Originally published: London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A journey through time and across Europe and Central Asia, in search of the prophet Zarathustra (a.k.a. Zoroaster)--perhaps the greatest religious lawgiver of the ancient world--and his vast influence. In Persia more than three thousand years ago, Zarathustra spoke of a single universal god, the battle between good and evil, the devil, heaven and hell, and an eventual end to the world--foreshadowing the core beliefs of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Moving from present to past, journalist Kriwaczek examines the effects of the prophet's teachings on the spiritual and daily lives of diverse peoples. He walks us back through Nietzsche's nineteenth-century interpretation of Zarathustra, to the Cathars of thirteenth-century France and the ninth-century Bulgars; from ancient Rome to the time of Alexander the Great's destruction of the Persian Empire; and, finally, to the time of Zarathustra himself.

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