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Some Recent Studies on the Iranian Religions

  • Louis H. Gray (a1)
Extract

It is curious, and perhaps significant, that the two most important volumes on the Iranian religions which have appeared within the last decade should have been written by scholars who were not professed Iranists. Professor James Hope Moulton, the author of the Hibbert Lectures on Early Zoroastrianism (London, 1913), was a theologian and a hellenist; Professor Raffaele Pettazzoni, who has just given us his La Religione di Zarathustra (Bologna, 1920), is a student of comparative religion of the finest and sanest type. Pettazzoni seems not to have had the advantage of consulting Moulton's volume; but while from one point of view this may be regrettable, from another it has worked for good, since two scholars have reached independently results which, when combined, put the genesis of Iranism in an entirely new light and go far toward the solution of many perplexing problems, if, indeed, they may not have solved the riddle as a whole. Of Moulton's work I have expressed an opinion elsewhere, and subsequent reflection has only confirmed that judgement.

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1 Vol. i of the Storia delle Religione, edited by him.

2 Expository Times, xxv (1914), 256257; Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vii (1914), 396.

3 Early Zoroastrianism, pp. 12–16; dualism is a Magian doctrine (ibid. pp. 201, 220, 322).

4 Treasure of the Magi, p. 6. “Nothing earlier than the tenth century can be admitted, it would seem, and another century or two may be quite reasonably allowed” (p. 13).

5 Cf. also Gaster, ‘Parsiism in Judaism,’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ix (1917), 637640.

6 Early Zoroastrianism, Lecture vi; cf. his article ‘Magi,’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, viii (1915), pp. 242244; Treasure of the Magi, passim.

7 Les peuples aryens d'Asie et d'Europe, Paris, 1908, pp. 189196.

8 Wigram, , An Introduction to the History of the Assyrian Church, London, 1910; cf. also Gray, , ‘Zoroastrian and other Ethnic Religious Material in the Acta Sanctorum,’ in Journal of the Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Society, 1913–14, pp. 3755. I have not yet been able to consult Braun's Ausgewählte Akten persischer Märtyrer, Kempten, 1915.

9 See Modi, , ‘Mazdak, the Iranian Socialist,’ in Dastur Hoshang Memorial Volume, Bombay, 1918, pp. 116131.

10 See the recent study by Unvala, , ‘The Religion of the Parthians,’ in Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Madressa Jubilee Volume, Bombay, 1914, pp. 110.

11 See also Jones, , ‘Mithraism,’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, viii (1915), 752759.

12 Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, pp. 128–130.

13 Meillet, , ‘Sur les termes religieux iraniens en Arménien,’ in Revue des études arméniennes, i (1921), 233236.

14 צלמאי והומן(?) מר(ד)יא; Jensen, in Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1919, p. 1018; cf. also Jackson, , ‘Images and Idols (Persian),’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vii (1914), 151155.

15 Cf. Gray, , ‘King (Indian),’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vii (1914), 720721; Casartelli, ‘King (Iranian),’ ibid. 721–723; Mercer, , ‘“Emperor”-Worship in Babylonia,’ in Journal of the American Oriental Society, xxxvi (1917), 360380.

16 Journal of the Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Society, 1913–14, p. 39; cf. also Gray, , ‘Fate (Iranian),’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, v (1918), 792793; Edwards, ‘Sects (Zoroastrian),’ ibid, xi (1920), 345–347; Dhalla, , Zoroastrian Theology, New York, 1914, pp. 203205.

17 See also Mile. Menant's articles, ‘Gabars,’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vi (1913), 147156; ‘Parsis,’ ibid, ix (1917), 640–650; Jackson, , Persia Past and Present, New York, 1906, pp. 353400.

18 See, inter alia, Kovalevsky, , ‘Survivals of Iranian Culture in the Caucasian Highlands,’ in Archaeological Review, i (1888), 313331; Ujfalvy, De, Les Aryens au nord etausudde l'Hindou-Kouch, Paris, 1896, pp. 91, 96–97, 329–332, 334, 337–338; Biddulph, , Tribes of the Hindu Koosh, Calcutta, 1880, pp. 75, 108; Olufsen, , Through the Unknown Pamirs, London, 1904, pp. 197199, 205–206.

19 Oxford, 1917 (in the series entitled The Religious Quest of India).

20 A touching tribute to my friend is paid by the Reverend Bardsley Brash in his exquisite chapter on ‘Another “Verray Gentil Knight’” in Letters to ‘The Happy Warrior,’ pp. 25–30.

21 Regarding Mani (p. 113) see now Dhalla, ‘Mani's Asceticism from the Zoroastrian Point of View,’ in Madressa Jubilee Volume, pp. 89–99; on the question of proselytism (pp. 127–181) see Gray, , ‘Missions (Zoroastrian),’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, viii (1915), 749751, and Mile. Menant, ‘Une évolution sociale chez les Parsis,’ in Revue d' ethnographie et de sociologie, 1914, pp. 118–180, 168–180, 235–247; on the researches of Dr. Spooner (pp. 63, 74, 81–82, 142) see Modi, , ‘Ancient Pataliputra’, in his Asiatic Papers, ii (Bombay, 1917), 211286.

22 Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten, xvii, Heft 1, Giessen, 1920.

23 Forties historiae religionum ex auctoribus Graecis et Latinis collecti, Fasciculus 1, Bonn, 1920.

24 In Jackson, , Zoroaster, New York, 1899, pp. 231278; cf. my supplement, ‘Additional Classical Passages Mentioning Zoroaster's Name,’ in Le Muséon, ix (1908),. 811818.

25 Justi, , Iranisches Namenbuch, Marburg, 1896, pp. 6, 48, 491, would read Atradates (‘Fire-given’).

26 Griechischer Roman, 2d ed., Leipzig, 1900, pp. 4754.

27 Hoffmann, , Auszüge arts syrischen Akten persischer Märtyrer, Leipzig, 1880, p. 35; Gray, , Journal of the Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Society, 1913–14, p. 46.

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