The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism

This is the first ever comprehensive English-language survey of Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest living religions

• Evenly divided into five thematic sections beginning with an introduction to Zoroaster/Zarathustra and concluding with the intersections of Zoroastrianism and other religions
• Reflects the global nature of Zoroastrian studies with contributions from 34 international authorities from 10 countries
• Presents Zoroastrianism as a cluster of dynamic historical and contextualized phenomena, reflecting the current trend to move away from textual essentialism in the study of religion

Notes on Contributors ix

Acknowledgments xi

Aims and Scope xiii

A Note on Transcriptions xix

Abbreviations xxiii

Introduction: Scholarship on Zoroastrianism 1
Michael Stausberg and Yuhan Sohrab‐Dinshaw Vevaina

Part I Zarathustra Revisited 19

1 Zarathustra’s Time and Homeland: Geographical Perspectives 21
Frantz Grenet

2 Zarathustra’s Time and Homeland: Linguistic Perspectives 31
Almut Hintze

3 Interpretations of Zarathustra and the Gat̄ hās 39 a The Gat̄ has̄ 39
Helmut Humbach

b The Gāthās, Said to Be of Zarathustra 44
Jean Kellens

c Dimensions of the Gāthās as Poetry 51
Martin Schwartz

d The Gāthās as Myth and Ritual 59
Prods Oktor Skjærvø

4 Zarathustra: Post-Gathic Trajectories 69
Michael Stausberg

Part II Periods, Regions, and Contexts 83

5 Religion and Politics in Pre‐Islamic Iran 85
Albert de Jong

6 Zoroastrianism under Islamic Rule 103
Touraj Daryaee

7 Armenian and Georgian Zoroastrianism 119
Albert de Jong

8 Zoroastrianism in Central Asia 129
Frantz Grenet

9 Zoroastrianism in the Far East 147
Takeshi Aoki

10 The Parsis 157
John R. Hinnells

11 Zoroastrians in Modern Iran 173
Michael Stausberg

12 The Zoroastrian Diaspora 191
John R. Hinnells

Part III Structures, Discourses, and Dimensions 209

13 Theologies and Hermeneutics 211
Yuhan Sohrab‐Dinshaw Vevaina

14 Cosmologies and Astrology 235
Antonio Panaino

15 Myths, Legends, Eschatologies 259
Carlo G. Cereti

16 Gender 273
Jenny Rose

17 Law in Pre‐Modern Zoroastrianism 289
Maria Macuch

18 Law and Modern Zoroastrians 299
Mitra Sharafi

Part IV Practices and Sites 313

19 Ethics 315
Alberto Cantera

20 Prayer 333
Firoze M. Kotwal and Philip G. Kreyenbroek

21 Purity and Pollution / The Body 345
Alan V. Williams

22 Rituals 363
Michael Stausberg and Ramiyar P. Karanjia

23 Festivals and the Calendar 379
Jenny Rose

24 Religious Sites and Physical Structures 393
Jamsheed K. Choksy

Part V Intersections 407

25 Early India and Iran 409
Prods Oktor Skjærvø

26 Judaism 423
Yaakov Elman and Shai Secunda

27 The Classical World 437
Martin L. West

28 From Miθra to Roman Mithras 451
Richard L. Gordon

29 Christianity 457
Marco Frenschkowski

30 Manichaeism in Iran 477
Manfred Hutter

31 Islam 491
Shaul Shaked

32 The Yezidi and Yarsan Traditions 499
Philip G. Kreyenbroek

33 The Bahā’ı ̄ Faith 505
Moojan Momen

Part VI Primary Sources 517

34 Primary Sources: Avestan and Pahlavi 519
Miguel Ángel Andrés‐Toledo

35 Primary Sources: New Persian 529
Daniel J. Sheffield

36 Primary Sources: Gujarati 543
Daniel J. Sheffield

Bibliography 555

Index of People, Places, and Topics 629

Index Locorum 655

Michael Stausberg is Professor of Religion at the University of Bergen and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. His books in English include Religion and Tourism: Crossroads, Destinations, and Encounters (2011), Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism (2008), and as editor or co-editor Defining Magic (2013), The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religions (2011), Contemporary Theories of Religion (2009) and Theorizing Rituals (2 vols., 2006/2007). Dr. Stausberg has published widely on Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism in German; he is co-editor, with Steven Engler, of the journal Religion.

Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina is a Lecturer in Religious Studies at Stanford University. After completing his Ph.D. in 2007 at Harvard University, he served as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Undergraduate Core Curriculum and as the Lecturer on Old Iranian in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Dr. Vevaina is the author of several articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes and in 2010 he received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, U.S.A. He is currently working on a book project on Zoroastrian hermeneutics in Late Antiquity.

Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest living religions. It is widely considered by scholars to have had a profound impact on the religious history of the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and the development of the field of comparative religions.

This book represents the first comprehensive English-language survey of Zoroastrianism ever published. With contributions from 33 international scholars from 10 countries, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism is evenly divided into six thematic sections, containing discussion of Zoroaster/Zarathustra, historical and regional surveys, topical and thematic discussions, analyses of the intersection of Zoroastrianism and nine other religions and cultures, and concluding with a survey of primary sources.

Reflecting the current trend in the study of religion to move away from purely textualist and essentialist views of religious traditions, the Companion presents Zoroastrianism as a cluster of dynamic historical and contextualized phenomena. This accessible and interdisciplinary handbook of Zoroastrian studies will be essential reading for anyone interested in better understanding one of the world’s oldest and most influential religions.