ABSTRACT
The European rediscovery of the ancient Persians and their worldview was a complex phenomenon involving aspects as disparate as the chance documentation of Achaemenid sites, the success of travel literature in Europe, European missionary ambitions, and merchants’ commercial encounters with Zoroastrian communities. The rediscovery of Persepolis, its spectacular vestiges and curious inscriptions, triggered a keen interest in the Persian Zoroastrians as the living remnants of the ancient Persian ‘fire-worshippers.’ The result was that the ‘Gaures,’ as they were then pejoratively known, were approached as a living museum. They were accused of forgetting their own history and traditions, and European travellers considered classical authors as more reliable informants concerning the belief system of the living ‘ancient Persians.’ In India, by contrast, the successful Zoroastrian diaspora, the Parsis, a key business partner of European merchants and the catalyst for the growth of the East India Company, had somewhat emancipated itself – in travellers’ eyes – of its petrified past and met with remarkable approval.
