How did the Persians use astronomy?
The astrologers observed the movements of the planets and assigned them godlike features and powers.
Each planet represented a god or a goddess and ruled certain areas of life.
The astrologers advised the rulers/kings and interpreted the pattern of planetary movements as omens or signs for understanding the future..
Iranian gods
His moral and ethical philosophy is known as Zoroastrianism.
As the first monotheist philosophy, Zoroastrianism inspired a unique form of religious toleration.
The ancient Zoroastrians opposed the political rivalries attributed to belligerent city-state gods.
This played a vital role in the rise of the Persian Empire..
Iranian gods
Parsis settled in India somewhere between the 8th and 10th centuries.
They were escaping religious persecution. Zoroastrian is one of the world's oldest religions. Zoroastrians believe in one God, called Ahura Mazda..
Iranian gods
The roots of Persian mythology lie in the steppes—grass-covered plains—of southern Russia and Central Asia.
Between 1500 and 1000 bce, Indo-European peoples migrated south from the steppes into the regions now known as Turkey, Iran, and northern India.
Those who settled in Iran became the Persians..
What did the Persians believe about the universe?
Ahura Mazdā
In both the religion of Zarathustra and that of Darius and Xerxes, he was worshipped as the supreme god, almost to the exclusion of all others.
First of all he is the creator of the universe and the one who establishes and maintains the cosmic and social order, arta.
Darius proclaims him as “the great god….
What did the Persians contribute to astronomy?
The first major Muslim work of astronomy was Zij al-Sindhind by Persian mathematician al-Khwarizmi in 830.
The work contains tables for the movements of the Sun, the moon and the five planets known at the time, and is significant as it introduced Ptolemaic concepts into Islamic sciences..
What is the cosmology 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 monotheistic ontology and an eschatology which predicts the ultimate conquest of evil by good..
What made Persia so powerful?
Through far-reaching military conquests and benevolent rule, Cyrus the Great transformed a small group of semi-nomadic tribes into the mighty Persian Empire, the ancient world's first superpower, in less than 15 years..
What was the main belief of the Persian Empire?
By 650 BCE, the Zoroastrian faith, a monotheistic religion founded on the ideas of the philosopher Zoroaster, had become the official religion of ancient Persia..
Who is the Persian god of the earth?
[Ahura Mazda was] the great god who created this earth, who created yonder heaven, who created man, who created happiness for man, who made Darius king.
Ahura Mazda ("Wise Lord") was probably the main god in pantheon of the pre-Zoroastrian Iranians..
