Zarathustra; CCWV.LIFE

Zarathustra (Zoroaster), priest and prophet, receives the revelation of Ahura Mazda and composes the Gathas, the hymns at the core of the Avesta. His teaching sets the enduring frame of the faith: one wise lord, the choice between truth (asha) and the lie, fire as the symbol of truth, and the renovation of the world at the end of time.

Tagged: Iranian Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism

The Event

Date: c. 1500-1000 BCE (disputed)
Also called: Zoroaster, Zarathushtra
Era: Prophetic Age; Standard periodization of Zoroastrian history
Location: Eastern Iran or Central Asia; today Iran and Central Asia
Traditions: Zoroastrianism
Streams: Iranian Zoroastrian
Key figures: Zarathustra
Key texts: The Gathas

How the Tradition Tells It

The prophet's dates are the faith's great chronological dispute: the tradition places him 258 years before Alexander, while linguistic analysis of the Gathas points to about 1000 BCE or earlier; the table's c. 1500 to 1000 BCE range spans the scholarly positions.

Primary Sources

The Gathas.

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-1001; confidence 0.7; accessed 2026-10-28.