IRANIAN RELIGION

diverse beliefs and practices of the culturally and linguistically related group of ancient peoples who inhabited the Iranian Plateau and its borderlands, as well as areas of Central Asia from the Black Sea to Khotan (modern Ho-t'ien, China). The northern Iranians (referred to generally as Scythians in classical sources), who occupied the steppes, differed significantly from the southern Iranians. In religion and culture both the northern and southern Iranians had much in common with the ancient Indo-Aryans, although there was much borrowing from Mesopotamia as well, especially in western Iran. From at least the time of the rise of the Median empire, Iranian religion and culture has had a profound influence upon the Middle East, as also the Middle East upon Iran. This account will take the conquest of the Achaemenian Empire by Alexander the Great as a somewhat arbitrary date for the close of the period of ancient Iranian religion, even though these influences have continued through later history and some forms of Iranian religion have persisted to the present day. It will also treat ancient Iranian religion, insofar as possible, apart from Zoroastrianism. Unless otherwise indicated, all spellings of Iranian names and terms are given in reconstructed forms that often differ from the Avestan spellings of the Zoroastrian canon. For a full account of that religion, see Zoroastrianism. For historical background, see Iran, history of. Additional reading mile Benveniste, The Persian Religion According to the Chief Greek Texts (1929), is the first effort to analyze the Greek texts. William W. Malandra, An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion (1983), is an anthology of texts from the Avesta and the Achaemenian inscriptions with an introduction and extensive commentary. Margaret Cool Root, The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art (1979), provides a thorough and insightful analysis of the imperial use of visual symbols. M. Schwartz, The Religion of Achaemenian Iran, in Ilya Gershevitch (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2 (1985), pp. 664697, is also informative. Geo Widengren, Die Religionen Irans (1965), is a good handbook. A more up-to-date handbook is Mary Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism (1975 ), which contains a rich bibliography and takes a different approach from that of Widengren. William W. Malandra