The Zoroastrian Diaspora

The Zoroastrian Diaspora PDF Author: John R. Hinnells
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780191513503
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 884

Get Book Here

Book Description
What is the distinctive Zoroastrian experience, and what is the common diasporic experience? The Zoroastrian Diaspora is the outcome of twenty years of research and of archival and fieldwork in eleven countries, involving approximately 250,000 miles of travel. It has also involved a survey questionnaire in eight countries, yielding over 1,840 responses. This is the first book to attempt a global comparison of Diaspora groups in six continents. Little has been written about Zoroastrian communities as far apart as China, East Africa, Europe, America, and Australia or on Parsis in Mumbai post-Independence. Each chapter is based on unused original sources ranging from nineteenth century archives to contemporary newsletters. The book also includes studies of Zoroastrians on the Internet, audio-visual resources, and the modern development of Parsi novels in English. As well as studying the Zoroastrians for their own inherent importance, this book contextualizes the Zoroastrian migrations within contemporary debates on Diaspora studies. John R. Hinnells examines what it is like to be a religious Asian in Los Angeles or London, Sydney or Hong Kong. Moreover, he explores not only how experience differs from one country to another, but also the differences between cities in the same country, for example, Chicago and Houston. The survey data is used firstly to consider the distinguishing demographic features of the Zoroastrian communities in various countries; and secondly to analyse different patterns of assimilation between different groups: men and women and according to the level and type of education. Comparisons are also drawn between people from rural and urban backgrounds; and between generations in religious beliefs and practices, including the preservation of secular culture.

The Zoroastrian Diaspora

The Zoroastrian Diaspora PDF Author: John R. Hinnells
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780191513503
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 884

Get Book Here

Book Description
What is the distinctive Zoroastrian experience, and what is the common diasporic experience? The Zoroastrian Diaspora is the outcome of twenty years of research and of archival and fieldwork in eleven countries, involving approximately 250,000 miles of travel. It has also involved a survey questionnaire in eight countries, yielding over 1,840 responses. This is the first book to attempt a global comparison of Diaspora groups in six continents. Little has been written about Zoroastrian communities as far apart as China, East Africa, Europe, America, and Australia or on Parsis in Mumbai post-Independence. Each chapter is based on unused original sources ranging from nineteenth century archives to contemporary newsletters. The book also includes studies of Zoroastrians on the Internet, audio-visual resources, and the modern development of Parsi novels in English. As well as studying the Zoroastrians for their own inherent importance, this book contextualizes the Zoroastrian migrations within contemporary debates on Diaspora studies. John R. Hinnells examines what it is like to be a religious Asian in Los Angeles or London, Sydney or Hong Kong. Moreover, he explores not only how experience differs from one country to another, but also the differences between cities in the same country, for example, Chicago and Houston. The survey data is used firstly to consider the distinguishing demographic features of the Zoroastrian communities in various countries; and secondly to analyse different patterns of assimilation between different groups: men and women and according to the level and type of education. Comparisons are also drawn between people from rural and urban backgrounds; and between generations in religious beliefs and practices, including the preservation of secular culture.

The Zoroastrian Myth of Migration from Iran and Settlement in the Indian Diaspora

The Zoroastrian Myth of Migration from Iran and Settlement in the Indian Diaspora PDF Author: Alan Williams
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047430425
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Qesse-ye Sanjān is the sole surviving account of the emigration of Zoroastrians from Iran to India to form the Parsi (‘Persian’) community. Written in Persian couplets in India in 1599 by a Zoroastrian priest, it is a work many know of, but few have actually read, let alone studied in depth. This book provides a romanised transcription from the oldest manuscripts, an elegant metrical translation, detailed commentary and, most importantly, a radical new theory of how such a text should be “read”, i.e. not as a historical chronical but as a charter of Zoroastrian identity, foundation myth and justification of the Parsi presence in India. The book fills a lacuna that has been acutely felt for a long time.

Parsis in India and the Diaspora

Parsis in India and the Diaspora PDF Author: John Hinnells
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134067526
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Parsis are India's smallest minority community, yet they have exercised a huge influence on the country. This book, written by notable experts in the field, explores various key aspects of the Parsis, spanning the time from their arrival in India to the twenty-first century.

European Zoroastrian Attitudes to Their Purity Laws

European Zoroastrian Attitudes to Their Purity Laws PDF Author: Gillian Towler Mehta
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1599423855
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book Here

Book Description
The thesis has one main focus, the purity laws of a religious group in Europe, an original piece of research never done before in the UK. The thesis uses diasporic theories of identity; theories of women and the body; theories of women, their bodies and patriarchal religion and theories of women, purity and pollution in religion, to explain why European Zoroastrian women continue to support six of the purity laws of Zoroastrianism in the year 2003. Purity and pollution are at the heart of the Zoroastrian religion and the research demonstrated that Zoroastrians belief in and knowledge of the six purity laws was strong in 2003. Zoroastrians are a diasporic religious group whose modern origins are in Iran and the sub-continent of India. They have been visiting and settling, from the sub-continent, in Europe, and especially in London, in small numbers since the middle of the nineteenth century. There have been three quantitative surveys of the Zoroastrian community in Europe, in 1976, 1985 and 2003, with each survey building on the last one. Thus, the analytical, quantitative research leading up to the thesis covers a period of nearly 30 years. In the 2003 survey, new questions, never posed before in academic research, were asked about six of the Zoroastrian purity laws, which yielded data for the main focus of the thesis. The women support the six purity laws more than the men and the majority of both women and men affirmed four of the purity laws and rejected two of them. The conclusion of the thesis is that the six Zoroastrian purity laws examined in this research are used in the creation of a hybrid, immanent and liminal religious identity and in some cases ethnic identity, by the women of the European Zoroastrian community; purity laws are known about and matter to these women in Europe in 2003.

Zoroastrian and Parsi Studies

Zoroastrian and Parsi Studies PDF Author: John R. Hinnells
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351731750
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 347

Get Book Here

Book Description
This title was first published in 2000: This volume collects articles from 30 years of John R. Hinnell's writings. The selection is intended to balance the different areas in which he has worked: the ancient tradition and its influence on Biblical imagery; Parsi history; the living religion; and diaspora communities.

Exile and the Nation

Exile and the Nation PDF Author: Afshin Marashi
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477320792
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the aftermath of the seventh-century Islamic conquest of Iran, Zoroastrians departed for India. Known as the Parsis, they slowly lost contact with their ancestral land until the nineteenth century, when steam-powered sea travel, the increased circulation of Zoroastrian-themed books, and the philanthropic efforts of Parsi benefactors sparked a new era of interaction between the two groups. Tracing the cultural and intellectual exchange between Iranian nationalists and the Parsi community during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Exile and the Nation shows how this interchange led to the collective reimagining of Parsi and Iranian national identity—and the influence of antiquity on modern Iranian nationalism, which previously rested solely on European forms of thought. Iranian nationalism, Afshin Marashi argues, was also the byproduct of the complex history resulting from the demise of the early modern Persianate cultural system, as well as one of the many cultural heterodoxies produced within the Indian Ocean world. Crossing the boundaries of numerous fields of study, this book reframes Iranian nationalism within the context of the connected, transnational, and global history of the modern era.

Contemporary Zoroastrians

Contemporary Zoroastrians PDF Author: Rashna Writer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Get Book Here

Book Description
The contemporary Zoroastrians are, arguably, the world's smallest religious-ethnic group. In this book, Writer examines the two major constituent groups, Parsi and Iranian Zoroastrians and analyzes the diversity as well as the unifying features specific among them. Writer enhances her theoretical framework with extensive interviews with the living community, conducted on three continentsóAsia, Europe, and North America. Contents: Historical Background. Zoroastrian Antecendents; Parsi Migration and Acclimation in India; The Zoroastrians of Iran. Disparate Cultures: Parsi and Iranian Zoroastrians; The Contemporary Political Mileux: Iran and India; Present Day Community Shibboleths and Legal Precedents. Intermarriage; Conversation; The Parsi Pancyayat Case Suite No. 689 of 1906 in the High Court of Bombay; Zoroastrians in the Old Countries The Parsis of India and Pakistan: An Introduction; The Parsis of India; The Parsis of Pakistan; Iranian Zoroastrian Refugees; Zoroastrians of the Diaspora. The Zoroastrians of North America: USA and Canada; The Zorastrians of Great Britain; Contemporary Zoroastrians: An Unstructured Nation? Maps throughout.

The Zoroastrian Faith

The Zoroastrian Faith PDF Author: Solomon Alexander Nigosian
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 9780773511446
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Get Book Here

Book Description
Zoroastrian history, teachings, scriptures etc.

The Zoroastrian Flame

The Zoroastrian Flame PDF Author: Sarah Stewart
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857728865
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 619

Get Book Here

Book Description
For many centuries, from the birth of the religion late in the second millennium BC to its influence on the Achaemenids and later adoption in the third century AD as the state religion of the Sasanian Empire, it enjoyed imperial patronage and profoundly shaped the culture of antiquity. The Magi of the New Testament most probably were Zoroastrian priests from the Iranian world, while the enigmatic figure of Zarathushtra (or Zoroaster) himself has exerted continual fascination in the West, influencing creative artists as diverse as Voltaire, Nietzsche, Mozart and Yeats. This authoritative volume brings together internationally recognised scholars to explore Zoroastrianism in all its rich complexity. Examining key themes such as history and modernity, tradition and scripture, art and architecture and minority status and religious identity, it places the modern Zoroastrians of Iran, and the Parsis of India, in their proper contexts. The book extends and complements the coverage of its companion volume, The Everlasting Flame.

Living Zoroastrianism

Living Zoroastrianism PDF Author: Philip G. Kreyenbroek
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136119620
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 357

Get Book Here

Book Description
This text describes the realities of modern Parsi religion through 30 interviews in which urban Parsis belonging to different social milieus and religious schools of thought discuss various aspects of their religious lives. Zoroastrianism, the faith founded by the Iranian prophet Zarathustra, originated around 1000BCE and is widely regarded as the world's first revealed religion. Although the number of its followers declined dramatically in the centuries after the 7th century Islamic conquest of Iran, Zoroastrians survive in Iran to the present day. The other major Zoroastrian community are the Parsis of India, descendants of Zoroastrians who fled Muslim dominion.