What attracted Nietzsche to this ancient Aryan prophet was the fact that he, unlike the Semitic prophets, did not portray God as Almighty, and man in need of his help. Instead of portraying humans as weak, passive, and dependent beings, he gave us a self-reliant role, and claimed that God has appointed us to overcome evil, and has provided us with three weapons to do so: good thoughts, good words, and good deeds.
Through righteous living, man helps Good Spirit to overcome Evil Spirit. These are the personifications of the human drives; conscience and selfishness. Nietzsche promoted the idea of becoming above-man (higher beings) through bravery and forthright. Later, Hollywood transformed his above-man to Superman.
In the present book, Mount Everest becomes Zarthustra's podium to address the world. Five men and five women from different era and parts of the world end up becoming his apostles. On their separate ways, they face difficult trials, deal with different characters, and argue over different issues.
The climbing of the Everest becomes symbolic for rising above the ordinary and becoming higher beings. The present work will be in 4 volumes:
1. The Long Journey (past)
2. The Rolling Hills (present)
3. The acclimatization (bridge),
and
4. Ascending the Mountain (future).
Historical Data:
Central Asia is mostly semi-desert with cold winters, not a suitable place for bacteria and parasites. These lead to low mortality, over-population, and periodic food scarcity which often drove the Aryans to loot their neighbors or migrate outward.
Being somewhat fertile, the southern lands in Central Asia could afford the Aryans to build settlements by the streams and river flowing from the nearby mountains. They called their settlemwnts `abad` (abode in English).
However, the less forgiving northern lands forced the Aryans to adopt a nomadic life, travel with their cattle in search of grass, and often loot the southern towns. Zarathustra died while fighting one such attack.
Balkh, the present day `Vazir-Abad` in northern Afganistan, claims to be where Zarathustra was killed. The name Balkh may be a later corruption of the name Bacter and Bacteria (backland), itself a Greek corruption of Bakhtyar which had grown into a powerful state by the time of Cyrus II (so-called The Great). Yet, the Zoroastrian books indicate Khorasmia as being Zarathustra's hometown, a settlement located on the south shore of Aral Sea.
Zarathustra was born in NW Iran. He travelled east, and succeeded to convert Vishtaspa (Mighty Horse), the king of Khorasmia, a city-state which later grew into a large province in central Asia (present day Uzbekistan, Turkistan, northern Khorasan, and northern Afganistan). As his major patron, the king had his subjects converted to Zarathustra's religion, known as `Zartoshty`.
Like the Levi who are the priesthood tribe in Jewish religion, some of the town's people of Khorasmia, including Zarathustra's descendants, formed the priesly tribe of Zarathustra's religion, known as Magi. But unlike Levi, the Magi began to spread their religion in their eventual westward migrations.
The Magi tribe settled down in Western Iran after step-wise migrations from Central Asia (Airyana Vaejah or Aryan face) to Damqan (DaMoqan) in southern Caspia, then to Dashte Moqan located on the west coast of the Caspian sea, and eventually to a place called Amadana (meaning all knowing).
It is not known whether they named the place Amadana or it was so named by an earlier people. However, it's name of Amadana was first recorded by Tiglath Pileser 1, an Assyrian conqueror, in about 1200 B.C.
Later, the Medes settled in the same town which came to be known as Agamatana by the Babylonians and Ekbatana by the Greeks only to change to Hamadan at a later date. Today, Dashte Moqan is divided between the Iranian Dashte Moghan and the Russian Mogan Duzu.
It took the Magi many generation to end up in Ekbatana. By this time, their religion had picked up much pagan elements from the peoples they came in contact with. Worse yet, they had corrupted their religion to suit their own changing interests as the Christians have done in Christianity.
The people of Khorasmia were mainly cattle breaders, and as such, regarded the cattle as sacred beings (evidenced in Zarathustra's Gatha). Yet, this was the time when bull prominance was giving way to horse prominance as the king's name indicates.
Therefore, Zarathustra's time can be placed in the 4th millinium BC, sometime after the domestication of the horse, but before the Horse Era had replaced the Bull Era, as the Bull Era had replaced the Sheep and Goat Era in an earlier time.
These historical periods will be presented in the book. The book will also provide further support for Zarathustra's antiquity since the most convincing evidence has been missed by the scholars in this field.
Personal Data: I am Behrooz Bassim, MD., born in Eshkabad (Eshghabad), the capital of Turkistan in Central Asia. My father was a native of Hamadan (ancient Ekbatana). Zarthustra's blood may still be running in the native veins of Hamadan.
DATED: 9 October 2000
NOTE: The article above is from "Thus Speaks Zarathustra", a 4-volume book (presently not available) by Behrooz Bassim, MD. This book is a 21st century sequel to Nietzsche's 19th century masterpiece. Other pages from it on the internet are:
Abortion
Artificial
Color & Flavor
Capitalism
Civility
Darwin
Was Right So Was LaMarck
Democracy
or Isocracy
Etymology
of sacred, etc
God,
Who?
Guns
in USA
Homosexuality
Honesty
Me
Intelligence
Monetary,
A Unique Unit, A unique
Particle
Physics, Grand Spectrum
Plight
of the Mice
Politician,
The American
Race
& Class
Sermon
Sham
Justice
Soul
Is Mind
Unidirectional
Competition
Universal
Army
Universal
Language
Zarathustra
CONTACT: bassim@usadatanet.net