The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism (eBook)

Michael Stausberg is 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), Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism (2008), and as editor or co-editor 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 published widely on Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism in German; he is co-editor, with Steven Engler, of the journal Religion. Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina is a Lecturer in Religious Studies at Stanford University. After completing his Ph.D. 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 is the author of several articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes and in 2010 he received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, U.S.A. He is currently working on a book project on Zoroastrian hermeneutics in Late Antiquity.

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 Gat¯ ha¯s 39 a The Gat¯ has¯ 39
Helmut Humbach

b The Ga¯tha¯s, Said to Be of Zarathustra 44
Jean Kellens

c Dimensions of the Ga¯tha¯s as Poetry 51
Martin Schwartz

d The Ga¯tha¯s as Myth and Ritual 59
Prods Oktor Skjærvø

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 Skjærvø

26 Judaism 423
Yaakov Elman and Shai Secunda

27 The Classical World 437
Martin L. West

28 From Mithetara 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 Baha¯'i ¯ 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

Review copy sent on 20.5.15 to Reference Reviews

Review copy sent on 20.4.15 to Digital Archive of Brief notes & Iran Review



The editors of the Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism ought to be lauded for presenting a superb compendium on the state of scholarship in Zoroastrian Studies. Not only does its treatment of more traditional questions pertaining to Zarathustra's time, homeland, and Gathas evince new and refreshing insights, but an array of novel inquiries into Zoroastrian hermeneutics and cosmogonies, or the issue of gender, provides for an exciting and stimulating read. Altogether, the Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism is a must for the informed and specialized reader alike, and a major contribution to the field for many years to come.
M. Rahim Shayegan, UCLA