Zoroastrian Community Research Articles

Linguistic Insights from a Bilingual Letter: The Malati Dialect of Zoroastrian Dari in Yazd

Abstract This article presents a comprehensive analysis of a rare written example of Zoroastrian Dari (Behdini), a traditionally spoken language, featured in a bilingual letter composed in the Perso-Arabic script. The linguistic evidence indicates that the dialect of this letter is the Malati dialect of Zoroastrian Dari, primarily spoken in the Priests’ quarter of Yazd. The article provides a detailed examination of the phonological, morphological, and syntactic features. Furthermore, it explores the challenges of using the Perso-Arabic script to capture the phonetic nuances of Zoroastrian Dari and analyses the adaptations made by the writer to overcome these obstacles. Through a combined historical and linguistic approach, the article offers valuable insights into the language contact and script practices in Zoroastrian communities. This research contributes to the broader understanding of endangered languages and the complexities of multilingualism in written texts.

Teniky: enigmatic architecture at an archaeological site in southern Madagascar

ABSTRACT Teniky is an isolated inland archaeological site in the Isalo massif of southern Madagascar, with enigmatic rock-cut architecture that is unique in all of Madagascar and the wider East African coast. In the first half of the twentieth century visitors described archaeogical structures within a fluvial cirque (i.e. an amphitheatre-shaped valley formed by fluvial erosion), which included man-made terraces, rock-cut niches in the steep cliffs and a rock shelter delimited by walls consisting of carved sandstone blocks. Our investigations at Teniky have led to the discovery of further archaeological structures beyond the cirque. These structures include further terraces, rock-cut niches, stone basins and carved sandstone walls on a hill 2.5 km to the west, as well as sandstone quarries and dry stone walls in the valley in between. AMS radiocarbon dating of charcoal found during excavations at the newly discovered rock-cut niches and carved sandstone walls indicates that they were constructed in the late first millennium/early second millennium c. tenth to twelfth century AD. Pottery sherds at Teniky include Chinese and Southeast Asian ceramics dating to broadly the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, concordant with the radiocarbon ages. The presence of imported ceramics indicates that those living at Teniky participated in Indian Ocean trade networks in medieval times, despite being over 200 km from the nearest coast. The closest stylistic parallels to the enigmatic rock-cut architecture at Teniky are found in present-day Iran, particularly in the Fars region, where rock-cut niches dating to the first millennium AD or earlier have been attributed to Zoroastrian communities. We tentatively interpret the rock-cut architecture at Teniky as part of a former necropolis made by settlers with Zoroastrian origins. More archaeological research is required to test this hypothesis and to address questions such as: where and when did these settlers first arrive on the coast of Madagascar; why and when did they move inland; how did they live and how did they interact with other populations on the island; and why and when was the site deserted?

Reversion, Revival, Resistance

Both in Iran and India, Zoroastrian communities have traditionally possessed a strong and rigid ethno-religious identity. In recent decades, however, debates regarding the opening of the communities to converts have become increasingly significant. At the same time, a growing interest in religious conversion to Zoroastrianism can be observed among Kurds, Tajiks, Iranians, and other populations. This article analyses the autobiographical account of two Muslim-born Iranian converts to Neo-Zoroastrianism and discusses how such conversions can be adequately framed. It criticises previous works on Neo-Zoroastrians for framing its religious practice as “unauthentic.” As Zoroastrian religiosities transform, especially among urban Tehran Zoroastrians, one can observe a certain convergence of reformed ethic Zoroastrian and Neo-Zoroastrian religious discourses. Taking this trend into account, Iranian Neo-Zoroastrianism can be framed as a movement for religious revival and reform as well as a vehicle of resistance against the state-promoted Shi’ite Islam of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

From Western India to Eastern Africa—the Rise of the Parsis in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Abstract The present paper examines the socio-economic conditions for the ascendancy of the Zoroastrian community in Western India between the 18th and 19th centuries. This study reinforces the well-established thesis on the role played by the Parsis in the development of capitalism in India. What distinguishes it from other narratives is the periodization of this development and the consideration of Parsi agency in the Western Indian Ocean region and East Africa, especially Mozambique. The cooperation of the Parsis with the European trade companies and private European traders as of the mid-17th century—most notably, their links to the English East India Company, which boosted the Zoroastrian communities of northwestern India—is investigated. I try to show how the Parsis, who had been predominantly peasants, farmers and artisans from the 10th to 17th centuries, increasingly embarked upon trade, moneylending, brokerage and production. Because of their accumulated wealth, their numbers as well as their influence augmented throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.

Eventisation of religion: the 12th World Zoroastrian Congress in New York City as an identity-oriented event

ABSTRACT Interested in the modern transformation of religious events, I discussed the 12th World Zoroastrian Congress, held in New York City in 2022, as a social construct. The Congress is the most important Zoroastrian community festival, held every four or five years since 1960 and perceived as a platform to strengthen the sense of belonging and interact with co-religionists from all over the world. Based on a qualitative methodology, I analysed it as a transnational gathering that oriented attendees to a specific vision of the cultural program and Zoroastrian collective identity – multifaceted, constantly negotiated and transformed, referring to universalistic values, emphasising equality and inclusivity, and challenging essentialised identities that were popular among previous generations. I demonstrated how the event promoted the identity characteristics of modern religious diasporic communities and was open to marginalised or excluded groups such as women or people born outside traditional Zoroastrian families.

As Seen from Bombay: An Iranian Zoroastrian Photo Album from the 1930s

AbstractThis photo essay provides a visual archive of Parsi philanthropic efforts toward the Iranian Zoroastrian communities of Yazd, Kerman, and Tehran during the 1930s. The essay reproduces a collection of photographs from a photo album produced by the Iranian Zoroastrian Anjoman (est. 1918) for the benefit of Parsi audiences in Bombay. These photographs were taken and compiled by administrators of the Parsi-funded charities in order to demonstrate to Bombay-based Parsi benefactors how their charity efforts were being used inside Iran. The essay also discusses the importance of including visual archival material as part of the social and cultural history of modern Iran, as well as the unique sets of challenges that such archival preservation represents.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ZOROASTRIANISM (MAZDA YASNA) AND ITS FATE TODAY

The article discusses a brief history of the Mazda Yasna religion, its place, its status in the modern globalized world, and issues. The article discusses the fate of the few Zoroastrian communities in countries where this religion exists.

Religious Plurality and Mixture in the Persianate North: Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Manichaeans in Late Antique Georgia


 Persistent images of late antique Caucasia belonging naturally to the Byzantine world obscure the isthmus’ deep multi- and cross-cultural condition. They rest on the flawed assumption that shared Christian affiliation necessarily linked Byzantium and Caucasia. Moreover, such conjectures elide Caucasia’s longstanding integration into the Persianate world, a status enduring for centuries after the fourth-century Christianization of the Georgian, Armenian, and Caucasian Albanian monarchies. This essay engages the religious dimensions of Caucasia’s cross-cultural fabric through the example of sixth-century Georgia. Before the formation of a Georgian "national" church in the seventh century and the accompanying obsession with orthodoxy, Georgian religious life was remarkably diverse and mixed. But in the fourth and fifth centuries, the longstanding dominance of Zoroastrianism—particularly in hybrid local forms—was being eclipsed by various confessions of Christianity. Manichaeism and Judaism also had a visible presence. While there is much we do not know about actual Jewish, Manichaean, and Zoroastrian communities in late antique Georgia, surviving Georgian texts offer valuable, if occasional, glimpses of their existence. And they deploy carefully crafted imaginaries of non-Christian religions embedded in an increasingly Christian environment.

ʿAlī and the »Sons of Ādhurbādh«: Zoroastrian Priestly Authority in the Early Islamic Era

This article uses Arabic sources to examine the Islamic-era mowbed (Zoroastrian chief priest) in Abbasid society, in what I argue is the conscious continuation of the mowbed’s pre-Islamic role as judge, scholar, sage, and advisor to kings. Moreover, I argue that the mowbed used his status to promote the standing of the Zoroastrian community, as well as to assert the authority of the priesthood within that community – an authority which was negotiated under Muslim rule and through Islamic and particularly Shiʿi figures, above all ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 661 CE). Muslims were already debating the status of Zoroastrians, or Magians, as part of the ahl al-dhimma – with Shiʿi strands of tradition supporting more favorable views of the Magians. We should understand mowbeds as part of this dialectic, seeking the favor of caliphs, amirs, and sometimes rival sectarian leaders. As well as providing a survey of Arabic references to mowbeds in the Islamic period, this article will study two relevant Arabic texts: the first is a previously untranslated risāla composed in 986 on behalf of the Buyid amir Ṣamṣām al-Dawla by Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm al-Ṣābi ̉ (d. 994), in which Magians, and specifically »the sons of Ādhurbādh b. Mārsfand«, claim to have a letter of protection from ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib which grants them an exemption from paying the jizya; the second is a passage in al-Bīrūnī’s (d. 1048) al-Āthār al-bāqiya, which also asserts that the Zoroastrian priesthood was descended from Ādhurbādh b. Mārsfand – and moreover that access to knowledge of the Avesta was certified through written documents.

Zoroastrian law and the spread of Islam in Iranian society (ninth–tenth century)

AbstractThis article explores three important Zoroastrian legal texts from the ʿAbbasid period, consisting of questions and answers to high-ranking priests. The texts contain a wellspring of information about the social history of Zoroastrianism under Islamic rule, especially the formative encounter between Zoroastrians and Muslims. These include matters such as conversion, apostasy, sexual relations with outsiders, inheritance, commerce, and the economic status of priests. The article argues that the elite clergy responsible for writing these texts used law to refashion the Zoroastrian community from the rulers of Iran, as they had been in Late Antiquity, into one of a variety ofdhimmīgroups living under Islamic rule. It also argues that, far from being brittle or inflexible, the priests responded to the challenges of the day with creativity and pragmatism. On both counts, there are strong parallels between the experiences of Zoroastrians and those of Christians and Jews, who also turned to law as an instrument for rethinking their place in the new Islamic cosmos. Finally, the article makes a methodological point, namely to show the importance of integrating Pahlavi sources into wider histories of Iran and the Middle East during the early Islamic period.

Portrayal of the Hindu - Parsi Zoroastrian Community Conflicts in India through Rohinton Mistry’s Novels

Portrayal of the Hindu - Parsi Zoroastrian Community Conflicts in India through Rohinton Mistry’s Novels

Essentialism in Zoroastrian boundary construction

The article explores tensions in contemporary Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest practiced religions, over who a “real” Zoroastrian is, what, for Zoroastrians, constitutes the essence of Zoroastrianism and how constructed collective boundaries may or may not be crossed. Considering diverse perceptions amongst Zoroastrians, it demonstrates various forms of essentialism that are employed to mark boundaries around and between Zoroastrians. It also reflects how essentialist notions are used, amongst others, to protect the Zoroastrian community’s culture and wealth and to prevent assimilation or expand its boundaries by including newcomers. The article is based on ethnographic data collected at the 2018 World Zoroastrian Congress in Perth, supplemented by fieldwork in the second half of 2019 in the USA.

Contemporary Zoroastrians

The article shares the findings based on participant observation conducted during the 11th World Zoroastrian Congress as well as on the analysis of other resources linked to contemporary Zoroastrians. Paying attention to the internal differentiation of the Zoroastrian world community, it focuses on the components that stand in the way to its integration, as disagreements that refer to customs, religion, or the matter of who the “real” Zoroastrians are. It also discusses the boundaries between those who believe to be Zoroastrians form generations and the outside world, as well as the ways these boundaries eventually can be crossed through conversion or intermarriages.

Calendar as an Identity Marker of the Zoroastrian Community in Iran

The article reflects on the idea of both calendric time and its material supports used by the Zoroastrians of Iran in reference to the identity of the group. The qualitative analysis of the data collected during the fieldwork among the Zoroastrian community has shown that a distinctive time-reckoning system plays the role of an important marker that strengthens the community’s Zoroastrian identity in the face of Muslim domination. In the post-Revolutionary Iran, the calendar is one of the key pillars of the Zoroastrians’ collective self-awareness—both as an idea of a specific time-reckoning system designating ritual activities, and as a material subject that acts as a medium to promote specific values and ideas.

Almut Hintze. “Zoroastrian Afterlife Beliefs and Funerary Practices”

The article presents an overview of the Zoroastrian afterlife beliefs and funerary practices. It starts with a short introduction to Zoroastrian communities, the theological background of Zoroastrian funeral ceremonies, and also the architecture of a daxma or ‘Tower of Silence’. The author recounts the traditional Zoroastrian funerary rites (e.g., the recitation of Asəm Vohu-prayer, the performance of sagdīd ‘seen by a dog’ rites, etc.) from the death of a person to the exposure of his/her co...

Diglossic patterns of language use among speakers of Zoroastrian Dari ethnolect

ABSTRACTThis study investigates diglossic patterns of language use by speakers of Zoroastrian Dari in the city of Yazd, where most of Zoroastrian population of Iran lives. Efforts have been made to find out how, when and why the spoken language of Dari is favoured by Zoroastrian community members. For this reason, the evaluation by the informants of their abilities in the majority language, i.e. Persian, their different mother tongue behaviours, motivational factors for their use of their mother tongue and domains of their mother tongue use were specifically investigated. The participants were male/female students/teachers of Zoroastrian schools and members of charitable establishments for older Zoroastrians, hence from a wide range of age groups. Information about linguistic behaviours of the target group was obtained qualitatively through interviews, diaries and participant observations in specific settings, and quantitatively through written questionnaires based on Kouzmin’'s work (1998), as well as several other studies analysing domains of language use in bilingual and diglossic settings. Moreover, the effects of education, sex and age in the perceptions, attitudes and speech behaviours of Zoroastrian community and the significance of differences were explored. The results indicate different sociocultural factors at work in determining the participants’ choice of linguistic codes.

Review: A State of Mixture. Christians, Zoroastrians, and Iranian Political Culture in Late Antiquity, by Richard E. Payne

Richard E. Payne. A State of Mixture. Christians, Zoroastrians, and Iranian Political Culture in Late Antiquity . Transformation of the Classical Heritage, vol. 56. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780520286191. 301 pp. $95.00. A State of Mixture is a rich and complex study of the interweaving of Christian and Zoroastrian communities in late antique Iran. Payne draws on a wealth of sources, most notably East Syrian hagiography, providing a portrait of a “state of mixture” in place of older and misleading views of the two communities as discrete groups at perennial odds with each other. Payne shows how Christians constantly negotiated their position in the Sasanian state, repeatedly testing boundary lines and overlapping their communal identities with those of the Zoroastrian communities amongst whom they lived. State authorities used intercommunal boundaries to reinforce socioreligious and political norms and to foster the integration of Christians into their own, hierarchically organised cosmological project. Examining periods of apparently savage persecution and looking beyond the fervour and outrage of Christian martryological texts, Payne clearly demonstrates the fluidity of the Sasanian state and the deep integration of Christian nobles within its structures, providing a context for efforts by the last major Sasanian king, Khusrau II, to appropriate the traditional role of the Roman emperor as the touchstone for the world's Christians after Iran's victories at the turn of the seventh century. Payne organises his study into five self-contained chapters that lead the reader chronologically and geographically through the late antique Iranian landscape, from the persecutions of Shapur II …

Apostasy and Repentance in Early Medieval Zoroastrianism


 
 
 The Middle Persian (Pahlavi) literature from the early Islamic centuries frequently deals with practical theological issues faced by the Zoroastrian communities under foreign domination. Here, we present a number of questions regarding a Zoroastrian’s conversion to Islam and his subsequent repentance and desire to return to Zoroastrianism and answers given by ninth- and tenth-century Zoroastrian priestly authorities. It is shown how the priests cite ancient traditions found in the Pahlavi versions of Avestan texts to justify their answers, and then apply them to the contemporary social reality.
 
 

Profile of Dinshaw J. Patel

Small-noncoding RNA molecules are the dark matter of molecular biology. From small interfering (si) RNAs that silence invading pathogens to microRNAs that fine-tune gene expression, noncoding RNAs carry out a vast number of functions within the cell. “It was generally believed in the early days of molecular biology that RNA was just a passive intermediate on the pathway from DNA to protein, but noncoding RNA architecture and its interactions with partners is much more intricate and interesting,” says structural biologist Dinshaw J. Patel. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009, Patel has spent his career deciphering the shapes of biomolecules and principles underlying molecular complex formation. In his Inaugural Article, Patel, the Abby Rockefeller Mauze Chair in Experimental Therapeutics at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, explores how the PAZ-binding domain of PIWI proteins forms a pocket capable of binding the 3′-ends of piRNAs, noncoding RNA molecules that help maintain the integrity of germ-line DNA (1). Dinshaw J. Patel. Image courtesy of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Crystal structures of Thermus thermophilus Argonaute (labeled and color-coded by domains) with bound 5′-phosphorylated guide DNA (in red) as a binary complex ( A ) and with target RNA (in blue) as a ternary complex in B . Reprinted with permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd., ref. 5. Crystal structure of mammalian maintenance DNA methyltransferase DNMT1 (containing color-coded CXXC, BAH1, BAH2, and MTase domains) bound to a 19-mer CG-containing DNA in the presence of cofactor AdoHcy. Reproduced from ref. 14. Patel was born in Mumbai, India in 1942 and grew up in the Zoroastrian community. His father was a civil engineer, and in an education-rich setting, Patel immersed himself in the sciences. “Because India was a developing country, science was what we learned in textbooks, with minimal practical experience,” Patel explains. …

A Unique Episode from the Kārnāmag ī Ardašīr ī Pābagān in a Nineteenth-Century Illustrated Indian Manuscript of the Shāhnāmeh

The episode under discussion in this article comes from the Middle Persian text Kārnāmag ī Ardašīr ī Pābagān. It does not appear in any published edition of the Shāhnāmeh, nor does it seem to be recorded in any manuscript consulted for these editions. The episode is versified and illustrated in a nineteenth-century manuscript preserved in the Government Museum in Alwar, India. If it is an early interpolation, why is it not found in major Shāhnāmeh manuscripts? And if it is a late interpolation, how did it find its way into an Indian manuscript at such a late date? The article proposes a provenance for the manuscript and draws attention to the possible role of the Zoroastrian community in India in the transmission of Ferdowsi's opus.