By the time Persian culture reached its height, between the sixth and fourth centuries b.c.e., Zoroastrianism was already many centuries old. Probably more than a thousand years passed between the time when Zarathustra lived and the time when any history of the land and its peoples began to be written down. Even then written history came not from the Persians, who left few written records of their own, but from the Greeks and other outside sources. Most of what is known today about the Persians and their time comes from Greek writings, from archaeological and language studies, and from the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book, which preserved oral history and legends. Scholars believe that the people who settled the Iranian Plain migrated there between 2000 and 1500 b.c.e. from what is now southern Russia. From studying their languages it is known that they were of European, or Aryan, background rather than from the Middle East. The land the travelers found was unwelcoming—high, rugged mountains surrounded a dry salt desert. It was a land that was blisteringly hot in summer and frigid in winter. People gathered in the low valleys and along rivers, where they could farm and herd animals.
The migrants formed tribes. Mixing with the people who were already living in the areas they settled, and widely separated from other migrant groups, they developed distinct dialects, or variations of languages. The two largest tribes were the Medes in the land called Media to the north, and the Persians in the south, but there were also others. Each was made up of smaller subgroups. Many, including the group into which Zarathustra was born, apparently lived peacefully, farming and herding cattle and other livestock, the mainstay of their existence. The migrants brought their rituals and beliefs with them from a still older time. The early Iranians practiced an ancient polytheistic religion about which little is known. However its rituals included animal sacrifice and the use of intoxicating drugs to appease angry gods. Some of these rituals also served as a way to prepare young men for battle by rousing them into a state of frenzy. These young men formed warrior societies that crossed and recrossed the plains on horseback, raiding and plundering, stealing cattle and laying waste to farmland. So although many tribes lived peacefully, the times were scarred by violence and cruelty.
Zoroastrianism and Best Order of Universe
