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Updated: May 31, 2025
In a similar manner Exodus provides a revelation which Moses received. In the Avesta Ormuzd said: ahmi yad ahmi. Word for word the declarations are identical. Each means I am that I am. The conformity of the pronouncements may be fortuitous. Their relative priority uncertain chronology obscures.
It was a universal opinion, not only in Judea, but in the whole world, that demons seized hold of the bodies of certain persons and made them act contrary to their will. A Persian div, often named in the Avesta, Aeschma-daëva, the "div of concupiscence," adopted by the Jews under the name of Asmodeus, became the cause of all the hysterical afflictions of women.
It is in the Bundahish, a work which, while much later, is based on earlier traditions, memories it may be, of antediluvian legends brought from the summits of upper Asia by Djemschid, the fabulous Abraham of the Persians of whom Zarathrustra was the Moses. But in default of the Eternal, the Avesta contains pictures of enduring charm.
"But after the death of Shahryar, in 825-26, Maziyar Ibn Qaren contested the kingdom with his son Shapur and in alliance with the Moslems invaded Mount Sherwin, captured the sons of Shahryar and put them to death. "As regards the Avesta expression Ragha Zarathushtrish in the Yasna 9, 18, it refers to political conditions of a much anterior age not yet reached by our historical investigations."
Thus he succeeded in tracing the general outlines of the Zend lexicon and in fixing its grammatical forms, and founded the only correct method of interpreting the "Avesta." He also gave the first notions of a comparative mythology of the "Avesta" and the "Veda," by showing the identity of the "Vedic Yama" with the "Avesta Yima," and of Traitâna with Thraêtaona and Ferìdûn.
The parallel between this romance and subsequent poetry is curious. In Chaldea, before the fargards were, the story of Creation, of Eden, and of the fall had been told. In Egypt, before the Avesta was written, the resurrection and the life were known. Similar legends and prospects may or may not represent an autonomous development of Iranian thought.
A world of myth and legend is crowded into liturgical fragments. The old Bactrian tongue in which the Avesta was composed became practically a dead language. There entered into the Avesta old Chaldaean traditions.
Certain additions may since have been made to it; but we are assured that "their number is small," and that we "have no reason to doubt" that the text of the Avesta, in the days of Arda-Viraf, was on the whole exactly the same as at present. The religious system of the new Persian monarchy is thus completely known to us, and will be described minutely in a later chapter.
"That is true," said the voice of Abgarus; "every faithful disciple of Zoroaster knows the prophecy of the Avesta, and carries the word in his heart. 'In that day Sosiosh the Victorious shall arise out of the number of the prophets in the east country. Around him shall shine a mighty brightness, and he shall make life everlasting, incorruptible, and immortal, and the dead shall rise again."
This is the Koran and these, the Kings of the Chinese and these, the Avesta of the Magians of Persia and these, the Sutras well preserved of Buddha and these, the Vedas of the patient Hindoos, my countrymen." He carefully designated each book and roll by placing his finger on it. "I thank Your Majesty for the gracious words of introduction you were pleased to give me.
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