Zurvanism
The zurvanism (also Zervanismus ) was a branch of Zoroastrianism . “ Zurvan ” (time) was adopted as the principle of world development - a term that also describes the spatial dimension of the cosmos. The basic idea of the religion was “Zurvan akarano” (unlimited time), whose “ emanation ” or emanation, which determines the material world, is finite world time (and space).
In the older Iranian studies there were systematic assumptions of a Zurvanist denomination within Zoroastrianism until the 1960s, while in today's research almost all elements of this construction are questioned.
Zurvanism was based on a twin brother doctrine, according to which the Zoroastrian concepts Ahura Mazda (good, light, wisdom, truth) and Angra Mainyu (evil, darkness, stupidity, lie, "deceit"; Middle and Neupers. "Ahriman" ) are not just opposing principles, but twins in creation, i.e. H. two sides of the same coin. Zurvanism was characterized by a doctrine of eons from Babylonian astrology , according to which the struggle between good and evil follows a fixed course of salvation history of three (or four) 3000 years. This feature is in the Zoroastrian traditions from the 9th / 10th centuries. Century well documented and is an integral part of the general Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology of the Bundahishn .
Zoroastrianism was probably dominant in the western regions of pre-Islamic Iran ( Media , Persia , East Asia Minor , as well as Iranian colonies of Mesopotamia, western Asia Minor and the Middle East), while Orthodox Zoroastrianism possibly dominated in the eastern regions (Parthia / Khorasan , Khorezm , at times as well Bactria , Sakistan and maybe Sogdia - but here since the 3rd century AD alongside strong followers of Mahayana - Buddhism , Christian Nestorianism and in Sogdia also Manichaeism ). Zurvanism emphasizes a primal principle of the world and a predestination (providence of fate) from which no one can escape. Orthodox Zoroastrianism (often called "Mazdaism" in Iranian studies, after the Middle Persian expression mazda-yasna = adoration of Mazda), on the other hand, taught individual ethical beliefs. A free will to do good or bad and the concepts of sin, the forgiveness of sins through confession and repentance, as well as the punishment of evil in the Last Judgment were central components of the teaching and ethics of Mazda Zoroastrianism (which also vehemently = "Good Religion"). On the other hand, the Zurvanist Zoroastrianism evidently represented a contrary ethic by emphasizing the fate in Zurvan, i.e. by the predestination.
Both together had a strong influence on Abrahamic religions ( Judaism , Christianity , Islam ), on Greco-Roman philosophies such as that of the logos , on Roman mystery cults , on Gnosis and its offshoots ( Manichaeism , Cathars , etc.), and on the Islamic Philosophy , Shiite Islam and especially some Shiite sects, for example the Qarmatians .
Already in the pre-Assanid period (before AD 224) Zurvanism was likely to move in an aesthetic direction (duality between male and female principles), a fatalistic direction (absolute emphasis on predestination on fate) and a materialistic direction (denial of everything divine outside of time and space up to atheism). Zurvanism thus tended towards non-religious, mystical philosophy, which lived on in Islamic philosophy.
Tradition of Zurvanism
Only a little Vanish philosophy has survived. The main sources are polemical treatises by Armenian and Syrian Christians, v. a. Eznik von Kolb and acts of martyrs and Greco-Roman authors. Although indications can also be found in local sources, descriptions of the twin brother doctrine (see below) or evidence of an Iranian deification of 'time' mostly come from non-Zoroastrian sources. In the course of early academic studies of Zoroastrianism (16th century), the foreign sources contributed significantly to the understanding of Zoroastrianism. This misleading equation of Zoroastrianism with general Zoroastrianism continued in western culture (among other things, Duperron's knowledge of the Parsees , the Zoroastrians in India, were rejected) and, although academically outdated, they shape the general image of Zoroastrianism to this day. The misleading notion that Zoroastrianism had two gods (Ahura Mazda and Ahriman) persisted. Classical Zoroastrianism, however, had retained many gods in most of the times after Zarathustra's work, while today's religion of the Parsees teaches a strong dominance of Ahura Mazda (neupers, "Hormuz") over Ahriman and relativizes the divinity of other figures, which also the Avesta mostly taught. So pure Zoroastrianism is more monotheistic, or henotheistic . Proceeding from Thomas Hyde , the misunderstanding also spread that the Zoroastrian belief was generally a monistic religion, which applies to Zurvanism, but not to Mazdaism.
The oldest clear description of the Vanist teachings can be found in Eudemos of Rhodes '(approx. 370-300 BC) History of Theology , which can only be found in quotations from Damascius' Problems and Solutions of the First Principles (6th century AD). is preserved. There Zurvan is described as the father of Ohrmuzd (mpers. For Ahura Mazda) and Ahriman and as the principle of time and space. Later Christian sources describe more popular, less philosophical-abstract forms of Zurvanism. I.a. there is described zurvan akarano as an anthropomorphic androgynous god figure . In contrast, the finite world time (and space) Zurvan is represented here as an abstract and (via the imagined identity of micro- and macrocosm, of atoms and space) fate-determining principle.
In Iranian manuscripts, remnants of Vanist teachings are only found in texts of the Zoroastrian tradition from the 9th-11th centuries. Century, when Iran was already largely Islamized. Even among these writings, the evidence is rather indirect; there are hardly any clear references to Zurvan or the twin brothers doctrine. There are hints in the Sch (i) kand- gumanig- vichar / vuzurg ("Declaration to dissipate doubts", 9th century), a textbook for young adults. A declaration in Den-kard ("Acts of Religion" 9th century) about the prayer Yasna 30.3 (on which the Zurvanism is based) teaches the "independence of light and darkness" in a clear distinction and leads to the conclusion that some Zoroastrians (probably the Zurvanisten) thought differently about this verse. The cosmology of the Wizidagīhā-ī Zātspram ("selections of the Zatspram"), which describes the soul's journey to the hereafter with cosmological and astrological theories, is more zurvanistic. The Dadestan-i denig ("Religious Decisions"), a script by Manuschtschihr (an older brother of Zatspram), on the other hand, is a straightforward description of what happens after death. Correspondence from the brothers has survived in which Manuschtschihr reproaches the Zatspram for his deviating work. A passage in Menog-i Kh (i) rad ("Supernatural Wisdom", some Iranists regarded this work as more Zurvanistic) seems to be a reference to Zurvan, but could only mean "infinite time" in the context. The common research opinion is that final references to Zurvanism date back to the 10th century. This opinion is based on the assumption that the New Persian Olema-i Islam ("[Answers to the] scholars of Islam") from the 7th / 8th centuries. Century. If this short work comes from the 13th century (which is also possible), then it is the most recent work which - in this case very clearly - represents the Vanist teachings.
While a general Zurvanism is described in Greek sources, a naive, popular Zurvanism in Christian sources and a systematic Zurvanism in more Zurvanistic sources, in the Koran, in pre- and early Islamic times, there are descriptions of philosophical, atheistic, materialistic and fatalistic forms of Zurvanism.
Historical development of Zurvanism
Origin and Spread
The origins of Zurvanism were controversial in Iranian studies.
Some researchers suggested pre-Zoroastrian and pre-Iranian roots. In the religion of the Hurrians in Southeast Anatolia there is an archaeologically often verifiable motif of a triangular mountain god who gives birth to twins. In the archaeological excavations of Hasanlu , the ruins of a palace (12th – 10th centuries BC) of the pre-Iranian Manneans were found , which was sacked by conquerors and set on fire at the same time. There, under the corpses of Iranian (?) And Mannaean warriors, a gold bowl was found, which probably depicts the Mannean pantheon , including a mountain god who gives birth to twins, which suggests the Manneans' religious, perhaps linguistic and cultural closeness to the Hurrites. An Iranian silver plate from the 10th - 8th centuries BC was found in Luristan . On which magicians with their typical Barsom branches worship a similar god (Zurvan?) Who gives birth to twins. The Hurrian cuneiform tablets from Nuzi mention a god several times who was called za-ar-va , zar-var-an , but mostly za-ar-van . But that could be a coincidence, because mpers. zrvan also describes time in general.
A second research opinion of older Iranian studies founded the hypothesis that Zurvanism was from the beginning a Zoroastrian denomination that emerged from the interpretation of the Avesta (the central sacred teaching) of Zoroastrianism. Their basis is the Avesta section Yasna 30, in which Ahura Mazda and Ahriman are referred to as "twins". Especially in Yasna 30.3:
Now the two first spirits, who revealed themselves in visions as twins, are the better and the bad, in thought and in word and in action. And between these two, the wise (the right-minded) chose the right, whereas the folly chose less.
However, this dark text is ambiguously translatable. It was pointed out, however, that even in the Upanishads and in early Indian philosophy, space and time were the raw material for the creation and construction of the world, so the ideas are likely to be of older Indo-Iranian origin. The Avesta also knows the ideas of space and time. In Yasna 72.10 time is mentioned in a group of principles alongside space and air. Yasht 13:56 preaches that time makes plants grow according to the will of Ahura Mazda and Amescha Spentas . According to Zaehner , the Zurvanist denomination was justified, but rather heterodox , while Orthodox Mazdaism corresponded to the majority of the Avesta teachings . This classification of Zoroastrianism, in which Zurvan plays a subordinate role, as "orthodox" ("orthodox" in the sense of the original teaching) and of the monistic Zurvanism described in external sources as "heretic" have been criticized by some younger researchers, such as Michael Stausberg, as not being objective . In any case, zrvan akarano was rare in preserved parts of the Avesta and they do not give the impression that an original principle of the entire world existence, as in Zurvanism, should exist.
According to a third research hypothesis, Zurvanism is a syncretistic product of the encounter between Zoroastrianism and the Babylonian and later the Greek religion. It is undisputed that the strong astrological influence of Zurvanism with a proven cult around the twelve signs of the zodiac is of Babylonian-Assyrian origin. The belief in the omnipotence of fate (with which Zurvan was often equated) also originates from this culture. On the other hand, there were no verifiable ideas about space and time. It is controversial whether the teaching of non-physically symbolizable principles was of Iranian-Medieval or Greek (Logos principle) origin. But she seems to be older in western Iran.
Some research rejects all three hypotheses about the origins of Zurvanism as being too speculative.
Decline and decline
After the fall of the Sassanid Empire , Zurvanism was suppressed until the 10th (max. 13th) century. The remaining Zoroastrians returned to Mazdaism, which was described in the basics in the Gathas , which go back to Zarathustra himself. It remained the only surviving form of Zoroastrianism. Why Zurvanism disappeared has been the subject of scientific debate.
Arthur Christensen , one of the first proponents of the thesis that Zurvanism was the religion of the Persian state church (approx. From Shapur I to Chosrau II ), said that this transformation was a response to the authority of Islam, which was a pure monotheism ( arab. tauhid ) and "Schriften" demanded that a written down of the rudimentarily preserved parts of the Avesta and a suppression of the power of Ahriman would explain the power of Ahura Mazda, but not the marginalization of Zurvan compared to Ahura Mazda.
Robert Charles Zaehner , on the other hand, said that the Iranian priesthood may have had a strict orthodoxy that tolerated little. In addition, she interpreted the message of the Prophet ( Zarathustra ) so dualistically that her God (Ahura Mazda) was hardly omnipotent and omniscient. For this reason they formed such an absolutely dualistic power phenomenon from a less intellectual point of view that did not give the appearance of real monotheism, nor had mystical elements about the inner context (the world and) of life. " Henrik Samuel Nyberg , Geo Widengren , Burchard Brentjes among other things assumed that at the latest under Chosrau II an editorial deletion of vanistic ideas about dualism took place, which gave way to a tendency towards monotheism only in Islamic times.
A statement that is more widely recognized today was represented by Mary Boyce , who advocated a regional separation of Zurvanism and Mazdaism (see above). Archaeological excavations show that Zoroastrian fire temples dominated early on in central and eastern Iran . Manichean acts of martyrdom also suggest that at least Parthia was a central area of Mazdaism. This would also explain the proximity of Babylonian and Greek ideas to Zurvanism. This would explain the early demise of Zurvanism, as the West was largely Islamized up to the 10th century, while the East remained predominantly Zoroastrian and Buddhist until the 10th century, and was only then predominantly Islamized. It could also explain why Western - Syrian, Armenian, Greek, and Roman sources - always mention Zvanist interpretations, while only Mazdaist denominations exist today. In archaeologically preserved lists of sacred principles from Parthia, Bactria, Seistan and Khorezm there is no Zurvan. It is mentioned frequently in Atropatene , Armenia, Fars and also Sogdia . The Zoroastrian religion of Sogdia can no longer be reconstructed.
Classical Zurvanism and the teachings of the magicians
The twin brothers doctrine
As mentioned, the dogma that Ohrmazd and Ahriman are twins in the creation of the more powerful and original Zurvan principle was a core belief of the Zurvanists. Eudemos of Rhodes was the first to describe this doctrine as follows:
The magicians and the whole Aryan race call the whole from which a good and an evil spirit - and after some before the light and the darkness - (was) separated, partly place (space), partly time.
A few centuries later, in his main chapter "Against the Zurvanites", Eznik von Kolb described the doctrine in a more popular, legendary form:
Before anything existed, they say, neither heaven nor earth, nor creatures that are in heaven and on earth, was one named Zurvan, which means fate or happiness ( Chwarma ). For a thousand years he sacrificed that he would have a son named Hormizd , who would create heaven and earth and everything in them. After a thousand years of sacrifice, Zurvan sat down to reflect. He said, “What use should the sacrifice I make?…” And while he was thinking about this, Hormizd and Ahriman were conceived in the womb: Hormizd as a result of the sacrifice and Ahriman as a result of the doubt.
To compensate, Zurvan declared that the firstborn twin should take over creation. When Ahriman heard the oath, he pierced his abdomen and became a firstborn. Then Zurvan made a "contract" between the twins: Hormizd created the kingdom of heaven, then the material world, while Ahriman created the underworld of evil and demons. In the third 3,000-year age, the underworld breaks into the earthly world and defeats primordial creation. Gayomarth , the primitive man calls Hormizd for help. Then the age of redemption begins, at the end of which the victory of the world of Hormizd over the attacking world of Ahriman according to the "contract" of Zurvan is supposed to stand. So much for Eznik's polemical version.
The causes of the greater choice of the good mentioned in Yasna 30.3 are plasticized here. Zurvan's doubts were at the root of evil. In order to limit his power, he gave him the underworld and the power to break into this world in the third world age. In the end, however, good will prevail and evil will be destroyed. The time of the fight between the two, limited according to Zurvan's treaty, was described in other sources as Zurvan's alienation in limited universal time. I.a. by the Iranian-Muslim sect descriptor Schahristani, who then rejects it from a Muslim point of view with sharp words ("idiotic", "nonsense", "absurdities") because it is not "sensitive" enough to know the "sublimity" of God.
According to the information provided by Armenian, Syrian, Greek Christian and Muslim descriptors, there were different variants of the Zurvanist basic myth. A deviating current seems to have believed that the infinite Zurvan was never limited to a finite world time, another that after the creation of the world he withdrew completely from direct intervention in world events. One current seems to have believed that Zurvan first split into a female and a male being before receiving the Ohrmazd and Ahriman.
Zurvan
In order to teach the omnipotence of time in the cosmos, an apparently older, more Zurvanist didactic poem can be found in the rather Mazdaist Bundahishn:
Time is more powerful than the two creations ... / Time measures work and law. / Time is richer than the wealthy ... / Time knows more than the well-educated ... / Through time the house is overturned. / Through that of The adorned person's destiny becomes null and void. / Man cannot save himself from it ... / not when he goes up, / not when he buries himself in a well, / not when he goes into the interior of the earth .
So the Zurvanists probably tended to transfer to Zurvan the omniscience that the Mazdaists ascribed to Ahura Mazda.
The stereotypical attribute "the Almighty" apparently also referred to Zurvan. "The Holy Spirit" probably meant Ahura Mazda, perhaps Zurvan as the first principle, or the alliance of the two through the greater choice of the good, that is controversial and can hardly be definitively clarified. The expression is very similar to the term of the Gathas "Spenta Mainyu" (creator / "donating" / good etc. spirit), which is equated with Ahura Mazda in younger parts of the Avesta. It has also been suggested that the formulas "Father of greatness" and "God the Father" mean Zurvan (cf. Trinity ). However, the first two terms mostly appear in late Iranian sources, the last two in Middle Eastern, extra-Iranian and Manichaean sources since the 1st century AD. Older Iranists believed that these ideas are very old in Zurvanism and already appeared in Achaemenid times the Middle East, where, as Widengren writes, "they were soon fully accepted". They justified this with the internally coherent connections of these concepts on the basis of Iranian ideas. As an indication, Widengren worked out that at that time there was a broad stream of Iranian loanwords from the religious, mythical and political areas in the languages of the Middle East and Greek, but little noticeable influence in the opposite direction. Some contemporary historians ( Josef Wiesehöfer , Klaus Schippmann ) see this influencing thesis as plausible. Younger Iranists criticized the fact that these hypotheses cannot be proven on the (sparse) sources. So it remains open for the time being whether all these ideas stem from Zurvanism or whether Middle Eastern traditions also flowed in and perhaps influenced Zurvanism itself.
The sources report contradicting information about Zurvan's iconography . In rarer cases it is physically represented and described, mostly abstract. Older researchers therefore suspected that the Zurvanists had imagined zrvan akarano physically, whereas the principles of space and world time were so abstract that symbolizations were not attempted. But there may also have been contradictions between the teaching of the priesthood and popular beliefs. Some researchers argue that Zurvan's perception has changed due to changing cultural influences. In the Achaemenid period, the Iranians (probably inspired by the animistic feelings of early Iranian nomads, which also shaped the ideas of the Avesta) did not attempt to depict principles graphically. Even portraits of the further revered ancient Iranian folk gods were rare, while there were artistically highly developed depictions of plants, animals and people. After Alexander the Great had conquered the empire , however, a tradition of pictorial representations arose in Hellenism , mostly of the old folk gods, which lasted longest in Eastern Iran and Armenia. In the course of the early Assanid (pa) zend movement, which translated and systematized the old teachings into Middle Persian, this tradition was largely eliminated in western and central Iran and probably fought against it iconoclastically . In the 19th century, Franz Cumont put forward the thesis that the Greek worship of Aion , which only emerged in the post-Hellenistic period, was the Greek adaptation of Zurvan. This thesis is z. Sometimes rejected as unoccupied. Many researchers today tend to believe that there was a mixture of ideas of Zurvan with older Greek, but previously marginal ideas of the Orphics and Chronos .
In late (semi) Zurvanistic sources there are formulaic descriptions of Zurvan's abstract properties. Often he was seen as "the four figures" from Ahura Mazda, wisdom, goodness and religion or from time, space, fate and justice. In some descriptions it was threefold. So in the frequent formula "who was, is and always will be", which describes the past, present and future. The three qualities of dispassion, withdrawal and incontestability have also been handed down. The formula of "Zurvan's Eye" has also been handed down, which perhaps describes his waking omniscience. In Mazdaism there is the formula of the "eye of the earmazd (middle pers. For Ahura Mazda)", which means his constantly observing omniscience.
According to Syrian sources, another triad formed the three traditional hypostasized Zoroastrian principles aschoqar , fraschoqar and zaroqar . The first means "creating / virile / male-making", the second "shining / (female /) giving-giving", the third "doing death / making old". According to Widengren and Zaehner, these aspects of cyclical life come from Zurvanism originally meaning the first, second and third millennia of an aeon because they are temporal. Today's Mazdaism interprets it more "psychologically".
There is no evidence that Zurvan was worshiped by the Iranians themselves as a yazata ("worthy of worship" = god or saint), or that there was a cult. Hence, it was suggested that the Zurvanists, or a large part of them, viewed Zurvan's characteristics as too general and remote for a cult to make sense. But one cannot finally know that because one only rudiments of the cult practice of the Iranians. Ahura Mazda was worshiped by Mazdaists and surely also by Zurvanists. According to Boyce in Sassanid times, the expression mazdayasna = adoration of Mazda denoted Zoroastrianism in general, it is therefore unclear whether it was monotheistic , henotheistic , dualistic or polytheistic in different regions and epochs . The cult is known for Anahita in Istachr , who was close to the ruling family of the Sassanid Empire , who were originally priests of Anahita themselves. There are smaller cults around less important yazatas . It is not known what other cults existed.
Zurvanism, Mazdaism and Magical Schools
Zurvanists, Mazdaists and magician priests
Whether Mazdaists and Zurvanists were currents of the same religion, or separate priesthoods, was discussed and is still not clear to this day. Because of the common mention of magicians and Zurvanist ideas and the medical origin of this class of priests stated by Herodotus, many older researchers were of the opinion that Zurvanism was the actual teaching of magicians. Research has been more cautious since the late 1960s. According to Herodotus, the magicians were originally a part (tribe) of the Medes who settled as far as western Asia Minor, Armenia , Syria, Samaria , even Egypt and India in the Achaemenid period . Herodotus details of their distribution seem z. T. exaggerated. Already at that time they represented systematized teachings and were also ethical judges of the faithful. Some of the magician (or Iranian) colonies in the Middle East seem to have remained stable for almost 800 years from the end of the Achaemenid Empire (around 330 BC) to Christianization (after 400 AD) and influenced each other with their environment. From Kartir they seem to become an empire-wide caste with strict endogamy in the Sassanid Empire (perhaps integrating other priests, such as the Herbade of Persis ). This does not automatically mean that they have a uniform, dogmatized teaching. The Zoroastrian works of the 9th – 11th centuries Century, whether more Mazdaist or more Zurvanist, have clear problems separating the teachings clearly.
In contrast, the more Mazdaist works have no problem in rejecting the teachings of the zandiki (see below), the Manichaeans and the twin brother doctrine . Older researchers therefore suspected that there was still a break between the Mazdaists and the Zurvanists at the time of the state-supporting or state-affiliated religion, i.e. in the late Sassanid period, without being able to successfully eliminate them. The universal history of the Tabari , a valuable source of the Sassanid Empire, says that there were fundamental religious reforms under Chosrau I and Chosrau II . It was previously believed that these Sassanids turned to Mazdaism and rejected Zurvanism. An old historical-critical school even believed that Chosrau I and Chosrau II had invented Mazdaism. But that is wrong, because 100 years before Chosrau I, Eznik von Kolb wrote that the Zoroastrians were divided into different sects. Some believed in three original spirits - the good, the righteous (= Zurvan) and the bad, while others believed in two. According to Eznik, a third current is said to have believed in seven original spirits; it can no longer be reconstructed. (Zaehner has listed three possible possibilities: the seven "archangels" of Zoroastrianism, i.e. Ahura Mazda and the Amescha Spentas , the seven "planets" - sun, moon and five known planets, the cults of the seven Sassanid empire fires .) Because here and in When many other sources talk about plural sects, the majority of Iranists today believe that pre-Islamic Zoroastrianism was a conglomerate of regional folk cults, sects and schools of teaching, partly Zoroastrian, partly Mazdao, etc. The Mazdaist side made sure that the antagonism of good and evil and the ethical consequences that follow from it are not watered down too much. With the emergence of more and more philosophical explanations of the world among the Zurvanists, with the emergence of Manichaeism, which was close to the Zurvanist teachings but was persecuted as a rival because it had the goal of eliminating all other religions with its syncretistic teachings, and finally with the emergence of the materialistic and religious fatalistic Zurvanists, the Mazdaists reacted increasingly intolerantly to Zurvanism in general. But this again makes it questionable whether Chosrau I and Chosrau II really turned to Mazdaism. Because there is no evidence of which priesthood represented Zoroastrianism in eastern Iran, one assumes today a Mazdaist faction of magicians.
Assignment of Sassanid personalities
Kartir also speaks of the " mazdayasna , believing wisely as otherwise". The wording suggested to some researchers that he was a Mazdaist. Others interpreted his difficult-to-understand words of Naqsh-e Rajab in such a way that he sees a whole behind the events. It is striking that this fundamental religious reformer and organizer is not mentioned at all in today's Zoroastrian tradition. So he seems to have later rejected theological standpoints, whether Zurvanist or deviantly Mazdaist, is controversial.
On the other hand, a personality clearly leaning towards Zurvanism is the Sassanid wuzurg-framadar Mihr-Narseh . He had tried to win back Christianized Armenia (more precisely: Persarmenia ) with peaceful edicts on the mission of the high nobility for Zoroastrianism. According to many sources, the Iranians viewed Armenia and Transcaucasia as parts of Iran for cultural and linguistic reasons (Armenian has almost 60% loanwords from Iranian languages, mostly from Parthian ). Before Christianization, these regions were Zoroastrian in some form, such as finds from fire temples, e.g. T. prove under old churches. From various indicators of iconography and folklore, it is likely that Armenia was more of a Zurvanist. Mihr-Narseh's missionary attempts prompted not only Bishop Eznik von Kolb, but also the Armenian bishops Lazar and Elische to respond , who dealt with Zirvanist perspectives. Obviously Mihr-Narseh and probably also Great King Yazdegerd II were Zurvanist. The Denkard mentions a priest by the name of Mihr-Narseh's son Zurvandad, referring to him as a heretic. Before his conversion to Christianity, Elish was a great magician who knew "all the teachings" (of Zoroastrianism) mentioned in six names. Two mean "Persian religion" and "Parthian religion", the other four are controversial. Mihr-Narseh does not appear in later Zoroastrian works, but Tabari, al-Masʿūdī, and another Muslim historian describe him as the most intelligent, just, cultivated and peace-loving grand vizier in history. Ultimately, however, his policy was unsuccessful, because it caused the uprising of the Vartan Mamikonian from the aristocratic Armenian family of the Mamikonian , which was also joined by Mesopotamian Nestorians .
The Zoroastrian and Iranian traditions describe further religious reformers whose assignment to the Mazdaist and the Vanist side cannot be determined as clearly as older researchers tried. At the time of the first Sassanid Ardaschir I, there was a large thermal bath in Tansar , which built numerous fire temples. Masudi writes that he was a believer in Plato's philosophy . If so, he was not an anti-Hellenistic "orthodox" Zoroastrian. Shapur I then combined Zoroastrianism and philosophy (see below). In the following period of the Kartir there were persecutions of deviant sects and religious minorities. This cooperation between the state and the Zoroastrian magicians seems to cease under Shah Narseh . Persecutions occurred again under Shapur II . a. by Christians, although the sources consistently report that this ruler was religiously tolerant. The elevation of Christianity to the state religion in the Roman Empire made local Christians politically suspect of cooperating with the main enemy in the West. The great magician Adurbad , son of Mahraspand, who was commissioned with the investigation , appears to have used the space to persecute other religions and sects. This was followed by a long religiously tolerant phase in which the apparently Zurvanist Grand Vizier Mihr-Narseh also ruled. In the time of Shah Kavadh I , however, the tolerant policy resulted in religious unrest that endangered the state itself. Some scholars put forward the thesis that the rebellious " Mazdakites " of the time described were more of a collective term for deviant Zoroastrian sects, of which the actual social-revolutionary Mazdakites were only a part. In any case, Chosrau I had to unify Zoroastrianism in some way, about which the Denkard wrote that it had "established the right in religion". About Chosrau II. Tabari writes that he u. a. introduced a poll tax system for religious minorities. Part of the older research concluded from this that there was a tolerant Zurvanism alongside a rather intolerant Mazdaism. Tansar, Shapur I, Shapur II, Mihr-Narseh and Yezdegerd I and II would have been Zurvanists, while Kartir, Adurbad and the two Chosraus were Mazdaists. None of these classifications have been clearly proven, they are only more plausible (as with Mihr-Narseh) or less (as with Kartir and Chosrau). The traditional diversity of currents make them even more unsafe.
Other basic Zoroastrian and Zoroastrian teachings
In Plutarch and later authors the claim has been passed down that a small part of the magicians worshiped Ahriman, a rumor that holds against the distantly related monistic religion of the Yazidis to this day. According to the current state of research, the rumor of Yezidism is clearly wrong; it also contradicts the basic ideas of Zoroastrianism and Zurvanism so diametrically that, in the opinion of many researchers, it is also incredible here. Older researchers (including Zaehner and Widengren) had accepted the reports from the sources that there could have been groups of magicians in the Armenian-North Syrian-Mesopotamian region who influenced Ahura Mazda and Ahriman through cults. It cannot be clearly clarified.
The teaching of the Menok (avest. Mainyu ), the spiritual, the supersensible and the teaching of the Geti , the material , are also important for understanding general Zoroastrianism . According to many researchers, the material is to be understood as a changed aggregate state of the spiritual. The spiritual is "subtle" (according to ex-Manichaean Augustine and other sources) and therefore not completely perceptible. This image enabled the Zoroastrians to integrate hosts of angels, demons and souls ( fravashi ) into their religion without having to see them. This substantial, non-figurative thinking often made it difficult for outsiders to understand the teaching. It also creates problems for archaeologists to assign the fire temples to a yazata or principle, because inscriptions or images are often missing. It is known from sources that some temples (the rural cult took place without a temple) were dedicated to special cults. There was at least one alternative doctrine of the origin of the material from the subtle. According to her, everything material is a collection of particles "polluted" by dark particles, which becomes dense and heavy due to the inclination of the first particles towards the underworld. This teaching can be found in smaller parts of the Zoroastrian religious books of the 9th-11th centuries. Century. They are also known from some Gnostic sects of Mesopotamia, the Manichaeans, the Mazdakites, from some Shiite Ismailis and the Shiite Qarmatians (who spoke of the era of the "bright light" and the "dark light" of the material) and from several Christian, Jewish and Muslim mystic currents. The Manicheans, apparently also the Mazdakites and some Gnostic and mystical currents concluded from this that everything material is evil. The majority of older and younger researchers believe, because the Avesta and old descriptions are ignorant of anti-material attitudes, that they were influenced by Buddhism and ascetic-monastic currents of the Middle East.
Late, often more Zurvanistic works knew four primordial elements, of which everything should consist, in the pure state or in mixtures: fire, water, earth and air. The Avesta also knew the plants and "liquid metal" (sometimes alternatively - especially in India - a substance called "ether" (in India: Akascha ) and which was suspected in some sources outside or in the firmament).
According to some sources, the magicians also seem to have classified animals in the Zoroastrian good-bad dualism. Predators (except domestic dogs) were considered bad animals, as well as spiders, snakes, scorpions, ants, lizards, turtles, foxes and the like. a. Herodotus was the first to describe this doctrine; Syriac Christian authors confirm it much later. There was probably a system behind it.
The theory of the world ages and the end-time redemption, the latter clearly invented in Zoroastrianism, is passed down from sources differently. After that, some Zurvanists, like the Manichaeans, advocated the idea of three times 3000 years of world existence. Because there are ideas of a golden, silver and brazen, ore, iron or metallic age in many oriental societies, many researchers suspected that this was the original form of the world time concept. In today's Zoroastrianism, on the other hand, the idea of four times 3000 years is represented by an immaterial, a material, a fighting and a redeeming age. The (already by the Babylonians discovered) cycle of precession , after by the precession (then calculated inaccurately with exactly 1000 years ago) one of the twelve signs of the zodiac on the edge of the firmament more than 1000 years most the firmament projects, is the measure of " Great year ". According to many researchers, this doctrine, which is generally Zoroastrian today, originates from Zurvanism. It is very close to Babylonian astrology and is based on a belief in fate that is rather alien to Mazdaism.
Currents of Zurvanism
Materialistic Zurvanism
From the Zervanism a trend developed already in the Sassanid time, which caused a sensation in the research: the materialistic and largely atheistic Zervanism. His followers were known in Iran under the name zandik and in the Arab world under the loanword zindiq or dahri .
The zand movement
The Iranian expression zand or zend was interpreted by the first western researchers as a "translation" of the old teachings into the Middle Persian language ( Pahlawi or Pa-zend) and has thus been preserved in the western name Zendavesta . But the early Assanid zand meant much more. Zand was a translation, commentary and systematization of the old teachings of the Avesta, comparable to the Jewish commentary tradition ( Midrash ) or Muslim commentaries on the Koran ( Tafsīr ). The term zend u avesta or avesta u zend given in the Denkard since the time of the Parthians (for example since Vologaeses - which of the Parthian rulers is unclear) meant "Avesta and commentary" at that time. As in the case of the Baraita in Judaism, philosophical and scientific teachings of the time also seem to have been integrated into religion. Obviously, however, to a much wider extent, as a statement in the Denkard about Shapur I shows:
The King of Kings, Shapur, son of Ardeschir, continued to collect the scriptures of the religion that were scattered in India, the Byzantine Empire, and other countries. They dealt with medicine, astronomy, movement, time, space, matter, creation, becoming and passing away, changes in quality, growth and other processes and organs. He attached these to the Avesta and ordered exact copies of all these works to be deposited in the royal treasury. He examined (the possibility) of bringing all systems into compliance with Mazdaism.
What is striking about the quote is that philosophical and scientific ideas of the time were understood as part of the Zoroastrian religion itself. In Zoroastrianism, in addition to striving for goodness and justice, the striving for truth was also a central value, both as "telling the truth" (Herodotus), i.e. as honesty, as well as as a search for truth, i.e. for knowledge (as already Zarathustra in the Gathas taught, "by the wonderful luminosity of the simple mind"). Researchers suspected that the "Zandiks", who dealt with the commentary and systematization of religion, integrated philosophical ideas into religion precisely for this reason. Many of these theories were evidently not of Iranian but of Babylonian, Greek and Indian origins, as can be seen in the quote. This Zandik movement seems to have been closer to Zurvanism than to Mazdaism. Still in the religion books of the 9th – 11th centuries In the 19th century, the more Zirvanist works established even the most marginal phenomena of nature, society, the cosmos, salvation history and other religious teachings in their causes. In contrast, the more Mazdaist books have a tendency to list them as truths of faith without always having to justify them. Nevertheless, the Mazdaists have also adopted some of the religious teachings, for example the aeon doctrine of the four times 3000 years.
Zandiks and Dahris
The expression zandik is mentioned for the first time in Kartir's rock inscriptions as one of the religions he persecuted. For several reasons, most researchers here and in other passages of the text are of the opinion that the Manichaeans were still meant. These had formed a complicated, essentially Vanist-Gnostic history of salvation with the addition of Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Egyptian and philosophical elements, which was apparently understood as zandik (and which propagated itself as "true religion").
In sources from the early Islamic period, on the other hand, the expression zandik always means a strictly materialist current that had emerged from the Zurvanist Zand movement at the latest in the Middle Assanid period. Even in pre-Islamic times, this movement often seems to have spread under the name dahri in the Arab world. Even in modern Arabic, the expression dahr denotes time in general (also eternity), also a limited period of time and fate, thus roughly the same complex of meanings as the altpers. zrvan (neupers. zaman ) and the Greek aion mean. (The most common Arabic word for time in general is a loan word from New Persian: zaman .) In contrast, a dahri is a materialist, an atheist, a free thinker.
The most important Sunni theologian al-Ghazālī divides philosophically influenced people into three groups: Theists, Naturalists and Dahris and then writes:
The first school, the Dahris, is one of the oldest sects. They deny the existence of a creator and ruler who is omniscient and omnipotent. They think that the world always existed of itself as it is (now) and that animals just came out of the lap of animals over and over again. It was (always) and it will always be. These are the Zandiks.
Mardan- Farrukh, the author of the Mazdaist " Schikand-gumanig-vichar " wrote about them in the 9th century:
Another deception (than the pure atheists) are the atheists who represent the non-existence of a holy being, called Dahris. They give up their religious duties and make no effort to do good deeds. Regarding their incessant talk of evil, to which they give themselves away in endless discussions, note: They believe that the infinite time is the first cause of this world and of all various changes and (re) groupings, summarized in the members and organs and substances (and also described) be; as well as (the first cause) of the various contradictions that exist between one and the other and that form (again and again) between these and the mixing of one with the other. (They also believe) that good deeds are not rewarded, that there is no punishment for sin, that heaven and hell do not exist, and that there is no one to give credit to good and bad (in other translations: supernaturally caused ). (They also believe) that all things are material and spiritual does not exist ... And that worldly existence is nothing more than a mixture of competing forces.
The Dahris thus denied the existence of everything spiritual and consequently also the Zoroastrian good-bad dualism, the creation by Ahura Mazda, the end of the world in the Last Judgment and the afterlife. The Denkard condemns their ideas as "Un-Iranian". Some even seem to have rejected all religiously learned changes in the world. The chorzmic-Muslim polymath al-Biruni wrote:
Some of the inexperienced and foolish people of the Hashwiyya and Dahriyya sects have dismissed as incredible the long lifespan reported by various tribes of the past, especially the patriarchs before Abraham. In the same way, they consider what is reported about their height as monstrous. They say all of this is beyond the limits of possibility and draw their conclusions from objects that they can observe in their time.
The expression hashwiyya probably goes back to the Arabic verb stem haschu , which means "to fill out", that is, a meaning similar to the Iranian zand . In this, as in other sources, there is talk of many sects of the Zandiks and Dahris. So they were probably not a single group either. Modern authors have used these Dahris, which arose from Zurvanism, for example. Partly euphorically celebrated as the first broad philosophical-materialistic- atheistic current in human history, more materialistic and atheistic than the Greek, Indian or Chinese philosophy (apart from a few exceptions) was.
The numerous details in the sources suggest that they were not a negligible phenomenon. But they were apparently only partially completely devoid of religion. Even the late medieval Sufi Jili writes about the Dahris that they do not practice any worship because they believe in the infinity of time, which they regard as divine essence, as pure possibility, not as creators. Some of them would try to approach this essence in contemplative practice. So some sects seem to have maintained a monism. The fact that information about them was still available in the late Middle Ages also shows that they existed much longer than the actual classical religious Zurvanism.
For the thesis that there were Dahris among pre-Islamic Arabs because some tribal associations, such as the Kinda and the Lachmids , were under Sassanid cultural influence, researchers found several sources. So in verses of the preserved songs of pre-Islamic singers. for example from Ham: But one cannot be angry with fate.
From al-Hansa´: One cannot allocate time. She weaves all beginning and end.
From Imr ul-Qais: Time lets evil follow good
The Qur'anic verse, sura 45:24, also means the Dahris with certainty:
They said: There is only our life in this world, we die and we live and only time destroys us.
Only one (controversial) authentic source has been preserved, which comes from the personal physician Chosraus I. Burzoe , which suggests that he could have been a Zandik himself. Burzoe writes in the foreword to his collection of fables, Kalīla wa Dimna, which has been translated from India :
After having become cautious about believing something that might ruin me, I began again to examine the religions and to seek out what was right, but again when I asked someone a question I found no answer, and Even if he gave me an opinion, I found nothing that, in my opinion, deserved to be believed and to serve as a guideline. Then I said: "The most sensible thing is to stick to the religion in which I met my fathers." But when I continued to look for a justification for the behavior, I did not find any and said: "If that is a justification, the magician ( Zot ), who met his fathers as magicians, also has one.
Burzoe closes the preface with the story of the " fountain fable ", which can be interpreted in such a way that a doomed person carelessly turned to the "sweet honey" of his remaining time. The doctrine of the fable coincides with the indication of some sources, according to which the Dahris did not fall into pessimism, but dedicated themselves to life in this world as long as fate and time permit. So maybe Burzoe was a Zandik, maybe just a single thinker who, as historians suspected, was driven by the diversity of religious teachings to anti-religious, worldly opinions.
How the Zandiks came to their material conclusions can only be speculated about and has been speculated. It is reasonable to assume that they consistently thought of infinity from zrvan akarano (= the unlimited time) as omnipotence and infinity of time and space. Therefore, they may have rejected creation and the end of the world. This thesis of a Zurvanist current was accepted up to Widengren. Zaehner on the other hand saw a similarity between the older teachings of Empedocles and the teachings of the Zandiks. He could have influenced the Zandiks. Because in Indian philosophy time (and space) forms the " materia prima (= original matter) of all contingent being" (Zaehner), not an independently acting deity, the Zandiks could have formed an impersonal, non-divine world principle. Zaehner also pointed out that in Indian and Aristotelian philosophy it is considered impossible for something to arise out of nothing. Perhaps that is why creation and world control were rejected. Widengren and Zaehner had discovered passages in the Bundahischn and Denkard in which everything existing and material is synonymous with the total cosmos and as formed from space-time. But none of this explains how the Zandiks came to deny everything spiritual. According to Zaehner, this could be based on a reception of Aristotle's theory of matter and form "but in a very strange way". Aristotle stated that everything material could only exist in a special form. Because the subtle is without form, it does not exist, max. as particles of the total cosmos of space and time. But there remain hypotheses.
Aesthetic Zurvanism
Few western descriptions mention a dualism of some Zurvanists, which contradicts the dualism of the Avesta and Mazdaism of good and evil, light and darkness, wisdom and falsehood. Zaehner called them “aesthetic Zurvanists”, whose basic views can be found in a few sentences in Zoroastrian religious books of the 9th – 11th centuries. Century are preserved.
The Roman counter-bishop Hippolytus of Rome writes in the work Against All Heresies , which attempts a Christian refutation of the teachings of the Gnostics and magicians, that Zarathustra represented two first principles, a male and a female. The masculine is light, the feminine dark (!) And ( citing the older Aristoxenus ) the “parts of light” are hot, dry, light and fast, the parts of darkness are cold, wet, heavy and slow. “The entire universe consists of it, the feminine and the masculine.” Elsewhere Hippolytus writes that Zarathustra said that the world was created by “two demons”, the heavenly and the terrestrial. The terrestrial is the water, which has its source in the earth and strives down again, the heavenly is the fire, mixed with air, which comes (as light) from above and (as fire) strives up again. Syrian-Christian sources confirm that some of the magicians represented a duality of male and female or of fire and water. The teaching does not go back to Zarathustra and is not to be found in the Avesta , because there the good is represented as bright, hot, wet and life-giving, the evil is represented as dark, cold, dry, destructive and (indirectly derived) sterile. It is a different speculation, possibly influenced by outside Iran.
The Denkard also says: "Everything that has arisen ('bavischn'), maturity and well-organized formation is a combination of the right proportions of water, the feminine and fire, the masculine." The process is explained in detail in other places. The doctrine of the origin of life is also represented in today's Mazdaism, but it is not to be understood as a cosmic duality, as Hippolytus et al. a. Sources once described. The water is considered to be one of the elements, the ritual keeping of which is celebrated and which is celebrated in the ritual “giving the water” ( Ab-Zohr ).
In a few foreign descriptions , a being Chwasch-Chwarrik (mpers. "The just fate"; the Iran. Expression chwarrah / chwarma / chwarenah is related to the Indian "karma" and means a "happiness", an individually happy fate) as "mother" referred to by Ohrmazd and Ahriman, Zurvan, however, as "father". Other sources speak of the "womb / womb" of Ohrmazds and Ahrimans. While most Zurvanists view justice and fate as aspects of Zurvan (alongside time and space), a current seems to have represented a more primordial duality of a male and a female primordial being, before good and bad came into being.
The neo-Persian Olema-i Islam is the clearest Zurvanist work. It does not tell a twin brother myth, but describes time as the primal principle of the world and as standing outside of Ohrmazd and Ahriman (which contradicts Mazdaist teachings). It is also closest to the aesthetic Zurvanism. It does not claim a dualism of masculine and feminine, but instead the original duality of the heavenly and terrestrial spirit and of fire and water (as the "lips" of time), already described by Hippolytus. However, these are not equated with Ohrmazd and Ahriman, but existed before, because “time brought fire and water together and thus created Ohrmazd”.
There is an indication in the sources that suggests that the teaching is Old West Iranian. The Syrian-Christian bishop Theodor bar Konnai , who polemicizes against Zoroastrianism, describes a "sect of Gayomarth ", the primitive man of western Iranian mythology ( Yima played this role in eastern Iranian-Avestan mythology ). According to Theodor, this sect, also called Gayomardism , represented precisely this cosmic duality, which came from Zurvan, of a heavenly and terrestrial spirit, of masculine, feminine and fire and water. Furthermore, they are said to have believed that their religion was the original religion of the people and Gayomard and also the original teaching of the Medic magicians before they adopted the teaching of Zarathustra from the East with the Avesta. If the second claim is true, the teaching was probably old Medish.
Iranian studies worked out another duality, which probably explains why Hippolytus identifies the feminine with the dark. The Iranian demon Az is characterized in preserved parts of the Avesta as azi ("striving for", here masculine) as an enemy of fire and as a spoiler of milk, fat and chwarma . The Zoroastrian-Middle Persian Az means "sensual pleasure / lust / need / desire / lust" and is regarded as the corrupter of the virtue of creation, as the destroyer of right and good. Az is the first demon that Ahriman sends to the perfect primordial creation and the last to be defeated in world redemption at the same time as Ahriman, i.e. the second main enemy of the good creation and death demon. In (anti-material, ascetic and lust hostile) Manichaeism, on the other hand, Az is considered a female demon and “mother of all demons”. She is equated with the nature of the feminine and is considered the dark demoness who causes the material formation and all sins. The gender of Az in the Pahlawi literature of Zoroastrianism is unknown because the language knows no grammatical difference between the sexes. In Zurvanism, as received in the Wizidagīhā-ī Zātspram , Az is a possibly female arch demon who causes the fallibility of creation. So there was perhaps a tendency towards misogyny in Zurvanism, which assigned virtue and reason to the masculine, and lust as the destroyer of virtue to the feminine. Older Iranists suspected the origin of ascetic-gnostic currents here, Zaehner and Boyce, on the contrary, saw these Zurvanists influenced by Gnosis and Buddhism. The Denkard confirms ascetic currents in Iran itself. But there were also Zoroastrian currents, which, on the contrary, represented a high value of water, femininity and fertility. This current had connections with the cult of Anahita , the feminine principle of water and fertility, or was identical to it. Many Zoroastrian currents evidently did not form a connection between the dark and the feminine or the water.
Because only a few sources describe a duality of masculine and feminine, of fire and water and of virtue and lust, Zaehner concluded that this aesthetic Zurvanism was only a relatively small current in the Zurvanism of the Sassanid period.
Fatalistic Zurvanism
Armenian and Syrian-Christian sources never transferred zrvan as "time", which is the literal Iranian meaning, but as "fate" or individually good fate ( Chwarma , "lucky shine"), which suggests fateful properties of the Zurvan. Late Muslim descriptors (Schahristani et al.) Describe Zurvan's "all-powerful" qualities.
According to Muslim historians, Tabari, Masudi et al. a. several Sassanid rulers asked the court magicians about their chances of success before their campaigns and received horoscopes from them about the status of the zodiac signs and the planets that predetermine fate. Obviously, Babylonian astrology was popular at the Sassanid royal court. This belief in the happiness that Sassanid rulers claimed (a divine right ), or in a predetermined world fate (mpers. " Bacht ") contradicts the teachings of the Avesta and Mazdaism, according to which man has a free will to favor good ones without predestination or to decide bad works. In some passages of the Avesta this striving for "good thoughts, words and deeds" is elevated to the central value of "good religion". So u. a. in Yasna 45,9: "(Ahura Mazda ...) gave man the will " (to decide for good or bad). The dualistic-henotheistic (active) Mazdaism is closer to the teachings of the Avesta than the fatalistic Zurvanism. To this day, Mazdaists reject the pessimistic tendency of Zurvanism.
Information from Denkard about Adurbad, who persecuted Christians and dissenting sects during the reign of Shapur II , led Iranists to suspect that he was persecuting, but not eliminating, these fatalists, who reversed the ethics of Zoroastrianism.
The Zoroastrian Menog-i Kh (i) rad is closest to the fatalistic worldview. Examples:
Even with bravery and strength of wisdom and knowledge [armed] it is impossible to defend oneself against fate. Sometimes something is predetermined and comes true, for better or for the opposite. The wise go astray, the misguided becomes cunning, the coward becomes brave and the brave cowardly, the energetic becomes lazy, the idle energetic: everything that has been predetermined by fate removes other things at the most favorable occasion. [So too] when fate helps a sluggish, erring ("drugvand") and evil person. His indolence works like energy, his false beliefs like wisdom, his bad like good. But when fate meets a wise, decent, and good person, his wisdom becomes a lie and foolishness, his decency becomes insincerity and his knowledge, his virtue (manliness) and his decency are not rewarded ... and:
The twelve signs of the zodiac are the commanders at Ohrmazd's side. The seven planets [= sun, moon and five known planets], it is taught, are the commanders for Ahriman . The seven planets suppress creation and lead it to death and all forms of evil. The twelve signs of the zodiac and the seven planets rule and guide destiny.
This assignment of the planets to evil and destructive also contradicts the general Zoroastrian doctrine, according to which they are the supreme manifestations of the "beginningless (eternal) light", the good and life-giving Ahura Mazdas, followed by the stars, the "immortal (and good) souls "in people, animals and plants, the subtle good and all helping principles and yazata s. The high position of astrology and belief in fate is strongly influenced by Babylonian-Assyrian.
According to Zaehner, the fatalistic Zurvanism was the most popular form of Zoroastrianism in Sassanid times, because the Schahname des Firdausi , mainly an adaptation of the late Sassanid Chwaday-namag ( gentleman's book ), makes an active world fate and the "lucky shine" the subject of the epic. Because many other Iranian narratives are also fatalistic, this thesis was also supported by Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin (Sorbonne) and (more cautiously) Richard Frye (Harvard University).
Tens were later weakened. The belief in a world fate, a lucky shine and in constellations of the zodiac signs and planets does not contradict Mazdaism. Only when fate is equated with Zurvan (space-time) and is described as an overpowering or omnipotent, active instance of world events, do you have fatalistic Zurvanism in front of you.
bibliography
- Burchard Brentjes : The old Persia. The Iranian world before Mohammed . Schroll-Verlag, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-7031-0461-9 .
- Geo Widengren : The Religions of Irans , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1965
- the same: cervanism. In: Iranian Spiritual World from the Beginnings to Islam. Holle, Baden-Baden 1961, (licensed edition for Bertelsmann Lesering) pp. 77–108
- Josef Wiesehöfer : Ancient Persia. From 550 BC Chr. To 650 n. Chr . Edition Albatros, Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-491-96151-3 .
- Jes P. Asmussen: Az . In: Encyclopaedia Iranica New York 2002.
- Mary Boyce: Some reflections on Zurvanism . In: SOAS (Ed.): Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies . 19/2, London, 1957, pp. 304-316.
- Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin : Notes on Zurvanism . In: UCP (Ed.): Journal of Near Eastern Studies . 15/2, Chicago, 1956, pp. 108-112. doi : 10.1086 / 371319 .
- Richard Frye: Zurvanism Again . In: Cambridge (Ed.): The Harvard Theological Review . 52/2, London, 1959, pp. 63-73.
- Shaul Shaked; Wilhelm Eilers: Bakht . In: Encyclopaedia Iranica New York 2002.
- Mansour Shaki: Dahri . In: Encyclopaedia Iranica New York 2002, pp. 35-44
- Robert Charles Zaehner: A Zervanite Apocalypse . In: SOAS (Ed.): Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies . 10/2, London, 1940, pp. 377-398.
- Robert Charles Zaehner: Zurvan, a Zoroastrian dilemma . Clarendon, Oxford 1955, ISBN 0-8196-0280-9 (1972 Biblo-Moser ed).
- Robert Charles Zaehner: The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism . Putnam, New York 1961, ISBN 1-84212-165-0 (2003 Phoenix ed). (Excerpt from it: see web links)
- Robert Charles Zaehner: Teachings of the Magi: Compendium of Zoroastrian Beliefs . Sheldon, New York 1975, ISBN 0-85969-041-5 .
- Zurvanism . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica (English, including references)
Web links
- History of Zurvanismus p. 63 ( Memento from February 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Diss. By the theologian Helmut Waldmann, to be read with caution as a comprehensive hypothesis; PDF file; 13.88 MB)
- Olema-i Islam in two surviving versions
- Anthology of Zatspram (Engl.)
- Yasna 30 (English) the divine twins mentioned here (Ahura Mazda and Ahriman) were the religious basis of the Zurvanist twin brother doctrine in the Avesta
- Denkard 9.30 (English) Especially in Denkart 9.30.4 there is a sharp rejection of the Zurvanist twin brother doctrine from the Mazdaist point of view.
- Rock inscriptions of the Grand Magician (Mobad) Kartir (English) This supreme magician of the empire was perhaps himself close to Zurvanism.
- Extract from RC Zaehner: "Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism" on the development of Zurvanism (New York 1961, English)
- RC Zaehner: Zurvan. A zoroastrian dilemma. (English, excerpt)
Individual evidence
- ^ Mary Boyce: A History of Zoroastrianism: Volume 1, The Early Period. Leiden / Cologne 1975, ISBN 9004104747
- ↑ Herman Lommel: The religion of Zarathustra based on the Avesta. Tübingen 1930. http://www.archive.org/stream/MN40159ucmf_2/MN40159ucmf_2_djvu.txt