“THE MESSAGE OF AHURA MAZDA

The ‘Zend Avesta’ is the first holy book of Iran!

Seek the root of the word ‘RELIGION’ in this ‘book’!

In the Zend Avesta, the name of LORD (HAKK) is AHURA MAZDA!

(Lord) says to the Messenger Zoroaster: ‘Remember your self-identity in prayer!’”

For the essence of every human being is equal to mine!

Whoever finds their true-self becomes Saint!

There is a flood! Build a windowless ship like your heart!

It is self-illuminating! For it is the owner of the soul!

My name is 'Copyless!' That is to say, 'Pure Light'!

Strive to prevent your shadow from falling to the ground!

Because the earth is soulless matter! Devil! Name is Ahriman!

It is my enemy! (Ehriman) has neither religion nor faith!

We both originated from ALLAH! We are self-brothers!

I am the RAHMAN and he is Satan! Have mercy on the blind!

I am the ‘Six Twin Rays’, the architect of this world!

Therefore, its construction took ‘six days’!

Three days ago, the realm of spirits emerged from them!

These are ‘MITRA’ and ‘Twenty-Eight Glory’! Love them!

The essence of "Michael" and "The Twenty-Eight Prophets"!

These "Sublime Ones" gave light! You opened my eyes!

"Michael," that is, Mitra! The Lord of Glory of the life!

Angels emerged from the glorious ones! The Holy One of the life-body!

Their name is "Daena," these innocent ones! Why?

Because they promised to save us from substance!

These are "my helpers"! Against Devil!

They waged war against substance! They carry the Throne above all else!

Therefore, half of Daena descends to Earth!

The other half settles in the heart as CONSCIENCE!

The descending life-body, swears fidelity to its spouse!

The life-body settles in the brain! The spouse, in the realm called "FUAD"(Eye of heart)!

The one who descends from Daena is named 'Fravarti'!

It means 'one who chooses jihad on earth'! A knight's image!

The life defeated by matter becomes the devil-man!

The one who conquers is called Adam! Now know yourself!

As blind substance is defeated, it opens its eyes and becomes transparent!

The devil bows down to Adam! Forgiveness comes from me!

“Thus my mercy triumphs over my anger!”

If you want to be saved, seek to save others!

The devil is very attractive! (Devil’s) symbol is the peacock!

Escape from ‘gravity’! ‘Don’t climb the steep slope!’

The substance you embrace! Embraces you again!

You become trapped in the body! You become subservient to the devil!

“Even in the womb, the unbeliever is an unbeliever! The believer is a believer!”

I don't write this destiny! You understand destiny!

Destiny means “text of forehead”! The brain is behind the forehead!

For right and wrong, say, 'I did it!'

The womb is the body! If the life-body that leaves is a believer, it is purified!

If it is an unbeliever, it sees a pitch-black witch and hides!

Conscience doesn't darken! 'Dark ego' intervenes! '

The sun is eclipsed!' 'Animal' goes into exile to the moon!

If he is a believer, he sees a 'Houri' at the bridge!

She resembles him! She is exactly fourteen years old!

'Oh, 'girl-boy-girl!' Who are you?' Asks to her!

When she says, 'I am your wife,' he embraces his Daena!

He asks again, ‘You are even more beautiful, girl! Why?’

She replies: ‘Because you always listen to the voice of my CONSCIENCE!’

I am your ‘Honor!’ Your ‘Dignity!’ Your ‘Covenant!’

Your ‘Luck!’ Your ‘Belief!’ In short, I am your ‘HANIF RELIGION’!

You cannot destroy me! Even if you betray me!

You yourself will be destroyed! Along with all your ambitions!

Once again, become "one life" with your spouse! Cross the bridge!

Three days after death, choose the abode of paradise!

But you cannot enjoy paradise until the "war" is over!

Substance, awaiting the "Mahdi," Because she could go mad while chained up!

By dividing, Daena descends to Earth again!

Serving my servant is the most beautiful praise and adoration for me!

His consciousness thus becomes clear!

With each integration, he draws closer to me!

When he achieves victory, he enters another Shape!

He becomes an indivisible, radiant state!

“He becomes the true heir of the Earth that has turned into Paradise!”

Now he is “JESUS ​​CHRIST”! Every atom is his “Apostle”!

Every atom asks, "What am I?" at the moment He first resurrects!

The Mahdi says: "You are a pure angel! Seeking your identity,

To find yourself, you must descend to Earth,

"The essence of Lord" is approached, by becoming polarized and attaining enlightenment!"

Let us return to our bridge of Sirat! Zoroaster!

For maturity is gained by crossing the bridge!

The Bridge! The Supreme Court! Mitra! The name of the Judge!

“Only the image of your face makes him decide!”

The Bridge! “The Right Path!” There good deed and evil are separated!

“He whose face shines passes!” “He whose face darkens!” Falls!

Mitra! The Sun! Separates the black from the fair-haired!

“Twenty-eight” days of the month, it scatters the ray of “Glory”!

“Saosyan!” That is, “Mahdi!” will descend from the Sun!

The darkness called “substance and ego” will cease!

“The twelfth Imam is the Mahdi!” Let me tell you why?

Because the sun rules over the twelve-moon!

‘Twelve months come together!’ ‘The hour and minute hands!’

‘On the Day of Judgment, the sun enters the moon!’ The divine court is established!

That’s why the Day of Judgment is called ‘THE HOUR!’ in the Quran.

Fasting is tied to the moon! And to the sun, ‘PRAYER!’

‘Twelve!’ ‘Both the beginning and the end of the hour!’

Understand it like the dot under ‘B’!

I too have my LORD, like everything else! He is my first essence!

My eyes see Allah through the lens of my LORD!

Even though the “First Essences” is in the presence of Allah!

It longs to descend as "Mercy" and become "Khidr"!

'ALLAH is the veil of the Essence!'Infinite space and time!

Its name is ZERVAN! Beware of attempting to lift the veil!

When you come for the last time, your name will be ‘Mahdi’! O Zoroaster!

The world becomes transparent! And every human being will gain maturity!

We always kiss the earth in prayer! Why?

We say ‘SPENTA ARMAITI!’ to ‘SHEKINAH’!

The virgin soul of the Earth! For it bears this name!

The Earth, its nine-layered, rolled-up body!

'We bring forth ‘SHEKINAH’! Angel! Glory! MITRA! Me!

Bring forth your ‘SHEKINAH’! Let your body be your Kaaba!

Call upon your own ESSENCE, Zoroaster! Not me!

For I am your essence! Bow down to the level you have ascended to!'

AHURA MAZDA thus addressed Zoroaster!

ZEND AVESTA, the fifth holy book in the Quran!

For Ahura Mazda, know that Jesus says, "My Father!"

For He has become "Rahman"! Father to "Jesus Christ"!

'Daena' is "Den!" in Pahlavi, and "Religion" in Arabic.

It is "Hanif, Creation Religion"! Now you surrender!

In the Zend Avesta, there is the "secret of Adam," in the Quran!

Find your Adam and remember me with mercy!

The last couplet is called the 'Shah couplet'! Ulug, Be silent here!

The Shah couplet is reserved for the 'His Holiness the Shah' who was born in the 'Beyt' (The inhabitants of God's house)!

"Be in constant supplication to Ahura Mazda!

Because of, “The Lord-Muhammed-Ali” is “Ahura Mazda”!

Master M.H. Ulug Kizilkecili

Türkiye, Ankara, 11.11.1998

Warning: The following section is not related to the author's work, and the author cannot be held responsible for any errors made!

SHEKINAH (SPENTA ARMAITI,SEKİNE) IN THE QURAN

“And their messenger said to them:‘ The sign of her kingship will be the coming of the Ark to you, in which is a Shekinah (Sekine, Spenta Armaiti) from your Lord and a remnant of the family of Moses and Aaron. The angels will bring it, and in that is a clear sign for you, if you are believers. ’” (Al-Baqara 2: 248)

Then Allah sent down His Shekinah (Sekine, Spenta Armaiti) upon His Messenger and the believers. He also sent down armies that you did not see, and He punished the disbelievers. This is the punishment of the disbelievers. (At-Tawbah 26)

If you do not help him, then Allah has certainly helped him. When the disbelievers brought him out as the second of two, and while they were in the cave he said to his companion, “Do not grieve, for Allah is with us.” Then Allah sent down Shekinah (Sekine, Spenta Armaiti) upon him and supported him with armies that you did not see, and rendered the word of the disbelievers wretched. The word of Allah is the Most High. Allah is Wise and Mighty. (At-Tawbah 40)

It is who sends down Shekinah (Sekine, Spenta Armaiti) into the hearts of the believers, so that they may increase in faith. The armies of the earth and the heavens belong to Allah. Allah is All-Wise, All-Knowing. [Al-Fath 4]

Allah was pleased with the believers; knew what was in their hearts when they pledged allegiance to you under the Tree, and sent down Shekinah (Sekine, Spenta Armaiti) upon them. And granted them a near victory. [Al-Fath 18]

Those who disbelieved carried in their hearts contempt and ignorance. So Allah sent down His Shekinah (Sekine, Spenta Armaiti) upon His Messenger and the believers, and made them accept the word of piety. Yet they were most deserving of it; they were worthy of it. Allah is All-Knowing. [Al-Fath 26]

“HANIF RELIGION” IN THE QURAN

And they said, “Become a Jew or a Christian so that you may be guided!” Say, “Yes! Be the Hanif (monotheist) nation of Abraham! He was not of the polytheists.” (Al-Baqara 135)

Say, “Allah has spoken the truth. So follow the Hanif nation of Abraham. He was not of the polytheists.” (Al-Imran 95)

Who is better in religion than one who submits his face to Allah, being a doer of good, and follows the Hanif nation of Abraham? Allah took Abraham as a friend. (An-Nisa 125)

“I have turned my face, as a Hanif, toward the One Who Created the Earth and the Heavens from Nothing. I am not of the polytheists.” (An'am 79)

Say: Indeed, my Lord has guided me to a straight path, to a lasting religion, the religion of Abraham, who was a Hanif, detached from other religions and devoted to the Truth, and he was never of the polytheists. (An'am 161)

Abraham was a Hanif, a nation devoted to Allah, and he was not of the polytheists. (Nahl 120)

And We have revealed to you: “Follow the religion of Abraham, as a Hanif.” He was not of the polytheists. (Nahl 123)

Except for those who associate partners with Him, be Hanifs for the sake of Allah! And whoever associates partners with Allah is like something that has fallen from the sky; birds snatch it up, or the wind throws it into a pit. (Hajj-31)

“So turn your face to the religion, being Hanif, to the natural disposition of Allah, upon which created mankind. There is no change in Allah’s creation. This is the upright religion. But most people do not know.” (Rum-30)

Yet they were commanded to worship Allah and to dedicate the religion to Him as Hanifs, to establish prayer, and to give zakat. This is the true religion. (Bayyinah-5)

Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian. He was a Muslim Hanif and he was not among the polytheists. (Ali Imran-67)

And turn your face towards the religion as a Hanif (monotheist)! Do not be among the polytheists! (Yunus-105)

ABOUT ZEND AVESTA

the holy book of the Zoroastrians. Avesta is the name the Mazdean (Mazdayasnian) religious tradition gives to the collection of its sacred texts. The etymology and the exact meaning of the name (Pahlavi ʾp(y)stʾk/abestāg) can not be considered established, although, despite a recent study by W. Belardi (“Il nome dell’”Avesta””), Bartholomae’s hypothesis (Die Gatha’s, p. 108) still seems to be very convincing: we should read abestāg and derive this from Old Iranian *upa-stāvaka- “praise.” Properly speaking Avesta is the collection of texts in Avestan, and Zand their translation and commentary in Book Pahlavi. The interest of the book of Avesta is twofold; on the one hand, it transmits to us the first Mazdean speculations and, on the other hand, it contains the only evidence for Avestan, an Old Iranian language which together with Old Persian constitutes the Iranian sub-division of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. The Avesta is a compilation of ancient texts, which we owe to the collaboration of the Mazdean priesthood and the Sasanian political power, but of which, unfortunately, only a fraction has been transmitted to us by the Parsi communities of India and Iran, which still remain true to the old religion. The corpus which Western scholarship has reconstituted is found in manuscripts that all date from this millennium; the most ancient (K 7a) dates from A.D. 1288 (TABLE 1).

The indigenous history of the sacred books is told in several Pahlavi texts. In essence it is as follows: The twenty-one nasks “books” of the Avesta, which were created by Ahura Mazdā, were brought by Zaraθuštra to king Vištāspa. The latter or, according to another tradition, Dārā Dārāyān, had two copies of them written down, one of which was deposited in the *Šasabīgān (thus Bailey, ZoroastrianProblems, pp. 230-31; Markwart, ProvincialCapitals, p. 108, gives Šapīkān or Šīčīkān; Nyberg, Manual II, Wiesbaden, 1974, p. 186, prefers Šēčīkān) treasury, the other in the “house of the archives” (Diz ī nibišt). At the time of Alexander’s conquest, the Avesta was destroyed or dispersed by the Greeks, who translated into their own language the scientific passages of which they could make use. The first attempt at restoring the Avesta was made under the Arsacids, when a king Valaxš had the fragments collected, both those which had been written down as well as those which had been transmitted only orally. This undertaking was carried on in four phases under the Sasanians: Ardašēr (226-41) ordered the high priest Tansar (or Tōsar) to complete the work of collecting the fragments that had begun under the Arsacids and gave official protection for this undertaking; Šāpūr I (241-72) initiated a search for the scientific documents that had been dispersed by the Greeks and the Indians and had them reintroduced into the Avesta; under Šāpūr II (309-79) Ādurbād ī Mahraspandān made the general revision of the canon and ensured its orthodox character against sectarian divergences by submitting himself successfully to the ordeal by fire at the time of a general controversy; finally, a revision of the Pahlavi translation took place under Ḵosrow I (531-79).

The testimony of the Mazdean religious tradition is often incoherent and can not be taken literally; it must necessarily be confronted with the results of modern scholarship, which leads to the following picture of the different stages of the formation and transmission of the Avestan texts.

The origin of the Avestan texts. It is on this point that the testimony of the Dēnkard and the Ardā Wirāz-nāmag is obviously the most based on legends and so the least trustworthy; there never was an Avesta set down under the Achaemenids and destroyed or dispersed by the Greek invaders. The Avestan texts can not be dated accurately, nor can their language be located geographically. Its phonetic characteristics prove with absolute certainty only that this is not the dialect of Pārs/Fārs. One can locate it almost anywhere else without having to face serious counterarguments. Thus scholars have located it in the northwest (Tedesco, “Dialektologie”), the northeast (Morgenstierne, Report), Chorasmia (Henning, Zoroaster), Margiana-Bactria (Humbach, “Al-Biruni”), or Sīstān (Gnoli, Ricerche).

The texts which form the canon were not all written at the same period. We must at least make a chronological distinction between the Old Avestan texts (the Gāthās—Y. 28-34, 43-51, 53; the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti—Y. 35-41; and the four great prayers of Y. 27) and the remaining, Young Avestan, texts. The Old Avestan texts are probably several centuries older than the others, although a precise date can not yet be justified. In the last ten years a general consensus has gradually emerged in favor of placing the Gāthās around 1000 BCE and assuming that the composition of the best texts of the recent Avesta is more or less contemporary with the Old Persian monuments. The Vidēvdād seems to be more recent than the Yašts or the Yasna and it has also been suggested that it belongs to a particular liturgical school; however, no linguistic or textual argument allows us to attain any degree of certainty in these matters. The earliest transmission of the Avesta must have been oral only, since no Iranian people seem to have used writing in early times. Only with the invention of the cuneiform Old Persian script (probably under Darius) would it have been possible to codify the religious texts. However, there is no evidence that the Achaemenids actually did this. Until the advent of the Sasanians, and even under their regime, Iran was a country in which written documents were conspicuously rare, so as far as the religious tradition is concerned, it faithfully carries on the old Indo-Iranian tradition which established the preeminence of a precise and careful oral textual transmission and made learning by heart of the sacred texts an essential element of an adequate cult. Thus, until the beginning of our era, at least, the liturgical texts of Mazdaism could only have formed the subject of an oral tradition preserved by theological schools such as that of Eṣṭaḵr, of which the tradition was not entirely forgotten. It is clear that the writers of the Pahlavi books shared our ignorance of the prehistory of the Avesta. However, we can concede that it does preserve the memory (though in legendary form) of a real break in the religious tradition, or of its splitting into sects, as a result of the absence of a unifying political power after the Greek conquest.

The “Arsacid Avesta.” The existence of a written Arsacid canon was at the center of one of the most important disputes in the history of Iranian studies. In 1902 Friedrich-Carl Andreas enunciated the hypothesis that the Avestan Vulgate was full of mistakes resulting from a clumsy transcription in a differentiated phonetic alphabet of a text originally written in a script of the Pahlavi type, i.e., the vowels were not usually marked and the same letter was used for different consonants. Thus the analysis of a modern scholar agreed with the teachings of the Dēnkard in postulating the existence of an Arsacid archetype. As a matter of fact, early testimonies are at variance in the question of Mazdean books in the first centuries of our era. Saint Basil states that the magi had no books and the Ardā Wirāz-nāmag relates that Ardašēr collected the Avestan texts as they had been memorized by priests who had been summoned for this purpose; however, according to a passage from the Coptic Kephalaia, Mani reported that Zaraθuštra’s disciples wrote his words down “in the books they are reading today.” By a curious coincidence, three outstanding Iranian scholars, more or less simultaneously, published strong criticism of the theory, denying either the existence or at least the relevance of the “Arsacid Avesta”: H. W. Bailey (JRAS, 1939, p. 112) stated that “the hypothetical Arsacid text will probably prove to be unreal, and the alleged transcribers not to have existed.” G. Morgenstierne (“Orthography and Sound-system,” pp. 30-31) and W. B. Henning (“Disintegration,” pp. 47-48) did not deny the existence of an Arsacid text, but its practical importance. Whatever may be the truth about the Arsacid Avesta, the linguistic evidence shows that even if it did exist, it can not have had any practical influence, since no linguistic form in the Vulgate can be explained with certainty as resulting from wrong transcription and the number of doubtful cases is minimal; in fact it is being steadily reduced. Though the existence of an Arsacid archetype is not impossible, it has proved to contribute nothing to Avestan philology.

The Sasanian Avesta. It has now been established beyond any doubt that the known Avestan Vulgate originates from a canon which was arranged and written down under the Sasanians in an alphabet typologically similar to the Greek alphabet, invented ad hoc in order to render with extreme precision the slightest nuances of the liturgical recitation. The comparison of the Avestan letters with those of Pahlavi allowed K. Hoffmann (Henning Memorial Volume, p. 275) to date the fixing of the canon and its writing down to the fourth century, i.e., approximately under Šāpūr II. This enterprise, which is indicative of a Mazdean revival and of the establishment of a strict orthodoxy closely connected with the political power, was probably caused by the desire to compete more effectively with Buddhists, Christians, and Manicheans, whose faith was based on a revealed book. The earliest reference to the Avesta in Sasanian times is perhaps to be found in the inscriptions of Kirdēr (Kartēr), see P. O. Skjærvø, AMI 16, 1983 [1985], pp. 269-306.

Of the history of the Avestan texts from the collapse of the Sasanian empire and the oldest manuscripts in our possession little is known. We know that the Muslim conquest and the dispersal of the Mazdean communities caused a weakening of the religious tradition and a decline of the liturgical elocution, which caused damage to the written transmission of the Avesta. Also, examination of the manuscripts reveals mistakes which prove that all of them derive from a single common ancestor, which K. Hoffmann (Aufsätze II, p. 515) calls the “base manuscript” and places in the ninth to tenth century A.D. This was proved definitively by K. Hoffmann for the transmission of the Yasna, and by H. Humbach (“Beobachtungen”) for that of the Yašts and the Vidēvdād, but already Nyberg (Die Religionen des alten Iran, p. 13) had assumed that all extant Avesta manuscripts derive from a single Sasanian archetype, and Morgenstierne (“Orthography and Sound-system,” p. 32 n. 6) had adduced material from the Yasna, Yašts, and Vidēvdād in support of Nyberg’s hypothesis.

Contents of the Avesta. The Sasanian collection of the Avesta and its commentary (zand) is described in chap. 8 of the Dēnkard; it was probably composed of three books of seven chapters as shown in Table 1: the left column gives the names as recorded in the Dēnkard; the middle column shows which texts are still extant; the third column indicates the contents of the texts. The Dēnkard probably does not give us a reliable and credible image of the Sasanian archetype, since it is deficient on several points. Most importantly, the analysis in the Dēnkard is based on the Pahlavi translation of the Avestan texts and so may have left out texts without Pahlavi versions on the one hand and included post-Avestan texts on the other. Thus it takes into account Avestan texts that we know to be late compilations; e.g., the Vištāsp Yašt, which is considered by this tradition to be Zaraθuštra’s teaching to Vištāspa, is just a poorly fabricated medley of quotations from the Vidēvdād. It is certain that only a part of the Avestan texts collected in the Sasanian archetype is now extant. Duchesne-Guillemin (La religion de l’Iran ancien, p. 31) suggested that we only know one quarter of it, since only about one-fourth of the Avestan quotations in the Pahlavi commentary are found in the extant Avesta. However, fragments such as the Pursišnīhā and the Vaēθā Nask indicate that an indeterminable quantity of juridical literature similar to that of the Vidēvdād has been lost. On the other hand, it is not improbable that the oldest texts, i.e., the Old Avestan texts and the old Yašts, that were known to the Sasanian priesthood, have come down to us in their entirety. Not only are no quotations from lost Yašts to be found, it is also clear that the Parsis would have paid particular attention to the transmission of the most venerable parts of the sacred canon.

The extant Avesta comprises the following texts:

I. The Yasna (Y. ) “sacrifice,” which is composed of 72 hāds “chapters” (from Av. hāiti “cut”), is a heterogeneous collection of liturgical texts recited during the ceremony of the preparation and offering of haoma.

Y. 1-8 are written in the form of an enumeration: the deities are invited to the sacrifice (1), the libation and the barəsman are presented to them (2), then the other offerings (3-8: Srōš darūn).

Y. 9-11 form the Hōm Yašt “hymn to Haoma.” Y. 9 begins with a dialogue between Zaraθuštra and the haoma personified. In it Indo-Iranian myths are reflected: the first four to pour the haoma were in chronological order Vīuuaŋhan, Yima’s father, Āθβiia, Θraētaona’s father, Θrita, father of Uruuaxšaiia and Kərəsāspa, and lastly, Pourušāspa, Zaraθuštra’s father. The core of the Hōm Yašt is a series of prayers and eulogies. Y. 11 reports the curses of the cow, the horse, and the haoma on those who do not treat them as prescribed and mentions the parts which are attributed to Haoma during the bloody sacrifice (the cheeks, the tongue, and the left eye).

Y. 12-13 constitute the Mazdean profession of faith, which opens with the frauuarāne declaration “I wish solemnly to declare myself (a Mazdean, etc.).” The passage is in pseudo-Gathic, i.e., it imperfectly imitates the characteristics of the language of the Gāthās.

Y. 14-18, a series of invocations comparable to Y. 1-8 which serve as introduction to a section called StaotaYesniia, which extends to Y. 59.

Y. 19-21 or Bagān Yašt provide a commentary on the three prayers Yaθā ahū vairiiō (called Ahuna vairiia), Aṧəm vohū, and Yeŋ́he hātąm. These three very special chapters, the only ones in the Avesta which represent the kind of commentary typified by the commentaries of Sāyaṇa in India, have not yet been fully interpreted.

Y. 22-26 contain another series of invocations.

Y. 27 gives the text of the three prayers which are commented upon in Y. 19-21.

Y. 28-53 constitute a collection of texts written in a more ancient dialect than that of the rest of the book. This dialect is called Gathic or Old Avestan. The different chapters are arranged in unities characterized by a similar meter. The Gāthās are the only Avestan texts which are clearly composed in verse, using meters based on the number of syllables. In detail:

Y. 28-34 Gāthā Ahunauuaitī (named after the Ahuna Vairiia in Y. 27): stanzas of 3 verses of 7 + 9 syllables.

Y. 35-41 Yasna Haptaŋhāiti in prose.

Y. 43-46 Gāthā Uštauuaitī (from the beginning of Y. 43, uštā ahmāi): stanzas of 5 verses of 4 + 7 syllables.

Y. 47-50 GāthāSpəṇtamainiiū (from the beginning of Y. 47, spəntā mainiiū): stanzas of 4 verses of 4 + 7 syllables.

Y. 51 Gāthā Vohuxšaθrā (from the beginning of Y. 51, vohū xšaθrəm): stanzas of 3 verses of 7 + 7 syllables.

Y. 53 Gāthā Vahištōištī (from the beginning of Y. 53, vahištā ištiš): stanzas of 4 verses, 2 of 7 + 5 syllables followed by 2 of 7 + 7 + 5 syllables.

We see that the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti or “Yasna of the seven chapters” is inserted in the Gāthās properly speaking. It is written in Gathic, but in prose. On the other hand, Y. 42, an invocation of the elements, and Y. 52, a praise of Aṧī, are texts in the later language that have been secondarily inserted among the Gāthās.

Y. 54 gives the text of the prayer ā airiiə̄mā išiio already mentioned in Y. 27.

Y. 55 praises the Gāthās and the Staota Yesniia.

Y. 56 appeals to the deities for attention.

Y. 57 constitutes the Srōš Yašt, a hymn to Sraoša, the genius of religious discipline. Its formulas are closely related to and partly borrowed from Yašt 10 to Miθra. (See K. Dehghan, Der Awesta-Text Srōš Yašt.)

Y. 58 praises the “prayer” (nəmah).

Y. 59 repeats some of the invocations of Y. 17 and 26.

Y. 60 contains a series of blessings of the abode of the just.

Y. 61 extols the anti-demoniacal power of the Ahuna Vairiia, Aṧəm vohū, Yeŋ́he hātąm, and Āfrīnagān dahmān.

Y. 62 is a praise of the fire (Ātaxš Niyāyišn).

Y. 63-69 constitute the prayers which accompany the ritual of the waters (Āb Zōhr): praise in 65, offering in 66-67, invocation in 68-69 (they are invoked under the name, among others, of ahurānīs “Ahura’s wives”).

Y. 70-72 again contain a series of invocations.

II. The Visprad (Vr.) “(prayer to) all the patrons” (from Av. vīspe ratauuō), composed of twenty-four sections (kardag), supplements the Yasna with invocations and appeals to the patrons (ratu-).

III. The Ḵorda Avesta “little Avesta” contains the prayers which are recited by the faithful on everyday occasions as opposed to those which are recited by the priest. The name of this book is not mentioned in the Pahlavi literature and therefore it is difficult to estimate its age. It comprises:

1. Five introductory chapters (Intr.), quotations from different passages of the Yasna.

2. Five Niyāyišns (Ny.) “praises,” addressed to the sun, Miθra, the moon, the waters, and the fire, composed of excerpts from the corresponding Yašts, the last from Y. 62. (See Z. Taraf, Der Awesta-Text Niyāyiš.)

3. Five Gāhs (G.) “moments of the day,” addressed to the genii presiding over the great divisions of the day: hāuuana– “the morning,” rapiθβiina– “midday,” uzaiieirina– “the afternoon,” aiβisrūθrima– “the night, from midnight up to the dawn.”

4. Four Āfrinagāns (A.) “blessings” which are recited respectively in honor of the dead, at the five epagomenal days which end the year, at the six feasts of seasons, at the beginning or the end of summer.

IV. The Sīrōza “thirty days” enumerates the deities who patronize the thirty days of the month. It exists in two forms, the “little” Sīrōza and the “great” Sīrōza. The former consists of incomplete formulas containing only the name of the deity and his epithets in the genitive (e.g., ahurahe mazdā raēuuatō xᵛarənaŋhuṇtō), whereas the latter contains independent sentences in which yazamaide “we sacrifice to” governs the same formulas in the accusative (ahurəm mazdąm raēuuaṇtəm xᵛarənaŋhuṇtəm yazamaide).

V. The Yašts (Yt.) are hymns addressed to the principal deities. There are twenty-one Yašts, unequal in size and interest; among them we find those texts which in addition to the Gāthās provide the most information about the origins of Mazdaism and its doctrine at the time of its early development. All of them are written in what appears to be prose, but which, for a large part, may originally have been a (basically) eight-syllable verse, oscillating between four and thirteen syllables, and most often between seven and nine (Gropp, Wiederholungsformen, p. 137; G. Lazard, “La métrique de l’Avesta récent,” in Orientalia J. Duchesne-Guillemin Emerito Oblata, Acta Iranica 23, Leiden, 1984, pp. 284-300).

Yt. 1-4 are mediocre, meaningless texts, composed in incoherent language; they probably result from a very late expansion of the Yašt collection. Yt. 1 (33 verses) to Ahura Mazdā; Yt. 2 (15 verses) to the Aməṧa Spəṇtas; Yt. 3 (19 verses) to Aṧa; Yt. 4 (11 verses) to Hauruuatāt.

Yt. 5 (132 verses) is an important hymn addressed to Arəduuī Sūrā Anāhitā, goddess of the waters. It falls into five principal sections: verses 1-5, praise of the goddess; 16-83, enumeration of the mythical sacrificers with allusions to their feats; 84-96, Anāhitā informs Zaraθuštra of her sacrificial requirements; 97-118, enumeration of the sacrificers of the circle of the prophet: Zaraθuštra, Vištāspa, Zairiuuairi; 119-32, description of the goddess as a beautiful noble maiden.

Yt. 6 (7 verses) to the sun.

Yt. 7 (7 verses) to the moon.

Yt. 8 (62 verses) to Tištriia, the star which controls the mechanism of rain, relates the myth of his fight against Apaoša, demon of drought.

Yt. 9 (33 verses) where Druuāspā, the goddess who ensures the health of horses, is extolled with formulas borrowed from Yt. 5, enumerating the prestigious sacrificers of the past.

Yt. 10 (145 verses) to Miθra, who is described as the strict guardian of the contract, patron of warriors, master of the entirety of the Iranian countries, inciter of the dawn, and god of the diurnal heaven, which he travels through in a chariot surrounded by an escort of attendants. (See I. Gershevitch, The Avestan Hymn to Mithra.)

Yt. 11 (23 verses) and Yt. 12 (47 verses) are dedicated to Sraoša and Rašnu, attendants of Miθra.

Yt. 13 (158 verses) to the frauuaṧis falls into two parts. Verses 1-84 praise the frauuaṧis by presenting them as agents of the creation who witnessed its early moments and saw then to its permanence (these passages constitute the only known elements of ancient Mazdean cosmogony), as protectors in battle and distributors of water to their fatherland. The second part enumerates in seven groups the frauuaṧis of the heroes of Mazdaism from Gaiiō Marətan to Saošiiaṇt: verses 85-95, frauuaṧis of the deities, the first man Gaiiō Marətan, the prophet Zaraθuštra, and his first disciple Maiδiiōi.māŋha; 96-100, frauuaṧis of the early Zoroastrians (circle of Vištāspa); 111-117, frauuaṧis of the heroes of Pouruδāxšti’s circle; 118-128, frauuaṧis of the heroes of the non-Iranian countries; 129, frauuaṧis of Saošiiaṇt Astuuaṱ.ərəta; 130-138, frauuaṧis of the mythical heroes; 139-142, frauuaṧis of the holy women of Mazdaism. (See J. Kellens, Fravardīn Yašt.)

Yt. 14 (64 verses) to Vərəθraγna relates the ten incarnations in which the deity appeared to Zaraθuštra (1-28); enumerates the powers that he bestows on Zaraθuštra in return for his cult (31-33); describes the magic of a particular feather which makes invulnerable in fighting (34-46); and ends with a praise (47-64).

Yt. 15 (58 verses), in spite of its title Rām Yašt (hymn to Rāma Xᵛāstra, attendant of Miθra), is dedicated to Vāiiu, god of the stormy wind, who belongs partly to good, partly to evil. The hymn falls into two clearly distinct parts: 1-41 draw upon the formulas of Yt. 5 which enumerate the famous sacrificers; 42-58 list the names of the deity, most of which are very obscure.

Yt. 16 (20 verses), Dēn Yašt, praises Čistā, the wisdom which impregnates the Mazdean religion.

Yt. 17 (62 verses) to Aṧi Vaŋᵛhī “good fortune:” 1-22 describe the benefits the goddess lavishes on pious houses; 23-52 enumerate her sacrificers in the manner of Yt. 5; 53-62 describe those who are to be excluded from her cult.

Yt. 18 (9 verses), Aštād Yašt, praises the Airiiana xᵛarənah “Aryan Glory.”

Yt. 19 (97 verses) justifies its title Zamyād Yašt “hymn to the earth” with the first eight verses, which relate the creation of the mountains. The rest is a hymn to the xᵛarənah: it enumerates its holders, tells how Yima lost it, describes the fight of the two spirits for its possession, and announces the use the final savior will make of it.

Yt. 20 (3 verses) to Haoma is a short excerpt from Y. 9-11.

Yt. 21 (2 verses) is a brief praise of the star Vanaṇt.

Some scholars have tried to discern distinct strata in the material of the Yašts. S. Wikander endeavored to define material proper to the clan of the Friiāna characterized by dialectal peculiarities and the preeminence of the cults of Vāiiu and Anāhitā. His conclusions were adopted by S. Hartmann, who reinforced them by adding his views concerning a tradition impregnated with Zurvanism, and by J. Kellens (Études mithriaques), who thinks a distinction can be established between the Yašts of the type of Yt. 10, which are essentially moral and written in the first person present tense (invocation containing yazamaide), and those of the type of Yt. 5, which are epico-historical and written in the third person preterite (invocation containing yazata). This distinction, if correct, reveals a duality of tradition in primitive Mazdaism based on deep divergences of formulary.

VI. The Vidēvdād (V.) “law of breaking off with the demons” (see Benveniste, “Que signifie Vidēvdāt?” pp. 71f.) comprises twenty-two chapters, the first two explaining the origin of the book, the rest containing diverse rules and regulations, with the exception of chap. 19 which contains the temptation of Zaraθuštra.

Chap. 1 is a prelude explaining the successive creation by Ahura Mazdā of the different provinces of Iran, each of which Aŋra Mainiiu, in response, afflicts with a specific counter-creation or adversary.

Chap. 2 relates how Yima refused to accept the Mazdean law and to transmit it to men, confining himself to ensuring their immortality and their prosperity. He completes his mission by building an artificial cave (vara) as a refuge from the great winter that was to ravage the world.

Chap. 3 contains rules concerning the earth, its working, and injunctions not to defile it.

Chap. 4 contains rules concerning contracts and attacks on people.

Chap. 5-12 deal with the impurity due to contact with a corpse and the purifications which are prescribed in this case.

Chap. 13 praises the dog.

Chap. 14 concerns the crime of killing an otter.

Chap. 15 deals with the five sins which deserve death (to make apostate, to give a dog noxious food, to cause the death of a pregnant bitch, to have sexual intercourse with a menstruating or a pregnant woman); a man’s obligations to a natural child and its mother; the cares owed to a pregnant bitch; and the breeding of dogs.

Chap. 16 concerns the impurity of women during menstruation.

Chap. 17 describes what one should do with cut hair and nails.

Chap. 18 deals with the unworthy priest, the saintliness of the cock, the four sins which make the Druǰ “deceit” pregnant with a progeny of demons (to refuse to give alms to one of the faithful, to urinate standing, to have a nocturnal emission, not to wear the sacred belt and shirt after the age of fifteen); the evil caused by the prostitute; and the atonement for the sin of having sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman.

SPENTA ARMAITI (SHEKINAH,SEKİNE)

ARMAITI (Spəntā Ārmaiti, Pahl. Spandārmad, Pers. Isfandārmad), one of the six great Aməša Spəntas who, with Ahura Mazdā and/or his Holy Spirit, make up the Zoroastrian Heptad. The common noun ārmaiti- has a Vedic cognate arámati- (fem.) “piety, devotion” and the Rig Veda knows a goddess Aramati, “seemingly already by then a fading figure” (H. Lommel in Zarathustra, ed. B. Schlerath, Darmstadt, 1970, p. 388). In Zoroaster’s Gāθās the common noun occurs with the adjective spənta “bounteous, holy” (Y. 32.2); and this adjective is used repeatedly there with the divinity’s name (Y. 33.13; 34.9, 10; 49.2; 51.4, 11). It becomes her fixed epithet in Young Avestan, and is compounded with ārmaiti to form her proper name in Middle Iranian and Persian.

For Zoroaster the possession of devotion was an essential part of being righteous, ašavan; and he conceived its hypostasis, Ārmaiti, as being active in leading man to the good life and to salvation. “Devotion shall plead in turn with the spirit where there is opposition” (Y. 31.12). “Give, O thou Devotion, strength to Vīštāspa and to me” (Y. 28.7). It is through his companionship with Ārmaiti, the prophet declares, that he has deserved to attain truth, whereas the wicked man neither supports her nor makes her his own (Y. 49.2). Like all other members of the Heptad, Ārmaiti is in the closest possible relationship with Ahura Mazdā, a relationship which in her case Zoroaster conveys metaphorically by calling her his “daughter” (Y. 45.4).

The physical creation which Ārmaiti protects, and in which she is immanent, is the earth (see, e.g. Bundahišn, tr. 3.17); and her association with it is repeatedly adumbrated, in characteristically allusive style, in the Gāθās: “She (Ārmaiti) shall indeed give us good dwelling, she (shall give) us enduring, desired strength of good purpose. Then through order (aša) Mazdā made plants grow for her” (Y. 48.6). “When, Mazdā, shall Ārmaiti come with Truth (Aša), having good dwelling, with pasturage?” (Y. 48.11). “Enduring Ārmaiti gave body and breath” (Y. 30.7). In India Āramati likewise had a connection with the earth, although this is attested only in a late passage (Sāyaṇa’s commentary on Rig Veda 7.42.2, 14th century A.D.). Some regard this parallelism as coincidental, others hold it to be the record of a genuinely old, i.e. proto-Indo-Iranian, association. In Khotanese the earth itself is called śśandaā-, which is from śṷantakā-, corresponding to Av. spəntā-; the name of the goddess survives as Śśandrāmatā- (from śṷantā Ārmati), used for the Indian (Buddhist) goddess Śrī; a third Khotanese term, ysamaśśandaa- (from zam(a)- śṷantaka-, cf. Av. zam– and spənta-) denotes the “world,” rendering Ind. Loka (see H. W. Bailey, Dictionary of Khotan Saka, Cambridge, etc., 1979, pp. 345, 395, and idem, The Culture of the Sakas in Ancient Iranian Khotan, New York, 1982, pp. 136-43); and the fact that the adjective spənta– occurs so often for Ārmaiti in the Gāθās (where epithets for other members of the Heptad are sparingly used) suggests that it may have been a traditional one for the bountiful earth, the all-mother, and so have been used especially by Zoroaster for the Aməša Spənta immanent in earth. Otherwise it is not easy to account for the fact that this adjective, applicable generally to Ahura Mazdā himself and to all the good creations, belongs also particularly, in his revelation, to this one divinity. (Against the further suggestion that the Khotanese divinity Śśandrāmatā, was not in fact the Zoroastrian Aməša Spənta but simply the ancient earth-goddess Zam, see M. Boyce, JRAS, 1983, pp. 305-6.)

In several Gathic verses Ārmaiti, guardian of earth, is associated with Xšaθra, the hypostasis of justly used power, who protects and is immanent in the overarching sky (Y. 31.4; 43.16; 48.11). There is no trace of a similar link between arámati– and kṣatra– in Indian tradition. While dominant, Xšaθra appears also to have been the especial guardian of men, Ārmaiti had under her protection women, who like the earth give and nourish life. (Cf. Y. 38.1, an ancient text probably pre-Zoroastrian in content: “This earth then we worship, her who bears us, together with women.”) This association is emphasized in Pahlavi texts, e.g. The Supplementary texts to the Šāyest nē-šāyest, ed. F. M. P. Kotwal, Copenhagen, 1969, chap. 15.20: “He who wishes to please Spandārmad in the world . . . he should please and make joyful the earth and virtuous woman.” It is probable that it was to Spəntā Ārmaiti, guardian both of earth and women, that Artaxerxes II prayed for the health of his daughter-wife Atossa, “making his obeisance and clutching the earth before this goddess,” whose name is rendered in Greek by that of Hera, the consort of Zeus (Plutarch, Life of Artaxerxes, 23.5; cf. C. Clemen, Die griechischen und lateinischen Nachrichten über die persische Religion, Giessen, 1920, p. 87; Boyce, Zoroastrianism II, p. 220). Down into Islamic times the holy day of Spandārmad (on which see further below) was celebrated as a festival for women: “Isfandārmadh is charged with the care of the earth and with that of the good, chaste and beneficent wife who loves her husband. [Hers] . . . was a special feast of the women, when the men used to make them liberal presents. This custom is still flourishing at Isfahan, Ray and in the other districts of Fahla” (Bīrūnī, Chronology, p. 229). Her festival was a favored time for courtship, and on that day “maidens chose husbands for themselves” (see M. R. Unvala in F. Spiegel Memorial Volume, ed. J. J. Modi, Bombay, 1908, p. 206).

There is no marshaling of the six great Aməša Spəntas in order in the Gāθās (see Ardwahišt); but in the Younger Avesta (e.g. Y. 1.2 and passim) Ārmaiti is placed fourth, directly after her partner Xšaθra, and as first of the three female divinities. In one grouping of the Heptad which is enshrined in the tradition (see Bundahišn, tr. 26.8) the three neuter/male Aməša Spəntas stand on the right side of Ohrmazd, the three female ones on his left, with Spandārmad therefore at his left hand. In Y. 37.5, 39.5, Ārmaiti is associated with other female divinities of abundance and goodness; and her xšnūman or regular liturgical invocation is “bounteous (spəntā-), good Ārmaiti, good, far-sighted Rātā, Mazdā-created, bounteous” (Sīrōza 1.5). The minor female divinity Rātā is the hypostasis of the gift, hence of liberality, so that association with her emphasizes yet further the bountiful aspect of Spəntā Ārmaiti.

This bounteousness is linked, as has been shown, with her immanence in the earth. The association between the Aməša Spənta and her creation is so strong that in a number of Young Av. passages her name is used as a synonym for earth itself. “We worship you, Spəntā Ārmaiti, as (our) dwelling” (Y. 16.10); “he struck this earth…saying: “Go forth, beloved Spəntā Ārmaiti”” (Vd. 2.10); “let him [i.e. an evil man] be thrust into the darkness of Spəntā Ārmaiti, into the place of corruption [i.e. the grave]” (Vd. 3.35); “her look [i.e. that of the whore] takes the colors away from a third of Spəntā Ārmaiti” (Vd. 18.64). As earth, Spəntā Ārmaiti receives and nurtures semen involuntarily emitted (Vd. 18.51); and her name is rendered as pṛthivī “the broad one, earth” by Neryosang Dhaval in his Skt. translation of the yasna, with, as interpretation of the Pahlavi gloss to Y. 1.2, pṛthivīpatnī “lady of the earth” (see Bartholomae, AirWb., p. 337). In Christian Armenia her name, in its Parthian form of Spandaramet, was used to render that of Dionysus in 2 Macc. 6:7, but in its Persian form, Sandaramet, it translated Hades, i.e. the underworld, in Ezekiel 31:16, etc. (See also Armenia: Religion.)

In the main rituals of Zoroastrian worship Ārmaiti is held to be physically represented by the earth of the consecrated precinct, the pavi; and still today Zoroastrian priests solemnize these age-old services seated cross-legged, hence in close contact with the ground. (For modern expositions of the doctrine and practice, by Irani Zoroastrians, see Boyce, Stronghold, p. 51). Pahlavi texts derived from lost Avestan works stress the nurturing aspect of Spandārmad’s link with earth, e.g. Bundahišn, tr. 26.78ff.: “The duty of Spandārmad is the nurturing of creatures . . . . Her bountifulness is such that all creatures live through her.” In Yt. 1.27 the worshipper invokes the 10,000 powers of healing of Spəntā Ārmaiti—presumably through the medicinal herbs which she, as earth, nourishes.

In other passages the ethical and spiritual aspects of Spandārmad are honored without any reference to her physical creation. It is through her, it is declared in the Dēnkard (9.42.2, cf. 9.59.4), that Ohrmazd’s creatures have “complete mindfulness” (bowandag menišnīh) of him; and it is she who protects the souls of the just (Dēnkard 9.41.10). Her closeness to Ohrmazd is constantly stressed. In Vd. 8.21 she is entreated together with him for protection against the powers of evil; and in a passage derived from a lost Avestan text she is said to have been sent by him, together with two other female yazatas, Ardwīsūr and Ardāfraward, to protect the infant Zoroaster from harm (Zātspram 10.3). In a Young Av. text there recurs Zoroaster’s own metaphor, by which he spoke of Ārmaiti as the “daughter” of the supreme Being (see Vd. 19.13, 16); and this metaphor is alluded to again and again in Pahlavi passages which derive from lost Avestan texts (see Dēnkard 9.52.27; 53.2; 59.4-5; 68.47).

A complication arose, however, from this metaphor because of Ārmaiti’s association with mother earth. Thus in Vd. 19. l3, 16, it is as representing her creation, earth, that Ārmaiti is hailed as the “bounteous, beautiful daughter” of Ahura Mazdā; but in Yt. 17.16, where Aši is being brought into close relationship with the great ethical beings of Zoroaster’s own revelation, it is said that the father of this divinity is Ahura Mazdā, her mother Spəntā Ārmaiti, her brother Sraoša and her sister the Mazdā-worshipping Religion. As earth, Ārmaiti is the mother also of the human race, because she accepted part of the seed of Gayōmard and nurtured it, until the rīvās plant grew up and produced the first man and woman. So a Zoroastrian should acknowledge: “My stock and lineage is from Gayōmard. My mother is Spandārmad, my father Ohrmazd. My humanity is from Mahrē and Mahryānē” (Čīdag Andarz ī Pōryōtkēšān, 2nd ed., J. M. Jamasp-Asana, Pahlavi Texts II, p. 42). The existence of these two metaphors, of mother and of daughter, later led priestly scholastics, taking the figurative anthropomorphisms literally, to use them as a justification for xwēdōdah or next-of-kin marriage, in this case between father and daughter (see E. W. West, SBE XVIII, pp. 392-94, with notes). The passages are Dēnkard 3.80.3-4 (for which see J. de Menasce, Le troisième livre du Dēnkart, Paris, 1973, p. 86), and the Pahl. Rivayat 8.2ff., with the declaration attributed to Ohrmazd: “This is Spandārmad, my daughter and my queen of heaven, and the mother of creation” (ēn Spandārmad ī man duxt u-m kadag-bānūg ī wahišt, ud mād ī dāmān).

When the Zoroastrian calendar was created, probably in the fourth century B.C., the first seven days were allotted to the Heptad, Spəntā Ārmaiti receiving accordingly the dedication of the fifth day (see Y. 16.3). The twelfth month was also devoted to her (for possible reasons see Boyce, Zoroastrianism II, p. 249); and when “name-day” festivals were developed (see ibid., p. 251), hers was thus held on the fifth day of the twelfth month. Because of her link with the earth, it came to be celebrated, not only as a festival of women, but also as that of farmers, and to be called ǰašn-e barzīgarān; and characteristic observances on this day were concerned with attacking xrafstras, in this connection insects and reptiles which were thought to harm the good earth and the crops borne by it. What was originally a one-day feast came to be extended, it seems in the early 11th century A.D., to a ten-day observance among the Zoroastrians of Iran (for reasons see Boyce, BSOAS 33, 1970, pp. 535-36). This festival they divided into two pentads, called in their own speech “Sven-i kasog” and “Sven-i mas” i.e. the lesser and greater feasts of Sven[dārmaz]. The feast was greatly beloved in the community, which was by then a predominantly farming one. The custom developed of going to daḵmas during Sven-i kasog, to pray for the souls of those who had died sudden or violent deaths, and whose bodies, not having been carried to the towers, would have lain somewhere on or in the good earth (see Boyce, Stronghold, p. 201). The last day of Sven-i mas is the true name-day feast of the Aməša Spənta, celebrated on day Spandārmad of month Spandārmad. In the morning a service is solemnized in her honor at the local fire temple, and in the afternoon the community used to gather there to make merry and feast together. This latter custom was maintained until well into the twentieth century in and around Yazd.