Preliminary material -- THE BACKGROUND -- THE PRE-ZOROASTRIAN RELIGION OF THE MEDES AND PERSIANS -- THE SPREAD OF ZOROASTRIANISM IN WESTERN IRAN -- CYRUS THE GREAT (550-530 B.C.) -- CAMBYSES (530-522 B.C.) -- BARDIYA AND 'GAUMĀTA THE MAGUS' (522 B.C.) -- DARIUS THE GREAT (522-486 B.C.) -- FINDS OF RELIGIOUS INTEREST AT PERSEPOLIS -- CONTACTS AND INFLUENCES IN IONIA IN THE MEDIAN AND EARLY ACHAEMENIAN PERIODS -- XERXES (486-465 B.C.) -- ARTAXERXES I (465-424 B.C.) -- DARIUS II (423-404 B.C.) -- ARTAXERXES II (404-358 B.C.) -- ARTAXERXES III (358-338 B.C.) -- DARIUS III (336-331 B.C.) -- SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.

This volume traces the history of Zoroastrianism at times and places where its existence has previously been largely ignored, or treated only episodically. Literary, archaeological and numismatic evidence has been drawn on (some of it only recently brought to light), and local developments are distinguished. In Iran itself some 200 years of Macedonian rule had little effect on the national religion. To the east, Zoroastrianism survived in the Greco-Bactrian kingdoms and under Mauryan suzereinty, where it came into contact with Buddhism. In Eastern Mediterranean lands it was maintained by Iranian expatriates well down into Roman imperial times. They adopted Greek for their written tongue, and Zoroastrian doctrines thus became known in the Greco-Roman world. Study is made accordingly of Zoroastrian contributions to Hellenistic thought, and to Judaism, Christianity and Mithraism; and an excursus provides a thorough reassessment of the Zoroastrian pseudepigrapha.

This volume offers an edition and translation of the Avestantext of the Yasna Haptanghaiti (YH), together with an introduction, commentary and dictionary. The commentary surveysand summarizes the scholarly debate about individualAvestan words and expressions, while the introduction offersan analysis of the composition of the YH.Table of contents: I. Introduction1. The position of the Yasna Haptanghaiti in the Yasna2. The poetic form of the Yasna Haptanghaiti3. The composition of the Yasna Haptanghaiti4. The Yasna Haptanghaiti as an example of Indo-Europeanliturgical poetry5. The manuscripts of the Yasna Haptanghaiti6. Arrangement of the present editionII. Text and Translation Yasna 35, Yasna 36, Yasna 37, Yasna 38, Yasna 39, Yasna 40, Yasna 41III. Edition and CommentaryIV. DictionaryV. ReferencesVI. AbbreviationsVII. IndicesIndex of WordsIndex of PassagesIndex of Names and Subje

Although there was oral literature among speakers of ancient Iranic languages, the author argues that there is no valid reason to assume that Middle Persian speakers, alone among sedentary peoples of their time, never or seldom wrote literary works in their language. Not only are there many Middle Persian literary works surviving in translation, and sufficient testimonies to the existence of Middle Persian literary works now lost and to Sasanian Middle Persian literacy, there are also strong explanations for their general nonsurvival that eliminate the assumption of a theory of predominant literary orality and disinclination to write literature, an argumentum ex silentio. We may reasonably assume that it is wrong to propose that what happens to survive in the original language on stone and metal surfaces and in desert environments represents the true range of Sasanian Middle Persianthe odds are far against it. Especially when propped up by a concept of ancient Iranians and without any definition of literature or the literary, it has no sound basis and is contradicted by a variety of extant sources.