[gooddeeds]

What do you think of Iranian zoroastrian? what about Iranians in general? - I'm not a card carrying zoroastrian per se but I have affinity for the religion and I hope one day it will have a big resurgence It was the religion of my ancestors after all

[yazaddaruvala]

Honestly, I have few thoughts about them.

Whenever I do think about them, one of my primary thoughts are of sympathy and strength. Not for any current standpoint (I'm sure they are mostly fine these days) but historically, (as you're likely aware) they were forced to convert over to Islam or were killed. Most Zorastrians still in and around Iran, were only Zorastrian in secret. I can't imagine how the religion survived a few thousand years in that region despite that hostile environment.

Other than that, we "Parsis" consider "Iranis" Zorastrian, just as much as we are. However, we do not consider them Parsi. Similar-ish to the Protestant/Catholic sub-cultures.

[nashashmi]

> we do not consider them Parsi

Strange, as Parsi comes from the word Persi, or Persian. Rhythmically, Farsi is the language of the Persians. In Pakistan, we refer to native Farsi speaking people as Parsi, Persi, or Irani.

[yazaddaruvala]

It is equally strange that when I say "Asian" you don't think about Indians/Pasistani/Sri Lankans/Bangladeshi people. I can't tell you why. It doesn't make any logical sense. I can just tell you that this is the case.

Like Asian, Parsi is a colloquialism first, a fact second.

I do not know how else to describe it to you.

[cazum]

I find the sentiment behind this comment difficult to understand. On one hand i think you're saying you don't believe in Zoroastrianism enough to call yourself a devout, but on the other you want a big resurgence of people that do?

What about Zoroastrianism makes you wish for a comeback?

[gooddeeds]

Hard to describe. You can chalk it up to "resentment towards historical events". It saddens me when I think about the forceful change of religion/culture in my country. As for why I'd like for it to make a come back 1. I believe in the core tenets of the religion itself 2. I see it as some kind of "justice being served/ restoration of ancestorial way of life"

[vowelless]

The absolutely massive transformation of Iran practically overnight in the 600 to 800 AD era continues to surprise me, despite being from around that region. Can you recommend books / documentaries from the perspective of the Iranian people about how and why this change happened? I want to get more insight into why such a large and proud empire changed so radically in such a short period of time. I am largely familiar with the Arab / Muslim telling of the story.

[yazaddaruvala]

The story goes: Islamic tribes began conquering the Persian empire. As they went, the population was given two options:

1. Convert.

2. Die.

3. (Option which wasn't provided) Run away.

FWIW, if you want more info about why your parent commenter seeks a "comeback" is likely related to how I call Zorastrian ideas "infectious" in another of my posts on this thread. Check it out. Let me know what you think.

[isk517]

Also the Persian Empire was recovering at the time (poorly due to a succession crisis) from a rather long and brutal war with the Eastern Roman Empire.

[Jabanga]

There were seven great houses in the Sassanid empire and in the last years of the empire, they had been in conflict with the Sassanid court in South West Iran due to, according to some historians, years of overtaxing to support the war against Rome. Concurrent with the war, there was a plague in Western Persia killing half the population in 628.

When the Muslims invaded, the two most powerful houses refused to fight, and returned to their land in north east Iran. This left a weakened Western Persia alone to fight the invasion, which it could not successfully do.

[gooddeeds]

my suggestion would be to have a look at "Two centuries of Silence" by Abdol Hossein Zarinkoob and "Sassanid Persia" by Arthur Emanuel Christensen.