ABSTRACT
This chapter reexamines the classification of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in terms of “Abrahamic” religions from the vantage point of Sasanian and Islamicate Zoroastrianism, a religious tradition that displays a complex and dynamic reception of the figure of Abraham. The chapter centers on a set of polemical passages in Pahlavi contained in the third book of the Dēnkard, which depict two alternative and antipodal lines of transmission: the Zoroastrian Tradition is said to have been transmitted from Yima to Zarathustra and finally to the teachers of old, while the Jewish Torah (ōraytā) is said to have been handed down from the demon Dahāg, the originator of the Arab race, to Abraham, and finally to Moses “of Abrahamic lineage.” It is posited that the Pahlavi tradition reflects a sophisticated and nuanced Zoroastrian response, both to Jewish, Christian and Islamic notions of Abrahamic identity, and to competing Zoroastrian claims of participation in Abrahamic heritage.
