Avesta composed; CCWV.LIFE

The Avesta, the scripture of the faith, takes shape over centuries: the Old Avestan Gathas and Yasna Haptanghaiti attributed to Zarathustra's circle, and the Younger Avestan hymns, laws, and liturgies composed after him and transmitted orally by priests until they were written down in the Sasanian age.

Tagged: Iranian Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism

The Event

Date: c. 1000-600 BCE (approximate)
Also called: The Avestan corpus
Era: Prophetic Age; Standard periodization of Zoroastrian history
Location: Iranian world; today Iran and Central Asia
Traditions: Zoroastrianism
Streams: Iranian Zoroastrian
Key texts: The Avesta, The Gathas, Yasna Haptanghaiti

How the Tradition Tells It

Only a fraction of the Sasanian Avesta survives; the lost nasks are known from the Denkard's summaries, and what counts as scripture differs between the ritual tradition and modern critical editions.

Connections

History Event Zarathustra c. 1500-1000 BCE carries forward

Primary Sources

The Avesta.

Secondary Sources

Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. London: Routledge, 1979.
Choksy, Jamsheed K. Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Encyclopaedia Iranica, entries on the Avesta, the Sasanians, and the Parsi calendar disputes.
Hinnells, John R. The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Rose, Jenny. Zoroastrianism: An Introduction. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011.

Provenance: HIST-1002; confidence 0.85; accessed 2026-10-28.