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71-709: Before Islam, the majority of Kurds followed western Iranic Paganism which originates from Indo-Iranian traditions. Kurds made first contact with Islam in the 7th century during the Early Muslim conquests . Kurds were a nation divided between the Byzantine and Persian Empires , before being united under the Rashidun Caliphate . Jaban al-Kurdi and his son Meymun al-Kurdi were the first Kurds who converted to Islam, and they also were Muslim missionaries who helped introduce Islam to many other Kurds. Khalil al-Kurdi al-Semmani

142-438: A daivadana ("house of the daivas "), generally interpreted to be a reference to a shrine or sanctuary. In his inscription, Xerxes I records that "by the favor of Ahura Mazda I destroyed that establishment of the daivas and I proclaimed, 'The daivas thou shalt not worship! ' " This statement has been interpreted either one of two ways. Either the statement is an ideological one and daivas were gods that were to be rejected, or

213-589: A common ancestor with Proto-Indo-Iranian paganism and predates the first Avestan scriptures by at least a few centuries, is perhaps the most important source. The earliest religious texts of the related Indo-Aryan peoples are indispensable for reconstructing the historical development of the ancient Iranian religion. The most important of these texts in this regard is the Rigveda . It is composed of more than 1,000 hymns dedicated to various deities. Other non-Iranian sources are mostly Greek . The most important Greek source

284-421: A dream they are warned not to return to Herod, and therefore return to their homes by taking another route. Since its composition in the late 1st century, numerous apocryphal stories have embellished the gospel's account. Matthew 2:16 implies that Herod learned from the wise men that up to two years had passed since the birth, which is why all male children two years or younger were slaughtered . In addition to

355-479: A first winter cattle station. Zoroaster appears to have been the first religious figure to develop an eschatological myth about a future saviour to rescue the world from evil. This idea plays an important part in Zoroastrianism. It was probably also influential in introducing the concept of the messiah in exile Judaism . The Iranian pantheon was similar to that of other Indo-European religions. It contained

426-559: A generalization of all modern-day Iranians. "By referring to the Iranians in these documents as majus , the security apparatus [implied] that the Iranians [were] not sincere Muslims, but rather covertly practice their pre-Islamic beliefs. Thus, in their eyes, Iraq's war took on the dimensions of not only a struggle for Arab nationalism, but also a campaign in the name of Islam." In India, the Sakaldwipiya Brahmins are considered to be

497-488: A large number of deities , primarily male. These deities personified natural phenomena, social norms or institutions. It seems that there were two major groups of deities, the daivas and the ahuras . Daiva, which means "heavenly one", is derived from the common Proto-Indo-European word for "god", which is the meaning it has in the Vedas . Among some Iranians and in Zoroastrianism the daivas were considered demons , but this view

568-483: A loanword from Old Persian * maguš "magician; magi". Mair reconstructs an Old Chinese * m ag . The reconstruction of Old Chinese forms is somewhat speculative. The velar final -g in Mair's * m ag (巫) is evident in several Old Chinese reconstructions (Dong Tonghe's * m wag , Zhou Fagao's * mjwaγ , and Li Fanggui 's * mjag ), but not all ( Bernhard Karlgren 's * m wo and Axel Schuessler's * ma ). Mair adduces

639-670: A separate branch of the Indo-Iranians in the 2nd millennium BC, during which they came to dominate the Eurasian Steppe and the Iranian Plateau . Their religion is derived from Proto-Indo-Iranian religion , and therefore shares many similarities with the Vedic religion of India . Although the Iranian peoples left little written or material evidence of their religious practices, their religion

710-596: A significant dependence on Middle Eastern precedents. During the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, one group of Indo-Europeans migrated southwards from Central Asian Steppe into the Iranian plateau and the Indian Subcontinent . These are known by scholars as the Indo-Iranians . They eventually branched out into the Indo-Aryan peoples and Iranian peoples. Because of their common origin, Iranian and Indo-Aryan religion

781-712: A son respectful of his father? Ahura Mazda is the creator of heaven and earth. Beside Ahura Mazda is the ancient Indo-Iranian god Thvarshtar ("Artisan"). Thvarstar also appears under the name Spenta Mainyu ("the Beneficient Spirit") in Zoroaster's system of the Beneficent Immortals. In the creative aspect Thvarshtar functions in many ways as Ahura Mazda. In the Younger Avesta Spenta and the Gathas Mainyu

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852-497: Is Herodotus . Some of the Greek information on ancient Iranian religion is however unreliable. This is either because it is based on outright wrong information or based on misunderstandings. Material sources are rather limited and mostly confined to western Iran . The remains of Achaemenid architecture are the most important of these material sources. They provide a mass of evidence of imperial articulation of religious symbols and indicate

923-481: Is approximately 75% of all Kurds, and the percentage of Kurds who are Shia Muslim is approximately 15%. Islam has gained strong support from Kurds and has historically acted as the back-bone of the Kurdish Movement. After the secularization of Turkey , Turkish Kurdistan became the last stronghold of Islam, where Islamic schools were preserved, and many Turkish Muslim scholars went to Kurdistan in order to get

994-506: Is in the Younger Avestan portion, the term appears in the hapax moghu.tbiš , meaning "hostile to the moghu ", where moghu does not (as was previously thought) mean "magus", but rather "a member of the tribe" or referred to a particular social class in the proto-Iranian language and then continued to do so in Avestan. An unrelated term, but previously assumed to be related, appears in

1065-448: Is no hot or cold, no death or old age, etc. When falsehood enters Yama's speech this golden age comes to an end. The Khvarenah "Royal Glory" departs from Yama and seeks refuge in the cosmic sea. Azhi Dahaka "Dahaka the Snake", a serpentine tyrant, then overthrows Yama. His rule ushers in a period of chaos, drought and ruin. Azhi is later defeated by the hero Θraētaona . Θraētaona establishes

1136-528: Is paired with the evil antagonist Angra Mainyu ("the Evil Spirit", Ahriman in Middle Persian ). In later sources it is Ohrmazd (Middle Persian for Ahura Mazda) who is paired with Ahriman. The Avesta contains cryptic allusions to the creations of two antagonistic spirits. It is Plutarch (De Iside et Osiride 47), who conducts the first discursive exposition of world creation by two spirits. Plutarch describes

1207-582: Is possible to reconstruct from scant Iranian, Babylonian and Greek accounts, similarities with Vedic and other Indo-European religions , and material evidence. Prior to the Achaemenid period, the daivas were also commonly worshipped. The Achaemenid kings made it a state policy to destroy their shrines and vilify them. Old Persian daiva occurs twice in Xerxes I 's daiva inscription (XPh, early 5th century BCE). This trilingual text also includes one reference to

1278-449: Is related to Sanskrit magha- , "there is no reason to suppose that the western Iranian form magu (Magus) has exactly the same meaning" as well. But it "may be, however", that Avestan moghu (which is not the same as Avestan maga- ) "and Medean magu were the same word in origin, a common Iranian term for 'member of the tribe' having developed among the Medes the special sense of 'member of

1349-453: Is substantially similar. Through a comparative study of both groups one can reconstruct general features of Iranian religion for which there is no direct documentation. The Iranian peoples were originally seminomadic pastoralists whose main economic base was cattle, chiefly bovines but also goats and sheep. They excelled at breeding horses, which they used for riding and pulling chariots in sport and warfare. Exactly how rigid their society

1420-535: Is the Avesta , which are Zoroastrian sacred scriptures made in the Avestan language. This is considered the principal source of knowledge on ancient Iranian religions . It is a collection of several texts that seems to have been written over a large span of time by a variety of authors. These texts have been subjected to editings and redactions throughout their development. It is now the only extant fragment of what remained in

1491-573: The (priestly) tribe', hence a priest." Some examples of the use of magi in Persian poetry , are present in the poems of Hafez . There are two frequent terms used by him, first one is Peer-e Moghan (literally "the old man of the magi") and second one is Deyr-e Moghan (literally "the monastery of the magi"). The oldest surviving Greek reference to the magi – from Greek μάγος ( mágos , plural: magoi ) – might be from 6th century BC Heraclitus (apud Clemens Protrepticus 2.22.2 ), who curses

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1562-623: The Old and New Testaments . Ordinarily this word is translated "magician" or "sorcerer" in the sense of illusionist or fortune-teller, and this is how it is translated in all of its occurrences (e.g. Acts 13:6) except for the Gospel of Matthew , where, depending on translation, it is rendered "wise man" ( KJV , RSV ) or left untranslated as Magi , typically with an explanatory note ( NIV ). However, early church fathers, such as St. Justin , Origen , St. Augustine and St. Jerome , did not make an exception for

1633-473: The Persians as telling mythical tales about Oromazes (i.e., Ahura Mazda), who is born from light, and Areimanios (i.e., Ahriman), who is born from gloom, engaging in a war against each other. This dualistic idea of two primordial spirits, which Zoroaster calls twins, is an early Indo-European concept. Reconstruction indicates that primordial twins that existed before the creation of the world, came into conflict. One

1704-545: The Sakas , but also in non-Iranian lands like Samaria , Ethiopia , and Egypt . Their influence was also widespread throughout Asia Minor. It is, therefore, quite likely that the sacerdotal caste of the Magi was distinct from the Median tribe of the same name." As early as the 5th century BC, Greek magos had spawned mageia and magike to describe the activity of a magus, that is, it

1775-493: The Zo- , even as the living star. Later, an even more elaborate mytho-etymology evolved: Zoroaster died by the living ( zo- ) flux ( -ro- ) of fire from the star ( -astr- ) which he himself had invoked, and even that the stars killed him in revenge for having been restrained by him. The second, and "more serious" factor for the association with astrology was the notion that Zoroaster was a Chaldean . The alternate Greek name for Zoroaster

1846-630: The 9th century CE of the Avesta compiled in the Sasanian Empire by Khosrow I (6th century CE). Summaries of its content reveal that it was a huge collection containing texts not only in Avestan, but also in Pahlavi , which was the language of Zoroastrianism in the Sasanian Empire. Though the existing Avesta is dated quite recently, it contains information that is considerably older. The Gathas ("Songs") of

1917-540: The Achaemenid inscriptions, there is no evidence that the Iranian religious compositions were written until the late Parthian or Sasanian period. This makes ancient Iranian religion the only major religion of the Middle East which has no written texts in the ancient period. The religious information was rather oral both in composition and transmission. The ancient Vedic Sanskrit literature of ancient India , which shares

1988-548: The Gospel, and translated the word in its ordinary sense, i.e. as "magician". The Gospel of Matthew states that magi visited the infant Jesus to do him homage shortly after his birth ( 2:1–2:12 ). The gospel describes how magi from the east were notified of the birth of a king in Judaea by the appearance of his star. Upon their arrival in Jerusalem , they visited King Herod to determine

2059-528: The Greeks supposed him to be – was for the Hellenists the figurehead of the 'magi', and the founder of that order (or what the Greeks considered to be an order ). He was further projected as the author of a vast compendium of "Zoroastrian" pseudepigrapha , composed in the main to discredit the texts of rivals. "The Greeks considered the best wisdom to be exotic wisdom" and "what better and more convenient authority than

2130-755: The Magas. Some classical astronomers and mathematicians of India such are Varahamihira are considered to be the descendants of the Magas. Varahamihira specifies that installation and consecration of the Sun images should be done by the Magas. al-Biruni mentions that the priests of the Sun Temple at Multan were Magas. The Magas had colonies in a number of places in India, and were the priests at Konark , Martanda and other sun temples. Victor H. Mair (1990) suggested that Chinese wū (巫 "shaman; witch, wizard; magician") may originate as

2201-524: The Magi as sorcerers and in several descriptions, they are negatively described as obstructing Jewish religious practices. Several references include the sages criticizing practices performed by various magi. One instance is a description of the Zoroastrian priests exhuming corpses for their burial practices which directly interfered with the Jewish burial rites. Another instance is a sage forbidding learning from

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2272-526: The Persian Achaemenid court. In his early 4th century BC Cyropaedia , Xenophon depicts the magians as authorities for all religious matters (8.3.11), and imagines the magians to be responsible for the education of the emperor-to-be. Apuleius , a Numidian Platonist philosopher, describes magus to be considered as a "sage and philosopher-king" based on its Platonic notion. Once the magi had been associated with "magic" – Greek magikos – it

2343-639: The Prophet Zoroaster , the Yasnas and much of the Yashts are considered among the oldest. The Gathas includes expressions of the religious vision of Zoroaster, which in many ways is a reinterpretation of the ancient Iranian religious principles. The Yashts are a collection of verses dedicated to various deities. These verses are mostly related to Zoroastrian terminology and ideas, but have little relation to anything specifically Zoroastrian. The gods invoked are basically

2414-671: The Sasanians as they tried to fight the Muslim armies, between 639 and 644. Although once it was clear that the Sassanids would soon fall, the Kurdish chiefs one by one submitted to the Muslim armies and agreed to accept Islam, leading to their tribe members doing the same. Today the majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims , and there are Shia , Sufi , and Alevi minorities. Sunni Muslim Kurds are mostly Shafi'is . The percentage for Kurds who are Sunni Muslim

2485-655: The ancient Iranians was the yasna , in which the deities were praised and the mind-altering drug hauma was consumed. This ritual was performed by a highly trained priestly class. Politics and religion under the Persian empires were strongly connected. Beginning in the early 10th century BC, the ancient Iranian religion was gradually displaced by Zoroastrianism, which contains some aspects of its predecessor. The sources on ancient Iranian religion, though limited, consist of textual and material sources. The textual sources are both Iranian and non-Iranian. An important Iranian source

2556-634: The descendants of the ten Maga (Sanskrit मग ) priests who were invited to conduct worship of Mitra ( Surya ) at Mitravana ( Multan ), as described in the Samba Purana , Bhavishya Purana and the Mahabharata . Their original home was a mythological region called Śākadvīpa . According to Varahamihira (c. 505 – c. 587), the statue of the Sun god (Mitra), is represented as wearing the "northern" (Central Asian) dress, specifically with horse riding boots. Some Brahmin communities of India trace their descent from

2627-487: The discovery of two figurines with unmistakably Caucasoid or Europoid features dated to the 8th century BC, found in a 1980 excavation of a Zhou dynasty palace in Fufeng County , Shaanxi Province. One of the figurines is marked on the top of its head with an incised ☩ graph. Mair's suggestion is based on a proposal by Jao Tsung-I (1990), which connects the " cross potent " bronzeware script glyph for wu 巫 with

2698-487: The distant – temporally and geographically – Zoroaster?" The subject of these texts, the authenticity of which was rarely challenged, ranged from treatises on nature to ones on necromancy . But the bulk of these texts dealt with astronomical speculations and magical lore. One factor for the association with astrology was Zoroaster's name, or rather, what the Greeks made of it. His name was identified at first with star-worshiping ( astrothytes "star sacrificer") and, with

2769-459: The distinction difficult to discern. Like other ancient religions, Iranian religions did not have an organized collection of myths. Iranian myths are rather fragments from various stories that exhibit variations on common themes. There is a variant of the Great Flood myth in Iranian religion. Here Yama appears as the herdsman and leader of mankind. Yama rules the world for a long time, during which

2840-420: The earth is increased threefold due to overcrowding. Ahura Mazda tells Yama that a great winter is on the horizon. He advises Yama to build a large three-story barn-like structure (vara) in order to hold seeds of plants and pairs of animals. It seems that the vara were actually some sort of paradise or blessed island, even though the story at first developed as myth among pastoralists about the culture hero building

2911-547: The earth, the atmosphere, and the heaven above. Beyond heaven was the realm of Endless Lights while below the earth lay the realm of darkness and chaos. The earth rested on a cosmic ocean called the Varu-Karta . In the earth's centre was cosmic mountain Hara . Down the Hara flowed the river Ardvi . The earth divided into six continents surrounding the central continent. The central continent

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2982-549: The first sense ( Histories 1.101 ), Herodotus speaks of the magi as one of the tribes/peoples ( ethnous ) of the Medes . In another sense (1.132 ), Herodotus uses the term "magi" to generically refer to a " sacerdotal caste", but "whose ethnic origin is never again so much as mentioned." According to Robert Charles Zaehner , in other accounts, "we hear of Magi not only in Persia , Parthia , Bactria , Chorasmia , Aria , Media , and among

3053-422: The land they became more engaged in agriculture and sedentary life. During this process they were influenced by the indigenous populations. The religions of these peoples are completely unknown except from the elements they have left Iranian religion which have no parallel with other Indo-European religions . The ancient Iranians believed in a cosmos which was a three-tiered structure. This structure consisted of

3124-483: The legendary line of rulers called the Kayanian dynasty . Since all sources on Persian mythology , both from indigenous texts and classical authors, originated after the emergence of Zoroastrianism, it is difficult to distinguish between myths that are Zoroastrian innovations and those that are inherited. The fact that Zoroastrianism was heavily inspired by existing ideas and had adapted from previous Iranian religions makes

3195-695: The location of the king of the Jews 's birthplace. Herod, disturbed, told them that he had not heard of the child, but informed them of a prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem . He then asked the magi to inform him when they find the child so that he himself may also pay homage to the child. Guided by the Star of Bethlehem , the wise men found the child Jesus in a house. They paid homage to him, and presented him with "gifts of gold and of frankincense and of myrrh." (2.11) In

3266-451: The magi for their "impious" rites and rituals. A description of the rituals that Heraclitus refers to has not survived, and there is nothing to suggest that Heraclitus was referring to foreigners. Better preserved are the descriptions of the mid-5th century BC Herodotus , who in his portrayal of the Iranian expatriates living in Asia Minor uses the term "magi" in two different senses. In

3337-699: The magi. In Arabic, "Magians" ( majus ) is the term for Zoroastrians . The term is mentioned in the Quran, in sura 22 verse 17, where the "Magians" are mentioned alongside the Jews , the Sabians and the Christians in a list of religions who will be judged on the Day of Resurrection . In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein 's Ba'ath Party used the term majus during the Iran–Iraq War as

3408-519: The modern-day words "magic" and " magician ". In the Gospel of Matthew , "μάγοι" ( magoi ) from the east do homage to the Christ Child , and the transliterated plural "magi" entered English from Latin in this context around 1200 CE (this particular use is also commonly rendered in English as "kings" and more often in recent times as "wise men"). The singular "magus" appears considerably later, when it

3479-513: The more famous story of Simon Magus found in chapter 8, the Book of Acts ( 13:6–11 ) also describes another magus who acted as an advisor of Sergius Paulus , the Roman proconsul at Paphos on the island of Cyprus . He was a Jew named Bar-Jesus (son of Jesus), or alternatively Elymas . (Another Cypriot magus named Atomos is referenced by Josephus , working at the court of Felix at Caesarea .) One of

3550-690: The non-canonical Christian sources, the Syriac Infancy Gospel , provides, in its third chapter, a story of the wise men of the East which is very similar to much of the story in Matthew. This account cites Zoradascht (Zoroaster) as the source of the prophecy that motivated the wise men to seek the infant Jesus. In the Talmud , instances of dialogue between the Jewish sages and various magi are recorded. The Talmud depicts

3621-475: The older Gathic Avestan language texts. This word, adjectival magavan meaning "possessing maga- ", was once the premise that Avestan maga- and Median (i.e. Old Persian) magu- were coeval (and also that both these were cognates of Vedic Sanskrit magha- ). While "in the Gathas the word seems to mean both the teaching of Zoroaster and the community that accepted that teaching", and it seems that Avestan maga-

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3692-506: The older word for a practitioner of magic , with a meaning expanded to include astronomy , astrology , alchemy , and other forms of esoteric knowledge. This association was in turn the product of the Hellenistic fascination for Pseudo-Zoroaster , who was perceived by the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in

3763-403: The pejorative meaning, which in turn influenced the meaning of magos to denote a conjurer and a charlatan. Already in the mid-5th century BC, Herodotus identifies the magi as interpreters of omens and dreams ( Histories 7.19, 7.37, 1.107, 1.108, 1.120, 1.128 ). Other Greek sources from before the Hellenistic period include the gentleman-soldier Xenophon , who had first-hand experience at

3834-681: The pre-Zoroastrian gods of the Iranian peoples. There is little agreement on when Zoroaster lived, but most scholars agree that he lived somewhere between 1200 and 600 BC. Dating the Yashts is similarly difficult, but it is likely that they were redacted (not necessarily composed) initially in the 5th century BC. Another Iranian source are royal inscriptions of the Achaemenid Empire made in the Old Persian (with Akkadian , Aramaic and Elamite translations). These inscriptions, in particular those of Darius I and his son Xerxes I , contain many references to religion. The fact that these are fixed in time and place make them particularly useful. Except from

3905-418: The precursors of the Magi , also worshipped Ahura Mazda , the chief of the Ahuras . With the rise of Zoroaster and his new, reformatory religion, Ahura Mazda became the principal deity, while the Daevas were relegated to the background. Many of the attributes and commandments of Varuna , called Fahrana in Median times, were later attributed to Ahura Mazda by Zoroaster. The Iranian peoples emerged as

3976-901: The proper Islamic education. The first ever mosque in modern-day Turkey was Menüçehr Mosque , built in 1072 by the Kurdish Muslim dynasty Shaddadids . After the rise of the Kurdish Islamism (a Kurdish nationalist and Islamist ideology) in the 1980s, the Kurdish Islamists used their Kurdish identity and Islam to defend themself against their main enemies, Iraq , Iran , Turkey , and Syria . Ancient Iranian religion Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European Ancient Iranian religion or Iranian paganism

4047-430: The pseudepigraphic magical literature was attributed." For Pliny, this magic was a "monstrous craft" that gave the Greeks not only a "lust" ( aviditatem ) for magic, but a downright "madness" ( rabiem ) for it, and Pliny supposed that Greek philosophers – among them Pythagoras , Empedocles , Democritus , and Plato – traveled abroad to study it, and then returned to teach it (xxx.2.8–10). "Zoroaster" – or rather what

4118-414: The statement was politically motivated and daivas were gods that were followed by (potential) enemies of the state. Under the Achaemenids, Ahura Mazda received state patronage as the chief deity and the emperors became his representatives. Ahura Mazda was thus recognized as the creator of the world. Dualism was strongly emphasized and human nature was considered essentially good. The chief ritual of

4189-441: The trilingual Behistun inscription of Darius the Great , and which can be dated to about 520 BC. In this trilingual text, certain rebels have magian as an attribute; in the Old Persian portion as maγu- (generally assumed to be a loan word from Median ). The meaning of the term in this context is uncertain. The other instance appears in the texts of the Avesta , the sacred literature of Zoroastrianism. In this instance, which

4260-432: The word magi is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great , known as the Behistun Inscription . Old Persian texts, predating the Hellenistic period , refer to a magus as a Zurvanic , and presumably Zoroastrian, priest. Pervasive throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia until late antiquity and beyond, mágos (μάγος) was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek goēs (γόης),

4331-418: Was Khvaniratha, the locus of Airyanem Vaejah (land of the Aryans). Who is the original father of arta ? Who established the paths of the sun and the stars? Who is it through whom the moon now waxes now wanes? Who supports the earth below and (keeps) the heavens (above) from falling down? Who yokes the two steeds to the wind and the clouds?... Who fashioned honoured Devotion together with Dominion? Who made...

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4402-486: Was Zaratas / Zaradas / Zaratos ( cf. Agathias 2.23–5, Clement Stromata I.15), which – according to Bidez and Cumont – derived from a Semitic form of his name. The Suda 's chapter on astronomia notes that the Babylonians learned their astrology from Zoroaster. Lucian of Samosata ( Mennipus 6) decides to journey to Babylon "to ask one of the magi, Zoroaster's disciples and successors", for their opinion. The word mágos (Greek) and its variants appear in both

4473-416: Was a set of ancient beliefs and practices of the Iranian peoples before the rise of Zoroastrianism . The religion closest to it was the historical Vedic religion that was practiced in India . The major deities worshipped were Ahura Mazda and Mithra from Iran to Rome, but Atar was also worshipped, as names of kings and common public showing devotion to these three exist in most cases. But some sects,

4544-419: Was borrowed from Old French in the late 14th century with the meaning magician . Hereditary Zoroastrian priesthood has survived in India and Iran. They are termed Herbad , Mobad (Magupat, i.e. chief of the Maga), and Dastur depending on the rank. The term only appears twice in Iranian texts from before the 5th century BC, and only one of these can be dated with precision. This one instance occurs in

4615-457: Was but a natural progression that the Greeks' image of Zoroaster would metamorphose into a magician too. The first century Pliny the Elder names "Zoroaster" as the inventor of magic ( Natural History xxx.2.3), but a "principle of the division of labor appears to have spared Zoroaster most of the responsibility for introducing the dark arts to the Greek and Roman worlds. That dubious honor went to another fabulous magus, Ostanes , to whom most of

4686-447: Was his or her art and practice. But almost from the outset the noun for the action and the noun for the actor parted company. Thereafter, mageia was used not for what actual magi did, but for something related to the word 'magic' in the modern sense, i.e. using supernatural means to achieve an effect in the natural world, or the appearance of achieving these effects through trickery or sleight of hand. The early Greek texts typically have

4757-414: Was is difficult to determine. The Iranian peoples were specialists in religious matters. Men who could afford chariots and horses were recognized as leaders and warriors. By the creation of the Achaemenid Empire, a more rigid division of society into priests, nobles, farmers and artisans had developed. Society was heavily patriarchal , which was strongly reflected in religion. As the Iranian peoples settled

4828-415: Was named " Man " (Iranian *Manu', meaning "man"), the other was named " Twin " (Iranian Yama, Avestan Yima). After Man killed Yima he used his dismembered body to fashion the world. He used the flesh for the earth, the bones for the mountains, the skull for the sky, etc. In a different Iranian variant of the myth, Yama is the first mortal and the first ruler. His rule is described as a golden age in which there

4899-401: Was not universal. The ahuras ("lords") were noble sovereign deities. They were contradicted with the bagha ("the one who distributes") and the yazata ("the one who worshipped"). The chief of the pantheon was Ahura Mazda ("wise lord"). He was particularly connected with the principle of social and cosmic order called asha in Avestan. Closely connected to him was the ahura Mithra . Mithra

4970-411: Was one of the first Kurdish tabi'uns . Mass conversion of Kurds to Islam didn't happen until the reign of Umar ibn Al-Khattab , second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate between 634 and 644. The Kurds first came into contact with the Muslim armies during the Muslim conquest of Persia in 637. The Kurdish tribes had been an important element in the Sasanian Empire , and initially gave strong support to

5041-466: Was the god who presided over the covenants. In Iranian religion there were two gods with martial traits similar to those of Vedic Indra, these were Mithra and Vrthraghna . The most prominent female deities were Spanta Aramati, the deity of the earth, and Ardvi Sura, the deity of the sacred river. Magi Magi ( PLUR ), or magus ( SING ), is the term for priests in Zoroastrianism and earlier Iranian religions . The earliest known use of

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