RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESpracticed idolatry and all sorts of other vices. Mazdaeans sought to
stamp out the cult of the rival demonic idols (M.P. uzdes) by executing
sorcerers, destroying the images, and converting their shrines into fire
temples.^74
Cult and custom were the most important expressions of the Magian
identity. At the personal level, private and family rituals created a
distinct life-style for an individual observant Magian (M.P. magomart).
Magians tried to live in a state of ritual purity and to avoid pollution
through contact with dead matter or whatever left a living body. They
performed ablutions by washing their hands and faces with bull's urine
(M.P. gomez) followed by water before worship and after acts of
nature. Everyday acts were framed by ritual formulas (M.P. bail for
protection.^75 Household worship involved ceremonies at the hearth
fire five times each day when the fire was fed, just as at the fire temples.
The times for worship at dawn, noon, midafternoon, sunset, and mid-
night were set by the position of the sun and stars. Daily worship
consisted of raising the hands in invocation and reciting the appro-
priate hymns (Yashts) in honor of the fire, water, sun, and moon; it
was closed by reciting the Ashem Vohu benediction followed by a
prostration three times. A late sixth-century description tells of a noble
Magian family at Kirkuk gathered around the fire altar in their home
for the morning prayer.^76 Worship provided a rhythm for daily life
just as seasonal festivals did throughout the year. In the late Sas ani an
period, the festival of Fravardigan was observed during the five in-
tercalary days between the end of the year and Nawriiz. During these
days the spirits of the dead (M.P. fravahrs) returned to their former
homes and their descendents made offerings to them and recited the
Yashts.^77
74 Boyce, Tansar, pp. 9, 48; "Sacred Fires," p. 64; Christensen, Sassanides, pp. 306-
7; de Menasce, Denkart, pp. 169, 178-79,204-5,211,251,297-98,333; idem, "Feux
et fondations," p. 31; Fiey, Assyrie chretienne, Ill, 65; Rodkinson, Talmud, XIII, "Baba
Bathra," 203-4; Zaehner, Dawn and Twilight, pp. 122-23. There are traces of a snake
cult among dev worshipers. Christians rarely distinguished between Magians and pa-
gans, called both heathens (Syr. hanpe), and assumed that magialis worshiped idols.
75 M. Boyce, "Zoroastrian Ba; and Dron," BSOAS 34 (1971), 56, 58, 311; idem,
History, pp. 306-7; Tarapore, Andarz-Namak, p. 13; Tha'iilibI, Ghurar, pp. 259-60.
76 Boyce, History, p. 310; de Menasce, Denkart, p. 91; Devos, "Sainte Sirin," p. 96;
Duchesne-Guillemin, "Religion of Ancient Iran," p. 352; Prokopios, Wars, I, iii, 20.
77 M. Boyce, "On the Calendar of the Zoroastrian Feasts," BSOAS 33 (1970),518-
21; idem, History, p. 123; idem, Zoroastrians, pp. 128-29; Devos, "Sainte Sirin," p.
96; Hoffmann, Persischer MJrtyrer, p. 79; Tha'iilibI, Ghurar, p. 260. According to the
Menok-i Khrat the fravahrs are stars which are the eternal celestial archetypes of all