Ormuzd

“ To reclaim the waste, to till the land, to make a corner of the earth better than they found it, was to these men to rescue a bit of Ormuzd’s world out of the usurped dominion of Ahriman; to rescue it from the spirit of evil and disorder for its rightful owner, the Spirit of Order and of Good.
For they believed in an evil spirit, these old Persians. Evil was not for them a lower form of good. With their intense sense of the difference between right and wrong it could be nothing less than hateful ”

“ According to the books of the Parsees and of the Muhammedans who give an account of their doctrine, Ahriman is bad by nature: nor do the more ancient Zand-books say that he ever was good; yet the explanation given about this mysterious being can but involve contradictions in more than one respect. He alone is able to resist Ormuzd, of whom his existence is entirely independent; he is the king of the beings which he has created, and which Ormuzd cannot annihilate ”

“ Then Rustem saw it was too much, and he prayed yet again that part thereof be taken from him. And once more Ormuzd listened to his voice. Then when the time for combat was come, Rustem turned him to the meeting-place, and his heart was full of cares and his face of fears. But Sohrab came forth like a giant refreshed, and he ran at Rustem like to a mad elephant, and he cried with a voice of thunder:
"O thou who didst flee from battle, wherefore art thou come out once more against me? But I say unto thee, this time shall thy words of guile avail thee naught." ”

“ In the Zand-books and in the Bun-Dehesh, he is invoked as created by Ormuzd, and as one who is to conduct the heavens; he presides over the eleventh month of the year and the second day of the month; he is the king of the luminous world; the other angels repose under his guard; he is the principle of the intelligence of the ear, given by Ormuzd; the father of the purity of the heart; the Ized of peace who watches over the people; he aids in the distribution of the waters, and in the production of herds and other riches ”

“ In the old chronicles of Persia we read that Kaimurs was the first Shah of Iran, and that he was chosen by the people to rule over them. Prior to his time, each man lived for himself, in the most primitive way, owning allegiance to no one but Ormuzd, the great God of the Persians. ”

“ But Ormuzd did not forsake his creatures. In order to emancipate them from the rule of Ahriman, he destined to them his word, the law of Zartusht, who always existed, but his feruer, that is, “the ideal of his perfection,” was to be produced by Zardusht’s fire.
He was to be preceded by Hom, the first apostle of the law, whom Jemshid followed. This king and prophet erected but few fire-temples; mankind venerated the elements and the stars, not without a number of evil genii, and a gross superstition began to prevail. ”

“ Man ought to adore the good god [31] and fight for him. According to Herodotus, "The Persians are not accustomed to erect statues, temples, or altars to their gods; they esteem those who do this as lacking in sense for they do not believe, as the Greeks do, that the gods have human forms." [32] Ormuzd manifests himself only under the form of fire or the sun. This is why the Persians perform their worship in the open air on the mountains, before a lighted fire. To worship Ormuzd they sing hymns to his praise and sacrifice animals in his honor. ”

“ In one cosmogony—that of the Iranians—the first human pair are represented as having grown up as a single tree, the fingers or twigs of each one being folded over the other’s ears, till the time came when, ripe for separation, they became two sentient beings, and were infused by Ormuzd with distinct human souls. ”

“ The King of Heaven protects this infant. The earth waits for him. He is the prophet whom Ormuzd sends to his people: his law will fill the world with joy: he will make the lion and the lamb drink in the same place. Fear not these ferocious beasts; why should he whom Ormuzd preserves fear the enmity of the whole world?’ With these words the youth vanished, and Dogdo awoke. Repairing to an interpreter, she was told that the Horn meant the grandeur of Ormuzd; the Book was [174] the Avesta; the three Beasts betokened three powerful enemies.
Zoroaster was born laughing. ”

“ On the contrary, we there trace a gradual migration of the nation from east to west, not as this hypothesis would tend to prove, from west to east. The first abode which Ormuzd created for the exiled people was Soghdi, whose identity with Sogdiana is sufficiently apparent; next Môore, or Maroo, in Khorasan; then Bakhdi, or Balkh (Bactriana) , and so on to Fars itself, and the boundaries of Media or India. ”

“ Beware of open and secret sin: abstain from bad sights and thoughts. Offer up thy grateful prayers to the Lord, the most just and pure Ormuzd, the supreme and adorable God, who thus declared to his prophet Zardusht: “Hold it not meet to do unto others what thou wouldst not have done to thyself: do that unto the people which, when done to thyself, proves not disagreeable to thyself.”
Pg 339 Gate the seventy-second. Direct the Hirbud to sanctify for thee an oblation or Darún once every day: if not he, then thyself. ”

“ This name of Oromazes is important; for Oromazes [pg 207] is clearly meant for Ormuzd, the god of the Zoroastrians. The name of this god, as read in the inscriptions of Darius and Xerxes, is Auramazdâ, which comes very near to Plato's Oromazes.198 Thus Darius says, in one passage: “Through the grace of Auramazda I am king; Auramazda gave me the kingdom.” But what is the meaning of Auramazda? We receive a hint from one passage in the Achæmenian inscriptions, where Auramazda is divided into two words, both being declined. The genitive of Auramazda occurs there as Aurahya mazdâha. ”

“ Each prophet had his hazar, or reign of a thousand years (chiliasm) , and from these successive ages, analogous to the Avatär of India, is composed the course of events which prepared the reign of Ormuzd. At the end of the time when the cycle of chiliasms shall be exhausted, the complete paradise will come. Men then will live happy; the earth will be as one plain; there will be only one language, one law, and one government for all. But this advent will be preceded by terrible calamities. Dahak (the Satan of Persia) will break his chains and fall upon the world. ”

“ I separate myself from all sin. I do good works according to my power. I adore thee with purity of thought, word, and action. I pray to Ormuzd, who recompenses good works, who delivers unto the end all those who obey his laws. Grant that I may arrive at paradise, where all is fragrance, light, and happiness." [249:2]
According to the religion of the ancient Assyrians, it was Narduk, the Logos, the WORD, "the eldest son of Hea," "the Merciful One," "the Life-giver," &c., who created the heavens, the earth, and all that therein is. ”

“ The leading idea is that of monotheism, but the one God has far fewer anthropomorphic attributes, and is relegated much farther back into the vague and infinite, than the god of any other monotheistic religion. Ahura-Mazda, of which the more familiar appellation Ormuzd is an abbreviation, means the ‘All-knowing Lord;’ he is said sometimes to dwell in the infinite luminous space, and sometimes to be identical with it. He is, in fact, not unlike the inscrutable First Cause, whom we may regard with awe and reverence, with love and hope, but whom we cannot [202] pretend to define or to understand. ”

“ Joseph B. Gross, in his "Heathen Religion," [237:5] speaking of the belief of the ancient Persians in the millennium, says:
"The dead would be raised, [237:6] and he who has made all things, cause the earth and the sea to return again the remains of the departed. [237:7] Then Ormuzd shall clothe them with flesh and blood, while they that live at the time of the resurrection, must die in order to likewise participate in its advantage.
"Before this momentous event takes place, three illustrious prophets shall appear, who will announce their presence by the performance of miracles. ”

“ The wretchedness of the masses, and their hopeless condition, had no relation whatever to religion; their murmurs and groans were not against their gods or for want of gods. In the oak-woods of Britain the Druids held their followers; Odin and Freya maintained their godships in Gaul and Germany and among the Hyperboreans; Egypt was satisfied with her crocodiles and Anubis; the Persians were yet devoted to Ormuzd and Ahriman, holding them in equal honor; in hope of the Nirvana, the Hindoos moved on patient as ever in the rayless paths of Brahm; ”

“ Anquetil du Perron says (Zend-Avesta, t. II. p. 601) : “Of all the religions known, that of the Parsís is perhaps the only one in which fasting be neither meritorious nor even permitted. The Parsí, on the contrary, believes to honor Ormuzd by nourishing himself well: because the body, fresh and vigorous, renders the soul stronger against the bad genii; because the man, feeling less want, reads the word with more attention, and feels more courage for performing good works ”

“ Eternity created fire and water. From these Ormusd (Auramazda) , the good spirit, took his origin. He was brilliant as the light, pure and good. After having, in the course of 12000 years, created heaven, paradise and the stars, he became aware of the existence of an evil spirit, Ahriman (Angramainjus) , black, unclean, malicious and emitting an evil odor. Ormusd determined on his destruction, and a fierce strife began, in which Ormusd was the victor, and the evil spirit lay 3000 years unconscious from the effects of terror. ”

“ Ormazd, knowing all the misery that Ahriman would cause, yet knowing that the victory would remain with himself, offered to Ahriman peace; but Ahriman chose war. But, blinded by Ormazd's majesty, and terrified by the sight of the pure Fravashis of holy men, he was conquered by Ormazd's strong word, and sank back into the abyss of darkness, where he lay fettered during the three thousand years of the second period.
Ormazd now completed his creation upon the earth. Sapandomad was guardian spirit of the earth, and the earth, as Hethra, was mother of all living. ”

“ About the same time, 'Omar appointed another early convert of singular religious merit, 'Abdallah ibn Mas'ud, who had in early days, like 'Ammar, been a slave at Mecca to a post at Al-Kufa, for which, however, he was better fitted,—the charge of the treasury. He had been the body-servant of the Prophet, who was used to call him "light in body, but weighty in faith."1 He was learned in the Kor'an, and had a "reading" of his own, to which as the best text, he held persistently against all recessions. ”

“ Whilst the rest of human kind are led away captives in the chains of their infernal enemy, the faithful Persian alone reserves his religious adoration for his friend and protector Ormusd, and fights under his banner of light, in the full confidence that he shall, in the last day, share the glory of his triumph. At that decisive period the enlightened wisdom of goodness will render the power of Ormusd superior to the furious malice of his rival. ”

“ Protect the Persian people. If the Persian people are protected by thee, Ormazd, the Good Principle, which has always destroyed the demon, will descend as ruler on this house. The great Ormazd, who is the greatest among all the gods, is he who created the heaven, and created 49the earth, who created the men and the Good Principle, and who made Darius king, and gave to Darius the king, the royalty over this wide earth, which contains many lands ”

“ ORMUS, ORMUZ, n.p. Properly Hurmuz or Hurmūz, a famous maritime city and minor kingdom near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The original place of the city was on the northern shore of the Gulf, some 30 miles east of the site of Bandar Abbās or Gombroon (q.v.) ; but about A.D. 1300, apparently to escape from Tartar raids, it was transferred to the small island of Gerūn or Jerūn, which may be identified with the Organa of Nearchus, about 12 m. westward, and five miles from the shore, and this was the seat of the kingdom when first visited and attacked by the Portuguese under Alboquerque in 1506. ”

“ Agriculture was a sacred calling, for the husbandman was reclaiming the ground from the curse of the Dark Spirit. Thus men might become co-workers with Ormazd in the mighty work of overthrowing and destroying the kingdom of the wicked Ahriman.
The evil man was he who allowed vice and degrading passions to find a place in his own soul, and neglected to exterminate noxious animals and weeds, and to help redeem the earth from the barrenness and sterility created by the enemy of Ormazd. ”

“ Among the killed we meet not a few names familiar to us in the annals of the Prophet’s life. The carnage amongst the Readers—those who had the Corân by heart—was so great, as to suggest to Omar the first design of collecting the sacred text, ‘lest any part should be lost therefrom.’ At the death of his favourite brother Zeid, who had shared with him the dangers of the first battles of Islam, Omar was inconsolable. ‘Thou art returned home,’ he said to his son [46] Abdallah, ‘safe and sound; and Zeid is dead. Wherefore wast not thou slain before him? ”

“ The old Zoroastrianism was in this respect as pure as the religion of the Jews, and thus a double bond of religious sympathy united the Hebrews and the Arians.
Under the supreme God, Ahura-mazda or Ormazd, the ancient Iranic system placed (as has been already observed) a number of angels. Some of these, as Vohu-mano, “the Good Mind;” Mazda, “the Wise” (?) ; and Asha, “the True,” are scarcely distinguishable from attributes of the Divinity. Armaiti, however, the genius of the Earth, and Sraosha or Serosh, an angel, are very clearly and distinctly personified. Sraosha is Ormazd’s messenger. ”