Stausberg, Michael & Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina (eds.). 2015. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. John Wiley & Sons.
This is the first ever comprehensive English-language survey of Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest living religions
- Evenly divided into five thematic sections beginning with an introduction to Zoroaster/Zarathustra and concluding with the intersections of Zoroastrianism and other religions
- Reflects the global nature of Zoroastrian studies with contributions from 34 international authorities from 10 countries.
- Presents Zoroastrianism as a cluster of dynamic historical and contextualized phenomena, reflecting the current trend to move away from textual essentialism in the study of religion.
Table of Contents
- Michael Stausberg and Yuhan Sohrab‐Dinshaw Vevaina: “Introduction: Scholarship on Zoroastrianism”
Part I Zarathustra Revisited
- Frantz Grenet: “Zarathustra’s Time and Homeland: Geographical Perspectives”
- Almut Hintze: “Zarathustra’s Time and Homeland: Linguistic Perspectives”
Interpretations of Zarathustra and the Gāthās
- Helmut Humbach: “The Gāthās”
- Jean Kellens: “The Gāthās, Said to Be of Zarathustra”
- Martin Schwartz: “Dimensions of the Gāthās as Poetry”
- Prods Oktor Skjærvø: “The Gāthās as Myth and Ritual”
- Michael Stausberg: “Zarathustra: Post-Gathic Trajectories”
Part II Periods, Regions, and Contexts 83
- Albert de Jong: “Religion and Politics in Pre‐Islamic Iran”
- Touraj Daryaee: “Zoroastrianism under Islamic Rule”
- Albert de Jong: “Armenian and Georgian Zoroastrianism”
- Frantz Grenet: “Zoroastrianism in Central Asia”
- Takeshi Aoki: “Zoroastrianism in the Far East”
- John R. Hinnells: “The Parsis”
- Michael Stausberg: “Zoroastrians in Modern Iran”
- John R. Hinnells “The Zoroastrian Diaspora”
Part III Structures, Discourses, and Dimensions 209
- Yuhan Sohrab‐Dinshaw Vevaina: “Theologies and Hermeneutics”
- Antonio Panaino: “Cosmologies and Astrology”
- Carlo G. Cereti: “Myths, Legends, Eschatologies”
- Jenny Rose: “Gender”
- Maria Macuch: “Law in Pre‐Modern Zoroastrianism”
- Mitra Sharafi: “Law and Modern Zoroastrians”
Part IV Practices and Sites 313
- Alberto Cantera: “Ethics”
- Firoze M. Kotwal and Philip G. Kreyenbroek: “Prayer”
- Alan V. Williams: “Purity and Pollution / The Body”
- Michael Stausberg and Ramiyar P. Karanjia: “Rituals”
- Jenny Rose: “Festivals and the Calendar”
- Jamsheed K. Choksy: “Religious Sites and Physical Structures”
Part V Intersections 407
- Prods Oktor Skjærvø: “Early India and Iran”
- Yaakov Elman and Shai Secunda: “Judaism”
- Martin L. West: “The Classical World”
- Richard L. Gordon: “From Miθra to Roman Mithras”
- Marco Frenschkowski: “Christianity”
- Manfred Hutter: “Manichaeism in Iran”
- Shaul Shaked: “Islam”
- Philip G. Kreyenbroek: “The Yezidi and Yarsan Traditions”
- Moojan Momen: “The Bahā’ı ̄ Faith”
Part VI Primary Sources 517
- Miguel Ángel Andrés‐Toledo: “Primary Sources: Avestan and Pahlavi”
- Daniel J. Sheffield: “Primary Sources: New Persian”
- Daniel J. Sheffield: “Primary Sources: Gujarati”
About the Editors:
Michael Stausberg is Professor of Religion at the University of Bergen and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He is co-editor, with Steven Engler, of the journal Religion.
Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina (Ph.D. 2007) is a Lecturer in Religious Studies at Stanford University.