Where is zoroastrianism primarily located

These coins regularly depict a fire altar flanked by two attendants, who may represent elite members of the Zoroastrian priesthood known as magi. Historical commentary recorded by Hui-li and other Buddhist contemporaries of the seventh century often misinterpreted the religion perhaps willfully as focused upon the worship of fire. While fire is an important element in Zoroastrianism, it is not considered a deity in its own right.

Rather, along with light, fire serves as an agent of purification and a symbol of the supreme deity. Three specific fires are named by Zoroastrian tradition and came to carry special cultic significance; these were the flames of Farnbag, Gushnasp, and Burzen-Mihr.

The Farnbag fire was associated with the priesthood, and was first kept in Khwarezm. According to tradition it was transported a number of times since the sixth century BC, until it was moved to a permanent seat in the sanctuary of Kariyan in Fars this location has not been identified.

Zoroastrianism, an ancient faith based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster, is believed to have been founded some years ago in the region around Persia.

Once one of the largest religions in the world, Zoroastrian is only followed today by an estimated thousand adherents, living primarily in India, Pakistan, and Iran. In general, it has been marginalized and overshadowed by Islam since the decline of the Sassanid Empire after the 7th Century AD. The Greeks had previously believed humans had little agency, and that their fates were at the mercy of their many gods, who often acted according to whim and fancy.

After their acquaintance with Iranian religion and philosophy, however, they began to feel more as if they were the masters of their destinies, and that their decisions were in their own hands. Though it was once the state religion of Iran and widely practised in other regions inhabited by Persian peoples eg Afghanistan, Tajikistan and much of Central Asia , Zoroastrianism is today a minority religion in Iran, and boasts few adherents worldwide.

Many Zoroastrian traditions continue to underpin and distinguish Iranian culture, and outside the country, it has also had a noted impact, particularly in Western Europe. The similarity of the two works is uncanny, but one can only offer hypotheses. Zoroastrians worship in fire temples, such as this one in Yazd, Iran — they believe fire and water are the twin agents of purity and necessary for ritual cleansing Credit: Alamy.

Towers of Silence, such as this one in Chilpyk, Uzbekistan, are where Zoroastrians would leave the bodies of the dead to be consumed by birds Credit: Alamy. While the clothes may not be Zoroastrian, the story behind the name certainly is. Written in the midth Century by none other than Voltaire, Zadig tells the tale of its eponymous Persian Zoroastrian hero, who, after a series of trials and tribulations, ultimately weds a Babylonian princess.

He may have lived in a tribe that followed an ancient religion with many gods polytheism. This religion was likely similar to early forms of Hinduism. According to Zoroastrian tradition, Zoroaster had a divine vision of a supreme being while partaking in a pagan purification rite at age Zoroaster began teaching followers to worship a single god called Ahura Mazda. In the s, Russian archaeologists at Gonur Tepe, a Bronze Age site in Turkmenistan, discovered the remains of what they believed to be an early Zoroastrian fire temple.

The temple dates to the second millennium B. It was the state religion of three major Persian dynasties. By most accounts, Cyrus was a tolerant ruler who allowed his non-Iranian subjects to practice their own religions.

The beliefs of Zoroastrianism were spread across Asia via the Silk Road , a network of trading routes that spread from China to the Middle East and into Europe. Some scholars say that tenets of Zoroastrianism helped to shape the major Abrahamic religions—including Judaism , Christianity and Islam —through the influence of the Persian Empire.

Zoroastrian concepts, including the idea of a single god, heaven, hell and a day of judgment, may have been first introduced to the Jewish community of Babylonia , where people from the Kingdom of Judea had been living in captivity for decades. When Cyrus conquered Babylon in B. Many returned home to Jerusalem , where their descendants helped to create the Hebrew Bible. Over the next millennia, Zoroastrianism would dominate two subsequent Persian dynasties—the Parthian and Sassanian Empires—until the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century A.

The Muslim conquest of Persia between and A. The Arab invaders charged Zoroastrians living in the Persia extra taxes for retaining their religious practices and implemented laws to make life difficult for them. Over time, most Iranian Zoroastrians converted to Islam. Parsi are followers of Zoroastrianism in India. According to Parsi tradition, a group of Iranian Zoroastrians emigrated from Persia to escape religious persecution by the Muslim majority after the Arab conquest.

Experts speculate that the group sailed across the Arabian Sea and landed in Gujarat, a state in western India, sometime between and A.