Zoroastrian Culture Essay

The official religion of the Iranian people was Zoroastrian during the Sassanid dynasty (224-645). Sassanid state collapsed by the Arab invasion in 645 A.D and the Iranian forced to convert into Islam. Those who did not want to change their religion, escaped to desert in center of Iran and the rest fled the country to India. The Zoroastrians who stayed in Iran, and unwilling to convert to Islam had to pay Jizya (tax for non-Muslims who live in Muslims’ territories) in order to preserve their religion. In contemporary Iran, Zoroastrian community, as a religious minority in Iran, has their own cultural and ritual performance. As time passed many of the traditions, customs, beliefs, and rites in the Iranian Shiite society can be observed to the Zoroastrian culture. Limitations

Study of Zoroastrian myth of migration from Iran and settlement in the Indian diaspora (Williams: 2009); social condition and internal family economy of Zoroastrian under the rule of the Sasanian law and transformations of the law in order to preserve the Zoroastrian minority under Arab rule (Hjerrild: 2003); The development of Zoroastrian religion, their traditions, and ritual performance (Boyce: 2001); Zoroastrian culture in India after independence (Luhermann 1996); research on the Zoroastrian traditions (Negosiam 1993); conflict and cooperation between Zoroastrian and Muslim elites in medieval Iranian society (Choksy: 1997); and the religious belief and rituals of Zoroastrians (Boyce: 1985). The works of these scholars have paid less attention to the recent social, cultural and religious situation of the Zoroastrian people in Iran. So far, no one written about the process of cultural and religious practice change of the Zoroastrian people in contemperanous era under the rule if Islamic republic of