Acknowledgments

Saving Parsi Irani is the 21st-century avatar of personal as well as Religio-Cultural responsibility role-modelled by our Ancestors.

It is a digital continuation of two thousand plus years’ (yes 2000+) tradition of Religio-Cultural Guardianship over three well-recorded Persian empires from circa 550 B.C. All the way until recent literary giants like Late Vadaa Dastoorjee Dr. Hormazdyar Kayoji Mirza, still living Dastur Dr. Firoze Kotwal and other distinguished scholars.

Saving Parsi Irani, like saving forests, oceans, languages, or endangered species — is not a new concept. Humanity has always rallied around what is precious. The term Save our Souls (SOS) needs no further explanation.

This Save Parsi Irani initiative stands firmly on the foundations of time-tested precedents established by our Ancestors who were men of learning, conscience, and vigilance. In particular, when they rose to protect the Zarathushti Religion upon Christian/Catholic missionaries infiltrating Zarathushti Iran to promote their religion over ours during the reign of Sasanian Empire.

Back then, the role of 3 senior Zarathushti clergy named shortly was not enviable. Just as the Persian Imperial army fought-off brutal Roman army attempts to conquer Iran, our Priests defended as if they were home guards. They operated with intellectual clarity so that our people could be helped to discern straying into a missionary faith who disrespectfully deemed our Zarathushti faith not as good as their recently formed Christian faith.

Such self-defense was rooted in the very scriptural category of the Din-āvar — “one who upholds, brings forth and makes the Din (Religion) visibly understandable to those born in it”. A term that repeatedly echoes in the Pahlavi sections of the Afrinagān-e Dāhmān & the Afrinagān-e Gāhānbār (during Jashans), and in Zarathushti wedding blessings as “Avar daad va Ain-i-Din-Mazdayasni”, meaning this wedding is according to the Rules & Customs of the Mazdayasnan Religion.

Dēnkard’s texts too praise such Din-āvarān as those who safeguard the faith through moral courage and mental vigilance. Such exceptional role-modelling forms the intellectual backbone of our tradition, some of which is reproduced here as a summary.

Historical Literary Guardians of our Religio-Culture

• Tansar (Tōsar) — Early Sasanian period, reign of Ardashir I (224–241 CE). Reorganized the religious structure of the empire; authored the Letter of Tansar; defended Mazdaean doctrine against external critiques.
• Kartīr (Kirdēr) — Mid-3rd century CE, under Shapur I, Hormizd I, Bahram I, Bahram II. Inscribed his deeds at Naqsh-e Rajab and Naqsh-e Rustam; opposed Christian, Manichaean, Jewish, and Mandaean missionary activity; institutionalized the clergy.
• Ādurbād ī Māraspandān — Reign of Shapur II (309–379 CE). Led doctrinal purification; defended the Dēn through public debates; performed the ordeal by molten metal; authored Andarz ī Ādurbād ī Māraspandān.
• Zādspram — 9th century CE. Authored Selections of Zādspram; systematized cosmology and ritual meaning; preserved older Avestan material.
• Mardān-Farrukh — 9th–10th century CE. Wrote Škand-Gumānīg Wizār, the most sophisticated anti-Christian and anti-Manichaean philosophical treatise.
• Ādurbād ī Ēmēdān — 10th–11th century CE. Edited and completed the Dēnkard (Books 4–9); preserved summaries of lost Avestan nasks; ensured doctrinal continuity after the fall of the empire.

Guardians of Survival & Renaissance

• Jung-I-Variav — 11th century battle fought bravely (but lost) between Zarathushti ladies of Parsi settlement near Surat and the mercenaries (garasias) of a Rajput prince who was extorting excessive unjust tribute (mehesul).
• Qissa-i-Sanjan — (Story of Sanjan) (16th century story of persecution and survival) by Bahman Kaikobaad.

Great Zarathushti Men of The Rivayat Period (15th–18th centuries)

• Nariman Hoshang (1478 CE)
• Kaus Mahyar (1480 CE)
• Kamdin Shapur (1510 CE)
• Āturfarnbag and Mehraban (late 15th–early 16th century CE)
• Jamasp Asa (early 17th century CE)

Remarkably, such responsibility is not unique to us Parsi & Irani.

Across world history, every ethnic religio-culture that survived did so because it consciously acted to protect itself, and usually through its priestly guardians. Every people who wished to survive acted to preserve their religio-culture.

We are simply doing what every successful survivors have done — just as the Jewish sages preserved their identity through the Mishnah and Talmud, the Armenians safeguarded theirs through the creation of their alphabet and Turkish persecution, the Syriac Christians defended theirs through liturgical scholarship, the Hindus maintained theirs through the Dharmashastras, the Tibetans protected theirs through monastic preservation, and the Māori revive theirs through language and cultural renaissance.

What you see here is not new; it is the 21st-century continuation of a responsibility our scriptures, our history, and the world’s surviving cultures have already modelled.

Long before modern conservation movements, long before global campaigns, our own ancestors understood this urgency. They clarified ritual law, preserved doctrinal consistency, and guided our people with reinforced ethical foundations to weather persecution and uncertainty by keeping FAITH.

From the Sasanian priesthood to the Rivayat scholars, from ancient Iran to modern diaspora, the message has been consistent: preserve, protect, remain aligned, do not let the flame and faith dim.