Conflict and conversion – a historic perspective

Was Cyrus the Great a Zoroastrian? Did the Zoroastrians forcibly convert others to their faith?

In the Cobblestone publication Calliope: Exploring World History, an issue is devoted to Zoroastrianism. Edited by noted scholar Jamsheed K. Choksy, professor of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, the 48-page glossy color journal carries an article by Richard N. Frye, professor emeritus of Iranian Studies at Harvard University.

This is what Fyre has to say: "Although it is uncertain whether Cyrus followed the teaching of Zarathushtra, most of his Iranian subjects probably did. So did later Achaemenian kings such as Darius I. It is not known whether Cyrus tried to convert others to that faith, but accounts reveal that his successors Darius and Xerxes made other peoples under their rule worship Ahura Mazda and that they destroyed temples to other gods.”

Fyre goes on to note, "After the Romans made Christianity the religion of their empire in the early CE 300s, the Sasanians (another ancient Iranian dynasty) followed suit and made Zoroastrianism the religion of their empire. The two empires were often in conflict. As a result, Zoroastrians were persecuted in the Roman Empire and Christians in the Sasanian. It was during this period that both religions were organized with hierarchies of priests, and the Zoroastrianism we know today took its form under the later Sasanians. Although both the Greek and Roman historians had long been writing the history of Iran, the Zoroastrian priests were not interested in this kind of real, written history. To them, history was the Iranian oral epic tradition about the heroes of the past, and they added what they remembered of the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sasanian kings to this tradition.

"With the coming of Islam, the activities of the Zoroastrians, as well as of the Jews and Christians, were restricted, as were the places where they were allowed to live. They were tolerated, but not allowed to participate in local or state government. By the 11th century, Zoroastrianism had become, for the most part, a religion with fixed rituals that were performed by priests but not well understood by the lay people.”

Choksy in his introduction to Zoroastrianism notes: "Little is known about Zarathushtra, who is regarded as the Prophet of the world’s oldest revealed religion. Both when and where he lived are uncertain. According to the most widely held belief, he lived sometime between the 18th and 14th centuries BCE, probably in the region between northern Afghanistan and the Aral Sea. In ancient times, the Iranians placed Zarathushtra in the town of Raga, now in the suburb of Tehran called Ray, 300 to 250 years before Alexander the Great (died in 323 BCE)… His name is a compound word that probably means ‘(possessor of) old camels.’ The Greeks called him Zoroastres, the origin of the name Zoroaster, by which the Prophet is more commonly known today.”