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Ancient Religions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Jamsheed K. Choksy
Jamsheed K. Choksy*
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington
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Extract

The Encyclopaedia Iranica is Truly a Monumental Undertaking, Containing thousands of carefully selected items of information covering most aspects of Iranian civilization past and present. As the first seven volumes demonstrate, it is an indispensable reference work that belongs in the libraries of all universities and in the homes of everyone interested in Iran, whether for professional or personal reasons. In connection with ancient or pre-Islamic Iranian religions, the EIr represents the most important scholarly contribution since James Hastings edited the thirteen-volume Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (Edinburgh, 1908-1926, reprint New York, 1955, Edinburgh, 1994). In fact, both may be used as complementary research guides, for the rich descriptions of rituals in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics are not repeated in the EIr whereas the former lacks the up-to-date information on persons, places, events, ideas, theoretical standpoints, and bibliography so fully articulated in the latter.

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Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 3-4: A Review of the “Encyclopaedia Iranica” , Summer Fall 1998 , pp. 661 - 679
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1998

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References

1. Dualism in Transformation: Varieties of Religion in Sasanian Iran (London, 1994).Google Scholar

2. “Doctrinal Variation within Zoroastrianism: The Notion of Dualism,” in Proceedings of the Second International Congress of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute 1995 (Bombay, 1996): 96-110.Google Scholar

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6. See further Frye, Richard N. “Gestures of Deference to Royalty in Ancient Iran,” Iranica Antiqua 10 (1972): 102-107Google Scholar; and Choksy, “Gesture in Ancient Iran and Central Asia I: The Raised Hand,” Iranica Varia: Papers in Honor of Professor Ehsan Yarshater, Acta Iranica, vol. 30 (Leiden, 1990), 30-37Google Scholar, and “Gesture in Ancient Iran and Central Asia II: Proskynesis and the Bent Forefinger,” Papers in Honor of Professor Richard N. Frye, Bulletin of the Asia Institute, new series, 4 (1990): 201-207.Google Scholar

7. For an explication on the theological nexus of macrocosm and microcosm through these spirits in a system that unites heaven and earth consult Choksy, Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph over Evil (Austin, 1989), 116-37.Google Scholar

8. The best summary, including citations to Dumézil's insight, of Amurdad-Marut is by Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques “There are More Things in Heaven and Earth,” in Orientalia Iosephi Tucci Memoriae Dicata, ed. Gnoli, Gherardo and Lanciotti, Lionello Serie Orientale Roma, vol. 56, pt. 1 (Rome, 1985), 255-60.Google Scholar

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11. “The Allegory of Den in Persian Art,” Artibus Asiae 38, 1 (1976): 37-48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. On the decline of Ahriman's role in Parsi or Indian Zoroastrianism during the twentieth century C.E., see further Choksy, “Doctrinal Variation within Zoroastrianism;” and Maneck, Susan S. The Death of Ahriman: Culture, Identity, and Theological Change among the Parsis of India (Bombay, 1997).Google Scholar

13. The Indo-Iranian background of this tale is analyzed by Bulliet, Lucy C. The Vrtra Myth in the Ṛg Veda (PhD. diss., Harvard University, 1983).Google Scholar

14. “L'Apocalyptique iranienne est-elle vraiment la source d'autres apocalypses?” Acta Antiqua Scientiarum Hungaricae 31 (1985-1988): 67-78Google Scholar, and “Nouveaux Regards sur l'apocalyptique iranienne,” Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (1986): 334-346; and Choksy, Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society (New York, 1997), 48, 54-56.Google Scholar

15. On the ritual use of confessional hymns see further Choksy, Purity and Pollution, 63-64, 98-99.

16. More recently, both learned Parsi and Iranian Zoroastrians have compiled catechisms, such as dastur Erachji Meherjirana's Rehbar-e Dīn-e Jarthushtī, written in Gujarati in 1869 C.E., and translated by Kotwal, Firoze M. and Boyd, James W. as A Guide to the Zoroastrian Religion (Chico, 1982)Google Scholar—this translation being extremely popular among Parsi Zoroastrians, and Azargoshasb, Ardashir Āᶜin (Tehran, 1966).Google Scholar

17. See further Kotwal, and Boyd, A Persian Offering, The Yasna: A Zoroastrian High Liturgy, Studia Iranica Carrier 8 (Paris, 1991).Google Scholar

18. On the history of these three flames during the early centuries of Muslim rule, now refer to Choksy, Conflict and Cooperation, 97, 99, 102.

19. Note Lane, Edward W. Arabic-English Lexicon, vol. 2, (London, 1877)Google Scholar, reprint (Cambridge, 1984), 2244.

20. “Worship in a Zoroastrian Fire Temple,” Indo-Iranian Journal 26 (1983): 293-318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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22. New edition and translation by Kotwal, and Kreyenbroek, as The Herbedestan and Nerangestan, vol. 2, Studia Iranica Cahier 16, (Paris, 1995).Google Scholar

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24. Hoffmann, Karl “Av. daxma-,” Zeitschrift fūr vergleichende Sprachforschung 79, 3-4 (1965): 238.Google Scholar

25. A History of Zoroastrianism, vol. 3 (Leiden, 1991), 83, 98, 102, 105, 192-93.Google Scholar

26. Additional noteworthy studies on portions of the Avesta, many appearing since the EIr's entry was written, include: Lommel, Herman Die Gathas des Zarathustra (Stuttgart, 1971)Google Scholar; Monna, M. C. The Gathas of Zarathushtra: A Reconstruction of the Texts (Amsterdam, 1978)Google Scholar; Kellens, Jean and Pirart, Eric Les textes vieil-avestiques, 3 vols. (Wiesbaden, 1988-1991)Google Scholar, to be used cautiously because those two scholars present the controversial claim that Zarathushtra was but one of many priests who jointly composed the Gāthās; Helmut Humbach and others, The Gāthās of Zarathushtra and the Other Old Avestan Texts, 2 vols. (Heidelberg, 1991)Google Scholar; Humbach, Helmut and Ichaporia, Pallan The Heritage of Zarathushtra: A New Translation of His Gāthās (Heidelberg, 1994)Google Scholar; Malandra, William W. The Fravashi Yasht (University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. dissertation, 1971)Google Scholar; Panaino, A. Tishtrya (Rome, 1990)Google Scholar; Pirart, Eric Kayān Yasn (Barcelona, 1992)Google Scholar; Hintze, Almut Der Zamyād Yasht (Wiesbaden, 1994)Google Scholar; Humbach, Helmut and Ichaporia, Pallan Zamyād Yasht (Wiesbaden, 1998)Google Scholar; Humbach, Helmut and Elfenbein, Josef Ērbedestān: An Avesta-Pahlavi Text (Munich, 1990)Google Scholar; and Kotwal, and Kreyenbroek, The Hērbedestān and Nērangestān, 2 vols. to date (Paris, 1992-).Google Scholar

27. “Apastak,” in Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce, Acta Iranica, vol. 24, (Leiden, 1985), 9-14.Google Scholar

28. “The Gathas and Their Pahlavi Translation,” in Proceedings of the Second International Congress of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute 1995 (Bombay, 1996), 259-65.Google Scholar

29. Shaked, Dualism in Transformation, 6; Chosky, “Doctrinal Variation within Zoroastrianism,” 99.

30. Bahar, Mehrdad trans. and annotated, Bundahishn (Tehran, 1991)Google Scholar; and Bailey's unpublished revised edition.

31. “Pursishn vii and viii,” in Miscellanea in Honorem Ibrahim Purdavud, Farhang-e Iran Zamin, vol. 21 (Tehran, 1976), pp. 66-71Google Scholar; “Pursishn xii and xiii,” Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 25 (1977): 249-53Google Scholar; “Pursishn xix and xx,” in Golden Jubilee Volume of the Vaidika Samsodhana Mandala (Poona, 1981), pp. 129-35Google Scholar; “Pursishn xxiii and xxiv,” Journal of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute 50 (1983): 112-25Google Scholar; “Pursishn 36, 1-11,” Journal of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute 45 (1976): 74-80Google Scholar; and “Pursishn 36, 12-24,” in Proceedings of the All-India Oriental Conference 29th Session (Poona, 1978), pp. 243-48.Google Scholar

32. Arda Wiraz Namag: The Iranian ‘Divine Commedia’ (London, 1986).Google Scholar

33. On the dating of both these apocalyptical texts see further Choksy, Conflict and Cooperation, pp. 54-55.

34. On trends, motives, and chronology of conversion to Islam by Zoroastrians in medieval Iran see Choksy, Conflict and Cooperation, 70-93. For the value of personal accounts by converts consult Bulliet's, Richard W. “Conversion Stories in Early Islam,” in Conversion and Continuity: Indigenous Christian Communities in Islamic Lands Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries, ed. Gervers, M. and Bikhazi, R. J. (Toronto, 1990), 123-33.Google Scholar Methodological issues important for the study of conversion are examined by Michael G. Morony, “The Age of Conversions: A Reassessment,” in ibid., 135-50.

35. More details on the present lifestyles of Bombay Parsis is available in Writer, Rashna Contemporary Zoroastrians: An Unstructured Nation (Lanham, 1994).Google Scholar On the situation of contemporary Zoroastrians in Iran, who presently number about 45,000, see further Amighi, Janet Kestenberg The Zoroastrians of Iran: Conversion, Assimilation, or Persistence (New York, 1990).Google Scholar

36. “On Mysticism and Esotericism among the Zoroastrians,” Iranian Studies 26 (1993): 73-94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37. For a recent erudite overview of this issue consult Boyce, Mary “Some Further Reflections on Zurvanism,” in Iranica Varia: Papers in Honor of Professor Ehsan Yarshater, Acta Iranica, vol. 30 (Leiden, 1990), 20-29.Google Scholar

38. Middle Iranian druwand mād īg wispān dēwān, S13 in Boyce, Mary A Reader in Manichaean Middle Persian and Parthian, Acta Iranica, vol. 9, (Leiden, 1975), 100.Google Scholar

39. See further Zaehner, Robert C. Zurvan: A Zoroastrian Dilemma, (Oxford, 1955)Google Scholar, reprint (New York, 1972), 166-75, and The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism, (London, 1961), 226-31Google Scholar; and Sundermann, “Some More Remarks on Mithra in the Manichaean Pantheon,” Études Mithriaques, Acta Iranica, vol. 17, (Leiden, 1978), 487-97.Google Scholar

40. See Forsyth, Neil The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth (Princeton, 1987), 160-81CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with an extensive bibliography on the primary and secondary sources for the Judeo-Christian traditions on Enoch; and Reeves, John C. Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony: Studies in the Book of Giants Traditions (Cincinnati, 1992).Google Scholar

41. “A Sketch of the Manichaean Doctrine Concerning the Future Life,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 50 (1930): 177-98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42. Readers should consult Asmussen, Manichaean Literature (Delmar, 1975), 44-46Google Scholar; and Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Texts from Central Asia (San Francisco, 1993)Google Scholar, 163-64, to fill this lacuna.

43. To Tongerloo's bibliography can be added Gardner's, Iain The Kephalaia of the Teacher: The Edited Coptic Manichaean Texts in Translation with Commentary (Leiden, 1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar To Sundermann's entry now append Julien Ries, “Le codex de cologne et les débutes de l'enseignement de Mani,” 167-80; and Cornelia Römer, “Die manichäische Kirchenorganisation nach dem Kölner Mani-Kodex,” 181-88; both articles in Studia Manichaica: II. Internationaler Kongreṣ zum Manichäismus, ed. Wieṣner, Gernot and Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim (Wiesbaden, 1992)Google Scholar. In general, also now see Mirecki, Paul and BeDuhn, Jason eds., Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources (Leiden, 1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44. The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World (Oxford, 1989, reprint 1991), 112-16.Google Scholar

45. Image and Value in the Graeco-Roman World: Studies in Mithraism and Religious Art (Aldershot, 1996).Google Scholar

46. Buddhism's presence and waning among Iranians is also documented in Frye, R. N. “Buddhism, Competitor of Zoroastrianism in Central Asia,” Proceedings of the Second International Congress of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute 1995 (Bombay, 1996), 238-42Google Scholar, and The History of Ancient Iran (Munich, 1984), 351-54.Google Scholar

47. On this Buddhist imagery in Manichaeism see Emmanuel-Édouard Chavannes and Paul Pelliot, “Un traité manichéen retrouvé en Chine I,” Journal asiatique 10th series, 18 (1911): 499-617, and “Un traité Manichéen retrouvé en Chine II” Journal asiatique 11th series, 1 (1913): 99-199, 261-392; Haloun, G. and Henning, W. B. “The Compendium of the Doctrines and Styles of the Teaching of Mani, the Buddha of Light,” Asia Major 3 (London, 1952): 184-212Google Scholar; and Tajadod, Nahal Mani, le Boudha de Lumiere (Paris, 1990).Google Scholar

48. See several examples in Whitefield, R. ed., The Art of Central Asia: The Stein Collection in the British Museum (London, 1982)Google Scholar; Gies, Jacques ed., The Arts of Central Asia: The Pelliot Collection in the Musée Guimet (Paris, 1996)Google Scholar; and Along the Ancient Silk Routes: Central Asian Art from the West Berlin State Museums (New York, 1982).Google Scholar

49. On the spread of Christianity within the Sasanian empire, the role of the Church in that Iranian state, the vicissitudes it experienced, and internal dogmatic controversies, now consult Moffett, Samuel H. A History of Christianity in Asia, vol. 1 (San Francisco, 1992), especially 93-257.Google Scholar

50. To her account should be added André Méhat's major study of Clement's “Miscellanes” titled Étude sur les Stromates de Clément d'Alexandrie (Paris, 1966)Google Scholar; and Lilla's, Salvatore R. C. examination of Clement's manipulation of Gnostic ideas in Clement of Alexandria: A Study in Christian Platonism and Gnosticism (Oxford, 1971).Google Scholar

51. Brock, Sebastian P. and Harvey, Susan A. Holy Women of the Syrian Orient (Berkeley, 1987), 64-99.Google Scholar

52. The fundamental syntheses on these bronze age settlements are by Hiebert, Fredrik T. Origins of the Bronze Age Oasis Civilization in Central Asia (Cambridge, Mass., 1994)Google Scholar; and Hiebert, Fredrik T. and Lamberg-Karlovsky, Clifford C. “Central Asia and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands,” Iran 30 (1992): 1-15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53. See further Sarianidi, Viktor “The Bactrian Pantheon,” Information Bulletin of the International Association for the Study of the Cultures of Central Asia 10 (1986): 5-20Google Scholar, and “South-West Asia: Migrations, The Aryans, and Zoroastrians,” Information Bulletin of the International Association for the Study of the Cultures of Central Asia 13 (1987): 44-56Google Scholar; and my Earliest Zoroastrianism: New Archaeological and Textual Findings (Bombay, forthcoming).

54. Boyce, M. “Priests, Cattle, and Men,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 50 (1987): 508-26CrossRefGoogle Scholar, discussed the cases of bipartite and tripartite systems.

55. “The Religion of Achaemenian Iran,” in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2, ed. Gershevitch, Ilya (Cambridge, 1985), 684-97.Google Scholar

56. Readers may wish to consult Colledge's, Malcolm A. R. The Parthian Period, Iconography of Religions, vol. 14, pt. 3 (Leiden, 1986)Google Scholar for a fuller description of the syncretism of Iranian and Greek convictions during those centuries.

57. Until then, scholars interested in this topic should consult Humphreys, R. Stephen Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry, 2d ed. (Princeton, 1991)Google Scholar; Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest (Princeton, 1984)Google Scholar; and Choksy, Conflict and Cooperation, for studies dealing directly or indirectly with conditions in Iran.

58. Dhanjishah M. Madan, ed., (Bombay, 1911), 562.