Zoroaster - Zoroaster Zoroaster, one of the great teachers of the East, the founder of Zoroastrianism, which was the national religion of the Perso-Iranian people from the time of the Achaemenidae to the close of the Sassanid period. The name Ζωροάστρης is the corrupt Greek form of the Avestan Zarathustra (Modern Persian: Zartosht or زرتشت). Its signification is obscure; but it certainly contains the word ushtra, "camel." Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Evidence of his life 2 The Person of the Prophet 3 Zoroastrianism 4 History and Later Development 5 Influences 6 External Links Evidence of his life Zoroaster was already famous in classical antiquity as the founder of the widely renowned wisdom of the Magi. His name is not mentioned by Herodotus in his sketch of the.
George Gemistos Plethon - to the Western world, and shook the exclusive domination which Aristotle had exercised over European thought for eight centuries. Cosimo de' Medici attended these lectures and later founded an academy in Florence, where Italian students of Plethon continued to teach after the conclusion of the council. Because of this Plethon is considered one of the most important influences on the Italian Renaissance. While in Florence Plethon wrote De Differentiis, a description of the differences between Plato's and Aristotle's conceptions of God. Scholarios later defended Aristotle and convinced emperor Manuel II Palaeologus that Plethon's support for Plato amounted to heresy. Manuel had Plethon confined in Mistra, though he remained somewhat of a celebrity. In Mistra he wrote pamphlets to Manuel II describing how the Empire could be reorganized according to Plato's Republic..
Edward Backhouse Eastwick - soon given a political post. In 1843 he translated the Persian Kessahi Sanjan, or History of the Arrival of the Parsees in India; and he wrote a Life of Zoroaster, a Sindhi vocabulary, and various papers in the transactions of the Bombay Asiatic Society. Compelled by ill-health to return to Europe, he went to Frankfurt, where he learned German and translated Schiller's Revolt of the Netherlands and Bopp's Comparative Grammar. In 1845 he was appointed professor of Hindustani at Haileybury College. Two years later he published a Hindustani grammar, and, in subsequent years, a new edition of the Gulistn, with a translation in prose and verse, also an edition with vocabulary of the Hindi translation of Chatur Chuj Misr's Prem Sagar, and translations of the Bagh-o-Bahar, and of the Anwar-i Suhaili.
Eugne Burnouf - was the deciphering of the Zend manuscripts brought to France by Anquetil du Perron. By his labours a knowledge of the Zend language was first brought into the scientific world of Europe. He caused the Vendidad Sade, part of one of the books bearing the name of Zoroaster, to be lithographed with the utmost care from the Zend manuscript in the Bibliothque Nationale, and published it in folio parts, 1829-1843. From 1833 to 1835 he published his Commentaire sur le Yana, l'un des livres liturgiques des Parses; he also published the Sanskrit text and French translation of the Bhagavala Purdna ou histoire potique de Krichna in three folio volumes (1840-1847). His last works were Introduction l'histoire du Bouddhisme indien (1844), and a translation of Le lotus de la bonne loi.
Darius I of Persia - 521), and gained the crown. He also married Atossa, the widow of Smerdis. But this sudden change was the signal for an attempt on the part of all the eastern provinces to regain their independence. In Susiana, Babylon, Media, Sagartia, and Margiana, usurpers arose, pretending to be of the old royal race, and gathered large armies around them; in Persia itself Vahyazdata imitated the example of Gaumata and was acknowledged by the majority of the people as the true Bardiya. Darius with only a small army of Persians and Medes and some trustworthy generals overcame all difficulties, and in 520 and 519 all the rebellions were put down (Babylon rebelled twice, Susiana even three times), and the authority of Darius was established throughout the empire. Darius in his inscriptions appears as.
Airyanem Vaejah - of the Iranians and Indians respectively (second millennium B.C.) have similarities which extend beyond linguistics, to the very gods themselves, and the themes of parts of the narratives. Regrettably, the Iranian epic material in the Avesta was purged, sanitized or recast by the zeal of Zoroaster and his followers in the 7th century B.C. and later. Complicating matters is the fact that only a tiny percentage of the historically known Avesta has survived. It is only in oblique, presumably pre-Zoroastrian passages or in much later epic material (supposedly deriving from the earliest Iranian myths) that one encounters anything comparable to the passions and jealousies of the Greek or Indian deities. Airyanem Vaejah, whose location is disputed, contained the first mountain created on earth, Hara Berezaiti or High Hara. The Vedas, which.
Avestas - to Sanskrit, the sacred language of Hinduism. The Avestas were collated over several hundred years. The oldest portion, the Gathas are the hymns written by Zoroaster himself. The later portions constitute elaborations of Zoroastrian thinking along with detailed descriptions of ritual practices. According to legend the full text of the Avestas was destroyed by Alexander the Great when he invaded Persia. It was later only partly reconstructed from the memories of Zoroastrian priests. This story is not generally accepted by scholars now, but it is acknowledged that the existing text of the Avsesta is a fraction of the full texts that existed in antiquity, befoe the decline of the Zoroastrian faith..
Avestan - the past the language was known as 'Zend', but this was later considered a misuse of this word. The oldest form of Avestan, spoken by Zoroaster himself, is found in the Gathas. This is a dialect variant of Vedic, the oldest known form of the Sanskrit language. Western study of Vedic and Avestan at the end of the 18th century was responsible for the discovery of the Indo-European language group, and thus to the creation of modern linguistics and philology..
Avesta (Zoroastrianism) - closely related to Sanskrit, the sacred language of Hinduism. The Avestas were collated over several hundred years. The oldest portion, the Gathas are the hymns written by Zoroaster himself. The later portions constitute elaborations of Zoroastrian thinking along with detailed descriptions of ritual practices. According to legend the full text of the Avesta was destroyed by Alexander the Great when he invaded Persia. It was later only partly reconstructed from the memories of Zoroastrian priests. This story is not generally accepted by scholars now, but it is acknowledged that the existing text of the Avesta is a fraction of the full texts that existed in antiquity, before the decline of the Zoroastrian faith..
Baha'i Faith - the Bah' Scriptures have been translated into 802 languages. Bah'u'llh taught that there is one God Who progressively reveals His will to humanity. Each of the great religions brought by the Messengers of God such as - Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus, Muhammad - represents a successive stage in the spiritual development of civilization. Bah'u'llh, the most recent Messenger in this line as Bah's believe, has brought teachings that address the moral and spiritual challenges of the modern world. As such, although the Baha'i Faith is not traditionally included among the Abrahamic religions, it recognizes many of the same personages, including it's own. The Bah' Faith is the youngest of the world's independent religions. Its central theme is that humanity is one single race and that the day has come for.
Bactria - home of one of the Iranian tribes. Modern authors have often used the name in a wider sense, as the designation of the whole eastern part of Iran. As there can be scarcely any doubt that it was in these regions, where the fertile soil of the mountainous country is everywhere surrounded and limited by the Turanian desert, that the prophet Zoroaster preached and gained his first adherents, and that his religion spread from here over the western parts of Iran, the sacred language in which the Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrianism, is written, has often been called "old Bactrian." But there is no reason for this extensive use of the name, and the term "old Bactrian" is, therefore, at present completely abandoned by scholars. Whether Bactria formed part of.
Balkh - thick. The Takht-i-Rustam is wedge-shaped in plan, with uneven sides. It is apparently built of pis mud (i.e. mud mixed with straw and puddled). It is possible that in these ruins we may recognize the Nan Vihara of the Chinese traveller Hsuan Tsang. There are the remains of many other topes (or stupas) in the neighbourhood. The mounds of ruins on the road to Mazar-iSharif probably represent the site of a city yet older than those on which stands the modern Balkh. The town is garrisoned by a few hundred kasidars, the regular troops of Afghan Turkestan being cantoned at Takhtapul, near Mazari-Sharif. The gardens to the north-east contain a caravanserai, which is fairly well kept and comfortable. It forms one side of a courtyard, which is shaded by a group.
Conservation movement - and use nature, and assign it varying ethical significance. Today it is more correct to say that there is no clear distinction between the conservation movement and environmental movement in the United States, but rather a distinction between these and the ecology movement which gave rise to such strongly political groups as Greenpeace and the Green Parties. Conservation as such has historically been associated strongly with religion - Zoroaster, Tao, Islam in particular - but only in the 19th century became explicitly associated with Christian morality, which was formed in part in opposition to Pagan nature worship..
The Shahnameh - on a prose work of the same name compiled in the poet's earlier life in his native Tous. This prose Shahnameh was in turn and for the most part the translation of a Pahlavi (Middle Persian) work, a compilation of the history of the kings and heroes of Iran from mythical times down to the reign of Khosrau II (590-628 A.D.), but it also contains additional material continuing the story to the overthrow of the Sassanids by the Arabs in the middle of the 7th century A.D. The first to undertake the versification of this chronicle of pre-Islamic and legendary Persia was Daqiqi, a poet at the court of the Samanids, who came to a violent end after completing only 1000 verses. These verses, which deal with the rise of the.
Soma - Mandala of the Rig Veda consists largely of hymns to Soma. Soma is similar to ambrosia; it is what the gods drink, and what made them deities. Indra and Agni are known for drinking massive amounts of Soma. Mortals also drink it; it gave them hallucinations. The plant may be Ephedra vulgaris. R Gordon Wasson and many other researchers believe that Soma may be the mushroom amanita muscaria. The Persians had a similar drink called Haoma. In both Persia and India, the Soma/Haoma making rituals died out when the early Aryan forms of these religions were reformed by Zoroaster and by later Brahminical practice. The moon is the cup from which the gods drink Soma, and so Soma became identified with the lunar deity Chandra. A waxing moon meant Soma was.
Religion - such as unifying them with in a coherent social group. Some cognitive psychologists, however, take a completely different approach to explaining religion. Foremost among them is Pascal Boyer, whose book, Religion Explained, lays out the basics of his theory, and attempts to refute several previous and more simple explanations for the phenomenon of religion. Essentially, Mr. Boyer claims that religion is a result of the misfunctioning or overfunctioning of certain subconscious intuitive mental faculties, which normally apply to physics (enabling prediction of the arc a football will take only seconds after its release, for example), and social networks (to keep track of other people's identity, history, loyalty, etc.), and a variety of others. How do religions differ? While some of the "people of the Book," Christianity, Judaism, and Islam claim to.
Relic - sock, a shirt, a glove, etc.) ; Third-Class Relics : The Third-Class Relics above fall into two categories. The first category is a piece of cloth touched to the body of a saint. The second category is a piece of cloth brought to the shrine (or site of the vision) of the saint. It is prohibited by the Catholic Church to sell First- and Second-Class Relics. When the church prohibits the selling of "sacred relics" it is referring to First- and Second-class relics. It is not referring to Third-class relics. It is not prohibited by the church to sell Third-Class Relics. Non-Christian relics At Athens the supposed remains of Oedipus and Theseus enjoyed an honor that is very difficult to distinguish from a religious cult, while Plutarch gives accounts of the.
Zoroastrianism - sometimes known as Mazdaism) was founded by Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) in Persia around 600 BC (although some scholars estimate as early as 1500 BC). Zoroastrianism combines elements of monotheism and dualism. Some modern scholars believe that Zoroastrianism had a large influence on Judaism and Manichaeism, and thus indirectly influenced Christianity and Islam. The holy book of Zoroastrianism is the Avesta. Of the Avesta only the Gathas (the hymns) are attributed to Zoroaster. Ahura Mazda (literally: "the Wise Lord" like the Sanskrit "Asura Medha"; later transcription: Ohrmazd, Ormazd or Ormus) is revered and worshipped by Zoroastrians as the good God. Opposed to Ahura Mazda stands Ahriman (Angra Mainyu), who in some traditions is Ohrmazd's twin brother. According to Zoroastrianism, the earth was created by Ormazd as a battlefield to fight Ahriman (where Ohrmazd.
Pre-Islamic period of Afghanistan - of the 2nd millennium BC people speaking an Indo-European language may have entered the eastern part of the Iranian Plateau, but little is known about the area until the middle of the 1st millennium BC, when its history began to be recorded during the Achaemenid Empire. Achaemenid Rule, ca. 550 BC - 331 BC The area that is present-day Afghanistan comprised several satrapies (provinces) of the Achaemenid Empire when it was at its most extensive, under Darius the Great (ca. 500 BC). Bactriana, with its capital at Bactria (which later became Balkh), was reputedly the home of Zoroaster, who founded the Zoroastrian religion. By the fourth century B.C., Iranian control of outlying areas and the internal cohesion of the empire had become tenuous. Although outlying areas like Bactriana had always been.
Magic (paranormal) - of civic life. Just as tribal elders were consolidated and transformed into kings and bureaucrats, so too were shamans and adepts devolved into priests and a priestly caste. This shift is by no means in nomenclature alone. While the shaman's task was to negotiate between the tribe and the spirit world, on behalf of the tribe, as directed by the collective will of the tribe, the priest's role was to transfer instructions from the deities to the city-state, on behalf of the deities, as directed by the will of those deities. This shift represents the first major usurpation of power by distancing magic from those participating in that magic. It is at this stage of development that highly codified and elaborate rituals, setting the stage for formal religions, began to emerge,.
