What is the history of Zoroastrianism in Iran?

Answer 1

First taught amongst nomads on the Asian steppes around 3500 years ago, Zoroastrianism is one of the earliest revealed religions and is of enormous importance in the history of religions. It has links with the ancient Vedic beliefs of India and even possibly to a remote Indo-European past. It has influenced northern Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam and was the state religion in Iran from 6th century BC to 7th century AD. Most information about prophet Zoroaster (Zarathushtra, Zardosht), son of Pourushaspa, of the Spitaman family comes from the Gathas, 17 hymns which were composed by the prophet and were preserved over the centuries by the Zoroastrian community. Gathas are inspired passionate utterances many addressed directly to God and their poetic form is the most ancient in Iranian literary works. The language is traced back to Indo-European times through Norse parallels. His teachings were handed down orally from generation to generation. They might have been written down since Parthian period but all that is left is from the Sassanian times, in Middle Persian, also called Pahlavi.

In the Gathas he calls himself a ‘zaotar’ a fully qualified priest and a ‘manthra’, one able to compose ‘manthra’ (Sanskrit mantra), inspired utterances of power. Training for the priesthood started around age 7 and maturity was reached at 15 and he was probably made a priest at this age. He also calls himself a ‘vaedemna’ or ‘one who knows’ and spent years in a wandering quest for truth. The language of Gathas is archaic and is related to the Indian Rigveda (about 1700 BC). The best educated guess for Zoroaster’s date, based on linguistic evidence is between 1700 - 1500 BC. In Gathas and in later Pahlavi works it is mentioned that he was thirty when revelation came to him. "He went down to a river to fetch water, there he encountered a radiant figure introducing himself as Vohu Manah ‘Good Purpose’. The light led him to ‘Ahura Mazda’ the Lord of Wisdom and five other radiant figures, before whom he did not see his own shadow upon the earth, and it was then that he received his revelation".