Zoroastrianism | World History | Khan Academy
Zoroastrianism | World History | Khan Academy
A primer on the Zoroastrian religion. Discussions of Zarathustra, Ahura Mazda and the Avesta.
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Content
0.08 -> in any discussion of ancient persia we
2.639 -> quickly talk about the faith of the
4.88 -> achaemenid empire and that's
6.6 -> zoroastrianism and it's popularized by
9.12 -> cyrus the great when he establishes the
11.599 -> achaemenid empire takes over the median
13.759 -> empire the babylon the neo-babylonian
15.759 -> empire the lydians his son canbacis
18.64 -> takes over the egyptians and their faith
21.039 -> is based on the teaching of zoroaster
23.76 -> and zoroaster is the greek name for
26.16 -> zarathustra and sometimes the religion
28.24 -> is referred to as zarathustrianism
30.96 -> and it's one of the oldest religions we
33.2 -> have and it's an existing religion
34.96 -> people still practice
36.76 -> zoroastrianism in terms of when it
39.28 -> started there's some debate
41.68 -> a lot of accounts have it starting as
43.6 -> early or even earlier than 3 500 years
46.16 -> ago so around 1 500 bce and some
48.96 -> accounts put a little bit closer to
50.399 -> cyrus the great maybe 700 or 600 bce and
55.199 -> the accounts or the beginning of the
56.719 -> religion is really around the teachings
58.64 -> of zara thustra
61.359 -> and his teachings really established one
64.159 -> of the first
66 -> often viewed as monotheistic religions
68.159 -> of the world this idea that there is one
70.4 -> god and that god in the zoroastrian
72.72 -> faith is ahura mazda
76 -> ahura mazda and it's
78.88 -> viewed that ahura mazda does not take a
81.68 -> human form and is even you cannot even
83.84 -> conceive of uh you know fully uh
86.479 -> conceived the human mind can't fully
88.56 -> conceive of a ahura mazda but it uhura
91.759 -> mazda is the
93.439 -> in the zoroastrian faith the one and
95.36 -> only god but in
97.52 -> conjunction with the idea of ahura mazda
100.56 -> a lot of people refer to zoroastrianism
103.2 -> as a dualistic fate
105.2 -> a dualistic faith dualistic faith means
107.759 -> that there's this kind of interest in in
111.119 -> counterbalancing forces for example
113.68 -> light
115.36 -> versus dark
117.92 -> and of course good
120.64 -> versus evil
122.88 -> and one of the main ideas or words here
126.24 -> are the ideas of asha and dhruj
130.319 -> so asha these are the ideas of being
133.28 -> principled honest ordered and drooged is
137.12 -> the opposite
138.56 -> the rouge is the idea of being
140.319 -> unprincipled dishonest chaotic and so
143.52 -> there's a lot of talk
145.52 -> and and
146.64 -> kind of insight or or trying to get a
149.28 -> better understanding of these dualistic
152 -> natures in the world and trying for
153.68 -> humanity to be on the site of the good
155.68 -> the light the ordered the principled the
158.4 -> honest
159.519 -> now right over here is a key symbol of
162.08 -> zoroastrianism that you might see it's
163.92 -> called the pharah
165.599 -> i'm probably mispronouncing it
170.48 -> and there's a lot of symbolism here it
172.48 -> shows the connection of of the universe
174.959 -> to humanity you see the depiction of a
176.72 -> human being here and the three layers of
178.64 -> the wings
180.159 -> depict these three very important ideas
182.56 -> in zoroastrianism the first layer is
186 -> is
186.959 -> good thoughts
190.4 -> the second layer right over here of
192 -> wings are good
194.159 -> words
195.76 -> and then the third layer here is good
197.28 -> actions
199.04 -> good actions and it makes sense you kind
201.28 -> of imagine this idea that good thoughts
203.04 -> lead to good words and that combine they
205.599 -> can lead to good actions and on the tail
207.76 -> here and these are the things you should
208.879 -> avoid these are the bad thoughts the bad
212.72 -> actions or the bad thoughts the bad
215.36 -> words
216.48 -> and the bad actions
220.239 -> along lines this idea of dualism
222.239 -> especially the fascination with the
224.64 -> ideas of light fire is a very important
227.84 -> element of the zoroastrian faith in fact
229.76 -> if you visit a zoroastrian temple you
231.599 -> will see an eternal fire and they feed
234 -> that fire five times a day another very
236.799 -> important element of the faith is water
240.159 -> and the sacred text for the zoroastrians
242.799 -> is called the avesta
245.28 -> and the ivesta is written in a language
246.959 -> called avestan and it's called vestan
248.72 -> because it's the language that the
249.599 -> ivesta was written in but it's written
251.519 -> in a religion in a language that is
253.76 -> closely related to ancient sanskrit and
256.72 -> so there's probably some connections or
259.519 -> for sure there are some connections
261.199 -> between
262.24 -> ancient hinduism and the the progenitor
265.36 -> or some of the pre-existing ideas that
267.68 -> might that zarathustra
269.759 -> developed or might have built on top of
273.68 -> now one of the really interesting things
275.84 -> about zoroastrianism is that even though
278.08 -> today it's a it's a relatively small
280.24 -> faith on the order of less than 200
282.56 -> thousand people around the world
283.6 -> practice it and most of them are in
285.199 -> india and the united states
287.28 -> at one time it was you could view it as
289.199 -> the state religion of ancient persia but
291.919 -> eventually in the
293.52 -> 7th century
294.88 -> ce when per when persia or iran became
299.04 -> islamic you have a a zoroastrian
301.68 -> diaspora especially moving to india and
303.84 -> eventually places like the united states
305.6 -> although there are still practicing
307.12 -> zoroastrians in iran but above and
309.84 -> beyond the continuing legacy of the
311.919 -> zoroastrians
313.6 -> they've had a lot of influence on some
315.84 -> of the major religions of the world and
317.68 -> what you have on this timeline here i've
319.36 -> made some of the major religions you see
321.12 -> up here in in blue you have judaism and
323.84 -> the reason why i draw the dotted line is
325.52 -> these are periods and it's not exact you
327.44 -> know these languages religions are
328.72 -> evolving and they're forming and they're
330.56 -> getting more and more of tradition over
332.24 -> time so you hear judaism and of course
334.96 -> christianity is in a lot of ways built
337.36 -> on top of judaism jesus was a was jewish
340.88 -> uh you have islam right over here which
342.96 -> of the major world religions is one of
344.56 -> the newest
345.759 -> in a lot of ways
347.199 -> built uh or related to christianity and
351.199 -> judaism and even though the
354.8 -> zoroastrianism is related and it kind of
357.84 -> comes out of a similar
359.919 -> kind of kind of early aryan people
363.68 -> type of religion it has a lot of
365.68 -> influence on
367.6 -> some of these other traditional or these
370.08 -> mainstream religions that we have in the
371.759 -> world today as we mentioned it's it's
374.479 -> viewed as a monotheistic religion and
377.12 -> it's also had a direct influence on for
379.919 -> example christianity so
382.72 -> right over here this is from john bowker
386.16 -> who's a famous
387.52 -> christian theologian he wrote in his
389.44 -> book world religions that angels the end
391.52 -> of the world a final judgment the
393.28 -> resurrection and heaven and hell
395.6 -> received form and substance from
397.8 -> zoroastrian beliefs
400 -> in in christian tradition the three wise
403.36 -> men the three kings the three magi
406.24 -> that visit the baby jesus
409.039 -> magi this is referring to zoroastrian
411.84 -> priests who are visiting the baby jesus
414 -> and the word magic comes from the word
416.319 -> magi because the zoroaster the
418.8 -> zoroastrian elite the priests they were
420.72 -> very
422.16 -> they were very capable in in the
424.479 -> sciences of astronomy and they were also
426.96 -> very well known for their astrology and
428.96 -> so
429.84 -> some people associated them with you
431.68 -> know magical capabilities also has close
435.12 -> ties to islam
436.56 -> uh the the sacred fire in zoroastrianism
438.88 -> is fed five times a day zoroastrian
441.199 -> zoroastrians pray five times a day and
444.24 -> before prayer they go through a a
447.68 -> a ritual around washing themselves for
450.16 -> to cleanse themselves where they wash
451.599 -> themselves three times before each
453.199 -> prayer
454.16 -> that is something that we see in islam
456.56 -> so zoroastrianism it's the the faith of
459.52 -> of ancient persia popularized by cyrus
462.72 -> the great and it's a living religion
466.16 -> even today although it's a much smaller
468 -> population that practices it but as
469.919 -> we've seen it's had a lot of influence
471.759 -> on many of the major world religions
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2tqV9u9vzY