In the Hindu, Egyptian, or Romanesque architecture, one feels the priest, nothing but the priest, whether he calls himself Brahmin,
Magian, or Pope.
The most credible pictures are those of majestic men who prevailed at their entrance, and convinced the senses; as happened to the eastern
magian who was sent to test the merits of Zertusht or Zoroaster.
The priestcraft of the East and West, of the
Magian, Brahmin, Druid, and Inca, is expounded in the individual's private life.
By the cryptic recitations of the Avesta (bustaq), / the book of Zarathustra, the proselytizer of the
Magians, (47)
Xenophanes (late 6 (th)-5 (th) century BCE) fought against pseudo-science and was, perhaps, the first to spell out the relativity of a belief: "If a horse or an ox could paint a picture, their gods would look like a horse or an ox." Sixteen centuries later, Al-Ma'arri (973-1057), the Arab poet-rationalist, agreed, asserting that the "true believers" in mosques and cloisters merely blindly follow the local habits: "Had they been born among
Magians or Sabians, they would have become
Magians or Sabians."
In his ground-breaking work al-Ilf1'e2m bi Man'e2qib al-Isl'e2m, al Amiri categorised various religions on the basis of S'fbrat Al Hajj (22) verse 17 which says, f0"On the Day of Resurrection Allah will most certainly judge among those who believe and those who became Jews and Sabaeans and Christians and
Magians, and those who associate others with Allah in His Divinity.
(2:62) (1) The list of religious traditions as given in 2:62 above is expanded in the following passage: "Those who believe (in the Qur'an) those who follow the Jewish (scriptures) and the Sabians Christians
Magians and Polytheists Allah will judge between them on the Day of Judgment: for God is witness of all things" (22:17).
Those who follow Muhammad, those who believe in Judaism, the Sabians, the Christians, the
Magians, and the polytheists, God will judge between them on the Day of Judgment (22:17).
The Christians have their churches and the Jews as well as the
Magians [Zoroastrians] have their temples but the Sunnis do not have a single mosque," Rigi said, adding that the Iranian government destroyed the only Sunni mosque in Mashhad.
Yet Eustace told of his upbringing in the religion of the
Magians (Georgian: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) and that his father and brothers were adherents of that religion as well, but that all his life he had been searching for the truth, even while his father had been trying to instruct him in the
Magian religion during the day.
(151.) Arzt, supra note 114, at 25; see also Esack, supra note 94, at 546 ("At various times, Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians,
Magians and Sabeans were included among or excluded from the People of the Book, depending on the theological predilections of the Muslim scholars and, perhaps more importantly, the geo-political context in which they lived.").