Yasna: Sacred Gathas, Hymns of Zarathushtra: With Glossary of Zoroastrian Terms

Zoroastrianism, or more natively Mazdayasna, is one of the world's oldest religions, 'combining a cosmogonic dualism and eschatological monotheism in a manner unique... among the major religions of the world.' Ascribed to the teachings of the Iranian Prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra), he exalted their deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda, (Wise Lord) as its Supreme Being. Leading characteristics, such as messianism, heaven and hell, and free will are said to have influenced other religious systems, including Second Temple Judaism, Gnosticism, Christianity, and Islam. With possible roots dating back to the second millennium BCE, Zoroastrianism enters recorded history in the 5th-century BCE, and including a Mithraic Median prototype and Zurvanist Sassanid successor it served as the state religion of the pre-Islamic Iranian empires from around 600 BCE to 650 CE. Zoroastrianism has no major theological divisions, though it is not uniform; modern-era influences having a significant impact on