Fiona+McCluskey+Persia+Research

Zoroastrianism is the main religon of ancient Persia, and it was on of the first major monotheistic (one god) religions. Zoroastrianism started in northern persia, and leater expanded through all of the Persian lands. The founder of Zoroastrianism is a priest and prophet named Zoroaster from the 6th century BC. He used to be a priest of Peria's previous polytheistic (many gods) religion. Zoroaster preached that the only god worth worshipping was Ahura Mazda, the creator of the Universe. The script of Zoroastrianism is the Avesta, which include the Gathas (written by Zoroaster). The Gatha's were 17 hymns that showed Zoroaster's teachings, and they showed the main Zoroastrian ideas about the universe. They state that Ahura Mazda created everything, morality, nature, light, and dark. He also crated the Amesha Spentas (which means beautiful spirits) who worked for Ahura Mazda. Each of the Amesha Spentas represent a different value, like devotion, wholeness, truth and justice, immortality, and righteousness. These were all values that Zoroastrians that practiced to Ahura Mazda. Ahura Mazda gave birth to 2 different spririts at the beginning of time. These spirits were the good Ohrmazd and the evi Ahriman. Ohrmazd and Ahriman fought against each other in a battle against supreme good and supreme evil. Humans take part in this struggle, even though they do make good decisions. When humans die they cross a bridge to get to Ahura Mazda, who will decide if the person took part in the battle of good or the battle of evil. those athat fought for good went to "the kingdom of justice and truth" where they will always be happy, while those who were evil were sent to the "kingdom of the lie" where they would be tortured. The scriptures also say that when the battle between good, Ohrmazd, and evil, Ahriman ends the universe will be destroyed, and a new world will be made with no evil. Then all good people will be ressurected and live in "timeless earthly splendor". Zoroaster also preached many rituals, that centered around 4 elements; earth, fire, water, and air. Zoroaster worked very hard to avoid "corrupting" the elements because they were sacred. To keep the elements pure they did not bury or cremate bodies to avoid polluting fire and earth. Fire was very important (even in their monotheistic religion) because it represent Asha who was the light of all that is good in the universe. Sacred fires burned in temples and were tended to by the Magi (the ritual preists). Some of these fires were claimed to have burned for centuries. Zoroastrians didn't worship fire though, they viewed it as the power of goodness. Many temples were busy with people praying to Ahura Mazda and many festivals were celebrated lashvishly in Perisian culture. Today 140,000 peole claim to be Zoroastrians.
 * Persian Religion**
 * Persian Economy**


 * Because of its immense size the emperor, Darius, divided Persia into different provinces, called //satrapys// that were governed by the satrap. Each province had to pay a different amount of taxes based on the amount of people and money it had.
 * Darius helped trade in Persia too. He had hundreds of miles of roads to be built to make it easier to transport goods. He also made a common set of weights and measurements that would be the same most places they traveled.
 * Persian civilians adopted the use of coins; this idea was adopted from the Lydians. Most other civilizations were still using a barter economy, exchanging one thing for another, but using coins now gave them the opportunity to become merchants and traders. Thus replacing barter with the exchange of money.