Posted on 06/03/2015 6:04:53 PM PDT by odds
SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — After over a millennium, the Zoroastrian faith is returning to its original habitat. The Ministry of Religion in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital Erbil has registered the religion, locally known as Zardashti, and suggested to the Kurdish government the ancient faith should be given its own directorate general and its believers be allowed to build new temples.
“Now it’s time,” says Nouri Sharif, one of the initiators of the movement that established a Zoroastrian organization in Europe in 2006 and in March announced in Erbil its official return to Kurdistan. In April, a Supreme Council of Zoroastrians in Kurdistan was founded.
Already active in Iran and India, the movement claims to have some 100,000 followers in Iraqi Kurdistan. This is mainly a reaction to the violence committed by the Islamic State, according to Sharif during an interview in a café in Kurdistan’s second city Sulaimani.
“People see something is imposed on them. They have witnessed suffering from another belief. Now it is the time for our destiny, because we are exhausted. We haven’t seen any good deeds from Daesh, it only gives us death and violence,” he said using Daesh, the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Zoroastrians follow Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra or locally as Zardasht, who probably lived in the 6th century BC. He was not a prophet like those known in Islam and Christianity, Sharif stressed.
“He was not sent by God as his representative. He was contemplating existence and the universe. Zardasht was a human being full of wisdom. For me he is a prophet, but he brings a philosophy he found himself,” he said.
He pointed to the little green book in front of him on the table. “This book is a summary of his thoughts. A hundred questions that he raised on existence, religion, God and the universe. It’s not God’s word, but that of humans,” Sharif continued.
Sharif returned five years ago to Sulaimani from Germany to start work on bringing back the religion to Kurdistan, and printed a selection of thoughts to be used for this task. They are taken from the main book of the faith, Avesta.
“Zardasht was one of the first to have called for worshipping one god, the Ahura Mazda… creator of existence,” he said.
An important aspect for attracting people to the faith is the fact that its founder was a Kurd. Not a lot is known about him, Sharif said, apart from that he was born in Urmia (now Iran) and died aged 77 in a fight. “During his life there was opposition,” Sharif said. “Later we were conquered by Alexander the Great, but we regrouped after that, until the total Islamic conquest.”
Already the Zoroastrians have centers in India and in Kerman in Iran.
“We plan to open a third one in Sulaimani. Seminars were held in different towns across Kurdistan, where many people participated,” Sharif said. “Amongst Kurds there is a great level of enthusiasm to go back to the roots; from various levels in the community; professors, politicians and normal people. Hundreds of thousands are interested and this is increasing.”
Sharif said councils have been established in the big cities, but his group is waiting for the licensing process to finish so it can open a center for people to visit.
Temples will be opened too, or in the vocabulary of the faith “attashga,” which means fire house, as fire is considered holy.
“They should be opened on the original locations, like in Darbandighan, Shaklawa, Soran, Chami Rezan, Qishqapan—the king that was buried there was a Zardashti,” Sharif claimed. “We have history to guide us, and will renovate old places.”
But for the moment the group is focused on culture and heritage. “We don’t want to start with the commitments of the religion, binding people to a certain number of prayers per day,” he said.
Even though reviving this pre-Islamic religion and convincing people to leave Islam might enrage Muslims who consider this to be prohibited, Sharif and his group have decided to work out in the open.
“Kurdistan has passed the era of secret practice. We follow the rules and legislations. If we are supported by law, hopefully it will protect us. All the religions have the right to call for worship,” he said.
Even so he knows it could be dangerous.
“We have made our decision, and this cause demands sacrifices. They can only kill and commit violence,” Sharif said referring to Muslim radicals like ISIS. “They could bring arguments, but they do not have the wisdom, that’s why they resort to killing. We are not afraid of them. Their religion is backward.”
Sharif expects that even though the vast majority of Kurds are Muslim, they can live together in peace. “We believe in peaceful coexistence. There is no violence in the origin of our culture. This is another wisdom by Zardasht, who says: ‘I will not draw my sword in troubled times, but light a candle.’”
No, it is monotheistic.
Cosmogonic dualism and escathological monotheism.
Thank you for posting this.
There are those muslims (regardless of Kurds) who have or will choose to become Christians or follow Judaism.
There are also those who have, privately, become atheists as a result of seeing so much ‘religious’ conflict in that part of the world.
In the case of muslim Kurds, or those of “Iranian stock/off-shoots”, it is much easier to encourage them to follow the Z faith than any other faith.
Simple reason is that these people already are by and large very familiar with the Z faith, without consciously & conceptually knowing or understanding they are. For many of them the Z faith is an inherent part of their traditions & customs, without realizing it.
The challenge is to ensure they understand the difference between Islam and Zoroatrianism. Those “seminars” mentioned in the article serve that purpose too.
Zoroastrians are not ‘less muslim’ - they simply aren’t muslims.
I have a soft spot for pre-Islamic Iranian culture, although I don’t have a lot of primary sources on Zoroastrianism.
I considered the faith to be equally valid to the Judaeo-Christian spectrum as well. Perhaps Zoroaster was to be the Moses of the Indo-Europeans for YHWH/Ohrmazd in a sense. To enlighten the people from Paganism.
My biggest hope is that one day a complete text of the Avesta will be discovered like the Dead Sea Scrolls. I find it very sad that the faith’s scriptures are only fragments of its true splendor.
For the Z part, much of the original will never be found.
There was much original documentation archived during the Sassanid period. They were mostly lost after Arab and Mongol invasions of Iran, who destroyed libraries, particularly & initially after Arab invasion.
Much of those original Z sources we now possess, were secretly kept by Mobeds (Zoroastrian priests), many of whom were killed to protect them. Others or duplicates were kept surprisingly by ordinary peasants (not aristocracy, nobility or clergy of that time).
Foreign invasions also led many Zs to recite & memorize much of the authentic teachings, and then ensure they were passed on through generations by 'oral tradition', to avoid complete destruction.
"Oral tradition" to ensure continuity is why one sees a Kurd or Tajik can recite traditional poems, such as the ones by Ferdowsi from centuries ago, by heart & from memory, with considerable accuracy, even in the last 30 or 40 yrs. Equally, the Zoroastrian priests today recite without reading from a book.
Fortunately, fact that the Gathas (original 17 hymns by Zoroaster) was Not in prose but poetry form, helped as well to preserve that continuity as much as possible. It was a linguistic and literary advantage.
this is good news. very, very good news
>>”although I don’t have a lot of primary sources on Zoroastrianism.”<<
If/when you have time, explore this site gradually.
It has a lot of info & related photos. It’s periodically updated too, and the site is managed by a Zoroastrian “Parsi” from India.
http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/
I may well be mixing it up with Mithraism—They have two gods.
I’ve met some Iranians in my life and they were wonderful people and did not consider themselves muslim.
What those people told me was that the regular people of Iran were not muslim. That was the group that has currently seized control of their country but true Iranians are Zoroastrians.
Zoroastianism never was eliminated, it just went underground.
I overlooked this part earlier, a bit deliberately :/ -- mostly because the word "frasho-kereti" can mean "the consequence or realization of our deeds" -- it's the outcome of our deeds, if not in this life, then elsewhere in a more "spiritual realm"..
I don't want to get into a religious debate, since this thread is not meant for that purpose, and also I'm not a theologian :) But, to linguistically clarify & put in context..
The word "Saoshyant" (mentioned in the Zoroaster’s hymns i.e. the Gathas) literally means “one who will bring benefit” – a benefactor or can be a saviour too; but does not exactly bear the same meaning as the one accorded to it in the Abrahamic religions.
The Gathic message clearly defines, that those enlightened man and women, who extol the virtues of righteousness, using their good mind, emerge as the benefactors among mankind. It is to them, that Ahura Mazda is a companion and a friend (Yasna 45.11).
There can be many Saoshyants (plural) in many different fields.”
A reminder that in Z faith, The Gathas (or Gathic part of the Avesta) supersedes any other part of the Avesta. Because the Gathas are known to be original words & intent of Zoroaster. The Avesta is comprised of different sub-sections (books) - "Gathic-Avesta" is a major & very original component of the Avesta -- they are in Old Persian language.
Thank you...
I have a good sense about the Kurds moving toward freedom of religion....which is what this is about IMO.
Very interesting, odds. Thanks for the post/ping (scrolling back through my pings while I was on vacation the 1st week of June). BTTT!
Good to see you back. Hope you enjoyed the vacation.
Driving back with my sis from Kingman AZ to metro Detroit was enjoyable, as it only rained around St. Louis. Before I left it rained 6 of 7 days here in Michigan. Since back it's rained 9 of 11 days. The weather must be better in Kurdistan or Persia.
Wow, lots of rain.. but funny you mention it. We’ve had lot of rain in NSW on the east coast Australia last 2 days!
Kingu -- the early history is not lost due to Islamic conquest, but was never really noted down -- Zoroastrianism dates to before the Achaemenids, so in a pre-historical sense to the Farsis. It may have been 1700 BC or it may have been 700 BC
I personally believe that the latter date makes more sense because:
hi — Baghdad dates to the Islamic era, approx 8th century AD, not to Zoroastrian times
Thanks, cronos. Hadn’t read through that site. I posted a PDF translation in #31.
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