ABSTRACT
I focus on the supposedly esoteric andarz of Zoroastrian literature in Middle Persian (Pahlavi). Forty-six years on since Shaul Shaked’s publication of his study and translation of The Wisdom of the Sasanian Sages Dēnkard VI, and fifty-six years after his ‘Esoteric Trends in Zoroastrianism,’ in this contribution, I revisit the genre of andarz in Book Pahlavi that features most prominently in Dēnkard VI. Like Prof. Shaked, I shall consider whether there truly were ‘esoteric trends’ in Zoroastrianism. I raise the question of whether the term ‘esoteric’ has been misunderstood and perhaps even misinterpreted in light of certain late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century preoccupations with occultism and Theosophy and whether or not there is another way of looking at the problem. It is not a polemic against my departed colleague – more an homage to a much respected scholar.
