Religious influences on Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism and its beliefs and practices have been influenced by other religions, including the Babylonian and Hellenistic religions, Judaism, and Islam.

Influence of Elam religion

See also: Humban

In the Persepolis fortification archive, Humban appears more commonly than any other Elamite or Persian deity, with a total of twenty six mentions (for comparison, Auramazdā, an early form of Ahura Mazda, appears only ten times). It has been argued that in this period, he should be regarded as a Persian god, rather than a strictly Elamite one. Overall he received the most offerings of all deities attested in textual sources.The amount of grain offered to him by the Achaemenid administration was more than thrice as big as that offered to Auramazdā. Offerings to him are designated as bakadaušiyam in multiple cases. This term, while Elamite, is a loan from Old Persian, and can be translated as "(feast) of the offering to (a) god". It accordingly likely designated a public feast. Similar celebrations are attested only for a small number of other deities. Wouter Henkelman suggests that the references to bakadaušiyam of Humban are therefore likely to reflect his popularity and status as a royal god.most locations where Humban was worshiped in the Achemenid period were towns located close to the royal road network.

Mary Boyce went as far as suggesting that the prominence of Humban in the Neo-Elamite period influenced the position of Ahura Mazda in later religious traditions of the Persians.

Influence of Babylonian and Greek religions

Khvarenah

See also: Khvarenah

Khvarenah is an Avestan word for a Zoroastrian concept literally denoting "glory" or "splendour" but understood as a divine mystical force or power projected upon and aiding the appointed. The neuter noun thus also connotes "(divine) royal glory", reflecting the perceived divine empowerment of kings.

According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica, "The fundamental motif of Iranian kingship, a hereditary dynastic charisma, which, could however be lost, was at the root of ideas that were widespread in the Hellenistic and Roman periods." For example, as the tyche basileos, fortuna regia, the saving grace (luck) of fortune of a king; and probably also the royal farrah in the tyche of the various Hellenistic rulers of the Seleucid and Arsacid periods as well as of the Kushan kings.

Because the concepts of khvarenah/khwarrah and Aramaic gd(y) circulated in the same areas and have many characteristics in common, it is possible that the Mesopotamian concept influenced the Zoroastrian one. On the other hand, khvarenah may also be a facet of Zoroastrianism's Indo-Iranian cultural inheritance since khvarenah appears to have a parallel in Indic tejas, in which kingship is likewise associated with the bright splendor and power of light and fire.

Emergence of Zurvanism

See also: Zurvanism

Some scholars believe that the emergence of Zurvanism was due to the contact of Zoroastrianism with the Babylonian and Greek religions, but also some believe that Zurvan was a god of the Medes religion and his worship continued in Zoroastrianism.

Influence of Judaism

Saoshyant

See also: Saoshyant

Dr. Ardeshir Khorshedian, a Mobad and the head of the Mobidan Association of Tehran, described the idea of Saoshyant as having been developed by the Zoroastrians and that the idea that Saoshyant is the promised one came from the Jews, but with the Islamic conquest of Persia the idea became more widespread among the Zoroastrians.

Also Cyrus Niknam, a Mobad, writer and researcher of ancient Iranian culture, says that the idea of a savior is a wrong interpretation by the priests of the Sassanian era and that in reality there is no savior but rather a correct interpretation of the word Saoshyant is the useful from the sacred.

The idea that Zoroastrianism was influenced by other religions has been put forward by many scholars, like the Catholic Encyclopedia, and the scholar James Darmesteter.

Farhang Mehr has said that the miracles attributed in the Pahlavi texts to Ashu Zarathustra or to the saviors after him do not exist in the Gatha and that the Denkard, composed in the 10th century about the miracles attributed to the birth of Zoroaster, and his dialogue with Ahura Mazda and Amesha Spenta, as he believes that these texts were written centuries after the demise of the Sassanids and the reason for its composition lies in the competition of the Abrahamic religions that began to gain political supremacy in the region, so Zoroastrianism began to attribute miracles to Zoroaster that were equal to and on a par with the miracles of the prophets of the Abrahamic religions.

Zoroaster's life stories

The Encyclopedia Iranica indicates that the stories of Zoroaster's life were distorted by quoting stories from Christianity and Judaism and attributing them to Zoroaster. However, most of the quotations were from Islam after the Muslims entered Persia, as it was a means for Zoroastrian clerics to strengthen their religion.

Quote from the Torah

There is documentation of the practice of human sacrifice dating back to the ninth century. During this period, the Denkard (literally, Religious Works) was composed, which serves as a kind of encyclopedia and is the longest and most important religious work in Pahlavi literature since the early Middle Ages. According to a legend in the book, the person who wrote the biblical Ten Commandments was a mythical figure/entity named Shahak (Persian: Ḍahak), who is already mentioned in the Avesta and is identified with Ahriman and the forces of evil. The book treats the biblical Ten Commandments in a distorted manner, presenting them as a contrast to the Ten Commandments given by Yama, who is identified with the forces of good. Among other things, it attributes to the Ten Commandments instructions for human sacrifice. Scholars have speculated that this may be a quotation from the biblical story of Jephthah's daughter. However, in most of the other instructions, no plausible connection with the Jewish commandments has been found.

Influence of Christianity

Parsis

Main articles: Parsis and Ilm-e-Khshnoom

In 1860s and 1870s, the linguist Martin Haug interpreted Zoroastrian scripture in Christian terms, and compared the yazatas to the angels of Christianity. In this scheme, the Amesha Spentas are the arch-angel retinue of Ahura Mazda, with the hamkars as the supporting host of lesser angels.

The geographical population distribution of modern and ancient Parsi.

At the time Haug wrote his translations, the Parsi (i.e. Indian Zoroastrian) community was under intense pressure from English and American missionaries, who severely criticized the Zoroastrians for—as John Wilson portrayed it in 1843—"polytheism", which the missionaries argued was much less worth than their own "monotheism". At the time, Zoroastrianism lacked theologians of its own, and so the Zoroastrians were poorly equipped to make their own case. In this situation, Haug's counter-interpretation came as a welcome relief, and was (by-and-large) gratefully accepted as legitimate.

Haug's interpretations were subsequently disseminated as Zoroastrian ones, which then eventually reached the west where they were seen to corroborate Haug. Like most of Haug's interpretations, this comparison is today so well entrenched that a gloss of 'yazata' as 'angel' is almost universally accepted; both in publications intended for a general audience as well as in (non-philological) academic literature.

Influence of Islam

The Danish orientalist Arthur Christensen, in his book Iran During The Sassanid Era, mentioned that the sources dating back to the era of the Sasanian state in ancient Persian that refer to the Zoroastrian doctrine do not match the sources that appeared after the collapse of the state, such as the Pahlavi source and others. The reason is that because of the fall of the Sasanian state, the Zoroastrian clerics tried to save their religion from extinction through modifying it to resemble the religion of Muslims to retain followers in the Zoroastrian religion.

Gherardo Gnoli comments that the Islamic conquest of Persia caused a huge impact on the Zoroastrian doctrine:

"After the Islamic conquest of Persia and the migration of many Zoroastrians to India and after being exposed to Islamic and Christian propaganda, the Zoroastrians, especially the Parsis in India, went so far as to deny dualism and consider themselves completely monotheists. After several transformations and developments, one of the distinctive features of the Zoroastrian religion gradually faded away and almost disappeared from modern Zoroastrianism."

Syncretism Zoroastrianism and Islam

See also: Syncretism

Behafarid revolution

Main article: Behafarid

Behafarid was an 8th-century Persian Zoroastrian heresiarch who started a religious peasant revolt with elements from Zoroastrianism and Islam. He believed in Zoroaster and upheld all Zoroastrian institutions. His followers prayed seven times a day facing the Sun, prohibited intoxicants, and kept their hair long and disallowed sacrifices of cattle except when they were decrepit. His revolt was quelled by the Abbasid general Abu Muslim, and he was executed by hanging. His followers, however, believed that he would descend again. Some of his followers joined the Ustadh Sis movement.

Ustadh Sis revolution

See also: Ustadh Sis

The Ustad Sis movement is considered a continuation of the Bhavrid movement, where he claimed prophethood and launched a revolution, but was also suppressed according to Shahreshtani, there is a group among the Zoroastrians called the Saisani and the Behfridi. Some researchers have concluded that Shahreshtani mentioned these two names without any difference, and that their views are the same or at least similar. The Stadesis movement was not only political, but also had a religious aspect.

Khurramites revolution

A map showing Sinbadh's revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate in 137 AH / 755 AD, which ended with the victory of the Abbasids and the elimination of his followers. When Sinbadh fled to Tabaristan, he was killed by a relative of Asbahbadh, the ruler of Tabaristan.

See also: Khurramites

The Khurramites were founded by the Persian Sunpadh al-Majusi, who was a follower of Abu Muslim al-Khurasani. The Khurramites are a mixture of Muslim Shia and Zoroastrian Mazdakism; one of the most important reasons for the Khurramite revolt was revenge for the execution of Abu Muslim al-Khurasani, who was killed by Abu Jaafar al-Mansur.

Al-Muqanna revolution

Al-Muqanna was a Persian prophet, who led a revolt in that province against the Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdi. Al-Muqnad preached a doctrine that combined elements of Islam and Zoroastrianism, and he continued the war for nearly three years in the field and an additional two years in his fortress at Sanam before he was finally defeated and committed suicide.

Azarkeivanian

Azarkeivanian is a Zoroastrianism sect that emerged in the Safavid state, founded by Azar Kayvan, who was a student of Shihab al-Din Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardi. The beliefs of Kayvan and his disciples were somewhat Sufist with a mixture of Illuminationism and some Indian practices of yoga.

Influence of Hinduism

Influence on Parsis

Fasting in Zoroastrianism is considered forbidden because it weakens the body and that is sin in Zoroastrianism, and many followers hate fasting, but the Parsees were influenced by the Hindus, who took the idea of fasting at a funeral.

External links

• BABYLONIA ii. Babylonian Influences on Iran

Sources

• Dhalla, Maneckji Nusserwanji (1914), Zoroastrian Theology, New York: OUP
• Edwards, E. (1927), "Sacrifice (Iranian)", in Hastings, James (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. XI, Edinburgh: T & T Clark
• Gray, Louis H. (1927), "Jews in Zoroastrianism", in Hastings, James (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. VII, Edinburgh: T & T Clark
• Luhrmann, Tanya M. (August 2002), "Evil in the Sands of Time: Theology and Identity Politics among the Zoroastrian Parsis", The Journal of Asian Studies, 61 (3): 861–889, doi:10.2307/3096349, ISSN 0021-9118, JSTOR 3096349, S2CID 163092265