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Herbad
Hērbad (also ''hīrbad'', ''hērbed'' or ''ērvad'') is a title given to Zoroastrian priests of minor orders. In the present day, ''hērbad'' is the lowest rank in the Zoroastrian priesthood, and is granted following the basic ''navar'' ceremony that marks the beginning of theological training. Unlike a ''mobed'' or ''dastūr'', a ''hērbad'' may not celebrate the ''yasna'', the main service. He may however assist. A ''hērbad'' may also not officiate at a recitation of the ''Vendidad'', which is reserved for priests of higher grade. Amongst lay Zoroastrians, the three terms are used interchangeably. Unlike ''mobed'' but like ''dastūr'', ''hērbad'' may be adopted as a professional title in a person's name. History of term Middle Persian 𐭧𐭩𐭫𐭯𐭲 ''harpat'' ( Pahlavi ''ʼyhlpt'') derives from Avestan 𐬀𐬈𐬚𐬭𐬀𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 ''aethrapaiti'', which the Avesta uses denote a priestly teacher whose students (''aethrii'') would be taught to recite the s ...
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Ka'ba-ye Zartosht
The Ka'ba-ye Zartosht ( fa, کعبه زرتشت), or the Cube of Zarathustra, is a stone quadrangular stepped structure in the Naqsh-e Rustam compound beside Zangiabad village in Marvdasht county in Fars, Iran. The Naqsh-e Rustam compound also incorporates memorials of the Elamites, the Achaemenids and the Sasanians. The Ka'ba-ye Zartosht is from the mountain, situated exactly opposite Darius II's mausoleum. It is rectangular and has only one entrance door. The material of the structure is white limestone. It is about high, or if including the triple stairs, and each side of its base is about long. Its entrance door leads to the chamber inside via a thirty-stair stone stairway. The stone pieces are rectangular and are simply placed on top of each other, without the use of mortar; the sizes of the stones varies from to , and they are connected to each other by dovetail joints. Etymology The structure was built in the Achaemenid era and there is no information of the name ...
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Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion and one of the world's History of religion, oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian peoples, Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a Dualism in cosmology, dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a Monotheism, monotheistic ontology and an eschatology which predicts the ultimate conquest of evil by good. Zoroastrianism exalts an uncreated and benevolent deity of wisdom known as ''Ahura Mazda'' () as its supreme being. Historically, the unique features of Zoroastrianism, such as its monotheism, messianism, belief in Free will in theology, free will and Judgement (afterlife), judgement after death, conception of heaven, hell, Angel, angels, and Demon, demons, among other concepts, may have influenced other religious and philosophical systems, including the Abrahamic religions and Gnosticism, Southern, Eastern and Northern Buddhism, Northern Buddhism, and Ancient Greek philosoph ...
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Mobed
A Mobed, Mowbed, or Mobad (Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭢𐭥𐭯𐭲) is a Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrian cleric of a particular rank. Unlike an ''herbad'' (''ervad''), a ''mobed'' is qualified to serve as celebrant priest at the Yasna ceremony and other higher liturgical ceremonies. A ''mobed'' is also qualified to train other priests. Usage In general (lay) use, the term is also used as an honorific to denote any Zoroastrian priest, of any rank. For instance, Hormizd I appointed Kartir ''moabadan-moabad'', which is frequently translated as "priest of priests", but more precisely indicates "high priest of high priests". The term "mobed" is a contraction of Middle Persian ''magu-pati'', the first half of the expression apparently deriving from Avestan language, Avestan ''𐬨𐬀𐬔𐬀'' ''maga-'' or ''magu-'', and with Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 ''-paiti'' meaning "guardian" or "protector" (Persian root of ''pâyidan'') as in azarpäd. Through Old Persian 𐎶𐎦𐏁 ''magush'' an ...
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Dastūr
A dastūr, sometimes spelt dustoor, is a term for a Zoroastrian high priest who has authority in religious matters and ranks higher than a mobad or herbad. In this specific sense, the term is used mostly among the Parsis of India. The term has also been used in a secular sense to refer to a prime minister, minister or government councillor. The first person to be accorded the title Dastur was Meherji Rana (born 1514 at Navsari). He was invited by Akbar to his court in 1578 AD. He was accorded the title in 1579 AD by the local Zoroastrian priests thus establishing a seat (Gaadi, similar to the seat of a Bhattaraka or Sankaracharya). Dastur Kaikhushru Cowasji Ravji became the eighteenth successor to the seat and title of MeherjiRana in 2019. He became a Mobed A Mobed, Mowbed, or Mobad (Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭢𐭥𐭯𐭲) is a Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrian cleric of a particular rank. Unlike an ''herbad'' (''ervad''), a ''mobed'' is qualified to serve as celebrant priest at the Yasna ...
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Yasna
Yasna (;"Yasna"
''''. ae, ,) is the name of 's principal act of worship. It is also the name of the primary liturgical collection of texts, recited during that ''yasna'' ceremony.


Overview

The function of the ''yasna'' ceremony is, very roughly des ...
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Vendidad
The Vendidad /ˈvendi'dæd/ or Videvdat or Videvdad is a collection of texts within the greater compendium of the Avesta. However, unlike the other texts of the Avesta, the ''Vendidad'' is an ecclesiastical code, not a liturgical manual. Name The name of the texts is a contraction of the Avestan language ''Vî-Daêvô-Dāta'', "Given Against the ''Daeva''s (Demons)", and as the name suggests, the ''Vendidad'' is an enumeration of various manifestations of evil spirits, and ways to confound them. According to the divisions of the Avesta as described in the Denkard, a 9th-century text, the ''Vendidad'' includes all of the 19th ''nask'', which is then the only ''nask'' that has survived in its entirety. Content The ''Vendidad'''s different parts vary widely in character and in age. Although some portions are relatively recent in origin, the subject matter of the greater part is very old. In 1877, Karl Friedrich Geldner identified the texts as being linguistically distinct from b ...
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Zoroastrian Middle Persian
Pahlavi is a particular, exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages. The essential characteristics of Pahlavi are: *the use of a specific Aramaic-derived script; *the incidence of Aramaic words used as heterograms (called '' hozwārishn'', "archaisms"). Pahlavi compositions have been found for the dialects/ethnolects of Parthia, Persis, Sogdiana, Scythia, and Khotan. Independent of the variant for which the Pahlavi system was used, the written form of that language only qualifies as Pahlavi when it has the characteristics noted above. Pahlavi is then an admixture of: *written Imperial Aramaic, from which Pahlavi derives its script, logograms, and some of its vocabulary. *spoken Middle Iranian, from which Pahlavi derives its terminations, symbol rules, and most of its vocabulary. Pahlavi may thus be defined as a system of writing applied to (but not unique for) a specific language group, but with critical features alien to that language group. It has the c ...
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Avestan
Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scriptural language of Zoroastrianism, and the Avesta likewise serves as their namesake. Both are early Eastern Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian language branch of the Indo-European language family. Its immediate ancestor was the Proto-Iranian language, a sister language to the Proto-Indo-Aryan language, with both having developed from the earlier Proto-Indo-Iranian language; as such, Old Avestan is quite close in both grammar and lexicon to Vedic Sanskrit, the oldest preserved Indo-Aryan language. The Avestan text corpus was composed in the ancient Iranian satrapies of Arachosia, Aria, Bactria, and Margiana, corresponding to the entirety of present-day Afghanistan as well as parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The ...
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Avesta
The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the liturgical group is the ''Yasna'', which takes its name from the Yasna ceremony, Zoroastrianism's primary act of worship, and at which the ''Yasna'' text is recited. The most important portion of the ''Yasna'' texts are the five Gathas, consisting of seventeen hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself. These hymns, together with five other short Old Avestan texts that are also part of the ''Yasna'', are in the Old (or 'Gathic') Avestan language. The remainder of the ''Yasna'''s texts are in Younger Avestan, which is not only from a later stage of the language, but also from a different geographic region. Extensions to the Yasna ceremony include the texts of the ''Vendidad'' and the ''Visperad''. The ''Visperad'' extensions consist mainly of addit ...
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Kartir
Kartir (also spelled Karder, Karter and Kerdir; Middle Persian: 𐭪𐭫𐭲𐭩𐭫 ''Kardīr'') was a powerful and influential Zoroastrian priest during the reigns of four Sasanian kings in the 3rd-century. His name is cited in the inscriptions of Shapur I (as well as in the ''Res Gestae Divi Saporis'') and the Paikuli inscription of Narseh. Kartir also had inscriptions of his own made in the present-day Fars Province (then known as Pars). His inscriptions narrates his rise to power throughout the reigns of Shapur I (), Hormizd I (), Bahram I (), and Bahram II (). During the brief reign of Bahram II's son and successor Bahram III, Kartir was amongst the nobles who supported the rebellion of Narseh, who overthrew Bahram III and ascended the throne. During Narseh's reign, Kartir faded into obscurity. Name Kartir's name is spelled in several ways in the engravings; Middle Persian , Parthian , Greek ''Karteir'', and Coptic ''Kardel''. The name was also used in the northeastern ...
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Denkard
The ''Dēnkard'' or ''Dēnkart'' (Middle Persian: 𐭣𐭩𐭭𐭪𐭠𐭫𐭲 "Acts of Religion") is a 10th-century compendium of Zoroastrian beliefs and customs during the time. The Denkard is to a great extent considered an "Encyclopedia of Mazdaism" and is a valuable source of information on the religion especially during its Middle Persian iteration. The ''Denkard'' is not considered a sacred text by a majority of Zoroastrians, but is still considered worthy of study. Name The name traditionally given to the compendium reflects a phrase from the colophons, which speaks of the ''kart''/''kard'', from Avestan ''karda'' meaning "acts" (also in the sense of "chapters"), and ''dēn'', from Avestan ''daena'', literally "insight" or "revelation," but more commonly translated as "religion." Accordingly, ''dēn-kart'' means "religious acts" or "acts of religion." The ambiguity of ''-kart'' or ''-kard'' in the title reflects the orthography of Pahlavi writing, in which the letter ...
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Sassanid Empire
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named after the House of Sasan, it endured for over four centuries, from 224 to 651 AD, making it the longest-lived Persian imperial dynasty. The Sasanian Empire succeeded the Parthian Empire, and re-established the Persians as a major power in late antiquity alongside its neighbouring arch-rival, the Roman Empire (after 395 the Byzantine Empire).Norman A. Stillman ''The Jews of Arab Lands'' pp 22 Jewish Publication Society, 1979 International Congress of Byzantine Studies ''Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London, 21–26 August 2006, Volumes 1–3'' pp 29. Ashgate Pub Co, 2006 The empire was founded by Ardashir I, an Iranian ruler who rose to power as Parthia weakened from internal strife and wars with th ...
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