Zoroastrianism

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]
An early 19th century engraving of a fire
temple near Baku, Azerbaijan
Courtesy of Virtual Ani

Zoroastrianism
is one of the oldest
religions still practiced today. It developed
in Persia around the same time as
Judaism in Syria, and only an
early form of Hinduism is older than
Zoroastrianism and Judaism. The
religion's name is based on that of Zoroaster,
also called
Zarathustra, a prophet who lived sometime between 1500 and 1000 BCE.
It
is difficult to date the exact time of Zoroaster's life because of poor

records, but historians and religious scholars have placed him in
this time
period because of his style of writing. Zoroastrianism is
based on the belief in
a universal struggle between good and evil, a
dichotomy religious scholars call
"dualism." Good is represented by
the all-powerful deity, Ahura Mazda, or "Wise
Lord," while evil is
represented by a devil-figure named Ahriman, or
"Destructive
Spirit." In ancient times, settled people believed that they
represented
good, while nomads represented evil. Good was destined to triumph
over
evil, according to the Zoroastrian holy book, the Avesta, which would
result
in the forces of good being rewarded with eternal paradise, and the
forces
of evil being condemned to hell. The religious sentiment thus expressed

against nomadism in Persia - Zoroastrianism's home - may account
for the long
tradition of settlement and empire-building there.
Zoroastrians also believe
that a Saoshyant (Savior) will be sent to
earth by Ahura Mazda to raise the dead
and conduct a final
judgement. Many religions that followed Zoroastrianism also
adopted
this idea. The Zoroastrian place of worship is a fire temple, where
fires
burn during the worship of Ahura Mazda. Fire itself is not worshipped
by
the religion; it is simply a symbol of worship.

Zoroastrianism became the state
religion
of Persia in 226 CE, when Ardashir I overthrew the Parthian dynasty and

founded the Sassanid Empire. Throughout the Sassanid Empire's
400-year history,
Zoroastrianism remained the official religion, and
it also developed a
distinctly Persian character. The religion was
so closely integrated with the
Persian identity that very few
non-Persians adhered to it, while it was so
intertwined with the
Sassanid state that the religious bureaucracy collapsed
along with
the Sassanid Empire in the mid-7th century.

The collapse of the Empire at that
time
came at the hands of invading Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula. Over
several
centuries, Islam began to gain converts in Persia, and under the
Abbasid
dynasty in the 8th century it eclipsed Zoroastrianism to
become the state
religion of Persia. Most Zoroastrians who did not
convert to Islam fled to
India, which still has the largest
concentration of Zoroastrians - now known as
Parsis - today. The
religion also survives today in small populations in Iran
and
Afghanistan

الموضوع الأصلي : Zoroastrianism المصدر : مُنتَدَيَاتْ صُـوتــْ بَــلَــدْنََــا

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