What was the religion of the Persians? How was it different than other early civilizations?

Explanation:

Ancient Persian religion was a polytheistic faith which corresponds roughly to what is known today as ancient Persian mythology. It first developed in the region known as Greater Iran (the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, and West Asia) but became focused in the area now known as Iran at some point around the 3rd millennium BCE. This region was already inhabited by the Elamites and the people of Susiana whose beliefs are thought to have influenced the later development of Persian religion.

The Persians arrived as part of a large-scale migration which included a number of other tribes who referred to themselves as Aryans (denoting a class of people, not a race, and essentially meaning “free” or “noble”) and included Alans, Bactrians, Medes, Parthians, Scythians, and others. The Persians settled near the Elamites in Persis (also given as Parsa, modern Fars), which is where their name comes from, and religious rituals were instituted shortly after.

How the early Persians worshipped their gods is unknown except that it involved fire and outdoor altars. It is thought to have resembled modern-day Zoroastrian rites in many respects. Inscriptions from the Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) reference the kings' religious beliefs – which may have been the early polytheistic faith or the later Zoroastrian monotheism – and religion continued to play a central role in the later Parthian Empire (247 BCE-224 CE) and, to a much greater degree, in the Sassanian Empire (224-651 CE) which made Zoroastrianism the state religion.

When the Sassanian Empire fell to the invading Muslim Arabs in 651 CE, Persian religion was suppressed and adherents either converted, left the region, or continued the faith in secret. Zoroastrianism survived the conversion efforts, however, and is still practiced in the modern day while the early polytheistic faith was relegated to myth and lore. The present-day religion known as the Baha'i Faith, often referenced as a “Persian religion”, developed from an Islamic sect known as Babism and has no direct historical connection to the religious systems of ancient Persia.

answer; integrative;