Zoroastrianism is the oldest remaining religion in Iran. Founded around the middle of the second millennium BCE, the religion spread through the Iranian area through conversions and eventually became state religion in the Achaemenian Empire in the 6th century BCE. The religion still survives to this day in small communities, mostly located in present Iran and India. The Zoroastrians in India are called Parsis.
According to the Iran's official census, there were 25,271 Zoroastrians in the country as of 2011, but several unofficial accounts suggest higher figures growing within the country.
Background and the religion
The Zoroastrian religion is credited to the prophet Zoroaster, who is also known as Zarathushtra and the religion is named after him. Zoroaster was supposedly the one that founded this religion around the middle of the second millennium BCE. In contemporary times, it is stated that Zoroastrianism is a religion whose followers worship one God. The God’s name is Ahura Mazda, which is the good divine. He has sacred beings alongside him, like individual deities but also natural phenomena. In opposition, there is also an embodiment of evil, that wants to bring disorder and destruction. This evil comes in the form of Angra Mainyu in the Avestan and in the form of Ahreman in Middle Persian.
The belief in a good and bad divine seems to be part of a dualistic religion. The Zoroastrian religion can therefore be seen as a dualistic or polytheistic religion. There is however a lot of resistance against this idea. Modern scholars have tried to label the religion as monotheistic. More so, the only monotheistic religion of Indo-European origin. Even though these terms are used frequently, there is no indication that these terms were known in ancient times and the Zoroastrians themselves did not put a label on their religion, at least not until the early Islamic period.
The reason for this is because there are not many old written records about the religion. There are for example no impartial written records from Zarathushtra's time. The earliest surviving written references to Zarathushtra (from non-Iranians) seem to be those of Greek writers. Zarathushtra and his first followers were Iranians that lived between the Bronze Age and Iron Age (est. 1200-600 BC).
The time of the Iranian peoples' migration to Iran can be mainly estimated through Assyrian records. Also, Herodotus (I, 101) recalled one of the Mede tribes to be called "Magoi", better known as "Magis", a tribe known to have included many priests, who served both Medes and Persians. By the time of the Median empire (est. 612 BC), Zoroastrianism is known to have been well established in both the Pars region (later capital of Persia) as well as in the Eastern regions.
Scholarship on Zoroastrianism in Iran
The Europeans ‘’discovered’’ Zoroastrianism in Iran, when they started to explore the world and went to Iran. This happened somewhere in the seventeenth century. The present and influence of the Europeans goes beyond dynasties. When the Europeans arrived in Iran, they felt surprisingly good about this land. It had a cultural sophistication, that they had not found in other places that they had visited. Initially, they did not know much about Zoroastrianism, but the fascination of the Europeans for the land and the religion turned into academic study of the Orient.
The Europeans did not have good relations or history with the religion Islam, which was dominantly present in the area at that time. Zoroastrianism however, is a pre-Islamic religion that survived, so this made it extra interesting for them. The first European scholars who researched Zoroastrianism in Iran, were mainly from the Christian religion. The Christian religion is seen as monotheistic and superior by Europeans. Since the Europeans were fascinated by and positive about Zoroastrianism in Iran, they were the first to try to label this religion with concepts they knew, like monotheistic.
The Zoroastrians themselves were probably involved with the studies of their religion as well. We know this, because modern scholarship has stated that Orientalist studies did not emerge in isolation. In fact, they resulted from interaction and intellectual exchange between the scholars and the people that they study. So, chances are big that the Zoroastrians shaped the ideas about their religion as well. These first studies set the tone for our ideas about Zoroastrianism in Iran. Discussions about the origin and nature of the religion still continue, both in Western and in Iranian studies.