Zurvan

During the past 2,600 years, the Indo-Iranian religious traditions have diverged along a number of different paths. In various times and places—and in a number of languages—several major systems of mythology and theology emerged, though similar concepts and the use of a common pool of divine names reflect the historical connections between these traditions. Zurvanism, an offshoot (or heresy) of Zoroastrianism that focuses on the principal deity Zurvan (sometimes spelled Zervan), represents one interesting lineage of this religious family. In the Zurvanite world-view, Zurvan was the god of fate and boundless time, the hypostasis of time itself. As a result, this tradition has special interest in cosmogony, eschatology, and predestination.

The exact origin and chronological development of Zurvanism remains uncertain and is still the subject of considerable debate (e.g., the views of religious historian Robert Charles Zaehner). Some scholars explain this emphasis on Zurvan by pointing to external influences on Zoroastrianism, from Babylonian astrology or Greek philosophy, for example. Zurvanism cannot be associated with a particular temple, ritual, priesthood, or image. Few ancient texts discuss this tradition in a cogent or consistent manner, and many of the references to Zurvanite beliefs come from Christian, anti-Zoroastrian sources. Although its roots go back to Zoroastrian thought of Achaemenian times (by at least the 5th century BCE), the Zurvanite system rose to prominence only under the Sassanid rulers (224–651 CE). By that time, it seems that a circle of devotees adopted a monistic view and accepted Zurvan as the supreme deity and creator—in reaction to the more dualistic outlook of Zoroastrianism (as seen, e.g., in the cosmic conflict between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu). Though interest in Zurvan declined in later medieval Zoroastrian sources, Zurvanite concepts influenced Mithraism, Manichaeism, and Mandaeism.

References to Zurvan in early Avestan and Pahlavi sources identify this god as uncreated and eternal. According to one medieval version of the Zurvanite cosmogonie myth, the creation required 10,000 years. After the first millennium, twins were born to Zurvan—Ahriman (Angra Mainyu) and Ohrmazd (Ahura Mazda), the cosmic adversaries of Zoroastrianism. Zurvan allowed the former to rule for 9,000 years, after which Ohrmazd assumed control. Meanwhile, these two spirits created the world as a battleground between good and evil, though Zurvan had predetermined history's ultimate outcome.

In the Zurvanite perspective, Zurvan was the lord of both limitless time (eternity) and the time of long dominion (finite time). Devotees held that Zurvan presided over history, from creation to the eschaton, but they also maintained that the great god existed prior to the beginning and after the termination of historical time.