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On the Orthodoxy of Sasanian Zoroastrianism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Mary Boyce
Mary Boyce
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, London
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Extract

It is some time since a book has been published which focuses entirely on Sasanian Zoroastrianism, and one from Professor Shaul Shaked, who has studied the religion at this period for many years, is sure of eager attention. The Sasanian epoch naturally attracts scholars approaching Zoroastrian studies from the Persian or Semitic fields; and the author points moreover to its interest for students of religions more generally, since this was a time when a number of other faiths were jostling for place within Iran, from Judaism, Buddhism and Christianity to the ill-fated but then vigorously expanding Manichaeism, and lesser ones of diverse hues. All this, and ‘an openness to Greek scientific and philosophical ideas’, made for as ‘lively and diversified a period of intellectual and religious activity as could ever be found in ancient Iran’ (p. 12).

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , February 1996 , pp. 11 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1996

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References

1 Dualism in transformation: varieties of religion in Sasanian Iran (Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion, XVI), 1991, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1994.Google Scholar

2 However, because of the vigorous work of reformists (largely by origin European-inspired) Parsis began to change their beliefs under Darmesteter's eyes (see Massé, H., ‘Rencontres et entretiens de James Darmesteter et des Parsis’, Bulletin of the Iran Cultural Foundation, 1, 1970, 107–19, at 113)Google Scholar; and by now even the most traditionalist of Iranian villages have adopted to a large extent reformist views.

3 Kingsley, P., ‘The Greek origin of the sixth-century dating of Zoroaster’, BSOAS, LIII, 2, 1990, 245–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 This makes the want of an index (which Professor Shaked tells me is due to an oversight) all the more felt.

5 Geldner, K. F., ‘Awestalitteratur’ in Grundriss der Iranischen Philologie, Geiger, W. und Kuhn, E. (ed.), (Strassburg, 1896–1904), Bd.II, 46–52.Google Scholar

6 Christensen, A., L'Iran sous les Sassanides, 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1944)Google Scholar, who was the first to demonstrate that the Sasanian kings were Zurvanites, suggested (p. 437) that this fatalistic heresy created a weakness at the heart of Sasanian Zoroastrianism, and that this contributed to decadence and hence to the victory of the Arabs; but the idea of a swift collapse by Persia and rapid general conversion to Islam can no longer be sustained (cf. Shaked, 3).

7 He is therefore opposed to the view, strongly championed by Gnoli, G. (notably in his The idea of Iran, Serie Orientale Roma, LXII, Rome, 1989)Google Scholar, that the Sasanian kings ‘promoted the Zoroastrian religion as part of their national perception’, see S., 109–10.

8 On this see most recently Boyce in Boyce, M. and Grenet, F., A history of Zoroastrianism, III (Leiden, 1991), 66, n. 71.Google Scholar

9 Dādestān ī Mēnōg ī Xrad, ch. XV. 16–24; Tansar Nāma, ed. Minovi, M., p. 17, tr. Boyce, , p. 42.Google Scholar

10 This was emphasized with regard to these Syriac Christian passages by Christensen, , L'Iran, 145.Google Scholar

11 Le Zend-Avesta (Paris, 1892–1893, repr. 1960), Vol. 2, 691–708.Google Scholar The most recent edition is Taraf, Z., Der Awesta-Text Niyāyiš (Munich, 1981).Google Scholar

12 References apud Boyce, Zoroastrians: their religious beliefs and practices (London, 1979, revised 3rd repr. 1988), 122–123.Google Scholar

13 Qissa-ye Sanjān, II. 165, 170, from the transcription and translation being prepared by Dr.Williams, A. V.Google Scholar; cf. the excerpt from the translation by Hodivala, S. H. in Boyce, M. (ed.), Textual sources for the study of Zoroastrianism (Manchester, 1984; Chicago, 1990), 120.Google Scholar

14 For discussion and references see Boyce and Grenet, Hist. Zoroastrianism, III, 62–5, 93–4. Shaked (95, n. 73)says that previously (Hist. Zoroastrianism, II (Leiden 1982), 222–225)Google Scholar I proposed seeing the name ‘Ataš Bahrām’ as ‘reflecting the general noun for “victory”, unconnected to the name of the deity’. In fact I suggested that at the time of their founding the temple fires were given the Avestan epithet vƏrƏϑrayan- ‘victorious’, which in due course, as pronunciations changed, would have fallen together with developments of the substantive vƏrƏϑrayan- ‘victory’, and so have become identical with the yazad's name. In later times such a fire is said to be installed pad warahrānīh ‘victoriously’, and is addressed as pērōzgar ‘victorious’; and there are no rites in its consecration or maintenance to associate it with the yazad Bahrām. For these reasons Dastur Firoze Kotwal has approved this explanation of the name's origin.

15 For references see Boyce, , ‘Iranian Festivals’, in Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(2), (ed.) Yarshater, E. (Cambridge, 1983), 793.Google Scholar

16 See Boyce, apud, Hist. Zoroastrianism, II, 184–185.Google Scholar

17 See Boyce, , ‘On Mithra's part in Zoroastrianism’, BSOAS, XXXII, 1, 1969, 26–27Google Scholar, drawing on the authority of Dastur (then Ervad) Firoze Kotwal, and through him on that of his grandfather, Ervad Pirojshah Adarji Kotwal, a noted ritual priest.

18 Boyce, , Zoroastrianism: its antiquity and constant vigour (Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, 7, Costa Mesa, 1992), 87.Google Scholar

19 This is the convincing interpretation of Gershevitch, I., ‘Die Sonne das Beste’, in Hinnells, J. (ed.), Mithraic Studies (Manchester, 1975), I, 87.Google Scholar Gershevitch suggested that the Mithra of this compound was the Saka sun god, adopted by the Medes. See contra Boyce in Boyce, and Grenet, , Hist. Zoroastrianism, III, 471–475, 482.Google Scholar

20 Dārāb Hormazyār's Rivāyat, ed. Unvala, M. R., (Bombay, 1922), II, 18.1–4Google Scholar; Dhabhar, B. N., tr., The Persian Rivayats of Hormazyar Framarz (Bombay, 1932), 403.Google Scholar—On what follows above see further Boyce, , ‘Dar-e Mehr’, Encyclopaedia Iranica, VI, 669–670Google Scholar (where by an oversight only Meillet's earlier suggestion of an Old Persian *miϑryāna is given as the origin for Arm. mehean).

21 The proper name ‘Mihr-Ohrmazd’ cannot be taken as evidence, because the rule in such compounds is that the shorter component always comes first.

22 cf. Shaked's earlier remarks in ‘Mihr the Judge’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, II, 1980, 15.Google Scholar

23 cf. notably, Henning, W. B., ‘An astronomical chapter of the Bundahishn’, JRAS, 1942, 229–248 at 230 (= his Selected Papers, II, Acta Iranica, 15, 1977, 96).Google Scholar

24 cf. Boyce in Boyce, and Grenet, , Hist. Zoroastrianism, III, 265 with n. 11.Google Scholar

25 Lommel, H., Die Religion Zarathustras nach dem Awesta dargestellt (Tübingen, 1930, repr. 1971), 219–222.Google Scholar

26 This was emphasized by Lommel, loc. cit.

27 See Pines, S., ‘Eschatology and the concept of time in the Slavonic Book of Enoch’, Numen, Supp.XVIII, 1970, 78Google Scholar; Boyce, and Grenet, , Hist. Zoroastrianism, III, 393–394.Google Scholar

28 Ch. 32.5 (ed. A. V. Williams, Copenhagen, 1990; text, I, 138/39; tr., II, 59 with commentary, 186).

29 Ch. 48.97 (ed. Williams, I, 188/89; II, 87).

30 Tavernier, J. B., Collections of travels through Turky into Persia and the East-Indies (London, 1684) I, 165Google Scholar; cited by Firby, N. K., European travellers and their perceptions of Zoroastrians in the 17th and 18th centuries (AMI Ergänzungsband, 14, Berlin, 1988), 43.Google Scholar

31 Boyce, Zoroastrianism: its antiquity …, 170.

32 Tavernier, op.cit., 164 (Firby, loc.cit.); cf. Dādestān ī dēnīg, Pt. I, ed. T. D. Anklesaria, Purs. 31.13 (16), tr. E. W. West, SBE, XVIII, 74 with n. 1; and Boyce, , Hist. Zoroastrianism, I, 243, n. 63 (where the reference is to be corrected).Google Scholar

33 Pahl. Riv. Dd, ch. 48.99–102 (ed. Williams, I, 188/89; II, 87–8).

34 Dēnkard VI, E34a (ed. Shaked, The wisdom of the Sasanian sages (Boulder, Colorado, 1979), 202/203.Google Scholar

35 Dēnkard VI, 77–8 (ed. Shaked, op. cit., 28/29).

36 See Schwartz, M., ‘The old Eastern Iranian world view according to the Avesta’, in Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2, (ed.) Gershevitch, I. (Cambridge, 1985), 641.Google Scholar

37 See Boyce, Zoroastrianism: its antiquity …, 53.