“So they say”

Parsis/Iranis are not diminishing …there is a waiting line for flats at the Bombay Parsi Punchayet, claims Khojeste Mis­tree (So they say, Parsiana, October 21, 2005).

Perhaps there is a waiting line because the younger population is diminishing and there is no one to look after the elderly and the aging population cannot afford the Bombay rents or perhaps it suggests the Parsis/Iranis are not as prosperous as they used to be that they have to depend on the community for support.

One can twist any figures to confirm what one wants to propagate, whether it be true or false or just simply to mislead!

The race is to save the religion, not the race.

JEHANGIR SAROSH

UK

A certain someone, whose name may not be mentioned by us in your columns, is recorded as declaring "There are no Zoroastrian converts in history…” (So they say, Parsiana, September 7, 2005). This is a palpable falsehood, one among many which certain types are prone to concocting by way of deliberate misinformation. The unnameable one knows more about Islam than Zoroastrianism as frequently evidenced by his pseudo-religious pronouncements.

Just four of several well-attested instances, against "no proof in history(!)” from our Iranian Zoroastrian literature for your fact-oriented readership:

Shortly after the Emperor Darius had put paid to the political ambitions of the Median tribe of the Magi, those "professional ministrants of the ancient deities of polytheism,” they saw the wisdom of adopting Mazdayasna and, associating themselves with the worship of Mazda, began to claim Zarathushtra as one of theirs and even touted his homeland as Azarbaijan, the Median region from which they had for long operated. In Pars they self-converted en masse! They finally got their own way under Artaxer­xes II. May it be noted here that kings historically did not perform conversions – that was left up to their priesthoods.

Under the first Bahrams of the Sasanian dynasty, the simple herbad who rose to the highest pontifical eminence in all Iran — his priestly lordship Kirdir, the founder of the new orthodoxy, brags about the massive conversions, many undoubtedly coercive, he had had performed among the Jews, Buddhists, Brahmans and Christians settled in the land. His zealous activity was boldly publicized on his inscriptions (with portrait) at Naqsh-i Rustam and elsewhere.

Under Shahpur II, his great Minister for Worship Adarbad Maraspand proved the superiority of the Mazdayasni faith over all the others represented and debated at the First Iranian Interfaith Congress in the mid-fourth century CE. An account of his victory is given in Book IV of the Denkard by its priestly compilers. Their narrative ends with Shahpur II’s declaration: "Now that we have seen the Religion upon earth, we shall not tolerate false religions and we shall be exceeding zealous. And thus he did do.” The Christians bore the brunt of his intolerance and of his priesthood’s enthusiastic conversion zeal.

(Also from Book IV): "His present Majesty, the King of Kings, Husrau (Khosro I), son of Kavadh, after he had put down irreligion and heresy with the greatest vindictiveness according to the revelation of the Religion in the matter of all heresy…” This was followed by a lengthy, but precise, argumentation by his priestly advisers of what was true Religion and what constituted the defects of the other religions in his kingdom.

Whilst denial and manipulation of the truth concerning conversion seems rife despite the several and unambiguous textual proofs submitted in earlier articles, it is good to know that Parsiana is now opening up to the fiction and foibles of the introverted dhongidox, and taking a laudable stance against their obscurantism.

One last point: the acronym WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zartho­shtis) means "wasp” in Pahlavi. Is it not strange that this little fact has escaped the grim humorists in their new-fangled misogynist organization? Perhaps there is a sting in that tale which awaits us all!

FARROKH VAJIFDAR

London, UK