ゾロアスター教 三五〇〇年の歴史

by Mary Boyce, 山本 由美子 (翻訳)

内容紹介
謎多き世界最古の啓示宗教への本格的な入門書
三五〇〇年前、啓示による人類最古の宗教が中央アジアに誕生した。ゾロアスター教である。至高の創造主アフラ・マズダーを崇拝、火と水の祭儀、善悪二元論、救世主信仰を特徴とする。その思想は、キリスト教、イスラム教、仏教へと流れ込んだ。謎に満ちたゾロアスター教を、その誕生から現代インドに残るパールシーまで包括的に論じた格好の入門書。
ゾロアスターの独創的な思想は、いろいろな形で、世界の三大宗教たるキリスト教、イスラム教、仏教に大きな影響を与えた。天国と地獄、最後の審判、救世主信仰は、ユダヤ教の中で成長し、キリスト教に明瞭な結実をみた。イスラム教は、特にイラン人に広まった一派であるイスラム教シーア派に特徴的な救世主信仰は、イランのゾロアスター教徒の伝統から生まれたと思われる。仏教も、弥勒信仰の発展はその救世主信仰に負っているといえよう。(「訳者まえがき」より)

内容（「BOOK」データベースより）
三五〇〇年前、啓示による人類最古の宗教が中央アジアに誕生した。ゾロアスター教である。至高の創造主アフラ・マズダーを崇拝、火と水の祭儀、善悪二元論、救世主信仰を特徴とする。その思想は、キリスト教、イスラム教、仏教へと流れ込んだ。謎に満ちたゾロアスター教を、その誕生から現代インドに残るパールシーまで包括的に論じた格好の入門書。

429 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

BOYCE, Nora Elizabeth Mary, was a British scholar of Zoroastrianism and its relevant languages, and Professor of Iranian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London.

She was born in Darjeeling where her parents were vacationing to escape the heat of the plains during the summer. Her father, William H. Boyce, was a Judge at the Calcutta high-court, then an institution of the British imperial government. Her mother Nora (née Gardiner) was a granddaughter of the historian Samuel Rawson Gardiner.

Boyce was educated at Wimbledon High School and then Cheltenham Ladies' College. At the University of Cambridge's Newnham College, she studied English, archaeology and anthropology, graduating with a double first.

In 1944, Boyce joined the faculty of the Royal Holloway College, University of London, where she taught Anglo-Saxon literature and archaeology until 1946. Simultaneously she continued her studies, this time in Persian languages, under the guidance of Vladimir Minorsky at the School of Oriental and African Studies from 1945 to 1947. There she met her future mentor, Walter Bruno Henning, under whose tutelage she began to study Middle Iranian languages.

In 1948, Boyce was appointed lecturer of Iranian Studies at SOAS, specialising in Manichaean, Zoroastrian Middle Persian and Parthian texts. In 1952, she was awarded a doctorate in Oriental Studies from the University of Cambridge. At SOAS, she was promoted to Reader (1958–1961) and subsequently awarded the University of London's professorship in Iranian Studies following Henning's transfer to the University of California at Berkeley.

Boyce remained a professor at SOAS until her retirement in 1982, continuing as Professor Emerita and a professorial research associate until her death in 2006. Her speciality remained the religions of speakers of Eastern Iranian languages, in particular, Manichaeanism and Zoroastrianism.