What Is Zoroastrianism? Beliefs, History and Practice

Zoroastrianism is the ancient religion of Iran founded on the teaching of the prophet Zarathustra, known to the Greeks as Zoroaster, who proclaimed the worship of Ahura Mazda, the "Wise Lord", and called humanity to side with truth against the lie through good thoughts, good words and good deeds. It was the dominant faith of the great Persian empires for more than a thousand years and survives today among small communities in Iran, among the Parsis of India and in a worldwide diaspora. Its ideas of a cosmic struggle between good and evil, a final judgement and the renewal of the world have been compared with, and may have influenced, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Zarathustra and the Origins of Zoroastrianism§

Zarathustra was a priest of the ancient Iranian religion, which shared many gods, rituals and ideas with the Vedic religion of India. According to tradition he received a revelation from Ahura Mazda at the age of thirty, preached for years with little success, and finally converted a ruler named Vishtaspa, who protected the new faith. His teaching survives in seventeen hymns, the Gathas, composed in an archaic language so close to the Sanskrit of the Rigveda that many linguists date them to the late second millennium BCE. Older Western books often gave a date in the sixth century BCE, based on a later Zoroastrian tradition placing him "258 years before Alexander"; most specialists now regard that figure as artificial, though the question remains open. Where he lived is also debated, but the place names of the Avesta point to eastern Iran and Central Asia rather than western Persia. His life and teaching are examined in our article on Zarathustra and the Gathas.

Core Beliefs: Ahura Mazda, Truth and the Lie§

Zoroastrians believe in Ahura Mazda, the uncreated, wholly good and wise creator of all that is good. The world is the scene of a struggle between asha — truth, right order — and druj, the lie or disorder. In the Gathas, two primal spirits are described: the Bounteous Spirit (Spenta Mainyu), who chose the truth, and the Destructive Spirit (Angra Mainyu, later called Ahriman), who chose the lie. Evil, sickness and death are not created by Ahura Mazda but are the work of the destructive spirit and his demons (daevas).

Ahura Mazda is attended by six or seven Amesha Spentas, "Bounteous Immortals" — Good Mind, Best Truth, Desirable Dominion, Holy Devotion, Wholeness and Immortality — divine aspects that also preside over the elements of the good creation: cattle, fire, metal, earth, water and plants. Lesser divine beings, the yazatas ("ones worthy of worship"), include Mithra, Anahita and Sraosha. Each person, endowed with free will, must choose sides; Zoroastrian ethics is summed up in the triad humata, hukhta, hvarshta, good thoughts, good words, good deeds. After death the soul crosses the Chinvat Bridge, which widens for the righteous and narrows to a blade for the wicked. At the end of time a saviour, the Saoshyant, will raise the dead, evil will be destroyed, and the world will be made new in the Frashokereti, the "making wonderful". The debate over whether this is true dualism is discussed in Ahura Mazda and cosmic dualism.

Scripture: The Gathas and the Avesta§

The sacred texts of Zoroastrianism are collectively called the Avesta. They were composed in two stages of an ancient Iranian language, Avestan, and transmitted orally by priests for many centuries before being written down in a specially invented alphabet under the Sasanian dynasty, probably in the fifth or sixth century CE. Much was later lost; what survives is mainly liturgical, including the Yasna, the central act of worship, which contains the Gathas, the Yashts (hymns to individual divinities) and the Videvdad (law against the demons, dealing largely with purity). A large literature in Middle Persian (Pahlavi), including the Bundahishn on creation and the Denkard, preserves later theology. See the Avesta.

Worship and Practice: Fire, Prayer and Purity§

Zoroastrians pray facing a source of light — the sun, a lamp or the sacred fire — and fire, as the visible sign of Ahura Mazda's truth and energy, is the focus of worship. Contrary to a common misunderstanding, Zoroastrians do not worship fire as a god. Consecrated fires burn continuously in fire temples, the most sacred of which, the Atash Bahram, is ritually prepared from sixteen kinds of fire. Priests perform the Yasna and other rituals in a state of strict purity. These institutions are described in Zoroastrian fire temples and ritual.

Every Zoroastrian child is initiated, in a ceremony called navjote among the Parsis and sedreh-pushi in Iran, by receiving the sacred white shirt (sudreh) and cord (kusti), which is untied and retied with prayers several times a day. The religion places great emphasis on purity and on protecting the good elements of creation from pollution. Traditionally the dead, regarded as polluted by the demon of death, were exposed to vultures on stone towers (dakhmas, the "towers of silence") so as not to defile earth or fire; many communities now use burial or cremation. The year is marked by six seasonal festivals (gahambars) and by Nowruz, the New Year at the spring equinox, which is celebrated across the Iranian world.

Zoroastrianism and the Persian Empires§

The Achaemenid kings of Persia (about 550–330 BCE), from Cyrus the Great to Darius I and his successors, worshipped Ahura Mazda — Darius's inscriptions declare that he ruled "by the favour of Ahuramazda" — though scholars debate how far their religion was Zoroastrian in the later sense, since the inscriptions never name Zarathustra. Greek writers knew the Persian priests as the Magi and Zoroaster as the founder of their wisdom; the story of the Magi, from Herodotus to the Gospel of Matthew, is told in the Magi. The Parthians (about 247 BCE – 224 CE) also honoured Iranian deities, and the cult of the god Mithra spread west to inspire the Roman mysteries discussed in Mithra and Mithraism.

Under the Sasanian dynasty (224–651 CE) Zoroastrianism became an organised state church with a powerful priesthood. The high priest Kartir, in third-century inscriptions, boasts of founding fire temples and suppressing Jews, Christians, Manichaeans and others. The Avesta was written down and the Pahlavi theological literature began to take shape. The Sasanian period also saw the rise of Mani, whose religion drew heavily on Iranian dualism (see Manichaeism and Mandaeism), and debates over Zurvanism, a teaching that made Time the father of both spirits.

Survival, Diaspora and Influence on Other Religions§

The Arab conquest of Iran in the seventh century ended the Sasanian state. Over the following centuries most Iranians converted to Islam, and Zoroastrians became a dwindling minority, concentrated by the later Middle Ages around Yazd and Kerman. According to a tradition recorded in the Qissa-i Sanjan (1599), a group of Zoroastrians sailed to Gujarat in western India, probably between the eighth and tenth centuries, where their descendants became the Parsis ("Persians"). The Parsis prospered under British rule in Bombay, and today Zoroastrians live also in North America, Britain and Australia; their history is told in Parsis and modern Zoroastrianism.

Scholars have long asked whether Zoroastrian ideas — a supreme good God opposed by an evil spirit, hierarchies of angels and demons, individual judgement after death, bodily resurrection, a final saviour and a renewed world — influenced Judaism during and after the Persian period, and through it Christianity and Islam. Many see a real influence, particularly on apocalyptic thought and the figure of Satan (see the history of Satan and the Devil); others urge caution, since the relevant Zoroastrian texts are mostly preserved in late sources. In the West, Zoroaster also became a legendary sage of magic and astrology, credited with the Chaldean Oracles by Renaissance scholars, and Nietzsche borrowed his name for Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Frequently asked questions§

Is Zoroastrianism monotheistic or dualistic?§

Both descriptions are used. Zoroastrians worship one supreme God, Ahura Mazda, and many modern Zoroastrians describe their faith as monotheistic; but the religion also teaches a real opposition between Ahura Mazda's good creation and the destructive spirit Angra Mainyu, which scholars call ethical or cosmic dualism.

Do Zoroastrians worship fire?§

No. Fire is honoured as a symbol of Ahura Mazda's truth, light and purity and as the focus of prayer, much as other religions face a holy direction or object. The object of worship is Ahura Mazda.

How many Zoroastrians are there today?§

Estimates vary, but surveys of the 2010s suggested roughly 110,000 to 125,000 worldwide, with the largest communities in India and Iran, and others in North America, Britain and elsewhere. Some estimates are higher.

Who was Zoroaster?§

Zoroaster is the Greek form of Zarathustra, the Iranian prophet who founded the religion. He was a priest and poet whose hymns, the Gathas, survive; his dates are uncertain and debated by historians.

Sources and further reading§

• Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices — Mary Boyce, 1979
• Zoroastrianism: An Introduction — Jenny Rose, 2011
• The Spirit of Zoroastrianism — Prods Oktor Skjærvø, 2011
• The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism — Michael Stausberg & Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina (eds.), 2015
• The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism — R. C. Zaehner, 1961
• Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism — Mary Boyce (ed.), 1984