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PersianDutchNetwork  · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tradition collection 94 records

Iranian traditions

Zoroastrianism, the Mithraic mysteries, Manichaeism, Yazidism and the Mandaeans.

  • Extent Iranian plateau, Mesopotamia and the Roman frontier, roughly 1500 BCE to the present.
  • Holds 26 gods · 24 places · 23 figures · 12 texts and stories
Meet the gods

Before you count

The Mithraic mysteries left almost no text and a great deal of iconography; the relationships here lean on the second.

What else it is missing

Gods · 26

The gods

The most widely linked across Wikipedia, this collection’s own first. A picture of a god is a work of art, never a likeness.

All 26 gods

More of its best-linked gods

Places · 24

Holy places and sites

Temples, tombs, holy cities and sites recorded in this collection, the most widely linked first. A place is not a count of believers.

All 24 places

24 places 24 with a point on the map 10 with a date

See them on the atlas

The oldest on record

The earliest recorded starts among its best-known places, by 1000 CE, in date order. Each date is the place’s own — a city’s founding, a building’s — not the start of this tradition there.

  1. 14th century BCE Marbin Fortress
  2. between 240 and 250 CE London Mithraeum
  3. 4th century CE Adur Gushnasp
  4. 5th century CE Bandian Complex

Figures · 23

Who to meet first

The figures its own texts, stories and traditions name — the most widely linked first, this collection’s own before those it shares.

All 23 figures

More of its best-linked figures

Texts and stories · 12

Stories and texts

What was told, and what was written — dated when it was written.

All 2 stories All 10 texts

Traditions · 9

Many paths, shared histories

The traditions, schools and movements this collection holds — each with its own page.

All 9 traditions

Also here · 2

Also in this collection

Kinds it holds only one or two of, each with its own page.

Argued, cited and signed

Explained connections that reach into it: a claim, its evidence, its limits.

All explained connections

What this collection holds

Counted, not scored. Each count opens its list.

Every collection

A record can be more than one kind — a monastery is a place and an institution — so these counts add up to more than its 94 records. The sections above count the same way, and draw each record once, under the kind its own page is filed under.

Statements
384
With references
57
Undated
58
Accounts
0
Reviewed here
0
What it is missing, and how it was assembled

What this collection is missing

Written by an editor, not computed. A count of records cannot say any of this, and a collection read without it is a collection read wrongly.

  • The Mithraic mysteries left almost no text and a great deal of iconography; the relationships here lean on the second.
  • Living traditions in this group are small and under-recorded on Wikidata relative to their age.
  • Avestan chronology is disputed by centuries, and this site keeps the dispute rather than choosing.

Counted across the collections

Festivals, practices and events follow how densely Wikidata records them, not how much a tradition keeps: 77% of the 845 held across the collections are Christian, and this collection holds 2.

What the counts mean

Statements
Relationships and facts recorded on these records.
With references
Statements that cite a source outside Wikimedia.
Undated
Records with no date on any of the three clocks.
Accounts
Named versions of a story, kept apart.
Reviewed here
Read by a person and signed with a date.

How it was assembled

Discovered from Wikidata by class and by religion, ranked by incoming links, then filtered against each item’s own claims. Relationships are imported statements unless a row says otherwise; none of them has been read here.

“Reviewed” means a person read it and signed it with a date — which is why it is zero. Nothing here measures how good the material is.

Records here have an article in 16 languages between them. The interface is English only for now. Published 2026-09-25.

How 5 of these records were placed here through another record

Most records are in Iranian traditions by their own statements. These are here because of another record they are linked to — worked out when the data was built, not stated on the record itself. Each one’s own page says the same.

Cities and sites, through the places recorded in them · 1

  • Takht-e Soleyman — 1 of the 1 places recorded in it here are in this collection

Figures and stories, through the text they appear in · 3

  • Gilgamesh — it appears in Book of Giants
  • Enoch — it appears in Book of Giants
  • Enoch — it appears in Book of Giants

Works, through their main subject · 1

  • Sad-dar — its main subject is Zoroastrianism
Jonathan Cardy · CC BY-SA 3.0

Keep going

Walk Iranian traditions another way.

A family tree as the accounts give it, every mapped place on the atlas, and the dates on the timeline — each on its own clock.

Ahura Mazda’s family tree On the atlas The timeline, from Zoroastrianism