Communications in Humanities Research
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Communications in Humanities Research
Vol. 4, 17 May 2023
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The Relationship Between Zoroastrianism and Kingship in the Iranian Empire
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Abstract
This essay discusses the relationship between Zoroastrianism and kingship through the primary source of Shahnameh, the epic of the Persian Kings, written by Abolqasem Ferdowsi. Shahnameh is a crystal of Iranian culture, it is a complete religious doctrine following the guidance of Zoroastrianism, it teaches the practice of threefold paths to Asha with the idea of spreading goodness into the society. They include personal religion, social life, and individual morality. Furthermore, the study connects the religious concept of the threefold paths to Asha and khvarenah, a mysterious concept in Iran myth that symbolize the bless from heaven and God, to the actual examples of the engagement of kingship.[ Zhibin, H, Zhibin, X. (2019) The Trajectory of Zoroastrianism in Iran. Journal of World Religion and Culture, 6: 58-64.] The paper introduces and corresponds the example of Jamshid, a Shah in the mysterious age of the Iranian empire, to the practice of Zoroastrianism. Finally, the paper concludes that in the Sassanid dynasty of Iran empire, the king in the world was decided by the heaven.[ Boyce, M. (2000) Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Routledge, London.] The heaven blesses and protects those who were destined to be the king in all aspects. This is the myth of the divine right of kingship propagated by the rulers to maintain their power and status. However, although the kingship is shrouded in mystery, humans on earth eventually decide the kindship.[ Kantorowicz, E. (2016) The King’s Two Bodies. Princeton University Press, Princeton.]
Keywords
Sassanid empire, Zoroastrianism, Iran, Shahnameh
References
1. Zhibin, H, Zhibin, X. (2019) The Trajectory of Zoroastrianism in Iran. Journal of World Religion and Culture, 6: 58-64.
2. Boyce, M. (2000) Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Routledge, London.
3. Kantorowicz, E. (2016) The King’s Two Bodies. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
4. Jiahong, W. (2012) The Search for Zoroastrian in Iran. Portrait, 2: 83-87.
5. Ferdowsi, A. (2006) Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. Translated by Davis, D. Viking Press, New York City.
6. S. Behnaz Hosseini. "Chapter 3 Yārsāni Religious Practice and Identity", Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020.
7. Foundation, Encyclopaedia Iranica. “Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica.” RSS. Accessed August 31, 2022. https://iranicaonline.org/articles/humata-huxta-huvarsta.
Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies (ICIHCS 2022), Part 2
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-915371-31-7
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-915371-32-4
- Published Date
- 17 May 2023
- Series
- Communications in Humanities Research
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-7064
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-7072
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-7064/4/20220270
- Copyright
- 17 May 2023
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited