Interesting History of Zoroastrianism

Hi Dinshaw,

Thank you for the info you sent on Zoroastrianism and Christianity. Now my question is how did the Muslim religion become so predominate in the area of Persia? Did they evolve simultaneously? I am so curious about how so much began in that region.

Blessings,
Cathy
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Hi Cathy, The Near East, together with Egypt, is called "the Cradle of Civilization."

Zoroaster was born 2000 years BEFORE Jesus.

Mohamed was born, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 700 years AFTER Jesus,
and therefore Mohamed was born 2700 years AFTER Zoroaster.

Muslims started their conquests from Mecca in 600 A.D.
They moved north to Iran and found the (Iranian) Persian Zoroastrian Empire
in chaos. At that time,it was the largest Empire, that had lasted over 2000 years. ( Adolf Hitler, eat your heart out for wanting the 3rd Reich to last a 1000 years.) To the surprise of both the Zoroastrian Iranians and the Arab Muslims, the Muslims won.
Muslims converted as many Iranian Zoroastrians to Islam as they could, and killed many others.
My Zoroastrian ancestors fled from the Muslims, and moved from mountain top-to-top in Iran. for about a 100 years. Finally, exhausted, they left Iran in 700 A.D. and fled to India. I call them the FIRST Pilgrim Fathers as they left 700 years before the Pilgrim Fathers and also for religious reasons. They went EAST however, not WEST.
Zoroastrians in India are known as PARSIS, a name derived both from the port of Fars, Iran from where they set sail for India, and from the language they spoke, FARSI.
Mahatma Ghandi once said, "In population the Parsis are pathetic,BUT in accomplishment they are BEYOND COMPARE."
There are only 70,000 Parsis in an Indian population of nearly a Billion.
Much less than the population of one small city in the USA, namely Jacksonville, Florida.
A laughable miniscule number. And 90% of them live in the city of Mumbai, which was in the news recently for terrorist attack. The Imposing hotel that was set on fire was the landmark Taj Mahal Hotel, built and managed by the Parsis. ( you can't just get away from " those damned, elusive Parsis." I stole and changed the quotation from Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities.)

Some Parsi accomplishments....
Before Mahatma Gandhi was born, the Parsi leaders were already talking about the Independence of India from England.
The Parsi Tata's built the first Indian iron and steel manufacturing plant,
which by 1939 (1st World War) had become the largest steel manufacturing plant in the whole of the British Empire,including Great Britain itself......named The Tata Iron & Steel Co.
(I was employed as an Education Officer at their head office in Bombay, and was in charge of selecting technical heads of various departments for further studies in the USA , UK, and Germany.)
Yes, It is same Tata Parsi family that is now manufacturing "the talk of the town" car that is economical to run, 'green', and cheap to buy. Here in the USA people ask why our Auto Cos can't produce that car. Leave it to a Parsi to venture forth.
Ist ones to publish a newspaper in an Indian language.
Ist to build an Indian Hydro-Electric power plant.
The 1st Chemical plant in India was built by a Parsi.
Started the first Indian Airline, Tata Air Lines. An envy of other world Airlines, till it was nationalized.
1st Indian pilot to fly an airplane. Again a Tata.
The 1st Indian scientist to work on the Indian atomic project was, I am sorry to say, also a Parsi, Mr. Bhabha.
The Commerce Minister in the first Indian Parliament after Independence was a Parsi.
Zubin Mehta, the erstwhile Symphony Conductor of Los Angeles,and of New York, is a Parsi. He is the one who conducted the N.Y. Symphony with the 3 Tenors, Pavarotti being one of them. His father still heads the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra.
The 1st. 2 Indians to be elected in England, by the English voters, to sit in the House of Commons in London, were both Parsis.
The 1st and only Indian-descent Englishman to sit as a LORD in the House of Lords in London, England is a Parsi.

And the list goes on and on. You don't expect me to remember everything, do you?

Love, Dinshaw, an Humble Parsi. If there is such a creature.

The words Humble and Parsi just don't go together. But... I can dream, can't I?