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Averroism Avesta
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
lawgiver of ancient Iran. According to the more recent views on the subject, which agree with the traditional date for his era, he fiour-
The
ished about 660-583 B.C. though the common tendency is to believe that he Magian. lived and taught at a much earlier period. It is certain that King Artaxerxes and the later Achaemenian rulers professed his faith less certain is it according to some scholars
Typical
whether Darius and Xerxes, and still less whether Cyrus, were really followers of the Avesta and genuine Zoroastrians, although much may be said in the affirmative. It is beyond doubt that they were all worshipers of Ahuramazda, or Ormuzd, the supreme God of the Avesta; and this makes the passages in Isaiah
Cyrus doubly
(xliv. 28; xlv. 1, 13) relating to
In the Old Persian inof Darius is most pronounced. For these reasons still more importance is to be attached to the Avesta in the history of religious thought, especially when the power and the wide-spread influence of the Persian empire in early times are taken into account.
scriptions the
interesting.
Mazda worship
According to the book itself the Avesta represents a direct revelation from Ahuramazda to Zarathushtra. The sacred text (Vend. xxii. 19) mentions "the Forest
and the Mountain of the Two Holy Communing Ones " Ormuzd aud Zoroaster — where special intercourse through inspired vision was held between the Godhead and his prophetic representative on earth, as between Yhwh and Moses on Sinai. Later tradition repeats the view that the sacred book was the
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result of inspiration, for the Pahlavi texts (Dk. vii. 3, 51-62; viii. 51; Zsp. xxiv. 51) recount not only
how
Zoroaster communed with Ormuzd, but like the Zoroastrian Gathas they tell also of ecstatic visions of the six archangels and of other revelations which were vouchsafed to him. According to a tradition preserved in the Pahlavi writings (Dk. Bk. 3, end, quoted by West, " Sacred Books of the East, " xxx vii. Introd. 30-32), the Avesta itself was committed to writing at the instance of King Vishtaspa, whom Zoroaster converted to the faith and who became Zoroaster's patron. The king's own prime minister, Jamaspa, had a hand in the redaction as scribe, and Zoroaster's mantle descended upon him, so that he succeeded the great priest in the pontifical office on the latter's death (Dk. iv. 21; v. 34; vii. 5, 11). It is said by Tabarl,and by Bundarl after him, that Vishtaspa caused two copies of the holy texts to be inscribed in letters of gold upon 12,000 ox-hides (see Jackson, "Zoroaster," p. 97)— a tradition which is confirmed by Pliny's statement that Zoroaster composed no less than 2,000,000 verses (N. H. xxx. 2). These two archetype copies.mentioned Traditions in the Dinkard, the Arta-Viraf, and the Shatroiha-i-Airan, were to serve About Origin, as the standard priestly codes of Vishtaspa's realm. The faith was to be promulgated throughout the world in accordance with the teaching of these. There is likewise a tradition (see Dk. references above) to the effect that one of these original copies came into the hands of the Greeks and was translated into their tongue. ,
Support for this tradition may perhaps be found in the Arabic lexicon of Bar-Bahlul (963), according to
which the Avesta of Zoroaster was composed in seven tongues, Syriac, Persian, Aramean, Segestanian, Mervian, Greek, and Hebrew. A still earlier Syriac manuscript commentary on the New Testament by Tsho'dad, bishop of Hadatha, near Mosul (852), similarly speaks of the Avesta as having been written by Zoroaster in twelve different languages. As for the other archetype copy, which seems to have been the principal one, the direct statement, again of 1he Pahlavi treatise Dinkard, says that it was burned by Alexander the Great when he invaded Iran. Whatever may be the value of these traditions regarding the Avesta, the fate of the sacred book was connected with the history of the people, and with the rise and fall of the fortunes of Iran. The five centuries that followed the invasion of Alexander with the government of the SeleucidaB and the sway of the Parthians were dark ones for Zoroastrianism. Nevertheless, there is no reason for The making the strong claim that DarmeFate of the steter does to the effect that the tradiAvesta. tion was lost. It is known that the last of the Parthian monarchs were filled with the true Zoroastrian spirit; and it can be proved from Greek, Latin, and other writings, that the tradition of the wisdom of Zoroaster lived on during the long period between Alexander and the rise of the House of Sassan in the third and fourth centuries. The entire Sassanian period was a most flourishing time for the creed which was now reBut in the seventh censtored to its pristine glory. tury, with the rise of Islam, the Avesta gave place Ormuzd sank before Allah in Persia to the Koran number of and Zoroaster yielded to Mohammed. the faithful cherishers of the sacred fire, however, sought safety in flight from Iran and found refuge in India, where they are still known by their ancient name Parsi it is they that are the conservators of the remnants of the old Avestan texts that have passed through so many vicissitudes. Much had been lost through Alexander, it was claimed but the number of texts that were still extant was nevertheless considerable, and they repreThe canon sented the ancient Avesta fairly well. was divided into twenty -one nasks, or books. These again were subdivided into three classes, each comThe first group (" Gatha " or prising seven books. " Gasan ") was theological the second (" Dat ") was legal the third (" Hadha-mathra ") was of a someIn this threefold what miscellaneous character. classification of the nasks, Darmesteter sought to prove Jewish influences at work upon the Avesta, and he compared the classification of the Biblical texts into " Torah " (Law), " Nebiim " (Prophets), and " Ketubim. " But of this Sassanian Avesta there of the havoc is much less extant now because wrought, directly or indirectly, upon Zoroastrianism and the Avesta by the Mohammedan conquest and the Koran. To-day only two of the twenty-one nasks are in any degree complete. These are the Vendldad, or law against demons, and the Stot Yasht, which answers to Yasna(xiv.-lix.), yet these show signs of being very imperfect. There exists also, in addition to these two remnants, an important part of another nask this is the Bakan Yasht and portions or fragments of others. There thus
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