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The Fire Within is a fine collection of
articles on Zarathushti history and religion. The book is coordinated by
Mehrborzin Soroushian in memory of his father, Jamshid Soroushian.
Jamshid Soroushian was a prominent citizen of Kerman and a fervent
Zarathushti. He was a businessman who was a leader in community
activities. In the book Professor Bastani Parizi quotes a remark that
Chief Judge Forough of Kerman made, “Jamshid expects his audience in the
span of fifteen minutes over tea with him to realize the merits of the
Din-e behi [The good religion] and to become believers in it!” The
book is named for this Fire within, with the hope that it will continue to
illuminate the “living soul of Zoroastrianism.”
The book is a collection of articles arranged
with the author’s names in alphabetical order. While this artifice puts
all contributors on an equal footing, it bounces the reader through many
different subjects. Distinct subject areas are found in the book such as
history, philosophy, contributions to other religions, language and
culture and religious customs and practices. Grouping the
articles by subject matter would have enhanced the flow of ideas.
In the opening pages of the book, the reader
is introduced to the Soroushian family. There is a biography of Jamshid
Soroushian by the editors, Carlo Cereti and Farrokh Vazifdar, followed by
some family photographs. Mehrborzin Soroushian’s “Historical
Perspective on Zoroastrianism” then traces Zarathushti history from
Zarathushtra’s birth to the present and provides a framework to which the
later articles add focus and detail. It is an outstanding history,
touching on the communities in Iran as well as in India, and how they
helped each other over time. Soroushian’s style is that of a story
teller, with many fascinating details about the contributions of
individual Zarathushtis to the welfare of the community as a whole.
Population statistics are also provided, which bring home the impact of
the privations suffered by the Iranian Zarathushtis before the reforms of
the late 19th century allowed them to participate in economic
life and advance by dint of their hard work and honesty.
Daryoush Jahanian in “The Date of
Zarathushtra” presents linguistic data to show that Zarathushtra was born
circa 1700 B.C.E. This date agrees with the date given by Soroushian and
is based on linguistic parallels between Zarathushtra’s own compositions,
the Gathas, and the Sanskrit of the Rigveda of India.
Zarathushtra’s Gathas tell of the revelation
he received from Ahura Mazda. In these poems, Zarathushtra tells of the
primordial conflict between Truth and its implacable opponent the Lie.
Man’s role in this conflict, he said, was to bring about the ultimate
triumph of Truth over the Lie through the choices he makes in his everyday
life – a triumph that would usher in the end of time and Fresho Kereti,
the “making wonderful”. Man has been given Good Mind (vohu mano)
by Ahura Mazda to equip him for this battle, he said. Man must use this
gift of Good Mind to choose for himself between good and evil in his
everyday choices. Man must also take personal responsibility for these
choices, the sum of which over a lifetime will decide whether his soul
enters Paradise or is consigned to purgatory. These are essential
Zarathushtrian concepts that have been adopted by other religions.
Farrokh Vazifdar gives an excellent overview of Zarathushtra’s
teachings and their effects on later religions in his fascinating article
“Ex Oriente Lux”. The article provides a scholarly look at the writings
of the Greeks, from Pythagoras through Plato and Aristotle to the later
Greek and Roman writers of classical antiquity. Step by step, it makes a
convincing case that the classical Greeks were well aware of Zarathushti
philosophy and provided a channel via which Zarathushtra’s ideas entered
Western philosophy. The nature of the ethical vision of Zarathushtra is
the subject of an article by Kaikhosrov Irani. Pallan Ichaporia
and Ali Jafarey have also contributed articles on the Gathas.
Zarathushtra’s religion spread through Iran in
the years after his death. A millennium later, it arrived on the world
stage as the religion of the Persian Empire. When Cyrus the Great
conquered Babylon in 539 B.C.E. he released the Jews held captive there
and gave them permission and funds to return to Jerusalem and rebuild
their Temple. For this Cyrus is called the Lord’s anointed in the Bible
(Isaiah, chap 45). The Old Testament books of the exilic period show the
influence of Zoroastrian ideas. In time these ideas found their way into
Christianity as well. The Old Testament thereby provided another channel
via which Zarathushtra’s ideas flowed to a larger humanity.
Cyrus founded the Achaemenian dynasty that
ruled Iran until 330 B.C.E. when it fell to Alexander of Macedon.
Alexander destroyed Persepolis and burned the library there, but died
without ever returning to Greece. Control of Iran passed back into
Persian hands a few years later. Zoroastrian texts were re-assembled by
the Parthian and Sassanian dynasties that followed. Zoroastrianism was
the state religion of Iran under the Sassanians. The Arab conquest of
Iran in 638 C.E. made Islam the state religion and ushered in a prolonged
period of discrimination and persecution for Zarathushtis in their
homeland. Some fled Iran for the friendly shores of India, where they
came to be called the Parsis. Aside from occasional contact, the two
populations remained separate until the mid nineteenth century. At that
time, the Parsis became aware of the severe conditions afflicting their
brethren in Iran and began an active campaign to improve their plight.
Burjor Avari and Michael Stausberg have contributed articles on
the efforts of Manekji Limji Hataria to help the Zarathushtis of Iran.
Hataria was backed by the Society for the Amelioration of Conditions of
Zoroastrians in Persia, funded by concerned Zarathushtis in Bombay. Over
a period of about 30 years Hataria lobbied the Iranian authorities to
allow Zarathushti children to attend school and for Zarathushtis to be
allowed to operate businesses. Finally, with British diplomatic
assistance, the discriminatory, religious jizya tax was repealed in
1882.
During Hataria’s time in Kerman a new
dakhma was built to replace the old structure. Kerman is the
ancestral home of the Soroushian family, so the threads of the stories
come together here. Mary Boyce writes fondly of visiting the
Soroushians in Kerman in her article describing the use of a sagdi
fire to illuminate the blackness of night for the first three nights after
a body is placed in the dakhma. Dietrich Huff describes the
architecture of the dadgah there and the funerary customs of the
different Zoroastrian communities in the small towns of Iran.
A short article by Francois de Blois on
a calendar reform instituted in Iran in 1006 C.E. shows that such reforms
were undertaken from time to time in the past. The reform was to observe
the five Gatha days after the twelfth month instead of after the eighth
month of the year. This reform was controversial in its day but today it
is standard practice. Maybe the calendar issues of today will be
similarly resolved in years to come.
Awareness of Zarathushtra gradually faded in
Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Occasional accounts given by
travelers to Iran were usually far from factual - though not intentionally
false. This state of affairs continued until Anquetil Duperron’s two year
stay in Surat (an excellent adventure not described in this volume) and
subsequent publication in 1771 of ”Zend-Avesta, Ouvrage de Zoroastre”.
This work kindled a firestorm of interest in Zoroaster in European
intellectual circles and marks a beginning for Western scholarship in the
religion. Soon Zoroaster was appearing in works by people as disparate as
Mozart and Nietzche. In “Anquetil Duperron and Rome”, Paola Orsatti
writes about the assistance Anquetil received from the Vatican Library
after his return from India. Johann Burgel’s article on Goethe’s
West-Eastern Divan details the influence of Zoroastrianism in Goethe’s
writings on purity. Arthur Pearlstein has contributed an article
on Nietzsche’s understanding of Zarathushtra’s philosophy.
Overall, this is a readable and useful
reference volume on Zoroastrianism. The list of contributors reads like a
Who’s Who of Zoroastrian Studies. There is a mix of informative and
general articles for the novice and more specialized articles for the more
advanced student. A couple of the articles are not up to the caliber of
the rest of the book, but that is inevitable in such a large collection of
works by different authors. All of the articles are footnoted, so the
student can go back to the original sources if she is interested. It is a
thought provoking book that belongs in every collection of books on
Zoroastrianism.
In the closing section of his history,
Mehrborzin Soroushian says that the “main challenge for Zoroastrianism in
the 3rd millennium will be whether it will revert to the vision
that was formulated by its founder as being a universal faith” intended to
“uplift and bring salvation to humanity, or whether it will continue in
its diminished form” as a historical footnote in the evolution of
religions, of humanism and of philosophy. The answer to that question
will hinge on the ability of today’s Zoroastrians to break free of their
historical constraints and bring forward Zarathushtra’s visionary ideas in
a manner that is understandable and effective today. Education will be
the key to the outcome of this mammoth undertaking. The Fire Within
is a valuable resource for anyone interested in becoming educated about
Zoroastrianism.
[i]
Book review written by the author in February 2005 was posted on
vohuman.org on February 20, 2005.
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