Zoroaster

Thursday, 22 November 2012

On Christianity 1.0: Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism

Balkh / Bactria - Aryana - The birth place of Zoroaster

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Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire (/ækəˈmɛnɪˌdi/; Old Persian: Parsā, name of ruling dynasty: Haxāmanišiya) (c. 550–330 BCE), sometimes known as First Persian Empire, was an Iranian empire in Southwest Asia, founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation. It expanded to eventually rule over significant portions of the ancient world which at around 500 BCE stretched from the Indus Valley in the east, to Thrace and Macedon on the northeastern border of Greece making it the biggest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenid Empire would eventually control Egypt as well. It was ruled by a series of monarchs who unified its disparate tribes and nationalities by constructing a complex network of roads.
Calling themselves the Parsa after their original Aryan tribal name Parsua, Persians settled in a land which they named Parsua, bounded on the west by the Tigris River and on the south by the Persian Gulf. This became their heartland for the duration of the Achaemenid Empire. It was from this region that eventually Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II of Persia) would advance to defeat the Median, the Lydian, and the Babylonian Empires, opening the way for subsequent conquests into Egypt and Asia minor.

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Afghanistan
Afghanistan ⁱ/æfˈɡænɨstæn/ (Persian/Pashto: افغانستان, Afġānistān), officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming part of South Asia, Central Asia, and Greater Middle East, it is also considered to be part of a broader West Asia. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of 647,500 km² (250,001 sq mi), making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and the east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast.
Afghanistan has been an ancient focal point of the Silk Road and human migration. Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation from as far back as 50,000 BC. Urban civilization may have begun in the area as early as 3,000 to 2,000 BC. Sitting at an important geostrategic location that connects the Middle East with Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, the land has been home to various peoples through the ages and witnessed many military campaigns, notably by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and in modern era Western forces. The land also served as a source from which the Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Timurids, Mughals and many others have risen to form major empires.

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Akkadian Empire
Coordinates: 33°6′N 44°6′E / 33.1°N 44.1°E / 33.1; 44.1
The Akkadian Empire (Akkadian ^URUAkkad KI, Hittite KUR A.GA.DÈ.KI "land of Akkad"; Biblical Hebrew אַכַּד Akkad) was an empire centered in the city of Akkad (Sumerian: Agade) and its surrounding region in Mesopotamia.
During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism.Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate).
The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests of its founder Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC). Under Sargon and his successors, Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though there are earlier Sumerian claimants.^{[citation needed]}
The precise archaeological site of the city of Akkad has not yet been found.^{[citation needed]} The form Agade appears in Sumerian, for example in the Sumerian King List; the later Assyro-Babylonian form Akkadû ("of or belonging to Akkad") was likely derived from this. The etymology and meaning of Akkad (written a.ga.dè^KI or URI^KI) are unknown. Centuries later, the neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus mentioned in his archaeological records that Ishtar's worship in Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, whose shrine was at Sippar—suggesting proximity of Sippar and Agade. Despite numerous searches, the city has never been found. One theory holds that Agade was situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was perhaps the oldest part of the city of Sippar. Another theory is that the ruins of Akkad are to be found beneath modern Baghdad. Reputedly it was destroyed by invading Gutians with the fall of the Akkadian Empire.

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Balkh
Balkh (Persian: بلخ Ancient Greek: Baktra or Zariaspa), was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some 74 km (46 mi) south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan. Marco Polo described Balkh as a "noble and great city".
The ancient city of Balkh was under the Greeks renamed Bactra, giving its name to Bactria. It was mostly known as the centre and capital of Bactria or Takharistan. Balkh is now for the most part a mass of ruins, situated some 12 km from the right bank of the seasonally flowing Balkh River, at an elevation of about 365 m (1,200 ft).
Balkh is one of the oldest cities in the world and is considered to be the first city to which the Indo-Iranian tribes moved from the North of Amu Darya, between 2000 - 1500 BC. The Arabs called it Umm Al-Belaad or Mother of Cities due to its antiquity. The city was traditionally a center of Zoroastianism. The name Zariaspa, which is either an alternate name for Balkh or a term for part of the city, may derive from the important Zoroastrian fire temple Azar-i-Asp. Balkh was regarded as the first place where Zoroaster first preached his religion, as well as the place where he died.

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Carthage
Carthage (Latin: Carthago or Karthago, Ancient Greek: Καρχηδών Karkhēdōn, Arabic: قرطاج Qarṭāj‎, Berber: ⴽⴰⵔⵜⴰⵊⴻⵏ Kartajen, Etruscan: *Carθaza, Modern Hebrew: קרתגו‎ Qartágo, from the Phoenician Qart-ḥadašt meaning New City (Aramaic: קרתא חדאתא, Qarta Ḥdatha), implying it was a 'new Tyre', is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC. It is currently a suburb of Tunis, Tunisia, with a population of 20,715 (2004 Census).
The first civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic (a form of the word "Phoenician") or Carthaginian. The city of Carthage is located on the eastern side of Lake Tunis across from the centre of Tunis. According to Greek historians it was founded by Canaanite-speaking Phoenician colonists from Tyre (in modern Lebanon) under the leadership of Elissa who was renamed (Queen Dido) in Virgil's Aeneid. It became a large and rich city and thus a major power in the Mediterranean. The resulting rivalry with Syracuse, Numidia, and Rome was accompanied by several wars with respective invasions of each other's homeland.

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Great Sphinx
The Great Sphinx of Giza (Arabic: أبو الهول‎ Abū al Hūl, English: The Terrifying One), commonly referred to as the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining or couchant sphinx (a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head) that stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt.
It is the largest monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres (241 ft) long, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft) high. It is the oldest known monumental sculpture, and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of the pharaoh Khafra (c. 2558–2532 BC).
The Great Sphinx is one of the world's largest and oldest statues, but basic facts about it, such as who its face was modeled after, when it was built, and by whom, are still debated. These questions have resulted in the popular idea of the "Riddle of the Sphinx," although this phrase should not be confused with the original Greek legend of the Riddle of the Sphinx.

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Iran
Coordinates: 32°N 53°E / 32°N 53°E / 32; 53
Iran (ⁱ/ɪˈrɑːn/ or /aɪˈræn/;Persian: ایران‎ [ʔiˈɾɒn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران‎ Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān), is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran", which in Persian means "Land of the Aryans", has been in use natively since the Sassanian era. It came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia ( /ˈpɜrʒə/ or /ˈpɜrʃə/). Both "Persia" and "Iran" are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, "Iran" is the name used officially in political contexts.
The 18th-largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km² (636,372 sq mi), Iran has a population of around 79 million. It is a country of particular geopolitical significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and on the northwest by Turkey. Tehran is the capital, the country's largest city and the political, cultural, commercial and industrial center of the nation. Iran is a regional power, and holds an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Iran has the second largest proven natural gas reserves in the world and the fourth largest proven petroleum reserves.

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Kültepe texts
Coordinates: 38°51′N 35°38′E / 38.85°N 35.633°E / 38.85; 35.633 Kültepe (Turkish: Ash Hill) is a modern village near the ancient city of Kaneš or Kanesh (Hittite: Neša, occasionally Anisa), located in the Kayseri Province of Turkey's Central Anatolia Region. The nearest modern city to Kültepe is Kayseri, about 20 km southwest.
Kaneš, inhabited continuously from the Chalcolithic period to Roman times, flourished as an important Hattic/Hittite/Hurrian city, which contained a large merchant quarter (kârum) of the Old Assyrian kingdom, from ca. 20th to 16th centuries BC. A late (c 1400 BC) witness to an old tradition includes a king of Kaneš called Zipani among seventeen local city-kings who rose up against the Akkadian Naram-Sin (ruled c.2254-2218 BC). It is the site of discovery of the earliest traces of the Hittite language, and the earliest attestation of any Indo-European language, dated to the 20th century BC. The native term for the Hittite language was nešili "language of Neša".
The king of Zalpuwa, Uhna, raided Kanes, after which the Zalpuwans carried off the city's "Sius" idol. Pithana, the king of Kussara, conquered level Ia Neša "in the night, by force", but "did not do evil to anyone in it." Neša revolted against the rule of Pithana's son, Anitta, but Anitta quashed the revolt and made Neša his capital. Anitta further invaded Zalpuwa, captured its king Huzziya, and recovered the Sius idol for Neša.

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Medes
The Medes (/midz/) (from Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in Iran in an area known as Media and spoke a northwestern Iranian language referred to as the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of Iranian tribes in the late second millennium BCE (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the first millennium BCE.
In the 7th century BCE a unified Median state was formed which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. An alliance with the Babylonians helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BCE which resulted in the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal centre) beyond their original homeland (central-western Iran) and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Halys River in Anatolia. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great who established the next Iranian dynasty—the Achaemenid Empire.

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Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was an empire in Mesopotamian history which began in 934 BC and ended in 605 BC. During this period, Assyria assumed a position as the most powerful nation on earth, successfully eclipsing Babylonia, Egypt, Urartu/Armenia and Elam for dominance of the Near East, Asia Minor, Caucasus, North Africa and east Mediterranean, though not until the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser III in the 8th century BC did it become a vast empire. Assyria was originally an Akkadian kingdom which evolved in the 25th to 24th Centuries BC. The earliest Assyrian kings such as Tudiya were relatively minor rulers, and after the founding of the Akkadian Empire, which lasted from 2334 BC to 2154 BC, these kings became subject to Sargon of Akkad, who united all the Akkadian and Sumerian speaking peoples of Mesopotamia under one rule.

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Ray, Iran
Rey or Ray (Persian: شهر ری‎, Shahr-e-Ray, "City of Ray"), also known as Rhages ( /ˈreɪdʒəz/; Greek: Ῥάγαι, Rhagai; Latin: Rhagae or Rhaganae) and formerly as Arsacia, is the capital of Rey County, Tehran Province, Iran, and is the oldest existing city in the province.
Ray today has been absorbed into the Greater Tehran metropolitan area. Ray is connected via the Tehran Metro to the rest of Tehran and has many industries and factories in operation. Limited excavations of what was not bulldozed began in 1997 in collaboration with the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO), the Department of Archaeological Sciences of the University of Bradford and the Department of Archaeology of the University of Tehran.
Note on spelling: According to the Iranian Chamber Society, the correct spelling of the city in both English and Persian is "Ray," (with an "a" vowel sound) though variations in spelling also exist. The city university also uses the spelling "Ray" ("Azad University, Shahr-e-Ray") as does the Encyclopædia Iranica published by Columbia University.

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Rey, Iran
Rey or Ray (Persian: شهر ری‎, Shahr-e-Ray, "City of Ray"), also known as Rhages ( /ˈreɪdʒəz/; Greek: Ῥάγαι, Rhagai; Latin: Rhagae or Rhaganae) and formerly as Arsacia, is the capital of Rey County, Tehran Province, Iran, and is the oldest existing city in the province.
Ray today has been absorbed into the Greater Tehran metropolitan area. Ray is connected via the Tehran Metro to the rest of Tehran and has many industries and factories in operation. Limited excavations of what was not bulldozed began in 1997 in collaboration with the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO), the Department of Archaeological Sciences of the University of Bradford and the Department of Archaeology of the University of Tehran.
Note on spelling: According to the Iranian Chamber Society, the correct spelling of the city in both English and Persian is "Ray," (with an "a" vowel sound) though variations in spelling also exist. The city university also uses the spelling "Ray" ("Azad University, Shahr-e-Ray") as does the Encyclopædia Iranica published by Columbia University.

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Troy
Coordinates: 39°57′27″N 26°14′20″E / 39.9575°N 26.23889°E / 39.9575; 26.23889
Troy (Ancient Greek: Ἴλιον, Ilion, and Τροία, Troia; Latin: Trōia and Īlium;Hittite: Wilusa or Truwisa;Turkish: Truva) was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida. It is best known for being the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. Metrical evidence from the Iliad and the Odyssey seems to show that the name Ἴλιον (Ilion) formerly began with a digamma: Ϝίλιον (Wilion). This was later supported by the Hittite form Wilusa.
A new city called Ilium was founded on the site in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople and declined gradually during the Byzantine era.
In 1865, English archaeologist Frank Calvert excavated trial trenches in a field he had bought from a local farmer at Hisarlık, and in 1868, Heinrich Schliemann, wealthy German businessman and archaeologist, also began excavating in the area after a chance meeting with Calvert in Çanakkale. These excavations revealed several cities built in succession. Schliemann was at first skeptical about the identification of Hissarlik with Troy, but was persuaded by Calvert and took over Calvert's excavations on the eastern half of the Hissarlik site, which was on Calvert's property. Troy VII has been identified with the Hittite Wilusa, the probable origin of the Greek Ἴλιον, and is generally (but not conclusively) identified with Homeric Troy.

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Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan (ⁱ/tɜrkˈmɛnɨstæn/ or ⁱ/tɜrkmɛnɨˈstɑːn/; Turkmen: Türkmenistan), formerly also known as Turkmenia (Russian: Туркмения), is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen SSR). Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states. It is bordered by Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest, Uzbekistan to the east and northeast, Kazakhstan to the north and northwest and the Caspian Sea to the west.
Turkmenistan's GDP growth rate of 11% in 2010^[update] ranks 4th in the world, but these figures are subject to wide margins of error. It possesses the world's fourth largest reserves of natural gas resources. Although it is wealthy in natural resources in certain areas, most of the country is covered by the Karakum (Black Sand) Desert.
The Turkmen government operates as a single-party system. Turkmenistan was ruled by President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov (called "Türkmenbaşy" — "leader of the Turkmens") until his sudden death on 21 December 2006. Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov was elected the new president on 11 February 2007.

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Abraham
Abraham (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם (help·info), Modern: Avraham, Tiberian: ʼAḇrāhām, Ashkenazi Avrohom or Avruhom, Arabic: إبراهيم‎ Ibrāhīm, Ge'ez: አብርሃም ʼAbrəham, Greek: Aβραάμ, Russian: Авраам), whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. According to both the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, through his sons Ishmael and Isaac, Abraham is the forefather of many tribes, namely the Ishmaelites, Israelites, Midianites and Edomites. Abraham was a descendant of Noah's son, Shem. Christians believe that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham through Isaac, and Muslims believe that Muhammad was a descendant of Abraham through Ishmael. Abraham is notable for his advocation and promotion of monotheism.
The Book of Genesis narrative that records the life of Abraham presents his role as one that could only be fulfilled through a monotheistic covenant established between him and God. The Qur'an has stories about Abraham and his offspring that are similar to the Bible's. In Islam, Abraham is recognised as a prophet, patriarch and messenger, archetype of the perfect Muslim, and reformer of the Kaaba.

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Adib Taherzadeh
Adib Taherzadeh (1921 in Yazd, Iran – January 26, 2000) served as a member of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing body of the Bahá'í Faith, between 1988 and 2000.
Taherzadeh was born into an Iranian family who have had a strong association with the Bahá'í Faith since its inception, in Yazd, Iran. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Tehran, to Coventry, England in 1948 and pursued advanced studies, He moved to Ireland in 1950 working as the chief engineer of an industrial concern until 1988. He married twice, first to Zarin Moosezadeh Cohen with whom he had two children, a son Tahir Ronald and a daughter Bahiyyeh Vida. He married Belfast-born Lesley Gibson in the 1970s and they had two children, a daughter Maryam and a son Bahhaj. At the time of his death, he had several grandchildren.
Taherzadeh served on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the British Isles from 1960 to 1971. He was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the Republic of Ireland when it was formed in 1972 and was appointed in 1976 to the European Continental Board of Counsellors, a senior advisory body. He was elected to the Universal House of Justice in 1988.

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Agathias
Agathias or Agathias Scholasticus (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαθίας σχολαστικός) c. AD 530-582/594), of Myrina (Mysia), an Aeolian city in western Asia Minor (now in Turkey), was a Greek poet and the principal historian of part of the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I between 552 and 558.
Agathias was a native of Myrina (Mysia). His father was Memnonius. His mother was presumably Pericleia. A brother of Agathias is mentioned in primary sources, but his name has not survived. Their probable sister Eugenia is known by name. The Suda clarifies that Agathias was active in the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I, mentioning him as a contemporary of Paul the Silentiary, Macedonius of Thessalonica and Tribonian.
Agathias mentions being present in Alexandria as a law student at the time when an earthquake destroyed Berytus (Beirut). The law school of Berytus had been recognized as one of the three official law schools of the empire (533). Within a few years, as the result of the disastrous earthquake of 551, the students were transferred to Sidon. The dating of the event to 551: as a law student, Agathias could be in his early twenties, which would place his birth to c. 530.

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Akhenaten
Akhenaten ( /ˌɑːkəˈnɑːtən/; also spelled Echnaton,Ikhnaton, and Khuenaten; meaning "living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV (sometimes given its Greek form, Amenophis IV, and meaning Amun is Satisfied), was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, which is sometimes described as monotheistic or henotheistic. An early inscription likens the Aten to the sun as compared to stars, and later official language avoids calling the Aten a god, giving the solar deity a status above mere gods.
Akhenaten tried to bring about a departure from traditional religion, yet in the end it would not be accepted. After his death, traditional religious practice was gradually restored, and when some dozen years later rulers without clear rights of succession from the Eighteenth Dynasty founded a new dynasty, they discredited Akhenaten and his immediate successors, referring to Akhenaten himself as "the enemy" in archival records.

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Al-Biruni
Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī (born 5 September 973 in Kath, Khwarezm, died in the year 13 December 1048 in Ghazni), known as Alberonius in Latin and Al-Biruni in English, was a Persian-Chorasmian Muslim scholar and polymath of the 11th century.
Al-Biruni is regarded as one of the greatest scholars of the medieval Islamic era and was well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and natural sciences, and also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist and linguist. He was conversant in Chorasmian, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit and Turkic, and also knew Greek, Hebrew and Syriac. He spent a large part of his life in Ghazni in modern-day Afghanistan, capital of the Ghaznavid dynasty which ruled eastern Iranian lands and the northwestern Indian subcontinent. In 1017 he traveled to the Indian subcontinent and became the most important interpreter of Indian science to the Islamic world. He is given the titles the "founder of Indology" and the "first anthropologist". He was an impartial writer on custom and creeds of various nations, and was given the title al-Ustdadh ("The Master") for his remarkable description of early 11th-century India. He also made contributions to Earth sciences, and is regarded as the "father of geodesy" for his important contributions to that field, along with his significant contributions to geography.

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Al-Masudi
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Mas'udi (in Arabic أبو الحسن علي بن الحسين بن علي المسعودي transl: Abu al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Masʿūdī) (born c. 896, Baghdad, died September 956, Cairo, Egypt), was an Arab historian and geographer, known as the "Herodotus of the Arabs." Al-Masudi (in Arabic المسعودي) was one of the first to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, Muruj adh-dhahab wa ma'adin al-jawhar (Arabic: مروج الذهب ومعادن الجواهر‎ translated The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems), a world history.
Al-Mas'udi tells us that he was born in Baghdad. He was a descendant of Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. However, we know little else about his early years. He mentions his association with many scholars in the lands through which he travelled. However, most of what we know of him comes from the internal evidence of his own works. Although Shboul questions the furthest extent sometimes asserted for al-Mas'udi's travels, even his more conservative estimation is impressive:

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Al-Shahrastani
Tāj al-Dīn Abū al-Fath Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Karīm ash-Shahrastānī (1086–1153 CE) was an influential Persian historian of religions and a historiographer. His book, Kitab al–Milal wa al-Nihal (lit. The Book of Sects and Creeds) was one of the pioneers in developing a scientific approach to the study of religions. Besides these, he was also an Islamic scholar, philosopher and theologian.
Very few things are known about al-Shahrastānī's life. He was born in 1086 CE / 479 A.H., in the town of Shahristān (Khorasan province of Persia) where he acquired his early traditional education. Later, he was sent to Nīshāpūr where he studied under different masters who were all disciples of the Ash`ari theologian al-Juwaynī (d. 1085 / 478). At the age of thirty, al-Shahrastānī went to Baghdad to pursue theological studies and taught for three years at the prestigious Ash`ari school, al-Nizāmiyya. Afterwards, he returned to Persia where he worked as Nā’ib (Deputy) of the chancellery for Sanjar, the Saljūq ruler of Khurāsān. At the end of his life, al-Shahrastānī went back to live in his native town, where he died in the year 1153 / 548.

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Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μέγας, Aléxandros ho Mégas from the Greek αλέξω alexo "to defend, help" + ανήρ aner "man"), was a king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece. Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history's most successful commanders.
Alexander succeeded his father, Philip II of Macedon, to the throne in 336 BC after Philip was assassinated. Upon Philip's death, Alexander inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. He was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his father's military expansion plans. In 334 BC, he invaded Persian-ruled Asia Minor and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently overthrew the Persian King Darius III and conquered the entirety of the Persian Empire. At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River.

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Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus (325/330–after 391) was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity (the last was written by Procopius). His work chronicled in Latin the history of Rome from 96 to 378, although only the sections covering the period 353–378 are extant.
Ammianus was born between 325 and 330 in the Greek-speaking East, possibly at Antioch on the Orontes. The surviving books of his history, the Res Gestae, cover the years 353 to 378. Ammianus served as a soldier in the army of Constantius II in Gaul and Persia.
He was "a former soldier and a Greek" (miles quondam et graecus), he tells us, and his enrollment among the elite protectores domestici (household guards) shows that he was of noble birth. He entered the army at an early age, when Constantius II was emperor of the East, and was sent to serve under Ursicinus, governor of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, and magister militum.

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Ardashir I
Ardashir I (died 242 AD) was the founder of the Sassanid Empire, was ruler of Istakhr (since 206?), subsequently Fars Province (since 208?), and finally "King of Kings of Sassanid Empire" (after 226) with the overthrow of the Parthian Empire. The dynasty founded by Ardashir would rule for four centuries, until it was overthrown by the Rashidun Caliphate in 651.
Ardashir (Arđaxšēr from Middle Persian and Parthian Artaxšaθra, Pahlavi ʼrthštr, "Who has the Divine Order as his Kingdom") is also known as Ardeshīr-i Pāpagān "Ardashir, son of Pāpağ", and other variants of his name include Latinized Artaxares and Artaxerxes.
Ardeshir was born in the late 2nd century in Istakhr, what is present-day Fars in Iran, He was the son of Babak (Papak or Pabag) and Princess Rodak, descendant of the Shabankara tribe. According to a letter from Ardavan V, Ardashir was of Kurdish descent. Ardashir is said to have ruled the town of Darabgerd and received the title of "argbadh". Upon Pāpağ's death, Ardashir's elder brother Šāpūr ascended to the throne. However, Ardashir rebelled against his brother and took the kingship for himself in 208.

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Aristotle
Aristotle (Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality, aesthetics, logic, science, politics, and metaphysics.
Aristotle's views on the physical sciences profoundly shaped medieval scholarship, and their influence extended well into the Renaissance, although they were ultimately replaced by Newtonian physics. In the zoological sciences, some of his observations were confirmed to be accurate only in the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. In metaphysics, Aristotelianism had a profound influence on philosophical and theological thinking in the Islamic and Jewish traditions in the Middle Ages, and it continues to influence Christian theology, especially the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church. His ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotle's philosophy continue to be the object of active academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues (Cicero described his literary style as "a river of gold"), it is thought that the majority of his writings are now lost and only about one-third of the original works have survived.

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Colotes
Colotes of Lampsacus (Greek: Κολώτης Λαμψακηνός, Kolōtēs Lampsakēnos; c. 320-after 268 BC) was a pupil of Epicurus, and one of the most famous of his disciples. He wrote a work to prove That it is impossible even to live according to the doctrines of the other philosophers (ὅτι κατὰ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων φιλοσόφων δόγματα οὐδὲ ζῆν ἐστιν). It was dedicated to king Ptolemy Philopator. In refutation of it Plutarch wrote two works, a dialogue, to prove, That it is impossible even to live pleasantly according to Epicurus, and a work entitled Against Colotes. According to Plutarch, Colotes was clever, but vain, dogmatical, and intolerant. He made violent attacks upon Socrates, and other great philosophers. He was a great favourite with Epicurus, who used, by way of endearment, to call him Koλωτάρας and Koλωτάριoς. It is also related by Plutarch, that Colotes, after hearing Epicurus discourse on the nature of things, fell on his knees before him, and besought him to give him instruction. He held that it is unworthy of the truthfulness of a philosopher to use fables in his teaching, a notion which Cicero opposes.

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Daryoush Ashouri
Dariush Ashoori (Persian: داریوش آشوری‎ , born August 2, 1938 in Tehran) is a prominent Iranian thinker, author, translator, researcher, and public intellectual. He lives in Paris, France.
He studied at the Faculty of Law, Political Sciences and Economics of the University of Tehran, and has been visiting professor of Persian language and literature at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, taught in Oriental Institute of the Oxford University, and lectured on political philosophy and political sociology at the University of Tehran. He was a member of the second Academy of Persian Language from 1970 to 1978.
By his prolific publications in several disciplines he is considered an influential and referential figure in contemporary literary and linguistic life of Iran.He has worked extensively as author, essayist, translator, literary critique, encyclopedist, and lexicologist. His intellectual interests cover a wide interdisciplinary range, including political sciences, literature, philosophy and linguistics. His main domain of intellectual focus is the cultural and linguistic matters of his native country, Iran, as a Third World country encountering modernity.

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Diogenes Laertius
Diogenes Laertius (^{[pronunciation?]}; Ancient Greek: Διογένης Λαέρτιος, Diogenes Laertios; fl. c. 3rd century AD) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy.
Nothing is definitively known about his life. He must have lived after Sextus Empiricus (c. 200 AD), whom he mentions, and before Stephanus of Byzantium and Sopater (c. 500 AD), who quote him. His work makes no mention of Neoplatonism, even though it is addressed to a woman who was "an enthusiastic Platonist." It is probable that he flourished in the first half of the third century, during the reign of Alexander Severus (222–235) and his successors.
The precise form of his name is uncertain. In the ancient manuscripts of his work, he is invariably referred to as "Laertius Diogenes," and this form of the name is repeated by Sopater, and the Suda. The modern form "Diogenes Laertius" is much rarer, and occurs in Stephanus of Byzantium, and in a lemma to the Greek Anthology. He is also referred to as "Laertes," or just "Diogenes."

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Elisha
Elisha ( /ɨˈlaɪʃə/;Hebrew: אֱלִישָׁע, Modern Elisha Tiberian ʼĔlîšāʻ ; "My God is salvation", Greek: Ἐλισσαῖος, Elissaîos or Ἐλισαιέ, Elisaié, Arabic: الْيَسَع‎ Elyasaʻ) is a prophet mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an. His name is commonly transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, or Alyasa via Arabic.
Elisha was a prophet of the Northern Kingdom of Israel who was active during the reign of Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Jehoash (Joash).
Elisha was the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah; he became the attendant and disciple of Elijah (1 Kings 19:16–19), and after Elijah was taken up into the whirlwind, he was accepted as the leader of the sons of the prophets, and became noted in Israel. He possessed, according to his own request, "a double portion" of Elijah's spirit (2 Kings 2:9); and for sixty years (892–832 BC) held the office of "prophet in Israel" (2 Kings 5:8).
His name first occurs in the command given to Elijah to anoint him as his successor (1 Kings 19:16). After learning, in the cave on Mount Horeb, that Elisha, the son of Shaphat, had been selected by God as his successor in the prophetic office, Elijah set out to make known the Divine will. On his way from Sinai to Damascus, Elijah found Elisha "one of them that were ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen". Elisha delayed only long enough to kill the yoke of oxen, whose flesh he boiled with the very wood of his plough. He went over to him, threw his mantle over Elisha's shoulders, and at once adopted him as a son, investing him with the prophetic office. Elisha accepted this call about four years before the death of Israel's King Ahab. For the next seven or eight years Elisha became Elijah's close attendant until Elijah was taken up into heaven. During all these years we hear nothing of Elisha except in connection with the closing scenes of Elijah's life.

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Enheduanna
Enheduanna (Akkadian: 𒂗𒃶𒁺𒀭𒈾; 2285-2250 BCE), also transliterated as Enheduana, En-hedu-ana or EnHeduAnna ("en" means High Priestess, and "hedu" means adornment, so this name translates to "high priestess adornment of the god, An"), was an Akkadian princess as well as High Priestess of the Moon god Nanna (Sin) in the Sumerian city-state of Ur. She was the first known holder of the title "En Priestess", a role of great political importance that was often held by royal daughters. Enheduanna was an aunt of Akkadian king Narām-Sîn, and she was one of the earliest women in history whose name is known.
Regarded by literary and historical scholars as possibly the earliest known author and poet of either gender, Enheduanna served as the High Priestess during the third millennium BCE. She was appointed to the role by her father, King Sargon of Akkad. Her mother was Queen Tashlultum. Enheduanna has left behind a corpus of literary works definitively ascribed to her that include many personal devotions to the goddess Inanna and a collection of hymns known as the "Sumerian Temple Hymns" that are regarded as one of the first attempts at a systematic theology. In addition, scholars such as Hallo and Van Dijk suggest that certain texts that have not been ascribed to her may also be her works.

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Eudoxus of Cnidus
Eudoxus of Cnidus (410 or 408 BC – 355 or 347 BC) was a Greek astronomer, mathematician, scholar and student of Plato. Since all his own works are lost, knowledge of him is obtained from secondary sources, such as Aratus's poem on astronomy. Theodosius of Bithynia's Sphaerics may be based on a work of Eudoxus.
His name Eudoxus means "honored" or "of good repute" (in Greek Εὔδοξος, from eu "good" and doxa "opinion, belief, fame"). It is analogous to the Latin name Benedictus.
Eudoxus's father Aeschines of Cnidus loved to watch stars at night. Eudoxus first travelled to Tarentum to study with Archytas, from whom he learned mathematics. While in Italy, Eudoxus visited Sicily, where he studied medicine with Philiston.
Around 387 BC, at the age of 23, he traveled with the physician Theomedon, who according to Diogenes Laërtius some believed was his lover, to Athens to study with the followers of Socrates. He eventually became the pupil of Plato, with whom he studied for several months, but due to a disagreement they had a falling out. Eudoxus was quite poor and could only afford an apartment at the Piraeus. To attend Plato's lectures, he walked the seven miles (11 km) each direction, each day. Due to his poverty, his friends raised funds sufficient to send him to Heliopolis, Egypt to pursue his study of astronomy and mathematics. He lived there for 16 months. From Egypt, he then traveled north to Cyzicus, located on the south shore of the Sea of Marmara, the Propontis. He traveled south to the court of Mausolus. During his travels he gathered many students of his own.

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Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche ( /ˈniːtʃə/;German pronunciation: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈniːtsʃə]; October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) was a German philosopher, poet, cultural critic and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and aphorism.
Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism, nihilism and postmodernism. His style and radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth have resulted in much commentary and interpretation, mostly in the continental tradition. His key ideas include the death of God, the Übermensch, the eternal recurrence, the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy, perspectivism and the will to power. Central to his philosophy is the idea of "life-affirmation", which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life's expansive energies, however socially prevalent and radical those views might be.

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Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (b. 129 AD, d. circa 200 AD), better known as Galen of Pergamon (modern-day Bergama, Turkey), was a prominent Roman (of Greek ethnicity) physician, surgeon and philosopher. Arguably the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, Galen contributed greatly to the understanding of numerous scientific disciplines, including anatomy,physiology, pathology,pharmacology, and neurology, as well as philosophy and logic.
The son of Aelius Nicon, a wealthy architect with scholarly interests, Galen received a comprehensive education that prepared him for a successful career as a physician and philosopher. He traveled extensively, exposing himself to a wide variety of medical theories and discoveries before settling in Rome, where he served prominent members of Roman society and eventually was given the position of personal physician to several emperors.

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Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha or Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम बुद्ध; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. The word Buddha is a title for the first awakened being in an era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (P. sammāsambuddha, S. samyaksaṃbuddha) of our age, "Buddha" meaning "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." Gautama Buddha may also be referred to as Śākyamuni (Sanskrit: शाक्यमुनि "Sage of the Śākyas"). The Buddha found a Middle Way that ameliorated the extreme asceticism found in the Sramana religions.
The time of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE, but more recent opinion dates his death to between 486 and 483 BCE or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BCE. UNESCO lists Lumbini, Nepal, as a world heritage site and birthplace of Gautama Buddha. There are also claims about birth place of Gautama Buddha to be Kapileswara, Orissa or Kapilavastu at Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kośala.

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Gehazi
Gehazi, Geichazi, or Giezi (Douay-Rheims) (Hebrew: גֵּיחֲזִי; Tiberian: Gêḥăzî; Standard: Geẖazi; "valley of vision") is a figure found in the Tanakh Books of Kings. He was Elisha's servant. He appears in connection with the history of the Shunammite and of Naaman the Syrian. On this latter occasion, Gehazi, overcome with avarice, solicited, and obtained in the prophet's name "a talent of silver and two changes of garments" from Naaman. Consequently, he was guilty of duplicity and dishonesty of conduct, causing Elisha to denounce his crime with righteous sternness, and pass on him the terrible doom that "the leprosy of Naaman would cleave to him and his descendants for ever". After Elisha cursed Gehazi, Gehazi was Leprosy As White As Snow. (2 Kings 5.25)
Later, he appeared before King Joram, to whom he recounted the great deeds of his master.
In Rabbinic Literature, Gehazi is identified as one of four commoners who forfeited his share in Olam haba, the afterlife, because of his wickedness, especially in the presence of a upstanding example such as Elisha, and his consistent refusal to repent.

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George Syncellus
George Syncellus (died after 810) was a Byzantine chronicler and ecclesiastic. He had lived many years in Palestine (probably in the Old Lavra of Saint Chariton or Souka, near Tekoa) as a monk, before coming to Constantinople, where he was appointed syncellus (literally, "Cell-mate") to Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople. He later retired to a monastery to write what was intended to be his great work, a chronicle of world history, Ekloge chronographias, or Extract of Chronography. According to Anastasius Bibliothecarius, George "struggled valiantly against heresy [i.e. Iconoclasm] and received many punishments from the rulers who raged against the rites of the Church", although the accuracy of the claim is suspect.

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Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal ( /ˌɡɔr vɨˈdɑːl/; born October 3, 1925) is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality. He also ran for political office twice and has been a longtime political critic.
Vidal was born Eugene Luther Gore Vidal in West Point, New York, the only child of 1st Lieutenant Eugene Luther Vidal (1895–1969) and Nina Gore (1903–1978). He was born in the Cadet Hospital of the United States Military Academy, where his father was the first aeronautics instructor, and was christened by the headmaster of St. Albans preparatory school, his future alma mater. According to "West Point and the Third Loyalty", an article Vidal wrote for The New York Review of Books (October 18, 1973), he later decided to be called Gore in honor of his maternal grandfather, Thomas Gore, Democratic senator from Oklahoma.
Vidal's father, a West Point football quarterback and captain, and an all-American basketball player, was director of the Commerce Department's Bureau of Air Commerce (1933–1937) in the Roosevelt administration, was one of the first Army Air Corps pilots and, according to biographer Susan Butler, was the great love of Amelia Earhart's life. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was a co-founder of three American airlines: the Ludington Line, which merged with others and became Eastern Airlines, Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT, which became TWA), and Northeast Airlines, which he founded with Earhart, as well as the Boston and Maine Railroad. The elder Vidal was also an athlete in the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympics (seventh in the decathlon; U.S. pentathlon team coach).

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Gudea
Gudea was a ruler (ensi) of the state of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia who ruled ca. 2144 - 2124 BC. He probably did not come from the city, but had married Ninalla, daughter of the ruler Urbaba (2164 - 2144 BC) of Lagash, thus gaining entrance to the royal house of Lagash. He was succeeded by his son Ur-Ningirsu.
Inscriptions mention temples built by Gudea in Ur, Nippur, Adab, Uruk and Bad-Tibira^{[citation needed]}. This indicates the growing influence of Gudea in Sumer. His predecessor Urbaba had already made his daughter Enanepada high priestess of Nanna at Ur, which indicates a great deal of political power as well. The 20 years of his reign are all known by name; the main military exploit seems to have occurred in his Year 6, called the "Year when Anshan was smitten with weapons".
Gudea chose the title of énsi (town-king or governor), not the more exalted lugal (Akkadian šarrum); though he did style himself "god of Lagash"{ct}. Gudea claimed to have conquered Elam and Anshan, but his inscriptions emphasize the building of irrigation channels and temples, and the creation of precious gifts to the gods. Materials for his buildings and statues were brought from all parts of western Asia: cedar wood from the Amanus mountains, quarried stones from Lebanon, copper from northern Arabia, gold and precious stones from the desert between Canaan and Egypt, diorite from Magan (Oman), and timber from Dilmun (Bahrain).

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Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (Ancient Greek: Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος—Hērákleitos ho Ephésios; c. 535 – c. 475 BCE) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. From the lonely life he led, and still more from the riddling nature of his philosophy and his contempt for humankind in general, he was called "The Obscure" and the "Weeping Philosopher".
Heraclitus is famous for his insistence on ever-present change in the universe, as stated in the famous saying, "No man ever steps in the same river twice" (see panta rhei, below). He believed in the unity of opposites, stating that "the path up and down are one and the same", all existing entities being characterized by pairs of contrary properties. His cryptic utterance that "all entities come to be in accordance with this Logos" (literally, "word", "reason", or "account") has been the subject of numerous interpretations.

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Herman Melville
Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick. His first three books gained much contemporary attention (the first, Typee, becoming a bestseller), and after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, especially Moby-Dick, which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of America.
Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819, the third of eight children of Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melvill. After her husband Allan died (& between 1832 & 1834), Maria added an "e" to the family surname — seemingly at the behest of Melville's brother Gansevoort. Part of a well-established and colorful Boston family, Melville's father spent a good deal of time abroad as a commission merchant and an importer of French dry goods. The author's paternal grandfather, Major Thomas Melvill, an honored participant of the Boston Tea Party who refused to change the style of his clothing or manners to fit the times, was depicted in Oliver Wendell Holmes's poem "The Last Leaf". Herman visited him in Boston, and his father turned to him in his frequent times of financial need.

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Hermippus
Hermippus was the one-eyed Athenian writer of the Old Comedy who flourished during the Peloponnesian War. He was the son of Lysis, and the brother of the comic poet Myrtilus. He was younger than Telecleides and older than Eupolis and Aristophanes. According to the Suda, he wrote forty plays, and his chief actor was Simeron, according to the scholiast of Aristophanes. The titles and fragments of nine of his plays are preserved. He was a bitter opponent of Pericles, whom he accused (probably in the Moirai) of being a bully and a coward, and of carousing with his boon companions while the Lacedaemonians were invading Attica. He also accused Aspasia of impiety and offences against morality, and her acquittal was only secured by the tears of Pericles (Plutarch, Pericles, 32). In the "Female Bread-Sellers", he attacked the demagogue Hyperbolus. The "Mat-Carriers" contains many parodies of Homer.
Below is a list of his plays:
Hermippus also appears to have written scurrilous iambic poems after the manner of Archilochus. Other types of works written by Hermippus cited by ancient writers include trimeters and tetrameters.

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Hyksos

The Hyksos (^{[pronunciation?]}Egyptian heqa khasewet, "foreign rulers"; Greek Ὑκσώς, Ὑξώς, Arabic: الملوك الرعاة, shepherd kings) were an Asiatic people who took over the eastern Nile Delta and ending the the thirteenth dynasty, initiating the Second Intermediate Period of ancient Egypt.
The Hyksos first appeared in Egypt during the eleventh dynasty, began their climb to power in the thirteenth dynasty, and came out of the second intermediate period in control of Avaris and the Delta. By the fifteenth dynasty, they ruled Lower Egypt, and at the end of the seventeenth dynasty, they were expelled.
The historian Josephus maintains that the Hyksos where in fact the children of Jacob who joined his son Joseph to escape the famine in the land of Canaan.
There are various hypotheses as to the Hyksos ethnic identity. Most archeologists^[who?] describe the Hyksos as multi-ethnic, to include all of the peoples who occupied the emporia of the delta. Some were warlords seeking employment by the Egyptians as mercenaries. Some were unemployed agricultural workers looking for work helping produce food and resorting to banditry, theft and other crimes when they did not get it. Some were skilled tradesmen, professionals, doctors, lawyers, scribes, priests, diplomats, accountants. Some were merchants importing raw materials: timber from Byblos, semi-precious stones from as far away as Afghanistan, tin, copper, bronze, medicines for the doctors, perfumes for the wigmakers, bitumen, natron, linen, frankincense and myrrh for the mummification industry at Karnak or exporting grain and beer to as far away as Greece.

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Irani (India)
The Iranis are an ethno-religious community in South Asia; descendants of Zoroastrians who emigrated from Iran to South Asia within the last few centuries. They are culturally, linguistically and socially distinct from the Parsis, who - although also Zoroastrians - arrived on the subcontinent over 1,200 years ago. The Parsis and Iranis may also be considered legally distinct. This is based in part on a 1909 obiter dictum that, among many other issues relating to the Indian Zoroastrians, also observed that Iranis (of the now defunct Bombay Presidency) were not obliged to uphold the decisions of the then-regulatory Parsi Panchayat.
Although the term 'Irani' is first attested during the Mughal era, most Iranis are descendants of immigrants who arrived on the subcontinent during the 19th and early 20th centuries, that is, when Iran was ruled by the Qajars and when religious persecution of non-Muslims was rampant. The descendants of the immigrants of those times remain culturally and linguistically closer to the Zoroastrians of Iran, in particular to the Zoroastrians of Yazd and Kerman. Consequently, the Dari dialect of the Zoroastrians of those provinces may also be heard amongst the Iranis.

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Iranian people
The Iranian peoples (Iranic peoples) are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group that comprise the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of the Indo-European-speaking peoples. Their historical areas of settlement were on the Iranian plateau, and comprised most of Iran and certain areas of Central Asia such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and most of Afghanistan, some parts of western Pakistan, northern Iraq and eastern Turkey, and scattered parts of the Caucasus Mountains. Their current distribution spreads across the Iranian plateau, and stretches from Pakistan's Indus River in the east to eastern Turkey in the west, and from Central Asia and the Caucasus in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south – a region that is sometimes called the Iranian cultural continent, or Greater Persia by scholars, and represents the extent of the Iranian languages and influence of the Persian People, through the geopolitical reach of the Persian empire.

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James Darmesteter
James Darmesteter (28 March 1849, Château-Salins, Moselle – 19 October 1894) was a French author, orientalist, and antiquarian.
He was born of Jewish parents at Château-Salins, in Alsace. The family name had originated in their earlier home of Darmstadt. He was educated in Paris, where, under the guidance of Michel Bréal and Abel Bergaigne, he imbibed a love for Oriental studies, to which for a time he entirely devoted himself. In 1875 he published a thesis on the mythology of the Avesta, and in 1877 became teacher of Persian language at the École des Hautes Études. He continued his research with his Études iraniennes (1883), and ten years later published a complete translation of the Avesta and associated Zend (lit. "commentary"), with historical and philological commentary of his own (Zend Avesta, 3 vols., 1892-1893) in the Annales du Musée Guimet. He also edited the Avesta for Max Müller's Sacred Books of the East series (vols. 4 and 23).

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James Hope Moulton
Reverend James Hope Moulton, born on 11 October 1863, and died at sea on 9 April 1917, was an English non-conformist divine.
His family had a strong Methodist background. His father was the first headmaster of the Leys School, Cambridge where James was one of the first students. After attending King's College, Cambridge, he chose to become a Wesleyan minister. He showed a strong talent for academic studies, and the University of Manchester invited him to teach Classical Greek and other languages. He was also teaching at the Didsbury College, a Baptist Seminar outside Manchester. He was friend of James Frazer, the Scottish social anthropologist. He developed a strong interest in Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest known monotheistic religions. Over the course of his life he published many books and papers, mainly focused on Zoroastrianism and the Greek texts that the Bible is derived from. He was a Prison Chaplain at Preston for some time around 1910.
In 1916 he decided to take advantage of the academic lull of World War I and spend a long spell in India, to serve as a Methodist missionary and to research & lecture on Zoroastrianism in one of its traditional homelands. This was not an easy time for James, as his wife had recently died, and while he was in India, his son William Ralph Osborn Moulton died in the French trenches on 5 August 1916. He spent 16 months in India under the auspices of the YMCA, researching, preaching and lecturing. A matter that was of particular interest to him was the religion of the Parsis, the Zoroastrians of the Indian subcontinent, and the relationship between their beliefs and the Judeo-Christian religion. He felt that the former was awaiting its completion by the latter. While in Karachi, he availed of the friendship and library of Maneckji Nusserwanji Dhalla, a U.S.-educated Zoroastrian scholar and the high priest of the Parsi community there.

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Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃filip ʁaˈmo]; September 25, 1683, Dijon – September 12, 1764) was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François Couperin.
Little is known about Rameau's early years, and it was not until the 1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his Treatise on Harmony (1722). He was almost 50 before he embarked on the operatic career on which his reputation chiefly rests. His debut, Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), caused a great stir and was fiercely attacked for its revolutionary use of harmony by the supporters of Lully's style of music. Nevertheless, Rameau's pre-eminence in the field of French opera was soon acknowledged, and he was later attacked as an "establishment" composer by those who favoured Italian opera during the controversy known as the Querelle des Bouffons in the 1750s. Rameau's music had gone out of fashion by the end of the 18th century, and it was not until the 20th that serious efforts were made to revive it. Today, he enjoys renewed appreciation with performances and recordings of his music ever more frequent.

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Jeremiah
Jeremiah ( /dʒɛrɨˈmaɪ.ə/;Hebrew：יִרְמְיָה, Modern Hebrew:Yirməyāhū, IPA: jirməˈjaːhu, Tiberian:Yirmĭyahu, Greek:Ἰερεμίας), meaning "Yah exalts", also called the "Weeping prophet" was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Jeremiah is traditionally credited with authoring the Book of Jeremiah, 1 Kings, 2 Kings and the Book of Lamentations with the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch ben Neriah, his scribe and disciple.
Judaism considers the Book of Jeremiah part of its canon, and regards Jeremiah as the second of the major prophets. Islam also considers Jeremiah a prophet, and he is listed as a prophet in all the collections of Stories of the Prophets.^{[citation needed]}Christianity also regards Jeremiah as a prophet and he is quoted in the New Testament. It has been interpreted that Jeremiah “spiritualized and individualized religion and insisted upon the primacy of the individual’s relationship with God.”
According to the Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah was a kohen (Jewish priest), from a landowning family. It is mentioned that he had a joyful early life, however, the difficulties in Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations have prompted scholars to refer to him as "the weeping prophet". Jeremiah was called to prophetic ministry in c. 626 BC, about a year after King Josiah of Judah had turned the nation toward repentance from the widespread idolatrous practices of his father and grandfather. Jeremiah’s job was to reveal the sins of the people and explain the reason for the impending disaster (destruction by the Babylonian army and captivity), “And when your people say, 'Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' you shall say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.'"

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Jesus
Jesus ( /ˈdʒiːzəs/; Greek: Ἰησοῦς; 7–2 BC/BCE to 30–36 AD/CE), also referred to as Jesus Christ or simply Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and most Christian denominations venerate him as God the Son incarnated. In Islam, Jesus (in Arabic: عيسى‎ in Islamic usage, commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of God's important prophets.
Most modern historians agree that Jesus existed and was a Jewish teacher from Galilee in Roman Judaea, who was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate. Scholars have offered competing descriptions and portraits of Jesus, which at times share a number of overlapping attributes, such as a rabbi, a charismatic healer, the leader of an apocalyptic movement, a self-described Messiah, a sage and philosopher, or a social reformer who preached of the "Kingdom of God" as a means for personal and egalitarian social transformation. Scholars have correlated the New Testament accounts with non-Christian historical records to arrive at an estimated chronology of Jesus' life.

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Justin (historian)
Justin (Latin Marcus Junianius (or Junianus) Justinus) was a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire. His name is mentioned only in the title of his own history, and there it is in the genitive, which would be M. Juniani Justini no matter which nomen he bore.
Of his personal history nothing is known. He is the author of Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV, a work described by himself in his preface as a collection of the most important and interesting passages from the voluminous Historiae philippicae et totius mundi origines et terrae situs, written in the time of Augustus by Pompeius Trogus.
His date is uncertain, except that he must have lived after Trogus. He writes that the Romans and the Parthians have divided the world between them; while this is presumably from Trogus, it would be an anachronism after the rise of the Sassanian Empire in the 3rd century AD. Although Latin changed slowly, Justin's language would also be consistent with a date in the 2nd century AD. Ronald Syme argues for a date around 390, immediately before the compilation of the Augustan History, and dismisses the anachronism as unimportant; readers would understand that these passages represented Trogus' time, not their own.

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Lactantius
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author (ca. 240 – ca. 320) who became an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his religious policy as it developed, and tutor to his son.
Lactantius, a Latin-speaking native of North Africa, was a pupil of Arnobius and taught rhetoric in various cities of the Eastern Roman Empire, ending in Constantinople. He wrote apologetic works explaining Christianity in terms that would be palatable to educated people who still practiced the traditional religions of the Empire, while defending Christian beliefs against the criticisms of Hellene philosophers. His Divinae Institutiones ("Divine Institutes") is an early example of a systematic presentation of Christian thought. He was considered somewhat heretical after his death, but Renaissance humanists took a renewed interest in him, more for his elaborately rhetorical Latin style than for his theology.
A translator of the Divine Institutes starts his introduction as follows:

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Manichaeism
Manichaeism ( /ˈmænɨkiːɪzəm/; in Modern Persian آیین مانی Āyin e Māni; Chinese: 摩尼教; pinyin: Mó ní Jiào) was a major gnostic religion, originating in Sassanid era Babylonia. Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani (in Persian: مانی, Syriac: ܡܐܢܝ, Latin: Manichaeus or Manes) (c. 216–276 CE) have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived.
Manichaeism taught an elaborate cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process which takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light from which it came. Its beliefs, based on local Mesopotamian gnostic and religious movements, contained elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.
Manichaeism thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world. Manichaean churches and scriptures existed as far east as China and as far west as the Roman Empire. It was widespread among the legions of the Roman Empire, who considered it a soldier's religion, and it was briefly the main rival to Christianity in the competition to replace classical paganism. Manichaeism survived longer in the East than in the West, and it appears to have finally faded away after the 14th century in southern China, contemporary to the decline in China of the Church of the East – see Ming Dynasty.

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Manicheanism
Manichaeism ( /ˈmænɨkiːɪzəm/; in Modern Persian آیین مانی Āyin e Māni; Chinese: 摩尼教; pinyin: Mó ní Jiào) was a major gnostic religion, originating in Sassanid era Babylonia. Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani (in Persian: مانی, Syriac: ܡܐܢܝ, Latin: Manichaeus or Manes) (c. 216–276 CE) have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived.
Manichaeism taught an elaborate cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process which takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light from which it came. Its beliefs, based on local Mesopotamian gnostic and religious movements, contained elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.
Manichaeism thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world. Manichaean churches and scriptures existed as far east as China and as far west as the Roman Empire. It was widespread among the legions of the Roman Empire, who considered it a soldier's religion, and it was briefly the main rival to Christianity in the competition to replace classical paganism. Manichaeism survived longer in the East than in the West, and it appears to have finally faded away after the 14th century in southern China, contemporary to the decline in China of the Church of the East – see Ming Dynasty.

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Medes
The Medes (/midz/) (from Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in Iran in an area known as Media and spoke a northwestern Iranian language referred to as the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of Iranian tribes in the late second millennium BCE (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the first millennium BCE.
In the 7th century BCE a unified Median state was formed which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. An alliance with the Babylonians helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BCE which resulted in the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal centre) beyond their original homeland (central-western Iran) and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Halys River in Anatolia. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great who established the next Iranian dynasty—the Achaemenid Empire.

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Mirza Tahir Ahmad
Mirza Tahir Ahmad (Urdu: مرزا طاہراحمد) (December 18, 1928 – April 19, 2003) was Khalifatul Masih IV, Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and fourth successor to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He was elected as Caliph on June 10, 1982, the day after the death of his predecessor, Mirza Nasir Ahmad.
In 1974, he was nominated as a member of the Ahmadiyya delegation which appeared before the Parliament of Pakistan to defend the beliefs of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. As Khalifatul Masih IV, Tahir Ahmad attended the 100th Annual Jalsa Salana (annual gathering) being held in Qadian, India in 1991. It was the first time an Ahmadiyya Caliph had returned to Qadian since the partition of India occurred in 1947 when the community relocated from India to Pakistan.
Tahir Ahmad is perhaps best known for his "Question & Answers" sessions. During his Caliphate, the community experienced structural and financial growth including the launch of the first Muslim satellite television network, Muslim Television Ahmadiyya, in 1994.

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Moses
Moses (Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה‎, Modern Moshe Tiberian Mōšéh ISO 259-3 Moše; Greek: Mωϋσῆς Mōüsēs; Arabic: موسىٰ Mūsa) was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew (מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּנוּ, Lit. "Moses our Teacher/Rabbi"), he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and is also considered an important prophet in Christianity and Islam, as well as a number of other faiths.
The existence of Moses as well as the veracity of the Exodus story is disputed amongst archaeologists and Egyptologists, with experts in the field of biblical criticism citing logical inconsistencies, new archaeological evidence, historical evidence, and related origin myths in Canaanite culture. Other historians maintain that the biographical details, and Egyptian background, attributed to Moses imply the existence of a historical political and religious leader who was involved in the consolidation of the Hebrew tribes in Canaan towards the end of the Bronze Age.

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Muhammad
Muhammad (c. 26 April 570 – 8 June 632; also transliterated as Mohammad, Mohammed, or Muhammed; Arabic: محمد‎), full name: Muhammad Ibn `Abd Allāh Ibn `Abd al-Muttalib (Arabic: محمد بن عبدالله بن عبد المطلب ‎) was a leader from Mecca who unified the tribes of Arabia into a single religious polity under Islam. He is believed by Muslims and Bahá'ís to be a messenger and prophet of God. Muslims believe that Islam was not his own invention but was revealed by God, and most consider him to be the last prophet of God Muslims thus consider him the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith (islām) of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets.
Born in 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married by age 25. Being in the habit of periodically retreating to a cave in the surrounding mountains for several nights of meditation and prayer, he later reported that it was there, at age 40, that he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. islām) is the only way (dīn) acceptable to God, and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets.

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Nicholas Roerich
Nicholas Roerich, also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (Russian: Никола́й Константи́нович Рéрих; October 9 [O.S. September 27] 1874 – December 13, 1947), was a Russian mystic, painter, philosopher, scientist, writer, traveler, and public figure. A prolific artist, he created thousands of paintings (many of them are exhibited in well-known museums of the world) and about 30 literary works. Roerich was an author and initiator of an international pact for the protection of artistic and academic institutions and historical sites (Roerich's Pact) and a founder of an international movement for the defence of culture. Roerich earned several nominations for the Nobel Prize.
Roerich in translation from the ancient Scandinavian means "rich of fame" (Rö Rich). Members of Roerich's family occupied prominent military and administrative posts in Russia since the reign of Peter I. Nicholas Roerich's father Konstantin Fedorovich was a well-known notary who was born in Courland. N. Roerich's mother Maria Vasilyevna Kalashnikova descended from a long line of merchants and traders. Among friends of the Roerich's family were such famous personalities as D. Mendeleyev, N. Kostomarov, M. Mikeshin, L. Ivanovsky et al.

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Origen
Origen ( /ˈɒrɪdʒən/; Greek: Ὠριγένης Ōrigénēs), or Origen Adamantius (184/185 – 253/254), was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, largely because he believed in the pre-existence and apokatastasis, or universal reconciliation, ideas acknowledged to be beyond the pale of Christianity. Today he is generally regarded as one of the Church Fathers.
Origen excelled in multiple branches of theological scholarship, including textual criticism, biblical interpretation, philosophical theology, preaching, and spirituality. Some of his teachings, however, quickly became controversial. Notably, he frequently referred to his hypothesis of the pre-existence of souls. As in the beginning all intelligent beings were united to God, Origen also held out the possibility, though he did not assert so definitively, that in the end all beings, perhaps even the arch-fiend Satan, would be reconciled to God in what is called the apokatastasis ("restitution"). Origen's views on the Trinity, in which he saw the Son of God as subordinate to God the Father, became controversial during the Arian controversy of the fourth century, though a subordinationist view was common among the ante-Nicene Fathers. A group who came to be known as Origenists, and who firmly believed in the preexistence of souls and the apokatastasis, were declared anathema in the 6th century. This condemnation is attributed to the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, though it does not appear in the council's official minutes. Few scholars today believe that Origen should be blamed, as he commonly was in the past, for tentatively putting forward hypotheses, later judged heretical, on certain philosophical problems during a time when Christian doctrine was somewhat unclear on said problems.

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Parsi
Parsi or Parsee ( /ˈpɑrsiː/) refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community.
According to tradition, the present-day Parsis descend from a group of Zoroastrians of Iran who immigrated to India during the 10th century AD, to avoid persecution by Muslim invaders who were in the process of conquering Iran. At the time of the Arab invasion of Iran, the dominant religion of the region was Zoroastrianism. The Iranians rebelled against the Arab invaders for almost 200 years; in Iran this period is now known as the "Two "Centuries of Silence" or "Period of Silence". After many failed attempts to free the country from Arab domination, the Iranians were forced to either pay heavy taxes (Jizya) or to convert to Islam, the latter being the ultimate goal of the new rulers and thus the easier way. During this time many Iranians who are now called Parsi rejected both options and instead chose to take refuge by fleeing from Iran to India.

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Parthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire.
The name "Parthia" is a continuation from Latin Parthia, from Old Persian Parthava, which was the Parthian language self-designator signifying "of the Parthians" who were an Iranian people.
Parthia roughly corresponds to the western half of Khorasan region in northeastern Iran. It was bordered by the Kopet Dag mountain range in the north and the Dasht-e-Kavir desert in the south. It bordered Media on the west, Hyrcania on the north west, Margiana on the north east, and Aria on the south east.
During Arsacid times, Parthia was united with Hyrcania as one administrative unit, and that region is therefore often (subject to context) considered a part of Parthia proper.
As the region inhabited by Parthians, Parthia first appears as a political entity in Achaemenid lists of governorates ("satrapies") under their dominion. Prior to this, the people of the region seem to have been subjects of the Medes, and 7th century BC Assyrian texts mention a country named Partakka or Partukka (though this "need not have coincided topographically with the later Parthia").

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Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians. The synonymous usage of Iranian and Persian has persisted over the centuries although some modern Western sources use Iranic/Iranian as a wider term that includes the term Persian as well as related Iranian languages and ethnic groups. However, these terms have been used both synonymously as well as in a complementary fashion since ancient times; as the Ancient Iranian peoples such as the Old Persians, Medes, Bactrians, Parthians and Avesta peoples considered themselves to be part of the greater Iranian ethnic stock.
The term Persian translates to "from or of Persis" which is a region north of the Persian Gulf located in Pars, Iran. It was from this region that Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid empire, united all other Iranian empires (such as the Medes and the Elamites), and expanded the Persian cultural and social influences by incorporating the Babylonian empire, and the Lydian empire. Although not the first Iranian empire, the Achaemenid empire is the first Persian empire well recognized by Greek and Persian historians for its massive cultural, military and social influences going as far as Athens, Egypt, and Libya.

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Plato
Plato ( /ˈpleɪtoʊ/; Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn, "broad"; 424/423 BC – 348/347 BC) was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science. In the words of A. N. Whitehead:
The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them.
Plato's sophistication as a writer is evident in his Socratic dialogues; thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have been ascribed to him. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts. Plato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric, and mathematics.

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Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD – August 25, 79 AD), better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian. Spending most of his spare time studying, writing or investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field, he wrote an encyclopedic work, Naturalis Historia, which became a model for all such works written subsequently. Pliny the Younger, his nephew, wrote of him in a letter to the historian Tacitus:
Pliny is referring to the fact that Tacitus relied on his uncle's now missing work on the History of the German Wars. Pliny the Elder died on August 25, 79 AD, while attempting the rescue by ship of a friend and his family from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that had just destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The prevailing wind would not allow his ship to leave the shore. His companions attributed his collapse and death to toxic fumes; but they were unaffected by the fumes, suggesting natural causes.

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Pliny the elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD – August 25, 79 AD), better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian. Spending most of his spare time studying, writing or investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field, he wrote an encyclopedic work, Naturalis Historia, which became a model for all such works written subsequently. Pliny the Younger, his nephew, wrote of him in a letter to the historian Tacitus:
Pliny is referring to the fact that Tacitus relied on his uncle's now missing work on the History of the German Wars. Pliny the Elder died on August 25, 79 AD, while attempting the rescue by ship of a friend and his family from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that had just destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The prevailing wind would not allow his ship to leave the shore. His companions attributed his collapse and death to toxic fumes; but they were unaffected by the fumes, suggesting natural causes.

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Plutarch

Plutarch (English pronunciation: /'pluːtɑːk/; Greek: Πλούταρχος, Ploútarkhos, Koine Greek: [plŭːtarkʰos]) then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Μέστριος Πλούταρχος),c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea, Boeotia, a town about twenty miles east of Delphi.
Plutarch was born in 46 AD in the small town of Chaeronea, in the Greek region known as Boeotia. His family was wealthy. The name of Plutarch's father has not been preserved, but it was probably Nikarchus (Greek: Nίκαρχoς), from the common habit of Greek families to repeat a name in alternate generations. The name of Plutarch's grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony.
His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogues, where Timon is spoken of in the most affectionate terms. Rualdus, in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus, recovered the name of Plutarch's wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not give way to excessive grief at the death of their two year old daughter, who was named Timoxena after her mother. Interestingly, he hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation.

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Prods Oktor Skjaervo
Prods Oktor Skjaervo (in Norwegian: Prods Oktor Skjærvø) (born: 30 December 1944 in Steinkjer) ) is an Agha Khan Professor of Iranian studies at department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in Harvard University.
Humbach, Helmut; Josef Horblit Elfenbein, Prods Oktor Skjaervo (1991). The Gathas of Zarathustra: and the other old Avestan Texts. C. Winter.
Humbach, Helmut; Prods Oktor Skjaervo (1983). The Sassanian Inscription of Paikuli: 3.1. Restored Text and Translation; 3.2. Commentary. Reichert. ISBN 978-3-88226-156-1.
"Faculty member page". Harvard University. http://www.nelc.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k56744&pageid=icb.page306619&pageContentId=icb.pagecontent606276&view=view.do&viewParam_name=skjaervo.html#a_icb_pagecontent606276.

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Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy ( /ˈtɒləmi/; Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος, Klaudios Ptolemaios; Latin: Claudius Ptolemaeus; c. AD 90 – c. AD 168), was a Greek-Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid. This theory, proposed by Theodore Meliteniotes, could be correct, but it is late (ca. 1360) and unsupported. There is no reason to suppose that he ever lived anywhere else than Alexandria, where he died around AD 168.
Ptolemy was the author of several scientific treatises, at least three of which were of continuing importance to later Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest (in Greek, Ἡ Μεγάλη Σύνταξις, "The Great Treatise", originally Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις, "Mathematical Treatise"). The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the astrological treatise known sometimes in Greek as the Apotelesmatika (Ἀποτελεσματικά), more commonly in Greek as the Tetrabiblos (Τετράβιβλος "Four books"), and in Latin as the Quadripartitum (or four books) in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day.

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Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos (Ancient Greek: Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος [Πυθαγόρης in Ionian Greek] Pythagóras ho Sámios "Pythagoras the Samian", or simply Πυθαγόρας; b. about 570 – d. about 495 BC) was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him. He was born on the island of Samos, and might have travelled widely in his youth, visiting Egypt and other places seeking knowledge. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, a Greek colony in southern Italy, and there set up a religious sect. His followers pursued the religious rites and practices developed by Pythagoras, and studied his philosophical theories. The society took an active role in the politics of Croton, but this eventually led to their downfall. The Pythagorean meeting-places were burned, and Pythagoras was forced to flee the city. He is said to have ended his days in Metapontum.

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Ramesses III
Usimare Ramesses III (also written Ramses and Rameses) was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty and is considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt. He was the son of Setnakhte and Queen Tiy-Merenese. Ramesses III is believed to have reigned from March 1186 to April 1155 BCE. This is based on his known accession date of I Shemu day 26 and his death on Year 32 III Shemu day 15, for a reign of 31 years, 1 month and 19 days. (Alternate dates for this king are 1187 to 1156 BCE).
During his long tenure in the midst of the surrounding political chaos of the Greek Dark Ages, Egypt was beset by foreign invaders (including the so-called Sea Peoples and the Libyans) and experienced the beginnings of increasing economic difficulties and internal strife which would eventually lead to the collapse of the Twentieth Dynasty. In Year 8 of his reign, the Sea Peoples, including Peleset, Denyen, Shardana, Meshwesh of the sea, and Tjekker, invaded Egypt by land and sea. Ramesses III defeated them in two great land and sea battles. Although the Egyptians had a reputation as poor seamen they fought tenaciously. Rameses lined the shores with ranks of archers who kept up a continuous volley of arrows into the enemy ships when they attempted to land on the banks of the Nile. Then the Egyptian navy attacked using grappling hooks to haul in the enemy ships. In the brutal hand to hand fighting which ensued, the Sea People were utterly defeated. The Harris Papyrus state:

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Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520), better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.
Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop, and despite his death at 37, a large body of his work remains. Many of his works are found in the Apostolic Palace of The Vatican, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was self-designed, but for the most part executed by the workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (from 1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates.

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Raphael Sanzio
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520), better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.
Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop, and despite his death at 37, a large body of his work remains. Many of his works are found in the Apostolic Palace of The Vatican, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was self-designed, but for the most part executed by the workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (from 1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates.

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Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and other orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Also sprach Zarathustra, An Alpine Symphony, and Metamorphosen. Strauss was also a prominent conductor throughout Germany and Austria.
Strauss, along with Gustav Mahler, represents the late flowering of German Romanticism after Richard Wagner, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style.
Strauss was born on 11 June 1864, in Munich, the son of Franz Strauss, who was the principal horn player at the Court Opera in Munich. In his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of six, and continued to write music almost until his death.

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Shoghi Effendi
Shoghí Effendí Rabbání (March 1, 1897 – November 4, 1957), better known as Shoghi Effendi, was the Guardian and appointed head of the Bahá'í Faith from 1921 until his death in 1957. After the death of `Abdu'l-Bahá in 1921, the leadership of the Bahá'í community entered a new phase, evolving from that of a single individual to an administrative order with executive and legislative branches, the head of each being the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice. Shoghi Effendi was referred to as the Guardian, and held the explicit authority to interpret the writings of the three central figures of the religion and define the sphere of legislative authority. His writings are effectively limited to commentaries on the works of the central figures, and broad directives for the future.
Future hereditary Guardians were permitted in the Bahá'í scripture by appointment from one to the next, but a prerequisite that appointees be male descendants of Bahá'u'lláh left no suitable living candidates, and Shoghi Effendi died without making an appointment. The Universal House of Justice, the only institution authorized to adjudicate on situations not covered in scripture, later announced that it could not legislate to make possible the appointment of a successor to Shoghi Effendi. To Bahá'ís he is the first and last Guardian.

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Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (/ˈkuːbrɪk/; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor. He is regarded as having been one of America's greatest filmmakers. His films, typically adaptations of novels or short stories, were noted for their "dazzling" and unique cinematography, attention to details to achieve realism and an inspired use of music scores. Kubrick's films covered a variety of genres, including war, black comedy, horror and science fiction. Kubrick was also noted for being a perfectionist, using painstaking care with scene staging and working closely with his actors.
Starting out as a photographer in New York City, he taught himself all aspects of film production and directing after graduating high school. His earliest films were made on a shoestring budget, followed by one Hollywood blockbuster, after which he spent most of the rest of his career living and filming in England. His home became his workplace where he did his writing, research, editing and management of production details. This allowed him to have almost complete artistic control, but with the rare advantage of having financial support from major Hollywood studios.

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Tiglath-Pileser I
Tiglath-Pileser I (^{[pronunciation?]}; from the Hebraic form of Akkadian: Tukultī-apil-Ešarra "My Trust is in the Son of Esharra", Classical Syriac: ܬܲܟܲܠܬܝܼ ܐܵܦܸܠ ܥܝܼܫܵܪܵܐ‎ Takaltyu ʾapel ʿyushara) was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian period (1114–1076 BC). According to Georges Roux, Tiglath-Pileser was "one of the two or three great Assyrian monarchs since the days of Shamshi-Adad I". Under him, Assyria became the leading power of the Middle East, a position the kingdom largely maintained for the next five hundred years. He expanded Assyrian control into Anatolia and Syria, and to the shores of the Mediterranean. From his surviving inscriptions, he seems to have carefully cultivated a fear of himself in his subjects and in his enemies alike.
The son of Ashur-resh-ishi I, he ascended to the throne in 1115 BC, and became one of the greatest of Assyrian conquerors.
His first campaign was against the Mushkuin 1112 B.C. who had occupied certain Assyrian districts in the Upper Euphrates; then he overran Commagene and eastern Cappadocia, and drove the Hittites from the Assyrian province of Subartu, northeast of Malatia.

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Tiglath-Pileser III
Tiglath-Pileser III (from the Hebraic form of Akkadian: Tukultī-apil-Ešarra, "my trust is in the son of Esharra") was a prominent king of Assyria in the eighth century BC (ruled 745–727 BC) and is widely regarded as the founder of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Tiglath-Pileser III seized the Assyrian throne during a civil war and killed the royal family. He made sweeping changes to the Assyrian government, considerably improving its efficiency and security. Assyrian forces became a standing army. Tiglath-Pileser III subjected Babylonia to tribute, severely punished Urartu (Armenia), and defeated the Medes and the Hittites. He reconquered Syria (destroying Damascus) and the Mediterranean seaports of Phoenicia. Tiglath-Pileser III also occupied Philistia and Israel. Later in his reign, Tiglath-Pileser III assumed total control of Babylonia.
Tiglath-Pileser III discouraged revolts against Assyrian rule, with the use of forced deportations of thousands of people all over the empire. He is considered to be one of the most successful military commanders in world history, conquering most of the world known to the Assyrians before his death.

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Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃.swa ma.ʁi aʁ.wɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by the pen name Voltaire (pronounced: [vɔl.tɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, freedom of expression, free trade and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poetry, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform, despite strict censorship laws with harsh penalties for those who broke them. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma and the French institutions of his day.
Voltaire was one of several Enlightenment figures (along with Montesquieu, John Locke, Richard Price, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Émilie du Châtelet) whose works and ideas influenced important thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions.

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William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats ( /ˈjeɪts/ YAYTS; 13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms. Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, and others, founded the Abbey Theatre, where he served as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Irishman so honoured for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929). Yeats was a very good friend of Indian Bengali poet Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

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Zoroaster
Zoroaster (/ˌzɒroʊˈæstər/ ZOHR-oh-as-tər; Persian: زرتشت; Zartosht), (Armenian: Զարդաշտ; Zardasht) also known as Zarathustra (Avestan: Zaraϑuštra), was the founder of Zoroastrianism. His birthplace is uncertain but it is now generally thought that he was born in the eastern part of ancient Greater Iran. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism. Most of his life is known through the Zoroastrian texts. There is no consensus among scholars about the time period of his life, with the estimated dates of his birth range from 6000 BC to 100 BCE. However, the language spoken by Zoroaster, Old Avestan, used for composing the Yasna Haptanghaiti and the Gathas, on archaeological and linguistic grounds, is dated to have been spoken probably in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE.
Zoroaster's name in his native language, Avestan, was probably Zaraϑuštra. His English name, "Zoroaster", and the derivatives from a later (5th-century BCE) Greek transcription, Zōroastrēs (Ζωροάστρης), as used in Xanthus's Lydiaca (Fragment 32) and in Plato's First Alcibiades (122a1). This form appears subsequently in the Latin Zōroastrēs and, in later Greek orthographies, as Zōroastris. The Greek form of the name appears to be based on a phonetic transliteration or semantic substitution of the Avestan zaraϑ- with the Greek zōros (literally "undiluted") and the Avestan -uštra with astron ("star").

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photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

U.S. President Barack Obama, right, waves as he embraces Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, left, after addressing members of the media at Suu Kyi's residence in Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012.

Burma's and America's Ongoing Storms

WorldNews.com

20 Nov 2012

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling President Barack Obama's whirlwind tour of southeast Asia and meetings with dignitaries will have to walk a tightrope between either appearing to endorse military juntas or truly being committed to ongoing pro-democracy movements. Specifically at issue is Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, a democratic advocate...(size: 5.0Kb)

photo: AP / Sebastian D'souza

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India hangs gunman from 2008 Mumbai attack

Herald Tribune

21 Nov 2012

MUMBAI, India - India executed the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai early Wednesday, India's home ministry said. Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, was one of 10 gunmen who rampaged through the streets of India's financial capital in November 2008, killing 166 people. Kasab was hung at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at a jail in...(size: 4.5Kb)

photo: AP / Hatem Moussa

Smoke and fire are seen from an explosion by a high rise housing media organizations in Gaza City, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. It

Israel ‘prepared to invade Gaza’

Independent online (SA)

19 Nov 2012

Gaza/Jerusalem - Israel bombed dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire. Mediator Egypt said a deal for a truce to end the fighting could be close. The leader of Hamas said it was up to...(size: 4.1Kb)

photo: AP / Melanie Gouby

People walk past as M23 rebel soldier's take positions near the Heal Africa hospital in the center of Goma, Congo, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012.

DR Congo soldiers surrender to M23

Al Jazeera

21 Nov 2012

Hundreds of government soldiers and police in the Democratic Republic of Congo have surrendered to rebels at a stadium in Goma, Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri has reported from the scene. The M23 rebel group, believed to be backed by Rwanda seized the strategic, provincial capital of Goma in eastern Congo on Tuesday, home to more than 1 million...(size: 18.7Kb)

photo: UN / Logan Abassi

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UN says carbon cuts too slow to curb dangerous warming

BBC News

21 Nov 2012

A report by the UN says global attempts to curb emissions of CO2 are falling well short of what is needed to stem dangerous climate change. The UN's Environment Programme says greenhouse gases are 14% above where they need to be in 2020 for temperature rises this century to remain below 2C. The authors say this target is still technically...(size: 3.5Kb)

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Walter Tunis: Metal bands headline at Cosmic Charlie's, Buster's

Lexington Herald-Leader

15 Nov 2012

Corrosion of Conformity, Zoroaster, Royal Thunder 10 p.m. Nov. 18 at Cosmic Charlie's, 388 Woodland Ave. $18 in advance, $20 at the door. (859) 309-9499. Cosmic-charlies.com. Napalm Death, Municipal Waste, Exhumed, Speedwolf 8 p.m. Nov. 21 at Buster's Billiards & Backroom, 899 Manchester St. $12 advance, $15 day of show. (859) 368-8871....(size: 4.7Kb)

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Yahoo Daily News

13 Nov 2012

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Nation

10 Nov 2012

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10 Nov 2012

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01 Nov 2012

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For the sludge metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, see Zoroaster (band).

"Zarathustra" redirects here. For the album, see Zarathustra (album). For the racehorse, see Zarathustra (horse).

Zoroaster Zaraϑuštra Spitāma
Zoroaster holds the celestial sphere in Raphael's School of Athens
Known for	Founder of Zoroastrianism
Spouse	Hvōvi (traditional)
Children	Freni, Pourucista, Triti; Isat Vastar, Uruvat-Nara, Hvare Ciϑra (traditional)
Parents	Pourušaspa Spitāma, Dughdova (traditional)

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aša (asha) / arta

Angels and demons

Amesha Spentas · Yazatas
Ahuras · Daevas
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Scripture and worship

Avesta
Gathas · Yasna
Vendidad · Visperad
Yashts · Khordeh Avesta
Ab-Zohr
The Ahuna Vairya Invocation
Fire Temples

Accounts and legends

Dēnkard · Bundahišn
Book of Arda Viraf
Book of Jamasp
Story of Sanjan

History and culture

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Calendar · Festivals
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Parsis · Iranis
• • •
Persecution of Zoroastrians

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Index of Related Articles

Zoroaster (/ˌzɒroʊˈæstər/ ZOHR-oh-as-tər; Persian: زرتشت; Zartosht), (Armenian: Զարդաշտ; Zardasht) also known as Zarathustra (Avestan: Zaraϑuštra), was the founder of Zoroastrianism. His birthplace is uncertain but it is now generally thought that he was born in the eastern part of ancient Greater Iran. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism. Most of his life is known through the Zoroastrian texts. There is no consensus among scholars about the time period of his life, with the estimated dates of his birth range from 6000 BC to 100 BCE. However, the language spoken by Zoroaster, Old Avestan, used for composing the Yasna Haptanghaiti and the Gathas, on archaeological and linguistic grounds, is dated to have been spoken probably in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE.^[1]

1 Etymology
2 Date
3 Place
4 Life
5 Philosophy
6 Iconography
7 Western perceptions
- 7.1 In classical antiquity
- 7.2 In the post-classical era
8 In other religious systems
9 See also
10 Notes
11 References
12 Bibliography
13 External links

Etymology [link]

Zoroaster's name in his native language, Avestan, was probably Zaraϑuštra. His English name, "Zoroaster", and the derivatives from a later (5th-century BCE) Greek transcription, Zōroastrēs (Ζωροάστρης),^[2] as used in Xanthus's Lydiaca (Fragment 32) and in Plato's First Alcibiades (122a1). This form appears subsequently in the Latin Zōroastrēs and, in later Greek orthographies, as Zōroastris. The Greek form of the name appears to be based on a phonetic transliteration or semantic substitution of the Avestan zaraϑ- with the Greek zōros (literally "undiluted") and the Avestan -uštra with astron ("star").

In Avestan, Zaraϑuštra is generally accepted to derive from an Old Iranian *Zaratuštra-. While zarat- is strongly referenced to mean "golden"^[who?] (from the old Eastern-Iranian zar- [-زر], meaning "gold")^[3] it does not itself appear in Avestan.^{[citation needed]} The second half of the name (-uštra-) is universally accepted to mean "camel".^[4]^[a] These factors combined open the door for reconstructing the name's meaning, though there have been other alternative etymologies proposed.

Reconstructions from later Iranian languages—particularly from the Middle Persian (300 BCE) Zardusht, which is the form that the name took in the 9th- to 12th-century Zoroastrian texts—suggest that *Zaratuštra- might be a zero-grade form of *Zarantuštra-.^[4]

Subject then to whether Zaraϑuštra derives from *Zarantuštra- or from *Zaratuštra-, several interpretations have been proposed.^[b]

Following *Zarantuštra- are:

"with old/aging camels":^[4] related to Avestic zarant-.^[2] (cf. Pashto zōṛ and Ossetic zœrond, "old"; Old Persian zāl, "old")^[5]
"with angry/furious camels": from Avestan *zarant-, "angry, furious".^[6]

Following *Zaratuštra- are:

"[owner of the] golden camel": this is derived from old Eastern Iranian word *zar- for gold and ushtra for camel, further corresponding to an Eastern Iranian origin (the Old Persian word dar as a Western-Iranian dialect would be the equal term of Eastern Iranian zar; Modern Persian uses the Eastern Iranian word for gold).^{[citation needed]}
"who is driving camels" or "who is fostering/cherishing camels": related to Avestan zarš-, "to drag".^[7]
Mayrhofer (1977) proposed an etymology of "who is desiring camels" or "longing for camels" and related to Vedic har-, "to like", and perhaps (though ambiguous) also to Avestan zara-.^[6]
"with yellow camels": parallel to younger Avestan zairi-.^[8]

A folk etymology of the name is from zaraϑa, "golden", and the *uštra, "light" (from the root uš, "to shine").^{[citation needed]} In yet another etymological variation, Zaraϑuštra is split into two words: zara, "gold", and ϑuštra, "friend".^{[citation needed]} Several more etymologies have been proposed, some quite fanciful, but none is factually based.^[4]

The interpretation of the -ϑ- (/θ/) in Avestan zaraϑuštra was for a time itself subjected to heated debate because the -ϑ- is an irregular development: As a rule, *zarat- (a first element that ends in a dental consonant) should have Avestan zarat- or zarat̰- as a development from it. Why this is not so for zaraϑuštra has not yet been determined. Notwithstanding the phonetic irregularity, that Avestan zaraϑuštra with its -ϑ- was linguistically an actual form is shown by later attestations reflecting the same basis.^[4] All present-day, Iranian-language variants of his name derive from the Middle Iranian variants of Zarϑošt, which, in turn, all reflect Avestan's fricative -ϑ-.^{[citation needed]}

Date [link]

By the third century, Zoroastrianism and Zoroaster's ideas had spread throughout the Middle East. This painting of him was made in Syria.

The date of Zoroaster, i.e., the date of composition of the Old Avestan gathas, is unknown. Classical writers such as Plutarch proposed dates prior to 6000 BC.^[9] Dates proposed in scholarly literature diverge widely, between the 18th and the 6th centuries BC.^[10]

Until the late 17th century, Zoroaster was generally dated to about the 6th century BC, which coincided with both the "Traditional date" (see details below) and historiographic accounts (Ammianus Marcellinus xxiii.6.32, 4th century AD). However, already at the time (late 19th century), the issue was far from settled, with James Darmesteter pleading for a later date (c. 100 BCE).

The "Traditional date" originates in the period immediately following Alexander the Great's conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BC. The Seleucid kings who gained power following Alexander's death instituted an "Age of Alexander" as the new calendrical epoch. This did not appeal to the Zoroastrian priesthood who then attempted to establish an "Age of Zoroaster." To do so, they needed to establish when Zoroaster had lived, which they accomplished by counting back the length of successive generations^[11] until they concluded that Zoroaster must have lived "258 years before Alexander." This estimate then re-appeared in the 9th- to 12th-century texts of Zoroastrian tradition,^[c] which in turn gave the date doctrinal legitimacy, especially since it was made plausible also by the observational history of the Pleiades in the Geoponica that indicates Zoroaster as a principal source of some observations. In the early part of the 20th century, this remained the accepted date (subject to the uncertainties of the 'Age of Alexander'^[d]) for a number of reputable scholars, among them Hasan Taqizadeh, a recognized authority on the various Iranian calendars, and hence became the date cited by Henning and others.

By the late 19th century, scholars such as Bartholomea and Christensen noted problems with the "Traditional date," namely in the linguistic difficulties that it presented. The Old Avestan language of the Gathas (which are attributed to the prophet himself) is still very close to the Sanskrit of the Rigveda. Therefore, it seemed implausible that the Gathas and Rigveda could be more than a few centuries apart, suggesting a date for the oldest surviving portions of the Avesta of roughly the 2nd millennium BCE.

This 11th/10th century BC date is now widely accepted among Iranists, who in recent decades found that the social customs described in the Gathas roughly coincide with what is known of other pre-historical peoples of that period. Supported by this historical evidence, the "Traditional date" can be conclusively ruled out, and the discreditation can to some extent be supported by the texts themselves: The Gathas describe a society of bipartite (priests and herdsmen/farmers) nomadic pastoralists with tribal structures organized at most as small kingdoms. This contrasts sharply with the view of Zoroaster having lived in an empire, at which time society is attested to have had a tripartite structure (nobility/soldiers, priests, and farmers). Although a slightly earlier date (by a century or two) has been proposed on the grounds that the texts do not reflect the migration onto the Iranian Plateau, it is also possible that Zoroaster lived in one of the rural societies that remained in Central Asia.

Place [link]

Yasna 9 & 17 cite the Ditya River in Airyanem Vaējah (Middle Persian Ērān Wēj) as Zoroaster's home and the scene of his first appearance. The Avesta (both Old and Younger portions) does not mention the Achaemenids or of any West Iranian tribes such as the Medes, Persians, or even Parthians.

However, in Yasna 59.18, the zaraϑuštrotema, or supreme head of the Zoroastrian priesthood, is said to reside in 'Ragha'. In the 9th- to 12th-century Middle Persian texts of Zoroastrian tradition, this 'Ragha'—along with many other places—appear as locations in Western Iran. While the land of Media does not figure at all in the Avesta (the westernmost location noted in scripture is Arachosia), the Būndahišn, or "Primordial Creation," (20.32 and 24.15) puts Ragha in Media (medieval Rai). However, in Avestan, Ragha is simply a toponym meaning "plain, hillside."^[12]

Apart from these indications in Middle Persian sources which are open to interpretations, there are a number of other sources. The Greek and Latin sources are divided on the birth place of Zarathustra. There are many Greek accounts of Zarathustra, referred usually as Persian or Perso-Median Zoroaster. Moreover they have the suggestion that there has been more than one Zoroaster.^[13] On the other hand, in post-Islamic sources Shahrastani (1086–1153) an Iranian writer originally from Shahristān, present-day Turkmenistan, proposed that Zoroaster's father was from Atropatene (also in Medea) and his mother was from Rey. Coming from a reputed scholar of religions, this was a serious blow for the various regions who all claimed that Zoroaster originated from their homelands, some of which then decided that Zoroaster must then have then been buried in their regions or composed his Gathas there or preached there.^[14]^[15] Also Arabic sources of the same period and the same region of historical Persia consider Azerbaijan as the birth place of Zarathustra.^[16]

By the late 20th century, most scholars had settled on an origin in Eastern Iran and/or Afghanistan. Gnoli proposed Sistan (though in a much wider scope than the present-day province) as the homeland of Zoroastrianism; Frye voted for Bactria and Chorasmia;^[17] Khlopin suggests the Tedzen Delta in present-day Turkmenistan.^[18] Sarianidi considered the BMAC region as "the native land of the Zoroastrians and, probably, of Zoroaster himself."^[19] Boyce includes the steppes to the west from the Volga.^[20] The medieval "from Media" hypothesis is no longer taken seriously, and Zaehner has even suggested that this was a Magi-mediated issue to garner legitimacy, but this has been likewise rejected by Gershevitch and others.

The 2005 Encyclopedia Iranica article on the history of Zoroastrianism summarizes the issue with "while there is general agreement that he did not live in western Iran, attempts to locate him in specific regions of eastern Iran, including Central Asia, remain tentative."^[21]

Life [link]

The Gathas contain allusions to personal events, such as Zoroaster's triumph over obstacles imposed by competing priests and the ruling class. They also indicate he had difficulty spreading his teachings, and was even treated with ill-will in his mother's hometown. They also describe familial events such as the marriage of his daughter, at which Zoroaster presided. In the texts of the Younger Avesta (composed many centuries after the Gathas), Zoroaster is depicted wrestling with the daevas and is tempted by Angra Mainyu to renounce his faith (Yasht 17.19; Vendidad 19). The Spend Nask, the 13th section of the Avesta, is said to have a description of the prophet's life. ^[22] However, this text has been lost over the centuries, and it survives only as a summary in the seventh book of the 9th century Dēnkard. Other 9th- to 12th-century stories of Zoroaster, as in the Shāhnāmeh, are also assumed to be based on earlier texts, but must be considered as primarily a collection of legends. The historical Zoroaster, however, eludes categorization as a legendary character.

Zoroaster was born into the priestly family of the Spitamids and his ancestor Spitāma is mentioned several times in the Gathas. His father's name was Pourušaspa, his mother's was Dughdova (Duγδōuuā). With his wife, Huvovi (Hvōvi), Zoroaster had three sons, Isat Vastar, Uruvat-Nara and Hvare Ciϑra three daughters, Freni, Pourucista and Triti. His wife, children and a cousin named Maidhyoimangha, were his first converts after his illumination from Ahura Mazda at age 30. According to Yasnas 5 & 105, Zoroaster prayed to Anahita for the conversion of King Vištaspa,^[23] who appears in the Gathas as a historical personage. In legends, Vištaspa is said to have had two brothers as courtiers, Frašaōštra and Jamaspa, and to whom Zoroaster was closely related: his wife, Hvōvi, was the daughter of Frashaōštra, while Jamaspa was the husband of his daughter Pourucista. The actual role of intermediary was played by the pious queen Hutaōsa. Apart from this connection, the new prophet relied especially upon his own kindred (hvaētuš).

Zoroaster's death is not mentioned in the Avesta. In Shahnameh 5.92,^[24] he is said to have been murdered at the altar by the Turanians in the storming of Balkh.

Philosophy [link]

In the Gathas, Zoroaster sees the human condition as the mental struggle between aša (truth) and druj (lie). The cardinal concept of aša—which is highly nuanced and only vaguely translatable—is at the foundation of all Zoroastrian doctrine, including that of Ahura Mazda (who is aša), creation (that is aša), existence (that is aša) and as the condition for Free Will, which is arguably Zoroaster's greatest contribution to religious philosophy.

The purpose of humankind, like that of all other creation, is to sustain aša. For humankind, this occurs through active participation in life and the exercise of constructive thoughts, words and deeds.

Elements of Zoroastrian philosophy entered the West through their influence on Judaism and Middle Platonism and have been identified as one of the key early events in the development of philosophy.^[25] Among the classic Greek philosophers, Heraclitus is often referred to as inspired by Zoroaster's thinking.^[26]

Iconography [link]

Detail of The School of Athens by Raphael, 1509, showing Zoroaster (left, with star-studded globe).

Zoroastrian devotional art depicts the religion's founder with white clothing and a long beard

Although a few recent depictions of Zoroaster show the prophet performing some deed of legend, in general the portrayals merely present him in white vestments (which are also worn by present-day Zoroastrian priests). He often is seen holding a baresman (Avestan; Middle Persian barsom), which is generally considered to be another symbol of priesthood, or with a book in hand, which may be interpreted to be the Avesta. Alternatively, he appears with a mace, the varza—usually stylized as a steel rod crowned by a bull's head—that priests carry in their installation ceremony. In other depictions he appears with a raised hand and thoughtfully lifted finger, as if to make a point. Zoroaster is rarely depicted as looking directly at the viewer; instead, he appears to be looking slightly upwards, as if beseeching. Zoroaster is almost always depicted with a beard, this along with other factors bear similarities to 19th century portraits of Jesus.^[27]

A common variant of the Zoroaster images derives from a Sassanid-era rock-face carving. In this depiction at Taq-e Bostan, a figure is seen to preside over the coronation of Ardashir I or II. The figure is standing on a lotus, with a baresman in hand and with a gloriole around his head. Until the 1920s, this figure was commonly supposed to be a depiction of Zoroaster, but in recent years is more commonly interpreted to be a depiction of Mithra. Among the most famous of the European depictions of Zoroaster is that of the figure in Raphael's 1509 The School of Athens. In it, Zoroaster and Ptolemy are having a discussion in the lower right corner. The prophet is holding a star-studded globe.

Western perceptions [link]

In classical antiquity [link]

Although, at the core, the Greeks (in the Hellenistic sense of the term) understood Zoroaster to be the "prophet and founder of the religion of the Iranian peoples" (e.g. Plutarch Isis and Osiris 46-7, Diogenes Laertius 1.6-9 and Agathias 2.23-5), "the rest was mostly fantasy."^[28] He was set in the impossibly ancient past, six to seven millennia before the Common Era, and was variously a king of Bactria, or a Babylonian (or teacher of Babylonians), and with a biography typical for every Neopythagorean sage, i.e. a mission preceded by ascetic withdrawal and enlightenment.^[28]

Most importantly however, was their picture of Zoroaster as the sorcerer-astrologer non-plus-ultra, and indeed as the "inventor" of both magic and astrology. Deriving from that image, and reinforcing it, was a "mass of literature"^[29] attributed to him and that circulated the Mediterranean world from the 3rd century BCE to the end of antiquity and beyond. "The Greeks considered the best wisdom to be exotic wisdom" and "what better and more convenient authority than the distant—temporally and geographically—Zoroaster?"^[30]

The language of that literature was predominantly Greek, though at one stage or another various parts of it passed through Aramaic, Syriac, Coptic or Latin. Its ethos and cultural matrix was likewise Hellenistic, and "the ascription of literature to sources beyond that political, cultural and temporal framework represents a bid for authority and a fount of legitimizing "alien wisdom". Zoroaster and the magi did not compose it, but their names sanctioned it."^[29] The attributions to "exotic" names (not restricted to magians) conferred an "authority of a remote and revelation wisdom."^[31]

Once the magi were associated with magic in Greek imagination, Zoroaster was bound to metamorphose into a magician too. The 1st century Pliny the elder names Zoroaster as the inventor of magic (Natural History 30.2.3). "However, a principle of the division of labor appears to have spared Zoroaster most of the responsibility for introducing the dark arts to the Greek and Roman worlds." That "dubious honor" went to the "fabulous magus, Ostanes, to whom most of the pseudepigraphic magical literature was attributed."^[32] Although Pliny calls him the inventor of magic, the Roman does not provide a "magician's persona" for him.^[32] Moreover, the little "magical" teaching that is ascribed to Zoroaster is actually very late, with the very earliest example being from the 14th century.^[33]

One factor for the association with astrology was Zoroaster's name, or rather, what the Greeks made of it. Within the scheme of Greek thinking (which was always on the lookout for hidden significances and "real" meanings of words) his name was identified at first with star-worshiping (astrothytes "star sacrificer") and, with the Zo-, even as the living star. Later, an even more elaborate mythoetymology evolved: Zoroaster died by the living (zo-) flux (-ro-) of fire from the star (-astr-) which he himself had invoked, and even, that the stars killed him in revenge for having been restrained by him.

Similar ideas about Zoroaster also appear in early Christian literature, beginning with the Clementine Homilies 9.4-5, which identifies him with a parallel series of traditions about Nimrod having been the founder of astrology. In this account, Nimrod is killed by lightning and posthumously deified by the Persians as "Zoroaster, on account of the living (zosan) stream of the star (asteros) being poured upon him."^[34]

The second, and "more serious"^[35] factor for the association with astrology was the notion that Zoroaster was a Babylonian. The alternate Greek name for Zoroaster was Zaratas/Zaradas/Zaratos (cf. Agathias 2.23-5, Clement Stromata I.15), which—so Cumont and Bidez—derived from a Semitic form of his name. The Pythagorean tradition considered the mathematician to have studied with Zoroaster in Babylonia (Porphyry Life of Pythagoras 12, Alexander Polyhistor apud Clement's Stromata I.15, Diodorus of Eritrea, Aristoxenus apud Hippolitus VI32.2). Lydus (On the Months II.4) attributes the creation of the seven-day week to "the Babylonians in the circle of Zoroaster and Hystaspes," and who did so because there were seven planets. The Suda's chapter on astronomia notes that the Babylonians learned their astrology from Zoroaster. Lucian of Samosata (Mennipus 6) decides to journey to Babylon "to ask one of the magi, Zoroaster's disciples and successors," for their opinion.

While the division along the lines of Zoroaster/astrology and Ostanes/magic is an "oversimplification, the descriptions do at least indicate what the works are not." They were not expressions of Zoroastrian doctrine, they were not even expressions of what the Greeks and Romans "imagined the doctrines of Zoroastrianism to have been."^[31] The assembled fragments do not even show noticeable commonality of outlook and teaching among the several authors who wrote under each name.

This sketch of Zoroaster was made by a Manichean initiate

Almost all Zoroastrian pseudepigrapha is now lost, and of the attested texts—with only one exception—only fragments have survived. Pliny's 2nd or 3rd century attribution of "two million lines" to Zoroaster suggest that (even if exaggeration and duplicates are taken into consideration) a formidable pseudepigraphic corpus once existed at the Library of Alexandria. This corpus can safely be assumed to be pseudepigrapha because no one before Pliny refers to literature by "Zoroaster,"^[36] and on the authority of the 2nd century Galen of Pergamon and from a 6th century commentator on Aristotle it is known that the acquisition policies of well-endowed royal libraries created a market for fabricating manuscripts of famous and ancient authors.^[36]

The exception to the fragmentary evidence (i.e. reiteration of passages in works of other authors) is a complete Coptic tractate titled Zostrianos (after the first-person narrator) discovered in the Nag Hammadi library in 1945. A three-line cryptogram in the colophones following the 131-page treatise identify the work as "words of truth of Zostrianos. God of Truth [logos]. Words of Zoroaster."^[37] Invoking a "God of Truth" might seem Zoroastrian, but there is otherwise "nothing noticeably Zoroastrian" about the text and "in content, style, ethos and intention, its affinities are entirely with the congeners among the Gnostic tractates."^[38]

Among the named works attributed to "Zoroaster" is a treatise On Nature (Peri physeos), which appears to have originally constituted four volumes (i.e. papyrus rolls). The framework is a retelling of Plato's Myth of Er, with Zoroaster taking the place of the original hero. While Porphyry imagined Pythagoras listening to Zoroaster's discourse, On Nature has the sun in middle position, which was how it was understood in the 3rd century. In contrast, Plato's 4th century BCE version had the sun in second place above the moon. Ironically, Colotes accused Plato of plagiarizing Zoroaster,^[39]^[40] and Heraclides Ponticus wrote a text titled Zoroaster based on (what the author considered) "Zoroastrian" philosophy in order to express his disagreement with Plato on natural philosophy.^[41] With respect to substance and content in On Nature only two facts are known: that it was crammed with astrological speculations, and that Necessity (Ananké) was mentioned by name and that she was in the air.

Another work circulating under the name of "Zoroaster" was the Asteroskopita (or Apotelesmatika), and which ran to five volumes (i.e. papyrus rolls). The title and fragments suggest that it was an astrological handbook, "albeit a very varied one, for the making of predictions."^[31] A third text attributed to Zoroaster is On Virtue of Stones (Peri lithon timion), of which nothing is known other than its extent (one volume) and that pseudo-Zoroaster sang it (from which Cumont and Bidez conclude that it was in verse). Numerous other fragments (preserved in the works of other authors) are attributed to "Zoroaster," but the titles of whose books are not mentioned.

These pseudepigraphic texts aside, some authors did draw on a few genuinely Zoroastrian ideas. The Oracles of Hystaspes, by "Hystaspes", another prominent magian pseudo-author, is a set of prophecies distinguished from other Zoroastrian pseudepigrapha in that it draws on real Zoroastrian sources.^[31] Some allusions are more difficult to assess: in the same text that attributes the invention of magic to Zoroaster, Pliny states that Zoroaster laughed on the day of his birth, although in an earlier place (VII, I), Pliny had sworn in the name of Hercules that no child had ever done so before the 40th day from his birth. This notion of Zoroaster's laughter (like that of "two million verses") also appears in the 9th-11th century texts of genuine Zoroastrian tradition, and for a time it was assumed that the origin of those myths lay with indigenous sources. Pliny also records (VII, XV) that Zoroaster's head had pulsated so strongly that it repelled the hand when laid upon it, a presage of his future wisdom. The Iranians were however just as familiar with the Greek writers. The provenance of other descriptions are clear, so for instance, Plutarch's description of its dualistic theologies: "Others call the better of these a god and his rival a daemon, as, for example, Zoroaster the Magus, who lived, so they record, five thousand years before the siege of Troy. He used to call the one Horomazes and the other Areimanius" (Isis and Osiris 46-7).

In the post-classical era [link]

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (May 2012)

This drawing was made by a Persian in the early 20th century, depicting Zoroaster as a warrior

Zoroaster was known as a sage, magician, and miracle-worker in post-Classical Western culture. Although almost nothing was known of his ideas until the late 18th century, his name was already associated with lost ancient wisdom. However as early as 1643 Sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici wrote-

I beleeve, besides Zoroaster, there were divers that writ before Moses (R.M.Part 1:23)

whilst in The Garden of Cyrus of 1658 he speculated-

And if Zoroaster were either Cham, Chus, or Mizraim, they were early proficients there of...

These statements by Sir Thomas Browne are the earliest recorded references to Zoroaster in the English language.

Zoroaster appears as "Sarastro" in Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte, which has been noted for its Masonic elements, where he represents moral order (cf. Asha) in opposition to the "Queen of the Night."

He is also the subject of the 1749 opera Zoroastre, by Jean-Philippe Rameau.

Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire promoted research into Zoroastrianism in the belief that it was a form of rational Deism, preferable to Christianity. With the translation of the Avesta by Abraham Anquetil-Duperron, Western scholarship of Zoroastrianism began.

In his seminal work Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra) (1885) the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche uses the native Iranian name Zarathustra (i.e. the Persian Zarathustra, as opposed to the Greek-Latin name Zoroaster) which has a significant meaning^[s] as he had used the familiar Greek-Latin name in his earlier works.^[42] In particular that Nietzsche states explicitly, "I must pay tribute to Zarathustra, a Persian (German: einem Perser): Persians were the first who thought of history in its full entirety." It is believed that Nietzsche creates a characterization of Zarathustra as the mouthpiece for Nietzsche's own ideas against morality. Nietzsche did so because—so says Nietzsche in his autobiographical Ecce Homo (IV/Schicksal.3)—Zarathustra was a moralist ("was the exact reverse of an immoralist") and because "in his teachings alone is truthfulness upheld as the highest virtue." Zarathustra "created" morality in being the first to reveal it, "first to see in the struggle between good and evil the essential wheel in the working of things." Nietzsche sought to overcome the morality of Zarathustra by using the Zarathustrian virtue of truthfulness; thus Nietzsche found it piquant to have his Zarathustra character voice the arguments against morality.^[f]

Richard Strauss's Opus 30, inspired by Nietzsche's book, is also called Also sprach Zarathustra. Its opening theme, which corresponds to the book's prologue, was used to score the opening sequence of Stanley Kubrick's movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Zoroaster was mentioned by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. His wife and he were said to have claimed to have contacted Zoroaster through "automatic writing".^[43]^{[page needed]}

The protagonist and narrator of Gore Vidal's 1981 novel Creation is described to be the grandson of Zoroaster, with whom the narrator has several philosophical discussions and whose death he is a witness of.

Zoroaster is mentioned in Don Quixote [1605]: "...in spite of all the black magic possessed by the first inventor Zoroaster..." (p. 398...?)

In chapter CX of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick [1851], the sickly Queequeg is briefly compared to Zoroaster. "An awe that cannot be named would steal over you as you sat by the side of this waning savage, and saw as strange things in his face, as any beheld who were bystanders when Zoroaster died."

For the modern age, the first Zoroaster featured Android Application "101 Names of Dadar Hormazd" was created on January 2012. This application was created by Android Developer Sunil Jain and is totally free and gives a listing of the 101 Holy Names of Dadar Hormuzd (the Creator Ahura Mazda). Pictures of the Prophet are prominently featured. 101 Names of Dadar Hormazd Android Application

In other religious systems [link]

Zoroaster has continued to inspire writers, artists, and philosophers centuries after his death. This painting by Nicholas Roerich was completed in 1933.

In Islam [link]

Citing the authority of the 8th century al-Kalbi, the 9th/10th century historian al-Tabari (i.648)^[44] reports that Zaradusht bin Isfiman (an Arabic adaptation of "Zarathustra Spitama") was an inhabitant of Palestine, and a servant of one of the disciples of the prophet Jeremiah. According to this tale, Zaradusht defrauded his master, who cursed him, causing him to become leprous (cf. Elisha's servant Gehazi in Jewish Scripture). The apostate Zaradusht then eventually made his way to Balkh where he converted Bishtasb (i.e. Vishtaspa), who in turn compelled his subjects to adopt the religion of the Magians. Recalling other tradition, al-Tabari (i.681-683^[44]) recounts that Zaradusht accompanied a Jewish prophet to Bishtasb/Vishtaspa. Upon their arrival, Zaradusht translated the sage's Hebrew teachings for the king and so convinced him to convert (Tabari also notes that they had previously been Sabis) to the Magian religion.^[44]

The 10th/11th century heresiographer al-Shahrastani describes the Majusiya into three sects, the Kayumarthiya, the Zurwaniya and the Zaradushtiya, among which Al-Shahrastani asserts that only the last of the three were properly followers of Zoroaster. As regards the recognition of a prophet, the Zoroaster has said: "They ask you as to how should they recognize a prophet and believe him to be true in what he says; tell them what he knows the others do not, and he shall tell you even what lies hidden in your nature; he shall be able to tell you whatever you ask him and he shall perform such things which others cannot perform." (Namah Shat Vakhshur Zartust, .5-7. 50–54) Shortly before the advent of the prophet of Islam, [Muhammad], Persia was under the sovereignty of Sasan V. When the companions of the Prophet, on invading Persia, came in contact with the Zoroastrian people and learned these teachings, they at once came to the conclusion that Zoroaster was really a Divinely inspired prophet. Thus they accorded the same treatment to the Zoroastrian people which they did to other "People of the Book." Though the name of Zoroaster is not mentioned in the Qur'an, still he was regarded as one of those prophets whose names have not been mentioned in the Qur'an, for there is a verse in the Qur'an: "And We did send apostles before thee: there are some of them that We have mentioned to thee and there are others whom We have not mentioned to Thee." (40 : 78). Accordingly the Muslims treated the founder of Zoroastrianism as a true prophet and believed in his religion as they did in other inspired creeds, and thus according to the prophecy, protected the Zoroastrian religion. James Darmestar has truly remarked in the translation of Zend Avesta: "When Islam assimilated the Zoroastrians to the People of the Book, it evinced a rare historical sense and solved the problem of the origin of the Avesta." (Introduction to Vendiad. p. 69.)

Ahmadiyya view [link]

Ahmadi Muslims view Zoroaster as a Prophet of God and describe the expressions of Ahura Mazda, the God of goodness and Ahraman, the God of evil as merely referring to the coexistence of forces of good and evil enabling humans to exercise free will. Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the fourth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, in his book Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth views Zoroaster as Prophet of God and describes such the expressions to be a concept which is similar to the concepts in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.^[45]

In Manichaeism [link]

Manichaeism considered Zoroaster to be a figure (along with Jesus and the Buddha) in a line of prophets of which Mani (216–276) was the culmination.^[46] Zoroaster's ethical dualism is—to an extent—incorporated in Mani's doctrine, which viewed the world as being locked in an epic battle between opposing forces of good and evil.^[47] Manicheanism also incorporated other elements of Zoroastrian tradition, particularly the names of supernatural beings; however, many of these other Zoroastrian elements are either not part of Zoroaster's own teachings or are used quite differently from how they are used in Zoroastrianism.^[47]^[48]

In the Bahá'í Faith [link]

Zoroaster appears in the Bahá'í Faith as a "Manifestation of God", one of a line of prophets who have progressively revealed the Word of God to a gradually maturing humanity. Zoroaster thus shares an exalted station with Abraham, Moses, Gautama Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, Muhammad, the Báb, and the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh.^[49] Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, saw Bahá'u'lláh as the fulfillment of a post-Sassanid Zoroastrian prophecy that saw a return of Sassanid emperor Bahram:^[50] Shoghi Effendi also stated that Zoroaster lived roughly 1000 years before Jesus^[z] or 3500 years before the present time.

Notes [link]

a:^{^}	Originally proposed by Burnouf^[51]
b:^{^}	For refutation of these and other proposals, see Humbach, 1991.^[52]
c:^{^}	The Bundahishn computes "200 and some years" (GBd xxxvi.9) or "284 years" (IBd xxxiv.9). That '258 years' was the generally accepted figure is however noted by al-Biruni and al-Masudi, with the latter specifically stating (in 943/944 AD) that "the Magians count a period of two hundred and fifty-eight years between their prophet and Alexander."^[53]^[54]
d:^{^}	"258 years before Alexander," is only superficially precise, and thus debated.^[54] What in Zoroaster's life happened 258 before Alexander? His birth? His enlightenment? His conversion of Vistaspa? His death? Similarly, before Alexander's what? His accession to the Macedonian throne? His invasion? His death? The beginning of the "Era of Alexander" (which began 10 years after his death)? It has been suggested that this "traditional date" is an adoption of some date from foreign sources, from the Greeks^[55] or the Babylonians^[56] for example, which the priesthood then reinterpreted. A simpler explanation is that the priests subtracted 42 (the age at which Zoroaster is said to have converted Vistaspa) from the round figure of 300.
e:^{^}	The "extravagant,"^[57] "fantastic"^[57] and "extraordinary"^[58] 6000 BCE date (or thereabouts) appears in several classical sources: Pliny the Elder (1st c.), Plutarch (1st c.), a Scholion to the (Pseudo-)Platonic Alcibiades Major, Diogenes Laertius (3rd c.), Lactantius (3rd c.) and Syncellus (8th c.). The date is typically described as "5,000 years before the Trojan war" or "6,000 years before Plato" (or "before Xerxes"). "Their chief claim to any consideration"^[58] is that these sources cite the authority of (variously) Hermippus (5th c. BCE), Xanthus of Lydia (5th c. BCE), Eudoxus of Cnidus (5th/4th c. BCE), Aristotle (4th c. BCE) and Hermodorus (4th c. BCE, a student of Plato's). In general, the 6000 BCE date is assumed to be based on a Greek misunderstanding of the (Zoroastrian) "great-year" cycles, which foresees recurring 12,000-year periods of three 3,000-year segments each. Other classical sources—again on the authority of Xanthus of Lydia—consider "600 years before Xerxes" (i.e. before his invasion of Greece), i.e. 1080 BCE, which would then coincide with the linguistic dating of the Gathas. Similarly, the tenth c. Suda, which cites no one but provides a date of "500 years before Plato" for one of its two Zoroasters.
f:^{^}	Ecce Homo quotations are per the Ludovici translation.^[59] Paraphrases follow the original passage (Warum ich ein Schicksal bin 3), available in the public domain on page 45 of the Project Gutenberg EBook.
s:^{^}	By choosing the name of 'Zarathustra' as prophet of his philosophy, as he has expressed clearly, he followed the paradoxical aim of paying homage to the original Aryan prophet and reversing his teachings at the same time. The original Zoroastrian world view interprets being essentially on a moralistic basis and depicts the world as an arena for the struggle of the two fundamentals of being, Good and Evil, represented in two antagonistic divine figures.^[42]
z:^{^}	From a letter of the Universal House of Justice, Department of the Secretariat, May 13, 1979 to Mrs. Gayle Woolson published in Hornby, Helen, ed. (1983), Lights of Guidance: A Bahá'í Reference File, New Delhi: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, ISBN 81-85091-46-3, http://bahai-library.com/?file=hornby_lights_guidance . p. 501.

References [link]

^ "Zoroaster's language" and "Zoroaster's dialect" used in reference to Old Avestan Michael Witzel, THE HOME OF THE ARYANS, Harvard University, P.11. Date for Old Avestan Skjærvø, P.O. (2003), An Introduction to Young Avestan: Introduction: Old and Young Avestan, http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/Avesta/index.html
^ ^a ^b Schlerath 1977, pp. 133–135
^ For example zairi- (golden/yellow), zairitem (golden/green), zaranaênem (golden, of gold). Old Iranian/Avestan:Base Form Dictionary and Dictionary of most common AVESTA words.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Schmitt 2003
^ Paul Horn, Grundriß der neupersischen Etymologie, Strassburg 1893
^ ^a ^b Mayrhofer 1977, pp. 43–53.
^ Bailey 1953, pp. 40–42.
^ Markwart 1930, pp. 7ff.
^ Nigosian, Solomon (1993). The Zoroastrian faith: tradition and modern research. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-7735-1144-6. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Uspf6eDDvjAC&pg=PA16&dq=Zoroaster+400&hl=en&sa=X&ei=V8EFT5WVMMXW8QPmvbi2Dw&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Zoroaster%20400&f=false.
^ "Controversy over Zaraϑuštra's date has been an embarrassment of long standing to Zoroastrian studies. If anything approaching a consensus exists, it is that he lived no later than 1000 BC, give or take a century or so, though reputable scholars have proposed dates as widely apart as 1750 BCE and '258 years before Alexander.'" (Encyclopedia Iranica)
^ Shahbazi 1977, pp. 25–26.
^ Gershevitch 1964, pp. 36–37.
^ William Enfield, Johann Jakob Brucker, Knud Haakonssen, The History of Philosophy from the Earliest Periods: Drawn Up from Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophia, Published by Thoemmes, 2001, ISBN 1-85506-828-1, pages: 18, 22. Note: Cephalion and Justin suggest east of greater Iran whereas Pliny and Origen suggest west of Iran as his birthplace.
^ cf. Boyce 1975, pp. 2–26.
^ cf. Gronke 1993, pp. 59–60.
^ Solomon Alexander Nigosian, The Zoroastrian Faith: Tradition and Modern Research, Published by McGill-Queen's University Press – MQUP, 1993, ISBN 0-7735-1144-X, p. 17.
^ Frye 1992, p. 8.
^ Khlopin 1992, pp. 107–110.
^ Sarianidi 1987, p. 54.
^ Boyce 1975, p. 1.
^ Malandra 2005
^ Boyce 1989, p. 189.
^ Appleton 2005, p. 179.
^ Jackson 1899, pp. 130–131.
^ Blackburn, Simon (1994), "Philosophy", The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 405
^ August Gladisch, (1859), "Herakleitos Und Zoroaster: Eine Historische Untersuchung", ISBN 978-1-160-10327-5, Kessinger Pub Co (Februar 2010), p. IV
^ Stausberg 2002, p. I.58
^ ^a ^b Beck 1991, p. 525.
^ ^a ^b Beck 1991, p. 491.
^ Beck 2003, para. 4.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Beck 1991, p. 493.
^ ^a ^b Beck 2003, para. 7.
^ Beck 1991, p. 522.
^ Clementine Homilies, Book 9, Compassionatespirit.com
^ Beck 1991, p. 523.
^ ^a ^b Beck 1991, p. 526.
^ Sieber 1973, p. 234.
^ Beck 1991, p. 495.
^ Nock 1929, p. 111.
^ Livingston 2002, pp. 144–145.
^ Livingston 2002, p. 147.
^ ^a ^b Ashouri 2003.
^ Watkins 2006, p. ??.
^ ^a ^b ^c Qtd. in Büchner 1936, p. 105.
^ Revelation, Rationality Khowledge & Truth
^ Widengren 1961, p. 76.
^ ^a ^b Widengren 1961, pp. 43–45.
^ Zaehner 1972, p. 21.
^ Taherzadeh 1976, p. 3.
^ Buck 1998.
^ Burnouf 1833, p. 13.
^ Humbach 1991, p. I.18.
^ Jackson 1899, p. 162.
^ ^a ^b Shahbazi 1977, p. 26.
^ Kingsley 1990, pp. 245–265.
^ Shahbazi 1977, pp. 32–33.
^ ^a ^b Jackson 1896, p. 2.
^ ^a ^b Jackson 1896, p. 3.
^ Nietzsche/Ludovici 1911, p. 133

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Beck, Roger (1991), "Thus Spake Not Zarathushtra: Zoroastrian Pseudepigrapha of the Greco-Roman World", in Boyce, Mary; Grenet, Frantz, A History of Zoroastrianism, 3, Leiden: Brill Publishers, pp. 491–565 .
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Boyce, Mary (1975), History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. I, Leiden: Brill Publishers
Buck, Christopher (1998), "Bahá'u'lláh as Zoroastrian saviour", Baha'i Studies Review 8, http://christopherbuck.com/Buck_PDFs/Buck_Zoroastrian_1998.pdf
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Effendi, Shoghi (1991), "Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster", The Compilation of Compilations, Volume I, Baha'i Publications Australia, http://bahai-library.com/compilations/buddha.krishna.html
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Humbach, Helmut (1991), The Gathas of Zarathushtra and the other Old Avestan texts, Heidelberg: Winter
Jackson, A. V. Williams (1896), "On the Date of Zoroaster", Journal of the American Oriental Society (Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 17) 17: 1–22, DOI:10.2307/592499, JSTOR 592499
Jackson, A. V. Williams (1899), Zoroaster, the prophet of ancient Iran, New York: Columbia University Press
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Stausberg, Michael (2002), Die Religion Zarathushtras, Vol. I & II, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer
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Taherzadeh, Adib (1976), The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Volume 1: Baghdad 1853–63, Oxford: George Ronald, ISBN 0-85398-270-8, http://www.peyman.info/cl/Baha'i/Others/ROB/V1/Cover.html
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Widenren, Geo (1961), Mani and Manichaeism, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Zaehner, Robert Charles (1972), Zurvan: A Zoroastrian Dilemma, New York: Biblo and Tannen, ISBN 978-0-8196-0280-0, http://books.google.com/?id=8Er_8Gl0tcwC&printsec=frontcover
Zaehner, Robert Charles (1958), A Comparison of Religions, London: Faber and Faber . Cf. especially Chapter IV: Prophets Outside Israel
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External links [link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Zoroaster

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Zoroaster

Timeline of the Ancient Near East

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Authority control: LCCN: n79062738 | WorldCat

Persondata
Name	Zoroaster
Alternative names
Short description	Iranian poet
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

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Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi performing in Denver, Colorado in 2011
Background information
Birth name	Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi
Born	(1984-01-30) January 30, 1984 (age 28) Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Genres	Alternative hip hop, neo-psychedelia, pop rock
Occupations	Rapper, singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, drums
Years active	2003–present
Labels	GOOD, Universal Republic,^[1] Wicked Awesome
Associated acts	WZRD, Dot da Genius, Kanye West, Chip tha Ripper, Ratatat
Website	www.KidCudi.com

Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi^[2] (born January 30, 1984),^[3] better known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( /ˈkɪd ˈkʌdi/ KID KUD-ee), sometimes stylized KiD CuDi, is an American alternative hip hop recording artist, singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor. He first gained major attention after the release of his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. In 2009, his single "Day 'n' Nite" reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. "Day 'n' Nite" was included on Cudi's debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day, which was later certified Gold. In 2010 he released his second studio album Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager, preceded by the release of two singles "Erase Me" and "Mr. Rager". In October 2010, Cudi announced that he would be forming a rock band with Dot da Genius called 'Wizard', later renamed WZRD. Their self-titled debut album was released on February 28, 2012.^[4] Kid Cudi has sold over 4.6 million digital singles and has worked with Kanye West, Common, David Guetta and other artists signed to the GOOD Music label.^[5]

In 2009 Cudi, along with record producers Patrick "Plain Pat" Reynolds and Emile Haynie launched their record label, Dream On, in partnership with Kanye West's GOOD Music and Universal Motown. On February 26, 2011 Cudi took to his Twitter account to announce that the label had been dissolved due to differences. In April 2011, while performing at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom Kid Cudi announced he was launching his own label: "Wicked Awesome Records".

1 Biography
2 Acting career
3 Personal life
4 Discography
5 Awards and nominations
6 Filmography
7 References
8 External links

Biography [link]

1984-2008: Early life and career beginnings [link]

Kid Cudi was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Shaker Heights and Solon. He is the youngest of four children, with two brothers, Domingo and Dean, and a sister, Maisha.^[6] His father, a house painter, substitute teacher and World War II Air Force veteran was Mexican-Native American, while his mother, a middle-school choir teacher at Roxboro Middle School, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, is African-American.^[7]^[8] When he was eleven years old, Mescudi's father died of cancer; his passing would have a significant effect on Mescudi's personality and subsequently his music.^[8] Mescudi attended Shaker Heights High School for two years, then transferred to Solon High School, and later earned his GED. Eventually, Mescudi studied film at the University of Toledo then dropped out after a year.^[6]

It was towards the end of high school that Mescudi first began rapping, inspired by alternative hip hop groups such as The Pharcyde and A Tribe Called Quest.^[8] He moved to Brooklyn in New York City to pursue a music career.^[2] In July 2008, Kid Cudi released his first mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi, in collaboration with New York street-wear brand 10.Deep as a free download.^[9] The mixtape quickly caught the attention of Kanye West, which in turn spawned his signing to GOOD Music later that year.

Kid Cudi was featured on Kanye West's 2008 album, 808s & Heartbreak, singing with West on the track "Welcome to Heartbreak", and helping with songwriting on "Heartless" and "Paranoid". "Welcome to Heartbreak" peaked at #87 on the Pop 100,^[10] and music videos for both songs have been released. Cudi was then tipped as an artist to watch for in media such as Rolling Stone, Vibe, The Source, XXL and BBC News's Sound of 2009 poll of up-and-coming acts.^[11] MTV News also reported on Cudi on a series of reports MCs To Watch In 2009.^[12]

Kid Cudi performing at Central Park Summerstage in New York City, in 2008.

His first television appearance was at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, alongside Travis Barker and DJ AM. On February 17, 2009, he appeared on Snoop Dogg's MTV talk show Dogg After Dark performing "Day 'n' Nite" at the end of the show. Two days later on February 19, 2009, Cudi appeared on BET's 106 & Park with Kanye West to debut the video of "Day 'n' Nite". On March 16, 2009 Kid Cudi performed on mtvU's Spring Break special, and the next day he performed three songs on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly. He has also appeared as a musical guest on The Late Show with David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Kid Cudi also made a cameo appearance next to Solange in the video for the song "T.O.N.Y." in February 2009, and later in The Black Eyed Peas' video for "I Gotta Feeling", with David Guetta. He has also been on two magazine covers, Complex (August/September 2009) and URB (August 2009). Bape awarded Cudi his own t-shirt in September 2009, in reward for his music and past employment there when living in New York City.

[edit] 2009–2010: Man on the Moon series

Kid Cudi performing on August 6, 2009.

Cudi's debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day was released on Universal Motown Records on September 15, 2009^[13] and sold 104,419 copies in the first week and charted at #4.^[14] The album's lead single "Day 'n' Nite", Kid Cudi's greatest commercial success thus far, charted well both in the U.S. and in Europe. The second single was "Make Her Say" (originally titled "I Poke Her Face"), which features a sample from Lady Gaga's hit single "Poker Face" and performances by Kanye West and Common.^[15]^[16]

On February 25, 2009, Cudi self-leaked a "teaser trailer" ^[17] for the upcoming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen film using his song "Sky Might Fall" in the background, later he posted that he made the trailer himself and was in talks to possibly make it official.^[18]

With Emile Haynie, Cudi produced an exclusive single called "Switchin Lanes" for the video game Midnight Club: Los Angeles, part of its "South Central Premium Upgrade" downloadable content (DLC) which came out March 19, 2009 for the PlayStation 3 and March 27, 2009 for the Xbox 360.^[19]

He revealed information about his future plans via his blog, saying that a possible collaboration with Chip tha Ripper could be followed with a collaboration project with electrorock duo Ratatat.^[20] During the summer of 2009, Cudi joined rapper Asher Roth for the Great Hangover concert tour.^[21] Kid Cudi was featured on the highly anticipated Jay-Z album The Blueprint 3 (2009), on the song "Already Home".^[22] In a late 2009 interview, Cudi announced that the follow-up to his debut album will be a collaboration album called Cudder and the Revolution of Evolution. He stated he has already recorded songs with Snoop Dogg, Travis Barker, Clipse, Cage and Pharrell and would also like to work with Drake, Green Day, Kings of Leon, Robin Thicke, The Killers and The Postal Service on the album. Also it was rumored that Man on the Moon: The End of Day will be followed up by a sequel titled Man on the Moon: The Ghost in the Machine and that the Man on the Moon will be a trilogy, but was not been confirmed.^[23] Kid Cudi was nominated for three 2010 Grammy Awards for his singles, "Day 'n' Nite" and "Make Her Say".^[24] Kid Cudi was featured on Snoop Dogg's re-release of Malice n Wonderland, More Malice (2010), on the song "That Tree",^[25] as well as teaming up with Johnny Polygon to remix Polygon's "The Riot Song" which appears on his mixtape, Rebel Without Applause(2010)^[26] On April 20, 2010, Kid Cudi announced that the name of his second album has been changed from Cudder and the Revolution of Evolution to Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager.^[27]^[28] On June 11, 2010, Kid Cudi was arrested in the Chelsea neighborhood of the Manhattan borough New York City and charged with felony criminal mischief and possession of a controlled substance.^[29] Despite his arrest, he was released and made it to Manchester, Tennessee in time to play at Bonnaroo.

The lead single for Cudi's second studio album titled "Erase Me" featuring Kanye West and produced by Jim Jonsin, debuted on a Cleveland radio station June 30, 2010 and was officially released to Rhythm/Crossover radio on August 17, 2010.^[30]^[31]^[32]^[33] The album debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 169,000 copies.^[34] In its second week it crossed the 200,000 sales mark.^[35] 2010 also featured Kid Cudi on a number of songs for Kanye West's weekly free music giveaway G.O.O.D. Fridays appearing on "Good Friday", "Christian Dior Denim Flow" and "The Joy", which later became a bonus track on Jay-Z and Kanye West collaborative effort Watch the Throne (2011).

2011-present: New direction and WZRD [link]

Main article: WZRD (band)

In October 2010, Cudi announced that he would be forming a rock band with Dot da Genius tentatively called 'Wizard'.^[36] However, in early 2011, he announced that he would be releasing a mixtape prior to the rock album.^[37] On February 26, 2011 Cudi took to his Twitter account to announce that Dream On, the record label he launched back in 2009 with partners Patrick “Plain Pat” Reynolds and producer Emile Haynie, has been dissolved.^[38] However in an interview with Complex Magazine he explained they were still on good terms: "I wanted to try something new, and I wanted to take control of things myself. Those are still my guys, Pat and Emile, and I'm still going to work with them in the future. When we start working on Man on the Moon III I’ll be calling them up to see if they want to be a part of it. I know Emile is definitely down. We had an issue, but we’re men and we were able to figure it out and move forward. There’s no hard feelings."^[39]

In March 2011, Cudi announced that a music video for "Marijuana" will be released in the spring,^[40] followed by a music video for "Mr. Rager" in the summer of 2011.^[40] As well as a short film inspired by his song "Maniac" with Cage, directed by Shia LaBeouf^[41] will be released in October 2011.^{[dated info]}^[40]

In April 2011, while performing at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom Kid Cudi announced name of the record label he is launching. The new label, which he will be releasing his third studio album on is called “Wicked Awesome Records”. He also renamed his band on the same occasion to '2 Be Continuum' renaming it from the original 'Wizard'. Kid Cudi explained his reasoning saying: "I needed something more original, something different, but it’s still wizardry at its finest."^[42] On August 12, 2011, Kid Cudi released the music video for "No One Believes Me", directed by Fright Night director Craig Gillespie. Although the song was recorded as a collaborative song with Dot da Genius, the single was released under Kid Cudi's name.^[43] On August 21, Cudi announced that he is no longer releasing the mixtape A Man Named Scott so that he can focus on his rock project and his third solo album Man on the Moon III.^[44] Kid Cudi released a video for Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager's title track "Mr. Rager" on September 8, 2011. The video has received all-positive reviews from critics and fans alike.^[45]

Despite saying he will not do many more features for other artists in Complex magazine's October/November 2011 cover story,^[46] he appeared on Bryan Greenberg's second studio album We Don't Have Forever (2011), Travis Barker's Give the Drummer Some (2011), The Knux's Eraser (2011), and Wale's Ambition (2011) respectively.

On October 30, Cudi released the Maniac, a short horror film co-starring Cage and directed by Shia LaBeouf, through his blog.^[47]

On November 13, 2011, a previously unreleased mixtape of material Cudi had recorded from 2002-2003 titled Rap Hard was released. On November 18, 2011 renamed his band, for the second time to 'WZRD'.^[48] He also announced that the upcoming rock project will be released on his 28th birthday, January 30, 2012.

In late 2011, Cudi was mentioned in a viral video by Ben Breedlove about his near death experiences.^[49] After Breedlove's death on December 26, 2011, Cudi commented on his thoughts about inspiring the young kid. "I am so sad about Ben Breedlove," Kid Cudi wrote on his Tumblr blog. "I watched the video he left for the world to see, and him seeing me in detail, in his vision really warmed my heart. I broke down, I am to tears because I hate how life is so unfair. This has really touched my heart in a way I cant describe, this is why I do what I do. Why I write my life, and why I love you all so much. Life is really f---- up sometimes, but I know Ben is at Peace, and I hope he gets a chance to sit and talk with my Dad. We love you Ben. Forever. Thank you for loving me. To Ben’s family, you raised a real hero, he’s definitely mine. You have my love."

In January 2012 Cudi appeared on two songs off Chip tha Ripper's mixtape Tell Ya Friends, "Ride 4 You" which also featured Far East Movement and "GloryUs" which credited the duo as they are collectively known, The Almighty GloryUs, which led to speculation that a project from the two was underway. On January 31, Cudi announced through his Twitter feed that he had completed Man on the Moon III and that his next album was the collaborative effort with Chip tha Ripper.^[50] In 2012 Cudi was featured on the soundtrack to the film The Hunger Games, crafting an original song for the film titled "The Ruler and the Killer". Cudi wrote on Twitter, "I could not have done it with out my producing partners on the project for the film, The legendary and Godly T Bone Burnett and Greg Wells!", referring to "The Ruler and the Killer"^[51]

While working on WZRD, Cudi claims he had writer's block for almost 5 months because of his new sobriety. Something that never has happened to him for such an extended period of time. According to Kid Cudi, bands that inspired the album include Electric Light Orchestra, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana and Pink Floyd. The album includes a song titled "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", a cover of the same titled song by Nirvana who in turn was inspired by blues guitar legend Lead Belly's rendition of the traditional folk song.^[52]

Studio albums

Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009)
Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (2010)
Man on the Moon III (2012)^[56]

Collaborative albums

WZRD (2012) (with Dot da Genius as WZRD)^[37]
Cruel Summer (2012) (with GOOD Music)^[57]
The Almighty GloryUS (TBA) (with Chip tha Ripper)

Mixtapes

A Kid Named Cudi (2008)

Awards and nominations [link]

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Kid Cudi

Filmography [link]

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
2011	MANIAC	Serial killer	Short film, directed by Shia LaBeouf
2012	Cruel Summer		Short film, directed by Kanye West
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	One Tree Hill	Himself	Episode: "Lists, Plans"
2010–2011	How to Make It in America	Domingo Brown	Major supporting role

References [link]

^ Kid Cudi Announces New Album And Record Label Name | Get The Latest Hip Hop News, Rap News & Hip Hop Album Sales. HipHop DX. Retrieved on 2011-04-26.
^ ^a ^b Birchmeier, Jason (2009). "Kid Cudi > Biography". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wcfqxzu5ldte~T1. Retrieved 2009-05-22.
^ Kid Cudi (February 2, 2009). "we baackkkkkkkk". KidCudi.com. http://www.kidcudi.com/news/we-baackkkkkkkk-848.html. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
^ http://twitter.com/wizardcud/status/137539161665183744
^ Wolgamott, Kent (July 7, 2011). "What You Need to Know About Kid Cudi". JournalStar.com. http://journalstar.com/entertainment/music/article_f5e55616-abe0-5b71-b2d6-61a138c22929.html. Retrieved July 7, 2011.
^ ^a ^b Soeder, John (June 27, 2009). "Before he became the most buzzed-about rookie in the music business, Kid Cudi was a kid from Cleveland with big dreams". The Plain Dealer. Archived from the original on May 13, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5yeiitIX3.
^ Smith, Angelique (2009-03-10). "Kid Cudi's Not-So-Dark Alter Ego Revealed!". MTV Newsroom (MTV News). http://newsroom.mtv.com/2009/03/10/kid-cudis-not-so-dark-alter-ego-revealed/. Retrieved 2009-09-13.
^ ^a ^b ^c Hoard, Christian (17 September 2009). "Kid Cudi: Hip-Hop's Sensitive Soul". Rolling Stone. p. 40. http://datnewcudi.com/2009/09/14/rolling-stone-kid-cudi-hip-hops-sensitive-soul/
^ 10.Deep Presents: Kid Cudi – "A Kid Named Cudi Mixtape"
^ "Billboard Pop 100 Chart Positions". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=396&cfgn=Singles&cfn=Pop+100&ci=3103250&cdi=10060886&cid=12%2F13%2F2008. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
^ "BBC Sound of 2008: The longlist". BBC News. 2008-12-05. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7758169.stm. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
^ Roberts, Steven (2009-01-08). "Kid Cudi". MCs To Watch In 2009 (MTV News). http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1602354/20090108/kid_cudi.jhtml. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
^ Kid Cudi: Man On The Moon Released
^ Jay-Z Tops Album Sales Two Weeks In A Row
^ Reid, Shaheem (2009-05-27). "Kanye West 'Inspired' By Lady Gaga's 'Face' For Kid Cudi Single". Mixtape Daily (MTV News). http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1612265/20090527/west_kanye.jhtml. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
^ Roberts, Steven (2009-07-20). "Kanye West, Common Lend Kid Cudi Bicoastal Support In Video". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1616551/20090720/kid_cudi.jhtml. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
^ Kid Cudi self-made Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Teaser Trailer
^ Roberts, Steven (2009-03-04). "Kid Cudi Has 'Eureka' Moment With 'Transformers' Trailer". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1606279/story.jhtml. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
^ "Midnight Club: Los Angeles South Central DLC Kid Cudi Exclusive". Rockstar Games. http://www.rockstargames.com/midnightclubLA/southcentral/.
^ Kid Cudi (2009-05-02). "Features". http://www.kidcudi.com/news/?p=688. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
^ Roberts, Steven (2009-07-17). "Kid Cudi, Asher Roth Want Hangover Tour To Be A 'Movement'" (mdy). MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1616466/20090717/kid_cudi.jhtml. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
^ "Blueprint 3 Track-List" (mdy). Pitchfork Media. http://pitchfork.com/news/36262-jay-zs-iblueprint-3i-the-tracklist/. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
^ Kid Cudi Interview with Honey Magazine – Dat New 'Cudi'. Datnewcudi.com (2009-08-25). Retrieved on 2011-04-26.
^ Kid Cudi receives Three Grammy Nominations
^ Kid Cudi Featured on Snoop Dogg’s “More Malice”
^ Kid Cudi Featured on Johnny Polygon's "Riot Song"
^ Kid Cudi (April 20, 2010). "Lend Me Your Eyesssss". KidCudi.com. http://www.kidcudi.com/news/lend-me-your-eyesssss-1561.html. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
^ "Kid Cudi Makes Changes To His Album... Again!". MTV UK. April 21, 2010. http://www.mtv.co.uk/artists/kid-cudi/news/209849-kid-cudi-makes-changes-to-his-albumagain. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
^ Rodriguez, Jayson (June 11, 2010). "Kid Cudi Arrested". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1641413/20100611/kid_cudi.jhtml. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
^ Rodriguez, Jayson (2010-07-01). "Kid Cudi Debuts 'Erase Me,' With Kanye West, On Radio - Music, Celebrity, Artist News". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1642855/20100701/kid_cudi.jhtml. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
^ Koroma, Salima (2010-07-22). "DX News Bits: Kid Cudi, Lupe Fiasco | Get The Latest Hip Hop News, Rap News & Hip Hop Album Sales | HipHop DX". Beta.hiphopdx.com. http://beta.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.11771/title.dx-news-bits-kid-cudi-lupe-fiasco. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
^ "Radio Industry News, Music Industry Updates, Arbitron Ratings, Music News and more!". FMQB. http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=16691. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
^ Kid Cudi Plays Bonnaroo Despite New York Arrest. Billboard.com (2009-09-14). Retrieved on 2011-04-26.
^ Jacobs, Allen (2010-11-17). "Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 11/14/2010". HipHopDX. Cheri Media Group.
^ Jacobs, Allen (2010-11-24). "Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 11/21/2010 | Get The Latest Hip Hop News, Rap News & Hip Hop Album Sales". HipHop DX. http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.13114/title.hip-hop-album-sales-the-week-ending-11-21-2010. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
^ Kid Cudi Forms Rock Band Called Wizard. Ballerstatus (2010-10-29). Retrieved on 2011-04-26.
^ ^a ^b Kid Cudi plans rock album, announces A Man Named Scott mixtape « Consequence of Sound. Consequenceofsound.net (2011-01-28). Retrieved on 2011-04-26.
^ "Kid Cudi Splits With Manager, Launching New Label". 2011-02-27. http://rapfix.mtv.com/2011/02/27/kid-cudi-splits-with-manager-launching-new-label/. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
^ "Kid Cudi: Puzzling (2011 Cover Story)". Complex.com. 2011-09-19. http://www.complex.com/music/2011/09/kid-cudi-puzzling-2011-cover-story/page/2. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
^ ^a ^b ^c http://twitter.com/#!/wizardcud/status/44090919305224192
^ Roberts, Steven. (2010-11-05) Kid Cudi/ Shia LaBeouf Picture Leaks Online – Music, Celebrity, Artist News. MTV. Retrieved on 2011-04-26.
^ Kid Cudi Announces New Label & Band Name
^ No One Believes Me Amazon
^ "Cud Life: Mixtape". Cudlife.tumblr.com. 2010-05-25. http://cudlife.tumblr.com/post/9221598438/mixtape. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
^ TheCommissionChannel (2011-09-08). "Kid Cudi - Mr Rager ( Music Video) RARE EDITION". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psV5VtIEpOo. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
^ "Kid Cudi: Puzzling (2011 Cover Story)". Complex.com. 2011-09-19. http://www.complex.com/music/2011/09/kid-cudi-puzzling-2011-cover-story/page/3. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
^ "MANIAC Directed by Shia LaBeouf Starring Scott Mescudi and Chris Palko". 2011-10-30. https://twitter.com/#!/wizardcud/status/131129794153824256/.
^ "Twitter / Scott Mescudi: News update! Me and @DotDa". Twitter.com. http://twitter.com/wizardcud/status/137538406992449536. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
^ Sacks, Ethan (2011-12-29). "Kid Cudi touched by teen fan's video farewell". Daily News (New York). http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/kid-cudi-responds-ben-breedlove-video-farewell-shortly-teen-fan-died-heart-condition-article-1.998401.
^ "3rd album finished. Chip next, then my 4th". Twitter. 2012-01-31. http://twitter.com/#!/wizardcud/status/164511705265750017. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
^ "Kid Cudi Discusses "The Ruler and Killer" from The Hunger Games Soundtrack". DatNewCudi. 2012-03-01. http://datnewcudi.com/2012/03/01/kid-cudi-discusses-the-ruler-and-killer-from-the-hunger-games-soundtrack/. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
^ DP (February 14, 2012). "Kid Cudi & Dot Da Genius Host "WZRD" Listening Session in LA". DatNewCudi. http://datnewcudi.com/2012/02/14/kid-cudi-dot-da-genius-host-wzrd-listening-session-in-la/. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
^ HBO. "Kid Cudi in How to Make it in America". http://www.hbo.com/how-to-make-it-in-america/cast-and-crew/domingo-brown/bio/scott-kid-cudi-mescudi.html. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
^ Photo: Ladies and gentleman, I think its time you all meet the #1 love in my life. The lil lady thats kept... Twitter. Twitter.com (2012-01-12). Retrieved on 2012-01-26.
^ She'll be 2 March 26th....were gonna hit up a bar and celebrate :) Twitter. Twitter.com (2012-01-12). Retrieved on 2012-01-26.
^ Kid Cudi announces a Fall 2012 release of his 3rd studio album « Cud Life. Retrieved on 2011-07-13.
^ "Tweet 126770388121292800". Twitter. October 19, 2011. http://twitter.com/#!/kanyewest/status/126770388121292800.

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v t e Kid Cudi

Discography Awards and nominations

Studio albums	Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009) Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (2010) Man on the Moon III (2012)

Collaborative albums	WZRD (as WZRD) Cruel Summer (with GOOD Music) The Almighty GloryUS (with Chip tha Ripper)

Mixtapes	A Kid Named Cudi

Singles	"Day 'n' Nite" "Make Her Say" "Pursuit of Happiness" "Erase Me" "Mr. Rager" "No One Believes Me"

Featured singles	"Welcome to the World" "She Came Along" "Memories" "That Tree" "All of the Lights" "Run"

Other songs	"Welcome to Heartbreak" "Did It Again" "Symphonies" "Gorgeous" "Focused"

Related articles	WZRD GOOD Music Kanye West Cruel Summer (film)

v t e GOOD Music

Founder	Kanye West

Current artists	John Legend Big Sean Kid Cudi Mr Hudson Cyhi the Prynce Mos Def Pusha T D'banj Q-Tip Teyana Taylor

Former artists	GLC Really Doe Sa-Ra Tony Williams Consequence Common

Releases	Cruel Summer

Singles	"Mercy" "Cold"

Related articles	GOOD Fridays Cruel Summer (film)

Persondata
Name	Kid Cudi
Alternative names	Mescudi, Scott Ramon Seguro
Short description	An American alternative hip hop recording artist, singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor
Date of birth	January 30, 1984
Place of birth	Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Date of death
Place of death

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[edit] 2009–2010: Man on the Moon series

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