Zoroastrianism in Armenia

An Armenian Zoroastrian fire temple in the medieval Bagratid city of Ani[1]

Part of a series on

Zoroastrianism

Primary topics

* Ahura Mazda
* Zarathustra
* Asha
* Vohu Manah
* Persia/Iran
* Faravahar
* Avestan

Divine entities

* Amesha Spentas
* Yazatas
* Ahuras
* Daevas
* Fravashi
* Angra Mainyu

Scripture and worship

* Zoroastrian literature
* Avesta
* Ashem Vohu
* Ahuna Vairya
* Yenghe hatam
* Airyaman ishya
* Fire Temples
* 101 Names of Ahura Mazda
* Adur Burzen-Mihr
* Adur Farnbag
* Adur Gushnasp
* Cypress of Kashmar
* Gathas
* Yasna
* Vendidad
* Visperad
* Yashts
* Khordeh Avesta
* The Rivayats
* Ab-Zohr

Accounts and legends

* Dēnkard
* Bundahišn
* Book of Arda Viraf
* Book of Jamasp
* Story of Sanjan
* Chinvat Bridge
* Frashokereti

History and culture

* Zurvanism
* Mazdakism
* Khurramites

* * *

* Calendar
* Festivals
* Initiation
* Kushti
* Sedreh
* Marriage
* Burial

Adherents

* Afghanistan
* Armenia
* Azerbaijan
* China
* Sichuan
* India
* Iranis
* Iran
* Iraq
* Pakistan
* Parsis
* Russia
* United States
* Uzbekistan
* Persecution of Zoroastrians

Related topics

* Criticism of Zoroastrianism
* Zoroastrian cosmology
* Religious influences on Zoroastrianism

Religion portal

* v
* t
* e

Zoroastrianism has been practiced in Armenia since the fifth century BC. It first reached the country during the Achaemenid and Parthian periods, when it spread to the Armenian Highlands. Prior to the Christianization of Armenia, it was a predominantly Zoroastrian land.[2] The yazatas (deities) Mithra (Mihr) and Verethragna (Vahagn) particularly enjoyed a high degree of reverence in the country.[3]

## Name

[edit]

The name of Zoroaster (Zarathustra) is attested in Classical Armenian sources as Zradašt (often with the variant Zradešt).[4] The most important of these testimonies were provided by the early Christian Armenian authors Eznik of Kolb, Elishe, and Movses Khorenatsi.[4] Elishe also provided the adjective zradaštakan, meaning "Zoroastrian".[4][a]

Mazdaism, a synonym for Zoroastrianism, is also attested in the earliest extant Armenian texts. The 5th-century Epic Histories (Buzandaran Patmutʿiwnkʿ), written in Classical Armenian, associates magi (mogkʿ, մոգք) with Mazdaism, which its anonymous author calls Mazdezn (Մազդեզն, "Mazdean faith").[5][b] In the 6th century, Elishe preferred to use the word mogutʿiwn in his texts, which undoubtedly parallels the Georgian mogobay/moguebay ("Magism", i.e. "Mazdaism, Zoroastrianism") as attested in the early Georgian hagiographies.[6] This feature is also seen in other West Asian languages; in Syriac Christian texts, for example, Mazdaism is usually referred to as mgošūtā.[7]

## History

[edit]

Zoroastrianism was introduced into Armenia during the Achaemenid era, and it was bolstered during Parthian Arsacid rule.[8] The terminology, belief and symbolism of Zoroastrianism permeated the Armenian religious mindset and lexicon.[8]

Extant sources of the Classical period, in addition to native Armenian sources, are used for research into the Zoroastrian Armenian pantheon and the centres of worship.[9] Sergio La Porta notes in The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity that six of the eight divinities whose cultic centres were mentioned by the 5th-century Armenian historian Agathangelos "clearly represent Zoroastrian yazatas or divinities worshipped in Armenia".[9] Aramazd (Iranian Ahura Mazda, also known as Ohrmazd) was the head of the Armenian pantheon, and the center of his cult was mainly located at Ani-Kamakh (modern Kemah) and Bagavan.[9] The worship of Anahit (Iranian Anahita, also known as Anahid) was dominant in the area of Ekeleats (Acilisene), whereas that of Vahagn (Iranian Verethragna, also known as Wahram) was located at Ashtishat.[9] The cult of the divinity of Mihr (Iranian Mithra) was chiefly located at Bagayarich, and it featured greatly in the Armenian religious tradition.[9] The cult of the god Tir (Iranian Tir) had its temple located at Artashat.[9] The Semitic goddess Nane may have also been introduced into Armenia with Parthian connections.[9]

Strabo, in his Geographica, referred to the similarity between Iranian and Armenian religious customs.[9]

A number of Zoroastrian fire-altars have been discovered in Christian sanctuaries in Armenia.[10] In various parts of Armenia, Zoroastrianism lingered on for several centuries even after the official adoption of Christianity. The Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, under which Armenia eventually would become a Christian nation, were pious Zoroastrians who invoked Mithra.[c][11] An episode which illustrates the Armenian Arsacids' observance of the cult is the famous journey of Tiridates I to Rome in A.D. 65–66. Tiridates I, brother of Vologases I of Parthia and founder of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, was a Zoroastrian magus or priest.[12][13]

In 53 AD, the Parthian Arsacid dynasty came into Armenia. The king Tiridates I is thought to have done a great amount to spread Zoroastrianism in Armenia.[14] The Arsacid kings legitimized their rule through the authority of the Zoroastrian yazata Verethragna, the god of victory.[15] According to Armenologist James R. Russell, Zurvanism was the form of Zoroastrianism under Yazdagird II (438–457), which he promoted in Persian Armenia.[16]

The Armenian calendar shows influences of the Zoroastrian calendar.[17][18]

Russell notes that the Armenian cross incorporates influences from Armenia's Zoroastrian past: "The Armenian Cross itself is supported on tongues of flame and has at its center not the body of Christ, but a sunburst".[19] As Zoroastrian traditions were very much integrated into Armenian spiritual and material culture, they survived the zealotry of the Sasanian priest Kartir (fl. 3rd century) and his successors, and they were ultimately incorporated into Armenian Christianity.[19]

Nina Garsoïan argues that—although the Christianization of Armenia separated it from the Zoroastrian world it had once been part of—the Zoroastrian mythology "had sunk so deep in the Armenian popular tradition that early Armenian Christian writers were apparently forced to alter Biblical stories in order to make their evangelizing mission comprehensible to their hearers".[15] By the second half of the 4th century, the catholicoi of the Armenian Church still officially used the title of Zoroastrian priests (mowbed) namely "Defender of the dispossessed" (Middle Persian: driγōšān jātakgōw, Armenian: ǰatagov amenayn zrkelocʿ).[15][20] However, Armenia post-Christianization gradually withdrew from the Iranian spiritual tradition, and its resistance to Sasanian Zoroastrianism soon also turned into opposition against the Christian national church of the Sasanians, the Church of the East.[15]

### Arewordikʿ

[edit]

Reports indicate that there were Zoroastrian Armenians in Armenia until the 1920s.[21] This small group of Armenian Zoroastrians that had survived through the centuries were known as the Arewordikʿ ("Children of the Sun").[19] They had never converted to Christianity and appear to have survived as late as the Hamidian massacres and the Armenian genocide at the turn of the 20th century.[19] Medieval Armenian sources narrate that the Arewordikʿ were never converted by Gregory the Illuminator, the patron saint and first official head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and that they had been "infected" by Zradasht (Zoroaster).[19] The Arewordikʿ were specifically distinguished from Christian sects whose adherents were deemed heretics (such as the Paulicians and Tondrakians).[19] The Arewordikʿ had seemingly taught the Paulicians and Tondrakians "to expose the dead on rooftops instead of burying them", which indicates that burial and exposure of the dead was practiced in Armenia as in Iran.[19]

The Arewordikʿ spoke the Armenian language and, as Russell notes, revered the poplar and all heliotropic plants.[19] Russell adds: "A tree which is either a poplar or a cypress, probably the latter, which is particularly revered by the Zoroastrians, appears on an Artaxiad coin."[19] The Arewordikʿ Armenians offered sacrifices for the souls of the dead, and the leader of the Arewordikʿ was called the Hazarpet (cf. Iranian Hazarbed).[19] The Arewordikʿ were known to populate five villages in the area of Mardin (present-day southeastern Turkey) in the late 14th century, Mazaka (later renamed Kayseri) and others inhabited Samosata (modern Samsat, Turkey) and Amida (modern Diyarbakır, Turkey).[19] In the town of Marsovan (modern Merzifon, Turkey), in the early 20th century, the Armenian quarter was known as "Arewordi".[19] Furthermore, a cemetery outside the town was known as "Arewordii gerezman", and an Armenian owner of a close by vineyard was named "Arewordean", Armenian for "Arewordi-son".[19]

## Beliefs

[edit]

Aramazd was the chief and creator god in the Armenian version of Zoroastrianism.[22] The deity and his name were derived from the deity Ahura Mazda after the Median conquest of Armenia in the 6th century BC.[23] Aramazd was regarded as a generous god of fertility, rain, and abundance, as well as the father of the other gods, including Anahit, Mihr, and Nane. Like Ahura Mazda, Aramazd was seen as the father of the other gods, rarely with a wife, though sometimes husband to Anahit or Spandaramet. Aramazd was the Parthian form of Ahura Mazda.[24]

## Historiography

[edit]

In Armenian historiography, the pre-Christian religion of Armenia is usually referred to as simply paganism (hetanosutyun).[25] Leo and Manuk Abeghyan viewed Armenian paganism "almost identical" to Zoroastrianism.[26] Before Christianization, Zoroastrianism in Armenia and Georgia "tended to be syncretic and adaptable with plentiful local elements."[27] Georges Charachidzé suggests that "the paganism of the ancient Armenians is almost entirely inaccessible to us", describing it as "a sort of local version of Zoroastrianism."[28] According to Christina Maranci, from the fourth to first centuries BC, the inhabitants of Armenia "worshipped a local pantheon of gods with parallels in the Zoroastrian religion of Iran", hence the term Hellenistic Armenia, "often used to describe this period, is potentially misleading."[29] Helen C. Evans suggests that "most Armenians converting to Christianity practiced local religions, like the worship of Anahit or Zoroastrianism, the state religion of Persia, while a few venerated the classical gods of Rome."[30] Vrej Nersessian describes Armenia's pre-Christian religion as simply Zoroastrianism.[31]

Albert de Jong states that although the Armenians and eastern Georgians (Iberians of classical authors) were Zoroastrians prior to their conversion to Christianity, the characterization of those peoples' pre-Christian religion as Zoroastrianism has been vehemently opposed, in particular by Armenian and Georgian scholars, who, de Jong says, "prefer to think of the pre‐Christian religions of the Armenians and Georgians as chiefly 'local' or 'indigenous' traditions, which accommodated some Iranian elements".[32] De Jong continues:[33]

> They are aided in this interpretation by the fact that the (Christian) Armenian and Georgian sources rarely, if at all, identify the religion of their ancestors before their conversion to Christianity as "Zoroastrianism." These sources either prefer seemingly neutral terms (such as "the religion of our forefathers") or polemical ones ("heathenism"), but do not label the religion as "Iranian" or "Zoroastrian." Where these terms occur, they refer to the religion of the Persians, chiefly of the Persians as enemies of the Christian Armenians. This fact in itself, while undeniable, is not compelling; on the contrary, it seems to be in harmony with the self‐identifications of most of the Iranians; the wide spread of the term "Zoroastrian" is of post‐Sasanian date and even "Mazda‐worshipping" is mainly used in limited (e.g., imperial and liturgical) contexts. Iranian Zoroastrians seem to have been identified after the Iranian land they came from (Persians, Parthians, Sogdians, etc.), with the Zoroastrian element of their identity self‐understood.

Within this matter, confusion has been created mainly due to the works of historians of Zoroastrianism, who often interpret it as an "identity" dominating all others.[34] Furthermore, these same historians employ a very tightly restricted delineation of what is "real" Zoroastrianism.[34] This essentialist definition only closely reflects the Sasanian version of Zoroastrianism.[34] Many scholars, failing to recognize this fact, have resorted to using this version of the Zoroastrian religion, which is historically and culturally very specific, as a standard by which to consider the evidence for the non-Sasanian versions of Zoroastrianism.[34] De Jong adds that this approach is not only anachronistic—for example, it measures Parthian Zoroastrianism to standards that existed only after the fall of the Parthian Empire—but also "anatopistic" in disregarding the probability of zonal developments in Zoroastrianism past the borders of the central regions of the Sasanian Empire.[34] Both are existing problems in relation to Armenian (and Georgian) Zoroastrianism.[34] Although the extant Zoroastrian evidence from Armenia (and Georgia) is scant and not easy to clarify, it is of major value for questioning the viability of most current methods that assess the history of Zoroastrianism.[34]

## See also

[edit]

* Battle of Avarayr
* Armenian mythology
* Satrapy of Armenia

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ The spelling Zradašt was generated through an older form which started with *zur-, a fact which the German Iranologist Friedrich Carl Andreas used as evidence for a Middle Persian spoken form *Zur(a)dušt.[4] Based on this assumption, Andreas made similar conclusions regarding the Avestan form of the name.[4] However, modern Iranologist Rüdiger Schmitt rejects Andreas's assumption and states that the older form which started with *zur- was influenced by Armenian zur ("wrong, unjust, idle"), which therefore means that "the name must have been reinterpreted in an anti-Zoroastrian sense by the Armenian Christians".[4] Schmitt adds: "it cannot be excluded, that the (Parthian or) Middle Persian form, which the Armenians took over (Zaradušt or the like), was merely metathesized to pre-Armenian *Zuradašt.[4]
2. ^ This word is borrowed from Parthian *Mazdayazn and Middle Persian Māzdēsn.[5]
3. ^ "The Parthian Arsacids who came to the throne of Armenia in the first century A.D. were pious Zoroastrians who invoked Mithra as the lord of covenants, as is proper. An episode which illustrates their observance of the cult is the famous journey of Tiridates to Rome in A.D. 65-66."[11]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Sim, Steven (30 October 2001). "The "Fire-Temple"". virtualani.org. Archived from the original on 1 July 2024.
2. ^ Boyce 2001, p. 84.
3. ^ Curtis 2016, p. 185.
4. ^ a b c d e f g Schmitt 2002.
5. ^ a b Rapp 2014, p. 91.
6. ^ Rapp 2014, pp. 91–92.
7. ^ Rapp 2014, p. 92.
8. ^ a b La Porta 2018, p. 1613.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h La Porta 2018, p. 1614.
10. ^ Nigosian 1978.
11. ^ a b Russell 1987, p. 268.
12. ^ Lang 1980, pp. 84, 141, 149: "Though Tiridates was to be a client king of the Romans, Nero rightly judged that his investiture would satisfy the honour of the Parthians as well. Three years later, Tiridates made the journey to Rome. As a magus or priest of the Zoroastrian faith, he had to observe the rites which forbade him to defile water by travelling (...)".
13. ^ Boyce 2001, p. 84: "(...) In 62 A.C. the Parthian king Vologases (Valakhsh) put his younger brother Tiridates on the Armenian throne, and this cadet branch of the Arsacids ruled there into the Sasanian period. Tiridates was himself a strictly observant Zoroastrian \- Roman sources even call him a Magus \- and there is no doubt that during the latter period of the Parthian period Armenia was a predominantly Zoroastrian adhering land".
14. ^ Hacikyan et al. 2000, p. 70.
15. ^ a b c d Garsoian 2004.
16. ^ Russell 1987, pp. 136–138.
17. ^ De Jong 2015, p. 124.
18. ^ Panaino, Abdollahy & Balland 1990.
19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Russell 1986.
20. ^ Garsoïan 1985, pp. 136–138.
21. ^ Sanasarian 2011, p. 313: "Later, Armenian Christianity retained some Zoroastrian vocabulary and ritual. Reports indicate that there were Zoroastrian Armenians in Armenia until the 1920s".
22. ^ Russell 2005, p. 29; Ellerbrock 2021; La Porta 2018, p. 1613; Boyce 2001, p. 84; Frenschkowski 2015, p. 469; Canepa 2018, p. 199
23. ^ Russell, James R. (2005). "Armenian mythology". The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19991-648-1.
24. ^ Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh (2016). "Ancient Iranian Motifs and Zoroastrian Iconography". In Williams, Markus; Stewart, Sarah; Hintze, Almut (eds.). The Zoroastrian Flame Exploring Religion, History and Tradition. I.B. Tauris. pp. 179–203. ISBN 9780857728159.
25. ^ Makuchyan, T. (1980). "Հեթանոսություն". Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia Vol. 6 (in Armenian). p. 331. "Հայ կրոնագիտության մեջ ընդունված է Հ. անվանել հայոց նախաքրիստոնեական կրոնը:"
26. ^ Papayan, Rafayel [in Armenian] (8 June 2005). "Հայաստանում քրիստոնեության ընդունման հոգևոր նախադրյալները" (in Armenian). Noravank Foundation. Archived from the original on 6 June 2025. "Ի տարբերություն այն կարծիքի, թե հայ հեթանոսությունը զրադաշտականի գրեթե կրկնօրինակումն է (Լեո, Մ.Աբեղյան և այլոք)"
27. ^ Mgaloblishvili, Tamila; Rapp Jr, Stephen H. (2011). "Manichaeism in late antique Georgia". In Search of Truth: Augustine, Manichaeism and Other Gnosticism : Studies for Johannes Van Oort at Sixty. Brill. p. 264. ISBN 9789004189973.
28. ^ Charachidzé 1993, p. 265.
29. ^ Maranci, Christina (2018). The Art of Armenia: An Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 22\. ISBN 978-0190269005.
30. ^ Evans, Helen C. (2018). "Armenians and their Middle Age". In Evans, Helen C. (ed.). Armenia: Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages. Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press. p. 31\. ISBN 9781588396600. OCLC 1028910888.
31. ^ Nersessian, Vrej (2001). Treasures from the Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. p. 18. ISBN 9780892366392. "The second break was initiated by the ascendance of Christianity over Zoroastrianism as Armenia's state religion."
32. ^ De Jong 2015, p. 119.
33. ^ De Jong 2015, pp. 119–120.
34. ^ a b c d e f g De Jong 2015, p. 120.

## Sources

[edit]

* Boyce, Mary (2001). Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Psychology Press. ISBN 0415239028.
* Canepa, Matthew (2018). The Iranian Expanse: Transforming Royal Identity Through Architecture, Landscape, and the Built Environment, 550 BCE–642 CE. Oakland: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520379206.
* Ellerbrock, Uwe (2021). The Parthians: The Forgotten Empire. Oxford: Routledge. ISBN 978-0367481902.
* Frenschkowski, Marco (2015). "Christianity". In Stausberg, Michael; Vevaina, Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw; Tessmann, Anna (eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. John Wiley And Sons Ltd. pp. 457–477.
* Garsoïan, Nina G. (1985). Armenia Between Byzantium and the Sasanians (in French). Variorum Reprints. pp. 136–138\. ISBN 978-0-86078-166-0.
* Garsoian, Nina (2004). "Armeno-Iranian relations in the pre-Islamic period". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica (Online ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
* Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh (2016). "Ancient Iranian Motifs and Zoroastrian Iconography". In Williams, Markus; Stewart, Sarah; Hintze, Almut (eds.). The Zoroastrian Flame Exploring Religion, History and Tradition. I.B. Tauris. pp. 179–203\. ISBN 9780857728159.
* De Jong, Albert (2015). "Armenian and Georgian Zoroastrianism". In Stausberg, Michael; Vevaina, Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw; Tessmann, Anna (eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. John Wiley And Sons Ltd. pp. 119–128.
* Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; Ouzounian, Nourhan (2000). The Heritage of Armenian Literature, Volume I: From the Oral Tradition to the Golden Age. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-2815-6.
* Lang, David Marshall (1980). Armenia, Cradle of Civilization. Allen & Unwin.
* La Porta, Sergio (2018). "Zoroastrianism, Armenian". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.
* Nigosian, Solomon A. (1978). "Zoroastrianism in fifth-century Armenia". Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. 7 (4): 425–434\. doi:10.1177/000842987800700407.
* Panaino, Antonio; Abdollahy, Reza; Balland, Daniel (1990). "Calendars". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. IV: Bāyju–Carpets XIV. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 658–677\. ISBN 978-0-71009-132-1.
* Rapp, Stephen H. (2014). The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature. Routledge. ISBN 978-1472425522.
* Russell, J. R. (1986). "Armenia and Iran iii. Armenian Religion". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. II/4: Architecture IV–Armenia and Iran IV. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 438–444\. ISBN 978-0-71009-104-8.
* Russell, James R. (1987). Zoroastrianism in Armenia. Harvard University, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and National Association for Armenian Studies and Research. ISBN 978-0674968509.
* Sanasarian, Eliz (11 November 2011). "Nationalism and Religion in Contemporary Iran". In Roald, Anne Sofie; Longva, Anh Nga (eds.). Religious Minorities in the Middle East: Domination, Self-Empowerment, Accommodation. Brill. ISBN 9004216847.
* Schmitt, Rüdiger (2002). "Zoroaster i. The Name". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica (Online ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
* Charachidzé, Georges (1993). "The Religion and Myths of Armenia". American, African, and Old European Mythologies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 265.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Russell, James R. (2004). Armenian and Iranian Studies. Harvard Armenian Texts and Studies, 9. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0935411195.

* v
* t
* e

Religion in Armenia

Christianity|

* Armenian Apostolic Church
* Armenian Brotherhood Church
* Armenian Evangelical Church
* Catholic Church
* Armenian Catholic Church
* Georgian Orthodox Church
* Molokans

Other religions|

* Baháʼí Faith
* Buddhism
* Hetanism
* Islam
* Judaism
* Yazidism
* Zoroastrianism

History|

* Armenian mythology
* Christianization of Armenia
* Armenian Christian tradition in the 20th century
* Paulicianism
* Archontics
* Chazinzarians
* Tondrakians

Related topics|

* Freedom of religion
* The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Caucasus

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[fl.]: floruit ('flourished' – known to have been active at a particular time or during a particular period)