ZoroastrianismZoroastrianism is believed to have made strong impacts on the eschatological beliefs of other religions, mainly the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism). However, both primal and later Zoroastrianism borrowed ideas from other belief systems, and each hold some degree of syncretism. The most important texts in the religion is the Avesta, which is written in Avestan, a language formerly spoken throughout the population in the Achaemenid Dynasty. Other Zoroastrian texts are not considered scripture, but are very important to Zoroastrianism.
According to Zoroaster, there is only one Creator and supreme force that rules over all the creations, Ahura Mazda. Under Ahura Mazda, there are lesser divinities such as the Yazatas, and the Amesha Spentas which are all created by Ahura Mazda. As well, there are two governing forces which control the good and bad events that happen in this world. These two concepts are asha and druj. On an inscription in Iran, Darius the Great mentions druj as the force that is attempting to disrupt his kingdom, and dethrone him, which he believed was appointed by Ahura Mazda. [3]
The term Zoroastrianism was first attested by the Oxford English Dictionary in 1874, in Archibald Sayce's Principles of Comparative Philology. The first surviving reference to Zoroaster in Western scholarship is attributed to Thomas Browne (1605–1682), who briefly refers to the prophet in his 1643 Religio Medici. The OED records 1743 (Warburton, Pope's Essay) as the earliest reference to Zoroaster.
