In Search of Zarathustra by Paul Kriwaczek

They enjoyed several peaks of influence, notably as the state religion under the Iranian-based Achaemenid empire, which stretched from the Nile to the Indus and from the Caucasus to the Arabian Sea until swept away by Alexander the Great in 330BC. The followers of the prophet Zoroastra or Zarathustra or Zarathushtra (depending on how close to the old Persian you want to get it translates as 'rich in camels') have been around since 1200BC.

As Paul Kriwaczek shows, it left more of a mark on Judaism, Christianity and Islam than any of this holy trinity would care to admit. Parsees (meaning Persians) are the last remnant of Zoroastrianism, a religion that one dominated much of the Middle East and central Asia. On the modern roll of honour are the conductor Zubin Mehta and Freddie Mercury. A Parsee was the first Indian undergraduate at Oxford, another the first English baronet of Indian origin, another the first Indian-born MP. In India, it was a Parsee who established the first printing press and the oldest newspaper and captained the first national cricket team. From the Indian state of Gujarat, this small group of believers with its distinctive interest in fire-worship has spread into a worldwide diaspora, making notable contributions wherever they settled. Passing via Nietzsche’s interpretation of Zarathustra for a post-religious age, the Cathars of 13th-century France, the Bulgars of 9th-century Balkans, and the prophet Mani’s revision of Zarathustra’s message in the later Persian empire, Paul Kriwaczek then explores the religion of Mithras – before going back past Alexander the Great’s destruction of the Persian Empire, and the era of the great Persian kings Cyrus and Darius in the 6th century BC, to the beginning of the first pre-Christian millennium.The Parsees are often likened to the Jews. Over several decades, Paul Kriwaczek, an award-winning television producer, has cast his eye across Europe and Central Asia, from Hadrian’s Wall to the Oxus river, from the Pyrenees to the Hindu Kush. Long before the first Hebrew temple, the birth of Christ or the mission of Muhammad, Zarathustra had taught of a single universal god, of the battle between Good and Evil, of the Devil, Heaven and Hell, and of an eventual end to the world. IN SEARCH OF ZARATHUSTRA is a quest to trace the influence of the prophet the Greeks called Zoroaster and considered the greatest religious legislator of the ancient world. A quest to find the most influential religious teacher in the ancient world: Zarathustra.

In Search of Zarathustra by Paul Kriwaczek