A Zorastrian Vision
Almut Hintze | Professor
A Zoroastrian Vision:
The Zoroastrian sacred texts collected in the Avesta bear witness to beliefs and observances that have been adhered to throughout the long history of this religion. Such beliefs and observances include the ritual and devotional worship of Ahura Mazdā and other Yazatas, the rejection of Angra Mainyu and the Daivas, a series of purity laws and an elaborate imagery relating to the fate of the soul after death. Focusing on the latter theme, this richly illustrated talk examines the way in which the encounter of the soul with its belief, or daēnā, is elaborated in the texts and in the later tradition.
About Almut:
Almut Hintze is Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Holding degrees from the universities of Heidelberg, Oxford, Erlangen and Berlin, her field is Indo-Iranian Studies with special emphasis on the Zoroastrian literature, beliefs and religious practice. Her major publications include a study of the semantics of words for ‘reward’ in Vedic and Avestan (2000), commentaries and annotated editions of Zoroastrian sacred texts, such as the Avestan Zamyād Yašt (1994) and the Yasna Haptanghaiti (2007), and, with Dastur F M Kotwal, a facsimile edition of the Khorde Avesta and Yasht manuscript E1. Her current projects are an Introduction to Zoroastrianism and an edition, translation, commentary and dictionary of the Avestan Yasna.
