This is the first ever comprehensive English-language survey of Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest living religions
Evenly divided into five thematic sections beginning with an introduction to Zoroaster/Zarathustra and concluding with the intersections of Zoroastrianism and other religions Reflects the global nature of Zoroastrian studies with contributions from 34 international authorities from 10 countries Presents Zoroastrianism as a cluster of dynamic historical and contextualized phenomena, reflecting the current trend to move away from textual essentialism in the study of religion
Notes on Contributors ix Acknowledgments xi Aims and Scope xiii A Note on Transcriptions xix Abbreviations xxiii Introduction: Scholarship on Zoroastrianism 1 Michael Stausberg and Yuhan Sohrab‐Dinshaw Vevaina Part I Zarathustra Revisited 19 1 Zarathustra’s Time and Homeland: Geographical Perspectives 21 Frantz Grenet 2 Zarathustra’s Time and Homeland: Linguistic Perspectives 31 Almut Hintze 3 Interpretations of Zarathustra and the Gāthās 39 a The Gāthās 39 Helmut Humbach b The Gāthās, Said to Be of Zarathustra 44 Jean Kellens c Dimensions of the Gāthās as Poetry 51 Martin Schwartz d The Gāthās as Myth and Ritual 59 Prods Oktor Skjarvo 4 Zarathustra: Post-Gathic Trajectories 69 Michael Stausberg Part II Periods, Regions, and Contexts 83 5 Religion and Politics in Pre‐Islamic Iran 85 Albert de Jong 6 Zoroastrianism under Islamic Rule 103 Touraj Daryaee 7 Armenian and Georgian Zoroastrianism 119 Albert de Jong 8 Zoroastrianism in Central Asia 129 Frantz Grenet 9 Zoroastrianism in the Far East 147 Takeshi Aoki 10 The Parsis 157 John R. Hinnells 11 Zoroastrians in Modern Iran 173 Michael Stausberg 12 The Zoroastrian Diaspora 191 John R. Hinnells Part III Structures, Discourses, and Dimensions 209 13 Theologies and Hermeneutics 211 Yuhan Sohrab‐Dinshaw Vevaina 14 Cosmologies and Astrology 235 Antonio Panaino 15 Myths, Legends, Eschatologies 259 Carlo G. Cereti 16 Gender 273 Jenny Rose 17 Law in Pre‐Modern Zoroastrianism 289 Maria Macuch 18 Law and Modern Zoroastrians 299 Mitra Sharafi Part IV Practices and Sites 313 19 Ethics 315 Alberto Cantera 20 Prayer 333 Firoze M. Kotwal and Philip G. Kreyenbroek 21 Purity and Pollution / The Body 345 Alan V. Williams 22 Rituals 363 Michael Stausberg and Ramiyar P. Karanjia 23 Festivals and the Calendar 379 Jenny Rose 24 Religious Sites and Physical Structures 393 Jamsheed K. Choksy Part V Intersections 407 25 Early India and Iran 409 Prods Oktor Skjarvo 26 Judaism 423 Yaakov Elman and Shai Secunda 27 The Classical World 437 Martin L. West 28 From Miθra to Roman Mithras 451 Richard L. Gordon 29 Christianity 457 Marco Frenschkowski 30 Manichaeism in Iran 477 Manfred Hutter 31 Islam 491 Shaul Shaked 32 The Yezidi and Yarsan Traditions 499 Philip G. Kreyenbroek 33 The Bahā’ī Faith 505 Moojan Momen Part VI Primary Sources 517 34 Primary Sources: Avestan and Pahlavi 519 Miguel Ángel Andrés‐Toledo 35 Primary Sources: New Persian 529 Daniel J. Sheffield 36 Primary Sources: Gujarati 543 Daniel J. Sheffield Bibliography 555 Index of People, Places, and Topics 629 Index Locorum 655
THE EDITORS MICHAEL STAUSBERG is a Professor of Religion at the University of Bergen and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. His books in English include Religion and Tourism: Crossroads, Destinations, and Encounters (2011) and Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism (2008), and he is the editor or co-editor of Defining Magic (2013), The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religions (2011), Contemporary Theories of Religion (2009), and Theorizing Rituals (2 vols., 2006–2007). Dr. Stausberg has also published widely on Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism in German; he is co-editor of the international journal Religion. YUHAN SOHRAB-DINSHAW VEVAINA is a Lecturer in Religious Studies at Stanford University. After completing his PhD in 2007 at Harvard University, he served as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Undergraduate Core Curriculum and as the Lecturer on Old Iranian in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Dr. Vevaina has authored articles for peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, and in 2010 he received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, USA. He is currently completing a book project on Zoroastrian hermeneutics in Late Antiquity.
Reviews for The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism
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