Zarathushtra; The First Monotheist Prophet
By: Noorbakhsh Rahimzadeh
Until contemporary times, researchers in the world have had lengthy debate and have written hundreds or perhaps thousand books as to which of the prophets, known to mankind, was the first who laid the foundation for monotheism or divine worship in the human history. If we study all these books which have been written or translated, we will understand that there is a certain organized movement to introduce two rightful and legible prophets in human history for political and cultural ends and by lengthening or shortening the date of birth of these prophets they have pursued specific objects none of which is based on truth. From all these studies we can see that the edge of the lance is wholly and relentlessly aimed at Zoroaster, the Iranian prophet. For political reasons the lifetime of this prophet has been altered several times.
Now should we classify the theories expressed by researchers, we will have three types of theories. The first theory which up to now has been the most costly one belongs to those who insist that this ancient prophet was born 660 years before the birth of Christ. In the second theory, astrologers such as Birjandi and Bahmanyar, the students of Ibn Sina, and supported by well known contemporary professor Zabih Behrooz, maintained that Zoroaster was born in the year 1768 B.C. i.e. 47 years after the birth of Abraham. It was not right for Behrooz, the celebrated scholar, to side with these students of Ibn Sina. Because when this verdict arrived at the West it gave them a license to establish a giant cultural foundation. By relying on that verdict this foundation declared that Zoroaster was one of the students of Prophet Abraham and that Zoroastrian religion was a branch of Jewish monotheism religion.
The third theory belongs to the majority of Indian Parsi researchers and scholars such as Professor Jamshid Kavos Jeikatrak who argued with many strong justifications that Prophet Zoroaster lived approximately 6600 years before Christ. In this article we will study the first theory which maintains that Zoroaster was born in 660 B.C.
Should we consider the opinion of the followers of this theory and not the Zoroastrians who, due to lack of research about the appearance of Hooshidar, gradually reduced the birthday of the prophet, we will have two groups.
The first group which we may call experts on emergence of prophets, are those who, with the exception of Mani, believe that the prophets started their work after the invasion of Arabs into Iran and by gradually reducing the prophet's birthday, they paved the way for the emergence of their desired deadline. In order to achieve that end these researchers were forced even to alter and distort the research works of our past scholars such as Abu Reyhan Birooni's Albaqieh.
Before the invasion of our country by the Arabs, the Iranians were always astonished about the date of birth of Hooshidar which was supposed to be one thousand years after the death of Zoroaster. But since they were living in an independent and rich country they neglected to study the matter believing that it was one of the secrets which would be revealed to them at a later date.
Meanwhile until the Arab invasion no Iranian doubted the date of birth and death of Zoroaster because all precise and authentic historical information about that prophet and other prophets were registered in four thousand volumes in Tisphoon or other libraries in Iran. But after Arabs invaded Iran and stripped Iran of its independence and burnt all our historical sites and records, since the Iranians were always seeking to revive their historical glory, they started to reduce Zoroaster's birthday to 400 B.C. and opened the way for false researchers and scholars such as Tamami, Mansoor Hallaj, Diyalameh, Bahram Jenabi and Hassan Sabah. All these so called experts on the emergence and revelation of prophets were not sincere in their national aspirations, and that which was wrong with their patriotism was that they distorted the Iranian history.
The second group of researchers are contemporary researchers who are influenced by international Jewish communities who are told by Torah or the Old Testament Abraham was born in the year 1810 B.C. This group claim that Abraham was the first monotheist prophet and Zoroaster was influenced by Abraham to preach his monotheist creed. These scholars quoted by Diogenes Lertius, the Greek historian of the third century A.D., who himself quotes from Akrantous, another Greek historian of the year 210 A.D., say three manuscripts have survived from this historian in one of which the date of Zoroaster's birth is quoted as 600 years before Achamenian Xerex's invasion of Greece. In the other too manuscripts Zoroaster's birthday is quoted as 6000 B.C. which resembles many other ancient Grecian historiographers.
Although this mistaken registration of Zoroaster's birthday was repeated by subsequent Greek chronographers, the main source for subsequent quotations was Lertius' third manuscript, whereas in the other two manuscripts he quotes 6,000 B.C. as the prophet's birthday. Meanwhile elsewhere in his book, relating from Hermodoros, Plato's student, the same author says Zoroaster was born 5000 years before the battle of Troy. Since Xerex invaded Greece in 480 B.C. and the battle of Troy was fought in the year 1184 B.C., the birthday of Zoroaster, as related by Lertius must be 6184 B.C.
Now considering the fact that at least more than 9 famous Grecian historians (Aristotle, Odoxous, Pollianus, Hermitus, Plutarch, Theopompous, Suidas, Eskoloiyon and Laktantius) have all mentioned Zoroaster's birth as 6000 years before the birth of Christ or 5000 years before the war of Troy or 6000 years before invasion of Greece by Xerex, it is definite that in his third volume Lertius has dropped a zero from the birthday and this error has led to all this chaos in the history. Since we know that Grecian historiographers had access to written Babylonian and Persian calendars, we can rely on their integrity that the prophet was born in 6184 B.C. and died in the year 6107 B.C. and can hereby announce to future Iranian generations that under no condition they must change this verdict and must continue to repeat 6184 B.C. as Zoroaster's birthday.
As a comparison for the readers I must add that according to Torah Adam was born in the year 3761 B.C., Noah in 2705 B.C., Abraham in 1815 and Moses in 1392 B.C. Now if any researcher has doubt about the birthday of Zoroaster he may mention his objection and we will reply. We Iranians are an oppressed nation who have no recorded history because our real history which incorporated millions of volumes were burnt to ashes by Arab, Mongol and Tatar invaders. It is true that before Arab invasion we did not own the full Avesta which had been written in golden ink on 12000 cow hides, but it has been proven that our national library at Tisphoon contained 400000 volumes of historical, religious and national books. Among these one version of Avesta contained 21 volumes, 348 chapters and 7259700 words (of which only 83000 words have descended to the present generation).
Meanwhile these books are separate from those volumes which were preserved in hundreds of valid and famous Iranian fire temples and Anahita chain temples or Gondi Shapur University. We all know that his giant spiritual wealth can in no way be assessed. Tisphoon was burnt by Said ibn Abi Vaqqas and from Susa to Ramhormoz and from Ramhormoz to Khawrazm our libraries were burnt by other Arab invaders. It is important to note that five centuries after the destruction of the national identity of the Iranian people and when no Iranian knew his identity, a giant Islamic/Iranian movement started from Iran by historical figures such as Hassan Sabah who still continues to be mentioned as the leader of apostates but nobody has analyzed or commented about his sayings which have been quoted here and there partly by foreign (and not national) researchers.
Hassan Sabbah who had studied the Grecian and Iranian historical records in Egypt (and particularly in the Alexandrian Library), during the transfer of leadership of the Shia sect from Africa and Egypt to the Alamut stronghold, dispatched his eminent preachers to Egypt and Syria to record and translate the Iranian history and religions from the Grecian books. It is said that this was the period when our burnt history was recovered and rebuilt by the Ismaili religious preachers from the books existing in Alexandria. It is also reported that all the Ismaili popular and military forts housed giant libraries and those who wanted to meet Hassan Sabah in fact prevented him from writing. With the exception of those hours that Sabbah participated in military maneuvers or attended the evening prayers in the congregation mosque or answered students and scholars, he was always busy writing.
What were the things that gushed from the fertile pen of this Muslim and patriotic Iranian national on the paper? Can we believe that nothing has survived from Hassan Sabbah except his Chahar Darbs (four gates). I can imagine the titles of his numerous books. His spiritual commentary on the Quran was very meaningful and the spiritual Shias were not unimportant and ignorant people. Alas that these rare historical books were destroyed by the savage Halaku Khan, the barbarian Mongol and grandson of Chengiz. I can assert with assurance that the existing Iranian history which is read by our children is not genuine history. This is a history which has been fabricated by the enemies of Iran for our countrymen and our ignorant friends have relayed these distorted falsifications from generations to generations. The Iranian history must be rebuilt for the fourth time.
Presently we possess only 125 Pahlavi unearthed tablets which our Sassanian ancestors recorded for our present generation. These were preserved for us by the oppressed and persecuted Zoroastrians who created epics in India and the reduced Avesta containing 83000 words is one of these relics.
Mythological history is a history which has been descended from father to son and from mouth to mouth and there is no written record to authenticate its veracity. But these 125 Pahlavi records along with Ferdowsi's Shahnameh which must be considered as the 126th Pahlavi tablet (because Shahnameh was based on Pahlavi Khodanameh and Khodanameh was itself based on calendars used during the Achamanian, Parthian and Sassanian periods). These books have helped us to extract at least a brief history of the Kianian and Pishdadian periods out of mythological history and to integrate it into the Iranian recorded history. Because some of these works have referred to the rulers of these two dynasties. My research about Ajamian and Abadian periods has led me to conclude that these two periods which are not authenticated by records will shortly enter our written historical annals.
A fourth attempt to rebuild the Iranian history under a giant cultural/national framework, must follow two parallel lines:
1. We must make excavations throughout the Iranian plateau only by pure Iranian experts in no way affiliated to foreign researchers and by only those who love the Iranian dignity and we must impose strict conditions so that should an expert or a worker disgrace his national honor, hanging must be his least punishment. Such a process was initiated in a contrary manner during the Shah's reign and greedy international antiquarians even presided over the Iranian archeological operations.
Thanks to such a high authority given to the foreign agents, not only these archaeologists stole our valuable historical relics but even the white mummy (1) of Froditish, the father of Median history (2). Unfortunately such a pillage of underground relics was not limited to the carelessness of the Shah's period but continued more boldly and with advanced electronic equipment (known as treasure hunters) after the victory of the 1979 Revolution. Therefore, should the Iranian Majlis fail to strengthen the regulations set for protection of national heritages a thousand times, we will shortly witness an era when all our giant underground heritage, which has been left by our wise forefathers, will be wholly stolen or destroyed and nothing will be left for us to rebuild our history. Our Majlis must know that anything concealed under the earth is history and the history of a nation is the history of the whole mankind which was preserved in the Dezh Nebesht and Azar Goshasb Temple or the giant Tisphoon library.
2. The other parallel line is persistence and steady search for Indian, Chinese and Tibetan historical records, which were preserved at the cost of Iranian blood. They can be assured that should we succeed to teach their language and letters to our students through professors such as Sajjadieh, our students will research all these resources. But, as I promised earlier, in this article I wish to introduce a new and still uncovered period of the Iranian history to our readers. What I mean to tell to the second group of researchers is that they do not need to take much pains about the birthday of Zoroaster because it has been proved to me that Zoroaster was not the only monotheist prophet in Iran but the second.
Then who is the first monotheist prophet in the history of mankind and where he was nominated as prophet? After 44 years of research I have discovered that the birthday of this reverend prophet was 3593 years before the birth of Zoroaster i.e. 9700 years B.C. or 11697 years ago (retroactive to 1997). This prophet who has remained veiled as yet was living in a country known as Iranovich in the world and he was the founder of the first monotheist religion of ancient times that is Mehr (Mitra) religion or sun worship religion.
Since the researchers in the world have failed to identify this prophet or the emergence of the Mehr religion to prophet Mashir or Mehr, they have sufficed to study this important religion and all these researches have claimed that it is a monotheist religion which worshiped sun as a deity. Fortunately the hour, date and anniversary of birth of Prophet Mashi was discovered by late eminent Iranian scholar Zabih Behrooz to be 25 December, 271 A.D. This second prophet of Mehr or Mitraism whose holy book (Artank) has not been descended to us, was confirmed at the age of 25 and at 40 he invited followers to join the Mehr (sun worship) religion.
But we know that Mehr or Mitra was not only related to Parthian period and that before the confirmation of Zoroaster that religion was practiced in Iran. It has even been proved that Zoroaster was a staunch supporter of Mehr religion and before his confirmation he had progressed to the seventh rank in that region which enabled him to commune with God.
Now the question is that who was the founder of Mehr or Mitra religion? Can a religion exist without a founder?
With regard to existence of Mehr religion during the reign of Hooshang, the Pishdadi king, nobody has any doubt, because besides several documents in that connection we can rely on Abolqasem Ferdowsi in his Khodaynamak or book of God. Ferdowsi says:
We are not ashamed of an ancient faith,
No world had a better faith than Hooshang's faith;
All was righteousness and justice, the Mehr code,
And the code examines our annals and the mode.
Thus it is evident that the Mehr religion existed during the reign of Hooshang and since history does not mention any other religion during the Pishdadian and Kianian periods but Zoroastrian, undoubtedly the Mehr religion was the popular religion of all Iranians before Zoroaster's confirmation. This religion was divided into seven laborious stages or ranks and its followers were compelled to thread at least three stages of that faith. However, the other four stages were voluntary. The compulsory stages or ranks were practiced from 5 to 15 years age by the followers. In order to adjust these ancient stages to the present calculations we might divide them into primary, first medium (until first cycle) and final medium stages and then the very difficult graduation examination (or final examination). The last two composed a single stage and these three ranks were called the crow, the betrothal and fighting stages or ranks.
At the crow stage the follower first learned to read and write, and then he learned the basics and subdivisions of the religion. Then his education was divided into physical sports and social sciences which continued alongside each other. In the physical sports much emphasis was laid on body building (knight-errantly) and resistance against hardship.
Besides teaching physical body sports, the teachers taught the students to endure severe hunger and thirst and they used to place the students in very warm regions resembling an inferno or very cold regions resembling poles for weeks. They taught them to swim and to range the plain and made them tolerate long marches on foot. They were taught horse riding and polo and were exhorted about the merit of friendship and human sympathy, and the obedience of men and horses.
In social sciences the student was taught truth, commitment to contracts, justice, righteousness and daily ablutions. For example in the section related to justice, the principles of rewarding and punishing, supporting truth and fighting untruth and the method of accumulating knowledge and divine grace and the glory of attaining the seventh stage of the religion and superior understanding (of Almighty God) was taught to the students.
The fighting stage (third stage) was dedicated to combating classes. In this period which was one third of ten years (3.5 years), the student was taught to do arduous exercises and all the techniques of fighting in the theoretical and practical sense so that after graduation they emerged like a Rostam, Bijan of Bahram the Goor, each of whom were able to command an army. We have read in Nezami Ganjavi's divan about Bahrame Goor who at the head of hundred knights, attacked and scattered the immense Chinese army which had entered the Iranian territory, or we learn that no foreign invader succeeded to defeat Rostam.
In the third stage the student is taught to fight in order to protect the Iranian territorial integrity which he had been told during his first and second stages. And while he was compelled to learn fighting, he was committed not only to learn the theories but to practice the fighting by lengthy and very hard exercises. Records have revealed that Keykavoos, the king, had asked Rostam to teach the three stages of the religious codes to his son Siavosh. This proves that these three compulsory stages were so necessary and so laborious that even the ruler himself could not tolerate to see his son's suffering, and for that very reason Yazdgerd the Second asked Espahbod Manzar (General Manzar) to teach Bahrame Goor, his son.
We have records in our possession which prove that Rostam who was himself the king of Sistan and Balouchestan and a member of the Mahestan Senate or the upper Iranian senate, returned the motherless Siavosh to his father after ten years training when the boy was 15. At that age Siavash had Sohrab's huge body and Rostam's immense knowledge and a very wide leather belt on his waist. After completing the three stages, the student had to undergo a very difficult final examination and the graduate was awarded a wide leather belt. This was later changed by Zoroastrians as a certificate of graduation for wrestlers.
When the student graduated and received the coveted belt in Mehr religion, he was allowed to enter the community. It is true that a Mitra follower was not obliged to thread the other four stages of the region, but they had so many charms that invited many volunteers. For example petty kings (rulers) were chosen from among the graduates of fourth stage, kings (governors) were chosen from the graduates of fifth stage and the general commander of the army and the seven members of the elite Mahestan Senate were only selected from the graduates of the sixth rank. The graduates of the sixth stage were considered learned and they received the Farre Izadi or a certain divine bird which sat on its owner's right shoulder. It represented God and bestowed glory to its owner and watched lest the knight violated justice. In case the learned graduate of the sixth stage committed even one case of oppression or act against the region, God recalled the royal bird so that if the learned man was a governor, he would lose his legitimacy (Jamshid lost his rank in this manner by the Mahestan Senate).
Farre Izadi could not be seen by uneducated people. The bird bestowed many powers to its owner which was beyond the reach of man. Famous knights such as Rostam, Zal, Giv, Goodarz, Toos, Bizhan, Keshvad and Gorgin who formed the Mahestan Senate during Keykavoos' reign were all learned. Very few people succeeded in stepping into the seventh stage of Mehr religion while the religion prevailed.
Since the seventh stage or rank was the highest rank in the religion only those to whom truth was fully revealed and were able to commune with God, succeeded in attaining that elevated rank. It is now proven that Jamshid, the Pishdadi king, and Keykhosrow, the Kianian monarch, who succeeded to ascend to the highest peak in heaven as well as Prophet Zoroaster, had attained the seven rank in Mehr religion. Be not be surprised about Zoroaster. Yes, before his nomination to prophethood he was a staunch follower of Mehr religion and before seeking solitude in the E'etekaf Cave for 10 years he had attained the sixth stage and after taking 10 years of laborious fasting and bodily penury in the cave did he achieve the seventh rank.
By attaining the seventh rank in Mehr religion, Zoroaster succeeded to commune with God and this is why he was confirmed to become a prophet to amend the ancient Mehr religion. In fact Zoroastrian faith is the amended version of Mehr religion. Now Western researchers speak about Mehr religion as a sun worshiping religion which is due to their ignorance. Before the confirmation of Zoroaster God was known as Ahura in the Mehr religion and this was later changed to Ahuramazda by Zoroaster. Mitra used to be guardian of the earth before the amendment of the religion and each year that prophet descended on the Earth and sacrificed a cow (the last dinner of Jesus Christ is an imitation of Mehr religion). Then again he ascended to heaven.
Meanwhile the same deity has survived in Zoroastrian code as one of the gods. However, Zoroaster eliminated the sacrifice rite and in Zoroastrian faith Mitra was assigned another earthly mission (which was protection of oaths, truth and defending those who fought for justice).
The statues surviving from Mitra show his birth in the heart of the rock where Kootes and Kootopates always presided during his birth and later on during sacrifice ceremonies. Fortunately, a considerable number of these statues in Europe and a few in Asia have been discovered. These statutes might make every man of moderate sense ask himself: "If the Iranian Mehr worshipers believed that Mitra was the sole God, then why did they make him be born in a rock or cave which is naturally created by a god? And if he was the sole God in the religion why was it that during his birth creatures such as rocks and human beings were present?" If God is born in rock then what God has created the rock and torchbearers such as Kootes and Kootopates?
The lectures given by all the Pishdadi and Kiani rulers have been preserved throughout Shahnameh. Everywhere we see that these rulers start their inauguration address in the name of God and they always preach justice and avoiding injustice. Since we know that during the fortieth year of his reign Goshtasb, the Kianian king, accepted the Zoroastrian monotheist religion, the question is what other religions were worshiping the other Kianian rulers and all the Pishdadi rulers. Ferdowsi thus describes the inauguration speech of Hooshang, son of Siamak:
When he sat on the exalted throne;
Thus he addressed from the royal throne:
"I'm a king of seven nations, I am
Wherever victory and ruling prevails;
On the order of victorious God
I am to spread justice in the earth."
Considering the fact that until that time the Zoroastrian faith had not been introduced, to what God and through what religion Hooshang was addressing God?
Up to now foreign researchers have considered the Mitra creed as a division of Ashou Zartosht's religion and due to poor historical record they have remained silent about the history of Mehr religion. They have sufficed to say that there was a certain religion in Iran before Zoroaster. Only outstanding Iranian scholars such as Zabih Behrooz, Mohammad Moqadam, and engineer Hami have dared to boldly refer to that religion.
Professor Behrooz relied on the reports of astrologers such as Birjandi and Bahmanyar, (Ibn Sina's students) who had announced that they had identified a prophet of Mehr religion to have been born on the evening of Sunday, December 25, 271 B.C., which coincided with the Parthian reign. This verdict is quite befitting to the rank of this important contemporary scholar and is truly a genuine verdict. Surely Prophet Mashi (Mehr prophet) was born exactly on that day but did the Mehr religion exist before the birth of that prophet? Surely he must have been the prophet of the religion that Hooshang refers in his inauguration address during coronation. We have no other alternative but accept that he was the second Iranian prophet or Messiah of the Mehr religion. Then we must ask ourselves who was the first prophet and founder of that religion?
Western researchers believe that Izad Mehr or Mitra was the only God worshiped in Mehr religion and always considered him to be the sun and the follower of that religion as sun worshipers, whereas in the Iranian culture both during the Mehr religion and Zoroastrian religion, light has been said to have issued before sunrise. Regarding the monotheist nature of that religion we do not possess any better record than the statues that show the birth of Mitra discovered by these western researchers themselves in temples throughout Europe. In these statues Mehr is either represented to have been born from the trunk of a pine or from the heart of a rock and always two living witnesses called Kootes and Kootopates, both of them male shepherds, were present during his birth.
What message the pine or rock convey in the statue? Does not it mean that before the birth of Mitra there was a single God who created the Earth, the rock and the tree? Is not it for a specific end that they claim that Mitra was the only God in Mehr religion?
Zoroaster did not cancel the Mehr religion but amended it within Zoroastrian framework. He abolished the sacrifice rite from the religion and changed Ahura to Ahuramazda and truth into goodness and benevolence. But he preserved the foundation of Izad Mehr as one of the deities and invested important duties to this God such as achieving victories during war for the followers of the faith, observing contracts and oaths, etc. instead of portraying him as the mere patron of sacrifice and last dinner.
Zoroaster abolished the seven stages of Mehr worship and instead introduced seven qualities for God known as seven Amshasepandans representing patterns of good qualities in the religion. Now some maintain that these Amshasepandans were six qualities which later on were changed into seven qualities or deities based on wrong assumptions. In Haft Hat Yasna expressly refers to seven Amshasepandans with Ahuramazda's name on the top. Was not Ahuramazda one of the qualities of God besides being a deity himself? Zoroaster surely reinstated all the Mitra gods in his religion and it is for that reason that we can consider the Zoroastrian creed as the amended version of Mehr religion. Zoroaster even refused to abolish the teaching of the children until age 15 in temples. He only changed the place of teaching Mehrabes to fire temples. Even nowadays Zoroastrian children are examined at 15 to see whether they have learnt the principles of their religion and those who pass the examination are allowed to wear the Sudra and fasten the Kusti belt.
I feel strongly and am almost sure that this wearing of the Kusti belt is a Mehr ritual which has survived in Zoroastrian faith and the five prayers a day performed by Zoroastrians are surely an imitation of Mehr worship among the Zoroastrians. Because we are informed in the history that Keykhosrow, the Kianian king, who was a Mehr follower sojourned 45 days and nights in a prayer niche and prayed and wept for Ahura and begged God to allow him to melt into his threshold when he became the supreme power on earth. We likewise know that God granted his supplication and permitted him to ascend to the peak of Heaven.
Our learned Ferdowsi has portrayed the surprising Iranian culture in a very worthy and glorious manner which is unforgettable and I feel myself committed to reproduce this strange historical event in a separate article from verse into prose.
With regard to the monotheist nature of Mehr religion we have so many documents and evidences that I do not think it is necessary to trouble my head with these documents unless an opposition is raised about a point which impels me to reveal a document. However as an example I am quoting a report from Ferdowsi about Faranak, the mother of Fereidoon, the Pishdadi king.
She prayed to Almighty God, washing his head and body,
Then she first visited the Lord of Universe;
And praised the Creator
That had made the days so joyful and merry.
The phrases `washing the head and body' and the `lord of universe' or the word `creator' is very important in these two lines. Washing the body before prayer i.e. to say ablution was a rite of Mehr religion which is still being practiced by Sabians in Khouzestan and Iraq who are the remnant of the Mehr religion. Also the baptism of the newborn which is prevalent in Christianity is an heritage of the same religion and tens of other rites from Mehr religion have entered the Christian religion.
Like Muslims before prayer the Zoroastrians take ablution. They pray five times a day. This must not make us doubt that the ablution and prayer ceremonies were transferred from Zoroastrian religion into Islam. I believe John the Baptist, son of Zakaria, was the first person who baptized Jesus Christ, and some researchers have impertinently counted him among the prophets of Israel's race. Most probably John was a Mehr worshiper and an Iranian who dwelt at Jerusalem.
The other terms `lord of universe' or `creator' make the reader presume that after ablution Faranak visited the physical lord of universe which is not correct. Because Faranak was the mother of the sovereign of the universe. Then undoubtedly she was praying God or spiritual lord of the universe, and the phrase `she prayed to the creator' has no other meaning but to pray at the threshold of God.
Thus it is certain that the followers of Mitra were monotheists and before prayer they washed their body and then started to praise God. This makes us dismiss any doubt about the fact that Mehr religion was the first divine religion in the world which praised the sole God and paid much respect to God than other religions (Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians and Muslims). Before praying to God a Mehr follower made sure to take full ablution so that he would not present himself to his maker with the smallest impurity. But in subsequent religions respect to God diminished and the saints thought it sufficient to wash only parts of their body (hands and feet) as a reverence to Almighty God. Thus we are certain that the Mehr religion, whose founder will be introduced below, was the first prevailing monotheist religion of mankind and Iran before the 40th year of the reign of Gosthasb when Zoroaster converted the king to his faith.
This famous prophet who was not only the only founder of divine religion but human civilization was Mehabad or Abad the Great. Mehabad was the pious Iranovich ruler 3593 years before the birth of Zoroaster.
Not only we Iranians but all mankind must raise statues of this pioneer prophet in all parts of the globe and pay homage to him, because not only he established the first monotheist religion in the world, but wrote the first constitution (known as Mitradad) and laid the foundation for human civilization in blessed Iranovich. Yes, the fact is that there was not four books about divine worship but five and all the prophets were Iranian by origin who rose in the Iranian geographic and climatic sphere. The respected Mehr religion and Zoroastrian religion in Iranovich were founded by two worthy Iranian prophets namely Mehabad and Zoroaster.
The Hebrew prophet was Abraham, son of Azar, and an Iranian who was born and confirmed as prophet in Oor or Hoor which means fire. He was a Sumerian by birth and the Iraqi Sumerians were a branch of Median tribe and they were Iranians and their root comes from Brahmans and Bahram. The religion which was founded by Abraham in Oor and then transferred to Hijaz and Cannan was not the present Jewish religion and this subject has been mentioned in the holy Quran in the Ale Omran verse (holy Quran), because the sacrifice rite exists in Jewish religion which Zoroaster had abolished.
The original religion propagated by Abraham must have been surely the Mehr religion which have been introduced in Oor, west of present Khorramshahr. Also Christianity is a division of Mehr religion and Islam also descended in Hijaz which was an Iranian province in Yemen and the prophet of Islam is also an Iranian by birth. Thus prophethood and monotheism was a pure Iranian creed.
Meanwhile valid Indian religions such as the Veda, Brahmans and Hinduism are all derivations of Iranian culture and civilization propagated by those Iranians who immigrated to India. The only difference is that the migrating Iranians traveled to countries which had a different climate than Iran.
The reason for so late discovery of that prophet is that in recent centuries a number of prejudiced people in India attributed the Dessatir faith to that prophet which is falsehood and by such a false religion they prevented researchers from exploring the true personality of prophet Mehabad. Whereas in fact Mehabad was the founder of Mehr religion. Beside that Ferdowsi thus introduces Mehabad to us in the following line:
His forefather, ninth in genealogy and root,
Was prophet Mehabad who spoke the truth.
Thus we are certain that Mehr religion existed and was the first public and popular Iranian religion from the time of Hooshang, the Pishdadi king, until confirmation of Zoroaster in the fortieth year of the reign of Goshtasb, the Kianian king. We have documents at hand proving that Hooshang was Ajamian by birth and at the beginning of his rule the term `Pishdadi or Pashdati' was not employed. When Hooshang ascended the throne he differed with the Mahestan Senate composed of Iranian elders and commanders about the acceptance of Mitradat or Mehr constitution. But in the end the dispute was settled and all his subjects accepted the Mehr religion and the former codes. This is the reason why they are called `Pishdadian' (Pishdatian) because the accepted former (pish) codes "dats" which means justice. We are not aware of the holy book of Mehr religion but we can authenticate on Nezami Ganjavi's poem when he refers to the queen of Armenia who exhorts her niece Shirin and calls on her to take the holy oath.
When Shirin heard the sweet advice and inkling
She hung the maxim on her ear like a ring;
In her heart she agreed to the word,
For with that faith she was in accord;
By bright Haft Orang she took the oath
Which was God's commandment and code.
Considering the fact that before their conversion into Zoroastrian and Christian faiths the Armenians were staunch followers of Mehr religion and we see Shirin referring to Haft Orang or seven ranks, we can confirm that this book was a heavenly book containing seven brilliant ranks which were the pillars of that religion. But besides establishing the first divine religion which was based on the worship of a single deity, truth, kindness, observation of contracts, justice and physical advancement parallel with spiritual advancement, prophet Mehabad laid the foundation for the first constitution of mankind on the basis of that religion. This constitution served the basis for the subsequent (Moses') ten commandments and the codes of Hamurabi and Confucius, and the Mitradat constitution served as the foundation of a constitutional government in ancient Iranovich.
This combination of rules called Iranian irrevocable Dats or codes have been repeated several times as a glorious divine code and those who are interested in learning more about that subject might refer to my previous articles in the Vahooman magazine. Mehabad and his monotheist religion played a very important and essential role in the compilation of the Iranovich civilization which later served as the basis for all mankind, because he laid good morals and truth as the foundation of religion and government. He used to teach the new adherents in Iranovich by his Magi priests (who declared that lying is blasphemy, a contract must be observed and acted upon and that breaking a bond is also blasphemy). He exhorted his followers to learn, to be strong in order to resist those who oppressed them instead of oppressing others. For that reason until the establishment of 7 Iranian ancient kings during Jamshid, the Pishdadi king, no war was registered in the history of Iranovich and the claim of foreign researchers that the new settlers who moved to Panj Ab or Ilam were confronted by natives with curled hairs and Druids, and that upon confrontation with these natives, the migrants overcome and assimilated them into their race is false. Surely in the route that the Iranian migrants were moving, native families were dwelling but they were in no way aliens coming from other continents. In fact they were national migrants or government organized migrants who had moved their families by their own will and settled in Iranovich. It is for that reason that these natives treated future migrants, who possessed superior technology, as their saviors and in no region in that territory a battle ensued.
From the time of prophet Mahabad until the completing stage of Jamshid's rule no revolt, revolution or war between Iranian Mitra worshipers and aliens have been registered in the Iranian history. Jamshid was the only person who was proposed by God to become a prophet after prophet Mehabad and before Zoroaster, but he turned down that demand saying he did not feel he was capable to assume that role.
As a result, God appointed him as the sovereign of the world and commanded that the world should be expanded and ornamented. Regarding Jamshid, the Iranian history is vague. As a result I suggest young researchers to make a better study of this great historical Iranian figure. Since Jamshid succeeded to pass the seven stages of the Mehr religion, he was considered a saint and illuminated and succeeded to see divine truth and commune with God. Such an August personality can never ignore God's existence or call himself a god. As to why the Farre Izadi or divine bird broke from Jamshid, it must be due to his mistake which history has failed to explain. By establishing seven kingdoms in the ancient Iranian plateau, Jamshid governed his empire as a federative state and by melting the metal he laid the foundation of spinning and weaving, town building, engineering, medical and pharmaceutical science and tens of other sciences and arts. Jamshid rendered very important services to the Iranian people and he formed the civilization of mankind.
During the Parthian period prophet Mehr revived the declining Mehr religion to the extent that the faith spread to Europe in the year 67 B.C. and until 356 A.D. it remained the official religion of Rome. The four stages or ranks out of seven ranks were called Moshir, Parsa, Mehrpouya and Pedar stages. Many ignorant western researchers have said or recorded that Mitra worship has been annihilated and nobody is following that religion any more. But all mankind must know that Mehr religion was the first monotheist religion founded by the Iranian people and it has not been abolished but spread to Europe and America and has conquered these continents.
Yes,, Christianity is in fact a new version of Mehr religion which the Europeans have given it a Semitic background and some of its glorious rites and codes such as passing the seven stages of the faith have been segregated from the religion and instead they have ordained their followers to surrender to invaders. The sanctity of Sunday and Christmas season and the Christian pine and baptism and obeying the Pope or pater (father) are all Mehr codes observed in Christianity.
How regrettable it is to note that the British founded the terrible and much dreaded Freemasonry Mafia organization on the basis of Mehr edicts. The only difference is that instead of 7 stages or ranks they have set 33 ranks. This dreaded organization which secretly ensured British domination over mankind (under the name of Committee 300), is the same committee which has decided to introduce the new global order as of year 2000. The dreadful Freemasonry branches such as the old Scotland Yard and the new CIA in Washington have caused irreparable damage to the Iranian nation. We the Iranian nation are committed to fight such aggression in an organized manner. Yes, it was the Iranians who bestowed the monotheist Mehr religion to British migrants in Iranovich which propagated civilization, truth, chivalry and divine worship. Now is this justified for these ungrateful children of Mitra worshiping ancestors to replace the Mehr religion with freemasonry cult?
Footnotes:
Egyptian mummies were gray and the white mummies were used previous to Egyptian mummies.
Related from the book titled `A Period of Unawareness' written by Rashid Keykhosravi, that is Kord Kordi who was given the Zivieh Eagle epitaph by Dr. Mohammad Ali Sajjadieh. This is a small title for Keykhosravi. Instead he must be called the eagle of the Iranian plateau.
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