Parsees (Pársis, 'people of Pars or Fars'—i. e. ancient Persia; sometimes called Guebres, q.v.) is the name of the small remnant of the followers of the ancient Persian religion, as established or reformed by Zoroaster (Zarathustra or Zerdusht). The relation in which Zoroaster stood to the ancient Iranian faith and his date have been much debated; the very fact of his historical existence has even been denied; and accordingly it is difficult to dogmatise on the original principles of the Zoroastrian faith. These questions will be more fully discussed under the heads ZOROASTER and ZEND-AVESTA. It has been alleged that at first the doctrine was a pure Monotheism; that Zoroaster taught the existence of but one deity, the Ahura-Mazdão (Ormuzd), the creator of all things, to whom all good things, spiritual and worldly, belong. The principle of his speculative philosophy, on the other hand, was dualism: there being in Ahura-Mazdão two primeval causes of the real and intellectual world—the Vohu Manô, the Good Mind or Reality (Gaya), and the Akem Manô, or the Naught Mind or Non-reality (Aijyâti). Certainly, however, the pure idea of Monotheism, if it ever existed, did not long prevail. The two sides of Ahura-Mazdão's being were taken to be two distinct spirits, Ahura-Mazdão and Angrô-Mainyush (Aliriman), who represented Good and Evil—God and Devil. These each took their due places in the Parsee pantheon ere long, and Parsism became a characteristic dualism.
The Zoroastrian creed flourished up to the time of Alexander the Great, throughout ancient Irania, including Upper Tibet, Sogdiana, Bactriana, Media, Persis, &c.; but after Alexander's death it gradually lost ground, rapidly declined under his successors, and under the Arsacidae was much depressed. On the establishment of the Sassanians (212 A.D.), a native Persian dynasty, by Ardashir (Artaxerxes), the first act of the new king was the general and complete restoration of the partly lost, partly forgotten books of Zerdusht, which he effected, it is related, chiefly through the inspiration of a Magian Sage, chosen out of 40,000 Magi. The sacred volumes were translated out of the original Zend into the vernacular and disseminated among the people at large, and fire-temples were reared throughout the length and breadth of the land. The Magi or priests were all-powerful, and their hatred was directed principally against the Greeks. 'Far too long,' wrote Ardashir, the king, to all the provinces of the Persian empire, 'for more than five hundred years, has the poison of Aristotle spread.' The fanaticism of the priests often also found vent against Christians and Jews. The latter have left us some account of the tyranny and oppression to which they as unbelievers were exposed—such as the prohibition of fire and light in their houses on Persian fast-days, of the slaughter of animals, the baths of purification, and the burial of the dead according to the Jewish rites—prohibitions only to be bought off by heavy bribes. In return the Magi were cordially hated by the Jews; but later we frequently find Jewish sages on terms of friendship and confidence with some of the Sassanian kings. From the period of its re-establishment the Zoroastrian religion flourished uninterrupted for about 400 years, till in 651 A.D., at the great battle of Nahavand (near Ecbatana), the Persian army under Yezdejird was routed by the calif Omar. The great mass of the population was converted to the Mohammedan faith; the small remnant fled to the wilderness of Khorassan, but were subjected, as might be expected, to severe oppression and persecution. Some nine thousand 'Guebres' are still found in Persia, mainly in Yezd, Kerman, and at Teheran. Others, who preferred emigration to the endless tribulations inflicted upon them by the conquering race, found a resting-place along the western coast of India, chiefly at Bombay, Surat, Ahmedabad, and the vicinity, where they now live under English rule, and are recognised as one of the most respectable and thriving sections of the community, being for the most part merchants and landed proprietors. Parsee traders have also settled at Calcutta, Madras, Aden, Zanzibar, in Burma, and in China. They bear equally with their poorer brethren in Persia the highest character for honesty, industry, and peacefulness, while their benevolence, intelligence, and magnificence outvie that of most of their European fellow-subjects. Their general appearance is to a certain degree prepossessing, and many of their women are strikingly beautiful. In all civil matters they are subject to the laws of the country they inhabit; and its language is also theirs, except in the ritual of their religion, when Zend, the holy language, is used by the priests, who as a rule, however, have no more knowledge of it than the laity. They are forward to embrace the advantages of English education, and not a few have studied law in England. Conspicuous amongst Parsee merchant-princes was Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy (q.v.). In 1891 there were 89,904 Parsees in British India, two-thirds of them in Bombay city.
We have spoken of the leading fundamental doctrines as laid down by their prophet. Parsees do not eat anything cooked by a person of another religion; they also object to beef and pork, especially to ham. Marriages can only be contracted with persons of their own caste and creed. Polygamy, except after nine years of sterility and consequent divorce, is forbidden. Fornication and adultery are punishable with death. Their dead are not buried, but exposed on an iron grating in the Dakhma, or Tower of Silence, to the fowls of the air, to the dew, and to the sun, until the flesh has disappeared, and the bleaching bones fall through into a pit beneath, from which they are afterwards removed to a subterranean cavern.
Ahura-Mazdão being the origin of light, his symbol is the sun, with the moon and the planets, and in default of them the fire. Temples and altars must for ever be fed with the holy fire, brought down, according to tradition, from heaven, and the sullying of whose flame is punishable with death. The priests themselves approach it only with a half-mask over the face, and never touch it but with holy instruments. But however great the awe felt by Parsees with respect to fire and light (they are almost the only eastern nation who abstain from smoking), yet they never consider these as anything but emblems of divinity. The fires are of five kinds. There are also five kinds of 'Sacrifice,' which term, however, is rather to be understood in the sense of a sacred action—including the slaughtering of animals; prayer; the sacrifice of expiation, consisting either (a) in flagellation or (b) in gifts to the priest; and, lastly, the sacrifice for the souls of the dead. The purification of physical and moral impurities is effected, in the first place, by cleansing with holy water, earth, &c.; next, by prayers and the recitation of the divine word; but other self-castigations, fasting, celibacy, &c. are considered hateful to the Divinity. The ethical code may be summed up in the three words—purity of thought, of word, and of deed: a religion 'that is for all, and not for any particular nation,' as the Parsees say. Various superstitions have in the course of the tribulations of ages and the intimacy with neighbouring countries defiled the original purity of this creed, and its forms now vary much among the different communities of the present time. There are two main sects amongst them, as well as Conservatives and Liberals in usage, the latter allowing many innovations resisted by the others.
For further information, see the articles PERSIA, ZEND-AVESTA, ZOROASTER (and works there quoted), DEVIL; Monier Williams, Modern India (4th ed. 1887); Houtum-Schindler in the Ztschr. Deutsch. Morgenl. Ges., xxxvi.; Haug, Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsees (2d ed. by West, 1878); Hovelacque, L'Avesta, Zoroastre, et le Mazdéisme (1880); and Dosabhai Framji Karaka, C.S.I., History of the Parsis (2 vols. Lond. 1884).