Majus

{{Short description|Term for Zoroastrians}}

{{italic title}}

{{expand Persian|date=May 2024}}

Majūs ({{langx|ar|مجوس}}) or Magūs ({{langx|fa|مگوش}}) was originally a term meaning Zoroastrians, specifically priests.{{cite book |last1=de Jong |first1=Albert |author1-link=Albert de Jong |editor1-last=Curtis |editor1-first=Vesta Sarkhosh |editor2-last=Stewart |editor2-first=Sarah |editor1-link=Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis |title=Birth of the Persian Empire |date=2010 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-85773-307-8 |page=92 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9RKJDwAAQBAJ |language=en |quote=Most of our evidence for that later history comes from the Sasanian period (224–642 CE). In post-Sasanian Zoroastrian sources, the Pahlavi books, the word mogh (mgw), the Middle Persian descendant of Old Persian magu-, is hardly ever attested. Instead of this generic word, more specific titles are always given; where a generic word is necessary, the word mard, “man”, is used.55 Since many reconstructions of Sasanian history are based on sources from later periods, the existence of the word in Sasanian Iran has sometimes been obscured. It is, however, not only frequently found in non-Iranian Sasanian sources (in Aramaic, Syriac and Greek), but it is also very well attested in the most reliable Iranian sources from the period itself, namely personal seals.56 In fact, the word mogh is a very common word on Sasanian seals and bullae. The word had a long and distinguished career in Islamic Persian poetry (pīr-e moghān etc),57 which shows that it had not disappeared from the common speech of the Persians. The question therefore arises why the Zoroastrians, who formulated their tradition in the 9th century, wanted to get rid of it, but so far no reasonable hypothesis has been suggested for this problem. The only suggestion one can think of that makes sense is the fact that the Aramaic word magūšā and the Arabic majūs were used not just to refer to Persian priests, but to Zoroastrians in general, and that the term came to be felt to be misleading for those who wanted to distinguish themselves as members of the priestly class.}}

It was a technical term for the magi,{{cite encyclopedia|article=Majūs|editor=Steingass, Francis Joseph|editor-link=Steingass, Francis Joseph|encyclopedia=A Comprehensive Persian-English dictionary, including the Arabic words and phrases to be met with in Persian literature|location=London|publisher=Routledge & K. Paul|year=1892|url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.6:1:824.steingass.201687|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120713061634/http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.6:1:824.steingass.201687|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 13, 2012}} p. [https://archive.today/20120712022242/http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/contextualize.pl?p.6.steingass.201629 1179].See also: [http://www.google.com/search?as_sitesearch=jstor.org&as_q=majus+magi&hl=en references to Majus/Magi in academic publications] and like its synonym gabr (of uncertain etymology) originally had no pejorative implications.{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Iranica|article=Gabr|year=2001|volume=10|publisher=Mazda|location=Costa Mesa|url=http://www.iranica.com/articles/v10f3/v10f311.html|url-status=usurped|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070908182843/http://www.iranica.com/articles/v10f3/v10f311.html|archivedate=2007-09-08}} It is also translated as "fire worshipper".{{cite book|last1=Ashton|first1=Nigel John|authorlink1=Nigel J. Ashton|last2=Gibson|first2=Bryan R.|title=The Iran-Iraq War: New International Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1yz8zxs7NIC&pg=PA19|accessdate=18 August 2017|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-68524-5|page=19}}

This term was borrowed via {{langx|arc|𐡌𐡂𐡅𐡔𐡀⁩|mḡušā}} from {{langx|peo|𐎶𐎦𐎢𐏁|maguš}}. It was also borrowed from Old Persian into ancient Greek (plural {{lang|grc|μάγοι}} mágoi), which appears in Matthew 2.[https://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/2.htm Matthew 2 - biblehub] The word is mentioned in Quran 22:17: "Indeed, those who have believed and those who were Jews and the Sabians and the Christians and the Magians and those who associated with Allah - Allah will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection. Indeed Allah is, over all things, Witness".{{Cite web|url=http://corpus.quran.com/concept.jsp?id=magians|title = Magians - Ontology of Quranic Concepts from the Quranic Arabic Corpus}}[https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/history/Muslim%20Perceptions%20of%20Other%20Religions.pdf Muslim Perceptions of Other Religions: A Historical Survey. Oxford University Press] file p. 22 and 218. Jacques Waardenburg (1999). {{ISBN|0-19-510472-2}}

They are also mentioned by ibn al-Jawzi in his famous work Talbis Iblis "The Devil's Deceptions".,[https://archive.org/download/TheDevilsDeception_201406/TheDevilsDeception.pdf Talbis Iblis (The Devil's Deceptions)] by Ibn al-Jawzi

The term was used to describe the Vikings initially in al-Andalus.[https://vdoc.pub/documents/vikings-in-the-south-voyages-to-iberia-and-the-mediterranean-15510rhl4ah8 Vikings In The South: Voyages To Iberia And The Mediterranean]

In the 1980s, majus was part of anti-Iranian propaganda of the Iran–Iraq War to refer to Iranians.

{{blockquote|By referring to the Iranians in these documents as majus, the security apparatus [implied] that the Iranians [were] not sincere Muslims, but rather covertly practice their pre-Islamic beliefs. Thus, in their eyes, Iraq’s war took on the dimensions of not only a struggle for Arab nationalism, but also a campaign in the name of Islam.{{cite journal|title=The Mindset of Iraq's Security Apparatus|journal=Intelligence and National Security|volume=18|issue=3|author=Al-Marashi, Ibrahim|date=2000|page=5|doi=10.1080/02684520412331306900|s2cid=153691094}}}}

Today the term majus is distinct from Arabic kafir "unbeliever". Persian gabr is no longer synonymous with majus. Subsequent usage by Sunni Muslims against the Shi'a has meant that some people view the term as anti-Shi'ism.{{cite journal|last1=Rumi|first1=Raza|title=The Prospects for Reform in Islam|journal=Current Trends in Islamist Ideology|date=May 2015|volume=18|pages=85–103|url=https://www.hudson.org/research/11172-the-prospects-for-reform-in-islam|accessdate=3 April 2018}}