Zurvanism is a fatalistic religious movement of

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...

in which the divinity Zurvan is a first principle (primordial creator deity) who engendered equal-but-opposite twins, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. Zurvanism is also known as "Zurvanite Zoroastrianism", and may be contrasted with Mazdaism. In Zurvanism, Zurvan was perceived as the god of infinite time and space and was ''aka'' ("one", "alone"). Zurvan was portrayed as a transcendental and neutral god, without passion, and one for whom there was no distinction between good and evil. The name ''Zurvan'' is a normalized rendition of the word, which in

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle P ...

appears as either ''Zurvān'', ''Zruvān'' or ''Zarvān''. The Middle Persian name derives from Avestan ''zruvan-'' (, ), which is grammatically neuter.

Origins and background

Although the details of the origin and development of Zurvanism remain murky (for a summary of the three opposing opinions see below), it is generally accepted that Zurvanism was: 1) a branch of greater

; 2) a sacerdotal response to resolve a perceived inconsistency in the sacred texts (see below); and 3) probably introduced during the second half of the

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...

era. Zurvanism enjoyed royal sanction during the

Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

era (226–651 CE) but no traces of it remain beyond the 10th century. Although Sassanid-era Zurvanism was certainly influenced by Hellenic philosophy, any relationship between it and the Greek divinity of Time (

Chronos Chronos (; grc-gre, Χρόνος, , "time"), also spelled Khronos or Chronus, is a personification of time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature. Chronos is frequently confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the Tit ...

) has not been conclusively established. Non-Zoroastrian accounts of typically Zurvanite beliefs were the first traces of Zoroastrianism to reach the west, leading European scholars to conclude that Zoroastrianism was a

monist Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...

religion, an issue of controversy among both scholars and contemporary practitioners of the faith. Zurvan appears in Sanskrit as ''sarva'', and the etymology of

Sarvastivada The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (Sanskrit and Pali: 𑀲𑀩𑁆𑀩𑀢𑁆𑀣𑀺𑀯𑀸𑀤, ) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (3rd century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosop ...

, a monistic Buddhist sect, suggests at least a common conceptional link to Zurvanism, depending on how the word Sarvastivada is parsed.

Evidence of the cult

The earliest evidence of the cult of Zurvan is found in the ''History of Theology'', attributed to Eudemus of Rhodes (c. 370–300 BCE). As cited in Damascius's ''Difficulties and Solutions of First Principles'' (6th century CE), Eudemus describes a sect of the

Medes The Medes ( Old Persian: ; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, ...

that considered Space/Time to be the primordial "father" of the rivals ''Oromasdes'' "of light" and ''Arimanius'' "of darkness". The principal evidence for Zurvanite doctrine occurs in the polemical Christian tracts of Armenian and Syriac writers of the Sassanid period (224–651 CE). Indigenous sources of information from the same period are the 3rd century

Kartir Kartir (also spelled Karder, Karter and Kerdir; Middle Persian: 𐭪𐭫𐭲𐭩𐭫 ''Kardīr'') was a powerful and influential Zoroastrian priest during the reigns of four Sasanian kings in the 3rd-century. His name is cited in the inscriptions ...

inscription at Ka'ba-i Zartosht and the early 4th-century century edict of Mihr-Narse (head-priest under Yazdegerd I), the latter being the only native evidence from the Sassanid period that is frankly Zurvanite. The post-Sassanid Zoroastrian Middle Persian commentaries are primarily Mazdean and with only one exception (10th-century century ''Denkard'' 9.30) do not mention Zurvan at all. Of the remaining so-called Pahlavi texts only two, the '' Mēnōg-i Khrad'' and the ''Selections of Zatspram'' (both 9th century) reveal a Zurvanite tendency. The latter, in which the priest Zatspram chastises his brother's un-Mazdaean ideas, is the last text in

that provides any evidence of the cult of Zurvan. The 13th century Zoroastrian ''Ulema-i Islam'' ('' esponseto Doctors of Islam''), a New Persian apologetic text, is unambiguously Zurvanite and is also the last direct evidence of Zurvan as a First Principle. There is no hint of any ''worship'' of Zurvan in any of the texts of the Avesta, even though the texts (as they exist today) are the result of a Sassanid era redaction. Robert Zaehner proposed that this is because the individual Sassanid monarchs were not always Zurvanite and that Mazdean Zoroastrianism just happened to have the upper hand during the crucial period that the canon was finally written down. In the texts composed prior to the Sassanid period, ''Zurvan'' appears twice, as both an abstract concept and as a minor divinity, but there is no evidence of a cult. In ''

Yasna Yasna (;"Yasna"
'' Vata-Vayu'') and in ''Yasht'' 13.56, the plants grow in the manner Time has ordained according to the will of Ahura Mazda and the Amesha Spentas. Two other references to Zurvan are also present in the ''Vendidad'', but although these are late additions to the canon, they again do not establish any evidence of a cult. Zurvan does not appear in any listing of the Yazatas.

History and development

Ascent and acceptance

The origins of the cult of Zurvan remain debated. One view considers Zurvanism to have developed out of

as a reaction to the liberalization of the late

-era form of the faith. Another view proposes that Zurvan existed as a pre-Zoroastrian divinity that was incorporated into Zoroastrianism. The third view is that Zurvanism is the product of the contact between Zoroastrianism and Babylonian– Akkadian religions (for a summary of opposing views see Certain however is that by the Sassanid era (226–651 CE), the divinity "Infinite Time" was well established, and – as inferred from a Manichaean text presented to Shapur I, in which the name ''Zurvan'' was adopted for Manichaeism's primordial "

Father of Greatness The Father of Greatness (Syriac- Aramaic: ; zh, t=明尊, zhu=ㄇㄧㄥˊ ㄗㄨㄣ, w=Ming2-tsun1, p=Míngzūn, l=Radiant Lord) is the eternal divine manifestation of good in Manichaeism,Willis Barnstone, Marvin Meyer. ''The Gnostic Bible: Rev ...

" – enjoyed royal patronage. It was during the reign of Sassanid Emperor Shapur I (241–272 CE) that Zurvanism appears to have developed as a cult and it was presumably in this period that Greek and Indic concepts were introduced to Zurvanite Zoroastrianism. It is however not known whether Sassanid-era Zurvanism and Mazdaism were separate sects, each with their own organization and priesthood, or simply two tendencies within the same body. That Mazdaism and Zurvanism competed for attention has been inferred from the works of Christian and Manichaean polemicists, but the doctrinal incompatibilities were not so extreme "that they could not be reconciled under the broad aegis of an imperial church". More likely is that the two sects served different segments of Sassanid society, with dispassionate Zurvanism primarily operating as a mystic cult and passionate Mazdaism serving the community at large.

Decline and disappearance

Following the fall of the Sassanid Empire in the 7th century, Zoroastrianism was gradually supplanted by Islam. The former continued to exist but in an increasingly reduced state, and by the 10th century the remaining Zoroastrians appear to have more closely followed the orthodoxy as found in the Pahlavi books (see also below). Why the cult of Zurvan vanished while Mazdaism did not remains an issue of scholarly debate. Arthur Christensen, one of the first proponents of the theory that Zurvanism was the state religion of the Sassanids, suggested that the rejection of Zurvanism in the post-conquest epoch was a response and reaction to the new authority of Islamic monotheism that brought about a deliberate reform of Zoroastrianism that aimed to establish a stronger orthodoxy. Zaehner is of the opinion that the Zurvanite priesthood had a "strict orthodoxy which few could tolerate. Moreover, they interpreted the Prophet's message so dualistically that their God was made to appear very much less than all-powerful and all-wise. Reasonable as so absolute a dualism might appear from a purely intellectual point of view, it had neither the appeal of a real monotheism nor had it any mystical element with which to nourish its inner life." Another possible explanation postulated by Boyce is that Mazdaism and Zurvanism were divided regionally, that is, with Mazdaism being the predominant tendency in the regions to the north and east ( Bactria, Margiana, and other

satrapies A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with con ...

closest to Zoroaster's homeland), while Zurvanism was prominent in regions to the south and west (closer to Babylonian and Greek influence). This is supported by Manichaean evidence that indicates that 3rd century Mazdean Zoroastrianism had its stronghold in

Parthia Parthia ( peo, 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 ''Parθava''; xpr, 𐭐𐭓𐭕𐭅 ''Parθaw''; pal, 𐭯𐭫𐭮𐭥𐭡𐭥 ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Med ...

, to the northeast. Following the fall of the Persian Empire, the south and west were relatively quickly assimilated under the banner of Islam, while the north and east remained independent for some time before these regions too were absorbed. This could also explain why Armenian/Syriac observations reveal a distinctly Zurvanite Zoroastrianism, and inversely, could explain the strong Greek and

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

ian connection and interaction with Zurvanism (see below).

The "twin brother" doctrine

"Classical Zurvanism" is a term coined by Zaehner to denote the movement to explain the inconsistency of Zoroaster's description of the "twin spirits" as they appear in ''Yasna'' 30.3–5 of the Avesta. According to Zaehner, this "Zurvanism proper" was As the priesthood sought to explain it, if the Malevolent Spirit (lit: '' Angra Mainyu'') and the Benevolent Spirit (''Spenta Mainyu'', identified with Ahura Mazda) were twins, then they must have had a parent, who must have existed before them. The priesthood settled on ''Zurvan'' – the hypostasis of (Infinite) Time – as being "the only possible 'Absolute' from whom the twins could proceed" and which was the source of good in the one and the source of evil in the other. The Zurvanite "twin brother" doctrine is also evident in Zurvanism's cosmogonical creation myth; the classic form of the creation myth does not contradict the Mazdean model of the origin and evolution of the universe, which begins where the Zurvanite model ends. It may well be that the Zurvanite cosmogony was an adaptation of an antecedent Hellenic

cosmogony that portrayed Infinite Time as the "Father of Time" (not to be confused with the

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

Cronus, father of Zeus) whom the Greeks equated with ''Oromasdes'', i.e. Ohrmuzd / Ahura Mazda.

Creation story

The classic Zurvanite model of creation, preserved only by non-Zoroastrian sources, proceeds as follows: Christian and Manichaean missionaries considered this doctrine to be exemplary of the Zoroastrian faith and it was these and similar texts that first reached the west. Corroborated by Anquetil-Duperron's "erroneous rendering" of ''Vendidad'' 19.9, these led to the late 18th-century century conclusion that Infinite Time was the first Principle of Zoroastrianism and Ohrmuzd was therefore only "the derivative and secondary character". Ironically, the fact that no Zoroastrian texts contained any hint of the born-of-Zurvan doctrine was considered to be evidence of a latter-day corruption of the original principles. The opinion that Zoroastrianism was so severely dualistic that it was, in fact, ditheistic or even tritheistic would be widely held until the late 19th century.

Types of Zurvanism

According to Zaehner, the doctrine of the cult of Zurvan appears to have three schools of thought, each to a different degree influenced by alien philosophies, which he calls * ''materialist'' Zurvanism, * ''aesthetic'' Zurvanism, and * ''fatalistic'' Zurvanism. These are described in the following subsections. Zaehner proposes that each of three arose out of * ''classical'' Zurvanism described above.

Materialist Zurvanism

Materialist Zurvanism was influenced by the Aristotelian and Empedoclean view of ''matter'', and took "some very queer forms". While Zoroaster's Ormuzd created the universe with his thought, materialist Zurvanism challenged the concept that anything could be made out of nothing. This challenge was a patently alien idea, discarding core Zoroastrian tenets in favor of the position that the spiritual world – including heaven and hell, reward and punishment – did not exist. The fundamental division of the material and spiritual is not altogether foreign to the Avesta; ''Geti'' and ''Mainyu'' (middle Persian: ''menog'') are terms in Mazdaist tradition, where Ahura Mazda is said to have created all first in its spiritual, then later in its material form. But the material Zurvanites redefined ''menog'' to suit Aristotelian principles to mean "that which did not (yet) have matter", or alternatively, "that which was still the unformed primal matter". Even this is not necessarily a violation of orthodox Zoroastrian tradition, since the divinity '' Vayu'' is present in the middle space between Ormuzd and Ahriman, the void separating the kingdoms of light and darkness.

Ascetic Zurvanism

''Ascetic'' Zurvanism, which was apparently not as popular as the ''materialistic'' kind, viewed Zurvan as undifferentiated Time, which, under the influence of desire, divided into

reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...

(a male principle) and

concupiscence Concupiscence (from Late Latin noun ''concupiscentia'', from the Latin verb '' concupiscence'', from ''con-'', "with", here an intensifier, + ''cupi(d)-'', "desiring" + ''-escere'', a verb-forming suffix denoting beginning of a process or state) ...

(a female principle). According to Duchesne-Guillemin, this division is "redolent of

Gnosticism Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...

or – still better – of Indian cosmology". The parallels between Zurvan and Prajapati of Rig Veda 10.129 had been taken by Widengren to be evidence of a proto-Indo-Iranian Zurvan, but these arguments have since been dismissed. Nonetheless, there is a semblance of Zurvanite elements in Vedic texts, and, as Zaehner puts it, "Time, for the Indians, is the raw material, the ''materia prima'' of all contingent being."

Fatalistic Zurvanism

The doctrine of Limited Time (allotted to Ahriman by Zurvan) implied that nothing could change this preordained course of the material universe, and the path of the astral bodies of the 'heavenly sphere' was representative of this preordained course. It followed that human destiny must then be decided by the constellations, stars and planets, who were divided between the good (the signs of the Zodiac) and the evil (the planets): Fatalistic Zurvanism was evidently influenced by Chaldean astrology and perhaps also by Aristotle's theory of chance and fortune. The fact that Armenian and Syrian commentators translated ''Zurvan'' as "Fate" is highly suggestive.

Mistaken identity

In his first manuscript of his book ''Zurvan'', Zaehner identified the leontocephalic deity of the Roman Mithraic Mysteries as a representation of Zurvan. Zaehner later acknowledged this mis-identification as a "positive mistake", due to Franz Cumont's late 19th century notion that the Roman cult was "Roman Mazdaism" transmitted to the west by Iranian priests. Mithraic scholars no longer follow this so-called 'continuity theory', but that has not stopped the fallacy (which Zaehner also attributes to Cumont) from proliferating on the Internet.

The legacy of Zurvanism

No evidence of distinctly Zurvanite rituals or practices have been discovered, so followers of the cult are widely believed to have had the same rituals and practices as Mazdean Zoroastrians did. This is understandable, inasmuch as the Zurvanite doctrine of a monist First Principle did not preclude the worship of Ohrmuzd as the Creator (of the good creation). Similarly, no explicitly Zurvanite elements appear to have survived in modern Zoroastrianism. Zurvanism begins with a heterodox interpretation of Zarathushtra's Gathas: A literal, anthropomorphic "twin brother" interpretation of these passages gave rise to a need to postulate a father for the postulated literal "brothers". Hence Zurvanism postulated a preceding parent deity that existed above the good and evil of his sons. This was an obvious usurpation of Zoroastrian dualism, a sacrilege against the moral preeminence of Ahura Mazda. The pessimism evident in fatalistic Zurvanism existed in stark contradiction to the positive moral force of Mazdaism, and was a direct violation of one of Zoroaster's great contributions to religious philosophy: his uncompromising doctrine of

free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to ac ...

. In ''Yasna'' 30.2 and 45.9, Ahura Mazda "has left to men's wills" to choose between doing good and doing evil. By leaving destiny in the hands of fate (an omnipotent deity), the cult of Zurvan distanced itself from the most sacred of Zoroastrian tenets: that of the efficacy of good thoughts, good words and good deeds. That the Zurvanite view of creation was an

apostasy Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that ...

even for medieval Zoroastrians is apparent from the 10th century '' Denkard'', which in a commentary on ''Yasna'' 30.3–5 turns what the Zurvanites considered the words of the prophet into Zoroaster recalling "a proclamation of the Demon of Envy to mankind that Ohrmuzd and Ahriman were two in one womb". The fundamental goal of "classical Zurvanism" to bring the doctrine of the "twin spirits" in accord with what was otherwise understood of Zoroaster's teaching may have been excessive, but (according to Zaehner) it was not altogether misguided. In noting the emergence of an overtly dualistic doctrine during the Sassanid period, Zaehner asserted that Thus – according to Zaehner – while the direction that the Sassanids took was not altogether at odds with the spirit of the Gathas, the extreme dualism that accompanied a divinity that was remote and inaccessible made the faith less than attractive. Zurvanism was then truly heretical only in the sense that it weakened the appeal of Zoroastrianism. Nonetheless, that Zurvanism was the predominant brand of Zoroastrianism during the cataclysmic years just prior to the fall of the empire, is, according to Duchesne-Guillemin, evident in the degree of influence that Zurvanism (but not Mazdaism) would have on the Iranian brand of Shi'a Islam. Writing in the historical present, he notes that "under Chosrau II (''r.'' 590–628) and his successors, all kinds of superstitions tend to overwhelm the Mazdean religion, which gradually disintegrates, thus preparing the triumph of Islam." Thus, "what will survive in popular conscience under the Muslim varnish is not Mazdeism: it is Zervanite fatalism, well attested in Persian literature". This is also a thought expressed by Zaehner, who observes that

Ferdowsi , image = Statue of Ferdowsi in Tus, Iran 3 (cropped).jpg , image_size = , caption = Statue of Ferdowsi in Tus by Abolhassan Sadighi , birth_date = 940 , birth_place = Tus, Samanid Empire , death_date = 1019 or 1025 (87 years old) , d ...

, in his ''

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 5 ...

'', "expounds views which seem to be an epitome of popular Zervanite doctrine". Thus, according to Zaehner and Duchesne-Guillemin, Zurvanism's pessimistic fatalism was a formative influence on the Iranian psyche, paving the way (as it were) for the rapid adoption of Shi'a philosophy during the Safavid era. According to Zaehner and Shaki, in Middle Persian texts of the 9th century, ''Dahri'' (from Arabic–Persian ''dahr'', time, eternity) is the appellative term for adherents of the Zurvanite doctrine that the universe derived from Infinite Time. In later Persian and Arabic literature, the term would come to be a derogatory term for ' atheist' or ' materialist'. The term also appears – in conjunction with other terms for skeptics – in ''Denkard'' 3.225 and in the '' Skand-gumanig wizar'' where "one who says god is not, who are called ''dahari'', and consider themselves to be delivered from religious discipline and the toil of performing meritorious deeds".