Historians From Italy

"Among all the gods of the Babylonian-Assyrian pantheon he was the one who had the most widespread and long-lasting cult. It is already mentioned in the private documents of the ancient dynasties of Babylon, from which it appears that the god was venerated together with Sin and Samas. All the monarchs of the Babylonian empire competed in paying homage to him. (p. 88)"

"Originally he was a solar god in general, in the local aspect the sun-god of Eridu, and his cult connected with the worship of the sun. Then when the concept of the sun in its entirety was concretized in Samas, then in Marduk the morning sun and at the same time the spring sun were seen. He later passed from Eridu to Babylon, rising to the honor of the local and tutelary god of the great metropolis. As the political and religious importance of this city grew, Marduk simultaneously rose higher and higher in the celestial hierarchy; until at the apogee of Babylon's power he appears as head of all the Mesopotamian gods. (p. 80)"

"Like the other major deities of the Euphratic pantheon, Samas is named in imprecative formulas, where he appears not only as god of the sun, but also as judge and terrible punisher. I limit myself to mentioning one, which is perhaps the most important and in any case valid, one can say, for all of them: «may the god Samas, judge of heaven and earth, shatter his face (the guilty person) and convert him into darkness ( ?) the splendid day." (p. 66)"

"As a bringer of light, Samas was considered one of the greatest enemies of the powers of evil, born of darkness and who especially with the favor of the latter exercised their disastrous action. (p. 65)"

"Samas had precisely the office of bringing the light "of the wide space of the sky" to the gods and men during the day. For this purpose he went out every morning from the "inside of heaven" through the eastern gate. All on fire and in a chariot driven by two squires and drawn by strong mules, "whose knees do not bend", he ran rapidly up the mountain range that encircles the world, that is, along the line that divides the sky from the earth. The flaming disk, which can be seen from down here, was none other than one of the wheels of the chariot. Having completed the daily journey, the god returned through the western gate behind the metal wall, which closes the part of the sky visible to men, and there he spent the night in his home, Ebabbarra (I-babbarra, «house of Babbarra» that is «of the sun»), of which his great temple of Sippara, called Ebabbarra, was an image. (p. 63)"

"Blacksmiths and goldsmiths, weavers, stone carvers, gardeners and farmers proclaimed him their patron and teacher; the scribes saw in him the source of their science; the doctors, that is, the magicians, spoke to the spirits in his name, using prayers that they had learned from him. (p. 49)"

"From his quality as king of the waters comes his wisdom, which makes him, as we read in various hymns, "the intelligent guide, the god of pure life, the lord of knowledge, of human glory". He was considered supremely good, indeed one of his ancient names was Dugga, "the good", and supremely beneficial, as he revealed himself at the time of the flood, providing for the salvation of Sitnapistim. He was also considered as the giver of the laws according to which princes and peoples must govern themselves, and therefore as a lover of justice: hence, again in the saga of the flood, the reproach that he leveled against Bel for not having made a distinction between good and bad, between innocent and guilty. (pp. 47-48)"

"As god of the waters, that is, of the ocean and of all the waters of the earth, whence his titles: «the master of the waters, the lord of the coasts, the sovereign of the sea, the king, the chief, the lord of the abyss », Sumerian Ea was the protector of fishermen and sailors, a character which he also preserved in Babylonian myth and in the Assyrian cult. (p. 47)"

"Ea is the main god of the most ancient phase of the Sumerian religion, which then passed into the Babylonian-Assyrian pantheon, the god who in the magical spells of conjuration is invoked as "the spirit of the earth" and more precisely of the surface terraqueous. But Ea was not only the "lord of the earth", or In-ki, his ancient original name, but also the sovereign of the region of the atmosphere, within which life takes place in all its various and multiple forms. (p. 46)"

"The Assyrians saw in Asur the father and king of the other gods, the god of war, author of their victories, to whom the best part of the spoils was therefore offered, the god of hunting and , it seems, of health. (p. 35)"

"This suggests to us a conclusion which, in my view, is historically important: the northern steppes, the Aral region, the lands beyond the Syr Darya and probably also those beyond the Amu Darya, remain outside the reconstructed horizon... This means that Zoroastrianism... was born in an area of the Iranian or Iranianized world where, for centuries, cultural, social, and economic processes developed..."

"Zoroastrianism had its beginnings in fairly early times, no later than the beginning of the 1st millennium B.C., in the eastern part of the Iranian plateau, in the central-southern regions rather than the decidedly northern ones."

"I gradually grew more convinced of a number of definite points. First, that the milieu of the origin of Zoroaster or, as I was then inclined to think, of the tradition that bore his name, could not be in Chorasmia, either little or great”, ie. reaching as far as Marv and Harat, but must be sought in a region further south. Secondly, that the difference between the milieu of Zoroastrian origins and the cultural, social and political reality of the Achaemenian empire were so marked that they must needs be explained by means of a process of historical evolution that was neither brief nor superficial."

"The gaining of this information on the primitive location of Mazandaran in the eastern and southeastern regions of Iran is remarkably important in reconstructing the early history of Zoroastrianism, just as important as the recognition of the fact that Avestan geography, particularly the list in Vd. I, is confined to the East."

"“With Varana and Ranha, as of course with Hapta Handu, which comes between them in the Vd. I list, we find ourselves straight away in Indian territory, or, at any rate, in territory that, from the very earliest times, was certainly deeply permeated by Indo-Aryans or Proto-Indoaryans.” ..."

"Ranha after Hapta Hendu and Varuna, belongs in all likelihood to the same Indian, or Indo-Iranian frontier area... refers to peoples who had settled along the banks of a river near the country of Hapta Hendu. The geographical picture , reconstructed in this way, would agree with the Indian evidence on the river Rasa, the Vedic equivalent of Ranha, to the extent that we could deduce a real identity between the two rivers."

"An hypothesis based on the comparison of Avestan and Vedic evidence appears to be much more convincing. ... There can be no doubt that in some cases the places or rivers are in effect the same."

"namely the entirely eastern character of the countries listed in the first chapter of the Vendidad, including Zoroastrian Raya, and the historical and geographical importance of that list."

"As a matter of fact all this is due to a persistent effort to make accounts work out at all costs according to the logic of a pre-established plan."

"The first chapter of the Vendidad seems to give considerable support to a theory that attempts to reconstruct an active presencce of the Iranian tribes .... in territories such as eastern Iran..."

"... for identifying the aryo sayana with the vast region that stretches southward from the Hindukus... As a matter of fact, these Avestan texts.. give a fairly uniform picture: eastern Iran, with a certain prevalence of the southern regions or the countries reaching up to the southern slopes of the Hindukus. To make an attempt, as has been done, at reconstructing... the route followed by the Iranian tribes in their migration southwards, or the expansion in the same direction of the Zoroastrian community is, I think, in any case arbitrary from a methodological viewpoint."

"And so we may conclude that Beneviste's theory, according to which... gave proof of the identity of Airyana Vaejah and Chorasmia ... is quite unacceptable."

"The Chorsamian hypothesis, which is still quite commonly held amongst scholars, should definitely be abandoned, as the historico—philological and archaeological arguments on which it is based are essentially groundless. The historical perspective it fits into is also distorted, as it suggests a political situation in eastern Iran, in the period immediately before Achaemenian rule which is by no means backed up by the available sources. The sources tell us quite unequivocally of political supremacy exercised by the Bactrians in the eastern part of the plateau, certainly not by the Chorasmians whose alleged hegemony over the various peoples of eastern Iran is supposed to be recognized on the basis of arguments given in favour of the aforementioned theory. As a matter of fact, the little we are able to reconstruct of the Median or pre-Achaemenian period in the eastern regions should be reconstructed as a radically different political situation. This position of superiority amongst the eastern satrapies which Bactria seems to have had in Achaemenian times was probably the heritage of an earlier situation"

"There are no convincing arguments, whether historical or archaeological ones, for such an hypothesis. The archaeological arguments are not at all convincing... The historico-philological arguments are not convincing either."

"With regard to this region, Xwarizm, far from being a center for the spreading of such an important part of Iranian civilization as the Zoroastrian doctrine was, appears, upon an unprejudiced examination, as a remote, outlying province which never played a really central part in the political and cultural history of Iran before the Middle Ages."

"The idea of a Turanian, or Scythian, or Chorasmian period of Zoroastrianism... should thus be definitely rejected."

"What has been said so far about the Tuiryas... persuades us once again that ther eis no good reason for seeking the primitive location of Iranian Turan in a historico-geographical horizon that is necessarily different from the one in which the Iranian Airyas lived..."

"“in the denomination of Ariana, which became known to the Greeks after the Macedonian conquest of the eastern territories of the old Persian empire, there was obviously reflected a tradition that located the Aryan region in the central-southern part of eastern Iran, roughly from the Hindukus southwards, and that considered some of the Medes and the Persians in the west and some of the Bactrians and Sogdians in the north as further extensions of those people who were henceforth known by the name of Ariani. And this, to tell the truth, fits nicely into the picture we have been trying to piece so far. Here too, as in the passages of the Avesta we have studied from the Mihr Yast and the Zamyad Yast, the geographical horizon is central-eastern and southeastern; the northern lands are also completely peripheral, and Chorasmia, which is present only in the very peculiar position of which we have spoken in the Mihr Yast, is not included.” ..."

"I simply cannot understand ... how one can think that "... its original may have been the Black Sea or Caspian, as known to dwellers on the steppe-lands to the North..."... it seems evident to me that the geographical horizon ... is the one we are familiar with by now: the central-southern areas of eastern Iran, south of the Hindukus."

"“the importance of cattle in various aspects of the Gathic doctrine can be taken as certain. This importance can be explained as a reflection in religious practice and myth of a socioeconomic set-up in which cattle-raising was a basic factor.” ..."

"...either they construct an antagonism of an essentially ethnic character... The first of these two hypotheses is not based on any sound arguments. On the contrary..."

"There is no evidence for thinking that the Zoroastrian message was meant for the Iranians alone. On the-contrary, history suggests that the exact opposite is likely, and there are also indisputable facts … which show clearly that Zoroaster’s teaching was addressed, earlier on at least to all men ... whether they were Iranians or not, Proto-Indoaryans or otherwise…"

"“The fact [is] that Avestan geography, particularly the list in Vd. I, is confined to the east,” ...[this list is] “remarkably important in reconstructing the early history of Zoroastrianism”. ..."

"[The horizon of the Avesta] “is according to Burrow, wholly eastern and therefore certainly earlier than the westward migrations of the Iranian tribes.” ..."

"[the attempt to transpose the geography of the Avesta from Afghanistan to western Iran] “was doubtless due to different attempts made by the most powerful religious centres of western Iran and the influential order of the Magi to appropriate the traditions of Zoroastrianism that had flourished in the eastern territories of the plateau in far-off times. Without a doubt, the identification of Raya with Adurbadagan, more or less parallel with its identification with Ray, should be fitted into the vaster picture of the late location of Airyana Vaejah in Adarbayjan.” ..."

"[the Avesta reflects] “an historical situation in which Iranian elements exist side by side with … Aryan or Proto-Indoaryan (elements)”. ..."

"“we may consider that the northernmost regions where Zoroaster carried out his work were Bactria and Areia”. ..."

"[the airyo-Sayana refers to] “the vast region that stretches southward from the Hindukus,” ... “from the southern slopes of the great mountain chains towards the valleys of the rivers that flow south, like the Hilmand…” “there is a substantial uniformity in the geographical horizon between Yt.XIX and Yt.X ... and the same can be said for Vd.I … these Avestan texts which contain in different forms, and for different purposes, items of information that are useful for historical geography give a fairly uniform picture: eastern Iran, with a certain prevalence of the countries reaching upto the southern slopes of the Hindukus.” ..."

"[Likewise, in later Greek tradition, Ariane] “is the Greek name which doubtless reflects an older Iranian tradition that designated with an equivalent form the regions of eastern Iran lying mostly south, and not north, of the Hindukus. It is clear how important this information is in our research as a whole.” ..."

"The Hilmand region and the Hamun-i Hilmand are beyond all doubt the most minutely described countries in Avestan geography. ..."

"[This region is subject to] “a process of spiritualization of Avestan geography … in the famous celebration of the Hilmand in the Zamyad Yast…”, and “this pre-eminent position of Sistan in Iranian religious history and especially in the Zoroastrian tradition is a very archaic one that most likely marks the first stages of the new religion … the sacredness of the Hamun-i Hilmand goes back to pre-Zoroastrian times…” ..."

"[In the Avestan descriptions of Varana (in the Vendidad), Gnoli sees] “a country, where the ‘Airyas’ (Iranians) were not rulers and where there was probably a hegemony of Indo-Aryan or proto-Indoaryan peoples.”"

"[Airyana Vaējah... ]"the country is characterized, in the Vd.I context, by an advanced state of mythicization"."

"[Gnoli identifies the sixteenth land, Raηhā, as an ―] eastern mountainous area, Indian or Indo-Iranian, hit by intense cold in winter."

"We can therefore attribute to an essentially mythical geography certain common Indo-Iranian conceptions: the conception of Mount Hara in the Avesta or Mount Meru or Sumeru in India; that of the seven regions of the earth: the Iranian kesvar or the Indian dvipa; that of a central region: Xanirata or Jambudvipa respectively in Iran and India; that of the Tree of all seeds in the Vourukasa sea south of Mount Hara in Iran, and of the Jambu tree south of Mount Meru in India, etc."

"If to these reasons we add archaeological considerations that demonstrate the entirely peripheral situation of Chorasmia in relation to the Iranian world of the first half of the 1st millennium BCE, we can exclude this northeastern region from the geographic horizon of Zoroastrian origins. Chorasmia retained this peripheral position throughout the entire 1st millennium BCE... No valid argument can make us think that it was ever decisively larger than present-day Khwarezm and that it extended to much more southern territories."

"It is farther south than in Chorasmia that we must strive to reconstruct the historical environment where the Iranian prophet lived and acted. A set of data from different sources... leads... to shifting our focus toward the areas around the Hindu Kush and toward the lands south of these mountains...in short, between ancient Bactria and the ancient Drangiana and Arachosia."

"Muza recalls the Sanskrit Mujavant, to be located in a region between the Hindu Kush and the Pamir."

"Mount Hara, which in Iranian cosmography is the counterpart of Mount Meru in Indian cosmography, is clearly identifiable in the Mihr Yast with Paropamisos, Para-uparisaina."

"The geographical framework of Vd. I is entirely that of eastern Iran."