Zoroaster

Who was Zoroaster?

Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra, was the founder of Zoroastrianism. Though he is often mentioned as an Iranian, his birthplace is uncertain. It is now widely thought that he was born in the eastern part of the Iranian Plateau. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism. Most of his life is known through the Zoroastrian texts. The language spoken by Zoroaster, Old Avestan, used for composing the Yasna Haptanghaiti and the Gathas, on archaeological and linguistic grounds, is dated to have been spoken probably in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE.