Zoroaster in History

Gherardo Gnoli

Overview

Zoroaster, the prophet of ancient Iran and the founder of a religion which is still alive and practiced today, was an extraordinary figure with a wide sphere of influence both in the Iranian world and in the philosophical and religious thought of the West, from Hellenism to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

The historical dating of Zoroaster has been a matter of much debate and dispute. Different theses, including those in support of an early chronology, and those that place him in a remote and nebulous past, as well as an alleged unhistoricity of Zoroaster, are here discussed in great depth while an attempt is made to demonstrate the validity of the thesis which situates him in historical times. Zoroaster is thus placed in the period between the last two decades of the seventh to the middle of the sixth century B.C., when the Medes and Persians became the protagonists in ancient history.

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About the Author

Professor Gherardo Gnoli was born in Rome on 6 December 1937 and died in Cagli, in Central Italy, on 7 March 2012. He was a student and later a distinguished member of a galaxy of eminent Italian scholars of the twentieth century that included Giorgio Della Vida, Sabatino Moscati, Antonio Pagliaro, Giuseppe Tucci, and Alessandro Bausani. Their wide-ranging scholarship, displaying a combination of philological erudition and innovative, if at times controversial, insights, has secured value and relevance to this day.

Along with a steady academic output for various readerships in a broad range of publications, Professor Gnoli had a remarkable career as an energetic administrator and educator. He began his teaching career as Professor of Iranian Studies (Iranistica, later Filologia Iranica [Iranian philology]) at the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples (1965–93) and also served as Rector there from 1970 to 1978. In 1993, he moved from Naples to Rome to be the Chair of Storia religiosa dell’Iran e dell’ Asia Centrale (Religious History of Iran and Central Asia) at the University of Rome La Sapienza, becoming Professor Emeritus in 2009. He was the President of the Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (IsMEO), which subsequently merged with the Istituto Italo-Africano to become Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente. He was a member of the Institut de France and the Russian Academy of Sciences, a corresponding member of the Accademia dei Lincei, and an honorary member of the Société Asiatique. He was chairman of the steering committee of the Societas Iranologica Europaea (1981–83) and later its treasurer (1983–99).

As detailed in his biographical entry in the Encyclopaedia Iranica, Professor Gnoli was a member of its advisory board from the outset and a regular contributor to its volumes. Among his many contributions to the Encyclopaedia is the frequently cited entry on “Iranian Identity ii. Pre-Islamic Period,” a concise and cogently argued resume of his highly influential work, The Idea of Iran: An Essay on Its Origin (Rome, 1989).

Sources, Links & Further Readings

Religious Themes and Texts of Pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia: Studies in Honour of Professor Gherardo Gnoli on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday on 6th December 2002. Edited by Carlo G. Cereti, Mauro Maggi, and Elio Provasi. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2003 (contains a bibliography of Professor Gnoli’s writings 1964–2001, XV–XXXV).
“Bibliografia di Gherardo Gnoli publicata nella ricorrenza del suo 70° compleanno il 6 dicembre 2007.” Rome: Aléxandros, 2007. (PDF)
Cereti, Carlo Giovanni. “Gnoli, Gherardo.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published November 16, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_11830
Studia Philologica Iranica: Gherhardo Gnoli Memorial Volume. Edited by E. Morano, E. Provasi, and A. V. Rossi. Nuova Serie, vol. 5. Rome: ISMEO, 2017.
“More on the ‘Traditional Date of Zoroaster:’ The Arsacid Era and Other Topics.” East and West, n.s., 1 (60), no. 1 (June 2020): 9–50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48729109