Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions, founded by the Persian prophet Zoroaster and centered on the cosmic struggle between truth and falsehood.
Once the dominant faith of one of the ancient world's largest empires, this religion now survives among only a few hundred thousand adherents worldwide, most of them in India.
An Uncertain but Ancient Origin
Zoroastrianism was founded by the prophet Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra, in ancient Persia, with most scholars placing his life sometime between 1500 and 1000 BCE, though the exact dating remains a subject of ongoing scholarly debate.
A Cosmic Struggle
The religion centers on Ahura Mazda, the supreme god of wisdom, and teaches an ongoing cosmic struggle between truth (asha) and falsehood (druj), with human free will playing a central and active role in that struggle through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds.
The Religion of an Empire
Zoroastrianism served as the dominant religion of the Persian Empire for centuries, significantly shaping the religious and cultural identity of one of the ancient world's largest and most influential civilizations.
A Lasting Influence on Later Faiths
Zoroastrian concepts significantly influenced later religious traditions, with scholars identifying notable conceptual parallels within elements of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, particularly regarding ideas of a cosmic struggle between good and evil and eventual judgment.
A Small but Enduring Community
Today, Zoroastrianism survives primarily among the Parsi community in India, alongside smaller communities in Iran and around the world, numbering only in the low hundreds of thousands of adherents globally.
