Zoroastrianism | World History | Khan Academy

- [Instructor] So in any
discussion of ancient Persia,

we quickly talk about the
faith of the Achaemenid Empire,

and that's Zoroastrianism,

and it's popularized by Cyrus the Great

when he establishes the Achaemenid Empire,

takes over the Median Empire,

the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Lydians.

His son, Cambyses, takes
over the Egyptians.

And their faith is based on
the teaching of Zoroaster.

And Zoroaster is the Greek
name for Zarathustra,

and sometimes the religion is referred to

as Zarathustrianism.

And it's one of the
oldest religions we have,

and it's an existing religion.

People still practice Zoroastrianism.

In terms of when it started,

there's some debate.

A lot of accounts have it starting

as early or even earlier
than 3,500 years ago,

so around 1500 BCE,

and some accounts put
it a little bit closer

to Cyrus the Great,

maybe 700 or 600 BCE.

And the accounts,

or the beginning of the religion

is really around the
teachings of Zarathustra,

and his teachings really
establish one of the first

often viewed as monotheistic
religions of the world,

this idea that there is one god,

and that god in the Zoroastrian
faith is Ahura Mazda.

Ahura Mazda.

And it's viewed that Ahura Mazda

does not take a human form.

It is even, you cannot even conceive of,

you know, fully conceive,

the human mind can't fully
conceive of Ahura Mazda,

but Ahura Mazda is the,

in the Zoroastrian faith,

the one and only god.

But in conjunction with
the idea of Ahura Mazda,

a lot of people refer to Zoroastrianism

as a dualistic faith.

A dualistic faith means that
there's this kind of interest

in counterbalancing forces.

For example, light versus dark,

and of course good versus evil.

And one of the main ideas or words here

are the ideas of asha and druj.

So asha, these are the
ideas of being principled,

honest, ordered,

and druj is the opposite.

Druj is the idea of being unprincipled,

dishonest, chaotic.

And so there's a lot of talk

and kind of insight or trying
to get a better understanding

of these dualistic natures in the world,

and trying for humanity be
on the side of the good,

the light, the ordered,

the principled, the honest.

Now right over here is a
key symbol of Zoroastrianism

that you might see.

It's called the Faravahar.

I'm probably be mispronouncing it.

Faravahar, and there's
a lot of symbolism here.

It shows the connection of
the universe to humanity,

you see the depiction
of a human being here,

and the three layers of the wings

depict these three very important
ideas in Zoroastrianism.

The first layer is good thoughts,

the second layer right over
here of wings are good words,

and then the third layer
here is good actions,

good actions.

And it makes sense.

You kind of imagine this idea

that good thoughts lead to good words,

and that combined,

they can lead to good actions.

And on the tail here,

and these are the things you should avoid,

these are the bad thoughts,

the bad actions,

or the bad thoughts, the bad words,

and the bad actions.

Along lines this ideas of dualism,

especially the fascination
with the ideas of light,

fire is a very important element
of the Zoroastrian faith.

In fact, if you visit
a Zoroastrian temple,

you will see an eternal fire,

and they feed that fire five times a day.

Another very important
element of the faith is water.

And the sacred text for the Zoroastrians

is called the Avesta.

And the Avesta is written in
a language called Avestan,

and it's called Avestan
because it's the language

that the Avesta was written in,

but it's written in a language

that is closely related
to ancient Sanskrit,

and so there's probably some connections,

or for sure there's some connections,

between ancient Hinduism
and the progenitor

or some of the preexisting ideas

that might, that Zarathustra developed

or might have built on top of.

Now one of the really interesting things

about Zoroastrianism is
that even though today

it's a relatively small faith,

on the order of less than 200,000 people

around the world practice it,

and most of them are in
India and the United States,

at one time, it was,

you could view it as the state
religion of ancient Persia,

but then eventually,

in the seventh century CE,

when Persia, or Iran, became Islamic,

you have a Zoroastrian diaspora,

especially moving to
India and then eventually

places like the United States,

although there are still
practicing Zoroastrians in Iran.

But above and beyond the continuing legacy

of the Zoroastrians,

they've had a lot of influence

on some of the major
religions of the world.

And what you have on this timeline here,

I've made some of the major religions.

You see up here in blue you have Judaism,

and the reason why I
draw the dotted line is

these are periods and it's not exact,

you know, these religions are evolving

and they are forming and they're getting

more and more tradition over time.

So you hear Judaism, and of course,

Christianity is in a lot
ways built on top of Judaism.

Jesus was Jewish.

You have Islam right over here,

which of the major world
religions is one of the newest,

in a lot of ways built or related

to Christianity and Judaism.

And even though the Zoroastrianism

is related and it kind
of comes out of a similar

kind of early Aryan
people type of religion,

it has a lot of influence

on some of these other traditional,

or these mainstream religions

that we have in the world today.

As we mentioned,

it's viewed as a monotheistic religion,

and it's also had direct influence on,

for example, Christianity.

So right over here,

this is from John Bowker,

who's a famous Christian theologian.

He wrote in his book World Religions

"that angels, the end of the world,

"a final judgement, the resurrection,

"and heaven and hell
received form and substance

"from Zoroastrian beliefs."

In Christian tradition,

the Three Wise Men, the Three Kings,

the Three Magi that visit the baby Jesus,

Magi, this is referring
to Zoroastrian priests

who were visiting the baby Jesus.

And the word magic comes
from the word magi,

because the Zoroastrian
elite, the priests,

they were very capable in
the sciences of astronomy,

and they were also very
well-known for their astrology,

and so some people associated them with,

you know, magical capabilities.

It also has close ties to Islam.

The sacred fire in Zoroastrianism
is fed five times a day.

Zoroastrians pray five times a day,

and before prayer,

they go through a ritual
around washing themselves

to cleanse themselves,

where they wash themselves
three times before each prayer.

That is something that we see in Islam.

So Zoroastrianism,

it's the faith of ancient Persia

popularized by Cyrus the Great,

and it's a living religion, even today,

although it's a much smaller
population that practices it.

But as we've seen,

it's had a lot of influence

on many of the major world religions.