Founded over 3,000 years ago, and still practiced by relatively few, Zoroastrianism has nevertheless exerted considerable influence over Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Strausberg (religion, U. of Bergen begins this concise account with the story of the community's founder, Zarathustra, and the first encounters of the movement with Greeks and Persians. Strausberg describes the oldest texts such as the first Gatha, the lives of the most influential of Zarathustra's disciples, the relations between Zoroastrianism and paganism, basic religious concepts and practices, the role of the religion in war, the beings worthy of worship, the roles of guides and advisers, ethics, the relation between purity and gender, the act of visiting heaven and hell, ritual infrastructures including sacred fires and shrines, ceremonials and liturgies, festivals, weddings, death ceremonies, and the annual return of the ancestors. Strausberg includes a thematic bibliography and index. Distributed in North America by the David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)