Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrians hold that humans must choose truth over the lie through good thoughts, words and deeds, joining the struggle until good triumphs. Fire is held sacred as the symbol of Ahura Mazda and is tended in temples by priests. Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the Achaemenid and Sasanian empires until the Arab conquest in the seventh century.

Under Muslim rule Zoroastrians became a minority. After the Mongol conquest the community withdrew to Yazd. The Parsis of Gujarat moved their Iranshah fire to Navsari in 1419, and in 1478 a layman travelled to Yazd with the first of the Rivayats, letters of ritual questions to Iranian priests. From 1501 the Safavid campaign to make Iran Shia bore heavily on the Zoroastrians who remained.