Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“The truth is that I wanted to write a book about Zarathustra, but I ended up somewhere I hadn’t expected (…) I was searching for the mysterious, legendary Persian prophet and found myself on the Eurasian steppe of ten or twenty thousand years ago, where we, the Indo-Europeans, once lived.” Kader Abdolah returns to explore his homeland with a book dedicated to the founder of Zoroastrianism. The author of The House of the Mosque now presents a religious and poetic work, straddling the boundaries between history and legend, fairy tale and myth. Abdolah’s narrative is populated by gods and demons, with their retinues of forces of Good and Evil, magical birds and sacred cows, heroic warriors and evil rulers. Given the scarcity of sources, the author often draws upon the rich tradition of oral storytelling, weaving a series of convoluted tales full of constant twists and turns.

In ancient times, the peoples of the steppe migrated southwards, occupying a vast area stretching from Mesopotamia to India and founding numerous civilisations.

Around the middle of the 1700s BC, amid a series of fable-like events, Zarathustra was born—a child prodigy destined for a brilliant future. Ahriman, the devil, attempts to kill him, but Ahura Mazda protects him. After a brilliant education and a promising start to his priesthood, the thirty-year-old Zarathustra realises that the world is a grim place: rulers are selfish, priests are liars and corrupt, and the people are unhappy. At this point, in complete solitude, he decides to ‘invent’ monotheism. He conceives of a single God, almighty and omniscient, creator of heaven and earth, and proposes a ‘right path’ leading to a future in paradise – or, failing that, to hell. Zarathustra preaches with courage and vehemence, but with little success.

“We have come to understand that Ahura Mazda is the one and only God, who created heaven and earth (…) The question I put to you, therefore, is this: how did you come to make such claims? To maintain that there is a single God in place of the deities beloved by our forefathers? How did you come to conceive such a subversive idea?” Zarathustra is isolated, imprisoned and forced to flee. At the age of forty, he returns and finally brings about the conversion of the kingdom. This gives rise to endless disputes, epic clashes and palace intrigues, until the prophet, whilst at prayer, is assassinated with a stab in the back. “Some scholars argue that Zarathustra never existed as a historical figure. It is possible they are right, but this does not alter the context,” concludes Abdolah. “Exactly how it happened is of no importance. Here we are talking about a beloved person, named Zarathustra. A Zarathustra who created Ahura Mazda to better understand himself.”

 

Kader Abdolah
, "Zarathustra
Speaks", Iperborea, 396 pp., 20 euros