This entry treats the development of the concept and image of Zoroaster among the Zoroastrians of Persia and India after the Islamic conquest (10th century onwards). The name “Zoroaster” is derived from the Greek, not the Iranian, tradition (see ZOROASTER i. THE NAME). Nowadays, most Zoroastrians prefer the Iranian form, Zarathuštra,
There is a continuous tradition of reports about Zoroaster among early and later medieval Christian historians, chroniclers, and annalists. The most prominent authors include Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 260-265 to 339/340), St. Jerome (ca. 347-419/420), St. Augustine (354-430), Gregory of Tours (538/539 594/495), Isidore of Seville (560-636), Rabanus Maurus (ca.
The Greek constructions of Zoroaster relate to the historical Zoroaster and to the Zoroaster of the Zoroastrian faith in one respect only. The Greeks knew that Zoroaster was the “prophet,” in the sense of the human founder, of the national Persian religion of their times. That, of course, is a
Zardušt is the name of the Zoroastrian prophet in the Pahlavi literature of the Sasanian and early Islamic period. On the form of the name in Book Pahlavi, zltw(h)št Zar(a)du(x)št, see ZOROASTER i. THE NAME. For discussions of scholarly controversy over the dating and historicity or otherwise of Zoroaster, see ZOROASTER ii. GENERAL
Zaraθuštra is considered the founder of the Mazdayasnian religion who lived in Eastern Iran during the end of the second millenium BCE. He can be credited with the authorship of the Gathas and possiby the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti. But, generally speaking, both his homeland and his date, and sometimes even his historicity or his
“Zoroaster” is the name generally known in the West for the prophet of ancient Iran, whose transformation of his inherited religion inaugurated a movement that eventually became the dominant religion in Iran up until the triumph of Islam. Many of the topics dealt with in this article have already been
The Gathic form and its derivatives. The authentic form of Zoroaster’s name is that attested in his own songs, the Gathas, Old Av. Zaraθuštra– (Old Avestan [OAv.] and Young Avestan [YAv.] references are fully listed by Schlerath, 1971, pp. 134 f.), on which are based regular derivatives like zaraθuštri– “descending from Zoroaster” or zaraθuštrō.təma– “most
ZOROASTER, the name generally known in the West for the prophet of ancient Iran, whose transformation of his inherited religion inaugurated a movement that eventually became the dominant religion in Iran up until the triumph of Islam.