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Accepted Paper:
Between Myth and Reality: From Babylon to Arab—A Study of the Territory of Aži Dahāka and the Zoroastrianism Geography
Abstract:
Aži Dahāka, both the mythical creature and an evil foreign tyrant recorded in the scriptures of Zoroastrianism, descended from the Proto-Indo-European dragon-slaying stories, is considered the king of Babylon in the Avesta and gradually ruled the land of Arabs during the period of Middle Persian. The direct reason for such change is based on the knowledge about the Babylonians and the Arabs of the Zoroastrians. However, the conception and knowledge between 'foreign' and 'domestic' remain two questions: Is Zoroastrianism a national religion? How did Zoroastrians consider the difference between realistic and ideological territories? Also, the memory descended from the shared myth of Indo-Iranian people influenced the acquaintance with the foreign worlds. With the help of studying the change of the territory of Aži Dahāka recorded in scriptures and literary works, this paper aims to study the views about territory, politics, and the relationship between religion and nation between the time of Indo-Iranian period and the Arab Conquest, from the Zoroastrians chronologically. Although there were several times reign changes, the knowledge and memory of understanding the remembrance of the mythological and religious ancestors helped build an important historical understanding for the Zoroastrians, which might also be their opinions for the national people to learn about their history.