Abstract
Zoroastrianism is the religion of the followers of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster (Zarathushtra). Zoroastrians believe that the prophet lived about 6000bc, although other historians believe it was much later than this, possibly between 1700 and 1400bc. Between approximately 549bc and 642ad it was the state religion of three successive Iranian empires, the boundaries of whose territories extended into what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq, Israel and Turkey. It was overtaken by the expansion of Islam, and its adherents have been the victims of much persecution over the years (Hinnells, 1984).
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References
Hinnells, J.R., Ed. (1984) The Penguin Dictionary of Religions. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, pp. 361–2.
New Encyclopaedia Britannica (1989) 15th edn. Zoroastrianism and Parsiism. Chicago, 29, 1146–7.
Poison, C.J. and Marshall, T.K. (1975) The Disposal of the Dead, 3rd edn. London: English Universities Press, pp. 285–6.
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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Green, J., Green, M. (1991). Zoroastrians (Parsees). In: Dealing with Death. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7216-3_31
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7216-3_31
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