In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet and the Ideas That Changed the World [Hardcover]

Paul Kriwaczek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 2003

A fascinating journey through time and across Europe and Central Asia, in search of the prophet Zarathustra (a.k.a. Zoroaster)—perhaps the greatest religious lawgiver of the ancient world—and his vast influence.

In Persia more than three thousand years ago, Zarathustra spoke of a single universal god, the battle between good and evil, the devil, heaven and hell, and an eventual end to the world—foreshadowing the core beliefs of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Moving from present to past, Paul Kriwaczek examines the effects of the prophet’s teachings on the spiri-tual and daily lives of diverse peoples. Beginning in the year 2000 with New Year’s festivities in Iran, he walks us back through Nietzsche’s nineteenth-century interpretation of Zarathustra to the Cathars of thirteenth-century France and the ninth-century Bulgars; from ancient Rome to the time of Alexander the Great’s destruction of the Persian Empire; and, finally, to the time of Zarathustra himself.

Not only an enthralling travel book, In Search of Zarathustra is also a revelation of the importance of the prophet, and a brilliantly conceived and lucid explication of the belief systems that helped shape the European Enlightenment, the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages, and the beginning of the Christian era. It is an enthralling study of a little-explored subject.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hidden by the looming shadows of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, Zoroastrianism seems a largely forgotten religion today. Yet this ancient tradition so powerfully influenced these other three faith groups that they would not exist in their present state if not for the teachings of Zarathustra, the prophet of Zoroastrianism. Kriwaczek's lively and fast-paced study offers a unique view of Zarathustra's impact on Western religious history. Beginning in present-day Iran (the Persia where Zarathustra first began his teaching around 1200 B.C.), he participates in New Year festivities that demonstrate that pre-Islamic Iranian mythology and religious customs exist in uneasy alliance with contemporary Islamic practices. Kriwaczek then sets off on a backward travelogue, examining the significance of Zarathustra for Nietzsche in the 19th century, the Cathars of the Middle Ages and Hellenistic and Jewish thought from the third through the first centuries B.C. The prophet's teachings, recorded in the Avesta, offer a dualistic view of the world, a dualism that can be seen in the apocalyptic visions of the Book of Daniel and in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Zoroastrianism also featured divisions of heavenly beings, each lined up on one side or the other, supporting either darkness or light. In both Christianity and Islam, the influence of Zoroastrianism can be clearly seen in the pantheon of heavenly beings arranged in hierarchical fashion according to degrees of goodness or evil. This is the best and most thorough survey of Zoroastrianism, and its prophet Zarathustra, to date.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The ancient prophet Zarathustra, founder of Zoroastrianism, was a "deeply radical figure" who believed in "one true God," saw the world as a "battlefield between good and evil," and predicted the coming of a messiah and the end of time, convictions that became the foundation for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. So intrigued did Kriwaczek, formerly a Central and South Asia expert for the BBC, become with Zarathustra's largely overlooked legacy, he launched an original, exacting, and many-faceted inquiry into the Iranian visionary's deep, abiding, and remarkably universal influence. Working backward in time and blending vivid accounts of visits to historic Zoroastrian sites with a fresh and consistently perceptive and surprising analysis of religious history, Kriwaczek weaves an enticingly complex tapestry. He seeks and finds evidence of Zoroastrianism in twentieth-century Iran and Afghanistan, parses Nietzsche's adoption of the prophet as muse and conduit, tracks the puzzling history of the Cathars, discerns Iranian elements in Gothic art and feudalism, and discusses how the prophet Mani nearly turned Zoroastrianism into a "world faith." Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st American ed edition (February 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375415289
• ISBN-13: 978-0375415289
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,060,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Eastern Religions > Zoroastrianism

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30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From Nietzsche to Zarathustra, May 16, 2003

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet and the Ideas That Changed the World (Hardcover)

The ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster taught that the world was caught in a struggle between good and evil. He believed in one God, called Ahura Mazda, in a struggle with the forces of darkness. He was a theological monist and an ethical dualist. Human beings had the responsibility of working to bring about the good and eliminate the evil. The good would triumph in the end. Zoroaster was one of the first religious teachers to preach the afterlife. He founded a religion called Zoroastrianism which remains one of the fundamental religions of man and, although it has relatively few adherents, it survives today.

Paul Kriwaczek has written a fine book which is travelog, political commentary, history, and study of Zoroastrianism all rolled into one. Mr. Kriwaczek was trained as a dentist but subsequently joined BBC as a specialist in Central and South Asian affairs. It is good to see a nonspecialist who can write on Zoroaster with enthusiasm and knowledge and convey something of both to his readers.

The book is written in the form of a reverse chronology beginning with the present-day and progressing through successive chapters to the hazy early days (perhaps 1800 B.C.) of Zarathustra himself. We see many interesting figures along the way, and Kriwaczek is full of entertaining stories and digressions. This mostly makes the book a pleasure to read, but there are moments when the organization becomes confusing and the story gets a bit off track.

Kriwaczek spends a great deal of time on Frederich Nietzsche and his famous work "Thus Spake Zarathustra." He explains well the sources of Nietzsche's fascination with the ancient Persian prophet and he discusses the advances in scholarship contemporary with Nietzsche that helped make Zoroaster accessible.

The book continues with a mixture of travel, history, and philosophy through a discussion of the Albegensians, the religion of Mani, Mithraism, Cyrus the Great, and the Jews during the period of the Babylonian Exile and the Second Temple.
There are outstanding color photograhps illustrating the places and sites discussed in the book. Kriwazeck's treatments make no pretense of being scholarly or complete. But they are, on the whole, eloquent and thought-provoking. I enjoyed particularly the discussion of Mani, a reformer of Zorastrianims who gave his name to Manicheanism. Kriwazeck's account is based in part upon a recent novel, "The Gardens of Light" by the Lebanese author, Amin Maalouf.

Kriwazeck concludes that Zoroaster continues to have a great deal to teach. He sees Zoroaster has a predecessor of the "American religion" or "universal religion" (pp. 227-228) which emphasizes ecumenisism and toleration in a large society composed of individuals from diverse backrounds. Kriwazeck writes (p.228) that the Universal religion:

"comprises a belief in good and evil, angels, the devil, heaven and hell, the coming of a Messiah, and an eventual end of the world. These are beliefs with which Jews, Christians and Muslims can all agree-- as well as that majority who do not claim to believe in any particular religion. Every one of these ideas first appeared in Zarathustra's teaching long before the start of recorded history, a message as influential today as it ever was."

Kriwaczek has written a fine popular study of Zoroaster. It may awake interest in the fundamentals of Zoroaster's teaching and move the mind and heart of the reader.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let the praise begin..., February 14, 2003

By A Customer

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This review is from: In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet and the Ideas That Changed the World (Hardcover)

I'm going to get right to the point: what a fantastic book!! The subject of the book, the ancient prophet Zarathustra and his world-changing message, is absolutely fascinating, not to mention how important it is to our proper understanding of history and who we are; and the author really does it justice, too! I can only think that if this book isn't widely read and talked about, it will be through no fault of the author's.

"In Search of Zarathustra" is very well-written and an excellent example of how to make history entertaining, without compromising the requirement to accurately inform. But the book is much more than simply history though. It's really a search for something important and very profound, and the author makes it a joy for the reader to join him on the journey. Part history. Part travelogue. Part investigation of the soul... All seamlessly woven together!

I can find very few things to fault with this book, which is why I'm giving it 5 stars. Overall the editing is superb, and I spotted only very few (mostly minor) errors; e.g., in a couple of places incorrect dates related to Cyrus the Great are given, and Yazd is shown as 'Yadz' on the maps. While not a scholar per se, the author clearly is educated, well-travelled, and has done his homework very, very well. There's little in this book that can't be verified easily, and a comprehensive list of sources is given in the notes section at the end. Another thing I think adds real value to the book is the inclusion, in both front and back, of clearly marked maps; something I found to be most useful!! The book has 28 photos, which also helped to bring the subject matter to life.

In some ways this book reminds me of two other books I've read: "In Search of the Birth of Jesus: The Real Journey of the Magi" by Paul William Roberts, and "The Other God: Dualist Religions from Antiquity to the Cathar Heresy" by Yuri Stoyanov (the author here actually cites an earlier edition of Stoyanov's book as a reference). The former is a light-hearted, more entertaining read, while the latter is a thorough, vast and erudite (though still very readable) survey. Both are excellent books, but what I especially like about "In Search of Zarathustra" is that it combines the best of both worlds: highly readable, entertaining, imaginative, and yet complete in its exploration of the subject.

This really is the best book that I've read in quite some time. I'm not sure what more I could say to recommend it. So instead I'll simply end with: Get this book. You won't regret it!!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Spiritual Journey, July 22, 2003

By 

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet and the Ideas That Changed the World (Hardcover)

In Search of Zarathustra is an uneven book in many respects. It is partly a travel diary of the author's many trips to Iran and Central Asia over a period of some forty years. The primary purpose of the book is to trace the legacy of the ancient Iranian religious leader Zarathustra or Zoroaster. This legacy is indeed fascinating, since it has had a major influence on the development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Unfortunately Kriwaczek sometimes is more enthusiastic than thorough or organized, and the reader is forced to leap back and forth through time and space and can wind up a bit confused about which traditiona and which era is being discussed. Also, Kriwaczek's use of modern slang expressions can sometimes distract.

I enjoyed this book, regardless of the problems I noted above. I found the descriptions of modern day Shia Islam and its probable legacies from Zoroastrianism very illuminating, so that I have a better grasp of the differences between Sunni and Shia Islam. The descriptions of present day Iranians and their pre-Islamic religious traditions are also intriguing. I wish that Kriwaczek had spent more time on Mithraism and the Cathars and Bogomils, but what he did include was fascinating, too. That's the only real reservation I have about this book, it is simply too short to do justice to its subject.