Samra Azarnouche: Earthquakes & Natural Disasters in Zoroastrianism

Join host, Yasamin Jameh, in learning about how the ancient Zoroastrian religion interpreted earthquakes. 
The 49th episode of Parse is an excerpt of a lecture given by Samra E. Azarnouche on how the religion of ancient Iran, Zoroastrianism, addressed the phenomenon of earthquakes. Zoroastrianism was developed in a geographical area heavily affected by earthquakes and addressed this phenomenon in a very different way from other religions. Rather than being a manifestation of divine wrath or punishment, earthquakes for Zoroastrians of late antiquity were seen a phase in the process of cosmogony, or as a movement within a complex mechanism. This lecture will attempt to shed some light on how earthquakes are integrated into the account of the creation of the world or attributed to beings affiliated with Ahriman. 
 
Samra E. Azarnouche is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, where she teaches the history of pre-Islamic religions in Iran and ancient Iranian languages. Her research focuses on several aspects of Zoroastrianism, including textual sources and the scriptural tradition, religious mythology, and the political and social history of late antiquity.  
 
To watch the full talk, click here: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uBtuSLO16I&t=1268s⁠