Nicolaus Copernicus

Copernicus was honoured by Poland when the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, established 1945, was named after him. http://www.azargoshnasp.net/~iran/Din/traditionaldateofzoroaster.pdf [4]. Copernicus:. London. Goethe:. 1. His reasons for doing so lay in his dissatisfaction with the inadequacies of the geocentric model, in his strong belief in the truth of the solution to the problem that he developed, its elegance and relative simplicity, and its coincidence with observation and with the classical ideals to which he had subscribed since his youth. “The Traditional Date of Zoroaster Explained”, BSOAS, Vol 40, No.

Although not holding ordained office within the Catholic Church, Copernicus was devout and unwilling to be openly defiant of the Church's teaching, but, in common with supporters of the Reformation, Copernicus was criticizing orthodox theory and belief. Shapur Shahbazi, Ali Reza. Neo-Platonic and classical ideas formed the intellectual environment in which Copernicus worked. The Gathas of Zarathushtra, Heidelburg, 1991. In this discussion of Copernicus' reasons for discarding such a long-held belief as the geocentric cosmology of Ptolemy, we can see that the Copernican revolution was simmering against a background revolution of theological thought — the Reformation. http://www.transoxiana.com.ar/Eran/Articles/gnoli.html [3] Humbach, Helmut. His reverence for the sun can be seen in the most famous passage of de Revolutionibus:. "Agathias and the Date of Zoroaster," Eran ud Aneran, Festrschrift Marshak, 2003.

As far as Copernicus was concerned, the Sun, a distinctive element in classical thought, held the central and most important position in the universe, gave added credence to his cosmology. Gnoli, Gherardo. They might not have been ready to change to an understanding of the Bible as a source only of moral and spiritual, rather than scientific, wisdom. Zoroaster in History, Biennial Yarshater Lecture Series 2, Bibliotheca Persica 2000. For orthodox Catholics, the Copernican model of the universe might have seemed too radically different from the geocentric model, sustained as it was by its agreement with many scriptural references. Gnoli, Gherado. However, the lenient attitudes in Chelmno, where Copernicus carried out much of his work, began to change and might have contributed to Copernicus' isolation in the last years of his life. Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism, University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Both preferred, at least initially, to promote tolerance of differing views within the church rather than open discord, and both encouraged Copernicus' publication of his scientific beliefs. Boyce, Mary. Copernicus seems to have been benefited from the attitude of the bishops who were his superiors in the church - Johann Dantiscus and Tiedmann Giese. Its opening fanfare (corresponding to the book's prologue) was memorably used to score the opening sequence of Stanley Kubrick's movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. "Mathematics", he says, "is written for mathematicians". Richard Strauss's Opus 30, inspired by Nietzsche's book, is also called Also sprach Zarathustra. In his own preface to his work, dedicated to Pope Paul III, Copernicus took care to point out that his motives for developing a cosmology that included a moving, rather than a stationary, Earth, were inspired by his dissatisfaction with the mathematical and astronomical descriptions of the geocentric model, and were not intended to defy the written Word. It was this act that Nietzsche proposed to invert.

Not much more than a century later, Kepler had certainly despatched the circular orbits of the planets and replaced them with ellipses, but the Copernican heliocentric universe was still intact. Nietzsche asserted that he had chosen to put his ideas into the mouth of Zarathustra because the historical prophet had been the first to proclaim the opposition between "good" and "evil", by rejecting the Daeva (representing natural forces) in favor of a moral order represented by the Ahuras. However, its consistency with the observed behaviour of the universe in a time before the telescope made more detailed observation and the gathering of more accurate measurements practicable, gave the Copernican model its strongest support. Nietzsche fictionalizes and dramatizes Zarathustra toward his own literary and philosophical aims, presenting him as a returning visionary who repudiates the designation of good and evil and thus marks the observation of the death of God. In his unauthorized and anonymous preface to de Revolutionibus, Andreas Osiander was technically correct when he made reference to "the hypothesis of this work". In the nineteenth century, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used the name of Zarathustra in his seminal book Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra). Until 1543, the year that Copernicus died, and the year in which his de Revolutionibus was published, and for many years afterwards, Copernicus' description of the motion of the Earth was not ratified by empirical evidence. With the translation of the Avesta by Abraham Anquetil-Duperron, Western scholarship of Zoroastrianism began.

Copernicus used the eccentrics, epicycles, and equants of Ptolemaic cosmology, but added three kinds of motion to describe the observed behaviour of the Earth:. Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire promoted research into Zoroastrianism in the belief that it was a form of rational Deism, preferable to Christianity. Elegance was a consequence of the overall simplicity of Copernicus' cosmology and much of this seeming simplicity resulted from his retention of circular orbits for the planets around the central Sun. He appears in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute under the variant name "Sarastro", who represents moral order in opposition to the "Queen of the Night". Heraclides' description of the revolutions of Mercury and Venus around the Sun might have led Copernicus to consider that the other planets, including the Earth, did the same. By this time his name was associated with lost ancient wisdom and was appropriated by Freemasons and other groups who claimed access to such knowledge. Aristarchus (3rd century BC) proposed an openly heliocentric model of the universe. Zoroaster was known as a sage, magician and miracle-worker in post-Classical Western culture, though almost nothing was known of his ideas until the late eighteenth century.

Some of the ideas expressed by Philolaus (5th century BC) and Heraclides (4th century BC), proposed cosmological models in which the Earth moved. Other prominent immortals are Geush Urvan, defender of animals, and Sraōša, Pahlavi Srōš "Obedience".. He was acquainted with ideas espoused by other classical authors. what builder created light and darkness? Through whom does exist dawn, noon and night?" (Yasna 44, 4-6). Copernicus' mathematical experience engendered in his thought a desire for a simpler and more elegant model of the universe. who feeds and waters the plants? .. His heliocentric universe theory accomplished this by dispensing with individual explanations for the motion of each planet, and replacing them with a description that applied to all the planets, including the Earth. Zoroaster describes Ahura Mazdā in a series of rhetorical questions, "Who established the course of the sun and stars? ..

In Copernicus' view, Ptolemy's explanation failed to provide an accurate mathematical description of the universe. In the yasnas, Zoroaster refers to these forces as "the Better and the Bad.". This characteristic of the Earth's movement is apparent only with observation over long periods of time. The two opposing forces in this battle are Ahura Mazdā (Ohrmazd) (God) and Ahriman (The Devil). Precession is the phenomenon by which the Earth's axis "wobbles". This may also be conceptualized as a battle between Darkness and Light. Nor did the Ptolemaic model explain precession. This is often related to a struggle between good and evil in a Western paradigm.

The Ptolemaic geocentric model was complicated and inconsistent in Copernicus' estimations and observations, including one in 1497 of the star Aldebaran, that did not coincide with predictions made by Ptolemy. A cosmic struggle between Aša "The Truth" (Pahlavi Ahlāyīh) and Druj "The Lie" (Pahlavi Druz) is presented as the foundation of our existence. The mathematical confusion that Copernicus said caused him to develop an alternative to the geocentric model derived from an inadequate reconciliation of the Aristotelian model and amendments to it by Ptolemy. If basic precepts of Zoroastrianism are to be distilled into a single maxim, the maxim is Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta (Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds). An accurate calculation of the astronomical year was important to a clergyman, like Copernicus, allowing him to forecast properly the various festivals that comprised the liturgical calendar. The teachings of Zoroaster are presented in seventeen liturgical, texts, or "hymns", the yasna which is divided into groups called Gāthās. It maintained that all planetary motion, and the motion of the Moon, the Sun, and the stars was circular, around a stationary Earth. It is possible that Zoroaster lived sometime in the 13th century BC to the 11th century BC, prior to the settlement of Iranian tribes in the central and west of the Iranian Plateau.

Ptolemy's model explained each planet's circular motion individually and was the first model of the universe to explain some of the eccentric behaviour of the planets. Also, the absence of any mention of Achaemenids or even any West Iranian tribes such as Medes and Persians, or even Parthians, in the Gathas makes it unlikely that historical Zoroaster ever lived in the court of a 6th century satrap. The Earth-centered Ptolemaic cosmology had been the accepted model of the universe since the 2nd century BC. This would stand sharply apart from the view of a Zoroaster living in the court of an Achaemenid satrap such as Wištaspa. There is evidence that his interest in these subjects continued after he had left Kraków. Furthermore, a look at the Gathas and their composition shows us that the society in which they were composed was a nomadic society that lived at a time prior to settlement in large urban areas and depended greatly on pastoralism. At the University of Kraków, which he attended in 1491 and 1492, Copernicus studied both mathematics and astronomy in common with all university students of that time. Since the date of the composition of the Rig Veda has been put at somewhere between the 15th century BC to the 12th century BC, we can also assume that the Gathas were composed close to that time, at sometime before 1000 BC.

He was well educated. These similarities suggest that Old Avestan and Vedic were very close in time, probably putting Old Avestan at about one century after Vedic. Copernicus' lived in early 16th century Prussia and Poland, and was influenced by the cultural, religious, and social contexts of life at the time. The closeness in composition of Old Avestan and Vedic is so much that some parts of the Gathas can be transliterated to Vedic only by following the rules of sound change (such as the development of Indo-Iranian “s” to Avestan “h”). More recent philosophers also have found Copernicanism to remain valid and retain valuable philosophical meaning. On the other hand, Old Avestan is very close to the language of the Rig Veda (known as Vedic Sanskrit). Immanuel Kant, for instance, caught the symbolic character of Copernicus' revolution (of which he put in evidence the transcendental rationalism) postulating that human rationality was the real legislator of observed phenomena. The language of the Gathas, as well as the text known as “Yasna Haptanghaiti” (the Seven Chapter Sermon), is called “Old Avestan” and is significantly different and more archaic than the language of the other parts of the Avesta, “Young Avestan”.

Some say "the" revolution [1]. As we know, Zoroaster himself composed the eighteen poems that make up the oldest parts of the Avesta, known as “the Gathas”. Copernicus' innovation was a scientific revolution. However, from an early time, scholars such as Bartholomea and Christensen noticed the problems with the “Traditional Date”, namely the linguistic difficulties that it presents. This contrasts with Aristotle's system, which placed much more value on knowledge gained from the senses. This date, which was suggested in the Sassanian commentaries on the Avesta (Bundahišn), gives the date of Zoroaster's life as “258 years before Alexander the Great”. One of the consequences of Copernicanism is that scientific laws must not necessarily coincide with appearance. Henning and continued by Gnoli among others, is what is known as “the Traditional Date of Zoroaster”.

Accordingly some find that Copernicanism demolished the foundations of mediaeval science and metaphysics. B. Immanentism also leads into subjectivism: the theory that perception creates reality, and that there is no underlying, true, reality that exists independent of perception. A point of view held by many 19th century scholars, among them Taghizadeh and W. However, Copernicanism also opened a way to immanence, the view that the divine force, or the divine being, pervades through all things that exist, which has been developed further in modern philosophy. Here we shall look at the most prominent of these arguments. When his work was published, it contradicted then accepted religious dogma: the suggestion being that there is no need for an entity (God) that from outside could give a soul, a power and a life to the World and to Human beings when science can explain everything attributed to Him. Accordingly, any date from the 6th century BC to 6000 BC has been suggested, although some with more merit than others.

His academic standing is often compared with Galileo Galilei. Different sources ranging from linguistic evidence to textual sources and traditional dates have been used by various scholars to determine the date of Zoroaster. His work cut across science and religion, dogmatism and freedom of scientific investigation. One of the most important, and dividing, of all issues regarding the Iranian history is “the date of Zoroaster”, that is the date when he lived and composed his Gathas. Many meanings have been seen in his theory, quite apart from its scientific value. Zoroastrianism then seems to have acquired a solid footing in eastern Iran, where it continues to survive in dwindling numbers. Many authors suggest that only Euclid's geometry, Darwin's Evolution, or Newton's physics could have a similar influence on human culture in general and on science in particular. Zoroaster may have emanated from the old school of Median Magi and appeared first among the Medes as the prophet of a new faith, but met with sacerdotal opposition and turned eastward.

Copernicus' theories have an extraordinary relevance in the history of human knowledge. Eduard Meyer maintains that the Zoroastrian religion must have been predominant among the Medes, therefore, estimates the date of Zoroaster at 1000 BC, in agreement with Duncker (Geschichte des Altertums, 44, 78). The fifth and the sixth books contain the concrete exposition of the new system. Assyrian inscriptions relegate him to a more ancient period. The fourth book contains a similar description of the Moon and its orbital movements. According to the Arda Wiraf, Zoroaster taught an estimated 300 years before the invasion of Alexander the Great. The third book is mainly dedicated to the apparent movements of the Sun and to related phenomena. The matriarchal name is the only link to the Achaemenidian lineage.

The second book is mainly theoretical and reports the principles of spherical astronomy and a list of stars (as a basis for the arguments developed in the following books). Hutaōsa is the same name as Atossa, who apparently was queen consort to Cambyses II, Smerdis and Darius I. The first book contains a general vision of the heliocentric theory, and a summarized exposition of his idea on the World. Antiquated sources suggest Vištaspa was Hystaspes, father of Darius I. It was dedicated to Pope Paul III, and is divided into 6 books. Placing the date of King Vištaspa is difficult. The major work of Copernicus, "On the Revolution of Celestial Spheres" (1543), is the result of decades of labor. His death is not mentioned in the Avesta; in the Šahnāma, he is said to have been murdered at the altar by the Turanians in the storming of Balkh.

Main article: De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.. His sons and daughters are repeatedly mentioned. These propositions represent the exact contrary of what the dominant geocentric propositions stated. His first disciple, Maidhyoimaōngha, was his cousin; his father was, according to the later Avesta, Pourušaspa, his mother Dughdova, his great-grandfather Haēcataspa, and the ancestor of the whole family Spitama, for which reason Zoroaster usually bears this surname. The Copernican system can be summarized in seven propositions, as Copernicus himself collected them in a Compendium of De revolutionibus that was found and published in 1878:. Apart from this connection, the new prophet relies especially upon his own kindred (hvaētuš). Galileo's observation of the phases of Venus produced, however, the first observational evidence for Copernicus' theory. The actual role of intermediary was played by the pious queen Hutaōsa.

The system nevertheless had a large influence on scientists such as Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Johannes Kepler, who adopted, championed and (especially in Kepler's case) improved the model. Zoroaster was closely related to both: his wife, Hvōvi, was the daughter of Frashaōštra, and the husband of his daughter, Pourucista, was Jamaspa. Furthermore, he badly underestimated the size of the solar system, like most of the astronomers of the time. The court of Vištaspa included two brothers, Frašaōštra and Jamaspa; both were, according to the later legend, viziers of Vištaspa. Unfortunately, uniform circular motion is not what happens in the solar system, which runs on elliptical orbits; and this model was no more precise in predicting ephemerides than the then current tables based on Ptolemy's model. In the Gāthās he appears as a historical personage. With this change his system had only uniform circular motions, correcting what seemed to be a defect in Ptolemy's system. Eventually he met Vištaspa, king of Bactria.

This is the main source of the statement that his system had even more epicycles than Ptolemy's. Yasnas 53 & 9 suggest that he ventured to Rai and was unwelcome. He also replaced Ptolemy's equant circles with epicycles. He then appears to have left his native district. He added another motion to the Earth, by which the axis is kept pointed throughout the year at the same place in the heavens; from the time of Galileo it has been recognized that for it not to point to the same place would be a motion. According to Yasnas 5 & 105, he prayed for the conversion of King Vištaspa. He also gave a clear account of the cause of the seasons: that the Earth's axis is not perpendicular to the plane of its orbit. The Iranian Muslim writer Shahrastani endeavours to solve the conflict by arguing that his father was a man of Atropatene, while the mother was from Rai.

He arrived at the correct order of the known planets and explained the precession of the equinoxes correctly by a slow change in the position of the Earth's rotational axis. According to Yasna 59, 18, the zaraθuštrotema, or supreme head of the Zoroastrian priesthood, had his residence in Ragha at a later (Sassanian) time. Copernicus held that the Earth is another planet revolving around the fixed sun once a year, and turning on its axis once a day. This same text identifies Ērān Wēj with the district of Arran on the river Aras (Araxes) close by the northwestern frontier of the Medes. This book marks the beginning of the shift from a geocentric (and anthropocentric) universe with the Earth at its center. The Būndahišn or Creation (20, 32 and 24, 15) says the Dhraja River in Ērān Wēj was his birthplace and the home of his father. Copernicus' major theory was published in the book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) in the year of his death 1543, even though he had arrived at it several decades earlier. Yasnas 9 & 17 cite Airyanem Vaējah, "Homeland of the Aryans" (Pahlavi Ērān Wēj), on the Ditya River, as the home of Zoroaster, and the scene of his first appearance.

See also discussion about Copernicus' nationality. Textual evidence regarding the birthplace of Zoroaster is conflicting. The search for the body of Copernicus will continue in 2005. They are the last surviving account of his doctrinal discourses presented at the court of King Vištaspa. They found, however, several interesting graves from various time periods. The Vendidad also gives accounts of the dialogues between Ahura Mazda and Zoroaster. However, a group of archaeologists searching for the body of Copernicus in 2004 failed to find the corpse of the astronomer. The Gāthās within the Avesta make claim to be the ipsissima verba of the prophet.

Copernicus was buried in the Frombork Cathedral. The historical Zoroaster, however, eludes categorization as a legendary character. He allegedly awoke from his stroke induced coma, looked at his book, and died peacefully. (Yasht, 17,19). Legend says that the first printed copy of De revolutionibus was put in Copernicus's hands the same day of his death, so that he could say goodbye to his opus vitae. In the later Avesta, he is depicted wrestling with the Daēva or "evil immortals" (Pahlavi Dēwān), and, in remarkable prescience of Jesus in the New Testament, is tempted by Ahriman to renounce his faith. Under the strong pressure from Rheticus, and having seen that the first general reception of his work had not been favorable, Copernicus finally agreed to give the book to his close friend Tiedemann Giese, (the bishop of Kulmerland Chelmno Land, to be delivered to Rheticus for printing at Nuremberg. It is important to note the differences between the Zoroaster of the later Avesta and the Zoroaster of the Gāthās.

In 1542, in the name of Copernicus, Rheticus published a treatise on trigonometry (later included in the second book of De revolutionibus). He had difficulty spreading his teachings, and was even treated with ill-will in his mother's hometown (an exceptional insult in his culture and time). Rheticus became a disciple of Copernicus' and stayed with him for two years, in which he wrote a book, Narratio prima, in which he included the essence of the theory. However, they seem to contain allusions to personal events, overcoming obstacles in life imposed by competing priests and the ruling class. Philipp Melanchthon had arranged with several astronomers for Rheticus to visit and study with them. The Gāthās are poetic admonitions and prophecies, cast in the form of dialogues with God and the Aməa Spəntas "Immortals" (Pahlavi Amahraspandān). Copernicus was still completing his work (even if he was not convinced to publish it), when in 1539 Georg Joachim Rheticus, a great mathematician at Wittenberg, directly arrived in Frauenburg. These human qualities support a historical Zoroaster, despite a lack of historical detail.

The cardinal Nicola Schoenberg of Capua wrote him asking him to communicate his ideas more widely and requested a copy for himself; "Therefore, learned man, without wishing to be inopportune, I beg you most emphatically to communicate your discovery to the learned world, and to send me as soon as possible your theories about the Universe, together with the tables and whatever else you have pertaining to the subject." Some have proposed that this note may have made Copernicus nervous of publication whereas others have suggested that the church wanted to ensure that his ideas were published. He faces outward opposition and unbelief and inward doubt. From many parts of the continent, Copernicus received invitations to publish it, but he felt quite apprehensive of persecution for his revolutionary work by the establishment of the time. Here he is a mortal, empowered by trust in his God and the protection of his allies. In 1536 his work was already in a definitive form, and some rumours about his theory had reached the scientists of all Europe. Plutarch, drawing partly on Theopompus, speaks of Zoroastrianism in Isis and Osiris. In 1533 Albert Widmanstadt delivered a series of lectures in Rome outlining Copernicus' theory. Dio Chrysostom relates Zoroaster's Ahura Mazdā to Zeus.

During the war between the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Poland (1519–1524) Copernicus successfully defended Allenstein (Olsztyn) on the head of royal troops besieged by the troops of Albert of Brandenburg. Plutarch compares him with Lycurgus and Numa Pompilius (Numa, 4). From there he continued gathering evidence for a more detailed work. He seems to have enjoyed exploring the wilderness from a young age. In 1514 he made his "Commentariolus"—a short, handwritten text describing his ideas about the heliocentric hypothesis—available to his friends. According to tradition and Pliny's Natural History, Zoroaster laughed on the day of his birth and lived in the wilderness. During these years he also travelled extensively on government business and as a diplomat, on the behalf of the Prince-Bishop of Warmia. The Greek writers recount a few points regarding the childhood of Zoroaster and his hermit lifestyle.

It was at this time that Copernicus came up with one of the earliest iterations of the theory now known as Gresham's Law. His first converts were his wife and children and a cousin named Maidhyoimangha. Copernicus worked for years with Prussian diet on monetary reform and published some studies about the value of money; as a governor of Ermland, he administered taxes and dealt out justice. His illumination from Ahura Mazda came at age 30. Throughout his lifetime he made astronomical observations and calculations, but always in his spare time and never as a profession. His mother was Dughdova; his father was Pourushaspa Spitāma, son of Haecadaspa Spitāma. Some time before his return to Warmia, he had received a position at the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Wrocław, Silesia, which he held for many years until he resigned a few years prior to his death, when he progressively became ill. His wife was named Hvōvi, and they had three daughters, Freni, Friti and Pourucista, and three sons, Isat Vastar, Uruvat-Nara and Hvare Ciθra.

Having left Italy at the end of his studies, he came to live and work in Frombork. The Greeks refer to him as a Bactrian (coming from present day Afghanistan), a Median or a Persian about 3-5,000 years ago. His collection of observations and ideas on the theory started in 1504. It is fair to say that Zoroaster lived in the northeastern area of ancient Iranian territory. It has been supposed that it was in Padua that he gained access to those passages of Cicero and Plato about the opinion of Ancients on the movement of the Earth, having the first intuition of his theory. The biographies in the seventh book of the Dēnkard (9th century) and the Šahnāma are mythic. As soon as he reached this town, he asked and obtained permission to return to Italy to complete his studies in Padua (with Guarico and Fracastoro) and in Ferrara (with Bianchini), where in 1503 received his doctoral degree in canon law. The 13th section of the Avesta, the Spena Nask, the description of Zoroaster's life, has perished over the centuries.

He would have then visited Frombork only in 1501. What we know of the life of Zoroaster is from the Avesta, the Gāthās, the Greek texts, oral history (which is a significant method of teaching in the tradition), and what can be inferred from archaeological evidence. Copernicus went to Rome, where he could observe a lunar eclipse and where he gave some lessons of astronomy or mathematics (unfortunately, nothing of this remains to us). Estimates for the lifetime of Zoroaster vary widely depending on the sources used. In 1497 his uncle was ordained the bishop of Warmia and Copernicus was named a canon in the Frombork cathedral, but he waited in Italy for the great Jubilee of 1500. This last translation seems to have derived from a desire to give a more fitting meaning to the prophet's name than "owner of feeble camels.". The first observation Copernicus made in 1497 together with Domenico Novara, are recorded in De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. A more romantic, but inaccurate, translation of the name in the past has been "[bringer of the] golden dawn", based on the mistaken assumption that the second part of the name is a variant of the Vedic word Ushas meaning "dawn".

He followed his lessons and became a disciple and assistant. The first part of the name was formerly commonly translated as "yellow" or "golden", from the Avestan zaray, giving the meaning "[having] yellow camels". However, while studying canon and civil law at Ferrara, he met his teacher Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara, a famous astronomer. The name zaraθ-uštra is a Bahuvrihi compound in the Avestan language, of zarəta- "feeble, old" and uštra "camel", translating to "having old camels, the one who owns old camels". His uncle financed his education and wished for him to become a bishop as well. . After four years and a brief stay in Toruń, he moved to Italy, where he studied law and medicine at the universities of Bologna and Padua. Others, however, give earlier estimates, making him a candidate as the founder of the earliest religion based on revealed scripture, while still others place him in the 6th century BC, which would make him contemporary to the rise of the Achaemenids.

This science soon fascinated him, as his books (stolen by Swedes during The Deluge, and now in the Uppsala University Library) show. Scholarly estimates are usually roughly near 1000 BC. In 1491 Copernicus entered the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and here he encountered astronomy for the first time, thanks to his teacher Albert Brudzewski. Zoroaster is generally accepted as a historical figure, but efforts to date Zoroaster vary widely. A sister, Barbara, became a Benedictine nun and the other sister, Katharina, married a businessman and city councillor, Barthel Gertner. In Modern Persian the name takes the form of Zartošt or Zardošt (زرتشت). His brother Andrew became canon in Frombork (German: Frauenburg). Zoroaster was probably born in the northeastern part of Iran, though there is also a tradition that he came from Balkh in modern day Afghanistan.

His maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode, a church canon and later the Prince-Bishop governor of Warmia (German: Ermland ), raised him and his three other siblings after the death of Copernicus' father. Zarathushtra (Zaraθuštra), usually known in English as Zoroaster after the Greek version of the name, Ζωροάστρης, was an Iranian prophet and the founder of Zoroastrianism, which was the national religion of the Persian Empire from the time of the Achaemenidae to the close of the Sassanid period. Little is known of his mother, Barbara Watzenrode, but she appears to have predeceased her husband. Amərətatāt, Pahlavi Amurdād: "Immortality", the guardian of food and plants. He was ten years of age when his father, a wealthy businessman and copper trader, died. Haurvatat: "Perfection". His father Nikolas, a citizen of Cracow (at that time the capital of Poland), moved there in 1460 and became a respected citizen of Toruń as well, once the war with the Teutonic Knights was over. Spɚnta- Ārmatay-, Pahlavi Spandarmad, "Holy Thought": the female immortal of the earth.

Copernicus was born in 1473 in the city of Toruń (German: Thorn) in Polish Royal Prussia. Xšaθra- Vairya-, Pahlavi Šahrewar: "Best Rule", the power and kingdom of Ahura Mazdā and guardian of metals. . Ašəm, afterwards Ašəm Vahištəm, Pahlavi Ardwahišt: "Right": truth and the embodiment of all that is true, good and right, upright law and rule (ideas practically identical for Zoroaster). His theory affected many other aspects of human life as well, opening the door to young astronomers everywhere to challenge the dogmas and never take anything at face value. Vohu Manu, Pahlavi Wahman, "Good Mind": the principle of the good. His theory about the Sun as the center of the solar system, turning over the traditional geocentric theory (that placed Earth at the center of the Universe), is considered one of the most important discoveries ever, and is the fundamental starting point of modern astronomy and modern science itself (it inaugurated the scientific revolution). Nyberg in Die Religionen des Alten Iran (1938).

Astronomy was actually a byproduct, a hobby of his. Darmesteter reports 100 BC; before 458 BC is cited by H.S. His main occupations and services rendered were in Royal Prussia as church canon, governor and administrator, jurist, astrologer and as a doctor. Other scholars have been arguing even later dates, now widely rejected. Nicolaus Copernicus (in Latin; Polish Mikołaj Kopernik, German Nikolaus Kopernikus); February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) was a Polish astronomer, mathematician and economist who developed the heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory of the solar system in a form detailed enough to make it scientifically useful. The Būndahišn or Creation, an important text within the religion, cites the time of Zoroaster as 258 years before Alexander's conquest of Persia, i.e., 588 BC. Precession — the axial wobble mentioned earlier that explains why the position of the fixed stars seems to change over long periods of time. 1000 BC.

Daily rotation — the motion around a tilted axis that results in day and night. Gherardo Gnoli gives a date near ca. Annual motion — the yearly orbit around the Sun. Since the Gathas are very cryptic, and open to much interpretation, such a method can also only yield very rough estimates. These movements of the Earth and of the other planets around the Sun, can explain the stations, and all the particular characteristics of the planets' movements. The historical approach compares social customs described in the Gāthās to what is known of the time and region through other historical studies. The Earth (together with its Moon, and just like the other planets) moves around the Sun, so the movements that the Sun seems to be making (its apparent moving during daytime, and its annual moving through the Zodiac) are nothing else than effects of the Earth's real movements. 1400 BC–1000 BC is cited by Mary Boyce in her A History of Zoroastrianism (1989).

The daytime movement of the Sun is only apparent, and represents the effect of a rotation that the Earth makes every 24 hours around its axis, always parallel to itself. Linguistic analysis of the Gāthās, the only texts directly connected with Zoroaster, and comparison with other known Indo-Iranian languages, especially Sanskrit, can only give rough estimates, generally dating Zoroaster to around or after 1000 BC. The distance between the Earth and the Sun, compared with the distance between the Earth and the fixed stars, is very small. Indo-Iranian religion is generally accepted to have its roots in the 3rd millennium BC, but Zoroaster himself did already look back on a long religious tradition. (Copernicus was never certain whether the Sun moved or not, claiming that the center of the World is 'in the Sun, or near it.'). 2000 BC based on excavations in Uzbekistan (Asgarov, 1984). All the planets move along orbits whose center is the Sun, therefore the Sun is the center of the World. However, a Russian archaeologist links Zoroaster to ca.

The center of the Earth is not the center of the Universe, but only the center of the Earth's mass and of the lunar orbit. Archaeological evidence is usually inconclusive for questions of religion. Orbits and celestial spheres do not have a unique, common, center. These are the dates to which Parsis subscribe.[1] [2]. Ancient Greek estimates are dependent on Persian mythology and give dates as early as the 7th millennium BC. His name is cited by Xanthus, and in the Alcibiades of Plato as well as by Plutarch, Pliny the Elder and Diogenes Laertius.

Zoroaster was famous in classical antiquity as the founder of the religion of the Magi. Manly Palmer Hall in his book, Twelve World Teachers, arrives at a rough estimate ranging from 10000 BC to 1000 BC. Persian mythology, mainly the Šahnāma of Ferdowsi, and oral tradition place Zoroaster quite early.