Talk:Persecution of Zoroastrians

Removed quotes

The following quotes seems to be off-topic:

• News arrived from Estakhan that the fire of the chief temple of Persia, which had burned for a thousand years, had become extinguished [at the time of the birth of Muhammad].
  • Rauzat-us-Safa, or Garden of Purity by Muhammad bin Khavendshah bin Mahmud translated into English by E. Rehatsek, first published 1893, Delhi Reprint 1982, Quoted in in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II

• Who routed infidel armies and destroyed them with bloody slaughter?
  Who put out and made cold the sacred flame in Iran?
  • From a poem by Muhammad Iqbal: Shikwa. [1]

--MonstrumVenandi (talk) 23:45, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

It's obvious that the first quote is not referring to the destruction of a fire temple, but to an event said to have taken place at the birth of Muhammad, here's the context:

• The following are some of the [miraculous] events of that night, which became to everybody as plain as daylight : The disappearance of the water from the lake Sadah ; the overflowing of the river Samavah, which is one of the watercourses of Syria, and had been dry during one thousand years. … During that night also the palace of Naushirvan, the strength of which will be mentioned in the record of the Khalifate of Abu Ja’far Manssur the Abbaside, so trembled that fourteen of its pinnacles fell to the ground. This event filled the mind of Kesra with terror and apprehension, which, however, he did not communicate to anyone, until at last he one day convoked his intimate friends and courtiers, and wished to do so, when all of a sudden news arrived from Estakhar that the fire of the chief temple of Persia, which had been burning for a thousand years, had become extinguished. Having searched their historical books for the meaning of this sign, they found that it portended ‘ decline of power.’ [2]

About the second quote, poems often have an allegorical meaning, so I think the last two lines of the stanza are intended to express the decline of Zoroastrianism and advent of Islam in Iran. [3]. We find something along these lines in the university of Colombia translation of the Shikwa (at stanza 9): "Making cold the fire-temple," besides its wordplay, evokes the virtual extirpation of Zoroastrianism from Iran. [4] --Immutatus (talk) 22:36, 9 June 2023 (UTC)

Obviously, both quotes are poetical or mythical descriptions of the destruction of fire temples, and persecution includes the destruction of temples. Obviously the fire temple did not really become extinguished at the time of the birth of Muhammad, these are myths that were narrated after the Islamic conquest of Iran and the destruction of fire temples, Muhammad bin Khavendshah bin Mahmud gave mythical explanations to the disappearance of the temples, but still connecting them to Islam. If the destruction of temples is part of persecution, there is no reason not to include the quotes. --ᘙ (talk) 12:12, 12 June 2023 (UTC)

" evokes the virtual extirpation of Zoroastrianism from Iran" so how is this different from persecution? Persecution includes the destruction of temples. --ᘙ (talk) 12:16, 12 June 2023 (UTC)

The best way to solve this issue is to find secondary sources explicitly stating that these quotes are related to fire temple destruction and add that as context below the quotes. --Immutatus (talk) 22:48, 12 June 2023 (UTC)