An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion

An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion PDF Author: William W. Malandra
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 0816611149
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description

An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion

An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion PDF Author: William W. Malandra
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 0816611149
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description


The Spirit of Zoroastrianism

The Spirit of Zoroastrianism PDF Author: Prods Oktor Skjærvø
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300170351
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest religions, though it is not among the best understood. Originating with Iranian tribes living in Central Asia in the second millennium BCE, Zoroastrianism was the official religion of the Iranian empires until Islam superseded it in the seventh century AD. Centered on the worship of Ahura Mazda, the All-knowing Ruler, Zoroastrianism follows the practices and rituals set out by the prophet Zarathustra, according to the indigenous tradition. As one of the world's great religions, Zoroastrianism has a heritage rich in texts and cultic practices. The texts are often markedly difficult to translate, but in this volume, Prods Oktor Skjærvø, professor of ancient Iranian languages and culture at Harvard, provides modern and accurate translations of Zoroastrian texts that have been selected to provide an overview of Zoroastrian beliefs and practices. In a comprehensive introduction to these sacred texts, Skjærvø outlines the history and essence of Zoroastrianism and discusses the major themes of this the first fully representative selection of Zoroastrian texts to be made available in English for over a century.

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism PDF Author: Jenny Rose
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN: 9781350128712
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Zoroastrianism is one of the world's great ancient religions. In present-day Iran, significant communities of Zoroastrians (who take their name from the founder of the faith, the remarkable religious reformer Zoroaster) still practise the rituals and teach the moral precepts that once undergirded the officially state-sanctioned faith of the mighty Sasanian empire. Beyond Iran, the Zoroastrian disapora is significant especially in India, where the Gujarati-speaking community of emigrants from post-Sasanian Iran call themselves 'Parsis'. But there are also significant Zoroastrian communities to be found elsewhere, such as in the USA, Britain and Canada, where western cultural contexts have shaped the religion in intriguing ways and directions. This new, thorough and wide-ranging introduction will appeal to anyone interested in discovering more about the faith that bequeathed the contrasting words 'Magi' and 'magic', and whose adherents still live according to the code of 'Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds.' The central Zoroastrian concept that human beings are continually faced with a choice between the path of 'good' and 'evil', represented by the contrasting figures of Ahura Mazda and Ahriman, inspired thinkers as diverse as Voltaire, Mozart and Nietzsche. Jenny Rose shows why Zoroastrianism remains one of the world's most inspiring and perennially fascinating systems of ethics and belief.

An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion

An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion PDF Author: William W. Malandra
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780608008370
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description


Encyclopedia Iranica

Encyclopedia Iranica PDF Author: Ehsan Yarshater
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780710090904
Category : Iran
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description


The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia

The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia PDF Author: D. G. Tor
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268202087
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
This volume examines the major cultural, religious, political, and urban changes that took place in the Iranian world of Inner and Central Asia in the transition from the pre-Islamic to the Islamic periods. One of the major civilizations of the first millennium was that of the Iranian linguistic and cultural world, which stretched from today’s Iraq to what is now the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. No other region of the world underwent such radical transformation, which fundamentally altered the course of world history, as this area did during the centuries of transition from the pre-Islamic to the Islamic period. This transformation included the religious victory of Islam over Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, and the other religions of the area; the military and political wresting of Inner Asia from the Chinese to the Islamic sphere of primary cultural influence; and the shifting of Central Asia from a culturally and demographically Iranian civilization to a Turkic one. This book contains essays by many of the preeminent scholars working in the fields of archeology, history, linguistics, and literature of both the pre-Islamic and the Islamic-era Iranian world, shedding light on some of the most significant aspects of the major changes that this important portion of the Asian continent underwent during this tumultuous era in its history. This collection of cutting-edge research will be read by scholars of Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Iranian, and Islamic studies and archaeology. Contributors: D. G. Tor, Frantz Grenet, Nicholas Sims-Williams, Etsuko Kageyama, Yutaka Yoshida, Michael Shenkar, Minoru Inaba, Rocco Rante, Arezou Azad, Sören Stark, Louise Marlow, Gabrielle van den Berg, and Dilnoza Duturaeva.

The Zoroastrians of Iran

The Zoroastrians of Iran PDF Author: Janet Kestenberg Amighi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description


Rabbis, Sorcerers, Kings, and Priests

Rabbis, Sorcerers, Kings, and Priests PDF Author: Jason Sion Mokhtarian
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520286200
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
"Rabbis, Sorcerers, Kings, and Priests brings into mutual fruition the fields of Talmudic Studies and Ancient Iranology, two historically distinct disciplines. Mokhtarian offers a revisionist history of the rabbis of late antique Persia who produced the Babylonian Talmud, perhaps the most important corpus in the Jewish sacred canon. While most research on the Talmud assumes that the rabbis were an insular group isolated from the cultural horizon outside of the rabbinic academies, this book contextualizes the rabbis and Talmud within a broader socio-cultural orbit by drawing from a wide range of sources from Sasanian Iran, including Middle Persian Zoroastrian literature, archaeological evidence, and the Jewish Aramaic magical bowls"--Provided by publisher.

The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History

The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History PDF Author: Touraj Daryaee
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199732159
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
This handbook is a guide to Iran's complex history. The book emphasizes the large-scale continuities of Iranian history while also describing the important patterns of transformation that have characterized Iran's past.

The Iranian Talmud

The Iranian Talmud PDF Author: Shai Secunda / Yitz Landes
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812209044
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Although the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, has been a text central and vital to the Jewish canon since the Middle Ages, the context in which it was produced has been poorly understood. Delving deep into Sasanian material culture and literary remains, Shai Secunda pieces together the dynamic world of late antique Iran, providing an unprecedented and accessible overview of the world that shaped the Bavli. Secunda unites the fields of Talmudic scholarship with Old Iranian studies to enable a fresh look at the heterogeneous religious and ethnic communities of pre-Islamic Iran. He analyzes the intercultural dynamics between the Jews and their Persian Zoroastrian neighbors, exploring the complex processes and modes of discourse through which these groups came into contact and considering the ways in which rabbis and Zoroastrian priests perceived one another. Placing the Bavli and examples of Middle Persian literature side by side, the Zoroastrian traces in the former and the discursive and Talmudic qualities of the latter become evident. The Iranian Talmud introduces a substantial and essential shift in the field, setting the stage for further Irano-Talmudic research.