyu Alemannisch Zarathustra (Destructive Spirit) which were in conflict. aša (asha) / arta Angels and demons ا open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com Angels and demons ا Aragonés Zoroaster's ideas led to a formal religion bearing his name by Amesha Spentas · Yazatas about the 6th century BCE and have influenced other later Asturianu Ahuras · Daevas Azərbaycanca religions including Judaism, Gnosticism, Christianity and Angra Mainyu [3] Беларуская Islam. Scripture and w orship Беларуская Avesta open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com Беларуская Avesta (тарашкевіца)​ Contents [hide] Gathas · Yasna Български 1 Philosophy Vendidad · Visperad Yashts · Khordeh Avesta 2 Terminology བོད་ཡིག Ab-Zohr Bosanski 3 Distinguishing characteristics The Ahuna Vairya Invocation Brezhoneg 3.1 Basic beliefs Fire Temples Català 3.2 Other characteristics Accounts and legends Чӑвашла 4 History Dēnkard · Bundahišn Book of Arda Viraf Cebuano 4.1 Origins Book of Jamasp Česky 4.2 Classical antiquity Story of Sanjan 4.3 Late antiquity Cymraeg History and culture Dansk 4.4 Middle Ages Zurvanism Deutsch 5 Relation to other religions and cultures Calendar · Festivals Marriage ްސަބިހެވިދ 6 Religious text Eschatology Eesti 6.1 Avestan Adherents 6.2 Middle Persian/Pahlavi Ελληνικά Zoroastrians in Iran Español 7 The Prophet Zoroaster Parsis · Iranis Esperanto 7.1 The vision of Zoroaster • • • Persecution of Zoroastrians Euskara 8 Principal beliefs 8.1 Creation of the universe Zoroastrianism portal ﻓﺎرﺳﯽ 8.2 Renovation and judgment Fiji Hindi V · T · E · 8.3 Head covering Français Frysk 9 Adherents 9.1 Iran and Central Asia Gaeilge 9.2 In South Asia Galego 9.3 Demographics ગુજરાતી 10 References 한국어 11 External links Հայերեն िहदी Hrvatski Philosophy open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com Ilokano In Zoroastrianism, the creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil originates from him. Thus, in Bahasa Indonesia Zoroastrianism good and evil have distinct sources, with evil (druj) trying to destroy the creation of Mazda Interlingua (asha), and good trying to sustain it. While Ahura Mazda is not immanent in the world, his creation is Íslenska represented by the Amesha Spentas and the host of other Yazatas, through whom the works of God are Italiano evident to humanity, and through whom worship of Mazda is ultimately directed. The most important texts עברית of the religion are those of the Avesta, of which a significant portion has been lost, and mostly only the ქართული liturgies of which have survived. The lost portions are known of only through references and brief quotations Қазақша in the later works, primarily from the 9th to 11th centuries. Kiswahili Kurdî In some form, it served as the national or state religion of a significant portion of the Iranian people for many Кыргызча centuries. The religion first dwindled when the Achaemenid Empire was invaded by Alexander the Great, [4] Ladino after which it collapsed and disintegrated and it was further gradually marginalized by Islam from the 7th [5] Latina century onwards with the decline of the Sassanid Empire. The political power of the pre-Islamic Iranian Latviešu dynasties lent Zoroastrianism immense prestige in ancient times, and some of its leading doctrines were Lietuvių adopted by other religious systems. It has no major theological divisions (the only significant schism is Limburgs based on calendar differences), but it is not uniform. Modern-era influences have a significant impact on Magyar individual and local beliefs, practices, values and vocabulary, sometimes merging with tradition and in other [6] Македонски cases displacing it. മലയാളം Terminology मराठी Bahasa Melayu The Oxford English Dictionary attests use of the term Zoroastrianism in 1874 in Archibald Sayce's Mirandés Principles of Comparative Philology.[7] The first surviving reference to Zoroaster in English scholarship is Мокшень attributed to Thomas Browne (1605–1682), who briefly refers to the prophet in his 1643 Religio Medici.[8] မနမဘသ The Oxford English Dictionary records 1743 (Warburton, Pope's Essay) as the earliest reference to Nederlands Zoroaster. However, his image is identified in Raphael's "School of Athens" by Giorgio Vasari in 1550, so 日本語 knowledge of his philosophy had evidently percolated into the Italian Renaissance. Norsk bokmål The term Mazdaism /ˈmæzdə.ɪzəm/ is a typical 19th century construct, taking Mazda- from the name Norsk nynorsk Ahura Mazda and adding the suffix -ism to suggest a belief system. The March 2001 draft edition of the Occitan Oxford English Dictionary also records an alternate form, Mazdeism, perhaps derived from the French Oʻzbekcha open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com Oʻzbekcha Mazdéisme, which first appeared in 1871. The Zoroastrian name of the religion is Mazdayasna, which ਪੰਜਾਬੀ combines Mazda- with the Avestan language word yasna, meaning "worship, devotion". ﭘﻨﺠﺎﺑﯽ In English, an adherent of the faith commonly refers to himself or herself as a Zoroastrian or as a ﭘﺘﻮ Piemontèis Zarathustrian. An older, but still widespread expression is Behdin, meaning "follower of Daena", for which Plattdüütsch "Good Religion" is one translation. In the Zoroastrian liturgy, the term Behdin is also used as a title for an Polski individual who has been formally inducted into the religion in a Navjote ceremony. Português Română Distinguishing characteristics Русиньскый Русский Basic beliefs Саха тыла This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help Scots improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced Simple English material may be challenged and removed. (February 2010) Slovenčina Slovenščina Zoroastrians believe that there is one universal, transcendent, supreme god, Ahura Mazda, or the 'Wise [9] Lord'.(Ahura means 'Being' and Mazda means 'Mind' in Avestan language). Zoroaster keeps the two ﮐﻮردی Српски / srpski attributes separate as two different concepts in most of the Gathas and also consciously uses a masculine Srpskohrvatski / word for one concept and a feminine for the other, as if to distract from an anthropomorphization of his српскохрватски divinity. Some Zoroastrians claim Ahura Mazda as the uncreated Creator to whom all worship is ultimately Basa Sunda directed, thereby formulating a panentheistic faith with a transcendent divinity, widely believed to have Suomi influenced the theology of the Ismaeli branch of Islam.[10] Other Zoroastrian scholars argue that since Svenska Zoroaster's divinity covers both being and mind as immanent entities, it is better described as a belief in an Tagalog immanent self-creating universe with consciousness as its special attribute, thereby putting Zoroastranism த in the pantheistic fold where it can be easily traced to its shared origin with Indian Brahmanism. In any Татарча/tatarça case, Ahura Mazda's creation—evident is widely agreed as asha, truth and order—is the antithesis of లుగు chaos, which is evident as druj, falsehood and disorder. The resulting conflict involves the entire universe, ไทย including humanity, which has an active role to play in the conflict.[10] Тоҷикӣ The religion states that active participation in life through good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and Türkçe to keep chaos at bay. This active participation is a central element in Zoroaster's concept of free will, and open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com to keep chaos at bay. This active participation is a central element in Zoroaster's concept of free will, and Українська Zoroastrianism rejects all forms of monasticism. Ahura Mazda will ultimately prevail over the evil Angra اردو Mainyu or Ahriman, at which point the universe will undergo a cosmic renovation and time will end. In the Tiếng Việt final renovation, all of creation—even the souls of the dead that were initially banished to "darkness"—will Võro be reunited in Ahura Mazda, returning to life in the undead form. At the end of time, a savior-figure (a Winaray Saoshyant) will bring about a final renovation of the world (frashokereti), in which the dead will be revived.[10] 粵語 In Zoroastrian tradition, the "chaotic" is represented by Angra Mainyu (also referred to as "Ahriman"), the Zazaki "Destructive Principle", while the benevolent is represented through Ahura Mazda's Spenta Mainyu, the Žemaitėška instrument or "Bounteous Principle" of the act of creation. It is through Spenta Mainyu that transcendental 中文 Ahura Mazda is immanent in humankind, and through which the Creator interacts with the world.