The Book That Saved a Civilization
How Ferdowsi's Shahnameh Preserved the Zoroastrian Soul Inside an Islamic World eFireTemple.com The Situation By the year 977 CE, Zoroastrianism in Iran was in its darkest hour. The Arab conquest had ended the Sassanid Empire over three centuries earlier. Fire temples had been destroyed or converted to mosques. The Avestan language was dying. The priestly class was decimated. The Jizya tax was bleeding the remaining faithful. Arabic had replaced Persian as the language of government, law, and scholarship.
What this resource contributes
How Ferdowsi's Shahnameh Preserved the Zoroastrian Soul Inside an Islamic World eFireTemple.com The Situation By the year 977 CE, Zoroastrianism in Iran was in its darkest hour. The Arab conquest had ended the Sassanid Empire over three centuries earlier. Fire temples had been destroyed or converted to mosques. The Avestan language was dying. The priestly class was decimated. The Jizya tax was bleeding the remaining faithful. Arabic had replaced Persian as the language of government, law, and scholarship. The children of Zoroastrian converts were being raised Muslim, reading the Quran, forgetting the Gathas. The physical religion was being erased. But worse — the memory was being erased.
Topics and source signals
Primary sources detected
Gathas · Avesta · Quran · Shahnameh